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Natalie Morales
Welcome to Postmortem. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales stepping in to host today to talk with Anne Marie Green about a story she reported on. It is about the attempted murder of Hannah Petty, who incredibly survived after being poisoned with lead. Annemarie, thanks for joining me.
Anne Marie Green
Thank you. It's good to be here.
Natalie Morales
And what an incredible story and a survivor's story as well. But this isn't the first poisoning case that we've unpacked together, right?
Anne Marie Green
Actually, it is not the last time we spoke about a poisoning case, it was a case that you had worked on Angela Craig. And we did this actually live on stage at CrimeCon. It was about a Colorado dentist who was accused and then recently convicted of poison poisoning his wife using milkshakes. And milkshakes actually sort of make an appearance in this case as well.
Natalie Morales
Yeah, we're gonna get into all of that. First though, a reminder as always to our listeners that if you haven't listened to this 48 Hours episode yet, you can always find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed. Go take a listen, then come on back and join us for the conversation. All right. It was January 2022. Hannah Petty, she was a 22 year old Alabama mother of two and admitted to the hospital following six months of suspicious symptoms. By the time she got there, though, doctors said that she had just hours left to live. Now investigators believe she had been poisoned and they quickly zeroed in on two possible suspects, and that would be Hannah's mother, Nicole, and Hannah's husband, Brian. Now, I have to tell you, Anne Marie, as I was watching this episode, I kept flip flopping back and forth between the two, hearing their different stories and trying to figure out, okay, who is actually responsible for poisoning Hannah.
Anne Marie Green
You know what, Natalie, you're kind of not the only one. We had a lot of access in this case. Obviously, we had a victim who survived so we could talk with her about her experience But Hannah's mother, Nicole, we spoke to several times. Hannah we spoke to several times, and then Brian we were able to talk to. And this is over a span of a couple of years. And so with each interview, you sort of learn a little bit more. The people that we, particularly Hannah, you see her evolve and change over the years.
Natalie Morales
Yeah, we're going to dive into that first interview, the first time you're meeting Hannah. And as you said, it is so rare in a case like this that we actually have a survivor to be able to talk with us. And when you first met her, what was the interview like? What was your impression of her mindset?
Anne Marie Green
It was two years ago. Right. It's 20, 23. I really did feel like for Hannah, she had just been sort of spit out of this incredible rollercoaster ride. Brian had been charged but had not gone to trial yet. And so she's kind of still stuck in limbo, still trying to figure out what happened to her. For a lot of what she went through, the memories were hazy. She sort of remembered the early days more than what happened to her in the hospital. She was in a coma for a lot of that time. And in fact, you know, there were a number of times throughout where she sort of was like, did Brian ask about me? You know, what did he say about me? You could tell that there was still a part of her that was still wondering, was there love? Was this by mistake? Could he have actually done this? Was everything that I thought, the life that I had built, was that all, you know, a mirage? So you could see that she was still wrestling with it. Yeah.
Natalie Morales
I mean, it's very understandable that she was conflicted in all of this, but you do see her evolve and sort of grow, as you said. I was just so amazed by her composure. And she truly is a medical miracle. I mean, you see that X ray of the lead impacted within her colon. It was. It just lit up, that X ray. It was unbelievable to see that.
Anne Marie Green
Yeah. The reason she could not keep anything down and she was losing weight is because she literally had lead filling her digestive system. So she couldn't get the food down, she couldn't get the water down. It would go through and then come right back up. That's how much lead was in her system. The doctors did something that they had never done before. They irrigated her bowels. Like, they had to literally, you know, flush this stuff out of her system. They did it 24 7, like, around the clock until it was all out. They had never had to do anything like that before. They didn't even know if it would work. Which part of the reason why they put her in this medically induced coma. It's also as you see in the Hour, you know, she had sort of liquid on her brain or in and around her brain and that stuff had had to be taken out. The fact that she has survived is stun. She is probably still going to be living with the side effects of this for her entire life. But think about this, Natalie. Like every pain or ache she ever feels, she's gonna wonder, is this the lead that's still in my system that's gonna be haunting her forever has to.
Natalie Morales
Be so incredibly painful physically and emotionally. Of course, what she went through. Now in the hour, we do see that Hannah throughout seemed to try to make her marriage work despite though some pretty big red flags. I mean, did their relationship start off that way too?
