Serialously with Annie Elise - 193: Husband Uses Plastic Surgery To Kill 33-Year-Old Bombshell Wife? | The Very Suspicious Death of Hillary Brown

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

In November 2023, Hillary Brown went into her husband’s plastic surgery practice for a couple of different procedures. But things quickly went south after Hillary became unresponsive. She eventually passed away leaving many with questions of whether this was just a complete accident, or if something more calculated had taken place… We're going on TOUR!! Come see one of our episodes LIVE in a city near you! Head to https://annieelise.com/blogs/events for dates and ticket info! Hero Bread Hero Bread is offering 10% off your order. Go to https://www.hero.co and use code AE at checkout. Mint Mobile Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month at https://www.mintmobile.com/ae Zoc Doc Go to https://www.Zocdoc.com/ANNIEELISE and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.  Shop the Merch: www.annieelise.com Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast   Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/       Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise     All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_    SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/    About Me: https://annieelise.com/   For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Sources:  WEAR NEWS 3 Pensacola News Journal Fox59 USA Today Fox News Audio Sources:  WEAR Channel 3 News News Nation Restore Plastic Surgery

Domino One Police Fire Ambulance. Ambulance. We have an unstable patient. Okay. Are you there with the patient now? Yes. Okay. We do have help on the way. What exactly happened? She was having surgery. This is a plastic surgery office. She's unstable. She's having seizures. I think. Okay.

She's on cardiac arrest right now. Okay. We have help coming, okay? Can you tell me what kind of operation she was getting? Abdominal lipo, fat transfer, different things. I don't know them off the top of my head right now. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. Boy, oh boy, do we have a doozy of a case to talk about today. I've got all my gear here. I've got

my tumbler with all my water. I've got my Diet Coke. It's definitely a Diet Coke day. And I have to break this case down for you because it's one that was recently in the headlines. But then as we started diving in and digging a little bit deeper, there was so much below the surface that wasn't being reported and that nobody knew about, myself included, to where I was like, this is a huge red flag. This is like, there's a history here. There's a pattern. Like, I don't know. I needed to jump on the mic and talk with you guys about it. Now, let's start with this. We've all heard cosmetic surgery horror stories before, right? Maybe something has happened to yourself. Maybe

it's happened to a friend. Maybe it was Botox that went wrong where you had like one eye drooping lower than the other. Maybe it was somebody who you know who got a nose job and then the nose actually collapsed years later because yes, that is a thing, or whatever it is that happened. It's a horror story, right? Yes, it's horrible, but that's usually as bad as it gets. But in November of 2023, what was supposed to be just a few routine nips and tucks on 33-year-old Hillary Brown, it spiraled into this insane crisis in an instant, just in literally a brief second, all at the hands of her plastic surgeon, who happened to also be her husband. It pays to have connections in your family or your friend group, whether you

have a friend who's a lawyer who can give you advice on a parking ticket or, God forbid, a legal case, or maybe you have a family member or friend who's a dermatologist that can like give you a full once-over on your skin once a year, whatever it is, they can like look at that pesky mole, who knows. But it pays to have people who are connected to professional trades, right? Maybe best of all, you could say it would be nice to have a plastic surgeon husband, kind of like the perfect dream, you could put things back to where they once were in your early 20s, you could tighten things, you could do a little nip, a little tuck, whatever it is. And Hillary Brown was living that dream. On the afternoon of November 21st, 2023, Hillary's husband, Florida-based board-certified plastic

surgeon Dr. Ben Brown, performed cosmetic surgery on his wife. And to be specific, Hillary was scheduled to have a double arm liposuction and an abdominal scar revision, lip injections, and an ear adjustment. A lot of surgeries, a lot of things. And she was going to have all of these back to back. Now, it might sound like a lot all at once, but this wasn't the first time that she had gone under the knife. And it also wasn't the first time that her husband, Dr. Brown, had operated on her. In fact, he had done several other operations on Hillary's face and body

over the last few months and years. And nothing bad had ever happened before. Nothing had gone awry. Now, we all know that every surgery, yes, it does have its risks, whether it's something minor like getting rid of, you know, I don't know, a gross bunion on your foot or something more serious like open heart surgery, there always is a chance that something could go wrong. And an elective cosmetic procedure isn't any different. In fact, some of them can actually be pretty dangerous, even more risky, especially if you're not in great health going into it,

or maybe if you end up with a shady doctor. How many times have we seen lately people are flying overseas to get things done, to get a BBL in their butt in Mexico, and they come back and whoever performed it literally injected silicone from Home Depot into their butt. Like, we have seen so many crazy things. And one of the more mainstream occurrences that you may remember is when Kanye West's mom, Donda, she died just a day after having a breast lift and a tummy tuck. But when it's your husband that's operating on you, they would never let anything bad happen to you, right? You'd feel like they would probably be extra careful. You would be in safe hands. Some people might even say that they're the most qualified person to do the procedure.

