333. The Desert Trap: The Murder of Erin Corwin

On this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Erin Corwin. When the young Marine wife mysteriously vanishes during a trip to the California desert, what starts as a desperate search for a missing person quickly unravels into a dark web of secrets. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case sources: Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/dateline-secrets-uncovered/crime-news/disappearance-of-erin-corwin-uncovers-devastating-secrets-and ABC7.com - https://abc7.com/post/ex-marine-found-guilty-of-murdering-pregnant-lover/1588058/ ABC30.com - https://abc30.com/post/ex-marine-confesses-to-killing-throwing-pregnant-lover-down-mine-shaft/1585591/ NYPost.com - https://nypost.com/2019/04/02/the-twisted-love-triangle-that-led-to-the-killing-of-a-marines-wife/ BakersfieldNow.com - https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/ex-marine-gets-prison-in-murder-of-fellow-marines-wife CNN.com- https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/california-missing-marine-wife DesertSun.com - https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2016/11/03/christopher-lee-erin-corwin/93237046/ AlaskaNewsSource.com - https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/content/news/Ex-Marine-with-ties-to-Alaska-admits-to-strangling-pregnant-lover-399710281.html MarineCorpsTimes.com - https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2014/08/27/former-marine-pleads-not-guilty-in-erin-corwin-s-death/ AllThatsInteresting.com - https://allthatsinteresting.com/erin-corwin CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cops-man-charged-in-erin-corwin-case-researched-body-disposal/ NYPost.com - https://nypost.com/2019/04/02/the-twisted-love-triangle-that-led-to-the-killing-of-a-marines-wife/ Fox13Seattle.com - https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/ex-marine-shocks-court-admits-on-stand-to-killing-other-marines-wife KTLA.com - https://ktla.com/news/local-news/murder-charge-filed-in-death-of-erin-corwin-pregnant-wife-of-u-s-marine/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress. A hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer. Until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.

• 0:31Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 0:38Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:40Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:40Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Happy Monday. How are you guys doing? Hope everyone's having a good day. We're just over here. Recording, pregnant. Honestly, pregnant. Doing a lot of that. That's kind of what we got going on, everybody. What have you guys been up to? Anything fun? Anything cool you guys have been doing? We haven't really done anything. We've just been working. What have we got going on? We go to the hospital sometimes. What else do we do?

• 1:09Payton Moreland?

  You go to the bagel shop.

• 1:10Garrett Moreland?

  I go to the bagel shop. Look, I've talked about this multiple times before, but I feel like we have a lot of new listeners and viewers. So I'm going to talk about it again. And I feel like the consensus was like 80, 70% agreed. And like 20 to 30% didn't agree. So talked about it before. But I just saw something on TikTok about it. So I feel like I gotta bring it back up. I don't like late people. I do not. It really is interesting to see that. Some people like disagree with that. Like, some people are like, oh, I'm just gonna be late to things. Deal with it. I'm like, what? Like, that just, that isn't, that doesn't make sense in my brain. Like, my brain can't comprehend that. Like, when it's like, hey, we're gonna meet here at 3:00.

• 1:55Garrett Moreland?

  You don't show up at 3:18.

• 1:58Payton Moreland?

  Why?

• 1:59Garrett Moreland?

  Some people just treat it so, it's so disrespectful.

• 2:02Payton Moreland?

  Yep.

• 2:03Garrett Moreland?

  And the reason I'm saying this is because I just think someone's time is extremely valuable. We're all busy. We're all doing a million things in life. Whether it's work, whether we have kids, whether what's going on. And so I just think it's so strange to be like, sorry, like, look. And things happen. I get it. There's your one offs. It happens every once in a while. I'm talking about the people who are consistently, like, we all know someone where it's like, oh, they're gonna be 15 minutes late. Like, it doesn't matter. You name a time of where you're gonna be. And everyone in the group is like, yeah, Jack over there. We just know Jack's gonna be 15 minutes late.

• 2:40Payton Moreland?

  No, but most of the time, Jack's like, yeah, I'm always late. Ha, ha, ha.

• 2:44Garrett Moreland?

  It's like a joke to them.

• 2:46Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I can't ever get anywhere on time.

• 2:48Garrett Moreland?

  But in my mind, I'm like, Jack, you obviously just don't care about other people's time. Like, you're too selfishly involved with what's going on in your life. I know it might sound mean. I know some of you are like, oh, Garrett. No, nope. Don't be late. Pet peeve, not a fan. Everyone's time's valuable. That's my rant. That's my hot take. I got some heat last time for it. Look, because I know some people are like, well, I have eight. Guys, I have an extreme case of ADHD. My ADHD is through the freaking roof. And guess what? You'll never catch me late to something.

• 3:25Payton Moreland?

  Also, you can't.

• 3:27Garrett Moreland?

  Ask Peyton.

• 3:28Payton Moreland?

  You can't use the, you can't use your own. You gotta fix you. You can't let it affect other people.

• 3:35Garrett Moreland?

  Ask Peyton. I got some, my ADHD, Mach 10. Level 100. Like, I'm, I have issues with it, but.

• 3:45Payton Moreland?

  You know, okay, so, okay, so.

• 3:47Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, let's hear this.

• 3:48Payton Moreland?

  I have a hard time texting people back.

• 3:50Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 3:51Payton Moreland?

  People would put those in the same category. I would not.

• 3:56Garrett Moreland?

  I don't think I would.

• 3:57Payton Moreland?

  Because one is like in-person time, where you took the time to leave your house, get dressed. Like, you put a lot of time and energy into going to do something with someone versus someone not responding to you. And I don't mean something like urgent. I mean, just like, you know, just like a random text. Yeah, like, I feel it is very hard for me to respond to texts. Like, they are so socially draining for me.

• 4:27Garrett Moreland?

  I think those are two different categories.

• 4:29Payton Moreland?

  But I'll be interested to see what people say, because there are people who think it's disrespectful.

• 4:33Garrett Moreland?

  Like, not respond to someone?

• 4:35Payton Moreland?

