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[Music] [Music] it's a small town it's Rural America in every way this is the family next door very
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connected very loving very bonded they spent a lot of time together with the happy American
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[Music] couple Eric ran a successful contracting business he was involved in his boys
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sports [Music] activities he was very good to the boys and he taught those boys so
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much Cory was a real estate agent that also would buy and fix up and flip homes she was smart she was Savvy she
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knew how to connect she was absolutely in love with Eric and absolutely in love with her
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boys Eric and Corey were probably at the best place they've ever been in their marriage and seemed genuinely happy with
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each other they had it all I mean it was one happy family at 3:00 in the morning I got a
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phone call and it was Corey and she said get up here Something's Happened to Eric he went to sleep and never woke up
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she's a complete wreck she's sitting on the couch she's just balling were they giving you a sense of
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how he may have passed um so the paramedics said aneurism so we were all believing
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aneurism I had saw him the day before he looked horrible he said my chest hurts so the last time you're seeing him
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alive you don't think he looked very good right the lead detective and a another officer came to her house and
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said they were going to close the case they're done it's an accidental overdose they communicated that
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erad died of a fentanyl overdose in the weeks and months after Eric's passing how would you describe
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Corey her State of Mind emotionally how was she handling things it probably took
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her 2 months to go back in her own bedroom it was devastating to her she rites a children's
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book she did this to help her work through the feelings with her children the book I think was
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100% beneficial to the boys then you can take a s leave it's over we're done we can start living
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again and then I got a phone call Cory was just arrested in Salt Lake a Summit County woman who wrote a
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children's book about coping with grief following her husband's death now accused of being the one that actually
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killed him I think she felt that this would be treated as an accidental overdose and
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nobody was going to be the wiser he told his family if I die you need to take a look at her
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because I think she's trying to kill me they're going to have to prove that she got the drugs and that she somehow gave
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them to him and unless they can connect those dots they're going to have a hard time proving murder in this case
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[Music] [Music] in the early morning hours of March 4th 20122 Lisa Darden was attempting to
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console her daughter 31-year-old Cory richens she was brought out on the floor just
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sobbing Corey had just learned from emergency Personnel that her husband Eric was dead she was tore up her
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brothers Ronnie and DJ were also there she was a complete wreck I just started crying according to Lisa that night Cory
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had poured Eric a drink to celebrate a new opportunity at her real estate business the purchase of this Mansion
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she told me she made him a moscon mule that's a drink made with vodka and ginger beer she said they went to bed
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about 9 9:15 she went and laid with Ash ashon the 9-year-old has always had major
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nightmares and when she went back to get in her bed he was cold she went to push on him and he
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didn't respond it was after 3 a.m. and Lisa says Cory immediately called 911 and at
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the dispatcher's instructions performed CPR when First Responders arrived they started working on Eric but it was too
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too late it's just unbelievable you're in shock that something like that you know could happen it was those First
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Responders who initially suspected Eric had died of an aneurysm the father of three young sons was just 39 how are the
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boys did the boys know what was happening they knew something was happening and they could see the
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ambulances and cops coming in very distraught they all just sat there on the couch and just cried
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together the sad scene was a far cry from the happy family they once were Cory and Eric met in 2019 at a
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local Home Depot back then Corey was a cashier Eric worked in construction and was a frequent customer I heard that he
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wanted her number for a long time and was kind of afraid to go get it so he had to have a friend run in and go get
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it from her Eric asked her out and they hit it off when Cory said I'm dating this guy what did you think uh Cory was
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Terri Teri to me Mee me oh really why because I'm the big brother and tough yeah
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yeah but DJ and Ronnie say Eric fit right in I thought he's a great [Music] guy in 2013 Corey and Eric got married
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and had the boys first Carter then Ashton and finally Weston Lisa says fatherhood came easily to Eric he taught
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those boys so much they idolized our father and he idolized the boys as [Music] well Cory's family got to know the
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richens including Eric's two sisters Katie and Amy they'd come up uh for birthdays here and there and we all very
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friendly eventually Eric started a stonemasonry business and Corey started her own real estate company buying
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houses fixing them up and selling them for profit Greg Hall was her marketing director and good friend Cory had
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something that a lot of people don't a lot of times you find an individual that is intelligent but no common sense her
