CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. — Sheriff's investigators said they reexamined a 1997 homicide case last year and they still need leads to close it and determine why Minnie Brooks was killed.
They had several suspects at the start, but so much time has passed that one of the suspects died and there is no new information on the others.
"It brings back a lot of memories," her son, Christopher Brooks, said.
In September of 1997, his mother vanished. Five days later, a jogger found her body in this abandoned building off of Metcalf Road near Shelby. She had been shot several times and her body was dumped.
"No one deserves to die like that," relative Anthony Gullatte said.
"It was devastating because she really was all I had," Brooks said.
He was 14 years old when detectives delivered the news of his mother’s death.
"It still hurts like it happened yesterday," Brooks said.
Investigators said there were no known witnesses when the case started in 1997.
Authorities will accept any piece of information no matter how small.
“We been wanting to know for years,” Brooks said. “We just want justice so my family can be at peace."
"We forgive whoever done it, but we definitely need answers and this family needs closure," Gullatte said.