I mean, after all, who knows you better and who knows your body better than your partner, right? Now, I've got to be honest, I didn't even realize that it was actually legal to let a family member operate on you until I learned about this case. Sure, maybe injections here and there, but I didn't think undergoing a full-on operation, but maybe that's just me being naive. Sure, maybe injections here and there, but I didn't think undergoing a full-on operation, but maybe that's just me being naive. Apparently, it's frowned upon, yes, and discouraged, but it's not illegal. If it were me, though, I would be extra nervous about making a mistake and maybe messing up something on the person that I loved, because I could just see the patient-doctor relationship becoming a little too blurry, no matter how great a surgeon you are. Mixing

business with pleasure anytime can sometimes just get, you know, a little funky, a little too blurry, no matter how great a surgeon you are. Mixing business with pleasure anytime can sometimes just get, you know, a little funky, a little gray, a little muddy. But Dr. Brown didn't seem nervous about it at all, and neither did his wife Hillary, who actually worked at this practice herself as an assistant. In fact, Hillary was so comfortable with it, she even prepared her own pills and IV bag before the procedures began that day. She knew what to do, and she was ready to do it herself. Which I just gotta say, even if you are a doctor and you are getting some sort of surgery done, for some reason to me, that doesn't seem super, super ethical. And from what we know so far, Hillary didn't have any sort of anesthesia license or certification or anything like that,

so why she was prepping her own medications and IV bag, it just doesn't feel quite right to me. The red flags were starting to go off, but let's get back to that day. So after all of that prep work, Hillary's surgeries began, and things seemed to be going okay at first. Between the procedures, she actually got up and started moving around. But then shortly after, the real problems started. According to witnesses who were in the room, Dr. Brown injected something into his wife's face. And just a few seconds later, Hillary started to complain about seeing the color orange. And she said that her vision was getting blurry, that her face felt puffy. Hillary was even able to say out loud that she thought that it might be a sign that she was overdosing.

But this didn't seem to phase Dr. Brown. In fact, he just moved right along, injecting an area near her right eye with that exact same solution. And that is when Hillary started to convulse. The next thing you know, she was in full-blown cardiac arrest, lying there just on death's doorstep if somebody didn't do something to help her soon. And eventually, because of what was going on, a 911 call was made, but not until 20 minutes later. Which, why are you waiting 20 minutes? Who is waiting 20 minutes? Your husband, who's operating on you?

That's literally half an episode of Vanderpump Rules. Like, I cannot wrap my mind around it. What were they doing in that room? Why would you delay seeing this woman in distress? Why would you delay 20 minutes before in distress? Why would you delay 20 minutes before calling 911? That's just another huge red flag in this case, and don't worry, we are going to dissect it all. But in any event, Hillary was taken to a nearby emergency room, and she was immediately admitted into the ICU, where the doctors all worked really fast to try

and save her life. Her situation was so dire, though, that she needed to be placed on life support immediately. But her family was hopeful that she would wake up. She just had to, because maybe then she could tell everybody her side of the story, and maybe she could let everybody know what really went down leading up to that afternoon. Meanwhile, her husband, Dr. Brown, posted an official statement to his Facebook page, all while his wife was lying unconscious in the hospital. In soulmate, my world, my everything. Please come back. Please. Now before we get any further, let's back up a bit and talk a bit more about Hillary.

Who was she? Hillary Ellington Brown was born in Mobile, Alabama, and she went on to get a chemical engineering degree from the University of Mississippi. So obviously, she was incredibly smart. She was also stunning, with long brown hair and these bright blue eyes. Hillary had been described as this extremely giving, talented, and loving person. The staff who worked at her husband's practice always loved just how cheerful she was by nature. And I know it's such a, you know, cliche and cringey cliche, but her smile, guys, it really could light up a room. Now, before she met Dr. Brown, Hillary was married, and the relationship that she had there gave her three beautiful kids.

While that marriage didn't work out, she seemed smitten when this new guy entered her life in 2021. That guy was none other than plastic surgeon Dr. Ben Brown. Hillary was interested in a breast reduction surgery at the time, and she had made an appointment in an office near Pensacola, which was called Restore Plastic Surgery. She wanted to learn more about the procedure, what would it exactly entail. And this practice just so happened to be Dr. Ben Brown's practice. So the two of them hit it off, and from there, things moved super quick. Their relationship

was somewhat of a whirlwind. Hillary's family says that the couple didn't know each other too long before getting engaged, and then later, they got married in June of 2022, just literally right on the heels of meeting. But Dr. Ben seemed like a catch. I mean, he was educated at top universities, he had a medical license, He even owned his own practice. He also had two kids from a previous relationship, so he understood what it meant to be a parent, and family seemed super important to him, so they were going to blend this family together. Hillary's dad, Marty, said that at first, everything seemed to be really good. Ben was a stand-up guy to Hillary and to her kids, and that's what mattered her with open arms. He he