Anne Marie Green
So, you know, she was very young, right? She's a teenager. He's much older, 10 years and 10 months, I believe she said. And it did not start out that way. She says that he would bring her flowers. He was really sweet those first six months. But then slowly she started getting these kind of red flags. So he was a little controlling. He would ask about, you know, the things that she wore, you know, if the skirt was above the knee, why are you wearing that? If she was talking to, you know, she said she had been working at a restaurant for a little bit and if she was talking to somebody there, a man there for a little bit longer, he would make comments. And by the time she's getting married, she is really wondering if she should go ahead with this. And Nicole says to her, you can back out at any time, you can have this baby. You don't need to be married. Cause just remember everyone, she was already pregnant. But also it was her wedding day. We hear stories all the time about people getting cold feet on their wedding day. It's a nerve wracking decision. So once again she put that to the side. But then there was this really concerning incident. A couple years into their marriage, they went on a little vacation to North Carolina. And she tells this incredible story about the couple getting into a car accident. We had her retell it. We actually sat in a car with her. So I want to play some portion of that interview about this accident that didn't make it into the hour.
Hannah Petty
I was asleep in the passenger seat and I woke up because like, I don't know, I think this smell woke me up because my like, chest started burning like My nose started burning.
Anne Marie Green
What were you smelling?
Hannah Petty
And it smelled like chemicals. I mean, that's the only way to explain. It was just like straight up chemicals. I wake up Alina up, and I turned to Brian, and he has his shirt covered over his nose. And I was like, what is that smell? And he just shrugged his shoulders, like, he didn't give me an answer. He just shrugged his shoulders and just kept straight. Staring straight ahead, like, with his shirt covered over his nose. And then I put my.
Natalie Morales
My.
Hannah Petty
I forgot my feet were on the dashboard because that's how I was sleeping in the car. And I put my feet down, and it was like, slopping wet on the floorboard.
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Hannah Petty
And I told him I was like, something spilled. And he said, oh, okay. Or whatever. A little bit of time goes by. And he said, I laid a jug of milk down in the back. He said, see if that's what spilled.
Anne Marie Green
And so is that what you do, sort of turn around?
Hannah Petty
Yeah. So I unbuckle. You want me to unbuckle? So I unbuckle. And I turned around like this.
Anne Marie Green
And I'm, like, looking.
Hannah Petty
But it was, like, dark, though, so I'm, like, looking. And then that's when the car went completely off the side of the road like this, like, straight into a ditch. And it just kept going and going. And I was just, like, holding on to the back of the seat. And I remember, like, I hit my head on the window really hard. I think I had a concussion because I started throwing up the next day. And then we flipped the car sitting this way, and then it immediately hedges flames under my feet.
Anne Marie Green
Scary. Yes. So she says Brian has no problem getting out of the car, not attempting to help in any way. She does eventually make her way out of the car, but then he tells her to tell police officers that she was the one driving. And she does. And that is what's on the police report now. She says at the time, she thought it maybe had something to do with insurance, so she just sort of went along with what he said. I want to remind everyone we are talking about a very young woman here who's, you know, traumatized by this accident. And so she just kind of went along with it.
Natalie Morales
It's unbelievable. I mean, hearing that story. And that, as you said, was not in the hour. I mean, that's a giant red flag. But then there's the other huge red flag for me as a viewer when we learned that Hannah, she told Lt. McDiarmond that Brian had taken out a life insurance policy while they were still dating. I mean, I had never even heard of that before. I didn't even know that was possible.
Anne Marie Green
Yeah. And. And, you know, Hannah was aware of the life insurance policy. Her friends said that Brian kind of framed it as like, well, this is something that adults do, you know. And of course, all of Hannah's friends are her age. Right. So he seems like the older, more knowledgeable man. But she does remember him saying. And she said this to me a couple of times. She remembers, Brian, if only I had a million dollars, then I would really be able to get this chiropractic business to the next level. I mean, while she is still in the hospital, he is trying to take out more life insurance policies. They weren't all approved, but it would have been like $5 million if he had been successful.
Natalie Morales
So here's the interesting thing, is that while Hannah is in the hospital, let's remember she's, you know, trying to survive this horrible ordeal. Brian insinuated that Nicole, her mother, might have actually been responsible for poisoning Hannah. Now, Brian's defense attorney suggested it was perhaps put into some daily milkshakes that Nicole would bring to Hannah.
Anne Marie Green
Yes.
