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E129: Colby Brown
2.5k Plays4 years ago
It was the beginning of his sophomore year at Marshall University. He had plans for the upcoming weekend to meet up with old friends. He attended both of his classes that morning and made a trip to the gym. By that evening, law enforcement said that he had jumped to his death-- a scenario that his family and friends refuse to believe.
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Transcript
Introduction to True Crime Podcast Collaborations
00:00:00
Speaker
Maggie and I have become friends with other true crime podcasters. And sometimes there's a podcast so unique that we feel it's worth sharing whenever we get the chance to do so. Enter Andrew Dodge and his podcast, Unforbidden Truth. Andrew visits and interviews convicted murderers and other criminals, as well as professionals in criminal justice and psychology. And the results are often eye opening.
00:00:29
Speaker
Here's a little about the show from Andrew himself.
00:00:35
Speaker
My name is Andrew Dodge. I have spent the last 11 years getting to know some of America's most notorious criminals, such as serial killers, spree killers, mass murderers, domestic and foreign terrorists, and many more types of criminals. Unforbidden Truth will bring you exclusive interviews with convicted criminals, professionals in the mental health and law enforcement field, and much
Memories and Future Plans of Colby Brown
00:00:54
Speaker
more. Subscribe to Unforbidden Truth on any podcast platform to join me on a one-of-a-kind true crime experience.
00:01:02
Speaker
We are excited to announce that this episode is being sponsored by Zencaster, our very own podcast recording platform. Make sure you listen for more information in the middle of the episode and in the show notes to hear exactly why we love Zencaster so much and how you yourself can get a discount. He wrote his life in his senior memory book assignments.
00:01:28
Speaker
He remembered listening to Travis Trit with his dad and Keith Urban with his mom. He reminisced about a vacation to Wisp ski resort with his cousin Dalton. He bragged about his video game prowess and he recalled a day that was life changing for him. In the chapter he titled, I'm really in love this time, mom.
00:01:51
Speaker
He mused about the subject, a portion of which reads as follows, quote, on November the 12th, 2013, my best friend was born. She was a little baby with a bump on her head when I first saw her. I immediately knew she was the one I wanted by the way she loved up to me, not to mention she was the biggest.
00:02:14
Speaker
When we got her, my dad advised to not pay more than $75 on a dog, but I spent 150. It was the best 150 I ever spent. I decided to name her Penny because her fur reminds you of the color of a penny. She did everything with me from playing basketball in the summer to going sled riding in the winter. She sleeps in the bed every night and then naps all day until I get home from school.
00:02:44
Speaker
I don't know what I'm going to do when I go to college. I might have to claim I have anxiety so I can keep her in my dorm. I love my dog as much as I love any person. She's my best friend." And that wasn't hyperbole. In text message conversation after conversation, he was always mentioning Penny. Of course, she wasn't the only one he shared such overwhelming love for.
00:03:12
Speaker
So too with his family and his friends, who he loved like family. Of the relationships he had built during high school, he wrote, quote, I want to be able to call one of these guys in 20 years just to talk or have our kids be friends. I don't want to graduate from here and leave everyone behind, end quote.
Engaging Listeners and Supporting the Podcast
00:03:34
Speaker
Sadly, that glimpse into the future would be tragically inaccurate as only two years later,
00:03:42
Speaker
The young man who penned those chapters would no longer be alive to see them come to fruition. Law enforcement says that either he took his own life or his death was the result of a tragic accident. But his family and friends aren't fully convinced that foul play isn't also a possibility. As we take a glimpse into his life that goes beyond the pages of his senior memory book,
00:04:11
Speaker
You yourself can decide what you think truly happened during the early evening of August 26th, 2019 in Huntington, West Virginia, only a few miles away from Marshall University, where he was just beginning his sophomore year. This is the story of Colby Brown.
00:05:08
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:05:17
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families with each case. We encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, coffee and cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:05:45
Speaker
Okay, Allison, before we get into your episode, I wanted to mention a couple things. One, okay, I have made it to 2022 and avoided COVID to think I'm going to be taken out by sonus infection.
00:06:04
Speaker
For Maggie I know I hate the sound of my voice when it's normal and now I feel like just bear with us this week hopefully next week I will sound normal but on to more positive things let's do our weekly shout out okay I'm ready
00:06:31
Speaker
So our first shout out goes to Nurse C. Estrada, who wrote us a five-star review this week, saying, quote, I started listening because CNC covered the case of Karen Swift, who was the victim of an unsolved cold case from my hometown. They cover things I didn't even know.
00:06:55
Speaker
Now I'm addicted and join their Patreon for more. I hope they keep covering cases like these because these victims and their families deserve peace and resolve." Thank you so much for that amazing review. Yeah, I read that one like the day after she posted it and hearing it again today made me just as happy as it did the first day that I read it. We just get happy over and over again.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yes, exactly. It's the gift that keeps giving. And just as that made my day, so did everyone that is still listening on Good Pods and keeping us in the top of those charts there. That always makes me smile because I check that every day too. Plus Nurse Estrada gave us the perfect transition to tell you about Patreon.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yes, she did. So if you would like to hear some wild solved cases, some supernatural stories, and learn a little bit more about Maggie and me through some fun mini episodes, head on over to Patreon.com.
00:08:03
Speaker
slash coffee and cases, all one word, where you can join today for as little as $5 a month. And while I'm on the subject of Patreon, I would also like to welcome our newest Patreon supporter, Amanda. We are so incredibly glad that you're with us on the flip side also. Yes. And that support is what keeps us going so we can afford the required costs to bring lesser known cases
00:08:30
Speaker
to you week after week and do what we can do to help these families by sharing the stories of their loved ones in hopes of finding those answers. Special shout outs also to Sarah, Amy and Mary who reached out to us on social media this week. We always love hearing from you guys. So with that being said, Allison, can you tell me more about Colby?
Colby's Life and University Experience
00:08:50
Speaker
Yes, I can.
00:08:52
Speaker
Due to the sensitive nature of some of the elements of this week's episode, including suicide and drug use, listener discretion is advised. Maggie, for our case this week, I had the opportunity to speak with some individuals who wish to remain anonymous and to speak with Colby's mom, Gwen Wood, who herself is kind of a legend.
00:09:19
Speaker
Really? I say this because Gwen is a 10 time women's tough man champion. Like at one point when Colby was four months old, she was third in the world.
00:09:34
Speaker
Wow. Like, that's not very far postpartum. Yeah, I know. And in fact, she had actually just gotten the news that she was pregnant with Colby when two weeks after she found out she was pregnant, she received a call that she was being asked to fight Laila Ali. Wow. I know, but of course, yes, yes.
00:10:01
Speaker
Of course, she had to turn down the fight since she was pregnant. But she said she always joked with Colby when he was growing up that he took her 15 minutes of fame from her. So now it was up to him to live the 15 minutes for her. And it actually looked like he would. Colby was incredibly talented in sports. And his close-knit family was
00:10:28
Speaker
always there to cheer him on. So Colby's parents had divorced when he was young, but he was extremely close to his mom and to his two sisters, Darby. Oh my God, I love that name. I know. Oh, I love all of their names. It's Darby, Shelby and Colby. I know. Darby was five years older than Colby and Shelley was three years older.
00:10:53
Speaker
And they loved taking family vacations to the beach. They most often went to Ocean City, Maryland and to Myrtle Beach. And they would just spend time relaxing, looking for shells, tossing a football around, and of course going to the arcade.
00:11:12
Speaker
Gwen told me that Colby loved the arcade. What boy doesn't? Right. And when he was younger, Colby's thing was just following his mom around everywhere. Oh, that's sweet. No. Yeah. Gwen told me that when Colby was young, he wanted to be wherever she was. He was right beside her.
