LAUREL COUNTY, Ky (LEX 18) Twelve years after the deaths of a Laurel County father and son, relatives still have a lot of questions.
In August 2006, a fire raged through a trailer on Old Richmond Road in the community of Pittsburg. Inside the burned home were the bodies of 77-year-old Herbert Brewer Sr. and his son, 37-year-old Herbie Jr.
At the time, authorities believed that both died as Herbie Jr. tried to rescue his dad from the 3 a.m. fire, but even then, Herbie Sr.’s daughter, Rosalie, believed there was more to the story and let the former Laurel Sheriff know about it.
"We took them evidence, we took them a baseball bat. My little brother had a knot in front of his head," said Rosalie Brewer Simpson.
Simpson believed that both were robbed and beaten to death and that they had not died from smoke inhalation. She said both were still in their day clothes and that her brother was found next to a set of brass knuckles, which is what she believes her brother used to try and defend their father.
She also said that a witness saw three men leaving the trailer.
The family reached out to a Canadian psychic named Robbie Thomas who wrote a chapter about the deaths in his book, ‘Psychic Profiler: The Real Deal. True Crime Cases Volume 1’.
Rosalie hopes that the current sheriff will take a closer look at the evidence to prove their theory.
"We just want justice, for people to know that this was not an accident, not an accident," she said.
The Laurel County Sheriff did not return our phone calls. The family said he classifies the deaths as a cold case.
