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Three weeks before Christmas, he decided to send letters to only 38 sheriff's employees. Within days of the mailing, he met with some of them and decided to let eight stay on. Some friends noticed that Derwin had a lot on his mind, too distracted by the tasks ahead to act like himself. On Friday, Dec. 15, Brown finished a sheriff's training course an hour south in Forsyth. He invited his friends to drive down to watch his graduation. Over lunch, he announced he was having an impromptu celebration later that night at his favorite restaurant. They were all welcome to show up. The change of plans surprised Phyllis because she thought they were going to a county commissioner's Christmas party.
MVP's Interactive Video Cafe is not much to look at from the outside. It sits in a sprawling lot of a large strip mall anchored by K Mart and a Kroger supermarket. Inside, however, a mostly upscale African-American clientele drinks margaritas or Cognac and dines on $17.95 entrees of blackened pork chops, charbroiled salmon and barbecued ribs. On different nights, the restaurant features live jazz, comedy or karaoke. The restaurant had set aside its plushly decorated VIP room for the Brown party. At one point during the evening, the hostess took an odd telephone call from two women who asked whether they could come to the party without invitations. Phyllis and her son-in-law noticed a man rush to get a table near them as the party was breaking up and the band was about to play. He seemed almost creepy, sitting and staring until two more men joined him. About then, Teresa Hood showed up in her leopard-print pants. A county employee, aerobics teacher and part-time fashion model, she had worked on the campaign for a short time. But she had not been around too much lately. Phyllis had never thought much of her; nor did others on the campaign. As far as Phyllis knew, Hood had not been invited to the celebration; nor had she been invited to the graduation in Forsyth, but she attended it nevertheless. Phyllis watched as her husband and Hood found a booth away from the crowd. They appeared to be talking intently. Phyllis then asked a friend to drive her home and told Derwin she was feeling tired. "I'll see you in a few minutes," he replied. He was with Hood when the band asked him to sing. Others say he saw her to her car, but Hood says no. Whatever happened, he soon headed home himself. He would not see his wife again.
A task force of detectives from four agencies, including the FBI, has yet to solve the Derwin Brown mystery. "We're not ignoring the possibility that he was killed for some reason other than he was going to be sheriff," says the new interim sheriff, Tom Brown, who is not related to Derwin. "We don't want to get into the possibility of narrowing our investigation too much and missing something."