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our whole life being turned totally upside down began on June 29th 2014 on a beautiful summer Sunday
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morning Laura heavin was in her home in Tennessee with her husband bill they were getting ready to go to church when
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they received an awful call my son-in-law called probably around 11:00 11:30 on Sunday morning morning and told
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us that Aaron was missing and I'm like what do you mean Aaron's missing Bill and law hadn't seen their
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daughter Aaron in a few months Aaron recently moved out of the Hein family home to start a new life in California
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with her high school sweetheart and now husband John Corwin they moved to a small city called
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29 Palms a blip in the middle of the Mojave what brought the Corwin there was the
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Marine base John was a marine Corporal Corwin officially and Aaron was a Marine's wife
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they lived on the base in a small apartment their first home together Bill and lur hadn't seen the
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new place yet when John called lur had been planning a trip out west to visit Aaron later that week Aaron was 19 years
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old almost 20 I was going to go out for for her 20th birthday but then no one knew where
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Aaron was on the phone Aaron's husband John Corwin told lore that the last place he
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knew Aaron had gone was Joshua Tree National Park and he told me that she had gone
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out to Joshua Tree National Park the day before to look for um places for her and
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I to go to take pictures and stuff when I came to visit in a few days my first immediate thought was
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Aaron got lost Aaron is very directionally challenged Bill Aaron's father worried
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that Aaron wouldn't find her way out I mean Joshua tree is just a desert there's nothing there there's no water
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it's not like you're going to find anything there's no shelter of any type so you're just exposed to the
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elements in addition to her lack of hiking experience Aaron was not particularly prepared for the
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Outdoors she was a very petite 19-year-old um 5'2 maybe 115 lbs she um was very shy extremely
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naive Bill and lore knew their daughter this didn't sound like her she wouldn't go on an overnight hike
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spontaneously she probably wouldn't go on an overnight hike at all Aaron was a homebody she stayed inside her comfort
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zone the heavin thought through what might have happened and quickly discounted some
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possibilities no I never thought that Aaron had run away I didn't think that was even a remotely a possibility I mean
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she just was not a risk taker worried lur pressed Aaron's husband John for more details the last time John said he saw
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Aaron was early the morning before 4 he said she kissed him goodbye around 7:00 a.m. and he watched her drive off in
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their car he went back to sleep a while later he got up and spent the day playing video games by Nightfall Aaron
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still hadn't come home she was supposed to be back in time for dinner but John went to
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bed the next morning according to John it had been 24 hours since Aaron had driven out of sight
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John alerted the authorities then he called Lore he sounded concerned there wasn't a
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lot of emotion in his voice but that's typical John it's hard to read him to know what his thoughts
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are I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours NCIS where we take you inside a case NCIS agents say
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they will will never forget episode 1 where is Aaron while his 19-year-old wife was
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missing John spent most of the day at home he started wondering where is Aaron and tried to get in touch with her but
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could not by phone he knows there is not good service in the desert so he didn't
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worri too much but then by Nightfall he was worried Paul Arosa is a producer for
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CBS News in 48 hours he reported on Aaron Corwin's disappearance LaRosa had a lot of experience telling true crime
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stories he knew that generally when someone goes missing the first person investigators turn to when they need
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answers is the spouse in this case that was John Corwin but he didn't do anything he
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didn't call police he didn't really tell anybody on his base so to theor authorities it was initially suspicious
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that John waited to report Aaron missing the sheriff's deputies and Sheriff's Office had a lot of questions
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for him they were like Tell Us Where She Went you know how what did she have with