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common sense and no intelligence she had both she was a brilliant young lady how
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many houses would she have on average that she was working on or trying to flip at one time yeah I would say on
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average three so was kind of a constant rotation of buying a home fixing it up selling it yes and Eric's business
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continued to flourish they both live very well and they both bought and spent what they wanted in their spare time
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Eric loved to hunt and together they traveled the world it sounds like on the surface Eric and Corey seemed to have it
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all would you say that was so say that yes I don't know that I can even begin to overstate how close this family was
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this was a huge loss Greg scoris is the spokesman for Eric's family he was this beautiful son
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and and brother and to have that taken away from you I I can't imagine much worse than
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that not long after Eric's funeral an autopsy revealed the cause of his death it wasn't an aneurysm it was a lethal
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dose of fentanyl fentanyl is many many times more potent than oxies and the other pain medications that we typically
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use it's a very dangerous drug but how did fenel get into Eric's system Cory's family believes his
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recreational drug use could be to blame nearly every day they say Eric would take a gummy with THC the psychoactive
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ingredient in marijuana it was always just just to relax at the end of the day and
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according to Ronnie Eric did not always get the gummies from reputable sources just about every trip that I had been on
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with him he'd buy just from someone off the street Lisa says Eric also sometimes
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took pain pills hey do you have any pain pills hey can you call and get hook me up he certainly wasn't an opioid or an
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illegal drug user Corey's family thinks Eric had taken something he didn't know was laced with fentanyl and that his
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death was a tragic accident Eric's family strongly disputes this claim he didn't die of a
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self-inflicted drug overdose Eric's family wondered if Cory may have been involved they said
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this doesn't smell right no question the family thought that right from the beginning in the months following her
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husband's tragic death Cory richen struggled to find her footing on her own and to navigate Life as a single
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mom Cory was still completely distraught even now she's never had time to grieve
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she's doing her best to move on she didn't know of a way of doing that Cory's brother Ronnie says it was also
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hard for the couple's three young Sons the boys it's so hard for him they losted out a little bit cuz they
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couldn't quite understand what was going on and they needed some help and Cory needed some help eventually Cory found a
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way to turn her grief into action in March 2023 one year after Eric's death Cory came up with the idea to write that
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children's book about coping with loss are you with me she promoted it on a local TV show Good Things Utah I just
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wanted some story to read to my kids at night and so you know I was like let's just right one the self-published book
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follows the story of a child who lost his father but is remind it his presence still exists all
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around in the book Eric is portrayed as an angel who is always close by yes I am
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with you on Christmas Corey writes you can't see my smile but it's there I'm here and we're
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together like Dad is still here it's just in a different way Corey's mother Lisa says writing the
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book was therapeutic I think the book was a great it helped them it helped them all her
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family says it finally seemed as though Cory and the boys would be able to move forward it seemed to make the boys
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really happy while the family was working to get back on track police had been investigating Eric's death and just
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weeks after Cory's appearance on TV to promote her book new 10 this has been a talker all day today a Summit County
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woman who wrote a children's book about coping with grief following her husband's death now accused of being the
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one that actually killed him on May 8th 2023 Corey The Grieving wife this is the
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home where police found Eric richens dead was now the prime suspect in her husband's
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death you must have been in a panic I was shocked she can't be arrested Utah mother has been charged with
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murder Cory was charged with aggravated murder and taken into custody court documents allege she
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committed homicide by the administration of a poison Greg scoris the spokesman for Eric's family suspects Corey put a
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lethal dose of fentanyl in the drink she made Eric that night the Moscow Mule the
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dosage that he was given that night was of such a high level that no person could have survived it Sky Lazaro is her
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attorney did police ever test the glass that she gave Eric this cocktail in They
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seized a number of items from the home H and there was no fentanyl that was found
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on any glasswar Cory's family says they struggle to make sense of the charges Corey denies any involvement in her
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husband's death for anybody who knows Corey just knows she could not have done this she'd never do
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this Lisa says her daughter and son-in-law had a great relationship nobody's perfect but they're pretty
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close and like many couples that have disagreements they were able to overcome their
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differences he didn't want Cory to work he wanted her to be a stay-at-home mom and she's very independent and that
