Town note
Named after the Brown family; Daniel and Timothy Brown were among eight people named Brown living there, so the town was called Brownington.
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FILE 301 / 16 July 2022 / 64 MIN / express
This is Brownington, Vermont. It is north, north, north Vermont, up near the Canadian border up there. about 0:03:46
Named after the Brown family; Daniel and Timothy Brown were among eight people named Brown living there, so the town was called Brownington.
about 0:04:29The Old Stone House Museum opened in 1925 and is a featured stop on Vermont's African American heritage trail.
about 0:08:03The museum tells the story of Alexander Lucius Twilight, described as the first African American college graduate and state legislator in the United States, who built the Old Stone House.
about 0:08:11The museum has 30 rooms and 75,000 objects, including furniture and paintings.
about 0:08:24Named after the Brown family; Daniel and Timothy Brown were among eight people named Brown living there, so the town was called Brownington.
about 0:04:29The Old Stone House Museum opened in 1925 and is a featured stop on Vermont's African American heritage trail.
about 0:08:03The museum tells the story of Alexander Lucius Twilight, described as the first African American college graduate and state legislator in the United States, who built the Old Stone House.
about 0:08:11The museum has 30 rooms and 75,000 objects, including furniture and paintings.
about 0:08:24"900"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:03:55
"about $43,000 a year"
Comparison: "lower than the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2022 about 0:04:03
"$165,000"
No direction stated.
As told in 2022 about 0:04:03
2.0 / 5 · average of 1
“Grew up there and had an awesome childhood until about the age of 14, then realised how terrible the town is: people have no motivation to care for themselves or their property, every other house has junk, scrap cars and garbage in the front yard, and the roads are so bad a new car will not last a year. The Amish families are good neighbours and possibly the best part of the town, but it is stuck in the 60s, and other Vermont towns are just as cheap and desolate without being so backwards.”about 0:04:53
Charlie had been legally blind since childhood, walked with a cane and could not drive, and had once worked as a used car salesman. The family had very little money and depended on Charlie's disability payments.
She treated it as a hobby and wanted him to earn money; he was convinced it would take him to mainstream television. She stopped smoking with the help of medication, was also taking antidepressants, and had begun using sleeping pills.
In September 2009 Charlie became co-host of a second public access show, It's News to Us, with Steve Merrill on NEK TV.
The weather was clear, the road dry, there were no skid marks and speed was not a factor. It was the only tree along that stretch of road for a mile in either direction. Charlie was not belted, his legs were crushed and he had to be freed with the jaws of life. He died of a tear in his aorta.
She said she was taking anti-smoking drugs, antidepressants and sleeping pills. Merrill later said he found her behaviour at the funeral strange and recalled that about a month before the crash she had listened to a story about a friend who drove a lemon into a tree to total it, and that he thought she was looking for a way to get Charlie out of her life.
They exchanged messages, spoke on the phone and, on their second call, she told him she had killed her husband on purpose. Leland recorded a later conversation without her knowledge. The police told him such a recording was inadmissible in Vermont. After about eight weeks the relationship broke down, she threatened to kill him if he recorded her and turned her in, and he went to the state police.
She eventually admitted she had not passed out, that Charlie had flipped out on her in the car, and that when she saw the tree she knew it would not move. She described the tree coming at her as the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and said she had thought they would both die.
She never proved her claims of abuse. Her seven-year minimum would have expired in 2018.
September 22, 2009 / Vermont Route 5A near Line Farm Road, Brownington, Vermont
As told in the episode, on 16 July 2022.
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
crime scene
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about 0:28:11road
about 0:28:11home
about 0:25:23business
about 0:20:28landmark
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about 0:28:53hospital
about 0:58:39home
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