//UPDATE: Granite City Police have reported that Joe Cienkowski was arrested for battery in January. via @MovingtoMontana//
A Reddit user has posted links to the Twitter and Facebook pages of loudmouth creationist Joe Cienkowski and his wife, Brandy Evans Cienkowski, saying it shows evidence that Joe may have seriously harmed his wife.
Redditor TonyBLiar writes that Brandy revealed via Facebook that she had made the decision to leave her husband. A redditor informed me that she revealed this info to him and several other members of the r/atheism subreddit on Facebook’s chat and messaging over a month ago – luckily, one user captured a screenshot.
Now, Brandy’s formerly active Facebook page is silent, and in this screenshot you can see one of her IRL friends asking why she hasn’t returned texts, and the most recent post is another friend asking if anyone had word on whether or not Brandy is safe.
The Redditor claims that the most recent FB posts by Brandy actually sound like Joe, since those posts are full of conservative Christian rhetoric while Brandy always claimed to be more of a “spiritual, not religious” type.
Joe’s Twitter feed has also been unusually silent, and he isn’t responding to any questions about Brandy’s whereabouts. The concerned Redditors have contacted police in Joe and Brandy’s hometown of Granite, Illinois, but haven’t heard back.
Obviously this could all just be a big misunderstanding, and Reddit has received criticism in the past for its users waging an all-out vigilante war on possibly undeserving targets. But if these screenshots are legit (Brandy’s account is hidden from non-friends), the fact remains that she lost contact even with her friends after deciding to divorce Joe. Those who know anything about abusive relationships know that the most dangerous time for an abused spouse is when she attempts to leave.
Let’s hope this one turns out better than we all seem to fear.
You can follow along with updates at Twitter using the hashtag #isbrandyok, and I’ll post any news I find here.
Thanks to @jeanius1980 and @MovingtoMontana for the heads up.
Brandy isn’t even on his friends list (no surprise if she “unfriended him”), and he hasn’t responded since the 25th on his wall. If he didn’t do anything, you’d think he’d defend himself and delete the last wall post (“Is it true you killed your wife joe???”— Robin Eccles, March 25, 1:18 p.m.), but, of course, that’s not proof.
I hope Brandy is alright. If not, I hope justice is swift and complete.
I hope she’s OK too.
Does anyone know who Joe’s Lawyer is? (Or Brandy’s?) I would assume if they are divorcing Brandy’s lawyer would have the most current contact info for Brandy. (And Joe’s lawyer would have Brandy’s lawyer’s contact info.)
Just a thought.
@shinobi42: If the police have been contacted, I would assume their investigation would bring them to question the couple’s lawyers. Now you’ve got me curious about that too…
@shinobi42: That is a good question. But of course, there’s a chance she didn’t have a lawyer.
Having just dealt with a scarily similar situation, I can tell you it’s amazing how unhelpful the police can be. Those who have enough info to be able to identify Joe & Brandy need to keep calling the police over and over until they get results.
Hoping this is a misunderstanding. Why haven’t any of her IRL friends checked on her in person and posted updates?
Can you add a tag indicating domestic violence to this post?
If you go through her posts on our Joe Cienkowski FB group, you can see even more clearly why everyone is concerned.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_165278080157307
Brandy was also active on twitter talking about having left her husband. She suddenly stopped posting on on Feb. 25th. @brandycienkowsk http://twitter.com/#!/brandycienkowsk
Agree with Laura, I hope this is some powerful misunderstanding.
This might be a silly thought, but is it possible to put a gag order on someone’s tweets (especially since she was very direct in her account about Joe?) I don’t know…I’m just seeking for alternative explanations.
It does seem odd that both accounts that were once quite active, suddenly go silent. Hopefully some IRL friends get on this stat.
I’ve just heard that Joe was arrested on charges of Battery on 8th Jan 2011. I hope this has nothing to do with Brandy.
http://assassingrl.com/joearrest.jpg
Alex has also posted a transcript of a conversation he had with Brandy via Facebook
http://anatheistviewpoint.blogspot.com/2011/04/brandy-cienkowski.html
The jeep-club message indicated she was staying with her parents. Can anybody get in contact with her parents?
