Sister of missing Texas woman Brandi Wells continues to seek answers in her case after nearly 20 years
They attended a party called the '4th of July Jubilee,' hosted by the city of Schertz, Texas. There was food and fireworks, but most important was the time they spent together — something they didn't often get to do since they lived in different parts of Texas.
'It was at the city park. You know, like after hours for the fireworks. She had gone there, and she was hanging out with some guy,' Samantha laughed. 'But we were hanging out.'
Samantha told Dateline that a little over a month later, she learned Brandi was missing.
''What do you mean she's missing?'' Samantha remembered thinking. 'I had just seen her, and 30 days later, it seems I was getting a phone call saying that she was missing.'
It was the first week of August 2006. Brandi was just weeks away from starting classes again at Trinity Valley Community College in Brownsboro, Texas. She wanted to become a teacher.
But first, she visited her mother in Tyler, Texas. On the evening of August 2, she went out to meet some friends. 'She came in, she changed clothes, and said she was going to the club with some friends,' Brandi's mother, Ellen Tant, told NBC affiliate KETK. She assumed Brandi was going somewhere in town. Little did she know that Brandi was heading to Longview, about 45 minutes away.
According to KETK, security footage shows Brandi entering a nightclub called Graham Central Station — now Electric Cowboy — around 10:36 p.m. and checking in at the counter. People inside would later tell police that Brandi was asking for money for gas. She was inside the club for nearly two hours and was seen on tape walking alone out toward the parking lot around 12:30 a.m.
The night she went missing, Brandi was wearing a dark, floral-print tube top, rust-colored pants with strapless high-heeled sandals, according to TheDoeNetwork. A few hours after she left the club, a black 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix coupe with Texas plates was found abandoned on the side of Interstate 20. It wasn't until days later that police connected the car to Brandi Wells.
According to KETK, Brandi's purse and a gas can her family believed did not belong to her were found in the trunk. They also reported that the driver's side seat of the car had been adjusted for someone taller than Brandi, but because it took days to link the car to her disappearance, authorities didn't know if that happened before or after the car was abandoned.
Dateline reached out multiple times to the Longview Police Department to discuss Brandi's case, but has not received a response.
At just 17 years old, Samantha could hardly comprehend the thought of her sister's disappearance. 'I was almost dismissive of it. It was the first tragedy I had ever experienced,' she said. 'Tragedies only happened in movies, and I was so not believing it.'
Samantha says Brandi was an incredibly bubbly, carefree, and trusting person. She remembers when she and Brandi were both living in San Antonio, Brandi would pick her up so they could go shopping and try on clothes together, or go to the movies and CD stores — do sisterly things.
Of course, there were things they couldn't do together, due to their age difference. One thing, in particular. ''I can't wait until you're old enough and we can go clubbing together,'' Samantha recalled Brandi telling her. 'And so that's one of the things I think about, because that's how she went missing.'
Samantha says Brandi's disappearance has made her more vigilant in her own life. 'Whenever I was going out to dance halls in San Antonio, I made it a point to talk to all the bar [staff] and bouncers. I didn't want to be somewhere that people did not know who I was,' she said.
Grown now, with a husband and three children, Samantha still maintains that vigilance. She keeps a window-breaking device in her vehicle and a flotation device in her trunk. And she has her phone set up — with authorities in mind. 'I keep my husband's phone number right on my screen so all you have to do is press the power button,' she said. 'I've almost become a very paranoid person about safety.'
Samantha is now studying to become a teacher — just as Brandi was when she disappeared. It makes her feel connected to the sister she didn't get enough time with. 'Being given a sister, when you've never had one before — it's like getting a puppy for the first time,' Samantha said. 'I was so giddy about just having a sister.'
Today, she is just hoping for answers.
Brandi was around 5' tall and weighed 125-130 lbs. at the time of her disappearance, with blonde or strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes. She would be 42 years old today.
If you have any information about Brandi's disappearance, please contact the Longview Police Department at 903-237-1199.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
6 hours ago
- NBC News
A Chattanooga mom of four vanished without a trace more than a year ago. Her family is determined not to let her case go cold.
