332. The Deadly Rejection - The Murder of Corey Wieneke

This episode is brought to you by Nordstrom. For 125 years, Nordstrom has been part of your story. The stylist who found the perfect outfit for your big interview. The first pair of walking shoes for your one-year-old. The tomato soup you shared with your sister at the cafe. These are the moments that make Nordstrom, Nordstrom. Big or small, we're here for all of it. Celebrating 125 years with new moments still ahead. Discover it all in Nordstrom stores and at Nordstrom.com. Late night bites with friends, already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in. The night goes longer and the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. That coffee, hitting me. Oh, you're feeling good? I'm freaking. Like my body's going. I'm moving right now. That's good. That espresso shot, holy. Tell them you made it. Oh, okay. Jumping into my tense. Well, first of all, thank you for being here. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Got a. New coffee machine. Got a. Well, it's not for no reason. Look. I'm going to keep it simple. Got a new coffee machine. Got a new grinder. Been experimenting with a lot of different drinks. The shot I just drank, I don't know what was in it, but I am amped up right now. Came out good. Took me a long time to dial the machine in. I don't know why it took so long. For those who aren't familiar with how coffee works, I had to dial in the espresso machine. Got it all dialed in. We're good to go. Tastes amazing. I made just like an iced caramel latte, basically. Tasted great. We're going to update you kind of on what's going on with their pregnancy. Everything's okay. And not okay at the same time. Peyton, there's. We're not going to get into specifics right now because we're going to keep it a little private. But there's just some stuff going on with Peyton and her body. And the baby. And so far. No, baby's fine. Baby's fine. Baby's okay. So far, so good. We're just waiting to see. We're basically like on hospital watch right now, waiting to see if she needs surgery. The doctors want Peyton to try the best she can to try to get to 32 weeks. So if she does have to get this surgery and the baby needs to come out, that everything will be okay. And there's a higher chance of everything going well. Right now, she's at 28 weeks. Fun fact. I was born at 26 weeks. But right now, the baby's at 28 weeks. And so we're just trying to keep pushing along. Anything else you want to add to that, baby? Nope. I'll cry. Yeah. So that's why I'm talking. Peyton's just kind of tired. Kind of emotional. There's a lot going on. But baby's healthy. Peyton's hanging in there. She's doing a great job. So support for Peyton. Everyone, send your support her way. Dude, pregnancies, there's a lot. It's already hard enough. See, when you start adding other factors into it. Not fun. Not fun at all. I think that's it. Thanks for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for everyone saying hi to us. For those who go to the bagel shop, thank you for just all your support. On that note, I think that's it. And we're going to hop into today's episode. Our sources for this episode are Oxygen.com, NBC4L.com, Dailymail.co.uk, WQAD.com, RadioIowa.com, CBS2Iowa.com, TheGazette.com, TimesRepublican.com, Iowacourts.com, NBCNews.com, TimesDelphic.com, IowaBar.org, Caselaw.FindLaw.com, Des MoinesRegister.com, and OxygenSnapped. Today, I want to talk about an ugly little truth called rejection. We can all agree that rejection is probably universally hated. I mean, introduce me to one person that likes, to hear the word no. But if you're a silver lining kind of girly like me, then you can understand how rejection is character building. It adds grit. It toughens your skin. It teaches you how to get back out there with your head held high and to try again. There's no way to avoid it. It happens in almost everything we do. We can feel rejection in work, play, love. And the more feelings you have invested, the harder that rejection hits. But for some people, that pain can be unbearable. Picking their head up and getting back out there just doesn't seem like an option. And when a rejection like that happens to the wrong person, it can be weaponized and become a death sentence. So let's turn back the clock to the year 1992, to a little town with a population of only about 4,000 people called West Liberty. Iowa. It's the kind of place where you grow up going to school with the same kids. You probably marry your high school sweetheart. You open up a small business with your childhood best friend. The kind of town a lot of people live and then die in. And as was the case for 22-year-old Corey Winnikey. Now, Corey had a larger-than-life presence in this small town of West Liberty. His family had been there for a few generations, everyone in town basically knew his last name. Corey, especially, though, because not only was he a star football player, he was the class clown and one of the most popular kids in high school. With his welcoming and warm personality, he just wanted to bring everyone together. He would invite all the neighborhood kids over to his family's house to play baseball in their giant grassy yard on a summer's night, teach them how to pitch and catch, and when the sun went down, he was curling up on the couch with his mom, Susan, sharing their favorite shows together. Now, Susan has said that the two of them, her and her son, Corey, were extremely close, even when Corey began dating his high school sweetheart, a girl named Jodi Hoates. Now, Jodi was intelligent, grounded, someone who inspired Corey to do his best in life. Jodi was a great girl. The two balanced each other out in a way that most everyone in West Liberty felt was probably forever. When Corey wasn't playing sports, doing his classwork, or hanging out with Jodi, he would work at his family's business, which was a popular pub in town owned by his grandparents called Wink's. Corey would go down there on the weekends to clean the counters or change kegs, and when he turned 18, he actually started bartending. Now, if someone in West Liberty didn't know Corey's name before, they definitely did now. Wink's was the spot in West Liberty where all of the locals went on the weekends, and Corey quickly became the face of the establishment, the grandpa's grandson who really brought the place personality. And it kind of became a second home to Corey, and I mean this literally, because after he graduates high school, he moves to West Liberty, and he moved into the little apartment upstairs, like above the bar, which made it easy for him to just get out of bed and then go right down to work. Now, eventually, his high school girlfriend Jodi moved in with him, but the space was tight, and she started making money of her own after graduation, so she gets a job working at a bank 17 miles away in Iowa City. So eventually, the two actually decide to upgrade their living situation, and in 1992, the now 22-year-olds moved to a small little farmhouse just west of town. Now, at this point, they started as high school sweethearts, but they're definitely young adults trying to make it work, so spending time together was a bit tough. Corey worked nights, Jodi worked days. Oftentimes, they would really only see each other in passing, but it seemed to work for the two of them living together because that same year, Corey finally proposed to Jodi, and she happily said yes. They were just starting to build their future together. They were talking about marriage, having kids, high school sweethearts, the white picket fence life, until October 13th, 1992, when everything in their life unraveled. That morning, Jodi woke up, got ready for work, tiptoeing around her sleeping fiance because he works nights. Around 8 a.m., she gave Corey a kiss and headed off to Iowa City for another day on the job. But when she came home around 6.30 p.m. that night, she immediately notices something is off at their little farmhouse. Their dog was outside wandering around, which they never did. Like, they never just let it stay outside while they were at work. The screen door to their house was open, but most of all, she noticed that Corey's car was still in their driveway. But Corey. is definitely supposed to be at work by now. He usually went in at around 5 p.m. So Jodi goes inside and she calls out for Corey. After no response, she went deeper into their home. She turned a corner to the bedroom and that's when she saw Corey, her fiance, lying face down by the bed in his underwear in a pool of his own blood. She runs up. She places a hand on him. She could tell that he was already cold. He wasn't breathing. She races to their phone. She dials 911 and right away she's like, my fiance is dead. Now when the police arrived, one of the first things they realized was Corey appeared to have been a victim of blunt force trauma. He had wounds on his back, arms, and a giant one on the back of his head, basically going from ear to ear. Corey was in what detectives would call a, quote, blitz-type very rapid assault. Very fast. There didn't look like there was any signs of a struggle. There was no defensive marks, bruisings, cuts, no furniture turned over, and no signs of any weapon. Plus, nothing was missing from the house that would indicate this had been some sort of robbery. So between that and just the brutal and kind of quick which Corey was attacked, police immediately believed this murder was personal. And detectives also felt that whoever came to the house probably came with their own weapon and the intent to kill him, which is why it was just done fast, no argument. And as for that weapon, well, police do have a guess. They think it's something like, like long, like a pipe or a baseball bat. But who would have wanted Corey dead? And why in such a violent, disturbing manner? I mean, bashing someone's head in. This was one of the most popular, well-liked guys in town. So they obviously know the first person they need to rule out is his fiancee, Jody. Jody was very forthcoming with police. She told them, no, the last time I saw Corey was this morning. He was alive. When she left for work, he was still asleep in bed. She walked them through her day, how she went to Iowa City, ran an errand or two on her break, and then came home at 6.45 p.m. So Jody has a very clear alibi that they are able to confirm. Plus, it was clear that she was grieving. She was in total shock over the situation. She had come across his body. To them, Jody was a pretty easy person to cross off their list. But the news of Corey's death began spreading fast through the small town, and by the morning, local media was swarming the area, ready to cover the case. And one of those reporters who comes to the crime scene actually finds something crucial. So they are parked a little bit east of Jody and Corey's home, kind of just outside the crime scene tape perimeter, just like any reporter or news. news fan would be. But this specific reporter sees a baseball bat that's just laying along the roadway. Now, luckily, crime scene texts were already on site by this point. So instead of this reporter, like, going up to it, they literally just send someone over to check it out. Sure enough, the baseball bat has blood on it. They're pretty sure this reporter has just found their murder weapon. So they bring it in for processing. And meanwhile, other detectives were canvassing the area, looking to talk to witnesses. And they actually find a man who owned the farm just up the street. So their neighboring farm. Interestingly enough, he