332. The Deadly Rejection - The Murder of Corey Wieneke

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Join the more than 6 million people who entrust SimpliSafe with their home security. Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit SimpliSafe.com slash husband. That is an amazing code, guys. 60% off. That is SimpliSafe.com slash husband. And when you order, again, just please let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Write it in at the checkout survey. It just lets them know we sent you and it helps support the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime and in real time. You're listening to an Ono Media. 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, OK. 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 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 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. Good to go. Tastes amazing. I made it just like an iced caramel latte. Basically, it's a great we're going to update you kind of what's going on with the pregnancy. Everything's OK and not OK. At the same time, Payton, there's I'm not 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 Payton and her We're going to keep it a little private, but there's just some stuff going on with Payton and her and the baby. And so far, the baby's fine. Baby's OK. 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 Payton 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 OK. 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. Payton's just kind of tired, kind of emotional. It's a lot going on, but baby's healthy. Payton's hanging in there. She's doing a great job. So support for Payton. 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, Radio Iowa. CBS2Iowa.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. I'm not a 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 can be. 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 Lawn. 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 Winnicky. 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 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 job. He was the best in life. 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 Winks. 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. Winks 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 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're, you know, 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 him. He 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 8:00 AM. 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 fiancé, 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 fiancé 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 viciously beaten. He was beaten in what detectives would call a, quote, blitz-type very rapid assault. Okay. 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 manner in which Corey was, 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? 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. And she told them, no, the last time I saw Corey was this morning, he was alive. She 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 kill him. 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 fan would be. But this specific reporter sees a baseball bat that's just laying along the roadway. Now, luckily, crime scene techs 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. 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. And then all of a sudden, things just slowly and slowly just turns into a snowball. And I don't know. It's kind of wild. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. 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And I really trust I am eight. And I think you should to go to I am eight health.com/husband right now, or just click on the link. In the description and use code husband for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus 10% off your order. That's code husband at I am eight health.com/husband code husband at I am eight health.com/husband. These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. This product is not intended to diagnose street here or prevent any disease. 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 9:00 AM, he was driving slowly down the road to check on his crops. Cause again, he's a farmer. He circles back again at 1:30 PM. 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 9:00 AM. And then after, you know, his workday, he comes back at 1:30 PM 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 1:30 PM, the murder weapon with blood on it, isn't like sitting on the side of the road. And it's not until 6:45 PM 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 cause it's the same type, but we can't like a hundred percent 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. 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, coworkers, customers. They find that Corey was supposedly not only had he been the football star in high school. Now the like lovely bartender at the most popular bar. He is also the local marijuana and cocaine dealer. - Okay. - Around town. he's not just doing alcohol yep 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 so it turns out cory 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 jody apparently she 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 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 um she knows some of these girls and there are at least two outside girlfriends or relationships that were still ongoing at the time of cory'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 gonna 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 was with a woman that cory 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 cory okay has a child with another woman is the i don't main girlfriend i'm not sure i'm not i mean they they hinted that like she knew about his yeah i doubt she knew that she had a baby but i'm they don't go into detail mainly because she's not a suspect so they're not and also like we don't want to talk about the yes baby i mean that's it 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 cory died he left the bar with her after closing around 2 a.m but when they're walking out and they get to cory's car they run into his third lover his third girlfriend so his fiance's 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 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? Okay. 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 so angry, she opened the door and tried to jump out of Corey's car. So 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 Winx so you can get your car. I'm going to 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 2am 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. 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. 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 8am. He had had a night. He had had a long night. And when investigators, hear about this, they're like, okay, there's gotta be something in here that gets us to the murder. 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 2am, 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 in. 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 16. 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 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. 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. How 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 it's just strange to me. So everyone in his life is like, no, listen, he loved Jodi. He would never leave her despite it. 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. So the whole thing feels off to detectives. They're ready to call Annette into the station, but she comes in herself. I think she probably heard that Wendy, girlfriend number two, was speaking with police. And so she was like, obviously that night's going to be talked about. 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. I think she probably heard that Wendy had said something about that night. They're ready to call Annette into the station, but she confirmed, yes, I did see Corey. 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. Okay. 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 1.45 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 Winks, 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. They 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 substance to like do something about it. Yeah. So anyways, they do all of these 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 motives. Sometimes we see victims that it's like no one would ever want to hurt this person. That's not necessarily the case here. Guys, we're getting into an ad and waiting sucks. I hate waiting for things, but earn in is an app, not a bank that gives you access to money that you have already earned. Okay. If you don't understand, let me explain it up to $150 a day and up to $1,000 between paychecks. 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Terms and restrictions apply. Visit earning.com for full details. Guys, I'm not sure if I have talked about this, but I have been put on an extremely restrictive diet. It while being pregnant and you know, it has helped me so much hungry route. I know, I know you knew that was coming. It is so nice to be able to still shop, but get on and put in my preferences, put exactly what I'm looking for. Pick out recipes that fit my dietary restrictions. I love hungry route. We've actually been using them since like, I think 2022 was when I first started using them. That was before they were even a sponsor. I think it was like, I think it was like a year ago. I think it was like a year ago. 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 strolled into the hospital working on a different case and she was 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's sometimes a tear right it's weird that's what i'm saying i think for our brains to comprehend it can be kind of strange 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 seven years of her life and she's like oh my gosh i can't believe it's 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, 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 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 one 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 Corey was the love of my life, but they don't get much time with Annette that day because she goes back to work. They stopped by her house again, weeks later, and she's a lot more defensive. She's like, listen, Corey'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, Corey said to Annette, I'm nothing to you, but you're not nothing to me. I love you. So according to her, Corey confessed his love for her that night and then dropped off the other girlfriend and went home with her. And she said, 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 going to 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 going on. She's back. She's explaining it. She's talking with emotion. It's not like, she's like, he loved me, 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, yeah, I do. I don't dare that person. It was a long time ago. I mean, and so please just let her keep going. They're like, whatever. And then she asked 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 it explicitly, but it seems in that moment that she decided to cut bait. So when a text is 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 Corey. 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 way up to the point. And then it's basically like, am I going to do it or am I not? Am I going to fish or am I going to cut bait? And then she's like, 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 being sued. 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. The story is based off of someone that was nine years old. Right. It's not going to happen. So this trial, not really going into 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 right. And the prosecution's like, yes, you can. 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 him guilty. Some people did think she was guilty, but not all of them. And that appeared to be that. And that 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, Corey'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 a net 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 with it. Turns out Scott had been avoiding the police during the original investigation because he was into drugs back in the day, just like a net. But now at 54 years old, things are different. So he goes down to sit down with investigators. After Corey'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 use that? And he's like, well, I worked at a slaughterhouse. I know what bloody clothes look like. 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 Payne, who's going to get on the stand and say, 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. 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 a life sentence. I'm actually, I think I'm a little surprised. I mean, I mean, I get it. Is there doubt? Is there reasonable doubt? I don't know. I get it. 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 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 cory 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 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 found that wasn't the case there was both male and female dna on the bat but it didn't belong to either annette or cory oh so then annette's team are like do you even have the right murder weapon because his dna is not on this bat that you're claiming was she still got found guilty this is after she's trying she's trying to get a retrial she's appealing one source says the state refused to compare it to any other potential suspects so we may never know all we know is annette is in prison she was set to have a post-conviction relief trial in january of 2026 and i mean we do see this anyone who gets convicted is going to poke holes in any way they can and most likely we'll find some here and there but it's just i hate cases like this because if it's like there there really is dna on a murder weapon that the state refused really truly refused to test and then her lawyers tested it again this is now her lawyers not the state but her lawyers pay for testing and none of the dna on the bat is going to be tested so we're going to have to wait and see if that belongs to her or the victim it's just hard because i don't want people to go to jail if they're actually not guilty i don't want that like that's not okay i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't well this is why we push for new trials because we're like there's a lot of people who are like listen if you think she did it just give her her fair trial look we just need truth serum but it's like maybe these are just her poking holes i mean there is circumstantial evidence you have two witnesses who tie her to it yeah all i will say though is all of this basically comes back down to rejection i mean when she was talking to police before being arrested she says when he left that night after telling me he loved me but then he left i knew it was never going to change and he was never going to pick me is that enough motive to kill someone and my answer is yes we've seen it time and time again all right you guys that was our case this week and we will see you next time with another one i love it i hate it goodbye thank you simply safe for sponsoring the show right now save 60 off with professional monitoring when you visit simply safe.com husband that is simply safe.com husband and when you order please write in murder with my husband in the checkout survey it lets them know we sent you and really helps to support the show simply safe ahead of crime in real time