Marsha Brantley
Imagine that you suddenly went missing. How long would it take for someone to report it to the police? Hours? Days? Weeks? Marsha disappeared from Cleveland, Tennessee in the spring of 2009 but it took more than six months before it was reported.
She didn’t work outside the home, her parents had passed away, she had no children, her extended family lived far away, her best friends lived out-of-state, and she had recently disengaged from her local group of writing friends.
No parents, no children, no co-workers, no local family, limited local friends. Who was left to report her missing?
Her husband. Donnie Brantley could have alerted authorities that his wife was missing and that she had left behind her clothes, her phone, her family heirlooms, her 3 dogs and her car. But he did not. The only person close enough to have reported her missing didn’t do it. Was he a coercively controlling spouse who isolated her from others? Let’s investigate throughout this season with new interviews and perspectives.
The last words Marsha wrote in her blog were “Brantley Out,” which inspired the title of this miniseries. The Brantley episodes will be a bit of a departure as we’ll deal with coercive control in relationships and discuss a case in which we have no solid answers. In season 4 of the Targeted Podcast we’ll examine a type of domestic violence known as coercive control and whether or not this type of abusive behavior caused Marsha’s disappearance.
Join us next week as we continue to bring attention to Marsha Rader Brantley’s disappearance and hope to find resolution. Join us to honor her story. Join us to hear from those who knew her well and from those who worked on her case. Join us to learn about coercive control and how this insidious form of domestic violence may have penetrated Marsha’s life. Join us as we remember Marsha.
Season 4 launched on December 1, 2020. Come back each week to listen to new episodes.
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