Missing Florida Woman Found Murdered in Georgia Landfill

- Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is now streaming on Disney+. - What are you waiting for? Hop on. - The must-see galactic adventure comes home on Disney+. - This is the way. Our only chance is to work together. - I like this kid. - Always wear your seatbelt. - Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, now streaming on Disney+. Read PG-13. - Thursday morning when I started calling her, her cell phone went straight to voicemail and I looked in the garage windows. I thought, dang, her car's here. I told Dan, my husband, I'm worried about Sue. I said, oh, nothing's happened with her. - A widow, well-loved, very involved in this close-knit Florida community, she just suddenly disappears out of nowhere. This is something that just doesn't happen. - On October 24th, Susan Malden was reported missing from her Harbor Island home. - They made it sound like you did it. - Yeah, they were investigating me. - You did not kill that woman, did you? - No, not no. - I'm gonna start calling you murderer, Benderim. - No, don't do that. If I see you on the phone, they're probably listening. Susan Malden's close friend, Phyllis Yates, had gone to the home and noticed that her vehicle was still in the garage, that the TV was on, but that Susan was nowhere to be found. Phyllis' husband, used Susan's key to open the door and come in. When he unlocked the door and opened it, the chain or the latch up top was still in place. So he actually had to reach in and unlock the chain with his hand. - We observed a couple things that looked out of place, including the picture frame that was on the wall and a couple of figurines and a table that were ajar in the living room, as well as the water in the sink in the master bathroom. - Now, Susan was making some improvements to her home, so some mess was to be expected, but Phyllis knows her friend better than anybody. She would not have left her house in this condition. - We noticed she had a little home office set up in one of the rooms. She went to the side of the bathroom that had been demoed. - We noticed that Malden's laptop was missing. Her phone was missing. - Law enforcement immediately began an investigation to try to locate Susan Malden. - Susan Malden seems to have vanished out of nowhere. It is so strange. Investigators, they immediately speak with her friends and her neighbors to learn a little bit more about her. - Susan Malden was a 65-year-old British widow who was living in Fleming Island, Florida at the time she went missing. While she didn't have any close relatives that were living nearby, she did have a very close-knit network of friends. - Susan was very social. She was part of several different clubs. The main club that she was a part of was the British club, so she was a prominent figure in that club. Everybody loved her in there. - She was a Jacksonville Jaguars fan. Friends described her as outgoing, bubbly, great personality. - From a detective's perspective, the first thing you want to do in a missing person investigation is rule out that they didn't just take a trip and decide not to tell anybody. So it was beneficial to learn from her friends that she was a creature of habit. She did talk to people on a regular basis, so it was completely unusual for her to just disappear and not talk to anybody or respond to calls. In fact, she had a doctor's appointment that day that she was supposed to attend that she missed as well, so all of that was out of character. - Investigators follow up. One of the key takeaways from Yates' interview with the police was that she told them about the difficult situation that she was facing in the United States. - I don't know if I've ever been in the United States. I'm not sure if I've ever been in the United States. - One of the key takeaways from Yates' interview with the police was that she told them about the difficulties that Malden was having with her contractor, Cory Benderum. - Susan entered into a contract agreement with Cory Benderum, so she hired him. He requested an upfront payment. She gave him about $12,000, a little more. So he took that money, he demoed her bathroom, and when I say demo, he tore the sheetrock off down to the studs, removed the toilet and the sink and cabinets. And then he just left it there. And every time she tried to get him to come back to finish the job, he always had an excuse. - Every time he's supposed to show up on Monday, he'd always text her with a new excuse. - Susan was extremely meticulous and detail-oriented in her interactions with people. And she had a calendar that every time she talked to Cory, she would write down the date, the time, and what he said. For instance, his sister, his mother died, and he had to go to another state and pick her body up and bring her body back himself. He fell on the back of his truck and hurt his shoulder and had to go to the hospital. There was always an excuse why he couldn't come back and do the job, and it was very frustrating for her. - She said, "You'll never believe what Cory did now, Phil. He made me really uncomfortable." One day, just a few weeks back, he shows up, and he goes in her house, and he tells her how good she looks that day. "And how old are you, Sue?" And she said, "I'm 65." And he said, "Man, you look good. Are you widowed?" - This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. If you're looking for a better way to save on electricity, both night and day, look no further than TXU Energy Free Nights and Cool Summer. It gives you free energy all night, every night, all year long, plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use every summer. It's the only plan that lets you use free energy to get more savings. So while nights are always free, summer days are now always discounted. