Send us a text

Some women ain’t nothing but trouble. No one knows that better than Milton business owner and father, Sean Perdue. 

In 2021, Perdue had a successful business and was a single dad to a young daughter he doted on, Lily. Divorced after 20 years, Perdue was looking for someone to build a life with and help him with his special needs child of whom he had custody.

He thought he found that special someone in Stephanie Linville Perdue, another woman from the Milton area who was a nurse and seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. 

Instead, she shot him by their first wedding anniversary; the bullet went clean through his shoulder and neck. Sean survived and got a restraining order, but she violated it and ended up back behind bars and blamed Sean for it, according to her arrest report. 

That’s when investigators say Stephanie and her new boyfriend, David Bollier, tried to hire inmates at the Santa Rosa County to kill Sean with fentanyl in a failed murder-for-hire plot. The goal was allegedly to take everything he owned and pay the would-be-hitwomen $10,000 for "the job" that was described in code words as a "party for my grandmother" with "party favors."

Stephanie denied the crime. Now more than two and a half years after she was arrested she still hasn’t gone to trial.

Her attorney has yet again asked for another continuance of the trial. It’s the latest in a string of continuances since she was arrested that is frustrating and worrying to Sean, who just wants to move on and get justice after the toxic relationship nearly cost him everything.

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast, “Shot in the neck, murder-for-hire: When will Stephanie Linville Perdue go to trial?”

Support the show

Send us a text

This is quite the episode - we're packing in updates on two controversial cases we've been following! Before we dive into the latest on August Borden we have an update on embattled plastic surgeon, Dr. Ben Brown.

Now to Tuscumbia, Alabama where the Deshler High School football team’s motto is "Nos Non Ego," which is Latin for "We Not Me." 

That begs the question: Isn’t 15-year-old August Borden, #37, part of the football team and wouldn’t he be part of the “we?” 

Instead, it seems the “we” is a chosen few. 

The team is playing every Friday with everyone but August, as if he had not been critically, injured allegedly after another teammate put his hands on him, after football practice on Aug. 19th. 

There are conflicting stories about what happened to him, but it’s clear his coaches and Tuscumbia School administrators are doubling down on the story that he “fell” and there’s nothing to see here, even as a neighboring county begins to investigate the incident that nearly took August’s life.  

All of the national attention and outrage has put this town, it’s high school football program and coaches, as well as “Player X” under the microscope. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Cover up, huddle up Tuscumbia: August Borden Part III.” 

Support the show

Send us a text

People lost their heads over praying mantis Lynn Turner, and some people lost their lives. 

She poisoned her husband and her boyfriend with anti-freeze laced green Jello, and likely would have gotten away with it all of it, but for pushing her luck killing her second the lover who took to the first husband’s funeral. 

When Lynn, 32, got caught in her own poisonous web, she took a third life with a dose of her own medicine. 

She hoarded her blood pressure medication and overdosed on it, denying the families of the men she killed a sense of justice. 

Join us for the latest Gulf Coast Confidential episode, “Heartless Lynn Turner: Loved policemen to death.”

Support the show

Send us a text

August Borden continues to recover at his home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in the wake of an incident that has all but divided the town because it centers around Deshler High School's football program. 

The 15-tyear-old football player suffered traumatic injuries to his head and face after football practice on Aug. 19 that sent him to the hospital, but there are conflicting accounts as to how it happened. 

However, it's crystal clear to his family that their son's health and the truth is not a priority to school administrators and local law enforcement, who refused to provide answers or even initially make a police report about the incident that August's family believes was instigated by other teammates. 

Authorities in neighboring Madison County, Alabama are now investigating while the cries of many in the community grow louder demanding answers. 

This story is NOT going away and neither are we. 

Please join us for an update in this latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, "Traumatic injury or accident: Tuscumbia divided over battered 15-year-old football player August Borden: Part II."   

Support the show

Send us a text

Just three weeks into his freshman year of high school, 15-year-old football player August Borden should have been looking forward to Homecoming.

