A warning to our viewers. What you are about to watch is a true story. The following program contains content that some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. To the latest after the death of an LSU sophomore earlier this month. The details are incredibly disturbing as we have learned that several people are now charged with raping Madison Brooks after a night of drinking just before she died.
The story is incredibly uh difficult and we’ve been reporting on this now for days. The coroner has officially said that the manner of death is still under investigation, but has officially ruled that the cause of death was due to multiple traumatic injuries. Police say that the LSU sophomore had been abandoned on the side of the road by three men and a 17-year-old.
Prosecutors say two of the men raped the victim while the others watched. January 15th, 2023. 3:00 a.m. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A ride share driver navigates through the darkness of a quiet subdivision. The roads are empty, silent. Then in an instant, he hits something. In the beam of his headlights, a young woman lies crumpled on the pavement, barely clinging to consciousness.
She’s alone, disoriented, dying. He calls 911 immediately. Paramedics rush her to the hospital, but within hours she would be dead. At first, it seems like a tragic accident. A young life cut short in the darkness. But what investigators uncover in the days that follow would reveal something far more sinister.
A night of alleged sexual assault, a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit. And four men who left her on that road, men who would claim she consented to everything. Her name was Madison Brooks. She was 19 years old, an LSU sophomore, a beloved daughter, sister, and friend with her entire future ahead of her.
This is the story of Madison Brook’s last 6 hours alive. From the bar where strangers found her to the car where they violated her, to the road where they left her to die. Welcome to the Shadow Files crime series. Tonight, we venture into a nightmare so evil it defies comprehension. Take a moment to hit subscribe, drop a like, and please let us know where you’re watching from. And now we begin.
Madison Kennedy Brooks was born in Covington, Louisiana into a family that would become the center of her world. Her parents, John Brooks and Ashley Boward, raised her alongside her siblings, Aiden, Brady, and Kalin, in a home filled with love, laughter, and the kind of closeness that not everyone is lucky enough to experience.
Her grandparents called her their sunshine. And if you knew Madison, you understood why. Her godparents, Hunter and Lauren Leblanc, watched her grow from a brighteyed little girl into a young woman who seemed to carry light with her wherever she went. Madison attended St. Scholastica Academy, a private Catholic school in Covington, where she wasn’t just another student passing [clears throat] through.
She made her mark. She worked hard, earning her place on the honor role year after year. She cheered on the sidelines as part of the cheerleading squad, bringing that same infectious energy and school spirit that everyone who knew her would remember. But Madison wasn’t just about academics and athletics.
She was deeply involved in her faith community as an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She joined Doves for Life, advocating for causes she believed in. She was part of spirit club, always finding ways to lift others up and make her school a better place. Her teachers remembered her fondly, not just as a good student, but as someone who genuinely cared, someone who showed up, someone who made a difference.
When Madison graduated from St. Scholastica in 2021, she had her sight set on something bigger. Louisiana State University, LSU. the place where she would chase her dreams. She arrived on campus as a brighteyed freshman, eager to find her place in the world, and she did. Madison declared her major in communication, a field that felt like it was made for her.
She loved stories. She loved people. She wanted to tell stories that mattered, stories that could make a difference. And then came the moment that would shape her future. Madison was accepted into the prestigious Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU. For anyone who knows LSU, you know what that means.
Manship is one of the top journalism and mass communication programs in the country. Getting in isn’t easy. It’s competitive. It’s an achievement. And Madison earned it. Her future was taking shape before her eyes. journalism, storytelling, a career where she could use her voice to amplify the voices of others. She was exactly where she was supposed to be.
But Madison’s life at LSU wasn’t just about hitting the books. She joined Alphi Sorority where she found a sisterhood that would become like family. Her sorority sisters would later describe her as someone whose heart was pure and whose laugh was infectious. She was the kind of person who made you feel seen, heard, valued. Madison had an adventurous spirit that couldn’t be contained.
She went skydiving because why not? She loved skiing, carving down mountains with the same fearless energy she brought to everything else. She traveled to new cities whenever she got the chance, soaking in new experiences, collecting memories. But ask anyone who really knew Madison what mattered most to her and they’d tell you the same thing.
Family and friends, weekly dinners, long phone calls with her mom. Traditions that kept her grounded. She cherished the people in her life and they cherished her right back. Madison was the girl who lit up every room she entered. Not because she demanded attention, but because joy radiated from her naturally. By January 2023, Madison was thriving.
