A Black Teen Couple Vanished in 1991 — 10 Years Later Their Locket Was Found in a Well

On a spring night in 1991, two promising high school seniors from Cypress Bend High School, Darnell Washington and Mon'nique Baptist, left their prom and vanished without a trace. For years, the local police dismissed them as "runaways" and quickly closed the case. Their families were left to grieve in the cold shadow of indifference, while the town’s Black community bore the weight of the silence.

It wasn’t until March 2001 that the truth began to surface from the depths of a forgotten well. A 16-year-old boy named Devon Miller, while wandering through an abandoned farmstead, stumbled upon a rusted heart-shaped locket—one half engraved with "DW," the other with "MB." It was the very symbol of love that Darnell and Mon’nique once wore daily. And it became the key that unlocked a decade of buried secrets.

Newly appointed Sheriff Tyrone Maxwell sealed off the area and ordered an excavation of the site. Beneath the thick, black water and layers of mud, forensic teams recovered the skeletal remains of two adolescents—along with fragments of the red Pontiac they had driven that night. Old paperwork, ignored witness statements, and previously overlooked leads were reexamined.

One name emerged repeatedly: Brent Coington, son of a powerful county councilman. Brent and two white friends had reportedly confronted the couple on prom night. Though multiple witnesses placed them near the scene, Brent was never questioned. Police at the time failed to issue a missing persons alert and closed the case within days, labeling it a youthful escape.

Though legal evidence against Brent Coington remained thin—no DNA, no murder weapon, no direct witnesses—public pressure forced the case into the spotlight. Sheriff Maxwell held a press conference, exposing the deep flaws of the 1991 investigation and revealing the Coington family's ties to the land near the crime scene. Brent was never arrested, but his reputation and career swiftly unraveled.

In 2002, Darnell and Mon’nique were finally laid to rest in a public funeral attended by hundreds. A memorial bench now sits in the courtyard of Cypress Bend High, where their love once blossomed. Etched into their gravestone are the words: “We were here. We mattered. We are not forgotten.”

This case revealed not only a violent crime, but also the systemic rot that allowed justice to be denied. In a town where silence once smothered truth, a single locket from the bottom of a well spoke louder than any headline. It was the persistence of a grieving community, a new generation of law enforcement, and the unshakable love of two parents that finally forced Cypress Bend to listen.