  And my argument on that is, well, being able to get ahold of someone anytime, anyplace is a new thing. Like, we weren't, I don't know if we were necessarily meant to be able to be reachable at all times. And like, an expectation that just because someone has a cellphone mean that they, means that they should always be ready and willing to talk to you.

• 4:57Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, I think those are two completely different things. I think if you were to say, if you agreed to text someone back and then didn't text them back, then that would be similar to.

• 5:07Payton Moreland?

  Like, let's make plans. And then they text and you don't. That's disrespectful.

• 5:11Garrett Moreland?

  I think that's rude and disrespectful.

• 5:13Payton Moreland?

  Yes, I would agree with that.

• 5:15Garrett Moreland?

  But there's a, there's a lot of people in my life I know that are late to things. I'm still friends with them. It doesn't mean I hate them. But I will give them crap every single time they're late to something. So if that is you and you're hearing this, I still love you.

• 5:29Payton Moreland?

  No, Garrett's scared half of our friends. They're all like, oh, we know when we're hanging out with Garrett. We have to be on time.

• 5:35Garrett Moreland?

  It's true. But I still love you. I'll still be your friend. I still want you to watch and listen. I'll still talk to you. But if we ever do a live show and you come late, I'm calling you out in front of the whole crowd.

• 5:49Payton Moreland?

  No, because sometimes things happen.

• 5:51Garrett Moreland?

  Yes, unless, that's true. Unless, and that's what I said.

• 5:54Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 5:54Garrett Moreland?

  Things happen. You have your one offs. I'm talking about the people that are like, like, they're so good at it. They're consistently late.

• 6:02Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. No, because I think they think it's like a quirk.

• 6:06Garrett Moreland?

  I think so. Well, no, there's a lot of people out there who are like, what's the big deal?

• 6:11Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. But then it's like, I have people in my, like, life that are consistently late.

• 6:19Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 6:19Payton Moreland?

  And I've been with them when they have somewhere to be. They're not doing crap.

• 6:23Garrett Moreland?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 6:24Payton Moreland?

  They're not doing crap.

• 6:25Garrett Moreland?

  It's time management.

• 6:27Payton Moreland?

  Yes, it's time management.

• 6:28Garrett Moreland?

  They're doing something. It's like, they're just getting ready.

• 6:31Payton Moreland?

  They're showering late. They're like, it's just.

• 6:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yes, I know. I honestly, I'm sorry, guys. This is long. We're eight minutes in. I truly don't understand. Someone try to explain it to me. Like, I don't know if there's a good explanation you could give me.

• 6:45Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, but here's the thing. If your explanation is, oh, my life doesn't, okay, that's not the explanation we're wanting.

• 6:53Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, well, then don't make plans with someone. Like, if you make plans with someone, you're committing to something. It's not just your time. It's somebody else's time.

• 7:02Payton Moreland?

  So you're disloyal.

• 7:03Garrett Moreland?

  You can be.

• 7:03Payton Moreland?

  So you're basically a cheater.

• 7:04Garrett Moreland?

  You can be late by yourself. I don't care if you're late by yourself. Don't do it around me. Oh, man, this gets me fired up. Like, I've always been like this, though.

• 7:14Payton Moreland?

  But I will say, since getting pregnant, I don't know why it does seem a little harder for me to like, get out of the door in the normal time I used to.

• 7:22Garrett Moreland?

  No, I totally get that.

• 7:23Payton Moreland?

  I think I'm just moving a little slower with everything and it kind of adds up. I'm not late, but like, I like to be early to things. Yeah, I like to be early to things. And so when I'm showing up with only three minutes to spare, that stresses me out.

• 7:36Garrett Moreland?

  And look, I get it. I'm, oh, my gosh. I already know all of you guys are like, wait till you have kids. Okay, I will film every single time. Because guess what? I'm gonna be getting my kid ready an hour earlier than normal.

• 7:51Payton Moreland?

  What if your kid's having a tantrum?

• 7:52Garrett Moreland?

  Because here's the thing. I grew up in a family with little kids.

• 7:57Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 7:58Garrett Moreland?

  And guess what? We were never late to anything. But what my parents did was different is how we went about things is everyone would just get ready a lot earlier. Right? You just, you just push everything back. It's not impossible.

• 8:09Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 8:10Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, I'm sorry. I know I'm pissing a lot of people off. So I'll stop. I love all you guys. We all have our own opinions. That's the best part of life. I'm still friends with everyone.

• 8:19Payton Moreland?

  Someone's probably rage.

• 8:21Garrett Moreland?

  No, someone's giving me a one-star review right now.

• 8:25Payton Moreland?

  But I do feel like there's other things that people feel this passionately about, like you with late people.

• 8:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 8:31Payton Moreland?

  There's probably other things that when, if they brought it up to us, would be like, oh, we don't really care about that.

• 8:36Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, but if it's something I do, I get.

• 8:38Payton Moreland?

  I think it goes back to what you're saying, like, the level of respect. Is the thing you're doing inherently disrespectful of someone else's time?

• 8:47Garrett Moreland?

  For sure. That's my main thing. We're, we gotta stop talking about it. But yes, no, that's my main thing is, it's just, I think it's disrespectful. If there's something I'm doing that you think is disrespectful, tell me. Because I'll be like, yeah, you're probably, I get that. I shouldn't do that anymore. Someone the other day was mad that I was eating food when we were telling one of our stories. And I was like, okay, I could see that. So guess what? I'm not eating food during one of my stories or one of the cases. I get it.

• 9:14Payton Moreland?

  No, yeah, it makes sense.

• 9:15Garrett Moreland?

  I get it. I could see that.

• 9:17Payton Moreland?

  Wow, you're so humble.

• 9:19Garrett Moreland?

  No, I'm just get out of here. No, but I feel like I'm open to

• 9:23Payton Moreland?

  A hundred percent.

• 9:24Garrett Moreland?

  I'm a very open person when it comes to like criticism or hearing what other people's thoughts are. I won't always agree with you, but like, I'm very open to it and I enjoy seeing other people's point of views.