She was 19 years old, a sophomore at LSU, surrounded by friends who loved her and a family who supported her every step of the way. She was building a future, making memories, living the college experience that so many dream about. January 14th, 2023. A Saturday night for Madison. It was just another weekend, another chance to unwind, to spend time with friends, to enjoy being young and alive.
She had no idea it would be her last night. She had no idea that in less than 12 hours everything would be over. If you’ve ever been to Louisiana State University, you know about Tigerland. It’s the heartbeat of LSU nightife. A cluster of bars and clubs just off campus where students go to blow off steam, to celebrate, to forget about exams and papers for a few hours.
And at the center of Tigerland sits Reggie’s Bar, a popular spot crowded on weekends, the kind of place where you go with friends, where the music is loud and the drinks flow freely. January 14th, 2023. Around 10:00 at night, Madison Brooks walks into Reggie’s. For her, it’s just another Saturday night out. Normal, unremarkable.
The kind of night she’d had dozens of times before, but also at Reggie’s that night are four men. Kon Deandre Washington, 18 years old. Desmond Carter, just 17. Kassen Carver, 18. and Everett Lee, 28, the oldest of the group, and Washington’s uncle. Madison doesn’t know these men. They don’t know her. They’re strangers sharing the same space on the same night, but their paths are about to intersect in the worst possible way.
Surveillance cameras inside Reggie’s bar capture everything that unfolds that night, and what they show is critical to understanding what happened to Madison Brooks. The footage shows Madison and the 17-year-old suspect, Desmond Carter, dancing together, hugging. At first glance, it looks like a typical night out.
Two young people enjoying themselves. But as the hours pass, something changes. Around 1:00 in the morning, the surveillance footage captures Madison stumbling. She falls. She can’t keep her balance. People around her, friends, strangers try to help her back to her feet. She’s slurring her words, clearly intoxicated, visibly impaired.
And the four men, they’re watching. By 2:00 in the morning, Reggie’s bar is closing. Last call has come and gone. The lights come up. People start filing out into the warm Louisiana night. And this is where everything goes wrong. Surveillance footage from outside the bar shows Madison leaving, but she’s not alone.
She’s following the four men, all four of them, out to the parking lot toward a vehicle. According to statements the men would later give to police, Madison asked them for a ride home. Think about that for a moment. Madison didn’t know these men. She didn’t know where she was going. And by every account, including their own, she was in no condition to be making decisions about her safety.
But she got into Kase and Carver’s vehicle anyway. Carver behind the wheel, Everett Lee in the passenger seat, and in the back, Madison, Kyon Washington, and Desmond Carter. The car pulls away from Reggie’s bar. And somewhere in the darkness of Baton Rouge, it stops. What happens next would become the center of a criminal case that’s still unresolved more than two years later.
According to Kase and Carver’s own statement to investigators, his own words, Madison was very unstable on her feet, was not able to keep her balance, and was unable to speak clearly without slurring her words. He knew she was drunk. They all knew. But according to arrest affidavit, Kyvon Washington and Desmond Carter asked Madison repeatedly to have sex with them.
And according to their version of events, she said yes. She consented. Here’s the problem with that claim. When police asked Carver directly whether he believed Madison was too drunk to consent to sex, he responded with two words. I guess. I guess. He later told investigators that what happened made him feel uncomfortable and that he hated it, but he did nothing to stop it.
Everett Lee allegedly stepped out of the vehicle during the alleged assaults, but he too did nothing to intervene. Two men allegedly assaulted Madison in the back of that car. Two others remained present and did nothing. Now, here’s where it gets even more disturbing. The defense attorneys for these men would later reveal that someone in that car recorded video video of Madison intoxicated and slurring inside the vehicle after the alleged assault.
She asks to get out of the car. She says she’ll call an Uber and get home on her own and they let her. It’s approximately 2:50 in the morning. About 50 minutes have passed since they left Reggie’s bar. They drop Madison off near the Pelican Lake subdivision, a neighborhood she doesn’t know in an area she’s unfamiliar with and then they drive away.
Madison is left standing alone in the darkness. There are barely any street lights. She’s disoriented, confused. Her blood alcohol content, as toxicology reports would later reveal, was 319%. To put that in perspective, 0.08% is the legal limit for driving in Louisiana. Madison’s blood alcohol level was nearly four times that amount.
At that level of intoxication, medical experts say a person can experience alcohol poisoning, loss of consciousness, inability to make rational decisions or understand danger. Madison wanders from the subdivision toward Burbank Drive. Somehow she ends up standing in the middle of the dark roadway. 3:00 in the morning.
