On April 9th, 2024, after spending more than 15 years on Missouri’s death row, Brian Joseph Dorsy was executed by lethal injection. In this video, we will discover what crime led him to the execution chamber, what his last meal was, and what his final words were. But to understand how he ended up on death row, we have to go back to a cold night just before Christmas in 2006.
It was the night of December 23rd, 2006, and Brian Dorsey, 34 years old, a man with a severe drug addiction, was becoming increasingly desperate. He paced back and forth inside his apartment, clearly agitated. Two drug dealers were sitting on his couch, demanding that he pay them the money he owed.
But Brian had no money and no way to get it. Not knowing what else to do, he picked up the phone and called his cousin Sarah Bonnie. He told her he was in trouble, that some drug dealers were looking for him, and that he needed a place to hide. Sarah did not hesitate to help her beloved older cousin, Brian, since she had spent a lot of time with him during their childhood.
Sarah was married to her husband, Benjamin, and together they had a 4-year-old daughter. During those days, they were preparing for the Christmas holidays, so the Bonnie family’s apartment was full of friends and relatives. Brian knew that Sarah and her husband wanted to help him, but he didn’t know when they would be able to do it.
And in his desperation, he decided to go directly to the Bonnie apartment accompanied by the two drug dealers. However, when they entered and the dealers saw the large number of people gathered for the Christmas celebration, they immediately decided to leave. Brian, on the other hand, stayed at the celebration with his family, and the threat he had been facing disappeared.
Sarah and Ben opened the door for him without thinking twice. They offered him a place to sleep that night in the guest room, gave him something to drink, and tried to help him feel calm. That night, everyone spent time in the garage where there was a pool table. They drank a few beers and laughed together with other relatives and friends who had arrived for the Christmas party.
Sarah, noticing that her cousin Brian seemed restless, kept telling him again and again not to worry that they would help him financially to pay the debt and also help him overcome his addiction. The atmosphere felt safe and familiar. No one that night could have suspected what was about to happen. Brian drank beer after beer that night, seven, maybe 10, trying to stay calm and trying to appear normal.
By the end of the night, he was completely drunk. But for some reason, something inside him had already broken. After everyone went to sleep, he went into the garage, found a bottle of vodka, and took several long drinks. As he sat there thinking, he saw something in front of him that would change the course of this story.
A family shotgun. Brian picked up the gun he had seen earlier and walked toward the bedroom. At some point after midnight, Brian walked back and forth through the house with a shotgun, making sure that all the guests had already left and that only he and his cousin’s family remained. Then, for a completely inhuman and senseless reason, he stood next to the bed where Sarah and Ben were sleeping.
He pulled the trigger. The first shot went through Sarah’s face. Then, he reloaded the weapon, turned, and shot Ben in the head. Neither of them had a chance to wake up. Both died instantly. After killing them, Brian sexually assaulted Sarah’s body. Then he poured bleach over her, perhaps trying to hide what he had done. Perhaps out of panic.
Whatever the reason, it no longer mattered. Any bond they might have had as cousins was now completely destroyed. In the room next door, the couple’s daughter began crying again and again after hearing the sound of the gunshots. Brian realized that the little girl had woken up, but thank God he did not harm her.
The child remained in her room safe without understanding the nightmare that had just taken place. Brian went through the entire house stealing anything he thought he could sell. He took valuables, cash, and even Sarah’s car keys. Before leaving, he locked the bedroom door, protecting the child from what was behind it. He used the stolen items to pay another drug debt, and spent the rest of the night trying to sell whatever he had left, including the shotgun he used to murder the Bonnie family.
The next day, December 24th, Christmas Eve, Sarah’s parents were waiting. Sarah, Ben, and their little daughter were supposed to arrive for the family gathering, but when they didn’t show up, they immediately knew something was wrong. They got in the car and drove to the house, thinking maybe the roads were bad or that someone had gotten sick.
The house looked normal from the outside, but when they knocked on the door, no one answered. Inside, the television was on. They found their 4-year-old granddaughter sitting alone, confused and scared. She had been watching cartoons all day. She told them that her mom and dad had locked themselves in the bedroom and would not wake up.
Sarah’s parents forced the door open and immediately froze. Their nightmare had just become real. Sarah and Ben were lying in the bed soaked in blood. Not only the sheets, but also the floor, the furniture, and the walls. The room looked as if it had been taken straight out of a horror movie. Police quickly focused on Brian.
He had been staying at the house. He had been seen with them the night before the murders and he disappeared at some point during the night. When detectives took samples from Sarah’s body, they obtained a complete DNA profile, but it was not conclusive since the DNA belonged to her. However, Brian was not ruled out. In fact, he could not be eliminated at all.
