Brandon Sims

Brandon Sims was a 4-year-old boy who disappeared in July or August of 1992 from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Background
Brandon has a medical condition called gonadotropin independent precocious puberty which causes children to go through sexual maturity at a very young age.

Due to his condition, Brandon would probably grow very quickly in childhood, but be shorter than average in adulthood due to his growth plates fusing prematurely.

Disappearance
Brandon was last seen sometime in Indianapolis, Indiana between July or August of 1992. In July of 1992, his mother, Michelle Jones traveled to Detroit, Michigan with a friend to go to a theater conference; she told her friend that Brandon was being cared by a babysitter.

The last time Brandon's grandmother saw him was shortly after his fourth birthday when she drove by the mosque where Michelle attended and saw Brandon playing outside.

Brandon's grandmother and father made efforts to see him between 1991 and 1993. They left messages to Michelle about it, but Michelle ignored their calls and moved away. When Brandon's dad mailed child support checks to Michelle, they were returned to him unopened.

Investigation
In January of 1994, Michelle checked herself into a mental health center. 

While at the center, she told counselors that she had severely beaten Brandon and left him alone in his room for at least a week with food and water lying out in saucers on the floor. When Michelle came back, Brandon was dead. She wrapped up his body and dumped it along north Interstate 65 in Clinton County, Indiana.

After hearing what Michelle did to Brandon, the counselors called the police. Although the police were unable to find Brandon's body, Michelle was charged with neglect of a dependent in 1995.

Michelle's apartment manager recalled seeing hundreds of flies swarming in Brandon's bedroom during the summer of 1992. Michelle told the manager that Brandon had urinated on his bed and the flies were attracted by the urine smell.

Authorities discovered bloodstains in the carpeting throughout the apartment where Michelle and Brandon lived. Witnesses testified that Brandon had been abused for months prior to his disappearance and Michelle would leave him with friends for days at a time.

In 1996, Michelle was charged with murdering Brandon. She was convicted of murder and neglect of a dependent and sentenced to 50 years in prison. In 2017, she was released from prison after serving 20 years. While in prison, she got a degree from Ball State University and is currently working towards getting a doctorate in American Studies from New York University.