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wasn't going to happen another issue says Cory's brother Ronnie was the amount of time Eric spent away on
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hunting trips sometimes four or five months a year it just kind of irked her because that this his biggest passion
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his life is hunting and she might want to home a little bit more and so you know they might get in a fight about
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that and then according to Cory's mother Lisa there was alleged infidelity on Eric's part she says she heard about it
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first from Corey and then from Eric it was a text about trust how I trusted him as a son-in-law as a father as a husband
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and how could he do this Cory's family says the couple went to counseling determined to work through their issues
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scoris who denied Eric ever cheated on Corey says Eric had a different reason for wanting to make his marriage
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work he was going to do whatever he could to make it work because he he lived for those boys he would have done
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anything for those boys let's let's go to counseling let's try to keep the family together scorus says at one point
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Eric had considered divorce But ultimately decided against it he says to protect the boys in case the
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relationship didn't work out Eric put his estate into a secret trust without telling Cory and named his sister Katie
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in charge but in the months leading up to Eric's death Ronnie says the couple seemed better than ever how are they
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doing as a couple as a family yeah fantastic they were um probably one of the best spots I've ever seen them in in
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quite some time everyone's having fun laughing joking you know it's it seemed really great to me so why would Cory
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want Eric dead court documents allege a life insurance payout might have been a motive scorda says Eric's family agrees
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this is a cold harded greed at the time of Eric's death there were at least six life insurance policies on him totaling
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nearly $3 million court documents alleged that in January 2022 two months before Eric died
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Corey forged Eric's signature to get yet another policy worth an additional $100,000 Cory is also accused in court
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documents of stealing from Eric's personal accounts and misappropriating monies distributed from Eric Rich's
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business dating back years according to scoris Cory didn't just want the money she desperately
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needed it court documents allege her house flipping business was drowning in nearly $2 million of
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debt yeah she was in way over her head she needed some money in a hurry it was a significant amount of
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money scoris says a premarital agreement stipulated Corey had given up claim to Eric's business assets except that if
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husband should die prior to wife while the two are lawfully married he was worth much more to her
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dad than divorced she felt that there was easy money and fast money to be made by not having her husband around anymore
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Cory's attorney Sky Lazaro strongly disputes any allegations her client forged Eric's signature mishandled
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finances or stole from Eric as for the claim Corey was in debt and needed the money she says that's simply not true
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she was in the business of flipping houses this is what they did Lazaro says taking on debt from lines of credit was
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part of how the business of flipping houses worked and the money would be paid back when a home sold
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it's not as if she had all these conventional loans that she owed people money on it sure it looks like a large
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number but we're talking about business transactions with people who she did business with Eric and Corey sat down
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every month and did the bills together at all times Eric knew what was going in and what was coming out Lisa says Eric
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not only knew about the finances but he was also very supportive of Cory's new business opportunities like the purchase
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of the Mansion they were celebrating the night he died Eric saying let's have a shot come on let's celebrate Cory it was
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that night sortis says Eric's family believes Cory gave him the Moscow Mule laced with
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fentanyl and he says Eric's family believes it wasn't the first time Corey had tried to poison her
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husband the time he died wasn't the first time we believe that she tried to kill
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[Music] him what do you think happened to Eric richens chat now with the 48 Hours team
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on Facebook and [Music] X just outside Salt Lake City in the shadow of Utah's wasach
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mountains home to fame ski resorts including Park city is the property that Corey richens
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was planning on flipping the deal she and Eric were celebrating the night he died says her attorney Sky Lazaro it's a
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decently good siiz home Lazaro showed us the nearly 10 acre estate where are we give us a sense of why this is
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significant real estate so this is the Heber Valley uh right over the hill is Park City all the major ski areas uh and
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then to the right is Deer Creek Reservoir so this really sits between major recreational areas it looks
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ginormous it's massive the 20,000 ft mansion and its 4,000 ft Guest House were originally
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built in 2017 but never finished the project was abandoned for two years until Corey discovered it I think this
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was kind of her dream when she got into this idea of flipping houses was to be able to do properties like this Lazaro
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says Corey used financing from a group of investers to make an offer on the house for $3.9 million the plan was to
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develop this turn it into a recreational Hot Spot given this is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world