• 9:37Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I feel like very rarely do I not see truth in something that someone brings up.

• 9:41Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 9:42Payton Moreland?

  Okay, should we get into today's case?

• 9:43Garrett Moreland?

  Let's get into today's case and guess what? You don't have to hear me talk as much anymore. We're coming over to pay in.

• 9:49Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, ABC seven.com, ABC thirty.com, New York Post.com, Bakersfield now.com, CNN.com, Desert Sun.com, Alaska News Source.com, Marine Corps Times.com, All That's Interesting.com, CBS News, New York Post, Fox thirteen Seattle.com and K T L A.com. Usually a solid friendship makes the perfect foundation for a beautiful romance. We've heard this time and time again, like friends first, lovers second. Falling in love with your best friend makes things easy.

• 10:28Payton Moreland?

  You get to skip the awkward first date, the getting to know you phase, the uncomfortable small talk. You already feel safe with that person. So dating just kind of feels like this organic transition. But there are cases where dating your close friend is not the best idea. Like maybe when you're already in a committed relationship. It's a risk that usually outweighs the reward. The possibility of ruining several important relationships all at once because you're dating someone, but then fall in love with your best friend. I don't know. Some people will do it. They'll, they'll take the chance. They'll roll the dice.

• 11:08Payton Moreland?

  I love who I love and others just get themselves in too deep and then end up trying to do whatever it takes to pull themselves back out. So we are kicking today's case off in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a young girl named Erin Heavlin is growing up. Now Erin was adopted when she was just seventeen days old by the Heavlin family in Tennessee and all of her other siblings were adopted as well. Though Erin was easily the most quiet, shy, reserved of all of her adopted siblings. She was cautious. She was obsessed with animals. She loved horses.

• 11:53Payton Moreland?

  And that was actually where Erin ended up finding a lot of her confidence growing up. She got a lot of her experience with horses at the East Tennessee Riding Club, which her mom, Lore, that's her name Lore, described as Erin's second home as a kid. And as much as Lauren, her husband, pushed back on getting Erin a horse of her own, they couldn't deny that joy from her forever. So they eventually gave in and they gave her not one, but two horses. But it was there at the barn that Erin gained another love. When she was just in fifth grade, she's a horse girl.

• 12:36Payton Moreland?

  She meets a boy named John Corwin.

• 12:40Garrett Moreland?

  Fifth grade.

• 12:41Payton Moreland?

  Fifth grade. Now John and Erin become close friends. Uh, then they drift for a while as they like start coming of age. But then after reconnecting, the two started dating. John actually asked her to be his girlfriend on Erin's sixteenth birthday. So it was kind of like this childhood crush love that's now actually turned into teenagers dating. And John even asked Erin's parents' permission first, which is why the Heavlands really loved John. They really took him in. He was polite, warm hearted. He had a good head on his shoulders. He already knew what he wanted to do with his life, which was to join the Marines.

• 13:24Payton Moreland?

  Of course, that meant that John would likely be stationed somewhere out of state after he joined. And the best way for Erin to go with him and for them to stay together after high school was if they got married. So in November of two thousand and twelve, eighteen year old Erin and nineteen year old John tie the knot. They actually went off and eloped in Las Vegas. While they were young, Erin's family was supportive of the decision. Her family knew him, had known him for a long time. They didn't really see this as some just like puppy love bling, oh, going off and eloping.

• 14:06Payton Moreland?

  They figure this is a means to an end to make it so that he can join the Marines and she can go with him. And that was important because by September twenty thirteen, Erin and John were going to be on their own, far removed from family when John got his assignment. He was sent to a base in Twenty Nine Palms out in California. Now together, Erin and John, still young, started a new little life at the Marine Combat Base just outside of Joshua Tree National Park. And Garrett and I have been to Joshua Tree. If you don't know what Joshua Tree is, it is this town in the desert.

• 14:49Garrett Moreland?

  It's a desert town.

• 14:50Payton Moreland?

  It is very small. It is very desert-y. There's

• 14:53Garrett Moreland?

  Lots of sand, lots of dirt.

• 14:55Payton Moreland?

  Think like holes, the movie. I feel like I'm always talking about that movie.

• 14:59Garrett Moreland?

  But there's some cute, there's some really cute houses, cute city. There's some things to do.

• 15:04Payton Moreland?

  But they're on the base outside of Joshua Tree.

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• 16:11Payton Moreland?

  This message is sponsored by Greenlight. You know, there were many times growing up in school where I was like, when am I ever going to use this? And let me be real honest with you. A lot of those things have turned out to be true. But you know what I wish they would have taught in school? Financial literacy. So Greenlight takes the mental load of family life and kind of puts it all into one place. It keeps your whole family in sync, money, safety and everyday life all in one place. When you're using it, you can see what your kids are spending, right when they spend it. You can also easily send them money via Greenlight instead of like digging around for cash.

• 16:56Payton Moreland?

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• 17:40Payton Moreland?

  Basically they move here and pretty soon the world is starting to feel a little bit smaller for Erin. Out in the desert, there wasn't much to do to occupy her time, especially since John would be off in training, sometimes gone for a month or longer, while Erin was just left at home to her own devices. Luckily, the base did have its own grocery store and a movie theater. So it was easy for Erin to meet people, make friends who also lived there, especially running into the same military wives who were going through similar things as her. Plus, there was a place called the White Rock Horse Rescue that was nearby.

• 18:23Payton Moreland?

  And that kind of filled some of what Erin was missing from back home. She started going to these stables often, including with a new friend she had met, a fellow Marine wife and neighbor of hers, a woman named Nicole Lee. Now Nicole and Erin going to the stables together, kind of living a similar life. They get pretty close. They would ride together and then Erin would go over to help babysit their five year old daughter, which she loved because Erin loved kids. She wanted kids of her own. And while their husbands were out on duty, they would spend a lot of time together, hanging out at each other's places, chatting, gossiping.

• 19:07Payton Moreland?

  And when their husbands were around, they would all double date, barbecue together, watch movies at each other's homes. Like it was definitely best friends type thing. And Erin was starting to get used to the setup, even though she was miles away from home. But she was excited in June of twenty fourteen because her mother Lore was actually coming to visit in a few days. But unfortunately, the family would receive some devastating news before that trip came. On the morning of June twenty eighth, twenty fourteen, Erin woke up early and told her husband she was going out for the day.

• 19:48Payton Moreland?

  She wanted to scout out some hiking trails around Joshua Tree National Park to see what would be safe and doable for her and her mom when her mom arrived. Now Erin gave John a kiss goodbye and told him she loved him. And then John rolled over and went back to sleep for a while. Apparently that was around seven thirty AM. Later, John wakes up, he goes about his day, but the hours passed and Erin still wasn't back from scouting out hiking trails. So eventually he gets really worried and he called Erin over and over again, fifty times by the end of the day with no answer.

• 20:33Payton Moreland?

  And by nightfall, she is still not home. Except John doesn't go to the police that night. Instead, he waited until the following morning, she still doesn't come home. And then he reports his wife missing. You would report me missing if I wasn't answering and didn't come home that night.

• 20:55Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, a hundred percent. You know, a hundred percent. And that's weird. It's, that's completely weird.

• 21:01Payton Moreland?

  Maybe not all are like that.

• 21:02Garrett Moreland?

  Depends like if I, if you, uh, yeah, no, I would.

• 21:06Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Garrett Moreland?

  A hundred percent would.

• 21:08Payton Moreland?

  So John tells the police he's really worried over the fact that Erin honestly left the house that day with nothing. She didn't pack much more than a Gatorade. So how is she still gone into the next day? But he doesn't sound that worried according to police. They said there wasn't much emotion in his voice and that was what worried them. They were like, why are you not more worked up over this? John had also called Erin's mother Lore that day to say, hey, I just reported Erin missing. And Lore's first impression is Erin, her daughter likely just got lost somewhere out looking for those hikes.

• 21:49Payton Moreland?

  She said Erin's not very good with directions and in a place as vast and sparse as Joshua Tree National Park, it is easy to get turned around. But regardless, Lore wastes no time. She gets on a plane and she is out there by the next day. But when she showed up at Erin and John's house, John goes, oh, there's also something else I need to tell you. Something that's going to make this situation even more dire. Erin was apparently three months pregnant at this time and she's now been missing. So again,

• 22:27Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 22:28Payton Moreland?

  This is a pretty big deal for Erin because she had gotten pregnant before, earlier in the year. She was so excited about it. She had posted an announcement on Facebook, but then a few weeks after that, they had a miscarriage. It devastated her. It devastated John. And according to sources, this was a hard time in Erin's life. She pulled back a bit. She was less social. It also put distance between her and John, which was tough since things weren't great between them even before this first pregnancy. So when her mom gets there and she learns she's pregnant again, she starts kind of like flashing back to all of

• 23:13Payton Moreland?

  this entire marriage. Apparently John and Erin often argued over their finances. Friends said he kept tabs on her, maybe more than he should have, was a little controlling.

• 23:27Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, finances are the number one reason.

• 23:30Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 23:31Garrett Moreland?

  Couples get divorced.

• 23:32Payton Moreland?

  But.

• 23:33Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, it's hard.

• 23:34Payton Moreland?

  I guess it wasn't too alarming, just normal couple stuff. But the marriage just ended up complicating matters even worse. Still, the police believe at this point in the investigation, she's been missing. Her mom is now here. They think John's lack of emotion is still strange. But Laura kind of tells him, no, that's just John. Like he's not acting any different. He doesn't show a lot of emotion. He never really has. And she personally tells police, I don't think he's done anything wrong. The police are like, okay, we get it. We're going to polygraph him anyway because his pregnant wife is missing. And he passes. Plus he handed over his phone to authorities and let them track his digital information, which proved

• 24:18Payton Moreland?

  he was at the house all day when Erin went missing, at least his phone was and being used. So they kind of ruled John out. But at this point, investigators didn't even know if this was an issue of foul play. I mean, all they know is that Erin went out to Joshua Tree and never made it home. So that same day, they dispatched crews by foot and air to scour Joshua Tree National Forest, just in case she had gotten lost. This is not an easy task, considering that it's over 1,200 square miles of desert with more than a thousand abandoned mines.

• 24:55Garrett Moreland?

  Wow.

• 24:56Payton Moreland?

  Now luckily, authorities managed to narrow down the search to 300 square miles, actually using Erin's cellphone data. And with the help of six different law enforcement agencies and hundreds of volunteers looking for this missing pregnant woman, the search for Erin Corwin went into full effect. Meanwhile, two days later, on June 30th, police found their first clue of what they believe might have happened. And it was her car. Police discovered her car just outside the military base, not inside of Joshua Tree Park, like they had expected.

• 25:38Payton Moreland?

  Which doesn't make sense because if she told her husband that morning when she woke up, she was heading to the National Park to scout hiking trails. Why did she park her car so far away? The car doesn't give them much else. There was no sign of Erin, but there were some footprints leading away from her car. And they seemed to disappear at another set of tire tracks. Again, it's desert. And so they believe Erin parked her car, got out of her vehicle and got into someone else's car.

• 26:12Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 26:12Payton Moreland?

  So when they discover this, they're like, okay, this isn't what she said she was doing that morning. Who was she meeting up with? The prints don't show any signs of a struggle. It looks like, like she just willingly got in. Which is when they started looking closer at the friends Erin made while living in 29 Palms. And they heard from a few people that Erin's new best friend Nicole was having some issues in her marriage as well recently with her own husband, 24-year-old Marine Corporal Chris Lee. And it seems to have something to do with Erin.

• 26:54Payton Moreland?

  So as they began asking around, getting to the rumor mill, the gossip, they're like, what's going on with Erin? Who did she know here? What was her life like? And all of these people are like, well, her best friend Nicole and Nicole's husband, they seem to be arguing over her friendship with Erin.

• 27:11Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 27:12Payton Moreland?

  Now, one of the first people to notice.

• 27:16Garrett Moreland?

  Am I wrong? I feel like someone that's in the military, let me know. I feel like on these bases, like cheating happens a lot. I mean, I guess it makes sense. I mean, maybe it's not any different than the normal population. But I do know it's a bigger deal, right? Because.

• 27:31Payton Moreland?

  I mean, it is, it is like its own little town.

• 27:34Garrett Moreland?

  Like you, I mean, like you're not supposed to when you're in the military.

• 27:37Payton Moreland?

  You could lose your career.

• 27:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, exactly. So maybe it's just a bigger of a deal. I don't know. Well, it is a bigger of a deal, but I mean, maybe it's just heightened more. So I feel like I hear about it a lot for some reason.

• 27:53Payton Moreland?

  Well, they began talking to people and one of the first people that claimed to notice this was Isabel Megley. She was the owner of the horse ranch where Erin and Nicole spent a lot of their free time. Now Isabel got to know both couples pretty well and she could immediately sense a disconnect between Nicole and her husband, Chris. She said Nicole was definitely the tougher one in the marriage. She was stricter. She wore the pants, if you will. Chris was less serious, a bit more irresponsible, was always just trying to have a good time.

• 28:32Payton Moreland?

  In fact, he had gotten in trouble with the Marines at least once for treating the weapons like toys. He had already gotten caught messing around with rifles and rocket launchers. So there were rumors that Chris was a bit reckless and that it could jeopardize his career in the Marines. Like this was kind of, you know. It also seemed like Chris was at a loss when it kind of came to the direction of his life. He told people around this time, he was struggling with depression. He wasn't really connecting with his family anymore, which was something that Erin Corwin could relate to, especially after her own miscarriage with John. So according to the rumor mill,

• 29:16Payton Moreland?

  Erin began confiding in her best friend Nicole's husband, Chris, about the issues in her marriage. And it was reciprocated by Chris, who was also struggling after coming back from a tour in Afghanistan. Erin was also the kind of person who liked to help people. And Chris had told her that his depression had gotten so serious that he had been playing, quote, Russian roulette every morning. I don't know how serious that statement is.

• 29:48Garrett Moreland?

  What does that mean? I mean, I know what it means, but like.

• 29:50Payton Moreland?

  Like, I don't know if he's being literal or if it was more just like every morning I get up and wonder if I want to be here.

• 29:57Garrett Moreland?

  I would, oh. Okay, got it. I was thinking of something. Like, like he's walking on eggshells.

• 30:03Payton Moreland?

  Hmm, no.

• 30:04Garrett Moreland?

  I wasn't thinking.

• 30:05Payton Moreland?

  This was about his literal life.

• 30:07Garrett Moreland?

  Ah, I see. Okay.

• 30:08Payton Moreland?

  But over time, Chris made it seem like Erin, again, his wife's best friend, was really helping him through that. He said they felt like, quote, two broken pieces that fit together. The two started to lean on each other more. They started hanging out more, even with their spouses present. Like they didn't necessarily hide this blooming friendship from their spouses. But things escalated from there one night, a few months before Erin's disappearance in February of 2014. That evening, the Lees invited the Corwins over to watch The Walking Dead. Again, all four of these people are best friends. They're a couple best friends. But since Erin hated the violence in The Walking Dead,

• 30:53Payton Moreland?

  she ends up going into Chris's room to play video games. And apparently he joins her, leaving John and Nicole on the couch alone to watch the episode. So the couples have like swapped, if you will.

• 31:09Garrett Moreland?

  Like willingly?

• 31:10Payton Moreland?

  I mean, she walked in and then he ended up following her and then the other two were still watching The Walking Dead. I mean, could it unfold naturally? But when you look back.

• 31:19Garrett Moreland?

  No, it cannot unfold. No.

• 31:21Payton Moreland?

  Like when you look at it, it's like, hmm. Why are those two in a room together?

• 31:27Garrett Moreland?

  Basically swinging.

• 31:28Payton Moreland?

  Oh, okay. I wouldn't go that far.

• 31:30Garrett Moreland?

  Really? Why?

• 31:32Payton Moreland?

  Cause it's not like they're swinging.

• 31:35Garrett Moreland?

  What are they doing?

• 31:36Payton Moreland?

  They're just four friends hanging out.

• 31:38Garrett Moreland?

  And they happen to swap.

• 31:41Payton Moreland?

  Well, they're not, just because one went in doesn't mean the other two are having a relationship as well.

• 31:48Garrett Moreland?

  Got it.

• 31:48Payton Moreland?

  So that's not swinging. That's just a full blown affair.

• 31:52Garrett Moreland?

  Sure.

• 31:53Payton Moreland?

  So according to sources, Aaron is playing video games. Chris goes in, they're seated on the floor. Guess one of them pauses the video game and kisses the other one.

• 32:05Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 32:07Payton Moreland?

  I don't know. It was quick. It was the start of something dangerous. It escalates into a full blown affair. According to the story, this is the first time they have had physical interaction with their spouses sitting in the living room. To the point where they then both begin talking about leaving their partners.

• 32:24Garrett Moreland?

  Oh no.

• 32:25Payton Moreland?

  For each other.

• 32:26Garrett Moreland?

  Not good, not good.

• 32:27Payton Moreland?

  Chris even told her, you, you, like, my child already loves you because you've spent so much time with Nicole. Your best friend, mind you, your best friend.

• 32:35Garrett Moreland?

  That's just so messy. Like, don't bring the kids into it like that. Like, come on.

• 32:41Payton Moreland?

  It's also just like, yeah, Nicole let you know her daughter because you guys were best friends. No wonder the daughter loves you. But then Chris takes this and he's like, you'd be such a good stepmom.

• 32:51Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my.

• 32:52Payton Moreland?

  Like our five year old daughter already loves you.

• 32:54Garrett Moreland?

  You gotta be kidding me right now. That makes me sick. Alright guys, we're jumping into an ad and it is the one and only Skims.

• 33:03Payton Moreland?

  We love Skims and I'm so excited. I get to talk to you about their loungewear and pajamas. If you follow me on Instagram, I just posted, but I did get one of their sleep sets. That's like a deep burgundy color. So cute, so rich, so soft. And then I also got a fleece set that's like this chocolate brown. So freaking cute. I love a good matching set and I love Skims. Again, the sleep set I got is the soft lounge sleep set. I always get asked like what exactly it is.

• 33:44Payton Moreland?

  So yes, the soft lounge sleep set, it has the perfect weight, the perfect stretch. The fabric will not irritate your skin. Honestly, I recommend Skims to everyone due to just the quality and the comfort that it brings. So go check out their cotton fleece sets or their sleep sets right now.

• 34:04Garrett Moreland?

  Shop Peyton's favorite loungewear and pajamas at skims.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

• 34:17Payton Moreland?

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• 35:00Payton Moreland?

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• 35:45Payton Moreland?

  Now, it doesn't take long for Nicole to realize something is off. Chris had been pushing her away and made her curious if there was something he wasn't telling her. So one day that spring, she checks his phone and she finds endless text messages between Chris, her husband, and Aaron, her best friend.

• 36:07Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 36:07Payton Moreland?

  Saying things like, I'm falling for you. So after that, Nicole called John, the husband, Aaron's husband. So instead of confronting the two, she ends up calling John and she says, hey, this is what I found. Our spouses are definitely sleeping together. And this ends up becoming a meeting between the four of them. He's like, okay, let's bring both of them to the room. All four of us will meet and get down to the bottom of what's going on. And this meeting lasts hours and ended with Aaron trying to leave, but Nicole stopping her to say, quote, "If you ever have anything else to do with my husband, I will kill you myself."

• 36:51Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh. Okay.

• 36:52Payton Moreland?

  So it's definitely volatile. It's definitely messy. And after that, Aaron and Chris apparently call it quits. Like the spouses have found out it's a mess. At least for a few weeks. But once the storm had settled, they began seeing each other in secret again. And then on June 22nd.

• 37:13Garrett Moreland?

  Ballsy.

• 37:14Payton Moreland?

  Less than a week before she disappeared, Aaron learns she's pregnant and she is already three months along.

• 37:23Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh. And see, that's their baby.

• 37:25Payton Moreland?

  Well, she tells John, no, no, no, the baby's yours. Like a hundred percent, the baby's yours, I promise. And after their miscarriage, he's obviously overwhelmed with joy. Maybe they're finally getting back on track. Like secrets had come out. They're now pregnant. What John never learned was she also goes to Chris and says, the baby's yours. What are we gonna do? She tells both men that the baby is theirs.

• 37:56Garrett Moreland?

  That's pretty diabolical. Not gonna lie.

• 37:59Payton Moreland?

  John obviously has no idea the couple had been sleeping together again, because even though it's three months, remember? They took some time and stopped talking apparently. So it had been three months since this meeting that he believed is when they stopped sleeping together. So in John's mind, he's like, yeah, it can only be mine because she's only been sleeping with me. But Chris and Aaron know, no, we've still secretly been sleeping together. This could very much be Chris's baby. It's a mess. Like they, this is a, this is a mess.

• 38:31Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 38:32Payton Moreland?

  And this means at the time of Aaron's disappearance, things are still on between her and Chris. She's still having an affair. But now several days into the investigation, police have been talking to people. They've been going through cell phone records. They've been pulling people in for interviews and they've uncovered the truth, which means John is also finally learning that his missing pregnant wife was still actively seeing his best friend, basically. Her best friend's husband at the time of this disappearance and could possibly not be his baby. It could be Chris's. So police uncover this to everyone involved. They're like, Aaron continued this affair with Chris.

• 39:16Payton Moreland?

  And she also told Chris the child was his. Now, by that point, the police had also begun unraveling another clue. Aaron's mother, Lore, had spoken to Aaron's close friend, Jessica, who lived back home. And apparently Aaron had been confiding in her home friend, Jessica, about everything that had been going on, the details of the affair. She told Lore that Aaron was talking about a special surprise from Chris right before she vanished. So her friend from home is like, oh, I knew about everything going on. And she said Chris was gonna surprise her. According to this friend, Aaron said she was clueless about what the surprise might be,

• 40:01Payton Moreland?

  but he did tell her it was a trip to Joshua Tree National Forest. Aaron believed Chris was gonna tell her he was leaving his wife for her and he was gonna propose. So she tells her friend, I actually think he's taking me here because we're gonna start our life together. Now, after hearing this, the police bring Chris in for an interview the day after Aaron's car was found. So this is all unraveled quickly. This is July 1st, 2014. Chris seems cooperative. He doesn't ask for attorney. He admits, he's like, yep, I was having an affair with Aaron. Though he said Aaron couldn't have been carrying his child because we never actually had intercourse.

• 40:44Payton Moreland?

  We never did anything more than kiss. So I know that that child's not mine. He also tells police, I thought I was in love with her, but now I'm thinking it was just a fantasy since me and my wife weren't in the best place.

• 40:59Garrett Moreland?

  Does that sound a little funny as like a grown adult?

• 41:02Payton Moreland?

  To be like, we only kissed.

• 41:03Garrett Moreland?

  We only kissed. I swear. We just like, we had a little peck on the lips.

• 41:06Payton Moreland?

  Little 16 year olds.

• 41:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, we just kissed. That's it. We only kissed. Like, no dude, you're a full grown adult.

• 41:11Payton Moreland?

  You're having a full blown affair.

• 41:12Garrett Moreland?

  You're having an affair. You guys, you guys, you know what?

• 41:15Payton Moreland?

  A hundred percent.

• 41:17Garrett Moreland?

  Like, come on. Oh, we just kissed. I promise. Like, okay, be an adult, take some responsibility. It's just funny.

• 41:23Payton Moreland?

  So and then he tells police, like, yeah, we only kissed and also like, the only reason I ever even kissed her was because me and my wife weren't doing good. But I realized that was just like a, like a fantasy, like, I love my wife. But here's what really sets police off. Like as they're just letting him, you know, talk. They say, okay, well, where were you on the day Aaron went missing? And he goes, I was in Joshua Tree National Park. He said, I was supposed to go coyote hunting with my friend Connor. And he said, but Connor canceled on this trip, hunting trip, because he had a friend staying with him.

• 42:01Payton Moreland?

  And he's like, yeah, I also brought along a propane tank I wanted to mess with and explode in one of the mine shafts in the park. I just did it by myself instead. Like we were supposed to go hunting and do this like explosion, you know, woo, fire in the, in the mine.

• 42:18Garrett Moreland?

  That's not allowed.

• 42:19Payton Moreland?

  Yes, but also he already has this reputation of being like a. A little adrenaline with his toys. And so he's like, but I went by myself. My friend Connor canceled. I went by myself to Joshua Tree National Park. Now, this is obviously horrible alibi. If he's trying, like, if he's trying to be like, no, I couldn't have done it. I was here. You literally just put yourself in the place where she thought you were taking her. She told a friend you were taking her on the day she went missing. They're like, okay, but they don't have enough to arrest him. They don't even know if Aaron is dead. They haven't found her body. So next they call in Nicole. She is a little bit tougher to deal with. She doesn't want to answer questions. She's angry.

• 43:05Payton Moreland?

  They don't really get anywhere with her, which didn't bode well for her either. I'm not sure if she has an alibi, but I can tell you this. The police weren't ruling either of them out as a person of interest. But they keep digging for evidence and they find something interesting. Those tire tracks that were found next to Aaron's car, they obviously checked Chris's car. It is a perfect match for his Jeep. Which was strange considering he said he was just going out playing with fire in Joshua Tree and said nothing about seeing her that day. But now they have tire tracks that match his car right next to her abandoned car. But even that is not enough to move in on Chris. Unfortunately, the timing of this investigation isn't great.

• 43:50Payton Moreland?

  Because the next weekend, July 4th, Chris finished his service with the Marines. He was honorably discharged, which means him and his family are moving out of base housing. So this isn't great. They move out of base housing and they go stay at the White Rock Horse Ranch with Isabel. This is the ranch Nicole and Aaron would go visit. They go stay there while they're trying to figure out how to move back to their home state of Alaska. But before police let him get too far, they found something on Chris that they hoped would keep him in town a little bit longer. While talking to Isabel, she tells police something useful. Again, she owns the horse ranch.

• 44:34Payton Moreland?

  She remembered that Chris had once left something in her truck after he borrowed it and it was a potato gun.

• 44:40Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 44:41Payton Moreland?

  If you don't know, basically a high powered potato launcher that can be very destructive. And in the state of California, it is considered an explosive device. And since Chris had left it in someone else's car, that's a felony. So they literally just use this information.

• 45:00Garrett Moreland?

  Potato guns are kind of scary.

• 45:01Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah.

• 45:03Garrett Moreland?

  Like you can, you can kill someone.

• 45:04Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 45:06Garrett Moreland?

  Not that I've ever used one.

• 45:07Payton Moreland?

  Okay.

• 45:08Garrett Moreland?

  But you can kill someone.

• 45:10Payton Moreland?

  So you're telling me you grew up in California and were using a explosive device?

• 45:16Garrett Moreland?

  I don't know if it was illegal at that point. Maybe it was. I don't know, I was a teenager, dude.

• 45:20Payton Moreland?

  Anyways, it's considered a felony. So they get an arrest warrant for Chris. And they end up searching his apartment on Isabel's ranch that he's currently staying with, with his family. Except they don't find anything in regards to Aaron's disappearance, which is not surprising because that's not even where he lived at the time she disappeared. But instead, Chris is released on bail just two days later. And shortly after, he moved his family back to Alaska like they had planned. Cause like, unless you're going to arrest them, you can't keep them.

• 45:49Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 45:49Payton Moreland?

  Now, meanwhile, the search for Aaron does not stop. By mid-July, people suspected that Aaron, if she was out in the park, was no longer alive. Temperatures in the summer there easily climbed to 110 degrees. Even search and rescue dogs were getting heat stroke. By that point, they had explored over 100 different mine shafts, but there were thousands of them. Now come August, they felt like they were running out of options. When Isabel, our horse ranch owner, once again saves the day. She goes to police and she's like, I remembered something else that might be useful. She said about a week before Aaron vanished, Chris told her he was going to go to the park

• 46:30Payton Moreland?

  to explore some mines, including quote, "one no one would ever find." And when he came back, he showed her pictures. And she had those pictures. So they are now able to recover them. Luckily, they had been working with an expert named Doug Billings, who not only knew Joshua Tree Park like the back of his hand, he knew the mine shafts extremely well, too. And when police were like, hey, where is this mine? The one that Chris shared with Isabel? He recognizes it right away. He says it even has a name. The Rose of Peru Mine. Apparently not so secret at all. So on August 16th, 2014, after eight weeks of searching, using this picture from Isabel.

• 47:15Garrett Moreland?

  They find?

• 47:16Payton Moreland?

  Doug and his team drop a camera 100 feet down this mine shaft.

• 47:21Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 47:23Payton Moreland?

  And they find Aaron's body.

• 47:25Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 47:26Payton Moreland?

  Alongside her were shell casings, pieces of rebar and a propane tank. It looked like a failed attempt to try and blow up the remains in the mine shaft. Now thankfully, teams were able to remove Aaron's body from the shaft, send it off to autopsy because it hadn't been blown up. And they found that Aaron had been strangled and then died from blunt force trauma after being pushed down the mine.

• 47:53Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 47:54Payton Moreland?

  And it wasn't manual strangulation. They, she was strangled with something. Um, it was basically like a tool composed of wire or cord. Along with some sort of metal or wood piece that you could use to like tighten it, which explained the piece of rebar that was found at the bottom of the shaft with Aaron. However, Aaron's body was too decomposed to confirm whether or not she was actually pregnant at the time.

• 48:23Garrett Moreland?

  That's horrible.

