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Arizona rancher who was the last to see missing teen cowboy Jarrett Brooks, 16, alive breaks his silence to respond to shocking accusations about boy's final movements
The rancher who made the last known sighting of a missing teenager has spoken publicly for the first time about what he saw.
Jarrett Brooks, 16, was seen on his parents' security cameras grabbing a pistol at the house in Joseph City, Arizona, about 6:30 am on July 4 last year.
He is then believed to have been spotted by local rancher Joe Zabadal striding through his pasture about a mile from the house just after 7 am.
The figure had his pants tucked into white top boots, the same as Jarrett's favorite pair, and was carrying a gun, heading west out of town toward Lacy Lane.
His account, given to police later that day, was critical in shaping the search for Jarrett, and led to his parents believing he got a ride from someone he met online.
Jarrett Brooks, 16, took a gun from the family gun safe as he sneaked out of his home early on the Fourth of July last year and has not been seen since
Jarrett is believed to have been spotted by local rancher Joe Zabadal striding through his pasture about a mile from the house just after 7am
But Zabadal has spent the past year being the subject of social media speculation, including some with sinister insinuations.
The rancher reiterated that he saw Jarrett walking across his field that morning, get to the road, and pace back and forth, but wasn't keen on telling his story in detail again.
'No one would know about this kid if it wasn't for me, my uncle and I were the last ones to see him, and I found the sheriff and said "hey, you looking for somebody?"' he told DailyMail.com.
'I saw what I saw... He wasn't abducted, he walked away under his own power.
'All these f**kers online making stuff up about me, saying I shot him or whatever, they can go to hell.
'I'm done, I ain't saying nothing to nobody except law enforcement.'
The figure had his pants tucked into white top boots, the same as Jarrett's favorite pair, and was carrying a gun, heading west out of town toward Lacy Lane
Though Zabadal wouldn't detail his entire account, Jarrett's father Brian Brooks recounted to DailyMail.com what the rancher told him two weeks after Jarrett disappeared when he heard the full story first the first time.
Brooks said Zabadal told him he was was out with his uncle Tom watering his fields and checking gates that morning.
'I see somebody wandering across my pasture and I think "what the hell?" so I got in my side-by-side and I went back to my corral and I looked through my binoculars,' he said Zabadal told him.
'And he could see [someone] he described to match Jarrett's description walking across his pasture with a handgun in his hand.'
'He said [Jarrett] came to a water crossing, he went under the fence and then he was pacing back and forth by the side of the road.'
Brooks recalled that Zabadal told him he then called Gary Hunt, who runs the landfill, and told him and He told him it was probably just somebody out shooting rabbits and to leave them be.
Zabadal saw Jarrett climb under the fence in this photo and pace back and forth along the road at this concrete water crossing
Brooks said Zabadal told him he was was out with his uncle Tom watering his fields and checking gates when he saw Jarrett in the distance
But Zabadal wasn't content with that, and went back to his house and got in his pickup truck.
He drove around and came back north along Lacy Lane while Tom went south, 'and when they met in the middle, there was no sign of Jarrett', Brooks said.
'All the cows had their head down, there was nothing to disturb them, and no sign of him,' he said.
'Joe said it was probably 10 or 12 minutes from the time he left his corral that he got back around there - so in that time Jarrett was gone.
'That's just another thing that would lead you to believe that he got a ride - he was walking back and forth along the side of the road and he was gone by the time that either one of them got out there.'
Brooks said that later that day, Zabadal was driving down the road and saw the cops and he stopped and, and asked them if they were looking for somebody.
'That's how they knew to start looking at that point for him because Joe told them where he had last seen him,' Brooks explained.
Jarrett had been grounded the previous evening after his parents discovered he had broken the family car's CV axle by driving the car off-road
Jarrett's parents Laura and Brain Brooks believe he is still alive - but not in a good situation
Jarrett's mother Laura Brooks realized about 7:30 am he had left the house and drove around looking for him, but didn't find him at any Fourth of July celebrations.
'There were things he described that no one would have known unless they saw him or knew him well,' Laura said of Zabadal's description.
'This rancher did not know Jarrett well enough to know these details [without seeing him].'
Brooks said the boots were 'the one solid identifying mark' that they didn't initially release as it would help determine if a sighting of Jarrett was correct.
'They were his favorite Cody James boots, he was proud of them, he liked to show them off,' he said.
Brooks said Zabadal told him the teenager was 'hoofing it', and started pacing up and down when he got to the road.
'We have said from the beginning that we believe he was picked up by someone from Lacy Lane. We believe he is out there and not in a good situation,' Brooks said.
'Neither my wife nor I have ever got the gut feeling that he's not with us anymore. Call it parent's intuition or whatever you want.
'We would love to have him home or have the closure and an end to the torment and torture we have experienced and continue to experience daily.'
Zabadal went back to his house and got in his pickup truck, but by the time he reached where Jarrett had stopped, the teenager was gone
Jarrett trekked a mile across open country, including Zabadal's pasture, until he reached the dirt road where he was believed to have been picked up
Brooks said 'the only thing that makes sense to us' is that he was in a hurry because he had arranged to meet someone at the road.
He said whoever picked him up was likely 'a stranger, someone he probably talked to online but had never met in person'.
Brooks didn't know how his son made contact with the person he believes picked Jarrett up, as nothing was found on his phone, computer or X-Box.
But he admitted the teen may have had a burner phone they didn't know about - like some of the other youths in town.
He said he was frustrated the police, after 13 months, were yet to comb through phone and WiFi traffic to identify an unknown device that Jarrett could have used, and Geofence phones active near where he disappeared that morning.
Police used dogs to follow Jarrett's scent, which led them through the pasture before the trail went dead around where he was last seen near the road.