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and hopefully sell it at a profit how much did she think she could make off of this house her and Eric sat down with an
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accountant one time and he said if you can get it done and stay under budget you could walk away with $12 million wow
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that's a that's a big turn yeah from 3.9 to 12 million yes there was a lot of excitement I remember how excited she
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was Greg Hall worked with Corey he says it was a solid investment it would have been a real easy flip they would have
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had to to sit on that for long as far as you know Eric was on board with this plan
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100% but that's not what Eric's family remembers says their spokesman Greg scoris I don't think he was ever in
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favor of that he was on board with supporting his wife that doesn't mean he agreed with it in fact the house is
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mentioned in this legal filing containing notes from an investigator who interviewed Eric's family after his
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death they said Eric and his wife were arguing about about buying the property and that wasn't all Eric's family told
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investigators according to that same filing they made numerous allegations against Corey including that they
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suspected his wife had something to do with his death they advised he warned them that if anything happened to him
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she was to blame they also told investigators they believed Cory had tried to poison Eric before on two
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separate occasions according to the filing Eric's family said the first attempted
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poisoning was in 2019 when Eric and Corey and six friends were on vacation in Greece they said Eric became
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violently ill after Corey gave him a drink Ronnie says he heard it was all a misunderstanding Eric was on medication
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and that medication you're not allowed to drink on he asked the waitress uh to bring a a virgin drink a drink without
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alcohol she didn't do it it made him very very sick Cory called his doctor figured out what to do and later that
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night he was back and and fine everyone that was there will tell you the exact same
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thing according to that same filing the second time Eric's family said Cory tried to poison Eric was the month
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before Eric died on Valentine's Day 2022 they said his wife brought him a sandwich which after one bite Eric broke
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into hives and couldn't breathe Cory's family denied why she ever tried to poison him they ordered a sandwich and
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the sandwich was bad he went and took a nap and then went and coached one of his
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child's games aside from an assertion by the family uh there doesn't seem to be anything else out there that supports
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that Eric's family also called into question Corey's behavior following her husband's
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death according to court documents Eric's family told investigators two days after Eric died Corey punched
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Eric's sister Amy in the neck and face when Amy tried to stop her from opening a safe they said contained between
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125,000 and $165,000 cash there was an argument that broke out and Eric's sister said that
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she owns the house everything is put into a trust and she owns the house remember Eric had created that
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trust and kept it secret from Corey when they were going through those marital problems until Eric's death Cory knew
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nothing about the trust according to court documents if Eric had any sort of documents he'd have them in the safe so
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she went in to go see what was in there Amy came after Cory and you know Cory defended herself the two of them started
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pushing and I was standing in the middle of them all they did was push both of them were trying to swing over the top
00:25:21
of me so the narrative that's been pushed that it was poor Amy got assaulted was nonsense the brothers say
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Amy stormed off and called the police a month later Cory was charged with assault and later pleaded no
00:25:35
contest her husband's just passed away she's highly emotional everybody's highly emotional things got a little
00:25:43
heated between them two families two very different stories about what they believe happened
00:25:55
to Eric but with accusations flying back back and forth what did the evidence show the state has to prove that she did
00:26:05
this that she got the drugs and that she somehow gave them to him she had apparently contacted a drug dealer a
00:26:14
known drug dealer in that area and purchased fenel and had done it on more than one occasion
00:26:37
all right have a seat please in June 2023 Cory richens appeared in court before judge Richard morazzi for a bond
00:26:48
hearing the issue before the court is whether defended corer richens should continue to be held without bail during
00:26:56
the pre-trial period it was the first time since richens had been charged in her husband's death that the public got
00:27:03
to see her and for the entire 4our hearing she sat in handcuffs next to her attorney Sky Lazaro I cannot imagine how
00:27:13
difficult it was for Corey to sit there and listen to everything that was talked
00:27:16
about at that hearing to convince the judge why richens should not be released prosecutors Patricia casselle we have
00:27:24
three Witnesses Brad Bloodworth detective what was the Sheriff's Office and Joseph Hill presented evidence and
00:27:30
called witnesses to make their case richens had poisoned her husband it had all the elements of a mini trial in
00:27:39
order for the judge to make a determination to detain someone at a bail hearing the state has to prove
00:27:45
substantial evidence prosecutor Joseph Hill Called To The Stand cell phone expert Chris cotos if you'd step in
00:27:52
front of Britney we'll get you sworn in he asked him about Google searches he says richens made on her phone phone
00:27:59
were you able to observe uh internet searches on that phone yes those searches which were detailed
00:28:07
in court documents included can deleted text messages be retrieved from an iPhone can FBI find deleted messages
00:28:17
what is a lethal dose of fenel I don't know that these searches mean as much when you look at the timing
00:28:26
of when they're done Lazaro says there's an innocent explanation those searches were conducted after Eric's death I
00:28:35
think it's more to answer questions relating to what she was being accused of the state also called to this stand