00:11:33
Speaker
And of course, you know, he's right beside of her, unless of course he was on the football field. Gwen told me that, and you know, the pride was clear in her voice when she was telling me this, that Colby made unbelievable football plays. He broke records.
00:11:50
Speaker
His nickname was downtown Colby Brown, which I love because he threw for more than 7,000 all-purpose yards and 99 touchdowns. Wow. Yeah, so it looked like those 15 minutes of fame were something that Colby would live out.
00:12:09
Speaker
But even more important than all those accolades, Maggie, where some of the stories Gwen told me about Colby as they related to football and to high school in general that I think are important to understand the kind of person that Colby was. So I'm gonna tell you a couple of those stories now. So you know those vacations that I just mentioned earlier that the family would go on?
00:12:33
Speaker
Well, those became harder to take once Colby entered his senior year of high school because he was captain of the football team and he was concerned. His mom was like, I'm sure your coach will understand if you want to go on vacation and you're going to miss practice. But Colby refused to go because he was concerned how it would look if a leader of the team wasn't there for practice.
00:13:00
Speaker
I wish every athlete was like that. I know. And not only that, but Colby would show up for practice 15 minutes early, because again, he felt like he needed to lead by example. And he did lead off the field and on the field. Off the field, he showed respect for the game and for other players.
00:13:22
Speaker
on the field, he was a force to be reckoned with. Just like those stats I mentioned earlier, he was smart in his strategy and he could make good decisions even under immense pressure and apparently even under peer pressure. His mom told me, you're going to love this Maggie, his mom told me that when Colby's sister Shelby had her son Malcolm
00:13:46
Speaker
that all of Colby's friends had already left for their senior beach trip and they were urging Colby to come with them? Nope. Colby stayed home until his nephew was born. He was like, I'm not leaving for this beach trip until I see my nephew. Aww.
00:14:07
Speaker
And Colby was even in the delivery room. Wow. Yeah. He joked with his sister. He was like, you know, if you don't want to have to choose between mom or dad, just take me. And she did. Oh, yep. His family, his sisters and that precious nephew were more important to him than, you know, those fleeting moments of like that beach trip.
00:14:29
Speaker
I love that. Yep. And Colby even got a tattoo on the back of his left shoulder blade with Malcolm's name and birthday. Precious. I know. So if you thought Colby's love for his dog Penny was strong, you should have heard how much he doted on Malcolm. Yeah, nothing compared to the nephew. No, nothing. And
00:14:52
Speaker
He doted out on Malcolm and the family doted on Colby as well. In fact, everybody called Colby the Golden Boy. And Gwen said it was because he was so spoiled by everybody. Like she told me she would get something say Nike brand and he'd try it on and he would joke with her and say, this looks better on me. And she would laugh and she was like, yeah, it does. And then just give it to him.
00:15:19
Speaker
And so Gwen's dad, so Colby's grandfather would tease Colby when he would come in and say, oh, there's golden boy. But then at the same time, he would tease Colby. If Gwen didn't buy something for Colby, he would. So he's teasing, but I mean, he's spoiling him too. And he even bought Colby a car saying he'd need one to drive his girlfriend around. He's like, you're going to need this.
00:15:48
Speaker
I'm gonna buy it for us. So you can imagine how hard it was when Colby decided that he wanted to go to Marshall University for college. He was hoping to play football there and to major in business, but attending Marshall would mean going four hours away from home. Okay, that was what I was about to ask because I know it's not super far. He's in Huntington, right?
00:16:11
Speaker
Well, that's where Marshall is. Okay. His family is from Cameron, West Virginia. Okay. Yeah. And that's about four hours away. Okay. And his mom, Gwen admitted that she probably cried every day of Colby senior year knowing that he was going to be going away.
00:16:30
Speaker
all over hard. I know. And when he did go for his freshman year, it was also hard for Colby because that meant he had to leave Malcolm and the rest of his family and of course Penny behind since dogs aren't allowed in dorms. And Gwen remembers when Colby left
00:16:50
Speaker
his sister Shelby crying and saying, can't we just call him and tell him to come back? I mean, that really shows how close-knit this family was. Yeah, because most siblings would be like, bye. Yeah, do I get your room? Yeah. But Colby did come home extremely often. Those visits were made easier by the fact that Gwen had moved to Charleston to help care for a sick friend.
00:17:19
Speaker
And that meant that instead of being four hours away from where Colby was in Huntington, she was only about 45 minutes away. Oh. Yeah. So that was helpful. Absolutely. So now that they're only 45 minutes away, Colby would, he would come in to all family events. He came home on the weekends and sometimes even during the week. Yeah. Cause you can drive 45 minutes there and back. That's not a big deal.
00:17:48
Speaker
And things were going great, Maggie. Colby did well in his freshman classes. He was hitting the gym continually because he was trying to get into his best shape in hopes of playing football. Because you know, Marshall Thundering heard, this is a big deal. There's even a movie about Marshall football. And he was about to start his sophomore year. What was even more exciting about this upcoming school year was that he was going to be living off campus.
00:18:18
Speaker
which meant he could bring his dog Penny, yes, to school with him. So now I realize at this point, I've kind of made Colby sound like serious and driven. And he was, but he wasn't serious all the time. He was a jokester and he was always laughing.
00:18:45
Speaker
Anyone I talked to mentioned his sense of humor. They mentioned his ever-present smile and just that like he didn't, he tried not to take things too seriously.
00:18:58
Speaker
I'm not going to lie, he kind of sounds like a golden boy. He sounds like just the girl or the guy every girl would want. And while Colby wouldn't miss classes or trips to the gym, he did let loose with his friends. Most of his friends were members of one fraternity on Marshall's campus. And this frat, among others, tried to get Colby to rush.
00:19:24
Speaker
But just like his days in high school, the peer pressure didn't seem to get to him. And his mom told me that he had refused to join because he was thinking, you know, I have the perks of being in a frat by hanging out with all these guys, drinking with them, sneaking into local bars with these specially printed frat passes without actively joining the fraternity itself.
00:19:50
Speaker
And I feel like fraternities and sororities require a lot of commitment for their other things. And he doesn't sound like he has a lot of free time. Right. But you know how I said a lot of his friends were members of that one fraternity. To be more specific, his three roommates in his off-campus housing were all members of that fraternity. And one of those roommates was even the president.
00:20:17
Speaker
wow, of the fraternity. And while Colby was close to the boys he lived with, I'm going to call them roommates throughout the episode. Because again, for those of you who are maybe just joining us, and this is your first episode that you've heard, particularly when and because Maggie and I talk about theories and theories during which we might
00:20:43
Speaker
I guess, put forth the possibility of an individual being involved in a crime. If those people have never been named persons of interest or suspects, then we do not name them during the episode.
00:21:02
Speaker
because to do so would be defamation of character and we would be sued. And we're poor. So yes, we cannot afford to be sued. So we will just call them roommates throughout the episode. So while Colby was close to the boys he lived with, his roommates, he was also friends with other frat members who lived in another part of Huntington.
00:21:27
Speaker
and was also quite often at their place playing video games or smoking weed. So we will call that group, group two. Just to kind of keep them separate. Yeah. Like I know where you're from is much closer to Huntington than where I grew up. Yeah. I'm like super close, like 45 minutes away.
00:21:51
Speaker
So the only real interactions I've had with Huntington have been to drive my dad to the VA, go to the mall, and go to Camden Park. Oh, yeah. Have you ever been to a Blizzard's hockey game? I didn't even know they had hockey there. Yeah. And I don't really know a lot about Huntington, especially at this time. Because what year was this? 2019. Oh, 2019. Yeah.
00:22:21
Speaker
But isn't Huntington very much almost overran with a drug epidemic? West Virginia in general does have, they are in the throes of the opioid epidemic. Yes. I wonder if it was like safe all these places, parts of town that he was going to.
00:22:49
Speaker
So I'm glad you asked that. I did ask, I didn't ask about the place where group two lived, but the off-campus housing that Colby had with his roommates was in a safer area of town right by campus where a lot of students lived.
Colby's Last Day and Mysterious Death
00:23:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. And the three who Colby lived with had a strict no-drug policy
00:23:17
Speaker
So if Colby wanted to smoke marijuana, he knew he would have to do it elsewhere and he completely respected their wishes.
00:23:29
Speaker
And from my research, Colby did smoke quite often, though it also sounded like he found a good balance between work and play and was ready to start the new school year off right. So I don't wanna make it sound like he was all serious all the time, but I also don't want anybody to get the impression that all Colby did was smoke weed, because that's not at all true. Right, and a lot of college kids,
00:23:58
Speaker
experiment with that. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And Colby had been extremely focused on getting in shape. In fact, one of the sources I read said that he had recently dropped nearly 20 pounds. Well, while we've been talking, I've googled him. Uh huh. And he I don't know. He looks like an all American. I mean, yeah. And where what 20 pounds that he have to really draw. I know. I know.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah, he's like all muscle. Yeah. So he was, you can tell he's very health conscious. You can tell by the shape he's in that he valued hard work.
00:24:44
Speaker
Just hearing you talk about him, you can tell what hard it is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And at the same time was so loving because he was focused on getting in shape, but he was also focused on taking care of Penny. He was so excited, Maggie, that he was getting to take Penny to school with him that year. He had been back at school for less than a week when he was talking to his mom and friends about needing to stock up on groceries and dog food, right? Because he had started his classes
00:25:14
Speaker
the week before the date in question that we're going to talk about. He had told his friends about his excitement. He had an upcoming date on the last weekend of August. And it was a girl he was really interested in. So his friends knew how excited he was for that. His mom was talking to him about what his plans were for Labor Day weekend.
00:25:41
Speaker
because the family I think was gonna try to do something, but he told his mom that he had already purchased tickets for some of his old friends so they could all go to the game together that next weekend. But none of that happened because his life was cut short before he got the chance. So here's a timeline of what we know of Colby's final day.
00:26:09
Speaker
And remember, this is August 26th, 2019. So he had gotten back to Marshall around 1241 AM on Monday, August 26th, because he had gone back home to visit family the past weekend.
00:26:30
Speaker
Once he got back to campus, he sent his sister Darby a funny meme at 1250, which is like total sibling, yeah, interaction. And he texted his mom at 1.02 AM. I'm assuming to let her know that he made it back okay.
00:26:50
Speaker
From 1.49 a.m. until around 3.51 a.m. Listen, Colby's got some staying up magic powers that I do not have. Yeah, I'm gonna sleep right now at nine to five. Right? Yeah. But between 1.49 a.m. and 3.51 a.m., Colby was fairly consistently corresponding with friends via a group chat and Snapchat.
00:27:17
Speaker
But, you know, these are college students, so they stay up at all hours and they say during the day. Yeah. At three twenty five, Colby sent a snap to a girl saying that he couldn't sleep. This particular girl was one of Colby's group to friends. She was not a girl that he's going on a date with. No, no, this is just a friend. And she was with.
00:27:47
Speaker
physically and, I'm assuming, relationship-wise, one of Colby's group two friends. Okay. That group two friend, I'm gonna call this friend A throughout the episode because that has nothing to do with any of his initials. Okay. And he will be a major player. So, A, FaceTimed Colby and joked about Colby coming over to join the two of them.
00:28:15
Speaker
if you catch my drift. Well, that was the question I was going to ask, but okay, I gotcha. Yeah. And the girl soon FaceTimed Colby back just to make sure that Colby knew that the friend was joking. She's like, we don't need three people over here. So you just stay in bed. And this conversation happened close to 4am. Okay.
00:28:41
Speaker
Then Colby's online presence is more seldom. He had one text with his sister at 5.17 a.m. and then a Snapchat sent to a female friend at 8.10. So I don't know if he managed to catch some sleep in those hours in between. And then again, we don't really see an online presence after 8.10 until around 10.24 a.m.
00:29:09
Speaker
So again, maybe he got some sleep in there. I would hope so. I would hope so too. Listen, I need my sleep or else I can't function. But around 10, 24 AM, again, Colby is extremely present on social media. He was snapping that female friend.
00:29:27
Speaker
from the night before. He was downloading his class schedule to send to his mom. He was telling his mom in a group chat with his sisters about making those Labor Day weekend plans that he had friends coming, remember, to marshal. And he was leaving around 11 o'clock to head to the gym before his classes started for the day.
00:29:52
Speaker
Okay, so he has a plan. Yes. Colby checked into the rec center, so the gym, at 1151. As Colby and his friend finished their workout, Colby headed to his 1pm class, Marketing Concepts and Applications. That sounds horrible. No, wait till you hear this one. And then straight to his 230, Principles of Macroeconomics.
00:30:17
Speaker
But Colby didn't linger around campus after that second class. As soon as that second class was over, he went straight back to his off-campus place. He got there, and this was based on his location services on his phone, at 3.22 p.m. You know, that is one good thing about modern technology. Yes. You leave a pretty good footprint. Yeah, it's pretty, especially if you're active on social media,
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah. Because those towers are pinging, location services, all of that. When he got back to his place at 322, this is when he walked the love of his life, Penny, and returned home at 341. Colby originally had planned to meet up with a female friend so they could take their dogs to get pup cups, which are like doggy ice cream cones.
00:31:16
Speaker
Listen, I told you he loved Penny. However, that friend wasn't back yet and had asked if they could actually just postpone the pup cups visit until the next day. And Colby agreed that the switch would be better for him too. Not for Penny. She was looking forward to that pup cup. Poor Penny.
00:31:37
Speaker
But he then began a phone conversation with several group two friends, making plans to meet up at that other apartment that I mentioned earlier. Now, some people said that Colby and A, as I'm calling him, were pretty much living together because Colby was there so often, but I saw
00:32:02
Speaker
snapshots of text conversations where it seemed like Colby was asking what the address was. So I don't know if that was necessarily true that he basically lived there. I don't know if they were referencing maybe how much the two of them had hung out maybe freshman year. And A lives in the apartment where- That's not on campus, not on campus. They go to look up weed and stuff like that. Right. Yes. Okay.
00:32:32
Speaker
So he, you know, after he had that female friend kind of change plans about the pup cubs, Colby himself created a backup plan of going over to hang out with A and some of those other friends.
00:32:48
Speaker
Colby's roommates remember Colby getting back from his walk with Penny and telling them before he headed out the door that he was going to go hang out with the group two friends, but that he would be back in just a couple of hours and to take care of Penny while he was gone. Colby left his roommates at 4.19.
00:33:09
Speaker
and he arrived to hang out with his group two friends at 4.25. So even though they live not in the same place and not on campus, yeah, it's still only like a six minute drive. It's at this point though, that what happened during Colby's final hours become far less clear.
00:33:38
Speaker
When Allison and I no longer worked together, we knew that recording the podcast could potentially be hard. How are we going to record and maintain crisp audio sound when we had to now record remotely? Lucky for us, that's when we found Zencaster. Maggie and I use Zencaster each week to record our episodes, and it couldn't possibly be any easier. You don't even have to download a program. I create the session for which you can record audio, video, or both and email Maggie the link.
00:34:08
Speaker
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00:34:25
Speaker
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00:34:54
Speaker
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00:35:16
Speaker
So again, because Maggie and I discussed those potential theories, we don't want to falsely accuse an individual of involvement. I wanted to remind you that the main individual in Colby's group, Two Friends, I am going to call A. And again, because that's nowhere close to any of his real initials.
