Unsolved Ohio: Who killed Brittany Stykes and shot her 1-year-old daughter?

GEORGETOWN, Ohio (WCMH) – It’s been over a decade since pregnant 22-year-old Brittany Stykes was killed and her 1-year-old daughter was shot on a remote country road in southern Ohio, and her family is still searching for answers.

Brittany’s father, David Dodson, said Brittany grew up on a farm, loved country living and spending time with her family.

“[She] loved animals, loved horses,” Dodson said.  “She showed goats, she did FFA at the fair. … Her life kind of revolved around me and her mother, and her brothers and sisters.”

In August 2013, at the time of Brittany’s death, she was 22 years old, recently married and a mother to her and her husband’s 18-month-old daughter, Aubree. She and her husband, whom she married in February 2012, were living in a home in Ripley, Ohio, according to NBC News. Brittany was pregnant again with her second child.

“She had just gotten married,” Dodson said. “That was pretty much the only thing new that had changed in her life.”

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On August 28, 2013, Brittany had an online job interview. The speakers on her computer were broken, so she took Aubree to her mother-in-law’s house to use her computer, Dodson said. Brittany had called her parents that morning, to let them know she would be coming over to their house later to celebrate Dodson’s birthday.

At 7:15 p.m., Brittany was on her way to her parents’ house and texted her family to let them know that she was close – but she never arrived. A driver who was passing through the area noticed a yellow Jeep off the side of the road on U.S. 68, south of Gooselick Road. He turned around to see if the driver of the Jeep needed help, and found a startling scene: an unresponsive Brittany in the driver’s seat and her 1-year-old daughter in the passenger’s seat with a bullet wound to her head.

“When he got down to the Jeep, Aubree was crying for her mommy, and Brittany was slumped over the steering wheel,” Dodson said.

Dodson said Brittany was about two miles away from arriving at her parents’ home — he could hear the sirens from his house. Brittany was pronounced dead at the scene. Her unborn child also didn’t make it, but miraculously, Aubree survived.

Little evidence was left behind and no shell casings were found at the scene, according to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office’s website. The sheriff’s office said it investigated Brittany’s husband, but after “numerous interviews and polygraphs,” it no longer considers him a suspect.

The sheriff’s office said it has conducted over 75 interviews and spent around $1 million on the investigation. It also said “attention-seeking” behavior from individuals has driven the investigation in multiple directions – many false leads have been investigated but none have helped solve the case.

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Brittany’s surviving daughter, Aubree, is now 11 years old.

“She is doing amazing,” Dodson said. “She is just smart as can be, and you would never know she’s went through the tragedy in her life she’s went through by talking with her.”

Dodson said she has very few memories of her mother or the tragic night her life was taken.

“A couple years ago, we were sitting in the living room and she said ‘Papaw, I don’t know what my mommy’s voice ever sounded like,’” Dodson said. “And I went and got some tapes we had videoed of her and it tickled Aubree to death to hear her mommy talking.”

There is a $50,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the death of Brittany Stykes. Anyone with information can contact the Brown County Sheriff’s Office at 937-378-4435 or submit an anonymous tip through their website.

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