Samuel Timothy Brown: Footy star’s cause of death is finally revealed 12 years after he was mysteriously found dead at the side of a road

Samuel Timothy Brown, 20, died after he was found in a bus and parking lane on the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach in 2012.

For years there was confusion with the case, with an investigator from the Forensic Crash Unit determining Brown did not die from being hit by a vehicle.

Senior Constable Steve Cornish said there was no paint or other debris from a vehicle in Brown’s wounds or on the road, and no abrasions to Brown’s body or clothing which would indicate he was projected along the road.

But Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher on Thursday found, based on evidence from medical experts, that Brown died from his head injuries which were likely caused by being hit by a vehicle.

‘Cornish’s stance appears to overlook the presence of oil on Samuel’s shirt, as well as the presence of [slight] abrasions on his back, both of which are consistent with contact with a vehicle in the way described by the medical experts,’ Gallagher said in her findings.

A neurosurgeon who reviewed the case in 2022 also found it was very unlikely Brown had sustained his injuries as a result of an assault.

In the Coroners Court in Brisbane, Brown’s family, who were present via video link, were silent as the findings were read out.

Brown had been with a friend, Robert Cosgrove, in the hours before he died, and the pair had planned to travel to Broadbeach in the early hours of November 25. 

Brown’s body was found in a bus and parking lane on the Gold Coast Highway at Mermaid Beach in November 2012

The young footy star was with a friend, Robert Cosgrove, in the hours before he died, who later admitted he deliberately left Brown sitting on the side of the road because he was ‘too drunk’

Initially, Cosgrove told police that he noticed Brown was not with him, but could not find him.

He later admitted he deliberately left Brown sitting on the side of the road because he wanted to go to Broadbeach to meet a girl he had met on a dating app, and Brown was too drunk, according to the findings. The court heard Brown’s alcohol level was about four times the legal limit.

Gallagher said it was possible Brown ‘had collapsed or passed out on the roadway and a vehicle drove over him [he was hit by the undercarriage but was not run over by the tyres], or that he was sitting on the road facing the oncoming traffic and was sideswiped by the left-hand side of a passing vehicle’.

In 2015, a taxi driver was charged with hit-and-run over Brown’s death. However, the prosecution dropped the case over a lack of evidence and there being no reasonable prospects of securing a conviction.