The Murder of Brandy Stevens-Rosine
For this case I watched an episode of A Stranger in My Home. It’s season 3 episode 2, titled ‘Mean Girls.’
I’ve heard of this case before, but I didn’t know all the details. An 18 year old was brutally killed because of a love triangle. There are so many cases where someone is killed because of a love triangle and it’s just so sad! Violence should never be the answer to anything.
Background
Brandy Stevens-Rosine
Brandy was an 18 year old student who was attending Youngstown State University, where she was majoring in sociology. She also loved music and art, and was described as being popular, funny and sarcastic.
Brandy was living in Beaver Township, Ohio with her grandparents, so that she could be closer to school. She had also just come out as gay and was starting to date someone new, a girl named Jade Olmestead.
Jade and Brandy
Brandy’s family and friends were very accepting of her and at first, they were also accepting of Jade. However, Brandy was very outgoing and Jade was not, so it was more of a opposites attract type of relationship.
Many of Brandy’s friends were interviewed in this episode, and Brandy’s sister and mom, they said they liked Jade for awhile, but soon saw another side to her that they didn’t like. They accepted that Brandy was happy and tried to put their feelings aside.
Jade didn’t come from a family like Brandy’s. Jade’s parents were more into drinking and drugs then they were into taking care of her. They also didn’t accept Jade’s sexuality, and Brandy’s family said that they think Jade wasn’t very happy with herself because of her family live.
Brandy and Jade had a good relationship, until Brandy invited Jade to live with her. Brandy was always working and going to school, and Jade wasn’t.
In January 2011, Jade stole $300 and Brandy’s iPod and left, leaving Brandy heartbroken.
Ashley Barber
After Jade took off, she went to Baltimore and went to live with her family again. She then rekindled a relationship with her first girlfriend from high school, a girl named Ashley.
Ashley Barber and Jade Olmstead
Ashley was 20 years old, and was described as being very tough and mean. Jade eventually moved in with Ashley and her family, even though Ashley’s family didn’t accept them and their relationship.
In the spring of 2012, Jade contacted Brandy again, even though she and Ashley were still together. Brandy and Jade would hangout, and Brandy would buy things for her, and this seemed to be what started Ashley’s jealousy and hatred for Brandy.
Brandy Disappears
After a few weeks of relentless social media bullying, coming from Ashley. It seemed that Jade wanted to still be friends with Brandy, but also make her girlfriend happy.
On the morning of May 17, 2012, Brandy told her grandma that she was going over to a friend’s house. This was the last time anyone saw or heard from Brandy.
That day no one in her family or in her circle of friends could get a hold of her, and at this time they thought maybe she just didn’t have enough to eat because she was diabetic and couldn’t contact them. However, when they began their own research they began to fear it was more sinister.
Brandy’s mom, Carrie, looked through Brandy’s social media and found that the friend she went to see that day was actually Jade. Brandy’s mom said she had a feeling that Jade and Ashley were involved.
The Investigation
Carrie and a friend of Brandy’s, Krysti, went over to Ashley’s house to talk to the girls. Krysti had the address because Brandy had texted her the day she went missing saying that’s where she’d be if “anything happened.”
Ashley and Jade denied knowing what happened to Brandy, and said Brandy never showed up that day. Carrie didn’t believe them, and she wanted to know what happened to her daughter. Carrie said while they were there, Ashley’s dad stepped in and said she was probably either lost or hiding from them.
A few minutes later, Carrie got a call from “Jade,” when it was really Ashley saying that Brandy’s car was at the house and that she needed to come pick it up.
Ashley’s parents had found the car in their garage that day, and Ashley’s mom called the police. The registration came back as being Brandy’s, and the car was clean. In fact it was way too clean to be Brandy’s, apparently Brandy never cleaned her car out and was very messy.
The police only got involved when Brandy’s mom, Carrie, wrote online about how the police weren’t helping with the investigation, this was on May 23. The FBI was also called in.
Ashley and Jade Disappear
That same day, the police went to Ashley’s house to search. Ashley’s parents said that Ashley and Jade were gone, but they allowed them to search the house. In the room that the girl’s shared, they found bloody sneakers.
A BOLO (be on the lookout) was issues for Ashley and Jade. They were found not too long after, coming out of the woods by a off duty police officer. They were immediately brought into the station.
The girl’s now had a new story, they both said that they did see Brandy on May 17, but that she was only there for a few minutes and left to be picked up by a new friend. She had also asked if she could keep her car there.
The police didn’t believe them, because at this point they also found the girl’s journals that they carried in their backpacks, and their writings told a much different story.
Brandy is Found and Confession
While the girls were being questioned, the police were searching the wooded area where the girls had been found. They were searching with cadaver dogs and helicopters. In the wooded area they found a “makeshift fort,” and an area of dirt that was described as being disturbed.
The police also said there was a smell of decay in the air. They began digging in that area, and that’s when they found Brandy’s body.
When the girls were confronted about it, they confessed. They said they dug a hole first, Jade had lured Brandy in the woods and wanted to make a fort with her. This is when Ashley showed up, and the girls began kicking and punching Brandy. They also hit her with a shovel and thought she was knocked out. They also poured water on her, and Jade said Brandy was afraid of being buried alive. However, they thought she was dead and they buried her in the hole.
Brandy wasn’t dead, and mud and dirt was found in her lungs. She really had been buried alive. The autopsy findings also said Brandy had injuries as a result of blunt force trauma, a skull fracture and 15 lacerations to her skull. Brandy was brutally murdered and left to die.
The Journals
This case just keeps on getting worse. I had mentioned that the police found Ashley and Jade’s journals, and inside they wrote some truly terrible and chilling things.
Ashley wrote that she wanted to kill again. Ashley had also sent a note to Brandy’s family about how she killed her. She wrote:
“I f****** murdered your 20-year-old mistake... she deserved it.”
Jade wrote on May 18, that she didn’t think they’d ever get caught, that she believed their crime was perfect and that she was proud of what they did.
Arrests and Convictions
The girls were immediately arrested and pleaded guilty to first degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison, which they were automatically given because the crime took place in Pennsylvania.
Other
The girls never said why they killed Brandy, but the police believe they wanted to prove their love to each other and Brandy was in the way.
Brandy was cremated, her mom said she didn’t want to bury her daughter again. UGH SO SAD!!!! They also created a memorial bench in Brandy’s name.
Brandy’s memorial bench
Brandy’s family and friends
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can’t even imagine the torture that Brandy must have gone through. I don’t think Jade ever loved or cared about her, how could you do that to someone you supposedly loved? I don’t think Jade had feelings, clearly she proved it when she wrote that she was proud of what they did. They are disgusting human beings and deserve to rot in prison for the rest of their lives.
Brandy’s mom comments at the end of the episode KILLED me. I hope that they can move on knowing that her killers are in prison, and celebrate Brandy’s life.
Sources
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jade-olmstead-guilty-of-brandy-stevens-murder_n_4214186
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brandy-stevens-rosine-case-love-triangle_n_1711393
