VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Court documents obtained exclusively in a NewsChannel 3 investigation help to possibly explain why Virginia Beach police and the FBI searched a home owned by a now-deceased Virginia Beach man, Fred Brooks, on Monday afternoon.
According to a civil lawsuit filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, Debbie Siers-Hill was living with Brooks, in the 2000 block of Cape Arbor Drive, when paramedics pulled him out of his front door unconscious on February 18.
Brooks died 24 hours later.
According to the lawsuit however, all of Brooks’ children believe he was being poisoned by Siers-Hill, who denies the allegations.
Court records show Brooks changed his will on February 9, just ten days before his death. The will names Siers-Hill as a first successor co-trustee.
The lawsuit alleges Siers-Hill pressured Brooks to change his will, because she was trying to gain control of his estate.
As police searched the couple’s home on Monday, neighbors said they saw Seirs-Hill frequently.
“She would go and come,” one neighbor told NewsChannel 3 from the scene of the police search on Monday. “She was from South Carolina, and you would see her car here, and her car is not here now.”
NewsChannel 3’s Merris Badcock also learned this is not the first time Seirs-Hill has been implicated in physically hurting Brooks.
Additional court records show Siers-Hill shot him in March 2012, but the charge was dropped.
Through her attorney, Siers-Hill declined to comment.
Virginia Beach police also declined to comment.
During the search on Monday, officials found a suspicious substance inside the couple’s home, but police would not say whether that substance is connected to Brooks’ family’s suspicions.