Hypothesis: She’s occupied with divorce proceedings, moving out, etc. Maybe she’s staying somewhere strange without an internet connection or traveling. He guessed (maybe even changed) her FB password. That would explain the updates in his voice and her being out of touch with internet people.
Then maybe he just freaked out when people started worrying, so he’s stopped posting updates and is hoping it all blows over.
I’ve been doing my best to follow this, but it’s hard to keep everything straight. Is there anything I’m not accounting for with this idea?
Hmm… or maybe he has her phone?
She is apparently okay:
http://anatheistviewpoint.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-just-spoke-to-brandy-cienkowski.html
http://i.imgur.com/S1KSt.jpg
Brandy is OK! @theealex has spoken to her, after it was found that she left her phone number on an eBay listing, when she had originally planned to sell up, leave Joe and move to OR.
A massive thank you to everyone who helped us make sure she was OK. It appears that, for her own reasons, she has decided to stay with Joe.
Please tweet and Facebook everywhere to spread the great news she is safe and well.
The most recent comment http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_165278080157307 by
the fellow from http://anatheistviewpoint.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-just-spoke-to-brandy-cienkowski.html claims that they spoke to Brandy recently. If that’s correct then this is (for now) a partial false alarm. It isn’t clear that this individual knows Brandy in general (it seems like they don’t) so the voice could in theory be faked but that seems unlikely. Even given that this is actually her it sounds like she is back ith Joe. Given that he’s clearly an abusive fucktard that’s very unfortunate. It seems like she is trapped in an abusive relationship.
Wow. Stalk much, guys? I like the whole, “Nobody’s heard from her, so he, being a Creationist, obviously must’ve done something to her” angle. Very rational!
jinxmchue: Wow, straw man much? I like the whole “Making up stupid statements and putting them in others’ mouths” angle. Very rational!
Rebecca, Jinx is a well known troll going way back. He is safe to ignore.
Look at your first frickin’ paragraph Check-who-is-skeptic-about-everything-except-that-which-defames-Christians!
“A Reddit user has posted links to the Twitter and Facebook pages of loudmouth creationist Joe Cienkowski and his wife, Brandy Evans Cienkowski, saying it shows evidence that Joe may have seriously harmed his wife.”
You pay brief lip service to rationality:
“Obviously this could all just be a big misunderstanding”
But then go right back to your original defamatory assumption:
“Let’s hope this one turns out better than we all seem to fear.”
Don’t blame me for pointing out and calling you out on the statements that are already in your mouth and in your heart. You clowns are disgusting.
Erm. “Check” should be “Chick.” I’m more used to typing the former than the latter. Sorry.
@DiscordianStooge: OMG you’re totally right! His last comment is hilariously trolly. I had no idea that hoping things turn out ok is now defamatory. LOL
“Rebecca, Jinx is a well known troll going way back. He is safe to ignore.”
Hopefully Mr. Cienkowski doesn’t ignore your defamatory statements about him and how he allegedly harmed his wife. You hypocrites would never stand for such baseless assumptions made by fundamentalist Christians about, say, PZ Myers and his wife and you would be just as outraged against them.
“I had no idea that hoping things turn out ok is now defamatory.”
Wow, Rebecca. You’re just a plain ol’ idiot, aren’t you? How about you stop ignoring this part of your statement:
“…than we all seem to fear.”
Someone else on another blog had it right about this issue. You guys are playing internet police.
SOMEONE PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEE!
@jinxmchue: This has nothing to do with him being a creationist, but everything to do with his history, things Brandy said about him herself, and the sudden silence.
It wouldn’t matter if he was an Atheist, Jewish, or Muslim, we would have reacted no different.
Take your strawmen back to Oz.
@Rebecca Watson: Could you help jog my memory regarding the source of one of my favorite quotes?
…”if said insult is unfunny and directed at the girl with her finger on the big red button, that’s a bannin’. “…
Want to know what actually happened with Brandy? So did we at Fundamentally Flawed…..so we interviewed her after she left Joe again.
The whole story is here http://fundamentally-flawed.com/pods/?p=episode&name=2011-07-09_brandyspecial.mp3 – an hour and a half of Brandy spilling a LOT of beans (and, yes, we have had it independently confirmed that this is the real Brandy)