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free nights plan the same way again. Learn more at txu.com. Rep number 1-0-0-0-4. - This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like "All I Want". Right, okay, we can't afford that. You know what, forget the music budget. We're gonna stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only, greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. - And she said, "Yes, I am." And he said, "Man, you're looking good." He said, "I was wondering, could I get a loan?" She said, "A loan? "Cory, you got 12 grand of my money. "I have no money to give you. "You've done nothing for me." Now this is her story to me. - The description is concerning. One, we start to think that he was finding a way to try to take advantage of a woman that was older than him and perhaps by, complimenting her, he'd be able to get her to provide additional money. It also may have indicated that he was kind of testing whether she lived alone, whether it would be easy for him to potentially steal things. - Did she say that he was upset or anything about that? - No, oh, he just told her, "I'll go to the bank and get a loan." So then she told me, "I feel I'm really uncomfortable with him now." I said, "Sue, I told you, I think there's an issue here. "The man's done nothing." She said, "Well, I'm gonna get "my money back." - Yates informed law enforcement that Mauldin made a decision that she was gonna confront Bindrum, demand her money back, and if he refused to give it to her, that she was gonna get the police involved. - She was angry and Wednesday at him. So I knew if he showed up and he didn't have a cashier's check, it probably wasn't gonna go real well for him. - Yeah. - Not realizing it maybe wouldn't go well for her. And at that point, who knows what took place. - She was adamant if something did happen to Susan, Corey definitely had something to do with it. - I'm looking for my buddy and I'm praying to God. I'm praying that she comes back alive and if she's angry with me for getting somebody to go through all her stuff, I will hug her, cry with her, and then slap the snot out of her because I'm gonna be angry. - Yeah, absolutely. A good friend's doing exactly what you're doing. - Yeah. - And if she would ever get angry at that, then you know what? - I can live with it. And I can live with her not being my friend at that point after I get her back safe. - Exactly. - After speaking with Phyllis Yates, investigators immediately dig deeper into Susan's contractor. - Corey Benderum was a local Clay County resident. Grew up there, went to high school there. Had lots of friends. Corey's wife, Cassidy, and their two daughters, by all accounts, lived a normal, everyday American life in small town Clay County. She worked for CSX. He worked as a self-employed contractor. The kids, did well in school. They were in a fluent neighborhood, doing well for each other. - Hey. - How are you? - Mr. Benderum. - Yes, sir. - Corey. - All right. I just want to follow up with you with a couple of questions. OK, OK. I mean, I'll answer your questions. Yeah, I mean, I know it's about. What's it about? It's about Sue. OK, what about Sue? The detectives came to my house Saturday and asked me a bunch of questions about Sue because I was contacted the last week. Apparently still missing. Yeah, she is still missing. We are concerned about her. That's what I want to talk to you about. When was the last time you saw her? It was Thursday morning. We got there about 8. Was she infected? Yeah. This contract has been going on for a very long time. I demoed it against her. She took about a month and a half to get it on the house she wanted. She bought it. I only got it. Then it came time to talk about the tub and fixtures and all of that. She just couldn't make a decision. He painted a picture that Susan was an extremely difficult client to work with, that she was routinely changing her mind. A complete opposite picture of what Susan had been painting to Phyllis about what was going on. Fast forward, I was taking a job and she would get frustrated that I couldn't come to work right now when she was ready. And so it just got to the point where it was just better for both of us. If I just refunded her money, I went about my way, she'd find something else. That was the conversation. So we went through the paperwork and I wrote her a check and I had some stuff still there. I had. I had a tool bag with some plumbing tools. I had a bag with some plumbing parts, so I loaded that in my truck. He loaded those up in the back of his truck and he left and that was the end. Last time he saw her and she was completely fine. She gave me $12,000 for that? No, it was $1,200. It was only $1,200? Yeah, yeah, it was only $1,200. For the whole event? Yeah. She only gave you $1,200? Yeah. And that's what I gave her back. Law enforcement knew from Phyllis Yates that the cost of the contract was $12,000, so they thought it was interesting. that Benderum gave her a check for $1,200 and said that that was it. I'm straight up with you. I think all weekend we've been looking for her, couldn't find her, you're the last person to talk to her. I understand that. And if I don't check that box, somebody's gonna be like, "Oh, why the hell do you have to check that box?" I mean, look, if there's anything, I don't mind, you know. I mean, she's a very lovely lady. Since Benderum was the last person to see Susan alive, investigators keep a close eye on her, and that is also