FBI: Death of Alonzo Brooks was a homicide

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - A federal forensic examiner has determined that the 2004 death of a Topeka man whose body was found in a creek in La Cygne was a homicide.

Alonzo Brooks’ body was exhumed and transported to Dover Air Force Base for examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, who determined the 23-year-old man’s death was a homicide.

“We knew that Alonzo Brooks died under very suspicious circumstances,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard. “This new examination by a team of the world’s best forensic pathologists and experts establishes it was no accident. Alonzo Brooks was killed. We are doing everything we can, and will spare no resources, to bring those responsible to justice.”

The new autopsy focuses on injuries on parts of Brooks’ body that the examiner concluded are not consistent with normal patterns of decomposition. Further details of the examination are being withheld for investigative purposes.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas and the FBI reopened the investigation into Brooks’ death in 2019. As part of the investigation, the FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for Brooks’ death.

In the initial investigation immediately after Brooks’ body was found, a coroner in Linn County said he was unable to determine Brooks’ cause of death and witness’s statements did not provide any arrests. Now that the death has been ruled a homicide, authorities are working to determine whether Brooks was the victim of a racially-motivated killing.

Brooks was last seen alive at an April 2004 party in La Cygne where he was one of only three African American men at the party, which over 100 people attended. Brooks rode to the party from Gardner with friends, who left before him, leaving him with no ride home. When Brooks failed to come home the next day, his family and friends contacted the Linn County Sheriff’s Department. Several law enforcement agencies in the area conducted a search, but were unable to find Brooks. About a month after he first went missing, his family and friends conducted their own search. It took them just under an hour to locate Brooks’ body in a pile of branches in Middle Creek.

Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call the FBI at 816-512-8200 or 816-474-TIPS.