A missing car, an empty bed and a timeline didn’t quite add up to self-proclaimed detectives on social media. When Linda Brown, a white special education teacher in Chicago, vanished on her way to a standing acupuncture appointment days after the new year rang in, her husband Antwon Brown made public pleas for her safe return and any information leading to her whereabouts.
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The internet picked out a suspect–him– based on their own assumptions after Antwon’s interview clips went viral. But now, they’re eating their words.
Brown, a teacher at Robert Healy Elementary School, was reported missing on Jan. 4. She was last seen near the 4500 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood where she lives, CBS News reported.
A break in the case occurred on Wednesday when a family member announced Brown’s 2021 blue Honda Civic had been found, WGN 9 reported. The vehicle, according to her family, was located near South Lake Park Avenue and East 35th Street.
There is video footage of her walking alone over a pedestrian bridge that leads to the lakefront at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, her family said. “This is so out of her character to be missing,” Lisa Quintana, Brown’s sister, told the station.
Many were initially skeptical of her Black husband, who some said was on television “doing his best impersonation of Chris Watts.” Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann and their two young daughters in 2018, then falsely portrayed their disappearance as a mystery before confessing to the crimes.
“That husband might’ve did it. Why I watched the interview and he was referring to her in past tense? Hmmmm,” a third X user questioned.
After surveillance footage of Brown walking alone surfaced, many folks are not only backpedaling their wild theories, they’re apologizing for accusing Antwon.
“I’m truly sorry. I want to take this opportunity sir to apologize to you for the videos I created,” one white woman said in a TikTok compilation of regretful female accusers. “I drew conclusions based on a short video that I saw of you.”
A second non-Black woman posted a TikTok of her own, admitting: “I am a firm believer that apologies should be just as loud or even louder than the accusation. That being said, I do want to say a humble and genuine apology to Antwon Brown [and] to Antwon Brown’s family.”
A third white woman said: “Put a finger down if you feel like the biggest dirtbag ever because you thought the husband of the missing Chicago public school teacher offed his wife, but now new information came out saying she drove her vehicle to the lake.” One Black woman admitted in another TikTok how she “misread the signals” and “sincerely apologizes,” while another called herself “judgmental” and “stupid” as she apologized to Antwon Brown.
Chicago local news channel ABC 7 reported how Antwon said Linda “was in the bed when I went upstairs, everything was fine, don’t know when she got up.” But when he woke up the next morning around 8:30 a.m., he says there was, “No sign of her. I thought she went to acupuncture because she goes to acupuncture on Saturdays.”
He recalled how his wife recently took a leave of absence from work for mental health treatment, although she planned on returning to her job when school resumed. However, he claimed as that day approached, Brown’s struggles with anxiety and panic attacks worsened. Brown remains missing.
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