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her why did you wait 24 hours to report her missing his version of the story is that
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I thought from watching television shows that you have to wait 24 hours before you can report an adult missing but that
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makes you uh seem suspicious in the eyes of of the investigators also he had no alibi per se I he was in his apartment
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playing video games and he's an unemotional guy I mean he's not the kind of guy say my wife is missing you know
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he's like unemotional and very flat affect once John finally did alert the authorities the local sheriff's
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department in San Bernardino immediately opened up an investigation but they needed help for
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this specific case the sheriff's department can't just go there and start talking to people they have to go
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through protocol right they have to alert the military and when they do the NCIS gets involved NCIS the naval
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criminal investigative service most of us may recognize this name from television
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NCIS never heard of it that's embarrassing the television show NCIS follows a cast of characters including
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NCIS special agents field agents forensic Specialists and more through 21 seasons of scripted Prime Time
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television drama but the NCIS is a real life Federal agency NCIS is sort of like an in-house
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FBI for the Navy there are only about a thousand special agents based all over the world
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in Japan Singapore barin Italy and yes at the Marine base in 29 Palms California
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they are stationed at the base and they get involved holding the sheriff's department hand to let them know how the
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military operates NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr was alerted by the sheriff's department that a Marine's
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wife was missing the initial story we received was Aaron had gone to Joshua Tree National Park to look for a nice
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hiking routes for her and mother who was coming out later on that week that was the last time that corpal Corin had seen
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her driving in their blue Corolla away from the uh installation the Marine base what
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special agent Randolph called the installation was the largest Marine Corps Base in the world in addition to
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housing at NCIS office there were about 900 families who lived on Bay by 2013 that included the Corwin
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however the base was not exactly busy 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa remembered the
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first time he ever drove by the base if you're driving through 29 palms and you make a left somewhere and you just drive
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for about 30 minutes or less you'll come to the Marine base which is huge but there's a big gate there's a big gate at
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the base because there's a lot of security and we we were not allowed out there if you were a resident of the base
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like Aaron Corwin was every time you came home you passed through a large gated entrance with a security
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checkpoint from there a sort of Main Street led to a small downtown area of buildings including offices a mess hall
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a library a small hospital and even a bowling alley housing for the military families branched off this main area
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into secluded Suburban plots and culde saacs from where ncis's office is located on the installation is not far
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from where Aaron Corwin lived with Corporal Corwin uh practically a mile maybe two the rest of the base's immense
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acreage almost 71,000 acres in total was taken up by vast military training areas
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including airfields and shooting ranges you know they fire artillery shells there all the time and they have you
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know people out in the desert and doing all sorts of things in the early 2000s the majority of units in the Marine
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Corps deploying to a rock trained here not too far from the bases residential area there was a Sandy stretch protected
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by mountains named mini Baghdad but when Aaron moved to the base her entire world shrunk to those few
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miles right inside the Gated entrance in such Close Quarters special agent Randolph said he got to know his
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neighbors well there could could have been a chance that you run into her at the grocery store or you pass her at the
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gym I might have come across her and not even know it but there's that person that needs your help and you need to do
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everything you can to [Music] help in his office special agent Randolf got to work his first step was to take
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what the sheriff's department knew and ask him self what don't we know there was an immediate concern for what could
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have happened to Aaron that she did not return uh as soon as he thought she was going
