Mar. 5—HIGH POINT — A High Point murder-for-hire killing from the 1990s will be showcased on the latest episode of "Snapped," a popular true-crime television series.

The episode, which features the case of High Point wife and mother — and convicted murderer — Patricia Gayle Brown, will air at 6 and 9 p.m. Sunday on the Oxygen network.

"When a North Carolina man is found shot to death in a roadside ditch, robbery seems to be a plausible motive," an Oxygen episode summary reads, "but the case remains cold for years until a mysterious letter reveals a more sinister motive than anyone could have imagined."

In the summer of 1995, the 47-year-old Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder for hiring her brother-in-law to kill her husband, 45-year-old Frederic C. "Fred" Brown Jr., a well-liked business instructor at Guilford Technical Community College. The killing took place on the night of April 24, 1991, along a dark stretch of N.C. 68, where the victim's body was found in a roadside ditch the next morning.

According to court documents and newspaper accounts, Patricia Brown persuaded her sister, Sheila "Dee Dee" Wentzel, and Wentzel's husband, Leroy, to help her kill her husband of 20-plus years so she could collect some $500,000 in insurance benefits. She reportedly paid the couple $1,000 up front and promised them an additional $30,000 once the deed was done, according to court records.

Brown even plotted how the murder would be accomplished, authorities said. Around 9:30 p.m. on the night of the crime, police alleged, Leroy Wentzel called Fred Brown at his home in the Oak Hollow neighborhood and said his car had broken down on N.C. 68 at Gallimore Dairy Road. Fred went to assist, but when he got there, Wentzel shot him with a .22-caliber pistol — once in the back and twice in the head — even as the Army veteran pleaded for his life. Wentzel then took the victim's wallet, to make it look as if he had been killed by a robber.

Police suspected Patricia Brown's involvement in her husband's death — they'd heard stories about the couple's troubled marriage and financial woes — but they didn't have the evidence to pin the crime on her.

For three years, no charges were filed. In the summer of 1994, though, Leroy Wentzel wrote two confessional letters — each labeled "Only Open If I Die" — and gave them to his daughter. Police in Reading, Pennsylvania, discovered the letters while investigating Wentzel for failing to pay child support, and read how his sister-in-law had contracted with him and Dee Dee to kill Fred Brown. All three conspirators were charged after Guilford County authorities were contacted.

Even though Leroy Wentzel confessed to being the trigger man, he and his wife pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for their testimony against Brown as the mastermind.

Following a high-profile trial that lasted two months, a jury found Brown guilty and sentenced her to life in prison.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579