care a lot about the kids that by that that she was the seemingly happy famil new life together and int oceanfront home just outs which if you've never been, it is an absolute gorgeous place. The white sandy beaches, the Caribbean colored waters, I mean, it is absolutely amazing. And by the looks of it, Hillary and Dr. Ben had it all. They were newlyweds, they had this

beautiful blended family, they had a home that was like straight out of Architectural Digest, it was stunning. And for all of you Grey's Anatomy fans out there, it really seemed like Hillary had found her very own Dr. McDreamy, or Dr. McSteamy, because he was a plastic surgeon. I mean, she had this now life that she had always dreamed of, she always wanted. But really, who is Dr. Ben anyway? If the couple really was so happy, and if they were soulmates and had this perfect marriage, perfect life, there's no way that he could be mixed up in what happened to his wife during her surgery, right? Surely this was an accident. A search of Ben's past didn't reveal much, if I'm going to be honest with you. The only real legal trouble that he had ever been in was for underage drinking back in 2001, so nothing very serious. And it honestly looks like Ben was

a pretty straight laced guy. I mean, it does seem kind of difficult to run a successful medical practice if you aren't. And on his website, it even brags about how before he began his six years of surgery training, he graduated number one in his medical class. And don't just take it from me. I mean, here's Ben in his own words. I'm Dr. Ben Brown. I'm a board certified plastic surgeon in Pensacola, Florida at Restore Plastic Surgery. My family and I have a strong history of volunteering and that's what inspired me to become a physician. When I was a child, I would travel to Honduras

with my father who is a family physician and perform medical missions or go on medical missions in rural areas of Honduras. Not only did I get to spend time with my dad, but it inspired me to become a physician as I grew up as well. What makes my practice unique is the customized and sophisticated approach that I take to every patient's problem. So I was fortunate enough to train at a six-year integrated plastic surgery program, which gave me a lot of experience and exposure to plastic surgery and all the different techniques and approaches within plastic surgery.

So when a patient comes to me with a problem or a concern, we are usually able to address it using a combination of different techniques and approaches that best fits their anatomy and their time to recover and their budget. So Ben went on to open his office in 2015. And by the way things look, his reputation as a surgeon during that time was really good. In fact, the practice has a current 4.7 out of 5 star rating on Google, and most of them are just like these glowing reviews. Let me read one for you. From my first appointment, Dr. Ben Brown has been attentive, upfront, and honest. He has amazing skills, and his work has far exceeded my expectations. I have recommended his services to my family and friends, and I will definitely be back for more And that's not the only review like that.

There are literally hundreds. So on the surface, everything looks perfect. Even Ben's current Facebook cover photo is a collage of eight different photos of him and his wife Hillary just looking super in love. Everybody knows that social media isn't real. It doesn't ever show the hard times of life. And no one knows how to make things look better than they really are, quite like a plastic surgeon, right? And the truth about Dr. Ben, who he was and what he's been up to, it was just beginning to come to the surface. So it seems like problems in Ben and Hillary's marriage started almost as quickly as their relationship began. Sure, they may have each had their own happy demeanor separately, but as time

went on, Hillary's dad says that things started to take a turn for the worse. The hostility around there, I mean, it was just constant yelling, cussing. You know, it was just a real volatile type situation. And this is where things start to get a little bit darker. According to a couple of reports, police visited Ben and Hillary's home in March of 2023 in reference to potential suicide. Ben apparently made the call himself, and he told police officers that Hillary was, and I'm quoting the report here, barely conscious and still unresponsive due to self-medication with an unknown amount of Valium.

When the officers and an ambulance arrived, they were able to get Hillary talking, and she did admit to taking the Valium. She said that she didn't really want to hurt herself, but she did want her husband to know that she was, quote, serious. It feels like maybe it was a threat of some sort. She wanted him to think that she was going to take her own life, but she really didn't have plans of doing that. So Hillary ended up being okay, and she didn't require any medical treatment on the spot. But the officer did think that she met all of the necessary requirements

for something that Florida has called the Baker Act. Now, a Baker Act is basically a law that lets police bring you into a hospital for evaluation during a mental health crisis. They're allowed to do that if they feel like you're not able to make the appropriate decision for yourself. And that's exactly what happened. Hillary was taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. So clearly, this picture-perfect life that they were portraying, and it looked like Ben and Hillary had, it wasn't all what it seemed to be. But some toxicity and tumultuous times in a marriage,