A rid share driver is making his way through the area. He comes around a bend in the road. And there in the beam of his headlights is Madison. There’s no time to stop. Impact. The driver immediately calls 911. He’s not impaired. He’s not at fault. He stays at the scene, cooperating fully with authorities. He’s shaken, horrified.
First responders arrive and rush Madison to the hospital. She’s clinging to life. Her family is called. They race to be by her side, but the injuries are too severe. Hours later, Madison Kennedy Brooks is pronounced dead. The official cause of death, multiple traumatic injuries secondary to motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision.
She was 19 years old, a night that started like any other. A Saturday out with the possibility of fun ended with a young woman dying alone on a dark road and four men would soon be facing criminal charges for what happened in the hours before her death, January 15th, 2023. When the sun rises over Baton Rouge that Sunday morning, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office is treating Madison Brook’s death as a tragic accident.
A young woman struck by a car in the dark. Wrong place, wrong time. A terrible, senseless loss. But as investigators begin piecing together the timeline, something doesn’t add up. Why was a 19-year-old LSU student standing in the middle of Burbank Drive at 3:00 in the morning? Where had she been? How did she get there? And perhaps most importantly, who had she been with? The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office begins pulling surveillance footage from businesses in the area, and that’s when they focus on Reggie’s bar in Tigerland. What they see
on that footage changes everything. Investigators watch Madison arrive at Reggie’s around 1000 p.m. She looks happy, normal, ready for a night out with friends. But as the hours pass, they watch her condition deteriorate. the stumbling, the falling, people helping her to her feet, the clear, undeniable signs of severe intoxication, and then around 2:00 in the morning, they see something that transforms this case from a tragic accident into a criminal investigation.
Madison leaves Reggie’s bar. But she’s not alone. She’s following four men, strangers, out to the parking lot. She gets into their vehicle and less than an hour later she’s dead. The autopsy and toxicology reports come back and they paint a devastating picture. Madison’s blood alcohol content 319%. That’s catastrophically high, nearly four times the legal limit for driving.
At that level, a person is at risk of alcohol poisoning, loss of consciousness, and death. The reports also show THC present in her system. But there’s something else. Something that confirms investigators worst suspicions. Madison’s body shows injuries consistent with sexual assault. The coroner’s findings are damning.
This wasn’t just a young woman who had too much to drink and made a bad decision. This was a crime scene. Investigators go to work identifying the four men from the surveillance footage. They track Kase and Carver’s vehicle using license plate readers. They build their timeline. They prepare for interviews. January 23rd, 2023, 8 days after Madison’s death.
All four suspects turned themselves into the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. The news rocks the LSU community and the city of Baton Rouge. Arrests have been made in the Madison Brooks case. Four men are now facing criminal charges. Kassen Carver agrees to talk to investigators and what he tells them is both revealing and deeply troubling.
Yes, he admits they met Madison at Reggie’s bar. Yes, she left with them. Yes, she got into his car. He was driving. He describes Madison’s condition in his own words. Very unstable on her feet. was not able to keep her balance and was unable to speak clearly without slurring her words. He admits that Kyvon Washington and Desmond Carter asked Madison to have sex with them.
According to Carver, she said yes. She consented, but then investigators ask him the critical question. Did he believe Madison was too drunk to consent to sex? His answer, I guess. Carver tells police that what happened made him feel uncomfortable, that he hated it, but he did nothing to stop it. Everett Lee, the oldest of the group at 28 years old, confirms that he was present in the vehicle, but he provides few details and declines to answer most questions.
Kyon Washington denies everything, denies having sex with Madison, denies seeing his friend and Madison have sex. When investigators ask him to provide a DNA swab, he asks for an attorney and ends the interview. The 17-year-old’s statements are sealed because he’s a juvenile at the time of his arrest. Based on the evidence, the surveillance footage, the toxicology reports, the medical findings, and the statements from Carver, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office files charges.
Kyon Washington and Desmond Carter are charged with thirdderee rape. Everett Lee and Kasein Carver are charged with principal to thirddegree rape, meaning they were present during the alleged assault, but did not directly participate. Under Louisiana law, thirdderee rape is defined as a situation where the victim is incapable of resisting or understanding the nature of the act by reason of a stuper or abnormal condition of mind produced by an intoxicating agent.
and the offender knew or should have known of the victim’s incapacity. With Madison’s blood alcohol content at 319% and with Carver’s own admission that she was unstable in slurring her words, prosecutors believe they have a case. Bond is set for the three adults. Kase and Carver $50,000. Everett Lee $75,000.
