One year ago today, searchers held out hope Carl DeBrodie might come home safely.
A year later, those who cared about him are still looking for answers.
"I don't know how anyone could do this to him - he was such a lovable kid," Katherine Smith, one of DeBrodie's aunts, said at a Saturday memorial gathering.
The story so far
On April 17, 2017, DeBrodie, 31, was reported missing from a Second Chance Homes of Fulton supported living facility.
Fulton Police Chief Steve Myers said Friday when he first received the missing person report, he never imagined the case would develop the way it did.
"It's probably in the top five (most unique cases I've investigated)," he said. "The seriousness of it, the way the body was found, those were all very unique. Certainly, these type of cases become personal to some extent."
The community sprang into action, organizing search parties for the developmentally disabled man.
The situation seemed grim from start: The more than 50 volunteers on the first day of searching were told DeBrodie had poor eyesight and was drawn toward bodies of water. Small groups plunged into the woods around Claymine Drive, where the facility was located.
"It frustrates me, it really frustrates me, to know that these people still don't have answers," Tina Rogers, one of those who went out in search of DeBrodie, said Saturday.
Police found DeBrodie on April 24, 2017, at Moore EZ Storage in Fulton- along with evidence he'd been dead for weeks or months. His body, badly decomposed, was wrapped in plastic, encased in concrete and placed inside a trash container and wooden crate. Authorities sampled DNA from his mother, Carolyn Summers, to help with identification.
DeBrodie's life didn't start at Second Chance.
At age 13, DeBrodie was placed under the care of Mary Martin, his former "big sister" in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program.
"I've been his mother ever since I saw him," Martin said.
Summers and DeBrodie's aunt, Carol Samson, said they were able to visit regularly. His stepfather, Larry Summers, stopped by to maintain the lawnmower DeBrodie loved to ride.
DeBrodie stayed with Martin until age 21 and then went into independent living at Brady House, Martin said last year.
After a brief stint at Brady House, DeBrodie moved back in with his mother. Public Administrator Karen Digh Allen was appointed his legal guardian in 2008, and DeBrodie was soon moved to a Second Chance facility.
Martin began a legal battle to regain guardianship or adopt DeBrodie, which stretched until 2014, but ultimately failed.
These days, Martin has turned toward activism in hopes of changing the rules on adoption.
"My lawyer wants to get the law on adoption changed," she said at a March rally at the state Capitol. "I couldn't adopt Carl because he wasn't blood."
Protecting others
DeBrodie's death also touched off reform efforts by the Missouri Association of County Developmental Disabilities Services. Callaway County Special Services is a MACDDS member.
"Please note that MACDDS has no administrative or supervisory authority over the County Board members," MACDDS Executive Director Les Wagner said. "Nor do we have any investigative authority with respect to rights violations, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with developmental disabilities."
In December, MACDDS released recommendations for additional safeguards to protect the rights and safety of developmentally disabled people.
"A national survey conducted in 2012 found that over 70 percent of respondents with disabilities said they had been abuse victims, and 90 percent of them said it had happened many times," MACDDS' paper notes. "Only about half of the victims reported the abuse and half of those said nothing was done in response to their report."
Proposed safeguards include several amendments to Missouri law, including requiring criminal background checks for court-appointed guardians; investigations into retaliation against mandated reporters; and a requirement for the Department of Mental Health to share reports of potential abuse, neglect and exportation with county boards and local case managers.
It also contains recommendations increasing accountability and specifying timelines during investigations.
"Currently, guardians may not even be aware of alleged reports or active investigations related to providers or other agencies involving their wards," the paper points out. "This lack of transparency and accountability is a breeding ground for potential abuse, neglect and exploitation."
Wagner said while the legislative changes have yet to be adopted, House Bill 1553, introduced in January, mandates background checks for prospective guardians.
"The (DMH) has agreed that upon written request from a county board they will provide unredacted, completed investigative reports regarding abuse and neglect when the subject of the abuse is a client shared with that county board," he added.
Documents acquired from the Department of Mental Health and Callaway County Special Services indicated investigations were concluded at Second Chance in 2007, August 2012, December 2013 and June 2016. Each were closed after insufficient evidence was found to back the claims.
Other documents point to missed and cancelled visits by DeBrodie's case manager, who was fired by CCSS last year.
Legal battle
No charges have been filed or arrests made, though Callaway County Prosecutor Chris Wilson stated local, state and federal prosecutors are reviewing evidence.
Wilson said sharing specifics about the case would, in his opinion, hurt its future outcome. In a Thursday statement, he said no expense has been spared or lead left unfollowed in investigating the case.
"(The prosecutors') agencies have been working together for months and some aspects of the federal investigation continue," he said. "While that work may seem slow, I can assure the public that it has been methodical and deliberate. Any suggestion that the case has been dropped, forgotten or swept aside is simply wrong."
Wilson added he regularly provides updates to DeBrodie's family's attorney.
"At this point, we're waiting like everyone else for the prosecutors to finish processing the evidence," Myers said Friday. "I'm relatively certain, though, we're going to have a very successful conclusion to this case."
On Saturday, Carolyn Summers expressed confidence authorities are doing their job and justice will eventually be served.
"We have to be patient," Samson added.
Separately, a worker's comp claim was filed in October 2017 by a former Second Chance employee claiming a Second Chance client confessed to murder and the employee had to supervise that client. However, Myers has said details of that worker's comp claim are incorrect.
Carolyn Summers' attorney, Rudy Veit, filed a civil suit in January against many of DeBrodie's service providers, from Second Chance to CCSS to DMH.
"I feel, to try to get to the bottom of this, I need to file the lawsuit and get these people under oath and find out what really happened,"Veit said in February.
Since then, attorneys for Callaway County, Public Administrator Karen Digh Allen and her office, and a number of defendants associated with the Missouri Department of Mental Health filed motions to dismiss the suit in late March. On April 6, a lawyer for Second Chance Homes and its owner Rachel Rowden filed a response denying many of the suit's accusations.
Most recently, on April 13, an attorney for Martin and her husband filed a motion to intervene in the suit as plaintiffs. The motion states as "psychological, 'de facto'" parents, they should be among the beneficiaries entitled to participating in the wrongful death suit.
Martin said Saturday she's hoping to change legal precedent with the case.
"It's not about the money," she said. "It's because Larry, his stepfather, can't ask the prosecuting attorney's office anything because he's not biologically related."
Remembrance
Much of DeBrodie's family got together Saturday at Memorial Park to reminisce about him.
"I miss Carl very much," Carolyn Summers said. "I look at his pictures every day."
"Every time I see a yellow car, I think of him," Larry Summers added.
His family remembers him as a kind young man who liked to be in the middle of things, whether the activity was socializing, fishing, or zooming around on a vehicle.
"We'd take a four-wheeler for a drive, and as long as the aid was watching him he'd putter along," Larry said. "As soon as the aid took his eyes off him, he'd crank it up."
Samson said acting as Carolyn's "first friend" in the civil suit has helped keep her occupied, but the long wait seems to weigh on everyone in the family.
"(Carl's death) has changed anyone that's been part of Carl's life," his aunt Sharon Strope said.
Nicolas Clark, one of DeBrodie's brothers, agreed.
"It's been a long year, a tough year," he said. "It's going to be easier, but it's going to take time."