when they go back to Susan's house and they come upon new evidence. Sergeant Calhoun noticed a small drop of what at the time appeared to be blood on the living room floors. Our forensic analysts came in and they located more blood spatter on the lampshade next to where that blood drop was found. And then through the course of processing the home with Luminol, we found signs of blood cleanup in front of the kitchen sink, on the floor, in front of the kitchen cabinet, where we had also found a small drop of blood as well. Finding traces of blood indicates that this might not just be a missing person, but something much more sinister. When we found the blood in her home, I mean, that left no doubt in my mind at that point that something horrible had happened inside that home to Susan, and Corey was the number one person of interest. Investigators turned their attention to Benderum's storage unit. He had taken the tools that he removed from Susan's home to its storage unit. At this point in our investigation, we're considering that Susan is deceased. So we had a cadaver dog come out. And the cadaver dog went into Corey Benderum's storage unit and gave a positive alert for the presence of human decomposition on the bag that Corey had removed from Susan's home in close proximity to those tools. Investigators never found Susan. This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just $15 a month. A holiday deal this good, obviously, deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like "All I Want". Right, OK, we can't afford that. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. Learn more at txu.com, rep number 1-0-0-0-4. in cell phones, so they get a search warrant for Binderum's cell phone data to see what information that can give them. When we got the data back from the search warrant on his phone, it was consistent that there was actual communication going on between them. And once we got looking into that data on that particular day, the 24th, it was obvious to us that he had deleted data off his phone associated with that timeframe. So detectives head to Cory Binderum's home to question, but they are also armed with a warrant to seize his truck. Hey, how are you? Oh, hey. Sorry. What's going on? I don't like what you meant. This is, oh. This is my wife, Cassidy. Detective Fryer. Nice to meet you, Cassidy. Hey, nice to meet you. Hey. What's going on? Y'all about to have dinner or something? No, my daughter just came home from college. Oh, really? Okay, okay. Yeah. Can we talk for a second? You all right with that? Sure. Yeah. Just him? Yeah. Is that okay? I know, I know why I was worried. He talked to me outside in front of his home, explained to him we were taking his truck, why we were taking his truck. You're on a long pier right now, and you're coming to a short end. So, I'd like to talk to you about that before we get to the end of the pier, if you'd like to do that. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not saying you did, but. Well, you're saying checking boxes, but I don't necessarily believe that. I think you guys have pegged me and think you've got tunnel vision. You've talked to me twice. You've looked at my storage unit. Now, you're more than welcome to take my truck, regardless of whether you have a warrant or not. Okay. I don't have anything to hide. I know you're in construction. You've got all sorts of nicks and scratches all over you. Yeah. I noticed the other day when I talked to you. There's something on the inside of your arm that looked pretty fresh right here above your tattoo. Mm-hmm. What's that from? I do demo work. It's from all kinds of stuff. I noticed that he had a pretty significant scratch on his arm right above his hand. And knowing in these type of potential violent confrontations that, you know, a victim can, in the process of trying to defend themselves, scratch their offender, you know, I'd asked if we could document it digitally, and he agreed. That's my wife. Hey. They're still here. I'm going over this search warrant. Hey, honey. What's going on? They are looking at me like I'm the reason why Sue is missing. They've got me pegged for something having to do with Sue. This is a warrant to take the truck. You'll be here. I'm not going in. They're not taking me into custody. No, not at all. I don't know why they came with half of the detective force, but they're just taking my truck to process. Yeah. They're just taking my truck to process. I decided at that time to put a little pressure on him and just explain to him that we had found multiple inconsistencies in his story, and this was starting to narrow down the investigation, really, in his neck of the woods and on him, and that if there was anything he had to tell us to give us a better opportunity to find Susan, now would be the time. Can you tell me what happened to her? I don't know. I don't have any clue. Clearly I have a picture of something, right? I don't know where she is. I had nothing to do with her. I know you don't know where she is now, but you know what happened to her. No, I don't. No, I don't. I shook her hand on the front porch and that was that. But there's still questions. Every time I'm pulling cameras, every time I'm going to places and businesses that you may have visited, none of it is telling me Corey doesn't know. All of it's telling me Corey knows. It's telling you what you wanted to say. He knows something. You can paint a picture. She was standing upright in her doorway. We shook hands. That was it. He denied and maintained his same composure that he had nothing to do with it. But as we dug in to find more about him, we learned that he actually, as a