Jarrett's parents knew he had a gun from the grainy CCTV footage that showed him stuffing it into the front waistband of his black and gray basketball shorts.
Only a single frame of the footage remains as the video was seized as evidence by police and has still not been returned, Jarrett's father, Brian Brooks, told DailyMail.com.
Jarrett is the middle child of seven sons and daughters in the Brooks family
The grainy footage showed him stuffing the gun into the front waistband of his black and gray basketball shorts soon before he disappeared
Brooks said he didn't believe Jarrett took the gun to take his own life, as it doesn't fit with his personality or the circumstances.
'The initial reaction was that he was going to self harm, so, of course, we freaked out,' he said.
'But it wasn't very long after that, that we realized, no, that's just not Jared, that wasn't in his mindset.
'Then, we found out he was seen on Lacy Lane and then it's OK, he had to have gotten a ride and if he was getting a ride, it was from somebody who we didn't know.
'Why would you pace back and forth on the side of the road if you were on a mission to go self-harm or disappear? You'd just keep walking.
'So he took the gun for protection, he figured, well, I should be OK, but just in case, I'm gonna have a way to protect myself and so he took the gun.'
Brooks said his son was so well trained with guns, he built his own AR-style rifles that he regularly used to go hunting with his friends, and had access to the gun safe.
'Obviously, he's not gonna take one of those rifles if he's taking it for protection, he would just take you a pistol because it's more practical, it's concealable,' he said.
Brooks said it made sense that Joe saw him with the gun in his hand as it would be more comfortable to carry it and then hide it back in his waistband when he got to the road.
Jarrett's father was a fire chief and he dressed up in a firefighter's uniform in this old photo
Brooks said his son was so well trained with guns he built his own AR-style rifles that he regularly used to go hunting with his friends, and had access to the gun safe
Jarrett had been grounded the previous evening after his parents discovered he'd broken the family car's CV axle by driving the car off-road, which he had been warned not to do three times before.
Laura, who was the last family member to see him, said she bumped into him in the hallway on her way to have a shower about 6:15 am.
'He asked me if he was grounded from everything or just driving, and I told him everything. And then, I went into the bathroom to take my shower,' she said.
'He seemed fine, he just said, "OK", and turned around and went to his room. He didn't argue it, he didn't huff and puff or show any attitude.'
Laura explained that she discovered Jarrett had broken the $100 car part when he turned in his phone, as all their children are required to do before bed so they don't get distracted instead of sleeping.
Phones were also subject to random checks, and Laura founds texts between Jarrett and his friends discovering how to fix the car before his parents found out.
When Laura got out of the shower about 15 minutes later, Jarrett was gone - but it wasn't until about 6:45 am when she realized he wasn't at the house.
While his mother was in the shower, Jarrett had grabbed the gun, changed into his pants and boots, and slipped out of the house undetected.
Facebook groups have spawned to held search for Jarrett, but so far, nothing has been uncovered
Jarrett's parents believe the teen (pictured as a child, at bottom left) is possibly being held against his will
Not knowing the gun was gone and believing Jarrett had just sneaked out to celebrate with his friends despite being grounded, she went out to drag him back home by the ear.
Laura left the house about 7:30 am to take her daughters to their friend's house, then looked for Jarrett at the town's Fourth of July parade and other places he could be with his friends.
Brooks woke up about 8:30 am and together they looked around the town and checked with his friends and their parents, but there was no sign of him.
The Navajo County Sheriff's Office was notified at 12:28 pm, and Jarrett was initially treated as a teenage runaway.
Only then, about 1pm, did Brooks check the gun safe in the den and discover the pistol was missing.
Police responded with a wide search of the area and soon learned of Zabadal's sighting hours earlier.
Friends joined the search over the rest of the afternoon, along with a Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter and search dogs from Winslow Prison.
The search continued for the days that followed, combing a wide radius in a grid and going door to door.
Jarrett inside the house he sneaked out of and went missing from, with his beloved dog
The last photo of Jarrett taken before he disappeared on July 4, 2023
Jarrett's parents still had his phone, and his wallet - containing his license and cash - was found in the pocket of a pair of gym shorts in his car.
As the weeks wore on without a single lead, Jarrett's parents became more distraught.
'It's an hourly battle not to break down and cry like I am right now. People have no idea... I deal with people all day, every day and get asked about Jarrett all day,' Brooks wrote on Facebook about five weeks later.
'It's true struggle to fight back the tears and hold it together so people think we are OK. For the first time, I admit I'm not OK.
'I'm hurt, scared, devastated, in pain, and blame myself every day.'
They also became increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation and Jarrett continuing to be treated as a runaway, not a juvenile in danger - which has only recently changed.
'I have stated numerous times to the sheriff's office along with many others that this is not characteristic,' Brooks wrote in another post.
'I asked them about all these other kids that meet someone online and willfully walk away from their houses never to be seen or heard from again after getting in a vehicle with someone they have never met in person.
Jarrett's parents are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation and Jarrett continuing to be treated as a runaway, not a juvenile in danger - which has only recently changed
On the one-year anniversary of his disappearance, police said there had been 'no successful results in determining what happened to Jarrett'
'These "runaways" are listed as missing, abducted, or endangered. We pray every day that this in not case but he definitely got a ride from someone and as of yet the sheriff's office has not been able to find out who.'
The Navajo County Sheriff's Office issued multiple search warrants in different parts of Arizona in its efforts to find the teen.
On the one-year anniversary of his disappearance, police said there had been 'no successful results in determining what happened to Jarrett'.
'Jarrett is a son, brother, grandson, nephew, and friend. He is missed by family, friends, and his community. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Jarrett, please call our office,' the sheriff's office said.