Pod Insights Park Predators The Unspeakable About this episode When a pregnant teenager vanished after heading to Joshua Tree National Park, time was of the essence to figure out where she was and who might have wanted her dead. Turns out, a violent marine who had a life full of secrets held all the answers.
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0:30 Speaker 03 Hi, park enthusiasts. It's Delia. If you listen to Park Predators, you already know that sometimes the most beautiful places can hide the darkest secrets. But what happens when the danger isn't miles from civilization? It's in your community, and sometimes even in your own backyard. On Crime Junkie, hosts Ashley and Britt dive into real cases every week, from missing persons to unsolved murders, breaking down what we know, what we don't, and the details that still don't sit right. If you care about the stories behind the headlines and the victims at the center of them, you'll want to check out Crime Junkie. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
1:10 Speaker 03 Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the case I'm going to tell you about today takes place in Joshua Tree National Park in California. It's a story that's been covered across various true crime television programs and news publications since it happened in 2014. There's even a book about it by author Shanna Hogan titled Secrets of a Marine's Wife: A True Story of Marriage, Obsession, and Murder, which I highly recommend you read if you want to dive into this case even further. That book was an invaluable piece of research material for me and was a resource that Lore Heveland, the mother of the victim in this story, asked me to read before covering the case. And when I tell you guys it brought me to tears, I'm not exaggerating.
1:54 Speaker 03 By the end of it, I was unwell. Lore graciously agreed to do an interview with me for this episode, despite it being several years since she's discussed the crime with a journalist. She told me that she never wants her daughter's legacy to be forgotten. Plus, she's an avid listener of Park Predators. During our first phone call, she told me that while listening to previous episodes of the show, she often wondered if I was ever going to cover her daughter's case. Well, here I am, and this is the official episode about the life and murder of 19-year-old Erin Corwin.
3:08 Speaker 03 On the evening of Saturday, June 28, 2014, 21-year-old John Corwin was sitting at his apartment inside the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Military Base in 29 Palms, California, racking his brain. He had no idea where his 19-year-old wife Erin was, and it was getting later and later. The last time they'd spoken was around 7:00 a.m. that morning, when Erin left their place to visit Joshua Tree National Park. Her plan was to take some time to herself and scout out scenic areas in the park that she and her mother Lore would visit when Lore flew in from Tennessee for Erin's birthday, which was on July 15. When they'd last spoken, Erin had told John she would be home by 4:00 p.m., but that time had come and gone, and Erin had still not called, texted, or otherwise contacted
3:53 Speaker 03 her husband. So, starting shortly after 4:00 p.m., John dialed his wife's cellphone a few times, but each attempt went straight to voicemail. Not wanting to think the worst, John convinced himself that Erin was probably just at a friend's house or had bad cellphone reception. But as the hours ticked by, his resolve waned. It was unlike Erin to not pick up the phone, so by midnight, fraught with worry and waiting desperately for her to call him, he dialed her a few dozen times. But once again, was unsuccessful at reaching her. By sunrise the following morning, Sunday, June 29th, he knew something was very wrong, so he got in touch with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and reported Erin missing.
4:37 Speaker 03 He also called Lore, Erin's mom, and explained what was going on. The last time Lore had spoken with Erin was on Thursday, June 26th, two days before she disappeared. During that phone call, the two women discussed Lore's upcoming trip to California and ironed out some of the details of their trip to Joshua Tree, and they also had plans to go to a zoo and theme park in San Diego. Before hanging up the phone, Erin had told her mom she loved her, and Lore responded in kind. Not long after John made the official missing persons report, two officials came out to the military base and met with him at his apartment. Those investigators took down basic information about what Erin looked like, when she'd last been seen, and contact information for her family members and friends who lived in Tennessee.
5:21 Speaker 03 The deputies also canvassed the Corwins' apartment building and talked with neighbors to see if anyone had heard from or seen Erin, but no one claimed to have. In particular, they chatted with a man named Chris Lee, who lived in the unit next to John and Erin, with his wife Nicole and a young daughter. Chris answered authorities' questions, but wasn't much help because he claimed he didn't really know Erin well and hadn't noticed her leave or come home recently. However, when the investigators spoke with a couple who lived in an apartment beneath the Corwins' and Lee's, they learned something totally different. A woman in that unit told police that not only did Chris know the Corwins well, he'd had an extramarital affair with Erin several months prior, which had ended badly and taken a toll on the friendships between everyone in the building.