young adult, 17 years old, had actually participated in a robbery and a shooting in the Clay County area. In your tunnel vision, you focused on me instead of finding her. I certainly hope so. It was 27 years ago. I certainly. I was 17. I was 18. I was 18. I was 19. I was 20. I was 21. I was 22. I was 23. I was 24. I was 25. I was 26. I was 27. I was 28. I was 29. I was 30. I was 31. I was 31. I was 32. I was 33. I was 34. I was 34. I was 35. I was 36. I was 37. I was 38. I was 39. I was 40. I was 41. I was 42. I was 43. I was 44. I was 45. I was 46. I was 47. I was 48. I was 49. I was 50. I was 51. I was 52. I was 53. I was 54. I was 55. I was 56. I was 57. I was 56. I was 57. I was 58. I was 58. I was 59. I was 60. I was 61. I was 61. I was 62. I was 62. I was 63. I was 62. I was 63. I was 63. I was 64. I was 65. to reimburse. You owed her $12,000 and I have all the checks that she wrote out to you. There's three of them along with her meticulous detailed list of the money that she gave right why would you lie about that because 1200 is a big difference in 12 000. no 1200. so you're still adamant even though i'm telling you i've got the checks that she gave you twelve thousand dollars you're saying that she was okay with that thursday when y'all talked yeah she's like all right i'm good i'll let you do the work even though there's tons of people saying she had enough she was done you were either going to give for her cash or cashier's check or she was going to sue you and report you i'm going to have a great weekend now all right i'm sorry sorry to mess it up for you take care buddy corey benderum is not happy to be the number one suspect in this investigation and strangely enough after detectives seize his truck he falls off their radar the fact that corey benderum disappears after his vehicle is seized is an indication that potentially corey benderum has something to hide cassidy contacted me and said that corey had left town and she had no idea where he was at he wasn't answering her phone calls and our investigation led us to a report that corey was a suspect in a theft in jacksonville the client provided information that corey had went in to his home stole a check forged the check for five thousand dollars forged the client signature cashed the check and then fled florida clake county sheriff's office detectives have identified a person of interest in the investigation into a fleming island woman's disappearance on october 24th susan malden was reported missing from her harbor island home through the investigation she was determined to be missing and endangered mr benderum has cooperated this holiday all plans even unlimited are just fifteen dollars a month a holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song like all i want right okay we can afford that you don't forget the music budget we're gonna stick with whatever's in the public domain give it a try at mintmobile.com switch upfront payment of forty five dollars for three months ninety dollars for six months or one hundred and eighty dollars for twelve month plan required fifteen dollars per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than fifty gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms this episode is brought to you by txu energy if you're looking for a better way to save on electricity both night and day save on electricity both night and day look no further than txu energy free nights and cool summer it gives you free energy all night every night all year long plus a 25 bonus toward your daytime use every summer it's the only plan that lets you use free energy to get more savings so all nights are always free summer days are now always discounted with savings like that you'll never look at a free night's plan the same way again learn more at txu.com rep number one zero zero zero four star wars the mandalorian and grogu is now streaming on disney plus what are you waiting for hop on the must-see galactic adventure comes home on disney plus this is the way our only chance is to work together i like this kid always wear your seatbelt star wars the mandalorian and grogu now streaming on disney plus read pg-13 during the corsets investigation but until recently he's left the area all of a sudden with no explanation and his whereabouts are unknown at this time anyone with information which may lead to the whereabouts of susan malden and corey benderum are urged to contact detective fryer with the clay county sheriff's office homicide unit corey benderum disappears he's got a stolen check with him and law enforcement is unable to locate him for several weeks the problem for anybody who tries to go off the grid is we live in a digital world no matter what you try to do you are tracked in all different kinds of ways and nowadays almost everyone in everything has a surveillance camera so corey benderum doesn't go undetected for long we got camera footage that he was in the car and cast a check and left and then we made contact with our federal partners in the u.s marshal service who were able to start tracking his phone so he was getting what we commonly call burner phones he would call cassidy or his daughter from those numbers they would provide us those numbers we'd give them to the u.s marshals they would track him he was somewhere out in colorado he ultimately made contact through cassidy with an attorney and the attorney convinced him to turn himself in on the local fraud charges he was arrested and arraigned in the duval county jail for those fraud charges so corey benderum is now back in town but investigators aren't any closer to finding susan malden dead or alive so they need to expand their focus