He went to the gym to better his body, to his two classes to grow his mind on the very first day of his sophomore year at Marshall University, and he even made a date with a female who was maybe-more-than-a-friend.
Then Colby Brown spent time with a few friends playing video games before, according to the people present, he suddenly left the house, drove a couple of miles to the McCoy Road Bridge, and jumped 109 feet to his death on Interstate 64 in Huntington.
None of it adds up, and why “suicide” was the conclusion reached by investigators with the West Virginia State Police remains a mystery to Colby’s mother, Gwen Wood. That is why, even during the one-year pandemic, she has continued her quest for the answers to her questions. In fact, Wood’s refusal to accept the troopers’ findings resulted in the title of the series LEDE has published since January 2020.
“Suicide? No Way.”
“I knew my son better than anyone knew him,” Gwen said. “I know every mother wants to believe that, but there wasn’t much, if anything, that he didn’t tell me. Did he keep some secrets? I’m sure. Doesn’t everyone? But did he keep secrets that would lead to something like this? There’s just no way.
“If Colby was having any issues that would end with something like this, I truly believe I would have heard something from him about it. We really did talk about everything, and if he didn’t come to me with something, he went to one of his sisters or his father.”
There have been nine chapters since the series began as a featured story on LEDE every two weeks. It was planned to extend 18 chapters and to culminate one year following his passing on August 26, 2020. The pandemic, of course, altered every plan once in place for the future of the series, but now that restrictions have been eased by state officials, an active conversation needs to take place.
There have been chapters about Wood’s progress with her own investigation, and the most recent story was published on January 23 because Wood decided to move forward with the placement of a memorial where Colby was interred.
“Colby deserves it,” she said. “There’s even a bench in the middle of it so his family and friends can just sit there and talk to him. I’m sure a lot of people have a lot to say to him because everyone just loved that boy.”
This Afternoon’s Podcast
Scott Mumper served as a federal investigator for the United States Air Force for 27 years, and he has joined LEDE News as an investigative reporter. This afternoon we will provide an overview of the story of Colby’s life and his death. Scott and I will focus some time on the report from the private investigator, John P. Casey, a retired trooper who was paid $5,000 to get to the bottom of the alleged suicide.
Casey’s conclusion, in fact, was that Colby died an accidental death, but the investigator failed to detail how the accident took place.
“He probably put that it was an accidental death at the end because he knew that would be something I wanted to hear,” Wood said. “There’s more to it, though. There has to be. There just no way it happened the way those boys said it did.
“I’m telling you, I knew my son, and there are answers out there. Every time LEDE has published a story, more people have reached out to me,” she said. “There are people out there with the real answers, and I hope they reach out to us.”
The show, “Steve Novotney Lives,” is scheduled to begin this afternoon at 3 p.m. The broadcast will be on the Facebook page for LEDE News; it also will be live on TuneIn Radio and i-Heart and archived on Pandora, Spotify, iTune, Google, and ListenNow.
“We were rolling on this investigation when the pandemic hit and shut everything down,” Mumper said. “It’s going to be great to get back into it because there are a lot of questions that still need to be asked to the right people. It’s really a complex case, and it appears there’s a lot of information that’s missing.
“Colby’s mother has her questions, I have mine, and you have yours,” he added. “If we can get the answers to all of those questions, I believe we’ll find out what really happened.”
“Steve Novotney Lives” – 3-5 p.m. – on the LEDE News Facebook page.