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to special agent Randolph had questions what if Aaron didn't go where she said she was headed what if she just got on
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the highway and drove but what if she actually was at Joshua Tree National Park the park is larger than the state
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of Rhode Island how could they ever comb through nearly a million acres of land special agent Randolph thought
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through all the possibilities with one main focus where where is Aaron you want to find where Aaron is from the moment
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someone is reported missing and the last person to see that person being Corp cor
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Aaron's husband you're racing the clock because you don't know the circumstances
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that are involved in this person's disappearance there was one big problem working against the NCIS agents and
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Aaron time you got to get on it quick because that person might need you sooner than later and time is not on
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your side so special agent Randolph dispatched a team of NCIS experts I provided analytical support to Cliff
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Randolf in the Aaron cor investigation analyst Ashley deelin was sent to the 20 9 Palms Marine base from
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another NCIS office on the Camp Pendleton Marine base only a few hours away when she arrived in 29 Palms she
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met her colleagues got up to speed on the investigation and Dove right into work I do a database checks regularly
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review social media open source information so whatever's in the news and outlets and looking for information
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she scrubbed through Aaron's social media it was 2014 and face Facebook was all the rage what was the last thing
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Aaron posted on her profile when was she last active online basically going onto
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the internet and searching for all potential information that could be of interest in your
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investigation like special agent Randolph analyst delfen understood what was at risk if she missed any detail
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that could prove vital I absolutely felt the pressure and the stress surrounding
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Aaron's disappearance because is as Cliff mentioned we had limited time and we wanted to find her as soon as
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possible so I got to work right away in order to find Aaron the agents needed to learn who Aaron was they
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needed to understand her her personality her temperament what she liked and disliked and they needed to understand
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her relationships her marriage and her family so they picked up from California and headed to Aaron's Hometown oakd
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Tennessee where Aaron's life began Aaron was born on July 15th 1994 when she was 2 weeks old her
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birthmother placed her in foster care but very soon Aaron found her home Aaron came to the house when she was 17 days
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old she was an incredible sweet baby we were blessed to be chosen to be her [Music]
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parents by the time Aaron turned three the havin family officially adopted her she joined a house full of siblings we
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fostered several children we adopted five of them and Aaron was the fourth adopted child Bill and lore also had two
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biological children they all lived together in a nice house in a small city of Oakridge about 25 Mi west of
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Knoxville Tennessee it's a hidden city tucked along the black Oakridge mountains and
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for much of its history it was kept a secret one of its nicknames is the city behind a
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fence Oakridge Tennessee if you don't know anything about it was an atomic city um oakd
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Tennessee did not exist before World War II and the military built oakd Tennessee
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for people to developed the atomic bomb Paul Roa visited Aaron's Hometown and he
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noticed a through line from Aaron's childhood in Oakridge to her future on the Marine base in
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California you couldn't just leave oakd Tennessee and go for a drive out into the country everything there was a gate
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everything was controlled it was sort of a sheltered closed town and Aaron herself was very sheltered she was
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homeschooled so much of her life took place in the family home on Sundays the family went to the local church it was
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the family and it was the church and it was the the horse ranch and that's it now the horse ranch the East
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Tennessee Riding Club was Aaron's favorite place in the world as a child according to lore it was like her second
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home Aaron spent all her time at the Stables you know in Tennessee I mean you know her mother mother famously said she
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would sleep there if she could aon's mother lore said she was a quiet and shy girl and sometimes she seemed to be more
