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Achoo!! Grab a tissue because it turns out "Affluenza" isn't even a real psychiatric illness, but it spread like a virus, when a Texas teenager used it to defend killing four people and injuring nine others while driving drunk. 

Ethan Couch, now 26, claimed he didn't know right from wrong due to his family's wealth and is scheduled to finish probation this month, for the 2013 deadly accident. 

From running to Mexico to making a psuedo-science term mainstream, join us for more on the case in the latest episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, "Achoo!! Affluenza or BS: Ethan Couch."

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Parents send their children to school for an education and trust that they are in safe hands with the people who are teaching them.

One young boy caught the eye of his pretty, blonde teacher when he was only in the second grade. Fast forward a few years later, and the married mother of four was convinced she had an "instantaneous bond" with the child, even though he was not quite 13 years old. 

She pursued him like a lover and the special attention she gave the boy turned their relationship from platonic to sexual. When her secret was uncovered, teacher Mary Kay Letourneau called it "love," the law called it rape.

In this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, we revisit the headline making case that inspired a new movie and highlighted the dangers of being the "Teacher's Pet." 

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One would never think a little nip/tuck would kill you. After all, it is just a minor procedure. Or is it? Not so fast, there. Medication and sedation are part of the process. You’re still going under the knife, or laser, or needle, with trained and licensed staff. What could go wrong? 

Not to be tongue in cheek, but it turns out plenty. An investigation is now underway into the death of a Gulf Breeze plastic surgeon’s wife, who according to family and police reports went into cardiac arrest while her husband, Dr. Ben Brown, was performing procedures on her at his office. 

Join us for the latest episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, “Beauty Buyer Beware.”

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When retired beautician Lynn Hernan turned up dead in her living room chair, surrounded by her medications, a close friend's story that she likely committed suicide didn't seem impossible. The older woman had been down and her health had been declining. 

Even when tests showed Hernan was poisoned by eyedrops, few people batted an eye because she sometimes put eyedrops in her drink to help with other health issues. 

The murderous betrayal might have gone unnoticed but for another friend, one who knew something was off and refused to turn a blind eye.   

Join us for more on how the truth came to light in this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential: “Don’t Blink! The Eyedrop Murder.”

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It’s one thing for a man to cheat on his wife, but one husband and father murdered his whole family rather than give up his girlfriend and their fitness-focused way of life.  

In 2018, pregnant mother and devoted wife, Shanann Watts returned home late from a work trip, ready to say goodnight to her 3 and 4-year-old daughters and enjoy a romantic night with her husband, Chris Watts. 

However, Chris Watts had other plans. When the young mother and their two girls disappeared, friends suspected something bad had happened, but they had no idea just how horrible it was until their bodies were found a couple of days later.

Join us for the latest episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, “Chris Watts Did What?!”

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Sometimes lending a helping hand can be deadly. A reporter in Pensacola, Florida with a generous heart and a lucrative hobby put his cards on the table with people who were playing for higher stakes.

The Cormier brothers were down on their luck when they connected with Sean Dugas over a mutual hobby - fantasy trading cards. Sean's collection was the envy of the most avid collector and it turns out, the most avarice ones, as well.   

Known for his wide smile and free spirit, Dugas never suspected the twin Cormier brothers wanted anything other than a place to stay, until one of them chased him down with a hammer and killed him in his own home.

Join us for the latest of episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, Dealt a Deadly Hand, for more on the murder of Sean Dugas.   

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Pensacola crimes have been making headlines, some for what happened years ago, others just weeks ago.  

In this episode of Gulf Coast Confidential, “Inmate Update: Where are they now?” we’re revisiting the case of car and cocaine dealer Ron Samuels who was convicted of hiring hitmen to kill his ex-wife, Heather. His failed attempts may have left her paralyzed, but it turns out she has outlived him. 

We’ve also got the latest on Pam’s nephew, Brandon Aydelott. It has been almost ten years since he killed his mother on Christmas Eve and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. How close is he to being released from Florida State Hospital for the criminally insane?

We’ll also have more on the Alabama mother who helped her son murder his daughter’s mother inside a Pensacola Home Depot. 

Plus, dentist Dr. Charles Stamitoles is out of jail, much to the concern of some of his alleged victims. What’s happened since he lost his license to practice dentistry amid accusations that he inappropriately touched staff and patients.  

Join us for “Inmate Update: Where are they now?”

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A boy, a boat, and a birthday party. What should have been a celebration of life ended in a child’s death and a case that took years to surface. 

Join my co-host Pam Hill and me, investigative journalist Mollye Barrows, for “No Lifeguard on Duty,” a conversation about the first case I covered on Gulf Coast Confidential called, “Sink or Swim.” 

In this episode, we discuss the tragic drowning of 12-year-old Dondre Lewis in 2016, a fun-loving Pensacola middle schooler who died swimming off a borrowed yacht during a birthday party for his pastor’s son. 

The boy’s parents thought their son was in good hands only to find out later that no one went after Dondre when he went under and the party continued. 

Find out why it took so long for their story to be told in “No Lifeguard on Duty.”

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As far as get-away-plans go, former financial advisor Marcus Schrenker plotted one that looked like a scene out of an action movie. In 2009, the 39-year-old Indiana man attempted to fake his own death with a mid-air May Day call and phony plane problems, a stashed motorcycle with saddlebags full of cash, and an eye on hiding out in Florida. 

The failed pseudocide, (fancy word for a faked death, I had to look it up), was his plan to escape from personal, financial, and legal problems, but it only landed him in more trouble. 

But Schrenker has come out on the other side of his headline making get-a-way plan a survivor who’s trying to get along like anybody else. 

Here’s “From May Day to Pay.”

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In 1996,  an inmate on a work crew found the remains of a woman in the woods near the small Gulf Coast town of Holt in the Florida Panhandle. Investigators had no idea who the woman was or who raped and choked her to death, until now. 

I’m Mollye Barrows, a longtime reporter in Florida’s Panhandle and welcome to my investigative series, Gulf Coast Confidential, where I dive into the saltier stories that surface in Northwest Florida and all along the Gulf of Mexico.

My co-host is Pam Hill. Her sister was killed by her own son on Christmas Eve 2013, and Pam has a unique perspective on many of the cases I talk about on Gulf Coast Confidential. 

In this episode, ’To all the girls I’ve choked before,’ signed The Happy Face Killer, we're discussing the macabre and brutal trail of violence left across the country by serial killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson. 

The convicted murdered is currently three life sentences for some of his crimes at Oregon State Penitentiary. 

Join us as we discuss how police finally identified the young woman and determined she was the sixth victim of the so-called Happy Face Killer - a murderer who made sure he got credit for his crimes by leaving the macabre signature on notes and letters.

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