00:28:43
the lead investigator on the case detective Jeff O'Driscoll I was assigned to be the lead
00:28:49
lead detective in this case in April of this year prosecutor Bloodworth questioned detective O'Driscoll about
00:28:55
where richens may have gotten fenol he specifically asked about an interview the detective conducted with Carmen
00:29:02
laber who said she worked for richens she's referred to as cl cl is an associate of the defendant uh she
00:29:10
cleaned houses for the defendant's business as well as her personal home at times detective O'Driscoll said CL had a
00:29:18
criminal history with drugs at the time of their interview she was on probation for multiple drug distribution charges
00:29:27
according to court records she has not been charged in connection with Eric's death in our interviews C told us that
00:29:34
in early 20122 the defendant reached out to her either by phone call or text message
00:29:41
requesting that she procure fentanyl for what the defendant reported was a investor who had a back injury detective
00:29:50
O'Driscoll testified that CL told him she purchased 15 to 30 fenyl pills and then sold them to richen
00:29:58
seal told us that after purchasing the pills she returned home she said that either later that night or the next day
00:30:06
the defendant met her and did a hand-to-hand exchange of pills for cash that transaction says detective
00:30:13
O'Driscoll took place on February 11th 2022 3 days before Valentine's Day when according to court documents Eric's
00:30:22
family said richens had tried and failed to poison Eric with that sand swi but there was more we to now shift to a
00:30:32
second drug buy detective O'Driscoll said CL told him richens contacted her again approximately a week later the
00:30:42
defendant reached out to her again by text or or call and said that she wanted some more fentanyl that was stronger
00:30:50
than the previous batch this time detective O'Driscoll said c told him Rich's paid by check and the defendant
00:30:58
came to the door and wrote her a check from her business from the defendant's business for
00:31:03
$1,300 for the purchase of the fal just a week later Eric was dead we dispute all of those allegations in her
00:31:13
cross-examination Lazaro asked detective O'Driscoll if there could have been another reason for that $1,300 check it
00:31:20
could very well be that Cory was paying her for cleaning houses correct I don't want to speculate but it could be
00:31:29
despite what C said correct okay Lazaro says because Carmen lobber is a convicted felon she's not credible she
00:31:38
was on probation at the time I think anytime you have an informant type situation it can call into question the
00:31:47
veracity of their statements or the motive for what they're saying in her cross-examination of detective odris
00:31:53
lozaro attempted to show how CL might have felt pressured to tell invest ators what they wanted to hear you begin the
00:32:01
interview by explaining to CR essentially how dire of a situation she's incorrect I don't have the interview
00:32:10
memorized but I know we talked about that yes okay well you told her that she was on probation to drug court for four
00:32:17
first-degree felonies correct correct you essentially tell her that she has the potential of doing a considerable
00:32:25
amount of state and federal prison time potentially yes this is a common tactic in law enforcement to be able to
00:32:33
leverage charges for information Lazaro also asked the detective what evidence there was to back up cl's claims that
00:32:40
she had sold fenel to richens because CL is working for the defendant there's communication correct correct but
00:32:47
detective O'Driscoll said he saw no text messages where richens allegedly ask CL
00:32:53
for drugs we didn't find any it was anyone with her that could corroborate that she saw cland Corey
00:33:04
drugs not that I know of 48 Hours attempted to contact CL for comment we received no
00:33:12
response they have to prove that she obtained drugs and gave them to her husband and unless they can connect
00:33:22
those dots they're going to have a hard time proving murder in this case what do you make of Cory's Google
00:33:30
searches for a timeline of the case visit us at 48 [Music] hours.com as Cory Rich's bond hearing
00:33:49
came to a close her attorney Sky Lazaro was hopeful her client would be granted bail this is a case in which there
00:33:57
doesn't appear to be any Smoking Gun these cases are generally more favorable to the defense good morning the
00:34:04
prosecution closed its case to deny Rich's bail with a victim impact statement from Eric's sister Amy I'm
00:34:12
here today to represent my brother Eric Eugene richens Eric is gone and I am brokenhearted none of our Lives will
00:34:20
ever be the same Eric died under horrendous circumstances I am tormented at the thought of what he endured
00:34:28
please do not allow Corey to hurt Eric's memory our family friends and Community
00:34:33
anymore we have been through [Music] enough judge Richard morazzi spent very little time making his decision richens
00:34:43
would remain in custody the circumstances of this case weigh soundly against granting pre-trial release of
00:34:51
any kind Rich's family was disappointed they say her time in jail while waiting for her trial has taken its toll I hear
00:35:00
her on the phone I hear her sobbing in September 2023 Rich and's family says she had a medical emergency
00:35:10
in custody while taking prescription medications and needed to be rushed to the hospital what did she say happened
00:35:17
to her that they gave her the wrong medicine and it caused a seizure richens made a full recovery but while she was
00:35:24
away jail officials say they found this hand Written Letter in her cell that was
00:35:29
never sent the document later filed in the court record has become known for the word scrolled at the top of the page
00:35:37
walk the dog prosecutors say it's from richens to her mother I take care of her 16-year-old dog MH and her thing is be
00:35:46
sure you walk her she's so worried about this dog in November 2023 prosecutors filed this motion asking the court for a
00:35:55
no contact order to deny rich and access to her mother and brother in the motion
00:36:01
they say the letter is evidence of witness tampering they say richens gives her mother instructions on what her
00:36:09
brother Ronnie should say in court the letter instructs Lisa Darden to induce the defendant's brother Ronald Darden to
00:36:17
testify falsely the motion states to me this letter is an attempt to get a witness to testify to something that
00:36:27
isn't True by spoon feeding the witness the testimony that he's supposed to give
00:36:33
in the letter richens writes that her defense will need to establish that Eric bought drugs while traveling abroad we
00:36:40
need some kind of connection here's what I'm thinking but you have to talk to Ronnie he would probably have to testify
00:36:47
to this in the letter it appears that she's laying out a little bit of her defense for example your name is brought
00:36:55
up Eric told Ronnie he gets pain pills and fantinel for Mexico almost like she's laying out a case MH saying tell
00:37:04
Ronnie richens goes on to write Ronnie should have texts from Eric talking about getting high as well reward this
00:37:12
however he needs to to make the point just include it all the connection has to be made with Mexico and drugs is she
00:37:20
giving you instruction in this letter I don't know I don't know one way or another um
00:37:28
most of that unfortunately I can't speak about the things that are in the letter
00:37:32
are true things and everybody who's in her Circle already knew this but Corey has a different
00:37:41