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comfortable around animals than people Aaron loved the animals horses cats dogs rabbits guinea pigs but they
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all loved her too she was like a calming force and they knew they could trust her
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and they knew that she was the one to respect and listen to good boy Shake Aaron could even train cats this
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was her leading her cat through tricks and lay down one more time good boy Aaron was an animal Whisperer she
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could get them to do things that the average person would not be able to so when Aaron discovered the East Tennessee
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Riding Club and began to experience working with horses she excelled when she first started I assured her we would
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never get a horse and we ended up with two um we spent many many many many hours here another local family the
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Corwin were also frequent visitors Aaron and John um met at the barn they met when Aaron was in fifth
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grade she was 10 John was just a year older John's younger sister had a horse there also and Aaron went to their house
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a couple different times in a small city with a sheltered life Aaron found the Corwin Family House
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exciting she would go and play but she was always especially shy around John John seemed shy around Aaron too John
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kin was a very quiet young man they grew up together slowly and patiently at first and then once she
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Ed I think she was 15 and they kind of reconnected and you know did a lot of texting and messaging on Facebook and
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that kind of stuff and they started dating on her 16th birthday and John actually asked me if it was okay if he
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took her out on a date John was a serious and stoic teenager his aspirations were always
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clear to him when they first started dating he already knew he was going to be a
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marine at John began the process to join the Marine Corps he took tests for aptitude
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and strength and he planned to go to basic training in boot camp the summer after he graduated high
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school and meanwhile despite their young age Aaron and John became serious fast they started talking about marriage
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Aaron full of excitement told her mom we knew how young and naive she was and we
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had hoped that they would wait a couple years so that she could get a little bit
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of more maturity under her belt the couple went to John's senior prompt together Aaron was barely 18 when
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he proposed this may sound a bit early for marriage but it isn't that uncommon for
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a military couple Young Marines who choose to enlist right after high school will move to whatever location the
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military assigns them and for many young marines the ahead includes marriage married couples
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get preference when it comes to securing housing on Bas the reason why they wanted to get married was to get on the
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base housing list um and you had to be married and they knew John was getting ready to be
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deployed so John like many marines before him wanted to start this journey with his high school
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sweetheart but lur wasn't sure Aaron understood the reality of marrying a Marine
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we had quite a few conversations on what life as a military wife would be um I tried my hardest to prepare her mentally
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emotionally for what was in her future at 18 years old JN chose the Marines and Aaron chose John she went to
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Las Vegas for the Marine ball and they got married well they were in Vegas on a beautiful fall afternoon in 2013
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Aaron was stuck inside unpacking boxes the treelined view from her childhood bedroom in Tennessee was replaced with
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the Sandy expanses and cacti of 29 Palms California by all accounts she was still
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a newlywed she and John had not yet celebrated a year marriage despite a condo full of boxes Aaron was alone and
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she moved out there got their apartment all set up before John got home from his
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deployment John's deployment at okanawa Japan continued on for another few months and Aaron's New Life as a
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19-year-old Marine's wife began if she ever felt isolated in Oakridge life on the Marine Base
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challenged her even more Aaron went from living in a house full of siblings to An
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Empty Apartment all she could do was wait for John to come home I think Aaron was enjoying some
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aspects of being a marine wife and other aspects I think it was harder than what
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she anticipated Aaron tried to develop a routine she went to the commissary a few