• 48:24Payton Moreland?

  So at this point, officials are like, yep, we have more than enough now to get an arrest warrant for Chris because we only found this body because of information he gave a witness. It was just a matter of tracking him down, which wasn't hard. The following day in August 17th, they had located Chris living with his family in Anchorage, Alaska. He was pulled over by local police and arrested. And what would you know, inside his car was a device you could use to strangle someone, like a homemade one.

• 48:53Garrett Moreland?

  He had it with him still?

• 48:55Payton Moreland?

  Just like the one they found near her body. Cause there was like another one.

• 48:59Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, he had another one? Okay.

• 49:01Payton Moreland?

  Chris was extradited back to California where he was facing charges of murder, along with a special circumstance of lying in wait. Meaning he planned her death and then lured her into a trap, which I think is worth another charge, in my opinion.

• 49:18Garrett Moreland?

  Basically just first degree murder to an extent?

• 49:20Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, but it's almost like more.

• 49:22Garrett Moreland?

  Or is it less?

• 49:23Payton Moreland?

  I think it's the luring, like an innocent person. Cause like first degree premeditated could be, I'm going to break in this person's house and then you break in and kill them.

• 49:31Garrett Moreland?

  I wonder if it's a less of a charge or more of a charge? I don't, I don't know the answer to that.

• 49:35Payton Moreland?

  I think it should be worse because you're taking someone who trusts you.

• 49:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, but I wonder like if the actual charge is less or more, do you know?

• 49:42Payton Moreland?

  Well, I'm going to say it's at least the same because this conviction is worthy of the death penalty.

• 49:48Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay.

• 49:49Payton Moreland?

  If found guilty. So I would say it's very similar. Now, meanwhile, the prosecution was building their case against Chris. They found some other pretty strong connections between the items found with Aaron's body and Chris himself. For example, the shell casings discovered near her body matched those that were found in Chris's home and car.

• 50:08Garrett Moreland?

  No, it's open and shut.

• 50:10Payton Moreland?

  If you remember, they also found that propane tank. Not only did a neighbor say they had seen that propane tank sitting in Chris's Jeep days before Aaron disappeared, authorities found out where it came from. Once again, Isabel says, oh yeah, he asked me if he could have that propane tank before the disappearance and said he would bring it back, but he never did. Also found in that mine shaft was a makeshift torch with a Marine Corps t-shirt around it. This was tested for DNA and confirmed to belong to Chris. There was also an empty Sprite bottle that had the DNA of both Chris and Aaron on it,

• 50:54Payton Moreland?

  which again is so devastating. It supports the lying weight theory that Chris led her there. They shared a Sprite. They were friendly and then he murdered her. On top of that, his internet history shows that he had searched for the phrase, "best way to dispose of a human body." Yeah.

• 51:14Garrett Moreland?

  What an idiot.

• 51:15Payton Moreland?

  Okay.

• 51:16Garrett Moreland?

  Put him in jail for life.

• 51:17Payton Moreland?

  So.

• 51:19Garrett Moreland?

  Gone. Get out of here.

• 51:20Payton Moreland?

  At this point, just to put two and two together, the reason he lied to police and said that he had only kissed her is because her being pregnant is motive and was most likely the motive for him murdering her. Because if she was pregnant with his baby, he would then have to come clean to his wife.

• 51:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 51:40Payton Moreland?

  And apparently he was not ready to go run away with her.

• 51:43Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy.

• 51:44Payton Moreland?

  Which is why he tells police, no, there's no possibility it was even mine. Cause he knows that was the motive. So in October of 2016, two years after the murder, Chris Lee.

• 51:55Garrett Moreland?

  The wife thinks, by the way.

• 51:56Payton Moreland?

  I know. What a mess. What a horrible.

• 52:00Garrett Moreland?

  Like.

• 52:01Payton Moreland?

  And just.

• 52:02Garrett Moreland?

  What an absolute mess.

• 52:03Payton Moreland?

  Again, she's just victimized over and over again. The wife is as well.

• 52:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, a hundred percent.

• 52:08Payton Moreland?

  The trial happens, there's, you know, a bunch of ways he tries to get out of this, including saying that Aaron had been hurting his five-year-old daughter, which I'm not even going to get into the details because whatever. Literally after 15 minutes of deliberation, 15 minutes, the jury finds Chris Lee guilty of first degree murder and the lying in wait enhancement. In November of that year, the 27-year-old dodged the death penalty, but was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He's tried to appeal his case. And as for Nicole and his daughter, whereabouts unknown. It's safe to say she stayed off social media as she should.

• 52:51Payton Moreland?

  There's no reason she should have to be in the limelight after all of this. But that brings us back to what we were discussing earlier. A solid friendship can make the perfect foundation for a romance. But this story was never actually really about love. It was about Chris wanting the reward without paying the price. He wanted something new without losing what he had. And when he found out that Aaron was pregnant, that went against everything he wanted and he killed her because of it.

• 53:22Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 53:22Payton Moreland?

  Aaron deserved better than a friend who became a lover and a lover who then became her killer. She deserved happiness, warmth, generosity. She deserved a soulmate. And I want to make it clear here that everyone makes mistakes. And, and just because Aaron was willingly having an affair with Chris does not mean that she deserved to be murdered or that she ever even put herself in this situation to begin with.

• 53:51Garrett Moreland?

  No, no, not at all.

• 53:52Payton Moreland?

  And so I just want to make that clear because sometimes it is hard when you're like looking from outside looking in.

• 53:59Garrett Moreland?

  I get that.

• 53:59Payton Moreland?

  But the reality is, is like.

• 54:02Garrett Moreland?

  No, no matter what you do, you don't deserve to die.

• 54:03Payton Moreland?

  No.

• 54:04Garrett Moreland?

  My mind will change on that unless you kill someone else. But that's the Garrett opinion.

• 54:10Payton Moreland?

  Lives are messy. People make mistakes. We can't just kill, we can't just say everyone deserved to die because of a mistake they made. Thank you guys so much for listening to today's case and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 54:23Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 54:24Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

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