all the way to now somebody being dead? Surely it wouldn't escalate to that, right? Now, Hillary's friends described her and Ben's relationship as, quote, intense. They said that Hillary was never one to back down from a challenge either. They thought that it seemed like maybe she just didn't want to put her kids through another divorce, and maybe that's why she was hanging on to this marriage. But according to Hillary's dad, his daughter was planning something. She was planning to leave Ben at the end of 2023,

just after Christmas. He says that she had finally had enough, and she was ready to put herself and her kids first again. And it seems like she had her family's full support. They also had grown to dislike Ben, saying that, yes, while he could be incredibly suave and, you know, have this, like, sweet air about him, deep down, her dad Marty thought that Ben was, quote, a Charles Manson. And there was one thing that Hillary's family could never quite understand. Exactly why Hillary kept having cosmetic surgeries done, surgery after surgery after surgery. She was this gorgeous girl who just kept going under the knife. It's not like she needed any of this work done. But one of Hillary's friends had a theory that

Ben was trying to sculpt his new wife into something different. They think that he was trying to make her look less like the girl next door, and more like a Megan Fox type person, an Angelina Jolie type person. Now that's a pretty strong accusation, and up until this point, there hadn't been a ton of outward red flags being raised about Ben. Hillary's appearance did, yes, seem to change a lot from the time that she met Ben to after marrying him. She used to have this all-American blonde look about her, and since getting with him, her look became a bit sexier, bolder, darker even. And I just want to say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting any sort of cosmetic work done. You do you, do

whatever makes you confident 100%, as long as you're doing it for yourself, not for somebody else. And it seemed like Hillary wanted to make these changes for herself, and that she consented to them. Or did she? According to the Florida Department of Health, during their investigation of what exactly went down the day that Hillary went into cardiac arrest, they heard accounts from at least two past female patients that Dr. Brown had performed, quote, unauthorized procedures on them, specifically Brazilian butt lifts. Not only that, but the women also said that they were left with these permanent injuries after the surgeries, and that Dr. Brown didn't keep their medical records accurate. Now, the

medical records not being kept accurate reminds me of this sound bite that I heard of Ben speaking. So I do love plastic surgery. It is most of what my life is consumed by, but I'm okay with that because the whole process except for the paperwork is a lot of fun. Imagine that. The whole process except for the paperwork is a lot of fun. That really didn't age well for him, did it? Now back to these unauthorized procedures. Apparently one of the women Ben did this to confronted him at one point, and his reasoning for doing this without telling her? He said, I thought you'd love it. Now I gotta say, that is just gross for multiple reasons. First of all, you're doing a procedure without

her consent, and then to have the audacity to say, I thought you would love it, as if you did some sort of improvement to her, as if her body was not great before this procedure, it's just so gross. The second patient said that she had a consultation with Dr. Brown in August of 2021, during which he suggested that she undergo a Brazilian butt lift as well. She had no interest, though, and she declined, only to wake up from the procedure she did choose to undergo and discover that he had given her a BBL anyway. The woman went on to say that she even had to go back for revision scar surgery after experiencing complications, that this entire thing was

what she describes pure torture. So now, finally, the red flags are waving, right? Can you imagine having a part of your body altered, physically altered, all without your consent, while you are asleep under general anesthesia and then waking up to that, like physically, permanently changed, something that you were happy with and you never wanted it to look different, and you wake up and it is completely different. And even worse, there's nothing that you can do about it. It's honestly so disturbing, and it's actually insane behavior, if true. And just to clarify, both of these statements are a part of the official Florida Department of Health report. But it's not clear that either of these two women ever brought legal charges against Dr. Brown. There are, however, two current open malpractice lawsuits against Ben's practice.

That same practice, Restore Plastic Surgery, and these lawsuits are in the court system. And just so we're all on the same page here, malpractice doesn't just mean that somebody didn't like their results. You can't just agree to get a facelift done, and then when you don't end up loving the results, you sue them because it's not what you imagined. That's not how it works. To bring a malpractice suit against a doctor, you typically have to prove some kind of negligence, or that somebody was left permanently disfigured or disabled from the procedure. Or sometimes it's even something worse, like death. One of the open suits doesn't name Ben directly, just his general office. But on the other one, he is listed as a defendant.