6:07 Speaker 03 Now, this revelation immediately piqued the authorities' suspicions because it completely contradicted what Chris Lee had just communicated to them minutes earlier. But when they walked back upstairs to speak with him to sort out the discrepancy, he was nowhere to be found. He'd left his family's apartment abruptly.
6:27 Speaker 03 While detectives attempted to track him down, the sheriff's department launched a full-scale search for Erin in and around the national park. They utilized ground teams as well as an aircraft overhead to cover as much of the desert as possible. John jumped in as well and wrangled several Marines he knew to help search for his missing wife. It seemed that everyone's initial assumption was that Erin had likely gotten lost or become dehydrated. It was a common occurrence, especially during the summer months, so time was of the essence to locate her and get her some help. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Erin's mom Laura was growing more and more concerned about her daughter's well-being. Flurries of messages and phone calls steadily flew between her, family members, and people in their community who were worried about what was going on.
7:10 Speaker 03 To help get the word out and manage the influx of support, Erin's loved ones created a Facebook page titled "Locate Erin" as a means to update folks on the search for her, as well as drive tips and information to California authorities. The physical description that investigators put out about Erin was that she was white, weighed 120 pounds, was 5 feet 2 inches tall, and had brown hair and blue eyes. The vehicle she and John owned, which authorities had established was missing from the couple's apartment, was a blue 2013 Toyota Corolla. Around noon that same day, authorities who'd remained at the Corwin's apartment complex spotted Chris Lee returning and immediately confronted him about his prior affair with Erin, and the fact that he'd failed
7:52 Speaker 03 to reveal that information when they first spoke with him. In a taped statement taken at that time, Chris admitted to having had an affair with Erin several months earlier, but claimed it was over, and the only reason he'd gotten involved with her was because he was dealing with depression and she'd manipulated him by lying about being a victim of spousal abuse. Investigators weren't sure what to make of Chris's claims, since Erin wasn't around to give her side of the story. So, for the time being, they kept their eye on him and continued to look for her. At that point in time, they didn't have any evidence that the couple's illicit affair was connected to her disappearance, and furthermore, they knew that Chris wasn't the only guy in the apartment building that would have been affected by that relationship. John Corwin, Erin's husband, was someone authorities
8:36 Speaker 03 needed to take a harder look at as well. When investigators questioned him one-on-one, John answered their questions to the best of his ability, but unfortunately, he didn't have a rock-solid alibi for Saturday the 28th. He'd been home by himself all day while Erin was out. He claimed he hadn't left the military base at any point and had no idea where exactly in the national park his wife had planned to go. His phone data and computer records later confirmed his account of not having been off base, and that, in tandem with the fact that he passed a polygraph test after 20 total hours of being interviewed, seemed to convince authorities he was telling the truth. The next day, Monday, June 30th, investigators discovered a clue that was both useful, but
9:19 Speaker 03 also deep in the mystery. An area water district employee found Erin's blue Toyota Corolla parked about five miles outside the boundary of the national park. It was locked, covered in dust, and pulled off to the side of the road. The location was noteworthy because it was only a couple miles away from the back gate of the military base. A local resident quickly came forward and told police she'd noticed the vehicle parked on the side of the road on the morning of the 28th, and she had photos to prove it. This witness said the only reason she grabbed her phone and snapped the pictures on Saturday morning was because a random car being parked in such a remote area felt oddly out of place to her. So much so, she felt like she needed to document it.
10:02 Speaker 03 She gave her pictures to detectives, and that was all the proof they needed to feel confident that something had likely happened to Erin shortly after she left the military base on the morning of the 28th. While processing the car, investigators noticed there was a single set of shoe prints that led away from the driver's side and disappeared next to a set of tire tracks that didn't belong to Erin's vehicle. That clue suggested she'd likely gotten into another car. But whose car, and why? Authorities weren't sure, but they had their suspicions.
10:34 Speaker 03 The next day, July 1st, the sheriff's office obtained search warrants for Chris Lee's Jeep and the Lees and Corwin's apartments. They didn't find anything in John and Aaron's place that suggested foul play, but they did discover a sticky note on Aaron's laptop with the name of an apartment complex on it that an investigator later determined was located in Anchorage, Alaska. They also found a love note in her jewelry box, which John confirmed wasn't from him, which implied someone else had held deep feelings for Aaron. And detectives suspected that someone else was Chris Lee. Inside his and Nicole's apartment, investigators found a scope for a 22 caliber Winchester rifle, but the gun was nowhere to be found.
