Chad Brogdon will spend the rest of his life in prison for the gruesome murder of his mother, a crime he claims he didn’t commit. Police in Hartford, Alabama, responded to a call about a burned-out vehicle on May 14, 2019. When they arrived at the scene and began their investigation, they found something truly shocking. Inside the charred vehicle were human remains. Investigators later identified the remains as those of 58-year-old Penny Wilson Newton, a doting mother from Level Plains, Alabama. They had no idea how horrific her death truly was or what they’d soon uncover.
Brogdon viciously killed his mother.
Brogdon was headed home to visit his child with his child’s mother on Mother’s Day weekend 2019, according to court documents obtained by WDHN. That was the last time anyone heard from Newton. Two days after Mother’s Day, police found the torched vehicle near the Choctawhatchee River. Inside the open trunk, police found human remains. Investigators knew at that point they had a killer on their hands, and they needed to find the person responsible.
Brogdon showed his mother no mercy.
The Mirror reported that witnesses saw Brogdon emerge from a wooded area near an elderly couple’s home shortly after the vehicle fire. He reportedly told police he had been assaulted and that someone had stolen his car. But when police spoke to him, he apparently smelled of smoke and had burns on his body. The evidence quickly pinned the crime on the 36-year-old man.
After confirming Brogdon as the prime suspect, police searched his home. Inside, they found a freezer in the garage with blood residue oozing from inside, per The Mirror. When they opened it, they found Newton’s body.
“We know whose hands she was killed by, and those hands are Chad Brogdon’s,” Dale/Geneva County Assistant District Attorney Jordan Davis said in court, per WDHN.
Newton’s family prayed for justice.
Newton’s cousin, Fonda Thomas, shared a request for prayers prior to the start of Brogdon’s trial.
“This is the most tragic and horrifying thing that has ever happened in our family. You hear things on the news but you never imagine things like this can happen in your own family. We were the same age and grew up together, she was like a sister to me,” she wrote on Facebook.
“Please pray for her sisters and brothers that are going to have to be in the same room tomorrow to testify against him and that justice is served and he gets life in prison. She didn’t deserve this. RIP sweet Angel,” Thomas added in her post.
Brogdon will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Throughout the trial, Brogdon maintained his innocence, but the evidence swayed every juror. A jury convicted Brogan in 2022, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison.
Newton must have felt so afraid in her final moments. Being killed by your own child is an ultimate betrayal. He’s right where he belongs.