According to that case, a patient named Wendy Carden saw Dr. Brown for a post-misectomy reconstructive breast surgery back in 2018. She alleges that Dr. Brown used, quote, foreign materials during the procedure without her consent. This led to her suffering from an infection and sepsis after surgery. Some seriously dangerous stuff. And she goes on to allege that she's also dealing with nerve damage from the procedure as well. She says Dr. Brown didn't properly position her upper arms during what was a pretty long surgery, and it left her with long-term nerve issues that are not going away. Now for now, her case is still ongoing in the court system in

Florida. And it sounds like there could be more to come too. Since last November, a local Pesicola personal injury attorney says that his office has gotten 15 calls from previous patients of Dr. Ben's practice, all who felt like they had grounds for a malpractice suit as well. Most of them this lawyer had to turn away because apparently Dr. Brown would have his patients sign something called an arbitration agreement. He would have them sign this right before he would do their procedures. And basically, it means that you're giving up your right to a jury trial if you ever wanted to bring a malpractice charge against him. And it seems like this is more than just a little bit shady, because most lawyers will tell you that if you have the choice, you should never sign something like that. And if you're looking, and if you're paying close attention, you can sort of start to see a theme here. That's now the third patient's story that we've heard

that alleges that Ben did things to women all while they were unconscious, that he didn't discuss these things with them prior. I know the word consent is kind of like a buzzword that we see thrown around a lot today, but honestly, I've never thought about consent in that way before. I never thought about a doctor not getting consent to do things and just choosing to do them anyway. It never even crossed my mind. It's so bizarre and so horrific. Now, after all of that, you might be wondering, okay, well, how in the hell is this guy still a licensed surgeon?

Well, that's just it. He's not. When everything happened with Hillary, the state found probable cause to revoke Ben's medical license. This was in early May of 2024. And the wording? It wasn't light either. The statement signed by the Florida Surgeon General actually called Dr. Brown a danger to the public. And they went on to discuss how they had received reports of his medical practice being dirty, and a place where witnesses said that they saw staff members take controlled substances from unlocked cabinets,

all for their own personal use, quote, just to take the edge off. And that's not even the craziest part either, guys. According to the report, patients and even some staff members who were interviewed said that at times Dr. Brown let Hillary perform laser treatments at the practice. And from everything that we could find, it doesn't look like she had any kind of license or certification or anything to do anything like that. Sure, she may have been employed by the practice as, you know, a quote, assistant, but that doesn't automatically qualify you to do these medical tasks or services. Certainly not. So to actually let her perform things like laser treatments? Look, I'm not saying that Hillary wasn't capable. We know that she was a smart woman, yes. But for something like that, you need to have the right training to do it. It's just not safe

otherwise. So at first, all of the stuff around Ben and his practice seemed like speculation. But hearing how he was actually running the place and what was going on behind the scenes according to actual witnesses' accounts, it was wild. If I'm going to a doctor for a procedure, any person who is actually touching me during that procedure better damn well have training, certifications, licensing, all of the things, everything that they legally need in order to do something. So let this just please be a reminder to everyone, do your own due diligence when it comes to your healthcare. Don't just assume that the person you're trusting is all that they're cracked up to be. We've unfortunately seen time and time again, they are not. So like I said before, who better than a plastic surgery to make everything look perfect on the outside,

no matter how ugly it is on the inside? But we know that you cannot cover things up forever. Eventually, the truth comes out, no matter how ugly it is. So let's get back to that nightmare of a November afternoon inside that operating room. What else went down that day? We know that Hillary was taken to a nearby hospital where she then fell into a coma and was placed on life support almost immediately. When we got to the ICU and walked in, it was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen in my life. You know, that's my daughter laying there lifeless. Tubes, wires, everywhere. Her eyes partially open just in a blaze stare. And that's where she stayed for about a week,

until November 28, 2023, when Hillary's family decided to take her off of life support. Sadly, Hillary died shortly after, leaving behind her three young children and parents that all loved her just so incredibly much. And her husband Ben? Well, he did a couple of pretty odd things. Right before and right after the woman that he claimed he couldn't live without, who he claimed was his soulmate, right after she died, he did some very bizarre things. While Hillary was still on life support, her dad says that Ben sent him a text message stating that Hillary's health insurance was

going to end on November 30th, and that they needed to make sure that she was removed from life support before then. And his reasoning? If they didn't, Hillary's kids wouldn't get some of the life insurance that they were entitled to. Now look, I consider myself a smart woman, but I also understand that insurance is super complex. However, I can't imagine that being the first thing on your mind when you are talking to your spouse's parents, all while their child is still in the hospital fighting for their life. It seems very callous to me. Hillary's dad felt like Ben cared more about this money than his own wife, and it sure looked that way, because then he did something even more bizarre.