Natalie Morales
Brian also brought up. I thought this was interesting. There was a time during Hannah's childhood, I believe, in second grade, where she had a lot of lapses from going to school because she was sick. She was in the hospital. And Brian's defense attorney again insinuated perhaps Nicole was responsible for poisoning her in the past and was now doing it again. I mean, is. Was there any evidence of any of this?
Anne Marie Green
So Chad Morgan is Brian's defense attorney that we met. He wasn't his first defense attorney, but he was the one that ended up trying the case. He talked about these milkshakes, and he said, you know, Nicole would come over to the house, and Brian wasn't around. And no evidence of that at all. Right? No evidence that, as you and Hannah said, she doesn't drink milk. Nicole said, I was barely over there. I mean, he never liked me. So I, you know, I certainly wasn't over there every day feeding her milkshakes. In regards to Hannah being sick in second grade, Chad Morgan did have evidence of that. We went over to his office, and it's true that second grade nurse in elementary school had notes that indicated that, you know, she had seen Hannah several times, that Hannah complained about stomach aches, that eventually she was taken to UAB hospital, and then she got better. When I spoke to Hannah and her mother about that period of time, they. They basically said, yeah, I was sick and Then I got better. We went to the hospital and got better. That happens sometimes. Zero evidence that Hannah was poisoned in any way, shape or form in second grade. But certainly there was evidence that. That the nurse remembers her being quite.
Natalie Morales
Ill. Did Lieutenant McDiarmid look into Nicole much at all? It seemed like he. She was cleared pretty quickly.
Anne Marie Green
McDearman says she behaved like a concerned mother, whereas Brian didn't seem to be having the way you expect. But it was really more than that. They knew from the doctors that Hannah was intentionally poisoned. And based on just the volume of lead in her system, they believed that it was something that was probably happening on a daily basis. Only Brian had access to Hannah on a daily basis. And Nicole just didn't have that.
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Natalie Morales
Welcome back. All right, well, Anne Marie, you also interviewed Hannah's mother, Nicole. Was she eager to share her side of the story?
Anne Marie Green
She was not. The first interview that we did, the first time we went down to Huntsville, it was really just to talk to Hannah, but Nicole was there to be. She was in another room, but she was talking the whole time to our producer. And she was saying things like, you know, that's not exactly correct. Hannah doesn't really remember. And so after the interview was over, I said to Nicole, you know, why don't you sit down with us because you have a much better memory of what was going on with Hannah while she was sick, while she was in the hospital. And we do this first interview and. And I thought what happened to the woman who was doing all this talking in the other room? She was very limited and conservative in the way she answered my questions. So once we were finished, she told me a story that kind of put it a little bit in perspective. She said that while Hannah was in the hospital and she thought her daughter was going to die, she was praying, and she actually got up and found, like, a closet where nobody was and closed it and got on her knees and was praying to God to save her daughter. And then she realized that it was the wrong prayer. And she began praying to God that she could forgive whoever did this to her. And she believed it was Brian, that she could forgive Brian. And once she started praying to develop a forgiving heart, she believes that Hannah's health turned the corner and she did not wanna shatter that. She did not want to say anything that would allow a lack of forgiveness to seep into her heart. Hmm.
Natalie Morales
Wow. Well, let's go back to the investigation, because Lieutenant McDermott clearly felt that it was the life insurance policies that were the clear financial motive. But was there any more concrete evidence that police had against Brian at that time?
Anne Marie Green
Um, Hannah said that he made her take these supplements every day, which investigators believed it was their theory that those may have been the capsules that were filled with lead. Brian, of course, denies that completely.
Natalie Morales
Yeah. But interestingly, I don't think they found any evidence of the pills anywhere. Right. Or the capsules. You would think, you know, yes, he's a chiropractor. He probably has access to supplements and all of that, but they never could really find the vehicle with which the lead was administered. Right.
Anne Marie Green
They never found any capsules, any empty capsules, any filled capsules, anything at the house. Brian told them they could search, and they did a thorough search. What is sort of interesting is that Hannah told us that Brian would keep tons of supplements at the house, but when investigators got there, they didn't find anything. Doctors asked him, listen, can you just bring in these supplements or these capsules, whatever. Whatever you were giving her? And, you know, he doesn't.