Instead, people in his hometown of Tuscumbia, Alabama, were praying that he would come home at all, after he was severely injured walking between the stadium and the fieldhouse with his teammates on Aug. 19. 

Some claim he fell down a short flight of stairs. Others say another player grabbed him in a “bear hug,” causing the teen to gasp and lose consciousness. 

Some say he went limp, some say he was stiff, but what happened next led to him being taken by life flight to a Level 1 Trauma Center hospital in Birmingham, AL. 

It was discovered that August had two fractured orbital bones and multiple skull fractures and a face that appeared to be pummeled. 

The injuries left him unconscious in the hospital for two days. 

Although the incident is now being investigated by police at the urging of August’s dad, his parents say they’ve had to push for answers because school officials and coaches, who are said to have been just 10 feet away when August was allegedly dropped or heaved to the ground, have not been forthcoming. 

According to his family, August is home and beginning to recover but it’s not an easy road and it’s certainly not how the family expected his freshman year of high school would begin to play out. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Traumatic injury or accident: Tuscumbia divided over battered 15-year-old football player August Borden.” 

Support the show

Send us a text

The Honorable Judge Traci Soderstrom was anything but honorable when it came to how she ran her courtroom, even during a murder trial. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court investigated her for misconduct after she was caught texting back and forth with her in-court bailiff over 500 times while she sat on the bench during the murder trial of a man accused of killing his girlfriend’s toddler. 

Soderstrom can be seen on camera in the courtroom constantly scrolling through social media and texting insults and comments about witnesses, jurors, and attorneys in the case, especially taking shots at the prosecution and men.  

Court records say the commentary was so offensive toward the state prosecution as to be biased, which Soderstrom denied and insisted she had done nothing wrong.

Despite her insistence that she could be trusted to do her job; the Supreme Court found Soderstrom's actions to be a “gross neglect of duty and bias” and a “lack of temperament to serve as a judge.”

Soderstrom ultimately resigned from her position to avoid losing her retirement. 

This is the first episode in our series of Judges of Behaving Badly. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Judges Behaving Badly: Oklahoma Judge Traci Soderstrom: 500 texts during murder trial, not O.K.!”

Support the show

Send us a text

Did Whitney Cheatham read the charges right or does she know something we don’t know? ‘Cause she’s smiling so big in her police mug shot it’s making some people wonder. 

Police in Cullman, Alabama say the 33-year-old salon owner is facing 25 charges related to drug trafficking and practicing medicine without a license. 

Her arrest comes following an investigation into forged prescriptions used at multiple local pharmacies to obtain controlled narcotics, investigators say. 

It’s a breaking story and before we even recorded this segment, Cullman Police asked the public’s help to find Whitney’s dad, Kelvin Neil Cheatham, because he’s wanted on drug trafficking charges, too. 

Police say he's wanted on multiple felony charges, including drug trafficking, that are connected to the ongoing investigation at Infusion Wellness and Spa, where his daughter Whitney was taken into custody on August 16, 2025. 

Besides her father also being wanted by police, Whitney Cheatham’s arrest comes three months after her newly wed husband was arrested for traveling to have sex with who he thought was a 15-year-old girl in Blount County, Alabama, but it turned out to be someone posing as a minor for the show “Take Down with Chris Hansen.” 

This case has been brewing for some time, and we’ll stay with it as it plays out. Tell us what you think about the case and this bougie mug shot?! 

Join us for “What in the cornbread hell is going on in Cullman, Alabama?! Whitney Cheatham and Kody Smith.” 

Support the show

Send us a text

Gulf Breeze parent Tara Kamm is speaking out in the wake of the arrest of recent Gulf Breeze High School graduate Matthew McChesney, who has plead not guilty to possessing, trading and sharing 23 counts of CSAM. 

The incident has shaken the whole community and Kamm wants to see parents take the passion they feel over the Santa Rosa County School District’s handling of McChesney and put it into action and implement changes. 

Kamm is in a position to know. 