lee locklear was working with corey at the time that susan went missing so she was an important person for us to track down and talk to thursday we were taxing the 24th yeah he said just a heads up i'm still home so he was supposed to pick me up and then he was back and forth and back and forth yeah one minute he's like i'm on my way the next minute he's not on his way the next one he is and at this point i was just pissed off it was 9 41 a.m yeah so he said i have to run by my storage unit in the home depot to pick up the floor and i'll let you know when i leave something came up that went all morning like he was super spastic is he always like that yeah but he's he's been dabbling in some things that have made him even more spastic lately he's been doing a lot of cocaine we uncovered via cassidy that he had a substance abuse problem using cocaine he had sought treatment and was back on the straight and narrow but she made it crystal clear to him that if he fell back into that path again that she would absolutely leave him and not give him another chance and take the girls with him yeah so i've kind of chopped it up he's done too much blow she helped confirm a picture of corey's substance abuse had reared its ugly head again that he was using on a regular basis he was acting strange and off but there is one particular thing lee says that piques the interest of investigators you told me that if he were to have killed somebody who was going to do something with the body that he would dump it in a specific place you remember saying that and what was that i know tell me the whole story again so we went to dump and we were unloading stuff and i just joked i was joking about it and i said oh it'd be a perfect place to dump a body and he goes yeah it's a perfect place dump a body and then we kind of joked and laughed you know it wasn't serious do you remember where y'all went in the dump we always go to the same spot it's this big bill like you pull in when you get through the scales you can tell every contractor goes there because it's sheet rock it's carpet it's paint buckets it's so it's like construction debris that's it yeah okay and we always go to the same spot during this interview with police lee locklear confirms that the landfill that she and corey benderum joked about burying a body at was the rosemary hill transfer station this is a landfill that corey benderum often visited do you think really did i think what but he really killed her oh i don't know i mean that's what the investigation's for figure out what happened to her where she's at i'm hoping that's not freaking creepy oh jesus christ lee locklear has provided detectives with their biggest lead yet so what they do is they set up a controlled phone call between lee and benderum in the hopes that he will divulge more details on this case and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what they're trying to do and i think that's what So I don't know what I'm supposed to say. They made it sound like you did it. You did not kill that woman, did you? I'm going to start calling you murderer Benderum. I highly doubt that. They were asking about all the job site I've been on you. They were asking me what materials were used and things like that. And they kept asking me over and over about concrete. Yeah. That's what I'm worried about. Cause after they said that, then they kept on with the concrete. The concrete portion. And I don't know where this concrete thing's coming from. I bought two bags of concrete that day that I went to Greg and Karen's. Thursday when I picked up their flooring, I bought two 60-pound bags of concrete. And what the **** else did I buy? Silicone. Cause I told them I went to Home Depot. So I bet they saw that I bought two bags of concrete. Law enforcement obtained video from Home Depot on the day that Susan Malden disappears. In those videos, Benderum is seen buying contractor bags as well as quick dry concrete. What did you use concrete for? I was going to use it to build a step. Cause you remember how they had those wooden steps and I told them I had to do something permanent? Yeah. So I was going to pitch the idea of, you know, just pouring concrete, you know, as another step. Do you still have the concrete? No, it got wet in the back of the truck. It's, you know, I threw it out. I was about to say, just take it back to the store, get a refund, and then you have a receipt. Yeah, yeah, but you know, no, I mean, it got wet in the back of my truck cause you know the back, you know, that, that, uh, my bed cover doesn't stay down. Oh, I see. Yeah, so it's popping up. So, uh, no, it's already, it's already been dumped. When she asked him what happened to the concrete that he purchased that morning, he said the bed of his truck leaks sometimes and gets wet, so he dumped the concrete bags and got rid of them. Investigators need to find out what Corey Binderum did with that concrete. So using data from cell phone towers and Binderum's own Life360 app, they are able to track his movements on the day that Susan disappeared. The Life360 data is a result of Corey's prior substance abuse. It was a agreement between him and his wife that he would have that app installed on his phone so that she could keep track of his movements. So that's another piece to the puzzle, that he had the Life360 going the whole time, that morning when he went to Home Depot, that morning when he went to Susan's house, when he was backed up. When he went to her garage, we were able to track with that data. It appears that on the day of Susan Malden's disappearance, he turned it off from around 8.45 in the morning for about an hour. And the fact