Missing Clarmin woman’s mother speaks to Wash Co officials
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
Missing Clarmin woman’s mother speaks to Wash Co officials
Moeser has been missing since April 13
By TODD MARVER
tmarver@washingtonconews.com
WASHINGTON COUNTY — Brittany Moeser, 36, of Clarmin, has been missing since April 13. Moeser’s mother Debra Wilkerson spoke to the joint personnel/finance committee of the Washington County Board on Sept. 26 and asked the committee to quit letting her down and add two more deputies to the sheriff’s department roster per the sheriff’s request.
The sheriff’s committee meets at 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 2 regarding the additional deputies request and the county board’s next meeting is at 7 p.m. Oct. 8.
Wilkerson said her daughter lived in Chicago for many years, but in September 2023, suffering from a mental health issue, she felt like she needed to be home where she had her family and support. She said after a few hiccups and with the help of a community mental health organization, her daughter was stable and getting to put her life together again.
Wilkerson said on April 13, Moeser’s stepfather left to attend their grandson’s ballgame and Wilkerson worked that day and returned home at 2 p.m. She said Moeser left a note stating she went for a walk and never returned home. She said she waited the 24 hours needed before notifying the sheriff’s department and they were there with drones and K9’s shortly thereafter. She said she felt sure that her daughter would be found and Sheriff Ross Schultze came several times thereafter to let them know they were working diligently.
Wilkerson said then something changed and each time an officer came to their home it seemed like it was never the same person. She said she was distraught over missing her daughter and it seemed like each officer would be there only a day or so to be replaced with another one. She said each time she was forced to repeat the events of that day over and over again and valuable time and evidence were being lost because there weren’t enough officers to investigate thoroughly. She said home cameras went untouched until too late and cameras at the park weren’t investigated until months afterward. She said the neighborhood wasn’t canvassed immediately for a possible sighting of her and there were several searches, but each ended without resolution. She said her son went out and searched for weeks afterward hoping to find his sister.
Wilkerson said the rumors then began and it seemed as though everyone had heard the story of Moeser allegedly being killed by a trio with a background of drug abuse and criminal activity. She said the people involved were also talking to others and themselves, each pointing the finger to the other. She said what started out as two police personnel dwindled to one detective with help as needed, and her life is divided now, between everything up to April 13 and everything after, and her family is struggling desperately.
Wilkerson said Detective Roxzen Styninger has been a godsend and lends a listening ear as often as she needs to express her disappointment and frustration over her daughter’s case. She said she now lives with the possibility that unless one of the three confesses, she may never see justice or be able to bury her daughter. She said she is saddened that after coming home from the city of Chicago, Moeser let her guard down in a small, rural area. She said Moeser used to tell her that all she wanted was to feel safe and this area let her down, from difficulty investigating in a different county to gaps in the actual investigation because of turnover in the sheriff’s department.
Schultze said they didn’t have a detective at the time in April, so it was basically whatever deputy was working who was taking any information they had. He said there were numerous times he had to call the deputy in to work overtime.
Schultze said currently a lot of times they only have one deputy working the first shift and it’s just hard for one person to cover 564 square miles. He said there’s no state police coverage and that makes the problem worse if they have to handle something on the interstate or a serious crash on State Route 127 or any state route or any serious crime.
Board member Eric Brammeier asked if the department could change from 12-hour shifts to a 10-hour schedule or eight-hour schedule. Schultze said they don’t have enough employees to do 10-hour shifts. He said they have enough to do eight-hour shifts, but they probably would have people quit because they don’t want to work eight hours. He said almost every agency he knows works 12-hour shifts.
Detective Styninger said she worked eight-hour shifts and just switched to 10-hour shifts. She said most, if not all, departments work 12-hour shifts and with the amount of money they lack in pay, she would almost guarantee a lot of people would quit to go to a different department on 12-hour shifts for better pay just because they have more time and days off to do doctors’ appointments. She said with sick days, when people call in or use a personal day, then they’re scrambling to try to find somebody and their shift doesn’t connect to that shift. She said that would just bring more problems with connecting shifts to try to find coverage for that shift.
Brammeier said with 10 officers, NPD has three on duty and felt the sheriff’s office should be able to have two on duty at a time with 10 deputies.
Chief Deputy Charles Carroll said the sheriff’s office is authorized 10 road deputies, but they’ve never had 10 road deputies. He said they’re usually at least two short because they’re not fully staffed. He said when they do get fully staffed, it lasts about two months because they go to a department that makes more money.
Styninger said on Saturdays and Sundays, Nashville PD works one on duty at a time and they don’t always have two or three people on, so that would be the gap for them as well. She said it’s just not possible.
Styninger said WCSO’s call volume is a lot higher than Nashville PD’s call volume due to having a larger radius. She said whenever they go to Coon Dog and have one deputy on duty, sometimes there’s 20 people fighting and have one officer going to that call. She said a lot of times when they get a call or go to a call they have a second call pending.
Styninger said people are not going to want to work for a place when they have to work with one deputy on. She said in this day and age, it’s terrifying not only for the department, but it’s terrifying for the community.
“God forbid if something ever happened out in the community to one of your guy’s house or a family member and we have to say, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t get there or we’re going to call state and it’ll be a two-hour response.’” she said.
Court Security Officer Levi Foreman cited officer safety as a reason for two additional deputies. He said one person comes out to a call and domestic violence is the number one killer of officers. He said the one deputy has to mediate two people fighting.
Jail Administrator Stephen Siegel said whenever they lose somebody, to be able to gain that spot back it takes about nine months to get somebody fully trained from starting in the police academy to finishing the police academy. He said during that time, a lot of people get frustrated and leave and that’s the big issue there. Foreman added that the days of getting somebody a badge and gun and throwing them on the street is long gone now.
Schultze said two additional vehicles would be needed for the addition of two deputies and he could help pay for one out of the drug fund.