Unfortunately, she’s had to deal with investigations of sex crimes involving children before, including her own daughter who former substitute teacher Richard Mack pleaded no contest to touching inappropriately in 2018.

Kamm is talking for the first time publicly about what the four victims and their families say happened after the 9-year-old Gulf Breeze Elementary students went to administrators for help when they say Mack touched them in the classroom. 

She and the other girls’ families filed and settled a lawsuit against the district, several years ago, for ignoring red flags that Mack had been blocked from teaching at several local schools before he was allowed to work at Gulf Breeze Elementary.

Kamm said Asst. Principal Kim McChesney, Matthew McChesney’s mother, dropped the ball from the moment the girls told her what happened including initially only reporting two victims instead of four, asking the girls to demonstrate how he touched them, and implying the girls were “prepped” to accuse him and “egged” him on. 

These allegations, the recent arrests in Gulf Breeze of more than one teacher for crimes involving sex and minors, and lackluster response some parents say they’ve seen from school district administrators have kicked the lid off of Pandora’s box. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast “Santa Rosa School District under fire over handling of Matthew McChesney investigation.”

Support the show

Send us a text

The arrest of recent Gulf Breeze High School graduate Matthew McChesney on 23 CSAM charges has set off a safety alarm for parents and the Santa Rosa County School District. 

In part, because he was arrested the same month that 36-year-old Gulf Breeze High School hospitality teacher and a private team soccer coach Molly Mersereau, was arrested for grooming and having a sexual relationship with a minor student.

Both cases grabbed national headlines and in both cases the suspects seemed to allow self-will to override common sense. 

McChesney's alleged crimes involving possession of images of children in sexual acts - ranging in age from infants and toddlers to elementary age students and teens - also ensnared his mother in the community's outrage and concern over the case.

Kim McChesney is Asst. Principal of Gulf Breeze Elementary School and parents are demanding answers from school district leaders about why she allowed her son to take part in the annual tradition of high school seniors walking the halls of Gulf Breeze Elementary in May, and even high-fiving students, when their home had just been searched and he was still under investigation for sharing and trading graphic pornographic images of children around the same age. 

That coupled with what parents say was her mishandling of an investigation years earlier involving the questioning of several young girls who accused their substitute teacher of touching them inappropriately has many parents at a boiling point, but the school district's response has not cooled their concerns.

Although Mersereau was let go from her job by the school board, which happened the day after we recorded this episode, the district's investigation into the McChesney's is said to be focused on child safety.

However, many parents aren't convinced. 

During the Aug. 7th school board meeting, the McChensey incident was sandwiched in between scolding a charter school for a poor grade and the school district leaning away from allowing fireworks at schools, two issues that seemed to draw more passion from school board members than the McChesney arrest which had also brought outraged parents to the meeting.

Superintendent Karen Barber said she understood why parents were upset and that the district was investigating and dedicated to child safety, but the questions remain about who knew what and when as to Matthew McChesney's alleged crimes. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, "Gulf Breeze Grad Matt McChesney Busted for CSAM, Teacher Molly Mersereau Arrested for Illicit Student Relationship." 

Support the show

Send us a text

A poor teenager from Louisiana had few options when he was charged with the murder of a local, prominent pharmacist in St. Martinville in 1946. 

In a town full of secrets, Willie Francis was the perfect scapegoat. 

He couldn’t even afford the defense attorney who eventually took over his case and his dad paid with two sacks of potatoes. 

Willie was convicted after a quick trial with little evidence, but executing him for the capital crime proved to be harder than finding him guilty of it.

No parish wanted to be known for housing the electric chair, so it travelled to wherever the convicted convict sentenced to die was located.

Willie was strapped to so-called “Gruesome Gertie” by an intoxicated guard and an even drunker trustee inmate who botched the execution and Willie survived being electrocuted - the first time. 

The mistake opened the door for an appeal, but the same system that unfairly charged and convicted the teen was not quick to admit any mistakes. 

Join us for more on this mis execution of justice in the next episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, “Twice Electrocuted, Once to Die: the trial and execution of Willie Francis.”

Support the show