said, hey, I also saw that baseball bat on the road. It's so interesting that you can just piece things together. And I guess what I mean by that is, I feel like it's pretty hard to get away with things. Like, there's just like, oh, this person saw that. This person saw this. This person saw that. We found the baseball bat. All of a sudden, things just slowly and slowly. Yeah. just. turns into a snowball. And. Yeah. I don't know. It's kind of wild. All right, you guys. I am jumping into today's sponsor. And it is Skims. If you've watched any of our episodes, you know how much I love Skims. And actually, earlier today, Garrett and I were working at the bagel shop. And what did I wear? My Skims maternity onesie. I also wore my Skims undies. Oh, girl. You heard it here first. Garrett wore his Skims undies to the bagel shop. In case anyone's ever picturing what's underneath my pants. Skims undies. And honestly, it's the quality. It's the quality. It's the feeling. Like, I still have yet to find another brand that I feel super confident in that when I get it, I'm going to absolutely love the piece I have. And so that's why I keep returning to Skims. And that's why I recommend Skims to all of you guys, because I can promise you the quality of what you're getting is. It's really good. I'm going to be honest. I turned Garrett onto Skims. They're getting a store, actually. In Salt Lake. Oh, yeah. So everyone's been talking about it, because that's where we are. Shop Skims cotton and all of my favorite pieces at Skims.com. And after you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the drop down menu that follows. Again, this is after you've placed your order, after you have checked out and paid. There's just a little survey. Please, please let them know. Murder With My Husband sent you. It's a great way to support the show. I love Skims and I know you will too. Hey, guys. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You've heard us talk about BetterHelp for a long time. You know, Garrett and I love therapy. We've gone to therapy together. We've gone to therapy alone. My biggest piece of advice is something doesn't have to be broken. Something doesn't have to be wrong before therapy is beneficial for you. And that's why we love BetterHelp. You can check them out yourself at BetterHelp.com. There are so many reviews. The reviews are updated every day with hundreds of people telling you. If you just do BetterHelp.com slash reviews, actually, you can like go directly to the reviews. More than 6 million people have used BetterHelp globally. The consistent feedback from real users makes it easy to see why so many people continue to choose BetterHelp. If you're curious, go check it out. Again, like Payne said, something doesn't have to be wrong. Go check out therapy. It's just nice to talk to somebody sometimes. See the reviews, see what stands out and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com slash husband. That's BetterHelp.com slash husband. So they talked to the neighbor and he's like, no, I definitely saw that bat, but I noticed it yesterday, which is before Jody found Corey's body. He said, so the morning before around 9am, he was driving slowly down the road to check on his crops. Because again, he's a farmer. He circles back again at 1.30pm. And that is when he noticed. The metal baseball bat on the side of the road. And he swore it was not there that morning. So he like passed that area at 9am. And then after, you know, his workday, he comes back at 1.30pm. And that's when he notices it. So this is obviously helpful because it gives them a potential timeline for Corey's murder. Because obviously, by 1.30pm, the murder weapon with blood on it isn't like sitting on the side of the road. And it's not until 6.45pm that she comes home and finds the body. So soon enough, the results from the forensics team come back and they said the blood on the bat was a match for Corey's blood type. However, you have to remember this is 1992. DNA testing wasn't widely available. It required specialized labs and a lot more sample material than it does today. And unfortunately, they don't find any fingerprints on the bat either. So they're like, we think it's his blood because it's the same type, but we can't like. 100% confirm it. And we don't have any fingerprints on the murder weapon. They do learn from the autopsy report, though, that Corey had 13 different blunt force injuries in total to his body. Four of those were to his head, including the fatal blow that finally split open the back of his skull. Oh, my God. And they also still believe Corey was ambushed. And at this point, they're like, not only was he ambushed. Which is why there's no defensive wounds. We think the attack began while he was still asleep, which is why he didn't fight back because he immediately started getting beaten. Problem was, none of this got that much closer to a lead. So detectives begin speaking to everyone in Corey's life, obviously. Family, friends, co-workers, customers. They find that Corey was supposedly, not only had he been the football star in high school, now the like, lovely bartender. But at the most popular bar, he is also the local marijuana and cocaine dealer around town. So at the bar, he's not just doing alcohol. And not only that, apparently, when they really start digging into his life, they learn that despite the fact he's engaged to his high school sweetheart, he had an even bigger vice than dealing drugs. And that was women. Okay. Turns out, Corey wasn't just popular with the ladies in high school. He had continued that streak into adulthood. He had quite a few girlfriends over the years, all while dating Jodi. Apparently, she. He knew for a lot of their relationship that he would cheat on her from time to time, as did basically everyone else. But it kind of seemed like they had a don't ask, don't tell policy like Jody knew their names. She would be like, I know that he's cheated on me with this girl, this girl, this girl. But this is just what they did in their relationship. That sucks. Like, that's not a way to live life. No. And it's sad. And if anyone is in the same situation, I promise. Not a way to do it. There's probably just a lot of psychological stuff going on behind the scenes. For sure. Because like from the outside looking in, that seems absolutely crazy. But, you know, not just women, men and women stay in relationships where they are treated horribly. And it's for psychological reasons, mostly. So she knows some of these girls. And there are at least two outside girlfriends or relationships that were still ongoing. At the time of Corey's death. So when they start talking to people, they're like, oh, he was also kind of hanging around this girl and this girl, despite like living with Jody. So I assume they're going to go see if those girls have boyfriends, significant others. Yes. Well, so they keep digging into this and they discover that one of these relationships was with a woman that Corey had been friendly with for quite a while. Like this had kind of been a long thing. And they learned that two months before he had gotten engaged, this woman that he had had this relationship with had his baby. So Corey has a child with another woman. Is the main girlfriend? I'm not sure. I'm not. I mean, they they hinted that like she knew about his affairs. Yeah, I doubt she knew that she had a baby. But they don't go into detail, mainly because she's not a suspect. So they're not going to also like we don't want to talk about the baby. I mean, yeah, but this is pretty messy, right? Like he this is a small town. We're in the 90s. He's beloved and he has a baby with a woman and then two months later still gets engaged to his high school girlfriend. So that woman's name was 20 year old Wendy Marshall. So the police track Wendy down when they learn all of this drama. And when they question her. She has some pretty wild information to share. She said in the early morning hours, the day Corey died, he left the bar with her after closing around 2 a.m. But when they're walking out and they get to Corey's car, they run into his third lover, his third girlfriend. So his fiance is at home in bed. He's just closing up shop, walking out with his second girlfriend. And as they get to his car, they run into his third girlfriend. Now, this is 29 year old. So a little older. Annette Hazen. And she's out there by his car waiting for him at 2 a.m. for his shift to get over. Now, Wendy, girlfriend number two, said Annette was very intoxicated and visibly annoyed when Wendy and Corey walk out together to the car. It was clear she was hoping that Corey would be alone. She said based on the conversation. She was wanting Corey to come home with her. Now, those plans are obviously foiled. But Corey told Wendy, hey, I know we already have plans to hang out at your house, but can we just drive Annette home from here? OK, so the three of them. Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine? Girlfriend two and three. There's no way. Get into the car to drive Annette home. Now, remember, she's intoxicated. She's distressed. But on the way, Wendy said Annette got sober. She's so angry. She opened the door and tried to jump out of Corey's car. So, OK, Corey pulled over. Annette got out. And so did he. The two of them begin having a conversation in front of the car. And Wendy is sitting inside just watching. Now, I'm not sure exactly what was said, but it seemed Annette convinced him to change his plans because when he gets back in the car, he tells Wendy, listen, I'm driving back to the bar to Winks so you can get your car. I'm going. Handle Annette, basically. So he tells girlfriend two, I know we were supposed to go to your house. I'm driving you back to the bar. You get in your car. You go home. I'm handling intoxicated girlfriend. Got it. Number three. What a life. Yeah. At 2 a.m. Like, I would want to be in bed. He turns around. He drops Wendy off. And then he goes back to Annette's house. And then they hook up. So he hooks up with our very distressed third girlfriend, Annette. Okay. So him and Annette go to her house. You know, they just they just do a little bit of fooling around. And after this, he leaves and goes to Wendy's house because he feels bad that he had to drop her back off and made her drive home after they had already made plans. So they hang out there and he chats a bit or I don't know. He hangs out with Wendy. Yeah, whatever. Okay. And then he finally goes home to his fiance, Jody, and gets in bed. So no wonder he's still asleep when Jody gets up and leaves at 8 a.m. He had had a night. He had had a long night. And when investigators hear about this, they're like, okay, there's got to be something in here that gets us to the murder. No, a thousand percent. So they look deeper into Annette and they find that this sort of behavior, you know, this crazy her waiting at his car. At 2 a.m. Begging him to, like, go back to the house with her. Did a girl do this? Making him change his plans. That sort of behavior wasn't exactly out of character for her. So now police dive into Annette. She's divorced with two kids who she had shared custody of. Like I said, she's a bit older than Corey. He's only 22. She's 29. However, she's known him since he was six. In 2016, she would sometimes pick up shifts at Winx. So between working and drinking there regularly, she gets to know Corey. She says she developed a little crush on him. According to some reports, they messed around, but they didn't have sex. But then apparently things did get more serious in the year of 1992. According to Annette, the two were having sex a few times a week at that point leading up to his death. So at the time of his murder, they were actively seeing. Sleeping together. In fact, it was getting serious that Annette said, oh, no, me and Corey actually made plans to skip town. Like he was going to leave his fiance and we were going to skip town. We were going to go to Branson, Missouri, and we were going to open up our own bar there. Love triangle. Here we come. There was just one problem. Everyone who knows Corey is like, listen, we understand Annette's telling you this, but he would never leave Jodi. Did he cheat on her? Yes. But that was the love of his life. Weird. Would it to be known as like, oh, he would never leave that person. But I think it happens. I think it happens a lot, too. But just strange to me. Yeah. So everyone in his life is like, no, listen, he loved Jodi. Like he would never leave her despite all of this. Now, whether Annette was aware of that or not is unclear. And whether he told Annette this but didn't mean it is also unclear. Like whether she's making this up or the words came out of his own mouth. We don't know. But he had just proposed to Jodi about a month or so before he died. So does it make sense why he's telling one woman he's going to run away with her, but then, you know, proposing to another. But also two months before that proposal, he also had a baby with someone else. So the whole thing fills off to detectives are ready to call Annette into the station. But she comes in herself. I think she probably heard that Wendy, a girlfriend number two, was speaking with police. And so she was like, obviously that. So she brings herself in to tell her side of the story. Either way, police are like, yep, we're ready to hear it. Now, as far as I'm aware, Annette didn't deny any of the things Wendy had said about that night. She confirmed, yes, I did see Corey hours before he was murdered. He did come to my house. We did have sex, but he did leave. She also admitted to police she was jealous that night when she saw Corey and Wendy. And that's what they were arguing about. But she felt better once he dropped her. Off and went back to Annette's house and they made up. So detectives asked her, OK, well, can you account for the hours during the murder? Basically, and she says she woke up early that day because she was helping out a friend with a roofing job. She says she got to the site around seven ish, worked for about an hour and a half. And then her sister in law, Jackie Hazen, picked her up around 830 or 9 a.m. to run some errands. However, she admits that after that. Her and her sister in law stop by Corey's house. She said she goes up. She knocks on his door because she needs to drop a book off one that she had borrowed. OK. She says, but no one answered. So me and my sister in law, Jackie, left. She says, then we drove to Iowa City to take Jackie to a doctor's appointment, do some shopping, which Jackie did have a receipt for. It showed that she had shopped at 145 p.m. And afterwards, they went back to Jackie's house where Annette was. Also. staying at the time. and she hung out with her kids until Annette went to a work shift at Winx the bar later that night that's when Annette said she learned about Corey's death for the first time that had happened earlier that day so police are like hey we just need to bring Jackie the sister-in-law in so they bring her in and she confirms all of this but to be extra sure they hook Annette up to a polygraph and she passes now even though Annette admitted to stopping by Corey's house that morning which is during their iffy hours there's no evidence suggesting she actually went inside or that Corey wasn't already dead at that point so they keep speaking to witnesses over the next six months they conducted around 400 different interviews I feel like this happens a lot we've covered a couple cases where they interview a set group of people right yeah they move on they go to a bunch of different people that can't figure out what's going on and somehow it always leads back to like the first set of people I don't know if that's what's going to happen I'm just saying it always leads back to this first set of people and that's who has done the crime it does feel like that especially in like cold cases we've been seeing solved lately where it's like oh the person was in the suspect notes like in the investigator's notes they just couldn't there wasn't enough to piece it together to like do something about it yeah yeah so anyways they do all of these things interviews they also end up talking to a local man who is like Corey had an affair with my wife like maybe this was that they also believed maybe it was drugs you know he was a drug dealer maybe this the possibilities were overwhelming let's just say yeah Corey's life had a lot of motive sometimes we see victims that it's like no one would ever want to hurt this person that's not necessarily the case here all right guys you're jumping into an ad it is rocket money cc daisy little rocket money it's hilarious um we love rocket money we've been using it for years now they're one of our first sponsors gosh five years ago it's a finance app if you're curious about it you need to go check it out it'll help organize all of your finances in one credit cards bank accounts that'll help cancel unwanted subscriptions and bills go check it out again it's super intuitive easy to use you can connect everything to it Peyton and I use it to help us organize it's important to stay organized with your finances so you know how much you're spending daisy loves it she uses it so yeah she benefits from it she does benefit from it rocket money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings that rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster join at rocket money.com slash husband again that's rocket money.com slash husband rocket money.com slash husband go check it out we love it we're pretty sure you're gonna love it this message is sponsored by green light you don't know green light is a debit card and app for families but it's more than a money tool it is a safety net for teaching kids about money while also helping protect them before bad habits bad actors or real world risks take hold teaching your kids about money isn't just smart parenting it's protection cash gives you no visibility and a traditional bank account usually tells you what happened after the fact but green light lets you stay involved with real-time transaction notifications spending controls by category and an easy way to send money quickly while teaching better financial habits honestly green light's amazing my family's used it for my little siblings I have tons of friends who've used it teaching your children about money and I've used it for my children the importance of money is very important especially in the world that we live in these days being financially responsible is very important and again teach your kids the importance of money green light is perfect for that and it's amazing every day they're handling money without guidance is a missed opportunity start your risk-free green light trial today at greenlight.com slash husband don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills that's greenlight.com slash husband to get started greenlight.com slash husband so by april 1993 this is six months after cory's death the investigation reaches a standstill they don't really know where to turn and that's where things stand for the next 25 years that's such a long time so we're covering a cold case that has been solved recently okay so the case goes cold until a chance sorry to interrupt it's an update on another case that we did did i send you that what's her name she i don't know what the plea agreement was but i think she reached a plea agreement or something that only fans girl who killed yes her boyfriend yes i saw they just reached a agreement or something like that on our social media anyways which is crazy because i'm never on this stuff but yeah that's shocking i haven't even seen that i came across my instagram okay anyways so in december of 2017 okay so 2017 not that recent but 2017 an agent with the division of criminal investigation which is part of the state's department of justice is looking into a case at the university of iowa hospital and while he's there one of the nurses comes up to him and says hey you know since you're here working on a recent case do you know anyone who works on cold cases and he's like no actually me like that's actually that is my job yeah it's me why are you here and you're not working on a that's when she says well i've kind of been harboring a secret for decades what is up she goes when i was just nine years old i think i heard someone confess to a murder and she goes again i was only nine but it's been weighing on me can't blame her at all she goes this has been weighing on me and now that you're here like i don't even know but i just feel like it's been weighing on me i don't even know if it's real but i think i heard someone confess to a murder and she goes someone confessed to it she's like and i know the name of the victim now i know who they were confessing to killing his name was cory so he takes down her information schedules a meeting with her and two other dci agents so they can hear her full story and on december 15th 2017 she tells them this when she was a kid she slept over at her best friend's house a lot her best friend was the jackie is annette hazen's sister-in-law the one who was like yep confirmed her alibi we went to cory's house that day he didn't answer we went shopping blah blah blah okay so she would have sleepovers with jackie's daughter a lot and she said and annette annette hazen the uh girlfriend number two lived there at that time so i got to know her as well like her she was always around how do you kill somebody and then just go about life i don't know like just go about life she goes one night in the fall of 1992 right around when cory was killed jesse said she and annette's niece were hungry during one of their sleepovers so they snuck downstairs for a snack around midnight but that's when they hear crying coming from the kitchen okay they're just these two little nine-year-old girls sneaking down but then they stop because they hear crying and they see annette she's says that she was standing in front of some black lit candles crying in the kitchen and she's saying over and over i'm so sorry cory i didn't mean to hurt you i didn't mean to kill you now obviously what is happening these two nine-year-old girls are startled like here's not even their mom but their aunt basically one the girl's aunt she's just a friend and she's standing in front of lit candles crying and she's like i'm so sorry cory i didn't mean to hurt you i didn't mean to kill you and like talking to someone that's not there right and so the little girls just turn around and race back upstairs they're like forget our midnight snack we are scared and so jesse like they go back upstairs to the room and she tries to talk to her friend about it who that's her aunt so she tries to talk to the other nine-year-old little girl she's like what was she saying she said she killed someone like she was saying she killed someone she said her friend was like no no no that was just her boyfriend and she's heartbroken over his death and so she was like oh my gosh but this other little nine-year-old girl is like justifying it in her little nine-year-old head and there's only so much you can comprehend at nine and also you're at someone else's house yeah no and then when you look to the friend who's related to this person for answers and they're like oh no it's fine her boyfriend died like oh okay you're like okay and that's what she says she's like that was that but she goes the next day when i went home i told my mom i said hey uh like it was weird she was crying in the kitchen and her mom was like we're not gonna go to police i don't even know what happened i don't even know annette what if she did kill this guy and now she's gonna kill you for telling me she was like i'm not gonna take this anywhere just says sorry to her little nine-year-old daughter but now jesse is in her mid-30s and this agent's strolled into the hospital working on a different case and she was like, like you know what i'm gonna tell him this story and she's now telling it to multiple dci agents and it changed the direction of the case completely so after confirming jesse's story with her mother she's like go talk to my mom she'll tell you i told you that way back then when i was nine years old and they go talk to her mom and she's like no she did she came home from a sleepover and told me that she saw that oh my gosh so they know it's a lead worth pursuing so investigators pay another visit to now 56 year old could you imagine annette hazen thinking that you got away with something the cops come over 20 whatever plus years later yeah wait 20 years yeah 20 plus years later 25 whatever and they're like hey we're here to talk about a crime yeah that we think you committed 25 years ago well they track her down she's living in a place called tipton iowa it's only 20 miles or so from west liberty where the murder happened she's remarried she's changed her last name from hazen to kahil and she has another child she's now a grandmother of four grandchildren oh my gosh i can't because it's like part of you as a human wants to feel bad but the other part's like she killed somebody well she got to go live her life and that's what i mean you know i think there is sometimes a tear right it's weird that's what i'm saying i think for our brains to comprehend it can it makes more sense for her to be arrested in the time of the murder yes versus now and i think we are seeing that a lot lately with like these 70 year olds who are getting arrested for cold cases and you look at them now and they're not they're not who you think killed this person yep but they are you know what i mean it is a very weird mental battle in a sense i don't know she loves to spend her free time cooking and quilting she has not had any run-ins with the law enforcement for the rest of her life in fact she's working as a customer service assistant with the police law institute which helps train officers around the country oh my gosh this is weird now when she tells when detectives bring her in they're like listen we need to talk to you about this cold case she's open about her relationship she tells them cory was the love of my life but they don't get much time with annette that day because she goes back to work i stopped by her house again weeks later and she's a lot more defensive she's like listen cory's death nearly killed me she says when he was murdered i started drinking heavily doing more drugs and she says i'm going to share something with you that i never told police back then she says that night after he stopped the car and got out and they were fighting cory said to annette i'm nothing to you but you're not nothing to me i love you so according to her cory confessed his love for her that night and then dropped off the other girlfriend and went home with her and she's like and this was the first time and she says but when he left after sleeping with me that night i was hurt she knew things were probably never going to change she says the pain turned to anger and police are kind of just sitting here like okay she's defensive but she's also talking about that night so they kind of just keep letting her talk i was gonna say if you really didn't do it i don't know but i feel like you'd probably be like look i don't know guys like i've told them everything like it was such a long time ago like i'm sorry i wish there was something i could do like this is about this is it well this interview kind of started as her being like i had nothing to do with his death and now it's turned into her completely lost in the story of her love and that's how you know like she's she's there something going on she's back she's explaining it she's talking with emotion it's not like she's like he loved me yeah but i knew things were never going to change like she is fully back no offense but like when i talk about an ex i'm like yeah oh yeah i don't know dare that person it was a long time ago i mean yeah that's about it and so please just let her keep going yeah they're like whatever and then she asks them something strange she says quote you know the old saying fish or cut bait now annette no doesn't i don't i don't either but i'm not from iowa okay she obviously doesn't say that but she says that she doesn't say that she doesn't say that she doesn't say it explicitly but it seems in that moment that she decided to cut bait so when detectives finally confront her they're like listen we understand what you're saying we also have an eyewitness who says they overheard you talking about murdering cory she's like who she tells them they have no idea how wrong they were and from there she refuses to answer any more questions without a lawyer so she like gets all the time and she's like i don't know what to do with this without a lawyer so she like gets all the way up to the point and then it's basically like am i gonna do it or am i not am i gonna fish or am i gonna cut bait and they're like okay whatever we have this and she's like i'm cutting bait get