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times a week to pick up groceries other wise she spent her time watching TV and scrolling Facebook she texted her
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friends back in Tennessee often after a few months JN came home but not much changed for
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Aaron JN was not deployed again after she moved out there but being in artillery he went out in the field every
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month for at least 5 days sometimes more and so she would be home alone during those times that he was out in
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the field she was lonely but one day according to her mother lore things started to improve
00:23:06
when Aaron made her first friend on base Aaron was busy unloading her saddle out
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of her car when she bumped into her nextd door neighbor Nicole and Aaron clicked because of the horses Nicole Lee
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lived right next door to Aaron and John she was a fellow Marine's wife and when Nicole saw Aaron carrying a saddle she
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invited Aaron to come by the ranch where she kept her horse the White Rock horse
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rescue it was just a 40-minute drive from the Marine base and with Nicole's invitation Aaron was immediately
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reminded of her favorite place on Earth the Riding Club in Tennessee she probably felt a Pang of homesickness and
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excitement Aaron first came here with Nicole to look at horses introduced me and said I want to find a horse I need a
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horse I rode when I was back home she had a horse and she had to leave it and so now she was homesick and so she
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decided that uh getting a horse riding it would give her some pleasure some happiness Isabelle megley is the founder
00:24:14
and CEO of this Desert Rescue Ranch but she was never tucked away in an office somewhere Isabelle preferred to be
00:24:22
outside with the horses and the people who volunteered to take care of them rehabilitate rescued horses that have
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been abused and then I also take in horses that aren't abused and find them homes and then I always invite any
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individual who would like to come and volunteer at the ranch to help me cuz we have no paid
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employees 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa met Isabelle while he was covering Aaron's story he reached out to her for
00:24:53
an interview but she never got back to him he figured they'd visit the horse ranch any way so we go there and the
00:25:01
horses are everywhere right off the public road and the ranch itself is absolutely not fancy I mean it's very
00:25:10
rugged it's you know in a desert community it's out in the open and you know you just see horses running back
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and forth there's a few structures that look like they're down in their luck while Arosa was videotaping the sites on
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the ranch he noticed a small group of people approaching him it's sort of a rag tag bunch of young children and the
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young young people and this older woman um and I said are you Isabelle megley I said we're from CBS News blah blah blah
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I sent you an email I called you and she said oh yeah I meant to call you back I
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just never got around to it and I said well we're here now and we want to talk to you so once we were face to face she
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was happy to talk to us Isabelle is a very weathered uh person I mean she's been outside a lot
00:26:02
during her life you can tell Isabelle was exactly the sort of person Aaron knew well a fellow animal Whisperer with
00:26:09
a menagerie of pets following her around the land and when Nicole introduced the
00:26:14
two of them Aaron knew exactly how Isabelle could help her and so when she found her horse Aaron was with uh Cassie
00:26:24
it was like her partner it was decided Aon would volunteer on the ranch she would pay to adopt a horse and take care
00:26:32
of it and then she'd be able to ride many military families from the 29 Palms base enjoyed the ranch for Nicole
00:26:41
it was a family affair she'd spend the day at the ranch with her Marine husband Christopher Lee now that included Aaron
00:26:50
so it was like a threesome so when they would come they would all take their horses and play with them and then they
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would leave together and they would have a good time the the three of them it was very rarely the
00:27:04
four so where was John Aaron was not supported by John for this activity cuz he was not
00:27:13
interested in it he uh would come here with his motorcycles or his things for play in the dirt and that's what he
00:27:21
would do why she would ride and she'd say please come over and watch me ride my horse he said I'm not interested so
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they they were never cozy together I kept waiting but he was he was very difficult to interact with Isabelle felt
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she came to know their relationship well Aaron was always fighting with John over
00:27:43
what John told her to do and so she would come here and say at least I'm free and she was a different person the
00:27:51
only one he couldn't control was her relationship with the horse Aaron would Pile in with the Lee family for the ride
00:27:58
to and from the horse ranch thanks to them she could see her horse whenever she wanted her relationship with the local
00:28:07
community grew while her marriage strained I'm a very good judge of animals and people go right along hand
00:28:15
inand with that Isabelle welcomed the Marine families onto her Ranch and she observed later she became a valuable
00:28:25