Tara Daniels has known her cousin, Valerie Elder Smiley, since the day she was born. 'She was just, like, my first child, and I've loved her from day one,' Tara said. 'She's a joy to be around.' But Tara hasn't seen her cousin since the 41-year-old disappeared from Chattanooga on Friday, June 28, 2024. 'It seems as if she's just vanished off the face of the earth,' Tara said. Tara told Dateline that the days leading up to Valerie's disappearance were typical. 'She was acting normal, you know, the whole week,' she said. But, she added that the family had been concerned for Valerie's health. 'She was having blood pressure problems, and then it went to memory loss problems, and then we found out it was from some medication that she had been taking.' According to Tara, the family, including Valerie's husband and four sons, were doing their best to make sure Valerie was doing all right. 'We were monitoring that,' Tara said. She thinks Valerie got confused and lost on the day she disappeared. Apparently, Valerie and her husband, Patrick, spoke on the phone that day and he asked her where she was. 'She said, 'Well, I'm on my way home,'' Tara said. 'And so he was at the house waiting for her to return, but she never returned. So he went on to the ballgame because the kids– her twins play ball, so they went on to the ball game.' Valerie was also supposed to go to the game, but she never made it. 'Normally, she would ride with them to the game,' Tara said. Eventually, they were able to track Valerie's phone from June 28th. 'The way that the phone showed us on the pings, you know, she was going in circles,' Tara said. 'She was trying to get back to her street, and she never made it back.' In June, for the first anniversary of Valerie's disappearance, Valerie's family came together on WRCB, the local NBC affiliate, to spread the word that Valerie was still missing. Patrick Smiley confirmed that he spoke to his wife on the phone the day she disappeared, and she told him she was on her way home. He also said he called the authorities to report Valerie missing after the ballgame. 'By the time I made it home, it was around 10:30 or 11 o'clock at night,' he told WRCB. 'We reported it to the police and waited for them to come out so we could do a missing person report.' The family immediately jumped into action. 'We started going out searching and looking all over the area, trying to find out: Where could she be?' Tara told Dateline. 'We were out until the wee hours of the morning trying to find her.' The Chattanooga Police Department posted about Valerie's case on July 1, 2024. The post stated that they were requesting assistance in locating Valerie Elder Smiley, who 'was last seen on June 28, 2024, leaving her home in Chattanooga.' The post noted that 'she was driving a red 2004 Ford Expedition with a Tennessee license plate of 079 BFQD.' Two weeks later, Chattanooga PD posted additional details that 'her phone was last pinged in Fayetteville, Georgia, on June 29th and Union City, Georgia, on June 30th.' There was no other information available. Dateline called the Chattanooga PD and left a voicemail requesting an interview. We also submitted a request on their website contact form, but have not yet heard back. When asked if Valerie had any connection to where her phones pinged in Georgia — which is more than two hours away from Chattanooga — Tara told Dateline the family had no knowledge of any reason Valerie would have been there. 'We don't know anybody in that area,' she said. Tara told Dateline the Chattanooga community really came through for the family. 'We had posters, we had pamphlets,' she said. 'The community came together.' They organized search parties, too. 'In different areas, all the way down to Georgia,' she said. 'Two search teams went to Georgia just to saturate that area.' They also searched in the neighboring counties and towards Nashville. 'We had people all around the state of Tennessee.' Valerie's car has also not been found. 'It has never surfaced, and it had a unique identifier on it,' Tara said. The red car had a sticker that said TSU MOM on it. Tara says Valerie's accounts have all been inactive. 'None of her money has been touched. None of her credit cards have been touched,' she said. Valerie's social media accounts have also been left untouched. More than a year later, Valerie's family is still in shock that she is missing. 'We really don't know what to think because there has not been any kind of lead,' Tara said. 'We're hopeful, believe me. We're hopeful that she is still alive; that's our prayer.' At this point, Tara feels like they need to spread the word farther about Valerie's disappearance. 'Because she could be somewhere totally different than what we think,' she said. 'We're just a close-knit family,' Tara said. 'We often have family functions, and it hasn't been the same, you know, with her being gone.' This year, Valerie's second-oldest son graduated from high school. 'It was tough because she was not there to witness it.' 'We're just trying to get some, you know, get some closure to: Where is she?' Tara said. She told Dateline it is important that Valerie's case doesn't go cold. 'It's that important to us as a family that we keep it alive and that we not let it go, you know, cold — and not be another statistic.' She asks that anyone with information come forward. According to the Chattanooga Police Department, Valerie is 5'5' tall and weighs about 210 lbs. She has black hair and brown eyes, and a tattoo of her name on her right calf. She would be 42 years old today. If you have any information on Valerie's disappearance, please call the Chattanooga Police Department at 423-698-2525.