Shortly after Hillary died, Ben started selling some of her belongings on Facebook Marketplace. One of the items that he listed for sale was a pair of ski boots, and get this, the caption he put with it? Selling because my wife doesn't ski anymore. And Hillary's dad says that Ben didn't cry a single tear during the week that Hillary was in that hospital. So that obviously does not look good. But let's remember, everybody does grieve differently. Maybe Ben was just in shock, and maybe he was in autopilot mode. I mean, he was losing his soulmate, the love of his life. It's really hard to predict what anybody would be like in that situation. It's very easy to point fingers from the outside and say,

he's responsible, he's looking shady. Plus, he loved Hillary, right? They had a life together, a home, a family. It was also still new, still the honeymoon stage. So maybe this was all just one big misunderstanding. Hillary's official cause of death was listed as having fatal levels of lidocaine in her body. Doctors said that her brain had been without oxygen for so long that there was simply no way that she could go on to make a full recovery. And that really then sort of begs the

original question we talked about a little bit ago. Why did it take 20 minutes for somebody to call for help that day after she started going into cardiac arrest while she was undergoing these treatments? She could have received life-saving care way faster, and maybe then she wouldn't have been without oxygen for so long, and it just really makes you wonder. Maybe Hillary's seizing and going into cardiac arrest wasn't planned, but could Ben have been waiting around and dragging his feet, calling 911 as his chance, like an opportunity to get out of this relationship without having to go the divorce route, especially maybe if he had any sort of inkling that she was planning on divorcing him. Thankfully, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Department opened up a death

investigation into Hillary's death. From the get-go, something just was not adding up here. I mean, she was a healthy, vibrant young woman. In fact, the odds of just dying randomly during a planned surgery are under 1%, way under 1%, and she was just a healthy 33-year-old woman. Like I said, thankfully it was being looked into. And what the investigation turned up is so unbelievable that it will make your head spin. On June 17, 2024, the Sheriff's Department filed their report, and let me give you some of the highlights and the witness accounts from the other people who were in that treatment room with Ben and Hillary that day. There's a few different unnamed employee witnesses

that we're going to cover here, so for the sake of clarity, I will refer to them as Employee 1, Employee 2, and Former Employee. The first person that the investigator spoke to was Employee 1, who said that she had only worked at the practice for a few days before this procedure. According to her, she saw Hillary prep her own IV bags and take a handful of pills before the surgery began. She says that in the middle of the surgery, Hillary's IV bags ran out. That's when Ben instructed a worker to pour two bags of medication into a bowl. And he didn't dilute them, he didn't do anything like that, but then he started sucking them up with a syringe and injecting them into his wife's arm and face. Now, I'm not a doctor, but nothing about that sounds sanitary or like

proper procedure in any way. And right after that is when Hillary started convulsing. Now, employee number one said that she asked Ben if she should call 911. She asked him several times. But according to her, Ben said, quote, he wanted to try and do it himself. She goes on to say that Dr. Brown was asked by several other staff members at least four or five times if they should call 911. But all he kept saying was wait. And here's where things get even more insane.

And again, I'm reading from the official sheriff's report here. According to this employee, the room didn't even have life-saving supplies like oxygen or even an EKG monitor for Hillary's heart. She says that there was literally nothing in the room that could be done or used to try to bring Hillary back, aside from maybe, yes, chest compressions and CPR. Eventually, a different employee, employee number two, she took matters into her own hands and she called 911. Dr. Brown isn't even the one who asked her to make that call, though. Employee number two also went on to corroborate many of the same details that the first employee mentioned.

She clarified that that first round of, you know, injections that Dr. Brown gave Hillary was a lidocaine mixture. But that second batch of lidocaine, the one that was poured into a bowl, it wasn't diluted in any way. The investigators got even more details from the emergency room doctors that worked on Hillary that day. And it sounds like right away they knew what the problem was. Hillary was overdosing on lidocaine. Even in the 911 call notes, it says, doctor possibly over-medicated his patient. Apparently, it was so bad that the emergency room doctors advised her family super early on that she likely was not going to make it. And the main reason that she was kept on the life support was because she was an organ donor. And as these investigators kept digging, they found something else. This was not the first time that Hillary had overdosed at the hands of her husband.

A former employee of the practice told the sheriffs that in January of 2023, Hillary came in for a brow lift. She was given four milligrams of a drug called Versed, which is supposed to help you relax or sleep before a procedure. She went on to say that a dose of four milligrams is normal. However, after receiving it, Hillary was still awake. So Ben then instructed the former employee to give Hillary more. So she did. She said she might have even given Hillary a third dose, but she couldn't remember exactly. The former employee said that Ben even referred to Hillary as, quote, his little alien. And he gave her higher doses of

medication regularly, way more than what would be considered normal for her weight. Which, I gotta say, his little alien? Like, what the hell? What does that even mean? It sounds, to me at least, like he was just doing experiments on her. Like he had his own, you know, live cadaver that he could just experiment on and do things to and drug and nip and tuck. I mean, it's horrifying to think about. So this person goes on to say that she then left the room, but says that she could hear Ben trying to wake Hillary up after he was done with the first part of her procedure. And the problem was, she was not responding normally. Apparently, Ben then started yelling Hillary's name, which made this former employee

