Where is Brandon Sims?

The four-year-old had not been seen since July 3, 1992, when he attended a birthday party with his 20-year-old mother, Michelle Jones. Jones was employed, confident, talented, smart, assertive, and involved in many community activities in Indianapolis, Indiana. In contrast, when he was last seen, Brandon Sims, an only child, was a serious, quiet, thin boy who rarely maintained eye contact with his mother. After that night, he was never seen again. His body has never been found.

For years, Jones lied to her friends about Brandon, telling some that he was living with his father and others that he was staying with his grandmother in another state. When Brandon’s father, who had been in jail, came looking for Brandon, Michelle’s shocked friends confronted her.

She confessed that Brandon was dead. She repeated her story of how Brandon died to a detective, after she admitted herself to the local psych unit. Days later, she checked out of the unit and refused to reveal where she had hidden Brandon’s body. She was sure she had gotten away with murder.

And she would have, except the detective didn’t believe her story. He enlisted the help of a novice prosecutor because no experienced prosecutor would take the case. In Indiana, no one had ever been convicted of murder without a body.

That prosecutor has written a story that reads like a mystery novel instead of the real murder prosecution. Truth is stranger than fiction where Santeria curses; the law and politics are only a few of obstacles to justice.