Missing Person: Brandy Hanna
Age at the time of disappearance: age 32
Date Last Seen: May 20, 2005
Location Last Seen: Getting off work from Alex's Restaurant on Dorchester Road in North Charleston, South Carolina
Date Located: STILL MISSING
Brandy Hanna was a US Veteran who was unmarried and closest to her mother. She was a good worker who never took off work and had a small but solid set of friends. She was in a relationship with a man named Michael Ray McAdams (also known as 'Ray') for about six years. Michael's friend allowed his friend Garland to move in. Eventually Garland sparked a relationship with Brandy. Garland was kicked out, and Brandy chose to continue her relationship with Garland and ending it with Michael. Michael then moved in with Brandy.
A month later, he left her saying he was going back to his wife and kid and moved out. Brandy let her emotions get to her and let Garland keep the key to her apartment hoping he would come back and choose her over his wife and kid.
May 20, 2005 Brandy worked from about 7:00 AM to 2:30PM at Alex's Restaurant. During that work shift she received a call at the restaurant that changed Brandy's attitude. She said she was scared of someone but she didn't say who and she didn't say who was on the phone. Before she left the restaurant she called her mom and asked her where she was, as her mother was supposed to be at work. Brandy left a little before 3:00 PM with a customer who drove her home.
Brandy talked to her mom about 5:30 PM that night and told her that Garland was going to come over that night. At 8:00 PM Hanna texted a friend about plans the next day. She text Garland about 10:00 PM that night.
Then all responses stopped. Her mother tried calling her from work with no answer. Her friend Amy showed up at Brandy's house about 10:30 PM that night and noticed all the lights were off but she was able to hear the TV so she thought Brandy went to sleep.
The next day (Saturday) Brandy never responded. Sunday went by just as silently. Monday came and Brandy missed her shift. Once her mother realized Brandy's silence, she knew something was really wrong.
Monday morning Brandy's mother called and filed a police report but they did not begin their investigation. Her mother contacted Garland, well aware he had the key to her apartment. She told him not to go in the apartment without her. By the time she got to the apartment, she watched him walking out of it. His excuse was that if she was in there and something was wrong he didn't want the mother to have to see Brandy that way. They then got in to the apartment together. Nothing was out of place, no signs of a struggle or forced entry and all of her belongings were inside the residence.
Detectives finally got involved 7 days after her disappearance on May 27th. Her apartment was month-to-month and the landlord asked her mom to pack up her things and move her out. When the police spoke to Garland he said that he had to work late that day so he didn't have a chance to spend time with her.
Days later, a neighbor came forward and said she saw Brandy the night of her disappearance between 9:00 PM and 9:30 PM leave her apartment and get in to a red pick up truck with white stripes on the sides and a Jason Vorhees hockey mask strapped to the front of the grill. That neighbor was driving to see Ray which she confirmed was the guy who she saw driving that vehicle, but later recanted/ Both Ray and Garland looked very much alike. They also drove the same vehicle. They were both plumbers, both worked for Garland's father and the vehicles were company vehicles. They both took a lie detector test and they both passed.
April 2006, 11 months after her disappearance, her ex-boyfriend Ray McAdams died of a heart attack.
A detective followed a psychic's lead, and located a white Nike tennis shoe with a light blue strip in Hanna's size under a pier near Riverfront Park, which was just blocks from her apartment in an area that was not public. The shoe was located in an old barrel in the marsh which a police officer had to pry open with a shovel. There was no DNA on the shoe, but was believed to be hers. The searched the entire rest of that area with negative results.
In 2016 the police finally got their break after multiple interviews with Garland, as he was telling the story to them, just not the same story. Brandy's boyfriend Garland Eugene Lankford was charged with obstruction of justice in her disappearance. He told Detectives that he was working on that day and worked late so he couldn't meet with her as planned. His employer however proved that he had gotten off work at 4PM that day. A number tracked back to his sister's house was responsible for the calls which initially lead police to believe Brandy's ex-boyfriend Michael McAdams was the focus of her disappearance. That number contacted the North Charleston City Hall by a male who said he witnessed Brandy getting in to her ex-boyfriend's vehicle. When Detectives spoke to Garland he told them that her ex Michael contacted Garland the morning after she disappeared, when the truth was that Garland initiated the contact with Michael several times thru text messages. Garland plead guilty and was sentenced to two years.
August 26, 2013 Brandy's family legally declared her deceased. Brandy's body has never been located.
If you have information on Brandy's disappearance or whereabouts, please contact the North Charleston Police Department at (843) 745-1015