Dannette & Jeannette Millbrook

Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook, 15-year-old fraternal twins, disappeared in Augusta, Georgia on March 18, 1990, after walking to a nearby gas station for snacks and telling their mother a man in a van had followed part of their route earlier that day. A gas station clerk was the last person to see them; nothing further is known about the man in the van. The Richmond County Sheriff's Office concluded the girls were runaways based on hearsay and closed the case in 1991, despite their mother's insistence they would not have left voluntarily. The case sat effectively unworked for over two decades until a newly elected sheriff reopened it in 2013; investigators have since interviewed witnesses, canvassed the area, and collected DNA samples from family members. Investigators have since examined a possible connection to convicted serial killer Joseph Patrick Washington, who had ties to the twins' own father and was separately convicted of murdering, kidnapping, and sexually assaulting Black women in the area during the 1990s; as of January 2026, DNA from the twins' family was being compared against unidentified remains found in Louisiana in 1993. Their case is believed to be one of the only unresolved disappearances of twins in American history.

Augusta, GA · Richmond County

• 1990: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The twins' identities, ages, and the March 18, 1990 disappearance after visiting a Pump-N-Shop gas station, per the Richmond County Sheriff's Office and Wikipedia's sourced case record.
• The twins told their mother a man in a van had followed part of their route earlier that day; investigators never identified this man.
• The Richmond County Sheriff's Office closed the case in 1991, having concluded based on hearsay that the girls were runaways, over their mother's objections.
• The case was reopened in 2013 after a newly elected sheriff, Richard Roundtree, took office; investigators have since collected DNA from family members and conducted new interviews and area canvasses.
• A witness account relayed years later to investigators and journalists alleged violence against one of the twins at a specific location in Augusta, though this account has not been independently confirmed or resulted in any charge.
• Local television investigators reported ties between convicted serial killer Joseph Patrick Washington, charged with murders, kidnapping, and sexual assaults of Black women in the Augusta area during the 1990s, and the twins' father, John Millbrook, who has himself been separately linked to unrelated Richmond County crimes dating to that era.
• The family submitted DNA in 2017 for comparison against unidentified remains believed connected to Washington's other victims; as of a January 2026 update, DNA from the family was being newly compared against a separate set of unidentified remains found in Louisiana in 1993, described by local reporters as a potential first major break in the case.
• The twins' sister, Shanta Sturgis, has continued public advocacy for the case, including a dedicated tip website and a reward that stood at $50,000 as of 2023, with a stated reduction to $11,000 if the case remained unresolved past that August.
• A 2017 investigative podcast examining the case is credited by local reporters with pushing the family's first-ever in-person meeting with Sheriff Roundtree to discuss the investigation's handling.
• No arrest has ever been made and neither twin has ever been found.

• What happened to the twins after they were last seen at the gas station has never been established.
• The identity of the man in the van the twins described to their mother has never been confirmed.
• Whether the unverified witness account describing violence against one twin at a specific Augusta location is accurate has not been independently confirmed by investigators.
• Whether either twin was in fact a victim of Joseph Patrick Washington has never been confirmed; the connection remains a working theory investigators and journalists have pursued, not an established fact.
• The outcome of the DNA comparison against the 1993 Louisiana remains, ongoing as of January 2026, was not yet known as of the sources reviewed for this summary.

• Wikipedia — “Disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook” (sourced case history)
• NBC News / Dateline — “Little sister still searching for twins Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook”
• WFXG — “35 years since the Millbrook twins went missing, family still looking for answers”
• WRDW/WAGT — “New DNA comparison offers hope in 36-year-old Millbrook twins case”
• WRDW/WAGT — “I-TEAM UPDATE: After TV documentary, Sheriff Richard Roundtree reacts, talks leads in Millbrook twins case”
• NamUs — Missing Person Case #MP20497 (Dannette Latonia Millbrook)
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs