Predatory Betrayal – How Ken and Lynnea Brown, and Diane Hope (Brown) defrauded their disabled family.

🔥 Update on the Inheritance Fraud Case Involving the Browns and the Hopes

I want to provide a brief but important update regarding the situation involving the suspected theft and misappropriation of inheritance funds that rightfully belonged to my late disabled mother and me.

Last week, I made a genuine and earnest effort to open the door to resolution. I scheduled a meeting for today – Saturday July 26th at 4PM—clearly communicated in advance—giving Ken and Lynnea Brown and Diane and Tom Hope an opportunity to come forward, acknowledge their wrongdoing, and offer a sincere apology for what I believe to be their criminal indiscretions.

No one showed up.
No calls. No messages. No effort.

Their silence spoke louder than any words ever could. It confirmed what I had feared but hoped wasn’t true: there is no accountability, no remorse, and no intention to make things right.

Let me be perfectly clear—that was the last opportunity for reconciliation. The bridge is burned, the debris has been cleared, and there is no going back. From this point forward, I will do everything in my power to ensure these individuals are held fully accountable for their actions—both morally and legally.

They took advantage of two vulnerable, disabled people—my mother and me—during a time of immense suffering. They used manipulation, deceit, and silence to enrich themselves at our expense. I will not allow that to go unanswered.

It is now my mission to seek justice.
I will pursue every available legal, civil, and public avenue until every single penny that was stolen is repaid. And I will do so with unwavering resolve.

To the Browns and the Hopes:
You had your chance to do the right thing.
You chose cowardice and concealment.
Now you’ll face the consequences.

Stay tuned.

—Chris Larsen

This is not just a probate dispute. It’s a story of betrayal, exploitation, and stolen futures. It is a story that Chris Larsen has lived through for two decades—a story that begins with a promise and ends in a tragic injustice.

In 2005, Chris Larsen was in a committed relationship, living with his partner in Oceanside, California. It was a period in life when most people are building careers, creating families, and carving out their futures. But Chris’s life took a different turn. His maternal grandmother, Karen Brown, visited from Illinois. She asked Chris for a personal favor—one that would shape the next 20 years of his life. She asked him to stay behind and care for his disabled mother, Laurie Jean Larsen. She told him, in the presence of a witness, that this would not go unrewarded—that he would be taken care of later through her estate.

Chris accepted.

He ended his relationship. He gave up his chance at a family. He shouldered the emotional and financial burden of caregiving. His mother, Laurie, had suffered unimaginable trauma in her life. As a child, she had been attacked in a park—an incident possibly involving sexual violence. Later, during her pregnancy with Chris, she was abused and isolated by her then-husband. Chris grew up witnessing domestic violence, and he and his mother formed an unbreakable bond, forged in survival. Laurie was eventually diagnosed with complex PTSD and recognized by the Social Security Administration as permanently disabled in 2013. Chris himself suffers from multiple physical and neurological conditions, including Zinner Syndrome, spinal degeneration, pudendal neuralgia, and PTSD. He was declared disabled by SSA in 2017.

Despite their vulnerabilities, Chris and Laurie built a life together, filled with devotion, humor, and perseverance. They relied on each other. And they trusted their family—Diane Hope, Kenny Brown, and Lynnea Brown would never take advantage of them, or steal from them – particularly since they each were doing quite well with very successfull careers and long lasting marriages, where that was patently lacking for Chris, and for his Mom.

That trust was a mistake.

In September 2019, Karen Brown, Chris’ grandmother passed away. Her will was dated just two days before her death. At the time, Chris’ grandmother was hospitalized and heavily medicated. Diane Hope, a palliative care worker who should have known better, facilitated the will’s creation while Karen was in this compromised state. The new will named Diane and Kenny as executors and dramatically altered the distribution of Karen’s assets. Laurie and Chris were completely excluded.

Chris and Laurie had no idea Karen was hospitalized. Despite repeated calls and efforts to contact her, they received no information about her condition. When Karen finally called Chris shortly before her death, she was heartbroken—convinced that Chris and Laurie had ignored her in her time of need. That wasn’t true. Diane, Lynnea, and Kenny deliberately withheld the information so Karen would believe she had been abandoned.

In reality, Chris had called Diane earlier to ask why his grandmother wasn’t returning his calls. Diane never called him back. Instead, she let Karen believe she was unloved in her final days. This manipulation severed the emotional bond between Karen and the very people who had sacrificed most for her.

After Karen’s death, Chris and Laurie were robbed of everything.

The mobile home that Karen had placed in trust for Laurie was taken. Baxter stock, which Laurie had earned and transferred to Karen for safekeeping, vanished. Over a million dollars of Karen’s assets were transferred to a senior facility in Barrington, Illinois—then disappeared. No financial records were disclosed. No asset transfer paperwork. No brokerage statements from Chase or Edward Jones. Nothing.

In 2025, after Laurie passed away, Chris found the will while sorting through her belongings. It was the first time he had even seen the document. But it was too late. The assets were gone. And the people responsible were living comfortably.

Diane bragged about paying over $100,000 in tuition for relatives and funding her son Bart’s extravagant wedding. She even paid for the education of Kenny and Lynnea’s children. All of it, presumably, with money that was supposed to go to Laurie and Chris.

The cruelty didn’t stop there.

When Laurie was attacked by pit bulls and airlifted to a trauma center, the mobile home park where they lived began eviction proceedings in retaliation for the lawsuit filed against them. It was during this time—when Laurie was physically injured and emotionally shattered—that Diane, Kenny, and Lynnea seized the property. They did so knowing full well that both Laurie and Chris were vulnerable, disabled, and in the middle of a crisis.

Lynnea never even acknowledged Laurie’s death. But she did find the time to threaten Chris with false accusations of elder abuse—because Laurie didn’t return her call. Chris, already overwhelmed with caregiving responsibilities, had to fight with his mother to make a phone call just to appease Lynnea’s ego. Later, Lynnea tried to justify stealing Laurie’s inheritance because Laurie didn’t say thank you for a Christmas ornament. That was her justification—for robbing a disabled woman of her legacy.

To make matters worse, Diane had the audacity to say that Chris “failed” to maintain the mobile home. She did this knowing full well that the water damage came from faulty park infrastructure, and that the insurance company denied the claim for that very reason. They canceled the policy, and Diane twisted the situation to discredit Chris.

They also exploited Chris’s identity. He was born with a rare congenital disorder, Zinner Syndrome, which caused ambiguous imaging during his mother’s pregnancy. Some believed he would be born female. His entire life, Chris has endured pain, surgeries, and shame. Diane, Kenny and Lynnea knew about this. And they used that knowledge to manipulate, discredit, and exclude him.

Chris loved these people. Laurie loved them. They were family. They babysat their children, made themselves available at a moment’s notice, and gave freely of their time and love.

And in return, they were betrayed.

Chris is now nearly 50. His mother is gone. His health is fragile. He has no partner, no children, no financial security. Everything he was promised—everything he sacrificed for—was taken. By people he trusted.

Diane, Kenny and Lynnea will have to answer for what they did. If not in court, then in conscience. If not through legal restitution, then through public reckoning.

Some betrayals are too big to ignore. This is one of them.

Diane Patricia Hope – Your conduct has been nothing short of disgraceful. You present yourself with an air of moral superiority, yet you’ve barely worked an honest day in decades. The reality is, you’ve spent more time manipulating situations than contributing anything of substance. You once claimed you never had a problem with my father—how fitting. When I shared that my mother and I had done some traveling before she passed, your response was one of apparent disappointment, as though the idea of her finding joy in her final years offended you. That moment revealed more about your character than anything else could.

Lynnea Ostman Brown – Your failure to even acknowledge my mother’s death speaks volumes. It’s cowardly and shameful. And your role in enabling the betrayal that preceded my grandmother’s death—turning your husband into an instrument for financial exploitation—will not be forgotten. If you think staying silent will shield you from accountability, you’re mistaken.

Kenneth Cameron Brown – You may not realize it, but your actions make you look weak and compromised. Allowing yourself to be used as a tool to deprive your own family of their rightful inheritance is a level of betrayal that goes far beyond ordinary conflict. You didn’t just turn your back on us—you participated in something deeply unethical. Your betrayal honestly hurts me the most because I looked up to you the most, and I learned so much. It’s very, deeply disappointing.