Natalie Morales
And I thought what was so evasive of Brian is when he sends pictures of, you know, what are over the counter supplements that a lot of us have at home? I mean, that right there is like, come on. Yeah. So it was in September 2022, Brian was arrested. He pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. But as you were talking here, you know, police really didn't have any concrete physical evidence to link the lead to Brian until they got a phone call, which was very key in the case from Danny Hill, who's a contractor who had worked in Brian's office to install what is sort of like lead walls around the X ray room. And investigators, then they go and get a search warrant, they open the walls and get a piece of the lead from the walls. And I was at that point, I was like, okay, that's it. They've got their evidence. Was that the smoking gun, Anne Marie?
Anne Marie Green
I mean, almost. The prosecution told me that it's really important, if you can, to figure out a way to put the murder weapon in the hands of the defendant. They had already arrested Brian, which I thought was pretty risky to arrest him before you even knew, you know, where the lead was coming from and you don't have the capsules. So this. This was one of two key pieces that, you know, at least they know that he had access to lead.
Natalie Morales
Well, Brian was freed on half million dollar bond, but he was required to report to jail every weekend, which, again, I was surprised. I mean, I'd never heard of weekend jail before. That exists.
Anne Marie Green
Yeah. We asked Dearman about it. He said he's not sure exactly why he got that, but his guess is that the judge kind of wanted to give him an opportunity to work and support his family. He's got two little kids at that point, of course, he wasn't going to be working as a chiropractor. And so we know what ended up happening with him is he was living in a trailer in his grandmother's backyard. He said it was really difficult to find work because he had to always check in every Friday.
Natalie Morales
So as rare as it is for us to hear directly from the victims, I mean, it's very rare that we get to interview the defendant before the trial. And you had that opportunity. I mean, we saw him with the ankle monitor. You're talking to him sitting on the bench with him.
Anne Marie Green
We did. We, you know, we interviewed him for a few hours, and then we went on out to a park, and then we were able to talk to him again there, talking about what it was like to come to that very park with his kids and the things that he misses about his family. And it was a really interesting conversation, but also very frustrating. I found him to be evasive to the point where a few times I'm like, can you just answer the question? Like, I'm gonna ask you again, Brian, this direct question. I need a direct answer. Now, keep in mind, he flat out denied poisoning Hannah. I asked him directly, and he said no. But I left there not knowing whether I felt anything about his guilt or innocence. I had no idea.
Natalie Morales
So it was June 2025. Brian's trial finally gets underway. Brian's defense team said that the state lacked clear cut evidence. I was shocked, though, at trial, they didn't present a single witness. I mean, what was the defense's strategy with that?
Anne Marie Green
I mean, you were shocked. I was shocked because the last time we'd spoken to Chad Morgan before the trial, he really kind of talked a big game. And he's like, I don't know if you could really tell. I know we show those bodybuilder pictures. He's huge. You know, he's quite a presence. And he's a former police officer. I really thought he was gonna come out like gangbusters, and he just didn't. And, you know, part of the his argument was the state didn't prove their case. The state doesn't even have a single capsule or supplement. And they searched his house, and so he thought that would be, you know, strong enough. Chad Morgan says it was kind of like a team decision to go forward, simply poking holes in the prosecution's case.
Natalie Morales
So the jury then gets the case on a Wednesday afternoon. The very next day, they come back, they return a verdict guilty. And you spoke to a juror who called Brian a monster. I mean, why do you think they were so clearly convinced of his guilt so quickly?
Anne Marie Green
Here's the thing. Sometimes defendants testify even when they don't testify. And the jury was watching Brian the entire time, at least with the juror that we spoke to basically said he did himself no favors. He was smirking, he was making faces. They did not like him, did not like his behavior, and felt that he acted like a guilty person, or at least like a person that didn't care.
Natalie Morales
Well, in August 2025, Brian was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He's now appealing that verdict. After everything that Hannah went through with her two beautiful kids, I mean, how is she doing today?
Anne Marie Green
She's amazing. With each interview, she has gotten stronger, clearer, but she is every bit as sweet as she appears on camera. You know, once again, I'm going to reiterate, she was very young when she met Brian, and she is not that same person now. She went back to college. She got her, you know, teaching degree. She is now a teacher. Like she is someone who makes things happen. Hannah and Brian are still married. She has not been able to get a divorce yet. The criminal case really complicated the divorce proceedings. A lot of stuff had to be put on hold. So the next date for these divorce proceedings December 2026, and that will ult kind of move her towards the freedom that she wants. The kids do not visit Brian, but Hannah does come from a very loving, supportive family and she also has the support of Brian's family as well. So those two kids are gonna be all right.
