Naman Shrestha
The episode titled ‘The Gaslighting of Hannah Pettey’ of CBS’ ’48 Hours’ chronicles the attempted murder of a young woman named Hannah Pettey, who was diagnosed with lead poisoning in early 2022. The medical mystery soon turned into a criminal investigation as the detectives learned about possible foul play. Featuring insightful interviews with the survivor herself and others, the documentary provides a detailed account of the entire ordeal and how the investigators brought the perpetrator to justice.
Hannah Pettey Was Hospitalized For Two Months Due to Lead Poisoning
Hannah Pettey and Brian Mann had a happy marriage for several years until their relationship began to deteriorate, ultimately leading to a contentious divorce battle in 2021. When it started having adverse effects on her health, Hannah began taking vitamin pills in the summer of 2021 to strengthen her immune system and maintain her health. As per reports, her chiropractor husband, Brian, encouraged her to take the pills. A few months later, Hannah displayed unexplained symptoms and was hospitalized at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, beginning in January 2022. The doctors diagnosed her with lead poisoning, which kept her hospitalized for nearly two months. She reportedly contained eight times the normal amount of lead an individual must have in their system.
Although she recovered successfully, Hannah lost nearly 40 pounds and still had a significant amount of lead in her body after her discharge. Just a couple of days later, she reportedly filed for divorce. While she recovered from the poisoning, the authorities got involved and launched a formal investigation. From the jump, the detectives suspected that her husband, who had been pressuring her to buy more life insurance policies, laced the vitamin pills with lead to cause the ailment. Initially, Brian cooperated with the investigators, who searched the couple’s house to determine the possible sources of lead. However, they couldn’t find any. Not long after, he allegedly tried to portray himself as a victim of lead poisoning, too.
According to a nurse at Decatur General Hospital, “he did an X-ray on himself and observed a substance in his gut, which he believed to be lead.” The nurse told the police that he seemed nervous when she told him to get another X-ray done to know the severity of the situation. When the results of the second X-ray came, the nurse deduced that there was a lead-like substance in Brian’s colon, but it “didn’t appear to have been there for very long.” It made the detectives believe that the suspect deliberately consumed lead to pretend that he was also a victim. More suspicions were raised against him when a tipster told the authorities that he had installed lead in the walls of Brian’s X-ray room at his chiropractic office and handed him the remaining lead. Armed with enough evidence against him, the police arrested him in September 2022 and charged him with the attempted murder of his wife.
Brian Mann Has Been Brought to Justice For Attempting to Kill His Hannah Pettey
A few months later, in 2023, Brian Mann was bailed on a $500,000 bond. He also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, taking the matter to court. His trial commenced in June 2025, after a couple of years. While the prosecution presented evidence of foul play against him and how he allegedly waited to collect about $1.3 million from five life insurance policies in her name, the defense questioned if the substance found in Hannah’s colon was actually lead.
Finally, on June 12, 2025, after more than three hours of deliberation over the course of two days, the jury reached a verdict. The Decatur chiropractor was found guilty of attempted murder in connection with the lead poisoning of his wife, Hannah Pettey. A couple of months later, on August 27, he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. The following month, Brian filed a motion to get his conviction overturned or get a new trial. He claimed that the prosecution failed to prove his crime beyond a reasonable doubt. However, the Court of Appeals denied his appeal. As of today, the chiropractor is still held in Morgan County Jail, waiting to be transferred to an Alabama state prison.
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