me a lawyer like i'm not confessing but by now police are like ah we feel like we have enough to arrest her they present the case to the grand jury and on may 31st 2018 six months after jesse came forward with her story jesse our nine-year-old police went to annette's home and arrested her okay so she goes to trial obviously this isn't going to be very easy for the prosecution because their entire case is basically hinged on jesse becker's story who was nine years old at the time they have no concrete evidence no eyewitnesses no dna that's what i was going to say i was going to say even if this went somewhere as a jury i mean you're just you're not going to go anywhere if the story is based off of right someone that was nine years old right it's not going to happen so this trial not really going to detail is so much small town drama okay well she slept with this person who did this and back then she was into drugs and how can you even trust someone like that she definitely could have done this no she couldn't have look at who she's at like look who she is now she's never even been in trouble with the law why would she kill someone you know they bring in experts who are like you can't trust a nine-year-old's testimony and memory they're they're right and the prosecution's like man even her mom like alibied her story whatever whatever either way the jury did not think jesse's testimony was enough they couldn't reach a unanimous verdict and the judge declared a mistrial some people did think she was guilty but not all of them and that appeared to be that annette was just going to go back to living her life she could sigh a breath of relief that was until the prosecution finds a new witness that makes them reconsider so after the trial cory's mother susan was at a funeral when she runs into an old friend they get talking about the case you know about the recent updates with the case and the woman says i just don't even understand why they didn't interview my son and susan's like huh apparently her son a man named scott pain had some pretty like relevant information about annette that like hadn't come out in this new trial hasn't been shared with the new investigators they never called him in so he never came forward turns out scott had been avoiding the police during the original investigation because he was into drugs back in the day just like annette but now at 54 years old things are different so he goes down to sit down with investigators after cory's mom finds out about this and he says i saw something that actually supports nine-year-old jesse's testimony he said i was at the hazen's house on the day of the murder hanging out with annette's brother he saw annette pull up to the house with a brown paper bag she was frantic and nervous and scott watched as annette pulled out clothes in the bag that were covered in blood she then placed them into a barrel and lit them on fire he's like but obviously i wasn't going to come tell you guys this back in the day i was on drugs so detectives are like well how do you even know these like this was blood also he was on drugs how do you even right use that and he's like well i worked at a slaughterhouse i know what bloody clothes look like okay i'm just saying i'm a different person now but back then i was at the house the day of the murder she came in and burned bloody clothes so with this new information prosecution attempts another trial she's back in court in september of 2019 and they now have another witness scott pain who's going to get on the stand as they not only did this nine-year-old little girl at this same house see her talking about murdering someone i also at this same house saw her walk in and burn bloody clothes on the day of the murder okay so now they have these two and the verdict is on september 19th 2019 annette was found guilty of second degree murder she was given the maximum sentence of 50 years in prison wow which at 56 is the life sentence i'm actually i think i'm a little surprised i mean i mean yeah is there doubt is there reasonable doubt i don't know i get it i'm not saying she didn't do it i don't not that i want her to be in prison but i think i was i mean she did it she obviously did it so sorry don't kill people like how psychologically how do you live an entire life it comes back to you and then you just go to prison well i think that would be yeah it's weird i think going back to the trial you also have to remember her alibi that day yes is okay she goes to work for an hour and a half and then goes to cory's house around the time of the murder and then go shopping and make sure to keep a receipt well she was at cory's house at the time of the murder like according to her own story she just didn't go inside that's other circumstantial evidence of like the oh the the suspect herself admits to being around the house at the time of the murder but not going in yeah like that that that's that's a lot of you know annette to this day claims she's innocent she says there's some evidence that was not considered during her trial she's like corey had four human hairs found in his hand at the time of his murder um but the request to test those hairs for dna was denied at her trial okay plus there was a box of documents and evidence that was never turned over to annette's attorneys before her trial and apparently the prosecution lied to the jury saying they couldn't extract dna from the baseball bat so post-trial annette's attorneys tried to do it themselves they brought the bat in for testing and for her to be able to take the bat out of her hands and she was able to take the bat out of her hands and she was able to take the bat out of her hands and she was able to take the bat out of her hands and she was able to take the bat out of her hands and she was able to take