that he turned off the app, thereby disappearing digitally, was concerning to law enforcement. So it was odd when we determined the Life360 was turned off when he went to Rosemary Hill landfill, and then was turned back on when he came back home after the landfill. When he went into Rosemary landfill, he had to check in. And then they'd take his weight, his truck, total weight with him and everything in it. He went in at about 300 pounds, and when he left, he came out 300 pounds lighter. But remember, in that phone call between Lee and Binderum, he said he had only 120 pounds of concrete that he needed to dump. So what's the discrepancy? We knew exactly what Susan's weight was around that time, because she had a recent doctor's appointment. Concrete bags and her weight equaled right up to that 300 pounds. So it was telling to us that he felt like he needed to offset that scale if he was going to take her body out there and dispose of her. Now the big question for investigators is, if we assume that the trash that Corey dumped contains both the concrete and Susan's remains, where exactly is it now? We're able to narrow down and identify where her remains potentially went to a facility in Folkestone, Georgia, Cheshire Island, and coordinated efforts with, FBI to conduct a search for Susan's remains at the Cheshire Island landfill. The area that we were searching, they described it as the size of a baseball gun, but honestly, it felt a lot bigger than that to me. Like, it's so high that when we got out there, like, you can't even see the top from the bottom. Law enforcement ended up going through approximately 7,600 tons of garbage in an effort to find Susan Malden's body. It was our information that we received at the time that no agency had had a successful full recovery of human remains, at a landfill. So it was unclear to them whether they would ever find Susan Malden's body. Nine days in and we hadn't found anything, you're starting to get a little downtrodden and think that you're not going to find anything, especially when you only have one day left. They knew they were looking for Susan Malden, but they had no idea what state her body was in at the time. So they had to examine every single thing they found, no matter how big or small. I was down at the bottom doing my search and I got a call to respond to the top desk. And that it was pretty important. I could hear it in their voice. Power up your movie night and watch Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5, now streaming on Disney Plus, rated PG. I ran up to the top deck, ran over there to where the investigators were shifting through and all activity had stopped. And I went over to the lead individual up there and he said, we've found something. Ultimately, we discovered a piece of her lower jawbone. I knew it was Susan. Like, there was no doubt in my mind. One of our detectives went to Susan's local dentist, got dental, got her medical records. We had the jawbone transported to the ME's office. And then they were able to confirm that it was in fact Susan Mauldin's lower jawbone and part of her remains. We started sifting through the remaining debris in that particular line. And that's when we came across the contractor bag and the rest of her remains inside that contractor bag. Plainly visible in plain sight on the bags was the same logo that matched the ones that Corey purchased that morning before going to the hospital. Susan's home. Along with the remains of Susan Mauldin, police located two fingernails. They did a DNA test in order to attempt to determine whose DNA, if anyone's, would be found on those fingernails. The DNA and fingernail A was traced back to Susan Mauldin. The DNA on fingernail B was traced back to Susan Mauldin, as well as a male. Before they can charge Corey Binderum, law enforcement needs, one more piece of the puzzle, the cause and manner of death. The forensic pathologist did an autopsy and determined that Susan Mauldin's death was in fact a homicide, that she died from blunt force trauma and strangulation. The forensic pathologist made a significant discovery that pointed to Susan Mauldin's hyoid bone being fractured at or near death, not after death as a result of compaction in the leg. She died in a landfill which was consistent in homicide investigations with an individual being strangled. Now investigators have a firm timeline and theory of what happened to Susan on that fateful day and it is chilling. On October 24th, 2019 Corey Binderum on his way to Susan Mauldin's home that morning he stopped and purchased concrete bags at the Home Depot, got contractor bags to help facilitate delivery. facilitate that crime, went to her home that morning, knocked on the door. We believe she let him in, where he immediately confronted her. She fled from him during that encounter. pursued her he struck her which knocked her to the ground she continued to try to get away into the kitchen where ultimately he strangled her until she died he cleaned the scene up the best he could went out the garage door loaded her body up with his tool bag took her body to the dump and disposed of her in the landfill on january 31st 2020 investigators move in to arrest corey Benderum for the murder of Susan Malden. Corey was actually already incarcerated at the Duval County Jail for fraud, so we went straight to meet him in the interview room and serve him notice that he was being arrested for Susan Malden's murder. Cut right to the chase. When we talked about before, you indicated that I had tunnel vision. I didn't have tunnel vision. We know what she did. We located Susan. We're bringing her home. And you're gonna be charged with murder and tampering evidence to begin with. I know that's a lot to hit you at one second, but obviously you've known this whole time. You just kind of been waiting on it, I'm sure. - Not at all. - I'm sure you're familiar with this process, how it goes from here. - Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, I'm not gonna say anything. Get upset again. - Hey, hey, we won, we got her body. You're being charged. - I didn't have anything to do with it. There was multiple avenues of this investigation that we took to try to determine if there was any other potential scenarios where someone else had something to do, and all of our investigation led back to Cory Benderham. - What my mind goes to is I wanna know why. That's what keeps me up at night. I just wanna know why. Because at this point, we're past if you did it. That's a lock. What is important now is why, and that's what I wanna know. Obviously, that'd be up to you, but that's, at some point, I'd love to be able to have that conversation with you, okay? You got any questions for me? - No. - Good luck. - Almost five years after Susan Mauldin was first reported missing, that is when Cory Benderum finally goes on trial for her murder. - Mr. Benderum is charged with three counts, murder in the first degree, burglary, with an assault or battery and tampering with evidence. The defendant has entered a plea of not guilty, which means you must presume or believe the defendant is innocent. - Now, the stakes couldn't be higher in Florida because if convicted of Susan's murder, Cory Benderum faces the death penalty. - So on October 24th, 2019, Susan Walden gave Cory Benderum the ultimatum, my money back or there will be consequences. And on October 24th, 2019, Susan Walden vanished 'cause those were the words that were going to cause this defendant's life to crumble around town. - The prosecution argued that there was one person who had a motive to want Susan Walden dead. And that was Cory Benderum. - He went to her house and yelled at her. And then he tossed her out like the garbage he thought that she was at the end of everything. Those actions by this defendant will be clear to you. And the other thing that will be clear is that he is guilty as charged on all three counts. - I think the prosecution had an incredibly strong circumstantial case against Cory Benderum. But anytime you have a circumstantial evidence case, it means that you don't have eyewitnesses. When you don't have eyewitnesses, sometimes a jury will say, "Well, it's not enough for me." - The state's case is a circumstantial evidence case. The installments remains were found. When they were found, there was two things. They were now A as the D-A, just the installments. They're going to be as a mixture of three people. You have them as one. The other two people is an unknown female and unknown male. That unknown male in that DNA mixture exclusively is not Cory Benderum. - The DNA not being Benderum's is huge for the defense. It opens that door of reasonable doubt that every criminal defendant is counting on. - Cory Benderum is not guilty to all counts because there is reasonable doubt in this case. - The prosecution has the burden of proof here. So they need to take big swings to solidify their case. And that is when they call Cassidy Benderum to the stand. She is arguably the best person to speak to Benderum's character and behavior around the time of this alleged murder. - Do you know a man named Cory Benderum? - I do. That's my ex-husband. - And at some point during your marriage, did you find out that the defendant was having an issue with drugs? - I did. He had told me that he was using cocaine. He had been going through a lot of money. - Did he then go to rehab and try to get himself clean? - He did. That was a mandate that I gave him. - Was he also aware that if you ever found out about drug use again, that you would be gone? - Yes. - Did you and the defendant-- - This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. With savings like that, you'll never look at a free night's plan the same way again. - Go through the ring camera video from that October 24th date. - We did. - And when you observed the ring camera from him coming home around 8:44 AM, what did you see on that camera? - One thing that I noticed was when he arrived home, he backed his truck into our garage and shut the garage door. That was something unusual 'cause I'd never seen him do that before. The other significant thing was when he arrived home and when he left, he was in different clothes. - Cassidy said that when she looked at the footage, she noticed that he had different clothes on, which we confirmed with the Home Depot footage that we saw where when he came in the morning before he went to Susan's house, he had on different clothes. - The prosecution then calls up Thomas Smith, an inmate that shared a cell block with Binderum. And as you can imagine, he has some information that is relevant to this case. - He went to go get some-- some money from-- go collect money. And she said he wasn't done with the job yet and he wasn't getting paid to-- he had an argument and got out of control, I guess. - Was there any violence between you two? - Said that she started getting loud and he was trying to shut her up. So he, like, hit her and then he started screaming and he choked her. - And there's also police interview footage with Thomas Smith where he goes into even more detail about what Binderum allegedly told him. - He mentioned something about strangling. He said he yoked her out and that means that-- strangled, you know, something like that. He said it felt weird 'cause he said he felt something