In an unexpected twist in this story, 2 days later on December 26th, for no clear reason, perhaps driven by remorse, Brian walked into a police station and turned himself in. I’m the right guy concerning the deaths of the Bonnies, he said. In the back pocket of his pants, officers found Sarah’s social security card. Her car had been abandoned.
The stolen items were still in his possession, and the shotgun was also recovered. Later, a witness confirmed what Brian had already admitted. That same morning, he had tried to sell the stolen items. That same afternoon, Brian Dorsey was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. But this was not a clear case of a career criminal.
Brian’s damage had begun long before the murders. His childhood was unstable, surrounded by alcohol and chaos with no one to guide him. By the time he reached high school, he was already drinking heavily, not just for fun, but to numb himself. His father struggled with the same problems: depression, alcohol abuse, and emotional distance.
Addiction ran through the family like a cracked foundation, and no one knew how to fix it. Relatives came and went, many fighting their own battles with drugs and alcohol. Brian tried to stay in the background, but the damage remained. He attempted to take his own life twice. Both times he survived, but the underlying problems never disappeared.
The drugs were still there, and so was the debt. Over time, that debt grew so large that one day he would be willing to kill over it. In March 2008, Brian appeared in court and pleaded guilty. There was no dispute about what had happened. He admitted everything. The only question left was the punishment. In August, the jury delivered its decision.
They determined that the murders were committed during another crime and that Brian acted for personal gain. They also concluded that Sarah’s murder involved mental depravity and an additional act of cruelty. The verdict was unanimous. Brian was sentenced to death twice. The judge agreed and on November 10th, 2008, it became official.
Brian Dorsey was sent to death row in Missouri. Despite his guilty plea, the legal battle continued. Over the next 15 years, he filed appeal after appeal, arguing that his lawyers had failed him, challenging evidence and asking for life in prison instead of the death penalty. But none of the appeals succeeded. Year after year, the courts rejected his claims, and Brian remained on death row waiting.
Then in December 2023, Missouri’s attorney general asked the state’s highest court to set an execution date. The court scheduled it for April 9th, 2024. The countdown had begun. What happened next surprised many people. More than 70 correctional officers who had worked with Brian signed a letter asking Governor Mike Parson to stop the execution.
They described him as a model prisoner, respectful, calm, and helpful. In prison, he worked as a barber, cutting other inmates’ hair. Even some former jurors who had once voted for the death penalty changed their minds. They said he had changed and that he was no longer the same man. His supporters also argued that Brian had been experiencing drug-induced psychosis during the murders, meaning his mind may not have been clear at the time.
Even relatives shared by both the victims and Brian asked for the execution to be stopped. Jenny Ghauser, Brian’s cousin, said the following. We live in a country where the law is the law of an eye for an eye, but I wish people understood that it’s not also black and white. I hope the execution does not happen.
Despite these arguments, Governor Parson rejected the clemency request the day before the scheduled execution. The sentence would be carried out. Brian’s final day arrived in silence. On April 9th, 2024, at 11:00 a.m., he was served his last meal. In his last meal before being executed, Brian requested two double bacon cheeseburgers, two portions of chicken strips, two large orders of seasoned fries, and a sausage and pepperoni pizza topped with onions, mushrooms, and extra cheese.
He did not receive any personal visits. Only his spiritual adviser met with him that day. Just before the execution began, Brian had the opportunity to say his final words, but he did not speak and remain silent. Instead, he had written a final statement. In it, he expressed his remorse to the families of Sarah and Ben.
To all the family and loved ones I share with Sarah and to all the surviving family and loved ones of Ben, I am totally, deeply, and overwhelmingly sorry. words cannot hold the proper weight of my guilt and shame. I still love you all. I never meant to hurt anyone. I am sorry for hurting them and for hurting you. At 6:00 p.m., the execution began.
As the lethal injection drugs entered his body, Brian took several deep breaths that soon turned into short, rapid gasps. For a moment, he lifted his head from the pillow and blinked repeatedly as if trying to resist the effects. Then he became still. His spiritual adviser sat beside the gurnie in silence, his lips moving in prayer behind the soundproof glass.
At 6:11 p.m., Brian Joseph Dorsy was pronounced dead. He was 52 years old. And that is how this case ended. A story that left a family completely destroyed and divided between those who believed the execution should not happen and those who believed it should. It also left behind a little girl who had to grow up without her parents.
Today, Jade, the victim’s daughter, is 24 years old. And this is today’s case. Tell me what you think about this story and leave it in the comments.
