Photo: Instagram
Who Is Brooke Naylor? She was found dead almost a week after she disappeared.
By Rebekah Kuschmider — Written on Mar 18, 2019
Brooke Naylor disappeared on March 3, 2019 near Harrisburg, IL. Nearly a week later, her body was found and authorities say she died of hypothermia, without offering any further details. So many questions remain unanswered at this time and police are not offering up any additional information about the circumstances of her death.
Authorities say they are still waiting for toxicology results to come back and those findings may add information to the mystery of what happened to Brooke Naylor before she left her car near the road and vanished into the night. But for now, her friends and family are shocked with grief and loss.
Who is Brooke Naylor and what happened to her? Read on for all the details.
1. Brooke
Brook was a 20-year-old native of Carni, IL. She was the valedictorian of her high school class when she graduated in 2016. Brooke went on to college at Southeastern Illinois College and earned her associates degree in 2018. She enjoyed tennis and played competitively in high school. Her parents say she was an animal lover, especially dogs and had spent time working at a veterinary clinic.
2. Last seen
There is very little information about what Brooke as doing or where she was going at the time of her disappearance.
Her boyfriend is the last person to report seeing her alive, and he says they were together in her car in the parking lot of the Walmart store in Harrisburg, IL. At the time, she had her puppy with her and was wearing sweatpants with the logo PINK printed on them, a light jacket, and house slippers. He later gathered with searchers to look for Brooke following her disappearance.
3. Vanished
The Illinois police made a public announcement about Brooke on Wednesday, March 6. By then she had been missing for several days and her car, a Chevrolet Malibu was found abandoned on the Eldorado Ridgeway Blacktop about halfway between Route 142 and Route 1.
There was no sign of Brook or her puppy, who was also missing, near the vehicle. Police and volunteers from the community gathered to search for her for over five days and police didn't suspect foul play at that time.
4. Tragedy
On March 8, police announced that they had located the body of Brooke Naylor. In a statement on March 11, authorities said that the official cause of death was hypothermia or exposure to the winter weather but didn’t release any more details, such as the exact location of her body or if there was any other indication of what may have happened to her.
Gallatin County Coroner Tony Cox said that toxicology results should be available in about four weeks and those might shed more light on the situation.
5. Remembrances
Brooke had worked at a local restaurant for about two years before her death. Her colleagues and customers were devastated a the loss. A manager at the restaurant said she didn’t know what had happened but had a bad feeling about the situation.
“I just feel like she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.” She went on to say that customers had always loved Brooke and were also grieving her loss.
“They loved her, they thought she was the cute server, so she had a great smile and great personality. Really good with people.”
6. Tribute
Family members took to social media to share their feelings. One of Brooke’s cousins tweeted: “Thank you for your prayers, love, and dedication in finding my cousin. My angel is free of this Earth and it’s pain. I love you B. Forever until my last moment.”
It’s still very unclear what happened to Brooke Naylor and why she died. Police are asking anyone with information to contact them. Her family has asked for donations in her memory to be sent to Pet's At Risk to assist with the development of the Dog Park at Burrell's Woods.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.