and another tech run back into the room. They were extremely concerned, and they wanted to see what was going on. Ben assured them that everything was fine, but later, during the second part of the procedure, they heard him yelling Hillary's name again, this time with a lot of urgency in his voice. She went on to say that this is not normal upon waking somebody up from surgery. This is not how it's done. This first potential overdose actually caused one of the techs to quit their job at this practice, because it seemed like Dr. Brown's care was just becoming neglectful. The report goes on to list a bunch of other issues that they found with Ben and with the practice relating to that day. Issues such as improper surgery documentation, he didn't keep

an accurate detail of what went down, he let Hillary suture herself after finishing one of the earlier treatments, meaning that she stitched her own skin back together mid-procedure. He wasn't aware of exactly what medicine she took and when, something that a doctor definitely needs to know about. That he kept performing arm lipo on Hillary even when she started twitching, which, by the way, could be one of the very first signs of lidocaine toxicity. And also they list how he told employees not to call 911, even as her breathing became more shallow and her heart rate lowered. Now, first of all, in the state that Hillary was in, how in the world would she even be able to stitch up herself, stitch her own sutures?

I'm beyond confused and baffled by that. Not to mention horrified that her husband would think that that's fine for her to do. You're the surgeon. You're the doctor. Stitch your fucking wife. Like, why are you making her do her own sutures when she is literally under all of these drugs and about to go into another procedure? It makes no sense. So after finding all of this, the report concluded that Ben's treatment of his wife was careless and haphazard, and that he is, quote, incapable of providing the appropriate level of care to future patients. But even as bad as all of this is, it still didn't say that he did this

intentionally, that he tried to kill her. Was this just neglect? Was this just a horrible accident? It was looking very suspicious, yes, and clearly there were a lot of red flags surrounding Dr. Benn, but did he really intend for any of this to happen? Would her husband really maliciously try to kill her to end the life of the woman he loved so much? With the investigation finished, the sheriff's department finally felt like they had the evidence that they needed. So there, at the very end of this report, is Dr. Ben Brown's name listed with an official charge in the death of his wife Hillary. And the manner of death? Homicide. The arrest and his first court appearance went down on June 17,

2024, just about seven months after Hillary's passing. A Gulf Breeze doctor now charged in connection to the death of his own wife. Dr. Ben Brown turned himself into the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office. He was booked just before eight this morning. He's degree felony homicide, m negligence. The sheriff's video showing dr Brown be office in handcuffs. His

been under investigation in Santa Rosa County sin all know that there are l to a homicide charge, right? So what does Ben's charge really mean? The state is charging Ben with homicide, manslaughter by culpable negligence. So it's not an outright first or second degree murder charge, but it does mean that the state believes that Ben was negligent in the death of Hillary. Bringing that charge against somebody means it's believed that they acted recklessly

and even created a high risk of death, ignored risks, and disregarded safety measures that bringing that charge again it's believed that they a even created a high risk risks and disregarded saf have been taken. And I wo and this case, it checks sadly. But why did it tak him? The sheriff says it the Gulf Breeze doctor be

results took a long time. I mean, you know, our detectives are trained in a lot of things, but medical practices they're not trained in. So not only did they have to get the probable cause together, they had to present that not only to the state attorney, but also to a physician like Dr. Oleski at the medical examiner and say, is this common practice? Is this normal? Is this not normal? So far, Ben is maintaining his innocence, and he is pleading not guilty to the charge. Here's his official statement released through his legal team. Ben continues to mourn the death of his loving wife, Hillary, and this arrest, which is completely without merit, only deepens his pain and grief. All safety and medical

protocols were strictly followed on the day of Hillary's passing. Ben is a conscientious, dedicated, and incredibly talented surgeon, and he is looking forward to presenting the actual facts in a court of law and clearing his name of this horrible accusation. According to the arresting officer, Ben also was not too cooperative when he turned himself in. No, not at all. The only word out of his mouth was lawyer, and that's the only interaction we had with him. Then, in a move that upset a lot of people, Dr. Ben was a free man and out of jail after posting a $50,000 bond. Now, one thing that wasn't really adding up for me yet was what was the clear

motive in this case? Why did Ben really wait 20 minutes to have somebody call 911? And why didn't he call himself? Which, let's remember, Ben may have been charged in this case, but he is innocent until proven guilty, and he also hasn't had his day in court yet. So this case, like so many that we talk about, it's far from over. But theory number one is that it was accidental panic. It's entirely possible that Ben let things get out of hand with Hillary's surgery because, as we saw lately, it seemed like he was cutting corners. He was being way too careless when it came to how he was running his practice, all the way to the point where it started to interfere with patient safety. So when he gave Hillary too much lidocaine,

