Brandon Joel Franklin

On the morning of Friday, January 18, 2019, the wife of Brandon Joel Franklin awoke to find that both her 34-year-old husband and his silver Volkswagen Beetle were missing from their residence in Moody, Alabama. A sense of unease would soon turn to tragedy with the discovery of Mr. Franklin's body in the 7300 block of 2nd Avenue South in Birmingham. The male victim had been the subject of a homicide, a crime that set in motion a lingering investigation.

Days after the grim discovery of hi ...