Meghan Drakas
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
On Oct. 25, 2020, Columbia Police responded to 300 W. Brookside Lane around 1 a.m. for a report of shots heard. When police arrived, they found 17-year-old Bryant Wilks II had been shot multiple times and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It was chaotic, there was a lot of people,” Columbia Police Lt. Matt Gremore said. “There was not a lot of information at the initial scene, so officers had to do a lot of work to preserve evidence, put up tape and make sure nobody contaminated the crime scene.”
Wilks’ family hopes someone who was at the party that night will come forward to speak with police.
“The amount of people that saw what happened that have not come forward to the police is what really hurts us and hurts the family,” Gremore said. “It hurts the investigation.”
Police say they found property damage to vehicles and buildings in the area, but no one else was hurt. Police say they collected multiple shell casings. Video of the crime scene shows at least 18 evidence markers.
Gremore wouldn’t go into detail about the types of evidence collected, but said some of it was clothing. He said the murder weapon was not there. Gremore said police don’t really know how many guns were fired.
The morning of Oct. 25, 2020, a neighbor in the area told ABC 17 News that she was awakened by the gunshots. She recorded some of the shots and shared the audio with ABC 17 News. Approximately 16 shots can be heard within 6 seconds.
Wilks’ older sister Desiree said that night, her brother went to a college party at Brookside Townhomes. Gremore estimates that between 20 and 30 people saw what happened and says a lot of those people were teenagers or in their 20s.
“We want to interview as many people as we absolutely can,” Gremore said. “And there was not a lot of witnesses that came forward in this case, which is probably one of the reasons that we’re where we’re at with it.”
Remembering Bryant Wilks II
“We never, every expected this to ever happen in our family or in our life,” Desiree Wilks said.
Bryant Wilks had three full siblings and a half-brother. Desiree Wilks says her younger brother was just months away from graduating from Hickman High School when his life was taken.
“He had huge dreams and huge goals, and he [reached] all those goals,” Desiree Wilks said. “So I know that that was just a milestone right in his life, but he would have done so much.”
She says her brother was the “goofiest person you’d ever meet” and loved making jokes. But the family said he also had an entrepreneurial spirit and started saving money at a young age.
“He taught himself how to cut hair by watching YouTube,” Bryant’s mother, Rochelle Hawkins, said. “He would cut people hair for free the first time, and then when they would come back again, they would pay.”
Bryant Wilks also had an interest in the stock market and investing. Desiree Wilks says her brother once lent her a few hundred dollars, and instead of making her pay the money back, he encouraged her to research stocks and invest her money.
His mother and sister said his entrepreneurial spirit led him to become a manager at the Dairy Queen on Forum Boulevard. The night before he was killed, Desiree and her half-brother visited Bryant at work.
“I went there and gave him a huge hug, and we said ‘I love you’ to each other,” Desiree Wilks said. “That’s a good memory to hold on to. The last words we said to each other were that we loved each other.”
Where the case stands today
In the past five years, Gremore said police have received some helpful tips through CrimeStoppers. He said police have heard varying versions of what happened that night, but “there’s also consistencies in those versions.”
Gremore said police have “persons of interest in the case.” But at the time of publication, no arrests have been made for the murder of Bryant Wilks II.
Wilks’ family remembers the joy he brought to others.
“Bryant loved to make people laugh, so a lot of my memories are surrounded by laughter and just the good times we had,” Desiree Wilks said. “Even if it was just in the house, or if it was going out or visiting relatives.”
Desiree Wilks said Bryant was loyal to his friends and his family. His mother says they are keeping her son’s memory alive.
“We do various things like Bryant wanted to do,” Hawkins said. “We are trying to keep my son’s name alive. We’re trying to find the good out of this awful, horrible situation.”
His family says they also provide buddy packs and comfort packs to families who have experienced a sudden traumatic loss, similar to what they went through.
While keeping Bryant’s memory alive, the family is still searching for answers as to what happened that night and who killed their loved one.
“We’re hearing this, and we’re hearing that, so it’s hard to really know the truth,” Desiree Wilks said. “It’s hard to read between the lines and come up with the truth.”
His mother says she leans on her faith, and she misses her son every single day.
“I miss hugging him and hearing him say, ‘Mom’. I miss everything about him,” Hawkins said. “I lean towards my faith, and that’s what’s been keeping me strong and keeping me moving forward is my faith, and I know that God knows and he sees all and he will take care of it.”
Wilks’ family is asking the Columbia community for help in finding out what happened to the teen who called the city his home since he was 3 years old. They believe someone knows something and are encouraging people to share what they know about what happened that night.
“There’s always gonna be a empty spot in all of our hearts that nothing can fill,” Desiree Wilks said. “But having somebody who is taken into custody for his murder, finding out who did it, and being held accountable for their actions, would bring some sense of relief.”
CPD is investigating 17 unsolved homicide cases with 19 victims dating back to 1985. ABC 17 News has covered seven cases in our “Mid-Missouri’s Cold Case Files” reporting.
Antonio Houston and Danielle Marine
Michael Walker Jr. & Jeffery Jones
Garbrielle Rhodes
George Showalter
Virginia ‘Ginger’ Davis
Edmond ‘Ricky’ Randolph Jr.
Jamar Hicks
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