explanation she says the letter is fiction in separate phone calls from jail that were recorded and later
00:37:47
entered into the court record she told her mother and Ronnie that the letter was part of a book she's been writing
00:37:54
and that it's private the judge denied the motion for no contact saying the state had failed to prove witness
00:38:02
tampering it isn't witness tampering cuz it didn't go anywhere and it was never communicated to
00:38:10
anyone as the families wait for the trial they say their focus is on Eric and Corey's Three
00:38:17
Sons the family is concerned about the boys that's the main focus the boys that's who's important here right now
00:38:26
both families say they hope to gain custody the boys are currently living with a member of Eric's family Lisa says
00:38:34
they're only allowed to speak to their mother twice a week on a video call just heart-wrenching as to what they're going
00:38:42
through Lisa Ronnie and DJ have been denied private visits with the kids B Lisa says she does what she can to
00:38:49
support them and attends all their Sports practices and the reason I can do that it's a public place I can't be
00:38:56
stopped from going there I still get to see him I still get a hug and kiss and that keeps me
00:39:03
going besides the criminal case which could carry a sentence of 25 years to life there are multiple ongoing civil
00:39:12
cases regarding the fate of Eric's estate both sides believe the other is after the money both families are
00:39:19
concerned about the boys you could say that you could say that I wouldn't we believe that the defendant's family is
00:39:26
concerned about the money that they can get whoever ends up with the boys ends ups with the money that's all they want
00:39:33
it's not right until that's resolved both families are waiting for the trial to start and are hoping for a verdict
00:39:42
that delivers their version of Justice what is the family doing to stay strong now you know the family has the family
00:39:50
they have each other they feel like the state has put together a good case and they're going to stay United and and
00:39:56
support each other no matter what happens in this case she's innocent she's been thrown in jail over something
00:40:01
that she hasn't committed are you both confident that Corey will be found not guilty Lisa I am 100% 100% she'll be
00:40:15
[Music] out they were given life sentences for their notorious crime what did these
00:40:25
parents do to deserve that now they're hoping new evidence could reopen the case My Hope in the case is that they'll
00:40:31
finally walk out of prison have the Menendez brothers been punished enough 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming
00:40:37
on Paramount [Music] [Applause] [Music] plus hello everyone I'm an marie green and welcome back to postmortem this week
00:40:54
we're talking about Corey richens and you may H she wrote a book on Grief to help her children cope with their dad's
00:41:02
death after an apparent accidental fenel overdose she wrote the book about a year
00:41:08
after he passed away but then a month after that the case took a turn Corey was the one charged with his alleged
00:41:16
murder so joining me now to take us behind the scenes of this case are 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales and
00:41:22
producer Betsy Schuler hi Emory hey we're happy to be here so this case got a lot of attention in part because of a
00:41:30
children's book that Corey wrote about grieving the death of her husband Eric who died in March of 2022 yeah I mean it
00:41:37
was that was the the headline that captivated I think the the nation's attention you know just weeks before
00:41:42
she's arrested she's goes on good things Utah local TV show and you know that she's on to talk about this book and how
00:41:52
to you know help her children learn how to cope with grief um interesting now now though some viewers at the time
00:41:59
thought she seemed a little cold a little bit emotionless while talking about her husband's death and what the
00:42:04
family was going through uh it could be though also that she might have been just a little bit nervous being on
00:42:10
television it's hard to say you know what she was feeling in that moment um but you know it's interesting to look
00:42:17
back on that interview now than knowing that she would be charged with his murder yeah cuz I think the headline was
00:42:24
she's on TV you know out there as the grieving wife and then turns around and gets arrested right it's one of those
00:42:31
cases of perhaps Everything Is Not What It Seems right and that's a theme that comes up a lot in some of these 48 hours
00:42:38
so one of the things that really stood out to me has to do with the families they both have access to the same series
00:42:45
of facts essentially but they interpret them completely differently they have different stories to explain what
00:42:53
happened Eric is the victim his family believes that that he was poisoned deliberately poisoned that his wife
00:43:01
Corey put a lethal amount of fentanyl in a drink she told police they had a drink
00:43:09
the night he died and according to to Corey's family you know we talked to to Lisa dard and her mother as well as her
00:43:17
two brothers Corey said she poured Erica a Moscow Mule earlier that evening to celebrate what was then considered a big
00:43:25
real estate deal that she had done she purchased a mansion in Utah so after she has this celebratory drink with Eric she
00:43:36
then said that you know the couple went to bed her 9-year-old son uh suffers from nightmares so she went to comfort
00:43:42
her 9-year-old son when she went back to bed she said she found Eric cold and unresponsive according to Corey's mom
00:43:51
she called 911 immediately and so their version of events is this was an accident and that
00:43:59
Eric perhaps took something that he didn't know was laced with fentanyl um Corey's family they have all said that
00:44:08
Eric liked to take a gummy before going to bed um a THC laced gummy yeah they say that he could have accidentally
00:44:17
taken a gummy um that he didn't know had fentanyl in it um and obviously that's very very different than what Eric's
00:44:25
family thinks so in a way it's no surprise that both families come to different conclusions based on what they
00:44:31
know about the relationship and you know what happened the night before but how did investigators close the case because
00:44:39
they come to the conclusion that Eric's death uh because of a lethal Joseph finel was a deliberate act they arrest
00:44:47
Corey they charge her with her husband's alleged murder what was it that brought them to
00:44:53
that conclusion well a lot of that has to do with Eric's family pushing investigators to get Corey looked into
00:45:02
they claimed that Eric had had warned them and told them you know if something happens to me Corey is to blame and as
00:45:08
we report in the hour you know Eric's family actually believes that she tried to poison him on two other occasions
00:45:15
there is no proof of that but the family's claims are included in a court filing against Corey yeah and this
00:45:22
investigation took months you know she didn't get arrested um um till about a year later so you know the police took
00:45:30
some of this information that the family told them and did what seems to be a thorough investigation but it wasn't a
00:45:36
knee-jerk reaction to what the family said it doesn't seem you know it's interesting we talked to um Corey's
00:45:42
attorney as well and for every point that Eric's family makes sky Lazaro her attorney has a Counterpoint for example
00:45:53
you know even though the family said you know there had been two other occasions
00:45:57
of alleged poisoning nobody called police Sky points out nobody filed reports on previous instances of of any
00:46:06