00:35:37
Speaker
So we know that Colby had gone to A's place to play video games, Madden Football to be specific. Yes. Another. That's the game of choice. Colby's phone tracked his steps until almost 4.36. It's then that things become still.
00:36:03
Speaker
And there are a few different accounts of what happened while Colby was with group two. So if I go to your house and I text Anthony at 436 and I don't get on any social media or text anyone, nothing will pick up on my phone until I use it again.
00:36:30
Speaker
Right, so most of what we know from Colby's phone has to do with either locations during Snapchats, pinging off of cell phone towers, or when it is monitoring his physical activity and counting his steps. Okay. Right. But Colby did send a snap to the girl that he was excited about going on a date with the next weekend.
00:37:00
Speaker
But she did later say that the image, this is what Gwen told me, that she said the image was unusual to her because it was only the top half of Colby's face. So like from the eyes up and that he was, it looked like he was sitting in a dark room, that the background was gray so she could just see kind of the outline of his face. And this Snapchat Maggie was sent at 5.10 p.m.
00:37:28
Speaker
So I wonder if maybe they just had the lights off when they were playing and it just looked different, maybe? Maybe. So, I mean, we know, again, he's getting there around 425. His phone is tracking his steps until about 436, but then there's a gap until he sends that snap at 510. So there's like
00:37:58
Speaker
40 minutes in there. So to me, that makes it sound like he is sitting down playing in a video game. It could be, right. At 5.15, and remember, this is a girl he's excited to go on a date with, at 5.15, she snapped back, but that Snapchat would never be opened. A roommate texted Colby at 5.38, but Colby didn't respond.
00:38:27
Speaker
Now, group two had not started playing Madden yet. So, you know, your theory, like maybe he sat down and they were playing the game. Yeah, that obviously is wrong. It is wrong. And again, here's where technology comes in because Sony actually verified that the PlayStation wasn't logged into the game until 545.
00:38:53
Speaker
Okay, so maybe they were smoking weed. That's my thinking. So the PlayStation was logged in from 545 and it stayed logged in until seven. And so since they weren't playing the game, that's what I was thinking. Maybe they were smoking the weed during that time. A said that Colby was the one who brought the weed for them to smoke, that he had bought it in Morgantown.
00:39:22
Speaker
and that he had brought enough to pack a bowl for all of them to share. Now Maggie, you know me, you know, I had to look that up because I had no idea what pack a bowl meant. I'm like, what does this mean? Or these words. Right. So it is when you take ground up weed and you pack it into the rounded part of a bong to smoke it. How do you ground up weed? They have grinders.
Investigating Colby's Death: Questions and Doubts
00:39:53
Speaker
I know. But I also do not know, and this is not something that I could look up. I mean, I looked it up, but I couldn't find an answer. I don't know how many people normally share a bong. I don't know how long it takes to smoke one. I don't know how long it takes to feel any side effects, anything like that. So you may as well not even ask me. So I'm assuming the more people that share it,
00:40:19
Speaker
the quicker it would go away. Right. But so we have that gap of like 40 minutes. So I don't know if that seems like a reasonable amount of time. I think so. We'll just say it is. OK. So between 545 when Madden started and 651. So in that hour a few more odd things happen.
00:40:50
Speaker
at 556, Colby's iPhone started to sync with his laptop. So I don't know if this was just say a phone update and Colby decided to go ahead and update his phone since maybe he was connected to wifi and he's playing video games anyway. Like maybe he thought, you know, now's the best time of any to go ahead and update my phone. That's an oddity. And I don't know,
00:41:20
Speaker
I don't know if you have your cell phone with you and you're connected to wifi. If you can sync them, if your laptop is elsewhere. I don't know. Between six and six 30.
00:41:38
Speaker
Colby's Snapchat was put into ghost mode. What's that? So if you don't want, when you are on Snapchat, your friends can see where you are. There's like a snap map is what it's called. So if you were say going to the mall, you could look on Snapchat and you could see who had recently snapped from the mall.
00:42:08
Speaker
So you would know who was there. I didn't know that that's kind of creepy, but okay. Oh yeah. So you can turn it off. You can go into ghost mode and it's only your friends, I think that can see it anyway. But he had put his phone in ghost mode sometime between six and six 30. Now out of curiosity, I was thinking, okay, what if he was doing an update on his phone and that's why it's synced.
00:42:36
Speaker
I wondered if Snapchat would automatically go into ghost mode if the phone was powered off. Oh, yeah. You know, so I thought maybe if he's powered off, that's why it went into ghost mode. But the answer is no.
00:42:49
Speaker
So a person's Bitmoji on the snap map is linked to activity on the app and not to the phone battery. And so it would have only disappeared if you either put it physically into ghost mode by clicking multiple buttons. It's not a one step. It's like a two or three step process. Or it would disappear after seven hours of inactivity, which we know couldn't have happened because
00:43:19
Speaker
Right. He just sent that Snapchat to that girl at five 10. So right now an hour later. Right now he someone either he or someone has physically gone in and put him into ghost mode. Right.
00:43:37
Speaker
At 6.35, Colby's sister Darby snapped him from the gym because they would always send pictures of when they went to the gym because they said Colby was the best at giving positive reinforcement. So he would be like, that's amazing. Keep going. Or I want to see 10 more reps or whatever it was. So she had sent him a snap from the gym. That snap was open.
00:44:05
Speaker
but no response was ever sent. Which was extremely unusual for Colby. So he opened her snap, but didn't open the date snap. Right. And then didn't respond back to sister, which seems very strange to me. Yes. And at 651, Colby's phone was powered off. Hmm.
00:44:33
Speaker
So all of this is happening very quickly. Like I said, he sent that. Now, again, she said it was odd that Snapchat of the top half of his face sitting in the dark at 510 by 651. His phone is completely turned off. And we know the Snapchat that was sent to the date was sent from group two's apartment. We assume so because we know from his location that he was there. OK.
00:45:03
Speaker
Is it possible on Snapchat? I don't think it is. I don't know though. Can I take a picture on Snapchat? No. Can I take a picture and send that on Snapchat? Like if I took a picture yesterday, can I send it via Snapchat today? Yes. Okay. So then I wonder then if maybe that picture hadn't been taken that day. Maybe it was like when he was laying down to go to sleep or something like that. And that's why it looked different.
00:45:34
Speaker
It could. The 12 minutes later, at 7.03 p.m., a call came in to Cabell County 911. A woman was driving on I-64 when she saw something falling through the air. What? Another female driver saw it as well.
00:45:59
Speaker
At first, the second driver thought it was a deer that had been hit and sent over the railing of the overpass that loomed nearly a hundred feet above her head, that it looked like whatever it was that was falling was flowing through the air. Whatever it was didn't fall straight down. The first female driver also didn't give the object much thought at first, not really knowing what it was, but as she got closer,
00:46:29
Speaker
She realized that she saw arms and legs. And knew now that this was a person. Oh no. She had to swerve to miss the person. And though traumatized by what she had just witnessed, she immediately pulled over, ran back to the person, called 911, and prayed over him until he took his last breath.
00:46:56
Speaker
that person was Colby Brown. So we don't know at this point, we don't know how he's falling over this overpass. Correct. But he falls 100 feet down. And she has to swerve to miss him. Correct.
00:47:26
Speaker
And he didn't pass away right away. He did. He didn't have his eyes open at any point during that time when she was praying over him and he didn't say anything. The witness simply heard Colby breathe. What I can only assume were agonal breaths. So those that happen as the last reflexes of the brain after your heart is no longer circulating blood. Oh my gosh.