Kyvon Washington 150,000. Within days, Carver and Lee post bond. They walk out of jail, free to await trial. Washington remains behind bars. Desmond Carter, still a juvenile, is held in a detention facility. But for Madison’s family, there’s no bond, no release, no going home. Their daughter, their sister, their sunshine.
She’s gone forever. And the legal battle to hold someone accountable for her death has only just begun. The arrests send shock waves through Baton Rouge and beyond. LSU President William Tate issues a statement that captures the community’s grief and rage. What happened to her was evil, and our legal system will parcel out justice.
Students hold vigils across campus. Candles flicker in the night. Flowers pile up at makeshift memorials. Madison’s sorority sisters at Alphi released their own statement mourning the loss of their beloved sister. But they also share something that perfectly captures who Madison was. Even in her final moments, Madison was an organ donor.
Her heart and kidneys were donated to save the lives of others. Even in death, Madison gave life. She was also a hero, her sorority sisters wrote. But as the community mourns, the legal battle is just beginning. 4 days after the arrests, on January 27th, 2023, the defense attorneys representing the accused men hold a press conference.
Ron Haley, Joe Long, Ryan Bolu, and Dale Glover stand before cameras and make a stunning claim. Madison consented to everything. She wasn’t as intoxicated as the police reports suggest and they have video evidence that will prove their client’s innocence. They didn’t rape her. We believe that based on the evidence that we’re able to view today that one of our clients had on his cloud that she was not in a drunken stouper.
What they accused with right now is thirdderee rape. Basically, for layman’s terms, thirdderee rape means that you cannot consent because you’re a drunk and stuper that prevents you from saying yes or no based on the her body language, based on her words, based on what she was saying. Um, I can sit here firmly on even ground and say that a rape did not occur that evening.
Absolutely not a rape. Attorney Ron Haley declares, “Listen, this is a tragedy, definitely not a crime.” Joe Long, representing Cassen Carver, goes further. He questions the blood alcohol test, suggesting the surveillance video from Reggie’s bar undermines the prosecution’s version of events. They promise that when the video from inside the car is revealed, it will exonerate their clients completely.
But when that video is finally reviewed in court, it doesn’t quite go the way the defense had hoped. I’m sorry that I offended you that bad. Get out. Get out. I will Uber on my own. At a bond hearing, 19th Judicial District Judge Brad Meyers watches the video footage taken by one of the suspects inside the car with Madison, and what he sees disturbs him deeply.
The judge describes the suspects as callously laughing at Madison. A drunk 19-year-old woman slurring her words, clearly impaired. He also reviews the surveillance footage from Reggie’s bar showing Madison falling, struggling to stand. Judge Meyer’s conclusion is unequivocal. The evidence to me is clear.
A crime occurred that night. The video the defense thought would save their clients instead reinforces the charges against them. And those charges are about to get more serious. February 22nd, 2023. A grand jury convenes to review the evidence in the case. Their decision, Desmond Carter’s charges are upgraded from thirdderee rape to firstdegree rape.
Carter will be tried as an adult and if convicted, the sentence is life in prison without the possibility of parole. But the case takes an even darker turn when more allegations against Kyon Washington surface. In late January 2023, another young girl comes forward with a devastating allegation. She tells police that Washington had forced himself on her at a pool party in Walker, Louisiana back in May 2020.
According to her statement, he followed her into a room and attacked her, covering her mouth to silence her while he had his way with her. She had reported it to police in 2021, but no charges were filed at the time. Now, with Madison’s case in the headlines, investigators take another look.
Washington is charged with firstdegree rape in that case as well. Then, in February 2023, another victim emerges. A third alleged rape, this one in October 2022 in the same area of Baton Rouge where Madison was killed. The victim reported the assault to police on January 25th, 2023, the day after Washington was arrested in Madison’s case.
Kyvon Washington now faces three separate rape cases. Meanwhile, the defense fights another battle. They want to introduce evidence of Madison’s prior sexual history. Specifically, they claim she had consensual rough sex with another man the day before she died. The defense argues this could explain her injuries and the lack of DNA evidence from the suspects, but prosecutors push back hard.
Under Louisiana law, a victim’s sexual history is generally inadmissible in rape trials. It’s irrelevant. It’s prejuditial. and it’s an attempt to blame the victim. In March 2024, the trial judge rules against the defense. Madison’s sexual history cannot be used. The defense appeals. The case goes all the way to the Louisiana Supreme Court. October 2025.
