New true crime podcast examines the case of missing person Wix

Although it has been over 20 years since Jennifer and Adrianna Wix of the Cross Plains area were reported missing, the case has recently received renewed attention and speculation in hopes of finding answers to their disappearance.

A new true crime investigation podcast called “Missing in Hushtown” is releasing this week, with the first season focusing exclusively on the girls’ unsolved case.

Conceived and produced by Robertson County native and AnnLee Audio House producer Julie Thorp, the first season of Missing in Hushtown, titled “The Road to Justice,” tells the full story of the mysterious disappearance and suspected murder of Jennifer and Adriann through the eyes of their family, friends and others familiar with the investigation.

Thorp is joined in production by Casey Robinson, Jennifer's younger sister. Together they tested alibis, recorded over 40 hours of interviews and spent more than 15 months producing the tell-all Wix family podcast in honor of Jennifer and Adrianna.

The podcast, which is in the final stages of production, will be available on all podcast streaming platforms on August 16 at 8:15 a.m.

To celebrate the podcast's release, a 20-year memorial mural to Jennifer and Adrianna will be ceremoniously cut and unveiled that day outside Hidden Heros Sub Shop, 713 S. Williow St. in Springfield. A podcast launch party will then be held from 4-6 p.m. at Willie Mae's BBQ directly across the street at 200 8th Ave. E.

After meeting Thorp through a family member, Robinson told her she was looking for someone to do an investigative podcast about the disappearance of her sister and niece. While other podcasts about the Wix disappearance used the story of Joey Benton, Jennifer's boyfriend who has long been a suspect, Robinson wanted to focus on the full scope of the case.

“So I just wanted to start over and I needed someone to help me do it. I wanted to interview everyone again. She asked, 'What's your main goal?' and I said awareness and justice for Jennifer and Adrianna, and I want to find them.”

In addition to “Missing in Hushtown,” Thorp produced and hosted the podcast True Crime & Headlines, which Robinson said is already in the top 5% of listeners for true crime podcasts.

“The first one I listened to was the case of Grant Solomon from Gallatin. I listened to that before I contacted her and thought, 'Yeah, that's my girl,'” Robinson said.

Jennifer and Adrianna, who was only two years old at the time, were last seen in Cross Plains on March 25, 2004. They lived with Jennifer's boyfriend, Joey Benton, in the Owens Chapel community. According to Robinson, Benton told officers he dropped the two off at a gas station in Cross Plains and then saw them get into a white car.

Benton claims he saw Wix at her home the next day without her daughter. They talked, and she drove away in the same white car, which he could not identify. She was never seen or heard from again.

Although Benton was a person of interest in the case from the beginning, investigators were unable to link him to the couple's disappearance.