Moonshine, Murder, and Missing Men in the Mountains: the Unsolved Mystery of The Brasher-Dye Disappearance

Alabama’s oldest, active cold case is a wild, real-life tale of three cousins who disappeared one night in 1956 after heading off to a party in the moonshining, mountain country of northern Jefferson County, Alabama. 

Their family never saw them again.

The theories as to what happened to Robert Earl Dye, Billy Howard, and Dan Brasher are believed to be part truth, part gossip, and part urban legend. 

Did they get caught stealing from a bootlegger? 

Were they thrown down an abandoned mine shaft? 

Shot in a cave? 

Or are they buried in their truck somewhere underneath Highway 79?

The young men were last seen leaving a relative’s home in Billy’s 1947 green, Ford truck headed for the party. The cousins worked hard and partied harder, so no one was too concerned when they failed to show up for a couple of days. 

Folks got worried, though, when they missed payday at their construction job and a search began that would last decades. All they ever found was a few tantalizing clues and wild theories, but most agree moonshine was involved.

Members of their family died searching for answers and a tip line for the case is still open nearly 70 years later.  

Join us for a trip into the rural backwoods of Alabama in the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Moonshine, Murder, and Missing Men in the Mountains: the Unsolved Mystery of The Brasher-Dye Disappearance.”