11:15 Speaker 03 They also knew Chris owned a machete, various knives, a blow gun, and a .357 revolver. Following the search of the apartments and the seizures of Chris's Jeep, he agreed to speak with investigators at the sheriff's department. And it was that conversation, combined with what they'd already learned from speaking with Aaron's family and friends, that gave investigators a much fuller picture of who the Corwins and Lees were, and what the heck was really going on. John and Aaron had grown up in Tennessee and known one another since they were kids. In their teens, they reconnected and began dating. John was a little more than one year older than Aaron, and after graduating high school, he'd enlisted in the Marines.
11:58 Speaker 03 Despite doing long distance while he was in basic training, their relationship blossomed and moved quickly. About two weeks before Aaron's 18th birthday, they got engaged. A few months after that, in early November 2012, they eloped in Las Vegas after attending a Marine Corps Ball there together. For most of their engagement and the start of their marriage, they'd lived long distance, with him either overseas or in California, and her in Tennessee. However, in late September 2013, they'd managed to secure base housing, and so Aaron officially moved into her apartment in 29 Palms. At that time, John was deployed, but later joined his wife by the end of 2013. Shanna Hogan explained in her book that it wasn't uncommon for young couples like the
12:40 Speaker 03 Corwins, who were living on base, to quickly find community with other Marine families. John and Aaron started hanging out with the Lees, who lived in the unit directly next to them, and their friend group only got bigger from there. It included another couple with young kids who lived one floor below them. All of the husbands were Marines and grew close, and the wives bonded as well. They regularly leaned on one another for childcare and handling bouts of loneliness whenever their husbands were working. A few months into their new life, though, things in the Corwins' marriage had begun to show signs of cracking. The couple burned through money quickly, and as a result, they built up significant credit card debt. So to help supplement their income, Erin had gotten a job at a tractor supply store near Twenty-Nine Palms.
13:25 Speaker 03 But that gig didn't last long, because she didn't like the 45-minute commute, and some health issues had prevented her from working as many shifts as she hoped to. As an alternative source of income, she began babysitting for women on base who needed childcare. And among those families were the Lees. By early February 2014, Erin and John's marriage was in a bad spot. They'd experienced a heartbreaking pregnancy loss and continued to bicker over their finances. Each of them handled Erin's miscarriage differently, with John bottling up his emotions and Erin confiding in other people. Her mom, Laura, told me that during her conversations with Erin throughout this time, she never sensed that anything was wrong. She believes Erin felt like she needed to be strong and not allow too many people to
14:10 Speaker 03 see her in pain. Also unbeknownst to Laura, after Erin experienced a miscarriage, she began hanging out more and more, one-on-one with Chris Lee. And what began as a harmless friendship quickly turned into a full-blown extramarital affair on both their parts. People in their lives eventually picked up on signs that something seemed to be going on between the two of them. They were just getting a little too close, stealing quiet moments alone, were caught kissing when they thought no one was watching, those sorts of things. All the while, neither Erin's husband, John, nor Chris's wife, Nicole, knew what was up. Chris and Nicole were originally from Alaska, but had been living in Twenty-Nine Palms for several years before the Corwins showed up. While dating in high school, they'd found out they were pregnant with their daughter,
14:54 Speaker 03 and a few months after she was born, Chris had enlisted in the Marines. Thanks to a deferral program, he didn't actually have to go to boot camp, though, until six months later, in early 2009.
15:06 Speaker 03 Chris was considered well-suited for military service. He was the second eldest of four siblings and had grown up with a love of the outdoors. He'd learned from a young age how to proficiently hunt, fish, and camp, and, over the years, he'd developed an interest in sharp weapons, including knives, throwing stars, and swords. And this hobby didn't go unnoticed by people in the Lees and Corwins' friend group. A downstairs neighbor who would regularly watch Chris and Nicole's daughter told author Shanna Hogan that Chris had an unusual obsession with weapons and death. In general, his personality was what she described as immature. She said he would frequently talk about killing people, or he'd crack jokes referring to killing people. Authorities later learned from speaking with personnel on base that Chris had been disciplined
15:51 Speaker 03 for carelessly using some of the military's rocket launchers and guns. Folks who knew him had also mentioned that he often went to the desert and acted recklessly, which included blowing things up, shooting guns, going off-roading, and having bonfires. Publicly, though, or at least in his military service record, Chris was viewed as an upstanding Marine. He'd been deployed to Afghanistan for a period of time between 2012 and 2013 and served honorably. He'd even been given several service awards, including a Good Conduct Medal. Privately, similar to what had been happening with the Corwins, his marriage with Nicole was less than ideal. According to Shanna Hogan's book, the couple often butted heads over their finances and keeping their house in order.
