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

This episode of Gulf Coast Confidential spans the 1980’s and 1990’s and includes what you might expect from that time – cool cars, cocaine, and hired hit men. But this is not an episode of Miami Vice, it’s the true story of what happened when a rich, violent man didn’t get his way. 

In 1993, the young, pretty wife of a wealthy Pensacola car dealer left her husband out of fear for her life and the lives of their three children. 

She was so afraid of him she got permission from the court to move out of state, all the way back home to Minnesota where she could be with her parents and family. 

Only her ex wasn’t willing to let her go or at least let go of the money the court had ordered him to pay her. 

He doubled down on his determination to keep his cash and kids and make her pay for leaving him. 

Even before the shot rang out, she believed it was only a matter of time before he came for her, because when it came to what he wanted, the cocaine and car dealing businessman had always been…

“Relentless”

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