break. - It was incredible because we hadn't released that information to anybody else throughout the course of the investigation. - But on Cross, the defense goes after Thomas Smith's credibility. - He said, "If you had any felony convictions, is that correct?" - Yes, sir. - You had one crime of dishonesty, is that right? - Yes, sir. - You're hoping that testifying for the state will help you out on your other two felony cases, aren't you? - No, I'm not. - Oh, you're not? - No, I'm not. - Jurors usually look at jailhouse informants quite suspect 'cause these are individuals that have an absolute motive to lie because usually they're getting a deal in exchange for that testimony. - The defense keeps pushing back. The next witness. Nicholas Kutu, the crime lab technician who conducted the DNA analysis on Susan Mauldin's remains, he is directly in the defense's crosshairs. - On January 20th of 2021, you release your report that excludes Mr. Binderum from the DNA found on Nail B, correct? - Cory Binderum was excluded as a contributor to the mixed DNA profile obtained from this item. - Not only excluded from the mixture of Nail B, but none of his DNA was found on Nail A. - Nail A, right? - Correct, the DNA types that were developed were only consistent with Susan Mauldin from that item. - And you were sent no additional flaws? - Correct, only one individual was listed as a subject at the time, Cory Binderum. - The defense was able to argue that that mixture of DNA found in fingernail B exonerated Cory Binderum. If the prosecution claims that Susan Mauldin fought back against her attacker, then one would assume that Cory Binderum's DNA would be found in her fingernail. However, we find foreign DNA, we find someone else entirely, and we have no idea who that person is. That, according to the defense, that was reasonable doubt. - After four days of testimony, the trial heads into closing arguments. - Nothing that we do today will ever bring Susan Mauldin back, but it will forever define what happened to her on October 24th of 2019. There was only one person whose life was going to blow up if Susan Mauldin went to the police. There's only one person who's guilty in this case, and it's Cory Binderum. And the state has asked that you find him guilty as charged on all three counts. - Cory Binderum did not kill Susan Mauldin. The proof of that is the foreign DNA under Susan Mauldin's fingernail. The nail and both nails had no DNA from Cory Binderum. Because he did not attack her, he did not kill her. What really happened here is that law enforcement started with a picture of Cory Binderum, and they made their investigation with it. You'll find there's reasonable doubts raised by the conflicts of evidence, lack of evidence, and the evidence itself. We ask that you find Mr. Binderum not guilty on all charges. - This trial had really strong arguments on both sides, but the truth is that there's nothing wrong with it. The truth is, is you never know what's gonna stick with the jury. And after just four hours of deliberations, they came back with their verdict. - State of Florida, this is Cory Binderum. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder, as charged in the indictment. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of burglary, as charged in the indictment. We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of tampering with evidence, as charged in the indictment. So save you all. Following his conviction for first-degree murder, Cory then had a second phase of his trial where the jury was gonna determine whether or not the death penalty was warranted in this case. In a truly full-circle moment, the prosecution calls Phyllis Yates. Remember, she's the person who basically started this whole investigation, and she delivers a victim impact statement on behalf of Susan. - I'm thankful now justice is being served. We will now cling to the memories that we built with Susan Malden, December 2015. 2006 through my last standing lunch date with my best friend on October 23rd, 2019. I'm looking forward to seeing my special friend in heaven. Sue was such a blessing to Dan and I and such a joy to have in our life. To know Sue was to love Sue. Now, before the jury votes on a sentence, victim advocate Leah Wilson reads a letter from Corey Binderum's daughters. Dear members of the jury and honorable court, our names are Bailey and Megan Binderum. We are Corey Binderum's daughters. We cannot imagine dad hurting anyone. He has been a protective and loving father to us throughout our lives. We love our father very much and ask you to show mercy when considering his sentence. The jury then goes to deliberate whether Corey Binderum is sentenced to life without parole or death. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Corey Binderum. I understand the jury has reached its verdict as to the sentence recommendation. We, the jury, present the defendant, Corey Lewis Binderum, should be sentenced as follows. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, five. Death, seven. The jury came back with seven in favor of death, five in favor of life. In Florida, they're required to have at least eight votes for death and because they didn't, he was sentenced to life without parole. I absolutely think that we achieved justice for Susan Malden and we held Corey Binderum accountable for what he did and my biggest takeaway from the Susan Malden investigation is you never know who you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and it's always important to try to vet individuals that you're allowing into your home. We'll be right back. offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms