The man in the surveillance video looks calm, even cheerful, as he strolls through an electronics store in Mobile, Alabama, recording himself in broad daylight. He is surrounded by oblivious customers and staff, a phantom in plain sight. But Gary Simmons, the man smiling into the camera, is a killer on the run, and he believes he has committed the perfect crime.
He does not know that across the state line, an 18-year-old woman he locked inside a wooden box has just broken free, and she is about to unravel everything.
On August 13th, 1996, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department received a frantic 911 call that would lead them to one of the most gruesome crime scenes in Mississippi history. A young woman, hysterical and covered in dirt, had appeared on a stranger’s doorstep in Moss Point, clutching a butcher knife, begging for help. When deputies arrived, they found Brooke Weber, 18, in a state of complete shock.
She was repeating the same chilling phrase over and over, “They shot him! They shot him!” Her clothes were disheveled, her eyes wild with terror, and she pointed a trembling finger toward a house across the street.
The house, sitting at the edge of a murky bayou, appeared immaculate from the outside. There was no sign of struggle, no overturned furniture, no blood in the main living areas. It was as if the house itself was holding its breath, waiting to reveal its secrets.
But inside, investigators found something that made their blood run cold, a human-sized box, sturdy and foreboding, sitting in a back room. The box was empty, but its presence told a story of unspeakable horror. Brooke Weber had been locked inside that container, a prisoner in her own nightmare, while her boyfriend’s life bled out just feet away
The investigation quickly moved from the house to the murky waters of the bayou behind it. What they found floating in the water would forever mark this case as one of the most depraved in the state’s history. Investigators recovered 88 pieces of human remains, dismembered and scattered across the surface of the water, a grotesque puzzle that investigators would spend days piecing together.
The victim was identified as Jeffrey Wolf, a 21-year-old from Houston, Texas, who had traveled to Mississippi on what he thought was a business trip with his new girlfriend, Brooke
Jeffrey Wolf was described by his heartbroken father, Pascal, as an all-American kid, a young man who loved dogs, football, and motorcycles. He was a good kid, just a good kid, Pascal said, his voice thick with grief. He loved life.
He was excited to introduce his new girlfriend, Brooke, to his family. The couple had only been dating for a few weeks, but Jeffrey was smitten, and he had planned a short vacation to Mississippi to collect a debt for a friend. He had no idea he was walking into a trap
The story of the horror begins two days earlier, on August 12th, when Brooke and Jeffrey arrived at the Moss Point home of Gary Simmons, a man Jeffrey considered a friend. Brooke immediately felt a sense of dread. The house was dark, no porch light was on, and a man she didn’t know was sitting on the steps, watching them approach.
It looked kind of creepy to me, Brooke would later testify. But Jeffrey assured her these were his friends, so she pushed her fears aside. Inside, they were offered drinks, and the conversation seemed friendly, normal.
Brooke took a seat at the kitchen table, letting the men discuss business, her mind wandering. That is when she heard the gunshots
When Brooke looked up, she saw Jeffrey collapsing, a bullet hole through his chest, blood splattering across the window blinds. Behind him stood a young man, Timothy Milano, holding a smoking gun. Brooke had no idea anyone else was in the house.
In that split second, her life changed forever. She was grabbed from behind by Gary Simmons, who bear-hugged her, carried her to another room, and hog-tied her like an animal. He gagged her and locked her inside the box, a coffin-like prison where she would spend the next 24 hours, listening to the sounds of her boyfriend being dismembered in the next room
The nightmare inside that house did not begin with Jeffrey Wolf. It began six years earlier, with Lorie Simmons, Gary’s wife. Lorie met Gary about 10 months after her first divorce, and he seemed charming, a groundskeeper at her children’s daycare.
He told her he loved to write short stories, and she found his creative nature endearing. In his office, he kept over 50 binders filled with his writing. One day, curiosity got the better of her, and she opened one to read.
What she found was deeply unsettling. Every single story was about a woman taken captive as a 𝒔𝒆𝒙 slave, detailed fantasies of torture and imprisonment. I told him that’s not pleasure, that’s torture, Lorie recalled.
And he said, well, these are my fantasies. He said, I have secrets you know nothing about
Lorie tried to dismiss it, to convince herself it was just fiction. But after the birth of their first daughter, Gary’s dark side emerged with a vengeance. When she told him she wasn’t ready to be intimate, he forced himself on her.
