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Goodbye, Brittany Tee

Chowderhead
@Podunk
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Last May I wrote a post about this young woman who went missing last January from Brookfield, MA. Well, it’s been a year since she’s been gone. There have been hundreds of people looking for her. People in fins, people in boots, people in helicopters, people on quads and on horseback. Nothing. There is nothing to update. She is gone without a peep of information.

I don’t know why I can’t let this go. I have only spoken to her a few brief times. I can still hear the screech voice drilling into my head. It was unique. Maybe she reminds me it could be one of my daughters.

During my time as an on-call firefighter I got a call on Podunk Pike. This is never good. It’s a long straight highway with only one north and southbound lane. This young girl (not Brittany) pulled off of a small side road into an oncoming pickup truck. Both vehicles were totaled. Hers was really bad. I pulled up in the fire truck and did the usual assessment. The police were there first. The young lady was on the side of the highway standing alone. I can say exactly what she looked like. A short girl with big eyes and red hair. That would be a lie because all I could picture her as was my daughter.

My daughter, because that’s all I could see, she didn’t have the slightest scratch on her. It’s as if God plucked her out of the car ten feet before impact. As we spoke I could tell she was shaken but that's the extent of it. I kept looking at her, then looking at the wreck, then back again. That is one of two miracles I have witnessed as a firefighter. It’s the lack of injury that haunted me.

Many people that go missing don’t get 10% of the effort Brittany got. That's good for her but the end result is still the same.

For the first four months after I wrote the piece on her it was in the top five in a Google search. This is why I’m posting again. Ricochet posted higher than the national and local news outlets! So this is my Hail Mary pass because I’m moving on. We failed in finding her.

Send an anonymous tip to publicresponsereports@pol.state.ma.us or call 508-988-7003

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (9)

  • Chowderhead@Podunk

    Very true Marci. It’s hard to write about a missing woman with no news. I didn’t want to re-hash details.

    I did try lightening it up a bit with a good story but that turned sad anyway. I was thinking about that accident since I wrote this a few hours ago. The girl that looked like my daughter was completely untouched, but she wasn’t shaken. Quite the opposite. She stood in one spot the whole time and just stared. She was probably mourning the loss of her phone. I looked for signs of concussion, but her eyes were clear, and she was coherent. Every two minutes I would go talk to her for a few seconds until the scene was secured. I didn’t want her to feel alone. She was like a ghost.

    The police probably drove her home. I can imagine her parents yelling at her about wrecking the car. I’m sure they would have found out later how lucky they are after they seen it.

    Perhaps I should have titled this as Hug Your Daughter Today but then it wouldn’t get the hits I’m looking for after it leaves Ricochet.

  • jmelvin@jmelvin
    Your post reminds me of a news story out of my area (central Virginia) from the middle of last year. A young lady was reported missing and although I couldn't place her, her face and name just kept coming back as someone I'd interacted with in some small way on various occasions. I still can't place her, but in the week or so following the initial news of her disappearance a widespread search for her or at least her body, her body was found in the county just north of mine. I felt this sadness I couldn't explain hearing of her disappearance and the sadness just expanded upon learning of her death, likely at the hands of her felon husband who was out on bail awaiting prosecution for another crime and has now been arrested for her murder. The whole thing left me in a depressed funk for a while knowing I've interacted with her somehow and somewhere in this town. My only hope now is that the prosecution is able to successfully demonstrate that the husband was her murderer, or the right person is found and successfully prosecuted to see some justice in the whole thing. May God show kindness to her baby such that this kind of sorrow and violence doesn't become a regular recurrence in life.
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