Sink or Swim

Hillary Brown’s cause of death is still pending, but answers are slowly coming out. 

Besides Major Crimes with the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Health is also investigating Dr. Ben Brown, who was performing procedures on his young wife at his Gulf Breeze office when she went into cardiac arrest.  

Although the details of the state’s investigation aren’t being released, it comes as more patients are sharing their experiences with Ben Brown. 

Some say their pleas and complaints about his “shoddy work” were not only discounted, but they were shamed and blamed into believing their suffering was their own fault. 

We’re also learning more about the legal loopholes that some patients say kept them from finding justice, as more reports and information are expected.  

Join us for this third installment of Beauty Buyer Beware in a continuing series on the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast. 

Armed with a steel mallet, a BB gun, a knife and pepper spray, astronaut, and married mother of three, Lisa Nowak, set out on a mission in 2007, to get rid of the new girlfriend her astronaut boyfriend was seeing.

To save time on her cross-country mission, police said Nowak wore a diaper so she wouldn’t have to stop on her way from Houston, Texas to Orlando, Florida to confront the younger woman at the airport. 

Only this mission didn’t turn out as planned and it cost all three of them.

During this month of love, join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Diaper wearing astronaut: An out-of-this-world love triangle.”   

School shooter mom, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for missing or ignoring red flags prior to her son, Ethan, opening fire at his high school and killing four teenagers. 

Crumbley faces at least 15 years in prison when she’s scheduled to be sentenced April 9, in a landmark case about parental responsibility. 

It’s part of a push by some prosecutors to hold parents accountable if they’re suspected of enabling their children to commit deadly violence, like neglecting warning signs. 

But is it fair or was she more than just a “bad mom?” We talked about this case before a jury found her guilty.

Join us for this episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast: “Who’s to Blame? School shooter mom charged with manslaughter.”

Murder by yoga instructor took the life of a young, professional cyclist. All Moriah “Mo” Wilson did to make herself a target was date Kaitlyn Armstrong’s boyfriend when the two had taken a break.

Kaitlyn stalked the pro cyclist to a friend’s house, gunned Mo down, and then ran from police when evidence of the crime led them to her door. The yoga instructor went on the lam, even going as far as having plastic surgery to change her appearance, but investigators saw through her disguise. 

Join us for the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast episode: “Plastic surgery loving yoga teacher on the lamb circles back to kill professional lady cyclist.”

Can cannabis make someone a killer? During this month of love on the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, we’re catching up on cases of romance-gone-wrong. 

In this episode, a young woman took two hits of marijuana from her boyfriend’s bong and then took him out. The attack was so vicious, there was a hole in his chest where his heart used to be. 

The victim’s family called it murder. She called it cannabis induced psychosis. When a jury agreed, the young man’s family said justice went up in smoke. 

Join us for “108 Stabs: female kills boyfriend in weed induced psychotic frenzy.” 

Death was Dr. Bill Sybers' business. The Panama City medical examiner was the one who investigated when someone died, especially when it was unexplained. 

When his own wife, Kay, passed suddenly in 1991, Sybers insisted she died of natural causes. He didn’t even order an autopsy and went straight to embalming her body. 

Why wouldn’t people take the expert word of the top doc of death in the Florida Gulf Coast city? 

Many people did until police found several odd injection marks on Kay’s body and discovered Sybers had been having an affair with a woman he soon married. 

Join us for more on how the murderous truth was finally uncovered in this episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast: “Me and the M.E.: Married to Death. The murder of the Panama City Medical Examiner’s wife.”

Dr. Connor and Betty Bowman had a picture-perfect relationship. They both worked for Mayo Clinic, he was a poison specialist, and she was a pharmacist. 

They had an open relationship, but despite a few kinks and concerns, it all seemed to be going smoothly until the day Connor Bowman allegedly poisoned his wife’s smoothie.

It wasn’t long before detectives realized Bowman had a girlfriend, a lot of debt, and a hefty life insurance policy on Betty.

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “He Picked Her Poison – Mayo Clinic doctor accused of secretly serving fatal drug to pharmacist wife.”

Physical carnage, emotional shrapnel. Unimaginable information is coming out about Dr. Ben Brown, the Gulf Coast plastic surgeon whose wife died after going under in his office surgical chair for elective, "minor" procedures. 

The untimely death of 33-year-old Hillary Brown is still under investigation, but you can hear first-hand why some former patients and employees say her husband needs to be "stopped."

Join us for the latest on the case involving Dr. Ben Brown in this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, "Beauty Buyer Beware II." 

The relationship between a 15-year-old boy and his “self-awareness” class teacher took a dark turn in 1990, when the young, married woman took an unhealthy interest in the creative teen. Before long, she seduced him and convinced the boy to not only keep quiet about their illicit affair but also to kill her husband. 

Pamela Smart, whose arrest and trial inspired the movie “To Die For,” wants her lifetime prison sentence reduced for conspiring to commit the murder.

Join us for the latest episode of Gulf Coast Confidential on Pamela “Not so Smart” Smart.     

Secret deals, cash bribes, and a body under a house. Pensacola has a scandalous past when it comes to political corruption. 

Florida's westernmost county, Escambia, made headlines in 2004 when a state investigation revealed multiple county leaders were meeting in secret and making million dollar deals at the taxpayers' expense. One commissioner even accepted a cash bribe in a collard greens pot. He was later found dead under a house from an apparent suicide.

Their corruption was exposed, in part, thanks to Florida's Sunshine Law which gives people access to governmental meetings and proceedings. 

In this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, “Cash in the Collard Greens Pot,”  join us for a discussion about the scandal that put "scam" in Escambia County and why open government is important to keep history from repeating itself.