That was the very first time Gary raped me, she said. She was in shock, unsure if it even counted as rape because they were married. But things were about to get much worse.
One of Gary’s stories was about a box, a box meant for a person. Lorie came home one day to find him building it, a huge wooden structure in their home. She knew then that his fantasies were not just words on a page, they were blueprints
When Lorie tried to confront him, to stand up for herself, Gary’s reaction was terrifyingly calm. He didn’t yell. He didn’t argue.
He simply put a hand at her throat and choked her until she passed out. When she came to, she was tied to the bed, hands and feet bound to the posts, blindfolded, with Gary standing over her. He told her it was not about her.
He traced a butcher knife along her skin, so sharp that a single flinch would cut her. He enjoyed her terror, her pain. It was one of his fantasies, and he was playing it out.
Lorie was petrified, convinced she was going to die that night. When she finally went to police, they told her she didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. She tried to get a divorce, but in Mississippi, she couldn’t file while pregnant, and a required pregnancy test revealed she was expecting.
Trapped, terrified, and with three kids to protect, she finally escaped to a domestic violence shelter, leaving Gary behind. But Gary remained close with her younger brother, Timothy
In the summer of 1996, Timothy was staying with Lorie to help with the kids. One night, Gary showed up at her door, asking to speak with Timothy outside. Lorie begged her brother not to go, but Timothy hugged her, said he’d be back within the hour, and left.
Hours passed. Lorie called Gary’s house repeatedly, but no one answered. She let the phone ring, unaware that on the other end of that line, in that dark house, an 18-year-old girl was locked in a box, listening to that same phone ring, realizing it might be her only chance at freedom
Brooke Weber, exhausted and bound, heard the answering machine click on. She knew no one was there to answer. She thought, if you’re ever going to get out of here, now’s the time.
She wiggled her wrists against the ropes, feeling them loosen. She shifted her body, got onto her knees, and pushed against the lid of the box with her back, summoning every ounce of strength she had. The metal top finally broke open, and she tumbled out into the dark, empty house.
She grabbed a butcher knife from the table, thinking, if they were coming in when I was going out, I was going to gut them. She ran out the front door, sprinting down the road, her heart pounding in her chest. She saw Gary Simmons pulling back up at the house, and she dove behind a bush on a neighbor’s lawn, trembling, convinced she was about to be caught.
But Gary went inside, discovered she was gone, got back in his car, and sped off. Brooke was finally free
When police arrived, they found Jeffrey’s remains in the bayou, cut into 88 pieces. Timothy Milano had shot him nine times, once in the back, twice in the chest, under Gary’s direction, because Gary had threatened Timothy’s sister and her children if he didn’t help. Timothy turned himself in, and Gary Simmons was arrested just blocks away from his wife’s workplace, after sending her a VHS tape confessing his crimes.
Hello, Lori. I guess it’s a real mess, isn’t it? It wasn’t supposed to go like that.
I never think about the consequences of what I do until after it’s done. But that’s what happens when you cross the line. You pay for it.
I guess it’s time. I love you
The trial began in August 1997. Brooke, now the sole living witness, took the stand, her body shaking uncontrollably as she sat just feet away from the man who had terrorized her. She was terrified, but she looked at Jeffrey’s parents in the courtroom, and she knew she had to be strong for them.
Gary Simmons was found guilty on all counts, including capital murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. He was sentenced to death. Timothy Milano was sentenced to life without parole.
But for Brooke, the verdict brought no peace. She was convinced Gary would put a hit on her from prison, so she changed her name, cut her hair, dyed it dark, and spent 27 years running and hiding, terrified of Gary’s family, convinced they would blame her for putting their father in prison
In 2023, Brooke, now 45, decided she was tired of running. She agreed to meet Lorie Simmons, the woman whose life had been shattered by the same monster. The meeting was emotional.
Lorie embraced her, calling her a hero. I owe you a debt of gratitude. You are my hero, Lorie said.
I have four children who are grown because of you. I am here today because of you. Brooke, for the first time, saw herself not as a victim, but as a survivor.
I just feel like I was put there on purpose so that they didn’t get away with it, she said. I’m not ashamed of it anymore. It doesn’t define me.
I am Brooke Weber. Period. I’m not a victim anymore.
I’m a survivor of a violent crime, and we’re going to make it through it.
