(Publisher’s Note: A new chapter to this series of stories will publish in the near future so we believe in order to get new readers to discover the series, the best thing to do is to re-publish it beginning today and continue during this coming week. One of the main reasons why Gwen Wood, her daughters, and her friends and family agreed to tell this story was to raise more questions in hopes additional information about this accident would flow their way … and that has taken place thus far.)
First, it was Mother’s Day, and talk about a tough day. Gwen Wood’s two daughters honored her, but there remained an emptiness.
And then, three days ago on May 17, it was Colby Brown’s 21st birthday. He wanted to go to Las Vegas with family and close friends. Instead, it was a Heavenly 21st because he was found more than 100 feet below a bridge along Interstate 64 in Huntington, W.Va., following the first day of his sophomore year in late August 2019. Colby had gone to the gym in the morning, attended two classes and made a date with a young lady for the afternoon, and then played video games with several friends.
They said he suddenly vanished after he and his friend smoked a bowl of marijuana; that he didn’t feel well; that he was in a downstairs bathroom; that he just left. The next person to see him alive, albeit barely, was a young lady who pulled to the side of I-64 after seeing him finish his fall. She said they prayed, and then Colby passed away.
“When I was told what happened, I kept thinking it was a mistake and that Colby was just on the hospital and he was going to be OK,” Wood recalled. “The following morning we went to the hospital to see him, and it’s a picture I will never get out of my mind. He was lying there, and we could see him only from the neck up. I kept thinking he was going to sit up and tell us he was kidding around.
“I never imagined we would have to celebrate any of his birthdays at the cemetery, and it made my heart feel so badly. It’s hard to do anything because everything reminds me of him,” she admitted. “That’s why I always keep looking for a sign from him that he’s OK.”
No Healing Over Time
Wood has kept herself busy. She has part-time bartended, and she’s cared for an ill friend. As always, she has remained in constant contact with her daughters, Darby and Shelby, and with her closest friends.
She is the first to admit, however, that life, in general, can prove tortuous for the most simplistic reasons. Driving by the fields on which Colby Brown played, the school he attended, and even the colors blue and gold, still cause anxiety.
“I was rooting for those Cameron boys who made the state basketball tournament, but it was hard to watch because Colby was one of those boys once,” she said. “I guess I’m not used to him not being here because I keep wanting to tell him things, or if I see something he would like in a store, I think about buying it for him. Those situations make it hard to breathe.
“I know I need to go talk to someone. I know I need to get help for the grief, but I don’t think anyone would understand enough to be of any help,” Wood continued. “I know he’s not coming back, but I still look for him.”
Mother’s Day was first, and Gwen posted a meme that stated, “There is no greater burden or torture in this life than for a mother to live without one (or more) of her children.”
Colby Brown’s birthday picnic this past Sunday was consoling because so many honored Colby. Soon after, though, Mom was left again with her own thoughts.
“I don’t know which one is worse, Mother’s Day or his birthday. Probably his birthday, so, yeah, it was a real bad week,” Wood explained. “It’s hard for me to be around people, and that’s why it’s hard for me to leave the house most of the time. But on his birthday, we spent a lot of time with family and friends, and then we went to the cemetery, and a lot of people had decorated rocks in his honor because his memorial marker isn’t ready yet.
“I was hoping the marker would have been here,” she said. “We ordered it back in February, and it’s still not ready, but that didn’t stop anyone from honoring him with the rocks and also the Chinese lanterns that everyone set off once it got dark outside Sunday night.”
Progress and Peace
The people who have followed this case know:
- The investigators with the West Virginia State Police listed the cause of death as “suicide.”
- A private investigator, John P. Casey, concluded the cause as “accidental.”
- Neither determined cause makes sense to his mother.
“One of us would have known Colby was having some kind of problems, so that’s why we will never believe he took his own life,” Wood insisted. “And if it was an accident, how was it an accident? The PI didn’t explain that in his report, and that’s why I think he was just telling me what I wanted to hear.”
Relentless, Wood has been. Even during this pandemic. Countless voice mails have been left, a “bazillion” emails sent, and still the “Why?” remains unanswered.
“There hasn’t been any progress as far as the investigation is concerned. It just seems stuck where it is, but I have realized that even the truth isn’t going to bring Colby back,” she said. “But there’s too much that doesn’t add up. Not from his phone or his laptop, and the information from his electronics do not match the story that’s been told to the investigators.
“I don’t know when I will be at peace. I really don’t. Maybe never,” Wood said. “Maybe when I die and I get to see him again; I don’t know. If I found out the truth about what happened to him, I am sure that would help some because I would finally know what did actually happen and where it happened.”