poisoning so there's really no direct evidence there it's only really circumstantial evidence pointing to Cory
00:46:13
at this point yeah and as Sky told us there doesn't seem to be a Smoking Gun so to speak right so according to a
00:46:20
court filing Corey was under a significant amount of debt she had this real estate business where she was
00:46:25
flipping homes uh Eric's family says all of the debt was Corey's actual motive for killing her husband so here's Greg
00:46:33
scordis the spokesman for Eric's family she was in way over her head she needed some money in a hurry it was a
00:46:40
significant amount of money scorus says a premarital agreement stipulated Corey had given up claim to
00:46:48
Eric's business assets except that if husband should die prior to wife while the two are lawfully married
00:46:58
he was worth much more to her dad than divorced she felt that there was easy money and fast money to be made by not
00:47:05
having her husband around anymore I thought that was so interesting that they made that
00:47:10
agreement before they got married cuz I thought when you're in the business of real estate it is kind of like you go
00:47:15
into debt in order to get out of debt it's half of is is about debt management yeah I mean that's exactly what um
00:47:23
Corey's family and her attorney told us you know if one house is $2 million she'd
00:47:30
essentially automatically carry $2 million of debt so they don't make much of this point um because they say it was
00:47:38
just normal business for her MH also her attorney points out that she had other investors it's not like she's taking on
00:47:45
this debt alone you know you take on debt and you pay it back when the house sells and hopefully for profit yeah
00:47:53
exactly you try to get it done and uh then you collect the money and then you you start all over again with another
00:47:58
sort of sounds soy it is yeah I know that's why there's like all these shows on TV where everyone's doing it but I
00:48:04
digress um but so at the time of Eric's death there were six life insurance policies on him according to that Court
00:48:11
filing six life insurance policies that sounds like a lot I mean how did the defense explain that yeah it does it
00:48:19
does seem like a lot um the one point that Cory's attorney Sky Lazaro had was most of these were policies that had
00:48:27
been in place for Years also one of the policies was for Eric's um stonemasonry business so you know that's how she
00:48:36
counters that you know one is his business the others are as you acrew wealth in life you know your
00:48:43
circumstances change you have to reup your policy or you take out supplemental policies but Eric's family says no these
00:48:52
are all red flags all of these policies amount to Cory trying to profit once he died right and you know though most of
00:49:02
these insurance policies had been taken out sort of years before you know we've seen the court documents that there was
00:49:08
one that was not right the documents say that Corey took out yet another life insurance policy worth an additional 100
00:49:14
Grand it was taken out just two months before Eric died and there's a question about the signature the prosecutors um
00:49:22
in court documents they say that Corey forged Eric sign in order to get this policy right and the defense will say
00:49:30
you know that Corey did not Forge his signature when it goes to trial I think that's where the handwriting experts and
00:49:36
all the forensic experts might come in you know the other thing that um her attorney Sky Lazaro told us was that for
00:49:43
most of these policies Eric had to sit for a medical exam so you know he would know these were were taken out and so
00:49:52
that sort of goes to did she or did she not Forge his signature H so one of the things that really
00:49:59
surprised me about how this story unfolded is just how immediately Eric's family starts zeroing
00:50:07
in on Corey why was Eric's family so quick to believe that she would be guilty of something like this well first
00:50:15
of all we would have loved to have asked Eric's family that question um according
00:50:20
to their spokesman um Greg scoris you know the marriage wasn't going well um according to Cory's family there were
00:50:30
some bumps in the road but they had worked things out and were doing really well before Eric's death so again you
00:50:36
know two very conflicting stories but yet you've got this trust that was formed for the kids that Eric never told
00:50:44
Corey about and we only find out about that and she only found out about it once he died right so maybe we'll hear
00:50:52
more about their marriage during a trial but what is particular L unique about this hour is that this case has not gone
00:51:01
to trial so we're going to take a bit of a break but after the break we're going
00:51:04
to talk about that we're going to talk about the difficulty when it comes to covering a pre-trial
00:51:09
[Music] case welcome back everyone all right let's get into this how difficult is it
00:51:23
covering a pre-trial case compared to covering a case that's already gone to trial it's really difficult we we did
00:51:31
have some things working for us on this case there were a lot of documents filed
00:51:36
into the court record that were available to us so we were able to report on what those filings said you
00:51:44
know we also were able to at least speak with somebody on both sides but it's it's it's hard but the other thing that
00:51:53
worked in our favor is there were pre-trial hearings for example her bail hearing where it seemed almost like it
00:52:01
played out as a mini trial and you had evidence presented on both sides of the case so that was very helpful in
00:52:09
constructing this hour I was surprised at how open Corey's mom was because obviously one of the concerns when you
00:52:16
haven't gone to trial yet is that you're going to say something that's going to taint the trial I think she wanted to
00:52:25
tell her story and I I think the brothers wanted to tell their story because at least from what they said it
00:52:32
felt like they hadn't had a chance to do that so I think they were really open to
00:52:37
the opportunity was there an attempt to talk to Eric's family yeah we did reach out um to Eric's family uh through their
00:52:44
spokesperson Greg scoris and um we really you know were hoping to talk to his family but it seems that they're not
00:52:52
quite ready to talk to us yet so a big problem for the prosecution though going to trial will be proving
00:53:00
murder when all the evidence against Cory richens really seems circumstantial can the prosecution actually prove that
00:53:07
there was fenel in that Moscow Mule yeah I mean that would be the Smoking Gun right there yeah um we don't know for
00:53:13
sure if they tested the actual glass so Corey had told police she gave Eric a Moscow Mule that night but they didn't
00:53:23
take any items out of the home that night they searched the home officially about 2 weeks later they did take some
00:53:30
items and they didn't find fentanyl on any of those some of those were drinking glasses and other things but there's no
00:53:38
way to know for sure if that actual glass had been tested really the only you know way to connect Corey to fenel
00:53:49
really comes down to a woman named Carmen lobber who Corey had employed to be a house cleaner for her real estate
00:53:58
business you know she was somebody who had a history a criminal history with drug charges she's a convicted felon and
00:54:06
she becomes is and is going to be a a key witness in in what will be the trial the prosecution has to prove that Corey
00:54:15
got drugs so Carmen lber according to the prosecution is that link right and so they call her CL in the hour but
00:54:24
there's like a huge problem with her and it has to do with her credibility right