16:35 Speaker 03 Friends often noticed that their place was unkempt, and they didn't seem to have much regard for tidiness or cleanliness. The Lees had also experienced a pregnancy loss while living on base, which only made their relationship more strained. To help deal with the aftermath of that loss, Nicole had found comfort in volunteering at a horse rescue near 29 Palms. And though Chris volunteered at that same place sometimes, he hadn't found as many meaningful outlets to tend to his mental health struggles. After he'd returned from deployment and experienced the pregnancy loss with his wife, he'd become withdrawn, apathetic, and wasn't performing as well at work. He'd also developed a short temper, and that only made tensions worse between him and his wife.
17:17 Speaker 03 According to what Chris told investigators, his affair with Aaron was his escape from reality. Author Shanna Hogan wrote in her book that Aaron had apparently been experiencing something similar. She regularly texted a good friend of hers in Tennessee that she'd become completely infatuated with Chris, to the point where she was even researching Alaska online because she genuinely thought she might move there with him. So that probably explains the sticky note authorities eventually found on her laptop with the name of that Anchorage, Alaska apartment complex on it. On Chris's side of the equation, though, unbeknownst to Aaron, he'd resolved himself to keep his nuclear family, meaning Nicole and their daughter, together. Divorce wasn't something he wanted, and the possibility of losing regular access
18:01 Speaker 03 to his daughter was completely out of the question for him. But that nearly happened because it only took a few weeks before his wife got suspicious of him and eventually got into his phone SIM card and read all of his many texts with Aaron. It was clear at that moment that the jig was up. The fallout of the affair resulted in Chris and Nicole having a huge blow-up argument, and later, during a get-together with friends, Nicole revealed to John that Aaron had been cheating on him with Chris. That interaction had led to a confrontation between Nicole and Aaron, which ultimately ended with John and Aaron returning to their apartment with a neighbor and discussing the whole thing in private. John told producers with Dateline that discovering his wife's infidelity broke his heart,
18:44 Speaker 03 but he was committed to making their marriage work. To try and repair the damage in his family, Chris Lee claimed to his wife that he and Aaron had never actually had sex. They'd only kissed a few times. He told his wife that his relationship with Aaron meant nothing to him, and it was just something he'd done to help him cope with his depression after returning from deployment. He assured Nicole that the affair would end, and he begged her for a second chance at keeping their family whole. And that seemed to be that. However, on June 22nd, one week before Erin disappeared, she and John had found out that she was pregnant again. According to doctors at the hospital they went to, she was about three weeks along when they discovered she was expecting. The news was a bit of a surprise to the couple,
19:29 Speaker 03 considering the fact that they'd been through so much after the whole affair drama and hadn't found much time to be intimate. But because it seemed that all of that was in the past by the time June came along, John was actually kind of excited to learn that he and his wife were going to be parents. Erin, on the other hand, was much more reserved in her excitement. Unlike the first time they'd found out they were going to have a baby, she didn't post about her pregnancy online or tell many people, not even her own mother, Lour. The only person Erin confided in about the pregnancy was her friend Jessie in Tennessee. And that's because secretly, Erin suspected the baby wasn't John's.
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20:44 Speaker 03 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
21:04 Speaker 04 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
21:11 Speaker 03 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
21:19 Speaker 05 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
21:22 Speaker 06 That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
21:27 Speaker 07 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
21:32 Speaker 03 I'm Eva Kaufman. The Journey is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
21:49 Speaker 03 Unfortunately, in March 2014, when Chris and Erin had been caught cheating and promised to their spouses that they'd stop seeing one another, that was a lie. Though that initially ended things for a while, the pair had renewed their affair in April. In late June of that year, when Erin learned she was pregnant, she told her friend Jessie in Tennessee that she believed the baby was Chris's. Not long after finding out she was expecting, Erin had revealed the news to Chris, who'd immediately been excited about it, but voiced that he was worried about how his wife Nicole would react if she found out. So for the time being, the couple kept the news to themselves, and Chris reportedly directed Erin to wait about a week or so before telling anyone, so that he could figure out how to deal with things on his home front.
22:34 Speaker 03 Like I mentioned earlier, prior to Erin vanishing, her mother and many people looking at the Corwins' life from the outside had no idea anything was wrong in Erin and John's marriage. However, Laura told me during our interview that there were a few things she'd noticed in the first few months of 2014 that in hindsight signaled something was definitely up. For example, Laura said that at one point Erin had mentioned her and John may move off the military base, but she never got a clear explanation of why they were considering that option. There was another instance when Laura learned Erin had gotten a new phone number, which Laura thought was odd, but she didn't question why. So with all of this information about the affair and all of the drama around it
23:17 Speaker 03 coming out in various interviews, including the interview Chris gave to the sheriff's detectives on July 1st, it was time for the authorities to hone in. But Chris denied ever having sex with Erin and doubled down that he was not the father of her unborn baby. He admitted to being an unfaithful husband and knew that having an extramarital affair was wrong, but he maintained that he hadn't seen or heard from Erin on the day she vanished. He claimed that he'd gone hunting by himself in the national park on Saturday and returned home in the late afternoon. He said that during that trip, he'd encountered a strange man who'd pointed a gun at him and fired several shots, and that prompted him to hightail it out of the park and head home.
23:58 Speaker 03 Chris also explained that on June 22nd, less than a week before Erin's disappearance, he'd driven his Jeep to the desert with a friend to shoot rattlesnakes and coyotes. During that trip, the two guys had hiked around an area where several abandoned gold mines were. Chris's friend took a few photos on his cellphone while they were there, and in one of the photos, Chris posed with his .22 rifle, which was the same gun that authorities had yet to find. After returning from that trip, Chris had expressed to the owner of the horse ranch that he and his wife volunteered at that he located, quote, "a mineshaft so remote that no one would ever find it." Cellphone data and interviews with other people proved that on the day Erin disappeared, Chris had tried twice to get two different buddies to join him in the park, but neither
24:42 Speaker 03 guy had immediately taken him up on the offer. However, one of those guys did bump into Chris on the morning of the 28th, and while chatting, had noticed a propane tank in Chris's trunk. When that guy asked Chris what he planned to do with the propane tank, Chris remarked that he was going to, quote, "use it to blow up a mineshaft," end quote. That same buddy later texted Chris around 8:15 a.m. that his plans had changed and he was available to join him in the park. Chris replied to that message with a location on where to meet up, as well as a text that said, quote, "Tell Nicole I put my phone in airplane mode," end quote. Chris told investigators that after that, he'd powered down his device and he didn't turn it back on until 3:30 PM later that afternoon.
25:27 Speaker 03 When he got reception, he saw that he had a bunch of missed calls and texts from his wife, as well as the buddy he'd invited to join him, who had never been able to find him and decided to go home. When the detective questioning Chris pressed him about why he turned his cellphone off on June 28, Chris said he'd powered the device down to conserve its battery. But the investigator had his doubts about Chris's story. For example, when he'd asked the 24-year-old if he was absolutely sure he hadn't used his phone while hunting, Chris replied at one point saying, quote, "No, I couldn't. I literally lacked the ability to because of the area we were in," end quote. And it was his use of the word "we" that really stuck out to the detective.
26:10 Speaker 03 Chris had been claiming this whole time that he'd been alone in the desert, yet he'd used the word "we." It seemed significant to the detective. It was apparent Chris was not telling the whole truth.
26:24 Speaker 03 And things got even worse for him when detectives searched the horse ranch he and his wife volunteered at and found his missing 22 rifle stashed in a closet of the owner's home. Authorities had also gotten in touch with Aaron's good friend Jessie, who lived in Tennessee. She revealed that three days before Aaron vanished, Aaron had mentioned that Chris was planning a surprise trip for the two of them to go to Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday, the 28th. The trip was meant to discuss something super important. What exactly that important subject was, though, Jessie didn't know, because Aaron didn't even know. Jessie said that the last time she'd spoken with Aaron was shortly after 7:00 AM on the day she vanished, and before hanging up, she told Aaron to call her when she got home, but Aaron never did.
27:10 Speaker 03 Unfortunately, even though that information seemed pretty incriminating for Chris, without Aaron, investigators were stuck. Their case was circumstantial at best because they didn't have any hard evidence that proved he, or anyone else for that matter, had done something to her. Detectives couldn't even say for sure that anything criminal had happened to Aaron. But the whole situation reeked of foul play because checks on Aaron's social media profiles, cellphone records, and bank accounts showed no activity after she disappeared. And it was investigators' belief at that time that she wasn't just missing, she was likely dead.
27:47 Speaker 03 So on July 4th, in a move that may have been a bit unconventional, authorities ended up arresting Chris for a crime unrelated to Erin's case. They nabbed him for being in possession of a destructive device, which, in his case, was a potato launcher gun. Turns out, that was illegal to have in California. A search warrant affidavit that became public at that time explained that authorities weren't outright naming Chris as a suspect in Erin's case, but they did confirm he'd been interviewed as part of the investigation. However, the charges against Chris for having the potato launcher weren't severe enough to keep him behind bars for long. So in mid-July, after being discharged from the Marines, he and his family had left California
28:29 Speaker 03 and moved back to Alaska. The searches for Erin continued on during that time, though, and the harsh conditions of the desert did not make things easy for investigators. Also, her disappearance had ignited a firestorm of media coverage. And for weeks, the story remained a top headline in local and national outlets. During that time, John and Erin's parents had flown to California to be with him and stay close to the investigation. After a few weeks, though, the families had to return to Tennessee and wait for updates from investigators. John spent a lot of that time alone in California, trying to deal with public speculation as best he could. But it was difficult. Author Shana Hogan wrote in her book that despite having been cleared as a suspect,
29:13 Speaker 03 some people still side-eyed John as possibly being involved. He said that people started to look at him differently, and eventually, the Marines demoted him from certain tasks he'd been doing. But Laura told me that not once did she ever suspect that John had done something to Erin. To try and quiet rampant speculation online claiming he was somehow involved, John's mother told the press in part, quote, "He internalizes a lot of emotions. It's apparent he's torn up inside over Erin being missing and wants his wife back, and he's still hoping and praying that that's going to happen. He can't speak out. His command has asked him to be quiet. He feels helpless because he can't help with the search." End quote.
29:55 Speaker 03 Between late July and mid-August, few updates in the case came out. But then, on Saturday, August 16th, nearly two months after Erin vanished, investigators and searchers who'd refused to give up looking for her came across an abandoned mineshaft that held a secret.
30:17 Speaker 00 Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.
30:24 Speaker 01 Stop. This is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way.
30:26 Speaker 00 We don't just alert. We help stop crime before it starts. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. SimpliSafe: Ahead of Crime in Real Time.
30:42 Speaker 02 Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.
30:49 Speaker 05 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene: a dining area converted into classrooms, with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
31:09 Speaker 04 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory. A baby factory.
31:16 Speaker 05 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived. Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
31:27 Speaker 06 That's the one time that we called the cops, because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
31:31 Speaker 07 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
31:37 Speaker 05 I'm Ava Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
31:53 Speaker 05 According to the source material, professional searchers with the San Bernardino County Cave and Technical Rescue Team, who'd been checking out dozens of abandoned mineshafts in and around Joshua Tree National Park, were just about to wind down their efforts when they chose to check out one more location. The opening of a 10x10, 140-foot pit they were interested in was emitting a horrible smell, which naturally made them that much more curious about it. Personnel at the scene, who spoke with author Shana Hogan, described the odor coming from the shaft as a mix of gasoline and something putrid.
32:29 Speaker 03 The area was one of about 100 shafts that a local cave expert had told authorities was capable of concealing a body. After attempting to send a camera down the mine by itself, the team of cavers realized that the angle of the shaft was going to require a person to physically go down to navigate the camera. That way, they could see what was at the bottom. When a brave volunteer went inside and lowered the camera some 140 feet down the shaft, it revealed that at the bottom, there was a lot of trash, an old tire, a propane tank, and what appeared to be a body. A closer view exposed what I'm sure everyone had hoped wouldn't be the case. It was Erin. She was still clothed in jean shorts and a pink shirt, but was in an advanced state of decomposition.
33:13 Speaker 03 The following afternoon, the sheriff's office removed her remains from the mine, and her formal identification happened a few hours later using dental records. In addition to getting her out, authorities also photographed the mine and retrieved items of evidence that they strongly suspected were connected to her death. For example, there was a Sprite bottle, one of Erin's favorite sodas, two water jugs, the propane tank, which had blood on it, zip ties, black electrical tape, climbing rope attached to the propane tank, a makeshift torch made from a t-shirt, and pieces of black plastic. The smell of accelerant on many of those items, as well as inside the mine itself, not to mention the presence of the propane tank, suggested to investigators that whoever had
33:56 Speaker 03 put the stuff down there intended for it to burn. But it hadn't, because the depth of the mine had restricted the presence of oxygen. When the chief medical examiner assessed Erin's remains, a piece of braided nylon cord fashioned to two pieces of rebar was found around her neck. The disturbing device was described by investigators as being a homemade garrote. The coroner who conducted her autopsy determined her manner of death was homicide, and her cause of death was strangulation, as well as possible blunt force trauma to the left side of her head. Unfortunately, because her remains were so decomposed, it was impossible for the medical examiner to take DNA samples from her uterus. So, they weren't able to determine who the father of her unborn child was.
34:41 Speaker 03 Even without formal confirmation, though, people assumed the child belonged to Chris Lee. So, within 24 hours after her body was found, sheriff's officials coordinated with Alaskan authorities and took Chris into custody and charged him with her murder.
34:57 Speaker 03 In early April 2015, after being extradited back to California, Chris had a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors questioned nearly a dozen witnesses, which included law enforcement officers who'd worked the case: John, the Corwin's and Lee's downstairs neighbors, and Aaron's friend Jesse. At the end of the hearing, the presiding judge determined there was enough probable cause to move forward to trial. A few weeks after that, Chris was formally arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Almost right away, the lead prosecutor for the state notified the court that his office would not be seeking capital punishment in the case, which was a decision Lore and the rest of Aaron's family supported. Lore told me that as a family, they did not want Chris to be eligible for the death penalty. One reason being,
35:42 Speaker 03 they weren't sure if he would ever actually be executed in California. And two, they knew that if he was sentenced to death, it would legally allow him more opportunities to appeal his conviction, which they did not want.
35:56 Speaker 03 By the time his trial began in early October 2016, what had previously been a mostly circumstantial case against Chris was now backed by several pieces of strong, physical evidence. Shanna Hogan wrote in her book that at some point in 2015, forensic testing results had come in and confirmed that both Aaron and Chris's DNA were on the Sprite bottle found in the mine. Additional touch DNA and fingerprint analysis had also proved that the love note that had been discovered in Aaron's jewelry box had come from Chris. And to top it all off, the climbing rope that had been tethered to the propane tank in the mine, as well as some twine that was wound around the makeshift torch discovered with Aaron's body, were the same color and composition as twine and rope that had been seized from Chris's vehicle
36:40 Speaker 03 at the time of his arrest. Oh, and Chris's DNA was also on the shirt that had been used to fashion the makeshift torch. So yeah, pretty damning stuff. There was also data from Chris and Aaron's cellphone providers, which proved that their devices had been traveling in the same direction at the same time on the morning of June 28. Aaron's had been powered down at 8:04 a.m., followed by his 18 minutes later at 8:22 a.m. The prosecution's case was simple. Chris had lured Erin to the desert with the promise of a special day together and then killed her to keep their ongoing affair and her pregnancy a secret forever. The district attorney argued that all of the evidence pointed to Chris.
37:22 Speaker 03 Plus, he'd traveled to the remote area of the park where Erin's body was dumped less than one week before the crime. Erin's mother, Lore, attended every day of Chris's trial despite how difficult it was to see her daughter's alleged killer in person and hear all the horrific details of what he was accused of doing to Erin. Another woman who was there was Nicole Lee, Chris's wife. Prior to Chris going to trial, she lawyered up and had been advised not to testify, but against the counsel of her attorney, she'd shown up after being subpoenaed by both the defense and prosecution. However, in the end, neither side wanted to call her as a witness because her testimony and general demeanor was determined to be too risky for either side to let into court.
38:05 Speaker 03 So she was dismissed and never spoke in court about what she knew or didn't know in regards to Chris's actions on the day of Erin's murder. When it was the defense's turn to present witnesses, they only called one person to the stand: Chris Lee. He told the court that he needed to tell the truth, and if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. His responses to his attorney's questions explored a lot of what investigators already determined. He and Erin had an affair, they stopped, and then started up again. Chris saw their relationship as an escape from his depressive thoughts after coming home from deployment, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. However, in front of jurors, he finally admitted that the relationship between he and Erin
38:48 Speaker 03 was sexual, and he'd previously lied to authorities when he claimed it wasn't. He stated that initially the trip to Joshua Tree was supposed to be him, Erin, and two buddies, but when the guys bailed, it ended up just being him and Erin. He admitted to bringing supplies with him to blow up a mine, but said that when they were en route to the remote shaft he wanted to set things on fire in, Erin's attitude about being in the desert changed. He said she had no interest in what he wanted to do there because she wanted to talk about their relationship. Eventually, they got into an argument about her wanting to move to Alaska with him, and Chris claimed that he then accused Erin of molesting his daughter, to which Erin, according to Chris, didn't respond. Chris said he took Aaron’s silence as confirmation of the accusation.
