ROANOKE, Va. – On November 14, 2019, the police dragnet closed in on Michael Brown who had deserted the Marines and was a suspect in the killing of his stepfather, Rodney Brown, in Franklin County.
Michael eluded law enforcement - even as they had him seemingly in their grasp, by hiding out in a cabinet of his dismantled RV, while the media broadcast from just yards away, and police closed schools to search Roanoke’s Grandin neighborhood.
Police had rammed the RV, tearing off the entire side and began removing its contents. But Michael hid undetected in a cabinet near the ceiling in the back of the vehicle.
“On my way to the cabinet was the first strike of the RV, and I had no idea. I thought they were shooting at me. So, I was panicked. I was able to get into the cabinet as they were ramming the second time,” Brown said in an exclusive interview with 10 News.
“The second time they hit it, it almost tipped all the way over,” Brown remembered.
He overheard law enforcement’s conversations throughout the day.
“Yeah, I heard them talk about several things. One of them mentioned, I hope this really is his RV. I hope we didn’t just destroy somebody else’s RV,” Brown said.
He also said he remembered one member of law enforcement saying he might be charged with domestic terrorism, which he said scared him. “What did I do to deserve that?” he said.
[MORE COVERAGE: See the collection and read more]
Shortly after dark, authorities towed the dismantled RV from its parking spot at Saint Elizabeth Church. The tow truck pulled it past a yard near the church where teams of local and national media were doing live broadcasts, which is rare for any story in Roanoke, and speaks to the size of the interest both in Brown and his story.
Brown said he remembered looking out through crack in the vehicle to see the media.
“I know, I’m a Marine and I’m supposed to be good at land-nav. And I am.”
Michael Brown
At the impound lot at Fat Boys Towing in Southeast Roanoke, he waited for dark.
When it got dark enough that nobody would be able to see me, I exited the cabinet. Grabbed any things I could from the RV itself. I grabbed toilet paper and other supplies.
A vegetarian, he left behind the meaty portions from his military ‘meals ready to eat’ or MREs.
He wanted to go back to his childhood home and hide out. He says he knew it was empty and that there was food and water there. So, he set off on foot through the mountains, getting lost. He figures he doubled back to Roanoke at least once, adding 10 miles to his trip.
“I know, I’m a Marine and I’m supposed to be good at land-nav. And I am,” he said.
But Brown still struggled. At one point he fell on a steep incline and lost much of the food he had brought with him. He says he avoided roads so law enforcement wouldn’t find him.
“I don’t know exactly what route I took. I just know that I went from mountaintop to mountaintop or hilltop to hilltop. Climbed any trees that I could - to get oriented, and it just kind of walked like that all the way to where I had to go,” he said.
After days of travel, he hid out in the attic of the house, or what he describes as a crawlspace. At one point his mother and grandmother were there, not knowing he was hiding just above them. It turned out to be a turning point in his decision to give himself up.
“I heard them from the attic crawlspace, which is where I was at in the house discussing that my mother was being told or was afraid that she was going to be charged by the federal investigators,” he said. “And I thought to myself, ‘well I really don’t want anybody else to go to jail for something I did - especially not my mom.’ And so I decided that at some point soon I was gonna turn myself in,” he said.
At the time Michael was still the subject of a nationwide manhunt. Police described him as an expert marksman, who was willing to kill.
Were you armed and dangerous?
10 News
During our interview, I asked him if he was really “armed and dangerous” as we and other media were reporting.
“Certainly armed, definitely not dangerous,” Brown answered.
“I was armed solely for the idea that if I - in my mind before I decided to turn myself in - I had decided that I would rather commit suicide, then to turn myself in.” I figured, I was I was gonna spend life in prison, and I just couldn’t fathom the idea of doing that,” he said.
When police checked the home again the day before Thanksgiving, Michael felt it was time to give up. He claims police were leaving without finding him, so he crawled down from the attic.
“So I lowered myself down, and when I did when the officer walked back in the room, and I was like hello, and he saw me and drew his weapon on me, and I put my hands up and surrendered,” Brown told 10 News.
He was arrested and charged with Rodney’s death, in what seemed like an open and shut case. But the court found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Mental health experts for both the prosecution and defense agreed that Michael was indeed mentally ill at the time of the killings. Likely because of the abuse he had suffered at the hands of Rodney when he was growing up. (Detailed in Part 1 of this series of reports)
Now Michael is in recovery for dissociative amnesia at a mental hospital in Danville.
He hopes to start a sailing academy and help other people with mental illness.
“Because this mental health thing is, it’s just now really starting to be appreciated like an important thing,” he said.
“And there’s two real messages that I’ve been trying to get out to people, and that is one that if you need help, ask for it. That was the biggest mistake I made. The biggest mistake I made, I did not ask for help when I needed it,” he said.
There is no word on when Michael will be released from the facility in Danville. It depends upon his progress.