which he had done before, they think that maybe he started to panic and that he didn't want help to come because then they would see how badly he messed up. And because he had had trouble waking Hilaria from surgeries in the past, maybe he was hoping that it would be like that this time, that she would wake up, eventually. It's beyond reckless, yes, but given how it seemed like his confidence bordered kind of on arrogance, it could make sense. But then there's another theory too. The opportunity. Could Ben have seen his wife's seizure and cardiac arrest as a way out, without having to go that route of what he may have seen as an impending messy divorce? Hillary's dad thinks so. After all, we did learn from Hillary's family that she was planning to leave him around Christmas time of last year,

which would have been just over one month after her surgery. Ben could have sensed that coming. We know their relationship wasn't on, you know, the sturdiest of ground. So when Hillary started to seize and go into cardiac arrest, maybe he knew that waiting just long enough would cause a potentially fatal outcome. Hillary's father says that Ben hasn't even apologized or taken any sort of responsibility for the outcome either for the ou him all the opportunity f I sit in a hospital room die. You know, I watch he her take her last breath in the same room together

conversation there. A lot clean and just say I screw screwed up. You know, I never got that. While there's also speculation and rumors online that Ben had planned the entire thing, it doesn't seem like even the state has the evidence to prove something like that happened, or else we'd be looking at an entirely different set of charges in this case besides negligent manslaughter. We don't have all of the answers just yet, but thankfully, at least Hillary's family is getting closer to justice, the justice that they deserve for their daughter and for her children. Her family has even been in touch with local lawmakers, hoping to see if they

can get some sort of legislation passed that would stop doctors and surgeons from performing procedures on their own family members. And they want to call that Hillary's Law. This would be incredibly helpful at stopping a physician from making any emotional or irrational decisions in case an emergency did occur, just like it did with Hillary. And a local attorney has even offered to help the family however he can. A couple of Florida state representatives are also pushing to make changes in current laws relating to malpractice so that it's easier for patients to get justice going forward.

Hillary's dad, Marty Marty says that it drives going. I know, like I say stories every day and it more and more. That's prob that keeps me going. Uh, hurt. Uh, my wife and I h is forever changed. Uh, bu know, we have to fight for her. And we hear, you know, we hear these things about him and what he's done and it's on and on and on.

That's what fuels us to keep going and fight for her. I think it's so incredible that her family is staying so proactive and continuing to fight, not just for their daughter, but to make sure that something like this doesn't happen to anyone, anywhere, ever again. And I think that most of us, if not all of us, can get behind a law like that, right? It really seems like a no-brainer that can certainly save lives. And if it had existed before Hillary went under the knife, I think it's safe to say that she probably would still be with us today. So I want to give Hillary's family the last word here,

so I'm going to read you guys her father's statement about Ben's arrest. We now feel we closed one chapter and have a tiny bit of closure. Hillary was a beautiful soul. Her smile and quick wit lit up a room. We talk to her daily and pray that God has vengeance on the monster whose arrogance cost Hillary her life. remove this animal from his platform and take him away from his throne. We are longing for the days that he is a prisoner as he has made us and that he never gets a decent night's sleep for the rest of his life. Absolutely a very powerful statement, right? Now really quickly, there is another theory that I just want to mention, and it's the theory that he was having an affair. It doesn't seem like too far of a stretch, right? He's having an affair. He kills his wife. He doesn't want the divorce.

He wants the money. I personally don't put a lot of stock into that, but my theory isn't really any of the ones that have been explained. My theory is he wanted that money because of the malpractice suits. I think he knew that he was going to be facing some hefty, hefty settlements, and I think that he wanted the money from the life insurance I think he needed a way to dig himself out because his ego was so big that he wanted to settle out of court he wanted to do whatever he wanted to keep going and the only

way he could do that would be with you know a huge bag of money I could be completely wrong I think part of it was yes reckless as well but I think there was a motivator for why he delayed calling 9-1-. And especially with his comments about the life insurance and the payout, why are you paying such close attention to that? I don't know. That's just my theory, and I could totally be wrong, so do your own research, but I'm curious to know what you guys think. So if you're watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comment section, or if you're listening to the podcast version of this, let me know on Spotify in the Q&A section what you think. What do you think the motive was? Thank you guys so much for hearing Hillary's story. She

was just 33 years old when she died, younger than me, and it's heartbreaking that she died thinking that she had to change her body to be perfect, to be this version of perfect, when she already was perfect, and now she's gone and she leaves three children behind. It's devastating. So I appreciate you allowing her voice continue to echo, her story be told, and let's hope that Dr. Ben Brown gets what he deserves and is locked up and, you know, justice is served.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly. With me, Annie Elise, I will be back on the mic with you on Thursday for headline highlights where we are breaking down everything going on this week in the true crime world. And then I will be back again with you next Monday with a deep dive on a case. Until then, please be nice. Don't kill people.

Stay safe. Don't join a cult. Do all the things. All right. Bye, guys.