39:32 Speaker 03 And so, in an act of rage at the thought of someone hurting his daughter, he lunged at Aaron and strangled her with his homemade garrote. He testified, “Every ounce of love I had for her turned into hate. I felt justified in a way because of how angry I was. Nothing would have stopped me from doing what I was doing.” Chris said after he realized Aaron was gone, that’s when he put her down the mineshaft and attempted to cover up the crime. Shanna Hogan explained in her book that by Chris stating Aaron had caused him to snap, it opened the door for jurors to possibly find him guilty of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder, thus lessening his potential sentence. But thankfully, that’s not what happened.
40:17 Speaker 03 After deliberating for less than two hours, jurors found Chris guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was never charged in relation to the murder of Aaron’s unborn child, though prosecutors had considered doing so at one point. As far as the allegations that he made about Aaron allegedly molesting his and Nicole’s daughter, those claims were never substantiated because the Lees never went to authorities or filed a police report about such an issue. It was only information that Chris brought up while testifying at his trial. For Aaron’s mom, Lore, those allegations were, and always will be,
40:57 Speaker 03 in her opinion, Chris’s attempt to try and push blame off himself and onto his victim, either as a means to mitigate his own guilt, or sully Aaron’s name, or both. What I want to do with this episode is leave you with the true information about who Aaron was. She was the second youngest of seven children and had come to the family from foster care at just three weeks old. Eventually, her family legally adopted her, and she lived a sheltered but fulfilling life. She had a passion for taking care of animals and loved riding horses. According to her mom, she rarely got upset or acted out, even as a teenager. To this day, Lore still struggles to comprehend how her daughter ended up having an affair with Chris.
41:41 Speaker 03 She’s convinced that he took advantage of Aaron’s naivety and preyed on her during a vulnerable time after her miscarriage. She emphasized that Chris Lee is the one to blame for Aaron’s murder, period. A direct quote from Lore's interview with me that I think everyone should hear is, quote, "Having an affair was not right, but it didn't deserve death, number one. But having an affair involves two people. It always involves two people, and each person has the ability to say, 'No, I'm not going to do this.'" And just remember that just because someone's made a wrong choice doesn't mean that they're an evil, horrible person.
42:22 Speaker 03 The ripple effect this case had shattered so many lives on both sides. I mean, think about it. Lore lost her daughter, John lost his wife, and Chris's family lost him. There was no good outcome for anyone in this situation. Today, a small garden exists near Joshua Tree National Park, a few miles away from the mine where Erin's body was found. The guy who established the garden was the expert caver who helped investigators narrow down the location of the mineshaft Erin was left in. Over the years, people have left mementos and several purple cacti have disappeared. Initially, everyone thought it was visitors who were stealing the plants, but turns out, native jackrabbits were making off with them as a source of food.
43:04 Speaker 03 Lore told me that if Erin could know that, she'd be thrilled. Even now, more than a decade without her daughter, Lore is still able to smile or chuckle at things that would have made Erin happy. She's confident her daughter is in a better place, and an enduring reminder of her legacy is the work that Lore has found as a grief share facilitator to other families who've lost loved ones. If you'd like to learn more about Erin and see the beautiful person she was while she was alive, I encourage you to consider visiting the Remembering Erin Corwin Facebook page or joining the Justice for Erin Facebook group. Links to both of those are in the show notes and blog post for this episode.
43:48 Speaker 03 Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @parkpredators.
44:07 Speaker 03 I think Chuck would approve.
44:13 Speaker 03 In the dark, even the most familiar trail can feel like it leads somewhere else. Every rustle becomes a warning, every shadow a doorway. In Full Body Chills, those doorways open into worlds pulled straight from your nightmares. This spooky season classic returns with chilling new tales, immersive sound, and no promise that you'll find your way back. So step off the familiar path if you dare. Listen to new episodes of Full Body Chills every week, wherever you get your podcasts.
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