Politico
2 days ago
- Politico
Trump to disclose Washington plans on Monday morning
FBI crime statistics show that the city experienced a surge in violent crime in 2023 (though with homicide numbers far below the worst years from 1989 to 1993), but the numbers have dropped significantly since then in a range of categories, including homicides, violent crimes and carjackings. 'It is true we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023, this is 2025,' Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend.' 'We've done that by working with the community, working with the police, working with our prosecutors, and, in fact, working with the federal government.' She added: 'Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.' People wait to watch flyovers on the National Mall during a Fourth of July celebration in Washington. | Rahmad Gul/AP The District of Columbia Home Rule Act provides the legal framework for the city's self-government, its elections and its administration of day-to-day functions. It was passed by Congress in 1973 by wide margins and signed by President Richard M. Nixon. In Feburary 2025, however, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) offered legislation to repeal the law. Trump's Truth Social post did not say exactly what the president had in mind, but he made it clear he planned to act in some manner. 'The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances,' Trump's Truth Social post said, 'and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive. The American Public is not going to put up with it any longer.'
NBC News
2 days ago
- NBC News
Sister of missing Texas woman Brandi Wells continues to seek answers in her case after nearly 20 years
The memories of celebrating the Fourth of July in 2006 stand out to Samantha Rodriguez. She was only 17 years old then, but the holiday was one she spent with her half-sister, 23-year-old Brandi Wells. They attended a party called the '4th of July Jubilee,' hosted by the city of Schertz, Texas. There was food and fireworks, but most important was the time they spent together — something they didn't often get to do since they lived in different parts of Texas. 'It was at the city park. You know, like after hours for the fireworks. She had gone there, and she was hanging out with some guy,' Samantha laughed. 'But we were hanging out.' Samantha told Dateline that a little over a month later, she learned Brandi was missing. ''What do you mean she's missing?'' Samantha remembered thinking. 'I had just seen her, and 30 days later, it seems I was getting a phone call saying that she was missing.' It was the first week of August 2006. Brandi was just weeks away from starting classes again at Trinity Valley Community College in Brownsboro, Texas. She wanted to become a teacher. But first, she visited her mother in Tyler, Texas. On the evening of August 2, she went out to meet some friends. 'She came in, she changed clothes, and said she was going to the club with some friends,' Brandi's mother, Ellen Tant, told NBC affiliate KETK. She assumed Brandi was going somewhere in town. Little did she know that Brandi was heading to Longview, about 45 minutes away. According to KETK, security footage shows Brandi entering a nightclub called Graham Central Station — now Electric Cowboy — around 10:36 p.m. and checking in at the counter. People inside would later tell police that Brandi was asking for money for gas. She was inside the club for nearly two hours and was seen on tape walking alone out toward the parking lot around 12:30 a.m. The night she went missing, Brandi was wearing a dark, floral-print tube top, rust-colored pants with strapless high-heeled sandals, according to TheDoeNetwork. A few hours after she left the club, a black 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix coupe with Texas plates was found abandoned on the side of Interstate 20. It wasn't until days later that police connected the car to Brandi Wells. According to KETK, Brandi's purse and a gas can her family believed did not belong to her were found in the trunk. They also reported that the driver's side seat of the car had been adjusted for someone taller than Brandi, but because it took days to link the car to her disappearance, authorities didn't know if that happened before or after the car was abandoned. Dateline reached out multiple times to the Longview Police Department to discuss Brandi's case, but has not received a response. At just 17 years old, Samantha could hardly comprehend the thought of her sister's disappearance. 'I was almost dismissive of it. It was the first tragedy I had ever experienced,' she said. 'Tragedies only happened in movies, and I was so not believing it.' Samantha says Brandi was an incredibly bubbly, carefree, and trusting person. She remembers when she and Brandi were both living in San Antonio, Brandi would pick her up so they could go shopping and try on clothes together, or go to the movies and CD stores — do sisterly things. Of course, there were things they couldn't do together, due to their age difference. One thing, in particular. ''I can't wait until you're old enough and we can go clubbing together,'' Samantha recalled Brandi telling her. 'And so that's one of the things I think about, because that's how she went missing.' Samantha says Brandi's disappearance has made her more vigilant in her own life. 'Whenever I was going out to dance halls in San Antonio, I made it a point to talk to all the bar [staff] and bouncers. I didn't want to be somewhere that people did not know who I was,' she said. Grown now, with a husband and three children, Samantha still maintains that vigilance. She keeps a window-breaking device in her vehicle and a flotation device in her trunk. And she has her phone set up — with authorities in mind. 'I keep my husband's phone number right on my screen so all you have to do is press the power button,' she said. 'I've almost become a very paranoid person about safety.' Samantha is now studying to become a teacher — just as Brandi was when she disappeared. It makes her feel connected to the sister she didn't get enough time with. 'Being given a sister, when you've never had one before — it's like getting a puppy for the first time,' Samantha said. 'I was so giddy about just having a sister.' Today, she is just hoping for answers. Brandi was around 5' tall and weighed 125-130 lbs. at the time of her disappearance, with blonde or strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes. She would be 42 years old today. If you have any information about Brandi's disappearance, please contact the Longview Police Department at 903-237-1199.
