In May 2012, Brittney Wood vanished from her hometown of Mobile, Alabama. Her disappearance would soon uncover a horrifying secret lurking close to home. As the search for Brittney intensified, investigators stumbled upon a disturbing revelation, a sex abuse ring involving several members of Brittney’s family. Now, investigative reporter Kristin Thorne further explores Brittney’s disappearance as part of a new true crime video series, In Touch Investigates.
Brittney’s mother, Chessie Wood, was one of several family members charged in connection with the sex ring. Prosecutors say she was involved and charged her with child sex abuse. Wood denies any wrongdoing and says she didn’t know any of this was going on, and she ultimately pled guilty to a lesser charge of reckless endangerment. Instead, she claims to have accepted the plea deal because being in prison wasn’t going to help her find her daughter.
Brittney Wood
“I had been going through court for three and a half years, and my lawyer never wanted me to plead out. He was totally convinced with all his being that he’d beat this case with no problem,” Wood exclusively tells In Touch. “But I didn’t know how much longer they were going to draw it out, and I just wanted to get to the woods with my kid. So, everything else just didn’t matter. Even that at that moment, it mattered later, but at that moment, I just had to get back to find Brittney. She could be hurt; she could need help. And just every time I went to court, they’d say Reset. Reset.”
She continues, “That’s all they would say. And they’d make another court date for three and a half years. So, I decided when they come to me with a plea deal, that was a misdemeanor, no probation, no fines. I walk out a free woman. I took it and I left that day, went to the gas station, put on my clothes, I went right back to the woods.”
Brittney was last seen leaving home around 7.30 p.m. wearing blue jean shorts, a blue T-shirt and white flip-flops. Cell phone records gathered by detectives handling the case would later reveal the 19-year-old was at the property of her uncle, Donnie Holland, who authorities believe was a ringleader of the abuse ring.
Ultimately, Wood believes that Brittney’s uncle murdered her. Within a day of Brittney disappearing, Holland was found with a fatal gunshot to the head. Police ruled it a suicide. Inside his car, police discovered Brittney’s cell phone battery and her handgun.
Brittney Wood
In the months after the young mother vanished without a trace, nearly a dozen of her family members were arrested and some were prosecuted as part of a child sex abuse ring.
Wood says that even now, over a decade later, she’s holding out hope that they’ll find answers in Brittney’s disappearance.
“We’re still searching for her. Right now, we’re setting up another search in Styx River, and I just want to tell families, I don’t care if it’s five months or 20 years, never give up on your loved one. I always keep looking for them. They deserve it,” Wood adds.
Wood continues, explaining why they’re focusing on that particular river, “It was the last place she was seen, which I’ve watched many shows trying to figure out, trying to educate myself on how people, when they murder people, what do they do after the fact? And a lot of times they’re right where they were last seen. Number two, that’s where her uncle was staying at the moment. He had to move out of the home when the charges came out and he was staying at a friend’s house. And that house is located in Styx River.”
“I used to be one of them moms. I used to believe anything that happened to them, they would come tell me because we had such an open relationship,” Wood says. “I put trust in family where I shouldn’t have, but I was raised that family’s your family and they’re the number one people you can trust.”