00:54:29
right uh you know Sky Lazaro uh Cory's defense attorney believes that c was coerced by police that she changed her
00:54:37
story every time uh that she was questioned and interviewed by investigators um you know it'll come
00:54:45
down to was there a text exchange between CL Carmen lber and Corey um there's no proof of an exchange right
00:54:55
now but I think that'll come down down to cell phone forensics again that will all come to play in a trial um so did
00:55:02
you try to get in contact with C at all we did we we tried to reach out to her um a couple of times and we didn't get
00:55:12
any response um so there's another damning piece of evidence against Corey and it's
00:55:17
the Google searches right she made them on her cell phone including you know searches about the lethal dose of fenel
00:55:24
a search about whether the FBI can recover deleted text messages but attorney Lazaro says that Corey made
00:55:32
those searches after Eric was already dead and S she sort of argues that makes them irrelevant but how do they know
00:55:41
that for sure well she says that these were searches that Corey was doing based on what she was being accused of um and
00:55:50
they know that it was after Eric died because the first police search where they tested some of the stuff from the
00:55:58
house was weeks after Eric died at that point they took Corey's phone so Corey had to get a second phone police did a
00:56:06
second search of the house when Corey was arrested a year later and these Google searches were found on that phone
00:56:13
H okay but there was certainly some very interesting searches and I think that's
00:56:18
going to be a big part of the trial for example you know one of the things that Corey um searched for according to court
00:56:28
filings and according to the testimony we heard in that bail hearing is how long does life insurance companies take
00:56:34
to pay um if someone is poisoned what does it go down on the death certificate um you know and of course
00:56:42
what is a lethal dose of feny that will be a red flag to to many yeah I mean these Google searches you know on the
00:56:49
surface don't sound good right um so Corey's been in jail since her arrest last May jail officials found a letter
00:56:57
in her cell in which prosecutors say that she's instructing her brother on how to testify asking him to make a
00:57:05
connection between Eric buying pain pills from Mexico Corey says that the letter was part of a fictional book that
00:57:13
she was writing but her mother told you something different what did her mom have have to say yeah it's it's
00:57:21
interesting in that letter um there is you know conflicting explanations really from from what Corey's family is telling
00:57:28
us her brother Ronnie said he didn't want to talk about the he couldn't talk about the specifics because it's you
00:57:34
know it's a court document now but Lisa and DJ her other brother said that you know everything in the letter is true
00:57:42
however according to recorded phone calls um in in jail Corey talks to her mom and Ronnie and says you know the
00:57:50
letter is actually part of a book that she's writing so you know it's interesting to hear all these different
00:57:56
points this is another headline grabbing piece of this story and the question is
00:58:01
whether or not it's witness tampering because is she instructing her brother Ronnie on on what he should say and
00:58:10
where possible drugs were purchased in Mexico and trying to link that to to Eric I'm glad you explain that Natalie
00:58:19
because when I heard about the letter I thought to myself well what's wrong with
00:58:23
that we should mention too that the court ultimately decided there wasn't enough evidence to prove witness
00:58:29
tampering why did Greg scoris find the letter so problematic so here's what Greg scoris says is the problem with the
00:58:36
letter not necessarily that you know Cory's saying hey remember to say this this and this the way she word certain
00:58:45
parts and we detail some of that in the hour really seems like she's saying you have to say this so that's a distinction
00:58:55
that he points out um so Natalie you actually visited this like enormous house that Corey was
00:59:02
attempting to purchase um before Eric's death it's like what it's 20,000 square feet or something like that yeah I mean
00:59:09
it is huge and the property it's right there at the base of Park City so it would be viewed as you know probably a
00:59:19
pretty valuable piece of property and house um the guest house in itself was I want to say a near 4,000 square ft which
00:59:28
is you know larger than most people's homes which is crazy to think about what makes this house important is it is sort
00:59:34
of at the center of the of the argument here because Corey according to her family and her attorney this was her
00:59:43
dream right this was like the big project that was you know going to take her business to the next level they say
00:59:51
Eric was excited about it but according to court documents Eric's family says they were arguing about this and that
00:59:58
Eric wasn't on board with this let's hear a clip from Sky Lazaro and Lisa Darden about the house the plan was to
01:00:06
develop this turn it into a recreational Hot Spot given this is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world
01:00:12
and hopefully sell it at a profit how much did she think she could make off of this house her and Eric sat down with an
01:00:18
accountant one time and he said if you can get it done and stay under budget you could walk away with $12 million wow
01:00:26
wow it's a that's a big turn yeah you know Sky Lazaro her defense attorney describes it is is really sort of this
01:00:34
wasted opportunity that in in some ways is sort of a metaphor of what ends up becoming this relationship there was so
01:00:44
much going for it and then this tragedy struck and then now you have what it is this dilapitated mess of a house um
01:00:54
eventually it did sell but uh for for much less than what even Corey paid for it wow this this really
01:01:03
is a tragic story do we have any idea when it may be going to trial so what we're hearing from Cory's attorney is
01:01:10
that there's still preliminary hearing and that she expects the trial to be sometime next year MH right at the end
01:01:17
of the hour we get a little bit of an update on the three boys do we have any idea how they're doing we know they're
01:01:23
with a member of Eric's family at the moment and that both sides say they they want custody of the kids and
01:01:33
Cory's family you know they say that they haven't had much interaction with the boys that they have you know not
01:01:40
been able to really see them except Corey's mother says she has gone to their sporting events because it's
01:01:46
public property so she she can be there to support the young boys but again it's
01:01:51
these children sadly are caught in the middle of these two feuding amilies and you know you just hope for a positive
01:02:00
outcome for for the young boys which I think both sides it's one one area where both families can come together on is
01:02:07
the well-being of those three children yeah um well Natalie and Betsy this is obviously a to be continued 48 Hours um
01:02:16
because I'm sure you're going to follow up as the case unfolds as it goes to trial but it was really great talking
01:02:22
about one of these kind of rip from the headline cas pces and to learn just how much has unfolded before we even get to
01:02:29
the the trial stage so thank you so much guys thank you thanks for having us as per usual join us next Tuesday for
01:02:38
another postmortem and watch 48 Hours of course it's Saturdays 10 9 Central on CBS and streaming on Paramount plus and
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