UPDATE ON 12/1/2022: Nearly three months after Chad Carr’s arrest, a Wood County grand jury has found that there was not enough evidence to indict him for the murder of Brittany McGlone. According to NBC affiliate KETK, Carr was released from the Wood County Jail on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
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More than 15 years later, an arrest has been made in the murder of Brittany McGlone.
Dateline featured Brittany’s case in our Cold Case Spotlight series in 2021. On the morning of May 4, 2007, after working an overnight shift, Brittany drove to her boyfriend’s house in Winnsboro, Texas, to sleep. Brittany’s boyfriend, Jeff Stogner, and his family – who also lived there – told authorities they were not home at the time.
According to Brittany’s half-sister Hope McGlone, Jeff arrived home around 2:30 p.m., where he said he found Brittany in his bedroom and called 911.
In 2021, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office told Dateline that the 19-year-old had been sexually assaulted and beaten with an unknown object. An autopsy determined that Brittany had died from massive head trauma.
Jeff and his family were among those questioned over the years, but no suspects were ever publicly named. In 2021, Dateline spoke with Jeff Stogner via Facebook messages. He stated he wasn’t authorized to speak about the case with anyone but law enforcement, but emphasized that he loved Brittany and wanted nothing more than to find her killer.
Hope McGlone told Dateline in 2021 that the McGlone family had theories about who killed Brittany, but remained open to any and all possibilities. Among the possibilities the family mentioned was a man, known by the Stogner family, who was questioned early in the investigation and, according to Wood County records, has a criminal history with prior charges for burglary and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
On September 1, 2022, the Wood County Texas Sheriff’s Office posted an update on Facebook about Brittany’s case stating that on August 31, an arrest warrant had been obtained by the Wood County Sheriff’s Office that resulted in Captain Mike Chilson and Ranger John Vance traveling to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where “Chad Earl Carr was arrested for the 2007 murder of Brittany McGlone” on September 1.
Chad Carr is the man Hope McGlone told Dateline in 2021 that her family had suspicions about.
The WCSO wrote that Carr was “magistrated and transported back to the Wood County Jail where he was booked in for capital murder.”
It is unclear at this time what led to Thursday’s arrest, but when Dateline featured Brittany’s case in 2021, the newly-elected sheriff, Kelly Cole, felt confident they could solve Brittany’s case. Sheriff Cole told Dateline at the time that there was plenty of evidence from the scene, like blood stains and DNA, that they planned to test.
In the Facebook post on September 1, the sheriff’s office stated that they “have worked diligently over the last year and a half to help bring closure to the family of Brittany McGlone.”
In 2021, Hope told Dateline the loss of her sister feels like an open wound that never heals. “She didn’t deserve this,” Hope said. “Why would someone do this to her?”
“We just don’t want Brittany to be forgotten,” Hope said in 2021. “She deserves to have her story told. And she deserves justice.”
Yesterday, Brittany’s family posted on the “Who Killed Brittany McGlone” Facebook page, “Never did I think this day would come. 15 years later and it has.” The post also thanked Sheriff Cole. However, they added, “this is just the beginning.”
According to the Wood County Sheriff’s Office, Carr’s bond is set at $1 million. Dateline was unable to learn if Carr is currently represented by an attorney.