00:47:56
Speaker
Only two minutes after that frantic 911 call, the tones went out at 7.05 for a possible jumper. And Huntington Police Department units were dispatched. At 7.06, the first unit arrived at the scene at the top of the bridge. And by 7.13, the Huntington Fire Department and medics arrived too late. Oh my lord.
00:48:25
Speaker
Between 719 and 840, Colby's friends attempted to message him or call him 14 times. One of his roommates texted WIA, so where you at, with no response. A snapped Colby, saying, yo, where are you? We worried, yo. After 840,
00:48:52
Speaker
it becomes clear that Colby's roommates and group two had begun reaching out to other friends to see if any of them had heard from or seen Colby. So the messages that he's getting, are they coming from roommates and group two? Correct. Okay. And then after around 840 from other people. So right now, all you know is that
00:49:20
Speaker
Colby had been at group two's place, smoking weed, playing Madden, some weird activity like him not responding to his sister, and then we get the 911 call. The first indication that Colby's family had that anything was wrong was when A, snapped Colby's sister Shelby at 904 p.m.
00:49:47
Speaker
He wrote the following, quote, hey, try and call Colby. He left my house after smoking that stuff he got from Motown and just left and drove off. Haven't heard from him in hours. We were upstairs playing Madden with a bunch of guys. Then he just walked downstairs sweating to puke. We went to check on him and he was gone, end quote. So
00:50:13
Speaker
Again, I don't know these people. I've also never smoked weed. So I don't know this either. I didn't think people puked after smoking weed. Yeah, I don't know if that's a normal reaction. Yeah, it seems weird to me. To me.
00:50:33
Speaker
I can understand the roommates texting Colby like, Hey, where you at? Cause right. He says he's only going to be gone for a couple hours to take care of me. Right. Right. And now it's been several hours. So I can understand them texting, but I think it's weird that people from group two would be, even if he did just get up and leave, like I think it would be weird and reaching out to the sister.
00:51:01
Speaker
I don't know. I'm sure we'll talk about this in theories, but seems to me almost like they're trying to create a story or a timeline. Yes, we will talk about that. We will talk about that. In terms of vomiting, I just found that there is a syndrome that can happen. It's called CHS.
00:51:31
Speaker
When that can lead to repeated and severe bouts of vomiting, it is rare and it only occurs in daily long-term users of marijuana. Well, so yeah, you can kind of suffer these complications after a long-term use. Belly pain, vomiting, weight loss,
00:51:58
Speaker
Huh. So super interesting. At 10 p.m., one of Colby's roommates snapped Colby's sister also, this time asking for Colby's laptop password, saying that he wanted to log in to see if he could find Colby using the Find My iPhone feature. So at this point, Colby's family still knows nothing. They know nothing.
00:52:30
Speaker
Well, at this point, a couple of them have been notified by 10. But that's the snap that came from one of Colby's roommates, because the friends, a couple of them didn't know. Because also at 10 p.m.,
00:52:53
Speaker
Some of the boys who said that they were out driving around looking for Colby. So that was a group that included some of his roommates and potentially some members of group two multiple sources had different individuals.
00:53:08
Speaker
who were driving around looking, but they said that they saw cops at a gas station and decided to pull in to let the officers know that their friend was missing and to show a picture of Colby. They were told that their friend Colby had jumped from the McCoy Road bridge and had passed away.
00:53:31
Speaker
Can they do that? That's what I said. I mean, I was fired up when I read that law enforcement had just told who, you know, for all intents and purposes, what they know are random people. Right. And does his mom know at this point? Nope. So they told somebody before family was even made aware. So
00:53:59
Speaker
Again, I kind of got all up in arms about this that they told friends about the accident because I was thinking how dare law enforcement tell other people before all of Colby's family had been notified. Only 30 minutes earlier at 9.30 PM, a Marshall County Sheriff deputy went to the address that was listed on Colby's ID and told Shelby and Colby's father of the news. Oh, so they think that family has been notified.
00:54:28
Speaker
Right. But Gwen didn't know at all until 3 a.m. on the 27th. Yes. Because remember, she was in Charleston helping care for her sick friend. And when Shelby and the kid's dad, Dave Brown, had gotten the news from that Marshall County deputy, they said, we've got to drive to Charleston to tell Gwen and Darby because this is not something to share over the phone. OK, I get that, though. Yes. So
00:54:57
Speaker
Gwen actually didn't find out about what happened to Colby until 3 a.m. on the 27th. So again, this is only, and even telling these friends, I still have a problem with it. I'm still bothered by that.
00:55:14
Speaker
And the only information that the family was given was at the time was that Colby fell off of an overpass. Okay. Which is different. Fell and jumped. Yes. Very different. And according to the friends, they were told that Colby had jumped. Right. And that's very different.
00:55:33
Speaker
And what's weird too is that the bridge that was mentioned, that McCoy Road bridge was a bridge that was close to A's house. But all of Colby's friends said that none of them knew where this bridge was. That they'd never been there. So they're like, I don't even know where that is. Yeah, or how he would know where that is.
00:56:01
Speaker
So I do find it interesting if, well, I guess they could have happened concurrently. I guess the cops could have told some of the friends what happened to Colby at the same time that others of his friends were sending that Snapchat to Shelby asking for the laptop password to see if they could use the Find My iPhone feature.
00:56:27
Speaker
Once the friends made it known that they had been with Colby right before this incident, they did give informal statements. Okay. It's from those statements and from what those young men have told Gwen and her family that we can piece together bits and pieces of what Colby said and did before the fall.
00:56:53
Speaker
So you heard the text that A sent to Shelby, that they were playing Madden, Colby went downstairs to puke, that he was sweating, and he never came back upstairs, that he had just left. Right. That's what we think happened. Right. In later versions,
00:57:11
Speaker
of what Ace had happened. Colby had won a couple of games of Madden, lost a couple of games before walking downstairs. This time, Ace said that Colby stood up and said, I don't know what's wrong with me before going downstairs. So that's an important detail. Yeah, and I think
00:57:40
Speaker
would be out of character and I think you would remember to say that in your initial statement. I mean I would think now I do realize and I'll play devil's advocate a lot at the same time I toss out accusations. I do realize that you can remember more details later that maybe you don't. Yeah after you kind of calm down and process. Right.
00:58:06
Speaker
But A now also said that another friend had gone downstairs to check on Colby and that it looked like this time instead of Colby going downstairs sweating to puke, like he's already sweating when he's upstairs, this time he said that that other friend who had gone downstairs to check on Colby
00:58:29
Speaker
that it looked like Colby was either sweating or had thrown water on his face before emerging from the bathroom. Which if you throw up, well I do. I sweat when I throw up. Right. So maybe now the now the sweating isn't happening until
00:58:48
Speaker
after the bathroom. And this other friend saw Colby walk out of the bathroom and Colby said that he was going to go lay down, at which point the other friend began walking back upstairs. So he's thinking Colby's behind me, right? He's going to come upstairs and lay down. But when he turned around, he saw that Colby wasn't following him and was instead walking toward the door.
00:59:15
Speaker
In this version, A said that the other friend yelled at Colby, but that Colby continued walking as if no one had spoken to him, that he walked straight to his car and drove off. So a few more added details. Yeah, so as you already say, much more detailed.
00:59:37
Speaker
And then in a final version, A added the following details also, that before saying, I don't know what's wrong with me, that Colby had acted weird while they were playing Madden, that in the first part of the gameplay of the video gaming, he was laughing and joking was normal, and the second part that he had gone silent, that he was acting almost like a zombie.
01:00:07
Speaker
almost like he wasn't in possession of his own body and mind anymore. I almost feel like though. I don't know that feels. I mean, I know that I don't feel like myself or I don't know what's wrong with me anymore. And getting up seems very out of character, but mm hmm.