Natalie Morales
Well, thank you again, Anne Marie, for chatting with us and thank you to our listeners. And if you do like this episode, please rate and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify Way.
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Host: Natalie Morales (stepping in)
Guest: Anne-Marie Green (correspondent and reporter on the case)
Date: January 13, 2026
This episode of Post Mortem revisits the harrowing case of Hannah Pettey, a young Alabama mother who miraculously survived a prolonged and nearly fatal poisoning by lead. Natalie Morales and Anne-Marie Green reflect on the reporting process, the critical evidence, and the human impact of this stranger-than-fiction story. They explore the psychological complexity of gaslighting in intimate relationships, the difficulties of untangling truth and manipulation, and how lasting justice was finally served.
"Investigators believe she had been poisoned and they quickly zeroed in on two possible suspects, and that would be Hannah's mother, Nicole, and Hannah's husband, Brian." — Natalie Morales ([01:32])
"For Hannah, she had just been sort of spit out of this incredible rollercoaster ride..." — Anne-Marie Green ([03:16])
"You could tell that there was still a part of her that was still wondering... was there love? Was this by mistake? Could he have actually done this?" — Anne-Marie Green ([03:57])
"They did something they had never done before. They irrigated her bowels... They didn't even know if it would work." — Anne-Marie Green ([04:38])
"I woke up... because my chest started burning… It smelled like chemicals... I turned to Brian, and he has his shirt covered over his nose." — Hannah Pettey ([07:33])
"He is trying to take out more life insurance policies. They weren't all approved, but it would have been like $5 million if he had been successful." — Anne-Marie Green ([10:21])
Brian and his defense attorney, Chad Morgan, attempted to shift suspicion onto Hannah’s mother, Nicole, including suggesting earlier childhood poisoning without any evidence ([11:27]).
Investigators determined only Brian had daily access to Hannah, which was necessary for the level of poisoning that occurred ([13:14]).
"Only Brian had access to Hannah on a daily basis. And Nicole just didn't have that." — Anne-Marie Green ([13:43])
"They never found any capsules, any empty capsules, anything at the house... when investigators got there, they didn't find anything." — Anne-Marie Green ([17:31])
"This was one of two key pieces that, you know, at least they know that he had access to lead." — Anne-Marie Green ([18:58])
"I had never heard of weekend jail before. That exists." — Natalie Morales ([19:23])
"You were shocked. I was shocked... I really thought he was gonna come out like gangbusters, and he just didn't." — Anne-Marie Green ([21:27])
"He was smirking, he was making faces. They did not like him, did not like his behavior..." — Anne-Marie Green ([22:36])
On the case’s complexity:
"With each interview, you sort of learn a little bit more. Particularly Hannah, you see her evolve and change over the years." — Anne-Marie Green ([02:30])
On gaslighting and emotional trauma:
"She was still wrestling with it... was everything that I thought, the life that I had built, was that all a mirage?" — Anne-Marie Green ([03:57])
On surviving the lead poisoning:
"The fact that she has survived is stunning. She is probably still going to be living with the side effects of this for her entire life." — Anne-Marie Green ([04:38])
On financial motives:
"...he is trying to take out more life insurance policies...it would have been like $5 million if he had been successful." — Anne-Marie Green ([10:21])
On defense shifting suspicion:
"No evidence... Nicole said, I was barely over there. I mean, he never liked me. So I... certainly wasn’t over there every day feeding her milkshakes." — Anne-Marie Green ([11:51])
On closure and forgiveness:
"She began praying to God that she could forgive whoever did this to her. And she believed it was Brian..." — Anne-Marie Green ([15:34])
On the trial’s outcome:
"The jury was watching Brian the entire time... They did not like him, did not like his behavior, and felt that he acted like a guilty person, or at least like a person that didn't care." — Anne-Marie Green ([22:36])
On Hannah’s growth:
"She went back to college. She got her teaching degree. She is now a teacher. Like, she is someone who makes things happen." — Anne-Marie Green ([23:23])
This "Post Mortem" episode provides unique depth and humanity to the case of Hannah Pettey, weaving raw medical drama, complex emotional journeys, and relentless investigative work. It stands out for its vivid survivor portrait, reminders of the subtle dangers of intimate partner violence and gaslighting, and the imperfect but ultimately triumphant progress of the justice system.