The Supreme Court issues a unanimous decision. The lower court’s ruling stands. The fundamental right to present a defense, the justice’s right, does not require the trial court to admit irrelevant evidence. Madison’s past cannot be weaponized against her. But the prosecution faces a significant challenge of its own.
Sources reveal that no DNA from any of the four suspects was found inside Madison Brooks. How do you prove rape without DNA evidence? District Attorney Hiller Moore acknowledges the burden. We have the burden of proof. He is presumed innocent. We believe our case. We believe that he committed this offense. And that’s why he is charged the way he is.
The case will rely on witness statements, Madison’s condition, the circumstances, and that video evidence. And so, the waiting begins. Months turn into years. Desmond Carter’s attorneys file appeals slowing the process. Washington’s multiple cases create scheduling complications. June 2025. More than 2 years after Madison’s death, Cassen Carver finally enters a plea.
Not guilty to first-degree rape, thirdderee rape, and video voyerism. His trial is set for December 1st, 2025. Washington and Carter. Still no trial dates. Madison’s [clears throat] family continues to wait for justice. In the wake of Madison’s death, LSU and Louisiana State authorities take action against the place where it all began.
Reggie’s Bar. The Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control issues an emergency suspension of Reggie’s liquor license, citing potential threat to public safety. LSU President Tate is blunt in his assessment. All but one of the suspects involved in this horrific scenario were underage, yet were able to consume alcohol at a local bar.
He vows to hold establishments accountable. Enough is enough. Reggie’s bar has a troubled history, prior incidents of violence, including a stabbing in 2016, an alleged rape in the parking lot, and a man pointing a loaded gun at patrons. The bar’s pattern of problems finally catches up with it. From tragedy, Madison’s family works to build something meaningful.
The Madison Brooks Scholarship Fund is established to support students at the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication, the program Madison had just been accepted into. Her dreams of storytelling, of making a difference, live on through other students who will benefit from the scholarship. Alphi sisters keep Madison’s memory alive.
Along the stretch of Burbank Drive where she died, a roadside memorial grows. Flowers, candles, handwritten notes. We love you, Maddie. Her grandfather, Curt Leblanc, speaks for the family. She was pure joy and light. We will miss her terribly. Madison’s mother, Ashley, carries a grief beyond words.
The family’s attorney, Carrie Miller, becomes their voice, speaking out against what she calls the defense’s absolutely shameful tactics, attempting to introduce Madison’s sexual history, questioning her blood alcohol level, blaming the victim. The family’s goal is clear. Ensure this never happens to another family. Madison’s case sparks a national conversation about questions that are uncomfortable, but necessary.
How do we protect young women on college campuses? What is consent when someone is blackout drunk? Where is the line between legal responsibility and moral responsibility? Campus safety initiatives are launched. Bystander intervention programs are implemented. Universities across the country re-examine their policies.
But for Madison’s family, these changes come too late. As of now, here’s where the case stands. Cassen Carver’s trial is set for December 1st, 2025. He’ll be the first to face a jury on charges of firstdegree rape, thirdderee rape, and video voyerism. Kyvon Washington awaits trial on Madison’s case along with two other rape allegations from separate victims.
Desmond Carter awaits trial on firstdegree rape charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole. Everett Lee’s status remains unclear as legal proceedings continue. And the ride share driver who struck Madison that night. He was never charged. He wasn’t impaired. He stayed at the scene. He cooperated fully.
He’s blameless. Yet, he too must live with what happened that night. The unanswered questions loom large. Will there ever be full accountability? Can prosecutors prove rape beyond a reasonable doubt without DNA evidence? Will a jury believe Madison was incapable of consent, or will the defense narrative prevail? More than 2 years after Madison’s death, there have been no convictions, no justice, just waiting.
Madison Brooks should be 22 years old today. She should have graduated from the Manship School of Mass Communication. She should be starting her career telling the stories that matter, making the difference she always wanted to make. Instead, her family visits her grave. This case forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about consent, about bystander intervention, about the responsibility we all have to protect the vulnerable.
Four men met Madison Brooks on January 14th, 2023. She was a stranger to them. Less than 6 hours later, she was dead. Whether justice will truly be served remains to be seen. But one thing is absolutely certain. Madison deserved better. She deserved to make it home safely. She deserved to live.
Her legacy isn’t just a scholarship fund or policy changes. It’s the reminder that behind every true crime story is a real person, a daughter, a sister, a friend, someone whose life mattered, Madison Kennedy Brooks mattered, and her story must be told. If you enjoyed this content, join our community by subscribing and turning on notifications.
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