White male Andrew “AJ” Jacob Brooks, 30, was found dead late on December 19, 2019, inside a small house on the 300 block of Mill Street in Bethalto, Illinois.
Police had gone to the home for a welfare check around 11 p.m., peering through a window to see one body before discovering two more inside: Brooks' mother, 59-year-old Shari Yates, and their friend, 32-year-old John McMillian.
The Major Case Squad of Greater St.
Louis was activated as detectives secured the scene and traced the chain of events that had converged on the quiet, midwinter street.
In the hours and days that followed, investigators linked the killings to a violent multi-state spree.
Authorities announced charges against two suspects—Brady Kane Witcher, then 41, and Brittany Nicole McMillan, then 28, alleging the pair carried out execution-style shootings and fled in a stolen vehicle.
Both were arrested across the river in St. Louis County and waived extradition to Madison County, Illinois, where prosecutors filed multiple counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and aggravated vehicular hijacking.
As detectives reconstructed the path to Mill Street, they described a grim arc that included crimes in Alabama shortly before the Bethalto attack.
Reports presented at later proceedings detailed how Witcher and McMillan kidnapped one woman and killed another in Alabama in the days leading up to the trip north, framing the Illinois shootings as part of an eight-day trail of violence.
Community grief rose around the house where the 30-year-old man had lived with his mother.
Neighbors and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil, remembering the victims as loving and full of life even as police outlined the case against the accused.
The 30-year-old man's name circulated in obituaries and memorial notices that set his date of death on December 19, 2019, and rooted him in Bethalto, the town where he grew up and where his life ended.
The criminal case moved quickly. In December 2021, prosecutors announced that McMillan had pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Yates, the 30-year-old man, and McMillian; a judge sentenced her to life in prison.
The 30-year-old man's case against Witcher went to a Madison County jury in early 2022.
Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery; a judge later imposed life sentences, underscoring the severity of the crimes and the speed with which the panel had reached its decision.
Appeals followed, but the outcome held.
In 2023, Illinois' Fifth District Appellate Court upheld Witcher's convictions, leaving intact the life terms imposed after the jury's verdict.
With McMillan already serving life and Witcher's appeal denied, the case that began with a late-night welfare check in Bethalto concluded in court with the maximum penalties available under state law.