01:00:31
Speaker
I maybe I've just heard way too many seventh grade stories and that just seems like an added detail to me that wasn't there from the beginning. We'll talk about it in the theories.
01:00:45
Speaker
So A did admit that they had been smoking weed and that he had some leftover from that night that they hadn't smoked. So he actually told Gwen that he took that extra weed to the frat house after hearing what happened to Colby because he didn't want the cops to come and find it in his house and him get into trouble.
01:01:09
Speaker
Well, I almost feel like if they did smoke that weed and Colby is acting that weird, maybe the weed was laced with something and the police need to test it. So good news and bad news here with that theory. Number one, they all smoked the weed, but none of them had the same side effects as Colby. So that made them think, well, maybe it wasn't laced with something, but there was that leftover marijuana and A actually did bring it to Gwen
01:01:38
Speaker
I can't remember if it was at the visitation or at the funeral, but he brought it to her and Gwen then promptly turned it over to police for that very reason, like you said, Maggie, so then it could be tested. Well, at least the police ended up with it. Right. Gwen and her family, when they spoke more extensively with law enforcement, were told that Colby had jumped from the bridge.
Exploring Theories: Accident or Foul Play?
01:02:02
Speaker
insinuating a purposeful jump of suicide or an accidental jump. But Gwen was- I don't really know how you accidentally jump. Well, more like, let's say you're not realizing you're on a bridge and you just jump over, say, like a rail, like a guard rail, thinking the ground is two feet down. But Gwen wasn't quite so sure that foul play wasn't also a possibility.
01:02:31
Speaker
She requested an autopsy, but was told that they were not going to perform one, that there was no sense because it was seemingly clear to law enforcement that there had been no chance of foul play. Okay, I didn't know that they could say that. What if she had said, well, I'll pay for it. I want an autopsy.
01:02:52
Speaker
And that's another problem that I have with this case because I mean, she kind of made it sound like she asked no fewer than four times for an autopsy, which was never performed. And that, you know, when she would ask for it, that she she was kind of met with
01:03:12
Speaker
criticism almost for wanting it. Like one person said to her, you know, you really want to cut open and mutilate your son's body, you know, for something that the toxicology report itself will tell us. But I thought that that was almost standard in accidents like this. Mm hmm.
01:03:36
Speaker
I guess where they just automatically assumed that it was suicide and that there wasn't foul play. But I would think even if a family member asked anyway, you would have to honor their request. Right. So since we are at an impasse, we are going to talk about theories. Okay. Really, there are three. There's suicide, accident, and foul play.
01:04:05
Speaker
Okay, so those are the three we're going to talk about. So theory one is what law enforcement seemed to believe and that is suicide. Because of the placement of the car on the bridge, because of the stories of Colby's behavior in the minutes leading up to his death, suicide seemed the quick and easy explanation. Additionally,
01:04:33
Speaker
Five months after Colby's death, two individuals came forward to make an anonymous statement to police. They said that they hadn't come forward before because on the day in question on August 26th, they had been taking Xanax and smoking weed
01:04:53
Speaker
and they were on probation, so they didn't report what they saw out of fear of getting in trouble themselves. But now, five months later, they were finally realizing that they wanted to report what they saw. But they said that they saw a young man outside of his car pacing back and forth. They reported that when he saw them, that he put his hands on the rail and dove headfirst off of the bridge.
01:05:23
Speaker
Wow. So Gwen wanted to know their names. She wanted to be able to ask some follow-up questions about Colby's behavior, but law enforcement refused to share the names of the two individuals, allegedly saying that, and this was from Gwen, this is what she said they told her. So again, I have to say allegedly because I wasn't privy to the conversation,
01:05:48
Speaker
but that Gwen would harass them if they shared the contact information. And I understand that the two wanted to remain anonymous, but I also know that Gwen just wanted to answer so desperately knowing that for her it was impossible to move on until she had all the answers that she was seeking.
01:06:08
Speaker
But to play devil's advocate to this theory, Colby's actions and the days leading up to his death and even the day of were not those of someone contemplating suicide. His friends reported that he had been acting like his normal happy self in each and every interaction that they had with Colby that day. He had gone to his classes that morning. He had gone to the gym.
01:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, he was going on a date. Yeah, he still had $4,000 in his bank account. He told his roommates that he would be back to let the dog out. Like you said, he was excited about his date that weekend. He had made plans with that friend for their dogs to get the pup cups the next day. He had bought tickets for his friends and made plans for Labor Day weekend to watch the game with them. None of those details indicate suicide, not one.
01:07:03
Speaker
And we've talked about that in previous cases. People who are contemplate going to commit suicide do not make plans, long-term plans, weekend plans, next month I'm going to do this, this next weekend I'm doing this. They just, that's not normal behavior. Right. And if he, if he had been planning on taking his life, why'd he go to his classes that morning? Right. Why would he go to the gym?
01:07:31
Speaker
Colby's sister Shelby concerning the suicide theory had told Steve Novotny, who wrote a six part article about Colby's case called Suicide No Way. And this is what Shelby told Novotny about the suicide theory. Quote, he told me that I was bigger than whatever it was I was sad over.
01:07:56
Speaker
He'd tell me that our family had a bigger purpose than worrying about the little things. Colby was always on track from the time he was a little kid and he did it himself. What 19 year old walks out the door and every single time tells you that he loves you. My brother did not suffer from any type of mental illness and I can say that with certainty. I knew him inside and out. We told each other everything and I mean everything.
01:08:21
Speaker
So I knew him and I can say 100% I know he did not commit suicide. He was a person that I really, really knew and there's no way he could have taken his own life. He lived with a purpose because it was him who was going to be somebody someday. I have no idea how he ended up where he did, but he didn't do that." End quote.
01:08:48
Speaker
Even individuals, Maggie, who were near the scene on the bridge, thought that the whole situation was, quote, too weird to be suicide. But I'll get to that witness later. So I'm picturing like, you know, as you're going into like Lexington and there's the part of I-75 that goes over 64. Uh-huh.
01:09:17
Speaker
Like I'm picturing he fell off an overpass like that. Like with lots and lots of cars, people aren't going to be walking up there. But this makes it sound like he's walking over like a bridge where there would have been a sidewalk and people were walking on the bridge as well as driving on it. So the obviously I-64 underneath is a heavily traveled road. The bridge, I don't know,
01:09:47
Speaker
if it itself was as heavily traveled. And it's a really high overpass because we're talking again, 100 feet. So one witness who was actually up on the bridge, I'll get to that witness later, told Gwen that what he saw was too weird to be suicide.
01:10:11
Speaker
I'll get to that later. The woman who stopped to pray over Colby broke down in tears, begging Gwen not to bury her son until an autopsy had been done because she also refused to believe it was suicide. Add to all of that the fact that Colby was scared of heights. Gwen told me that Colby would have even been nervous driving over that bridge.
01:10:42
Speaker
And I feel like if Colby had committed suicide and one, he's even decided to jump off a bridge now knowing that he's scared of heights. I feel that in that moment, he would have appeared more calm and not slapping arms and legs, you know?
01:11:09
Speaker
And hearing all these different problems with the commonly accepted theory is what made me know that I had to cover this case. I had to share Gwen's concerns and make them public.
01:11:21
Speaker
I did some research into the psychological predisposition of someone who would choose jumping as a form of suicide. And first, it is very rare in North America, only 5% of suicides are from jumping. And that was according to an article published by Cambridge University. It's almost always someone with a psychiatric illness. And it's a very public action since a person committing
01:11:49
Speaker
the act knows that it will likely traumatize witnesses and or put other people in danger. Yeah, it could have been very dangerous jumping to I-64, which is a heavily traveled interstate. Right. And again, none of those descriptions sounds like Colby to me. No. And even when the medical examiner's injury report, even it made me ask questions like,
01:12:16
Speaker
Gwen told me that Colby had a skull fracture on the back of his head, but it wasn't marked on that injury report. I read that two-thirds of suicides by jumping result in chest injuries, yet Colby had none. I wondered if the pelvic fracture that he had was an H-shaped fracture because that's the one that's known as the jumper's fracture.
01:12:39
Speaker
you know, any that would seem to indicate a an actual jump. But sadly, we don't have the answers to those questions. Theory two is a tragic accident. So this is like what you said, he thinks he's stepping over a handrail. And that's really, yes, that's one potential. Yeah, of it being an accident. So during the process of trying to figure out what happened to her son, when would actually hired a private investigator?
01:13:09
Speaker
She did tell me that much of what this private investigator put into his final report, though, was merely the information that she had given him. His final conclusion was as follows. Quote, it is the opinion of the undersigned based upon the facts known at present that Colby Brown's death was accidental. There is no evidence of suicide. There is no evidence of anyone conspiring to do him harm or killing him. Certainly no homicide.
01:13:38
Speaker
There is not evidence of any person attempting to cover up any circumstances about his death." So this private investigator gator says it's not suicide, it's not homicide, so there's only one option and that is that it's a tragic accident. But if what happened to Colby were an accident, what might have caused it?
01:14:01
Speaker
And I wondered this because all of the individuals who were at A's house, again, like we mentioned earlier, purportedly smoked the same weed, and yet Colby was the only one who they said was acting out of character. Colby's toxicology report did show, and this is in the words of that private investigator, a significantly high level of marijuana in Colby's system. However, there was nothing else in his system.
01:14:30
Speaker
that would indicate that the marijuana had been mixed with any other drug. So his mom wonders if Colby could possibly have been so high that I said earlier he jumped over the rail thinking it was only a couple of feet off the ground and didn't realize that he was 100 feet in the air. Did the marijuana have an adverse effect because of the protein drink that Colby had been using before going to the gym?
01:15:01
Speaker
Colby had also recently mentioned that his stomach was hurting, which now I'm thinking about that one diagnosis and maybe it could be linked to that. And he had gotten several concussions during his football career. So his mom is thinking, could either one of those things be linked? But Gwen also wonders whether this accident could have resulted from actions not quite as innocent.
01:15:28
Speaker
Could Colby have joined the fraternity without her knowledge? And what happened to him was an incident of hazing gone wrong. Was he given some other drug that maybe wouldn't show up on a toxicology report?
01:15:48
Speaker
And what's off-putting about the scene that Gwen keeps coming back to is that Colby's car was not only in the opposite direction of his own place. So it was almost as though after he left A's house, he didn't drive back toward his own. He drove in the opposite direction. But also that the car had then been turned around
01:16:14
Speaker
and was facing back again towards A's house. So she's thinking, you know, this doesn't make any sense. Why would he have driven in the opposite direction? Why was he turned around? So Gwen actually speculated with me whether, you know, maybe Colby had been leaving A's house and maybe there was a cop car behind him.
01:16:43
Speaker
At which point he would have gotten nervous. Yeah. Cause he had just been smoking and maybe he went straight instead of making the turn to go back home. And then she's thinking, you know, did he get pulled over on the bridge? Did he jump the rail? Well, we'll get to that. So she's thinking, did he jump the rail trying to like run away? You know, if he thought he was going to get in trouble, not knowing about the fall.
01:17:13
Speaker
Yeah. But then she wonders, and this is why she's questioning, if he were being followed, and I'll tell you why she believes that is a possibility here in just a second. If he were being followed by say a cop, did he try to climb the rail to get away? And then maybe the cop tased him and he fell?
01:17:36
Speaker
Is that why it looked like he was flowing? Like these are the thoughts that keep Gwen up at night that never let her mind rest. Theory three is foul play.
01:17:48
Speaker
This theory, since the investigation began, has been the one that few people seem to support. There are, however, details, Maggie, that I'm gonna tell you about that explain why Gwen Fields' law enforcement's investigation could only be considered comprehensive if this possibility were fully considered as well. After all, why was Colby's phone put in ghost mode?
01:18:14
Speaker
Why was his phone turned off? Why did no one from A's house try to stop him from walking out the door by going after him? Why was his car found abandoned near the middle yellow line on the bridge with the driver's door remaining open? But most importantly, why had most of those who had seen Colby's body after the fall
01:18:42
Speaker
mentioned the striking lack of blood. Hmm.
01:18:49
Speaker
And it's those questions as well as a few more details that I'm getting ready to share with you, Maggie, that make Gwen truly believe that this theory is indeed one worth considering. She wonders if there could have been maybe an altercation at A's house that resulted in head trauma for Colby. She wonders if a death elsewhere would explain the lack of blood.
01:19:15
Speaker
When Gwen considers this possibility, there are a few details that stick in her mind. The first is that Gwen was told that there were no eyewitnesses to Colby's death. However... Which is true because you said there was one. Right. They considered that person not an eyewitness because they didn't see what happened on the top of the bridge. Oh. They only saw the aftermath.
01:19:44
Speaker
However, after the six part article about Colby's case was published, an individual actually reached out to Gwen on Facebook with information about what he saw on the top of the bridge on August 26th, 2019, that he had yet to share with anyone. This gentleman told Gwen that he was about to cross the bridge when he noticed that there was a car parked in the middle of the bridge with the driver door open.
01:20:11
Speaker
He pulled over to walk toward the car to see if he could be of any assistance, like not knowing what's wrong. He told Gwen that as he was walking toward the car, he encountered a young couple walking toward him on the shoulder of the road. This gentleman who contacted Gwen asked this young couple what was going on and if he could be of any help, to which the young man, who was part of the couple, responded, I think somebody jumped.
01:20:40
Speaker
Just nonchalant like that was how we said it. Could this young couple then have potentially had something to do with
01:20:55
Speaker
Colby going over the side of the bridge? Potentially. Or at least have details about what happened. This gentleman who contacted Gwen also reported that he saw, and this is why Gwen had that theory of the accident with police involved,
01:21:13
Speaker
because this individual who contacted her, this man, reported that he saw a Huntington Police Department cruiser parked facing Colby's car and saw the officer looking inside. And this would have been the first officer responding and responding within like a minute of when the call wasn't long.
01:21:37
Speaker
But the gentleman looked over the railing and saw paramedics on I-64 below standing over someone. But what was problematic for the man who contacted Gwen was what I said just a second ago, how nonchalant he felt that young man's comments were. He said they were not the comments of someone who had just seen death. Right, like think about the woman who was driving, how traumatized she was.
01:22:03
Speaker
However, to date, we have not been able to identify nor locate either member of that couple. So here's a description of what the gentleman told Gwen they look like. The young man of the couple was around five foot eight inches. He was stocky and had a short beard. He had dark hair and the young man was dressed in khakis and a tucked in shirt. He said it was like they were going out on a date. He looked to be around his mid twenties.
01:22:31
Speaker
The young woman who also looked to be in her 20s had reddish brown hair that the man told Gwen was curly slash frizzy and shoulder length. She stood roughly five foot four inches and was wearing a floral dress. So now Gwen is thinking, okay, did this couple see something? Were they involved? But Gwen also wonders if foul play might be a potential theory related to another individual.
01:23:01
Speaker
Gwen has been most put off by A's actions, both before and after Colby's funeral. As any mother would be, Gwen was relentless and persistent in attempting to find answers from those who had been around her son in his final hours. She actually heard from one young lady who she questioned that A
01:23:25
Speaker
when he had originally stated that he was driving around for hours looking for Colby, that he had actually gone to Colby's house and sat with his roommates until roughly 9.45 p.m. So this would have been, yeah, if this girl is telling the truth, which this girl said she was there.
