Brittney Wood

Case background and investigation

Brittney Nicole Wood was 19 and a young mother living in west Mobile, Alabama, in 2012. According to the Associated Press, she was last seen on the night of May 30, 2012, when she left west Mobile with her uncle, Donald Paul 'Donnie' Holland, heading across Mobile Bay into Baldwin County. Newsweek reports that cell phone records placed her last known location at Holland's property near the Styx River. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lists her as missing since May 31, 2012, with foul play suspected.

On June 1, 2012, Holland was found in his SUV on an isolated dirt road with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, the AP reported. His death was ruled a suicide, although authorities told the AP the location of the wound was unusual for a self-inflicted injury. He had been scheduled to be questioned about child sexual abuse allegations. Mobile police have said they believe Holland was involved in Brittney's disappearance, according to Fox 10; he died without being charged.

The investigation into her disappearance exposed extensive sexual abuse of children within her extended family. The AP reported that eight adult relatives and three family friends were charged with dozens of felonies in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Two uncles, Dustin Kent and Scott Wood, were arrested within weeks and later pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy, and a family friend was convicted in October 2014. Newsweek reports that Holland's widow, Wendy Holland, was sentenced to 219 years. Prosecutors told the AP that Brittney could have been an important witness. None of these cases produced information about where she is.

Searches have continued. Fox 10 reports that a property in Grand Bay was searched in 2020 without result, and a billboard seeking tips was put up in Mobile in 2022, a decade after she vanished.

As of 2025 coverage, Brittney Wood had not been found, no one had been charged in connection with her disappearance, and the Mobile Police Department was still asking for information. Newsweek quoted Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack as saying in 2021 that closure would come only when those responsible were indicted and her body was located.