The body of Alonzo Brooks has been exhumed after Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries brought the 2004 case to national prominence.

Brooks, a 23-year-old who was African American and Mexican, attended a party in La Cygne, Kansas. Reports of fights and racists comments at the party came out before his body was found in a creek a month later.  

According to CNN, FBI officials confirmed they dug up Brooks’ body on July 21 at Topeka Cemetery as a result of a new investigation reexamining whether Brooks’ death was racially motivated. Last month, the FBI offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for his demise.

Brooks’ official autopsy came back inconclusive in 2004, and the case stalled out before it was featured on Netflix. 

"We are investigating whether Alonzo was murdered," U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a statement to CNN. "His death certainly was suspicious, and someone, likely multiple people, know(s) what happened that night in April 2004. It is past time for the truth to come out. The code of silence must be broken. Alonzo's family deserves to know the truth, and it is time for justice to be served."

In interviews with people familiar with the party Brooks attended, the FBI gathered information suggesting there may have been a group of agitators looking to confront him. According to the FBI, there were about 100 people aged 16-25 present, and Brooks was one of only three Black men at the party, NBC News reports. 

"Some said Brooks may have flirted with a girl, some said drunken white men wanted to fight an African American male, and some said racist whites simply resented Brooks' presence," an FBI official said.

McAllister said there were numerous reports of fights on the premises, as well as several reports alleging that racist comments were made at the party. He said Brooks' friend left without him a ride home, and the young man's family immediately became worried when he didn’t return the following day. 

Brooks’ boots and hat were found by a search party across the street from the location of the party, but that team did not discover a body. On May 1, 2004, nearly a month later, Brooks’ relatives formed their own search team to survey the area and found his body tangled in a creek bed not far from the address of the party. 

Billy Brooks Sr. was among the first to discover his son’s body. 

“My God, it was awful,” Brooks Sr. told NBC News. “To find my boy like that. Nothing can describe that pain.”

Brooks’ mother, Maria Ramirez, said he was going to the party to celebrate a friend going off to the Navy. Before he left on April 3, 2004, she said she told him to bundle up because it was a chilly day. 

“I know he was 23, but he was my baby,” she said. “I was always trying to protect him."

Brooks’ body had decomposed significantly by the time he was found, and the subsequent autopsy was unable to provide a cause of death because of the damage to the body, FBI officials told NBC News.