i kept thinkin , you know, she s gonna call. she s gonna call. i know she s gonna call. and she s gonna say, mom, you know, it was a (sigh) big mix-up, you know? i just couldn t grasp that she was gone forever. tina had a very hard time. i remember being at her funeral. and tina was holding this picture of brooke and just crying, just hysterically. i mean, two people had to carry her to the gravesite. along with grief there was something else. how scary was it to you that whoever did this was out there? oh, very scary. i mean, cause they ve taken somethin from you. i mean, what are their motives for us? roane county investigators, tasked with bringing brooke s killer to justice, had spoken to her ex-husband clayton morris the night of the murder. were you getting any kind of a vibe from clayton? you know, sometimes you can read people and and, you know, people throw off body
phone. he didn t answer. you couldn t find him? couldn t find him. investigators learned daniel lived in colorado. he d just been in knoxville for the weekend. were you worried that you couldn t get a hold of him and he was out there? yeah, it makes you wonder, you know, what s going on? are they intentionally trying to avoid you? daniel had flown back to colorado by the time he got on the phone with a sheriff s investigator. basically interviewed him and got his whereabouts. where was he? from what i understand, he was at the ball game. daniel hawkins told investigators he was at the stadium watching the football game, as he texted with brooke on and off throughout the afternoon. the game ended just before 7: 00pm. brooke s body was found just after 8: 00pm. so if daniel was telling the truth, investigators had to figure out if he had enough time to get through the crush of vols fans, meet up with brooke and make the 40 mile drive here to roane county to commit the
most people who knew brooke morris remember radiance and zest for life. she was always, always, always dancing everywhere she went. kaitlyn okal met brooke when they were teenagers, growing up just outside knoxville, tennessee brooke the yin to kaitlyn s yang. we kind of balanced each other out. she was a girly girl and i was more the tomboy. so i d go to her house. and change into a thousand outfits and try on makeup and do our hair. and then she d come into my house. and we d ride four wheelers and play on the farm. sounds like you two were almost more like sisters? oh yeah, we even fought like sisters. we that s when you know you re good friends. yes, yes. for sure. this is brooke s real sister brittany and their mom, tina. what did she like to do clothes. clothes very very girly, loved doing
hired brooke as an assistant in the insurance office. i remember the day that she had the interview. we had lunch right before, and she was so excited, you know? it was a real job. and i said, there s gonna be so much potential for you to move up in this company. you know? i was really proud of her. did you feel like this was kind of the fresh start brooke needed? yeah, we did. we thought we we all thought it was gonna be a good thing for her. did she seem happy? oh yeah, she loved it. i think there was a couple other ladies in the office that she worked with. everybody got along, and she enjoyed it. she had formed a really, i guess, tight relationship with her boss. but brooke s family had no idea how close brooke s relationship with her boss shawn smoot actually was. some of her friends did. well, she had told me, in the beginning, that she had started working for this guy,
come over her in the middle of the night. she woke her husband. and i said, i just feel really sick, like, just all of a sudden, really sick in my stomach. and he was like, well, what do you think s goin on? i m like, i don t know. i just feel really nauseous. and it wasn t 20 minutes later i get a phone call sheriff s deputies were looking for her mother, tina. he didn t wanna tell us much until he talked to mom first. tina was at a friend s house. both chief phillips and brittany headed over there. mom, you know, comes to the door. and then she looks at me. and she s like, it s brooke, isn t it? and i m like, yeah. how did you know? what i knew it had to be because brittany was there, you know? so it had to be. i ve delivered more than my share of death notifications, and this particular one was i ll never forget it. i asked her to sit on the couch and we sit there for a second and i said, you know, we re is brooke morris your daughter? and said, she is,