01:23:49
Speaker
This would mean that A, left Colby's house only minutes before going to speak with an officer at the gas station. And it also means that he would not have been driving around actively looking for his good friend. So if he's that worried, why would he have gone and just sat there?
01:24:10
Speaker
Yeah. And then lied about it. Right. Additionally, only a couple of hours after Gwen heard the news about Colby, she began trying to call A, right? Hearing that he was one of the last people who was around Colby. She reportedly tried to get in touch with him from around 5 a.m. until after 11 a.m. with no response.
01:24:37
Speaker
It was only after contacting one of Colby's roommates and asking why A had not responded that he called her back. The reason he said he hadn't answered was that he said he'd been asleep and his phone battery had died. But Gwen questions how anyone, especially A, could have slept after just finding out that one of his best friends had reportedly committed suicide. Yeah.
01:25:04
Speaker
But, I mean, maybe that's a coping thing for him. Right. Another sticking point for Gwen has to do with A and the location of the bridge. A had told Gwen that neither he nor his friends had known where this bridge was, that he'd never been there before,
Emotional Aftermath and Ongoing Quest for Truth
01:25:23
Speaker
right? Do you remember me telling you that? Yes.
01:25:26
Speaker
However, Gwen recalls driving the area herself so she could see the route that her son Colby had taken from A's house to the bridge, and she had done some research ahead of time and found that there were actually a couple of different routes that Colby could have taken to get to the bridge. However, she said when she mentioned the possibility of alternative routes, A responded, no, this is the only way that I know of.
01:25:55
Speaker
But how could it be the way that he knew of, and it also be true that he had never heard of the bridge before? Maybe he just didn't know it had a name. Maybe? After Colby's funeral, A and the other friends did distance themselves from Gwen and the rest of the family. A, as well as one of the other friends, also changed their names and spelling of their names on Facebook.
01:26:25
Speaker
prompting when to question whether that were a move to try to distance themselves from any association with the investigation. But what Gwen found most odd was that she recalls even at the visitation, Colby's roommates and other friends still asking Colby's sister if she had found the password to Colby's computer.
01:26:50
Speaker
Gwen's questions, if they only needed it to use Find My iPhone to locate Colby, why were they still asking for it? But to give them benefit of the doubt, I should mention that, again, they are not suspects, nor have they ever been considered persons of interest. Like you said, Maggie, could they have been distancing themselves because they were also grieving and they didn't know how to deal with the pain?
01:27:21
Speaker
I mean, obviously they didn't like that. Several of their acquaintances still feel that they know more than they're letting on. And so maybe they did want to distance themselves from all of those people. And some people just, when they can't cope with everyday life, just kind of
01:27:45
Speaker
quit responding. They check out. I do that if I get really overwhelmed and someone texts me. It's too overwhelming to respond back to them and maybe that's how they felt. Right. I will say the private investigator also believed them, saying that they didn't hesitate to speak to him and that they didn't seem afraid when providing details.
01:28:11
Speaker
at 2.39 a.m. on August 27th. So again, this is right just a few hours after the friends had heard from that officer what happened. A sent a Snapchat to Colby with the following words, quote, I love you, man, brothers for life. I'm gonna miss you forever. You were my best friend and like family to me.
01:28:40
Speaker
I'm sorry I couldn't tell anything was going on. I'm sorry I couldn't stop this. I miss you, little brother. Until we meet again, I love you." End quote. So Maggie, now that you have heard all three theories, which do you believe is most likely? I do think that
01:29:06
Speaker
I'm not saying it isn't and I'm not saying it is, but I do think it's really easy for us to want to believe that it's a or one of these people from group two or a roommate because we want justice for Colby. We want to be able to place blame on someone. But I don't
01:29:31
Speaker
No, I think there's several weird things that happen like he goes into ghost mode and you know all that But I don't think that necessarily points to it being a homicide Like I think about like Robin Williams who committed suicide. Mm-hmm
01:29:50
Speaker
And I wonder how many people in his very tight knit circle would say, I knew everything about him. He did not suffer from mental illness. I knew everything about him. There's nothing that he had for me, but yet he did hide that from them. So I wonder if maybe Colby was experiencing more internally than he let on.
01:30:18
Speaker
Mm-hmm two people in his inner circle because we do that we you know hot air pain from the people that we love. Mm-hmm I Don't know. I mean I Want to say that it was The third one I want to say that I
01:30:40
Speaker
You know, it's foul play because I want this family to one day get justice and have an answer that will, I don't even know the right words for what I'm trying to say.
01:30:58
Speaker
Closure yeah, I want them to be able to have that closure because I do think that it being a suicide somebody you love that much and not knowing why they committed suicide or you know, not Giving them the help that you feel you could have had you known. I think that would be very hard. Mm-hmm
01:31:25
Speaker
And I feel without play, we do get some type of closure, even with a little closure with accident. But I honestly don't know, but I do have to say this is probably one of the saddest ones for me that we've covered. I still go back to all of those plans that Colby had made.
01:31:54
Speaker
And I feel like even if he didn't want to show depression or something like that, if that were the case, I just don't know if he would have made all of those plans if his original intention had been suicide, which makes me wonder about some sort of drug-induced psychosis or
01:32:15
Speaker
you know, even going to an accident of hazing gone wrong. That's what I was about to say. Yeah, I think the conversations of calling each other brother
01:32:29
Speaker
It's almost like those tend to happen when people are in a situation where there is, say, a brotherhood. So for example, Rodney will call other firefighters, brother. They're in that together. I think that individuals who are on, say, a football team together might call each other brother. But I don't know if necessarily just
01:32:55
Speaker
friends do? Well, it almost makes me wonder if they are like fraternity brothers, right? And, you know, when he says little brother, I don't know what the age difference was between them. But, you know, in fraternities, you do have little sisters, big sisters and sororities. In fraternities, you have little brothers and big brothers. And I just I keep getting stuck on that language. I don't want to necessarily blame
01:33:24
Speaker
individuals who were involved. But I do wonder if something happened. If Colby... I don't know. I don't know. But I'm hesitant to say suicide.
01:33:42
Speaker
There's one thing that most people do agree on, even if they disagree on the theory, and that is that whatever happened to Colby likely happened between 6 and 7 p.m., whether that be a psychotic break, a reaction to drugs, or something more menacing. Sadly, there were no prints taken from the car since it was deemed a suicide. Security camera footage from the area wasn't checked.
01:34:09
Speaker
until too late, when all the recordings from the 26th had long since been recorded over. But one thing that hasn't been erased is the traumatic effect Colby's passing has had on his family. Of the pain, Gwen told me the following lingering sadness. I mean, it's all I can think about and just work. It's different at the same time.
01:34:37
Speaker
I'm not able to focus on my daughters as much. It's kind of made me a little distant from them. And then for me, because we just kind of have to be in our own little world and be by ourselves sometimes, and my grandson's the one who's probably getting used to stuff. I'm taking the worst effect from it because he was
01:35:01
Speaker
Everybody's world involved around him and now he's just got to see us crying and sad. And we're not the one, I feel like we are not the one as much as we would have been the one because we're just, we got days that we just, all we can do is cry. My dad, my dad, I've never seen him cry one time in my life when his mom passed away just a little bit.
01:35:41
Speaker
Well, nothing we can say or do will bring her golden boy back.
01:35:46
Speaker
We can listen to what Gwen Wood is saying. We can question. We can push for answers alongside her. We can let her know that while we do not understand her grief, we can support her with all of our hearts. We can share Colby's story.
01:36:05
Speaker
Anyone with information about Colby's final days or about his death is asked to call the West Virginia State Police at 304-528-5555.
01:36:40
Speaker
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