source for the NCIS agents work working to find Aaron [Music] Corwin on Monday June 30th 2014 Aaron
00:28:41
had been missing for 48 hours news spread across the Marine base quickly it was big news for such a small
00:28:52
area analyst Ashley delfen had her eye on Aaron's social media she made note of the people who seemed to be close to
00:29:01
Aaron who had recently tagged her in a post who had commented she searched through Aaron's Facebook friends and
00:29:08
looked through their friends to figure out how people knew each other there was a lot of useful information publicly
00:29:16
available analyst to chelin just had to determine which leads were worth following what was real and what was
00:29:25
speculation in such a small Comm Community this proved difficult early on everybody was talking about it everybody
00:29:33
was commenting on it on social media people were looking for her there was Buzz on base and at certain points it
00:29:41
even became like a bad game of telephone before long the news about Aaron reached Isabelle's horse rescue
00:29:50
the phone rings and Aaron corin's girlfriend called me says have you seen Aaron and I said no but she went missing
00:29:58
I said missing she said yeah and then the detectives started coming with that was an awareness of all
00:30:09
the things I had been watching that happened was a key part of the investigation with any missing person
00:30:21
you want to return that person to their family and their loved ones because they
00:30:25
care about that person and from working a case like this develop a care for the livelihood of that person you don't want
00:30:30
to see anything bad happen but in the back of your mind it's a Race Against Time and you know that you're running
00:30:37
out of it for a concerned mother the waiting game was Misery we really had no clue
00:30:45
what happened it was almost like we were walking in a different world kind of numb after the 48 hour mark with no sign
00:30:55
of Aaron it was all Hands-On deck for the NCIS agents as the days go by it's it's
00:31:05
becoming more and more likely that you're not going to find her alive NCIS paired up with San
00:31:12
Bernardino's search and rescue team they had three main objectives to determine a
00:31:17
safe plan of action to locate Aaron Corwin and to bring her to safety first they had to assess the
00:31:25
situation based on the story John told they needed to look for Clues special agent Randolph and his team
00:31:34
knocked on doors on base asking if anyone had any information about Aaron any other story to corroborate or
00:31:43
contradict her husbands was John Corwin telling the truth this season on 48 Hours NCIS the
00:31:52
search for a missing Marine's wife uncovers secrets that nobody expected on June 30th
00:32:05
2014 2 days after Aaron Corwin went missing workers with the local water department in the desert town of 29
00:32:13
Palms showed up to a job by the Marine base a crew member noticed a car which was strange they were in the middle of
00:32:22
the Mojave Desert the car appeared to be abandoned so they called it into the police it was a blue Toyota
00:32:31
Corolla the car Aaron Corwin was driving the day she went missing Aon corin's car was located
00:32:40
approximately 2 miles from the back gate of the military base and that's still significantly far from Joshua Tree
00:32:50
National Park's entrance but why is a car located close to base NCIS special agent Clifton
00:32:59
Randolph Jr and his team tried to make sense of this did Aaron walk all the way to Joshua Tree to scope out Trails for
00:33:07
her mom's upcoming visit they investigated the area prowled over the Sands and they noticed a second pair of
00:33:15
tire tracks another vehicle seemed to indicate she didn't go wherever she went alone NCIS and San Bernardino auth
00:33:27
authorities followed Aaron's shoe prints walking out of her car and into someone
00:33:33
else's and then they followed the tracks of the second vehicle with those tracks
00:33:39
ending at the black asphalt road out there it appeared that the second car drove off into the desert the terrain
00:33:48
out there it's it's like Mars I think they did some type of training for the moon mission somewhere in that area NC
00:33:58
analyst Ashley deelin remembers when they initially found the car where the vehicle was found was was a clue because
00:34:07
it was it was not found in an area you would think it was a much needed clue but still it's just a question of where
00:34:16
is Aaron in the days after Aaron Corwin was reported missing NCIS and the local police department exhausted all leads
00:34:28
once they found her car with clear evidence she was with someone else the search for the 19-year-old Marine's wife
00:34:35
gathered speed and urgency it was summertime which gets very hot it can be very forting that
00:34:44
there's no literally no water available in that area during the day and at night
00:34:50
there's nothing to light your way and many dangerous uh animals that are in that habitat the harshness of the desert
00:34:58
was troubling to say the least and time was not on ncis's side between myself cliff and our program support the three
00:35:07
of us were back and forth like working long days in and out and as new leads were developed and information came in
00:35:14
then we just kind of put our our heads to the next the next hurdle or challenge that we needed to overcome but some
00:35:20
challenges were insurmountable there was still no trace of Aaron after 48 hours and if she was
00:35:29
lost in the desert away from her car it was hard for lore aon's mom not to think
00:35:36
the worst when I found out they found her car without her that's when I knew something had
00:35:43
happened and I really kind of had that mother gut instinct that maybe she was no longer
00:35:52
alive now it was not just a question of where is Aaron it was also a question of
00:35:59
who had been with Aaron in the desert I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours
00:36:10
NCIS episode 2 the honeymoon is over this new information finding Aaron's car and the second pair of tire
00:36:24
tracks in the sand changed everything the authorities needed to go back over what they knew about aon's life in 29
00:36:34
Palms before she went missing they needed to look at 29 Palms as Aaron had and retrace her steps in order to
00:36:43
identify where she frequented and who she knew 29 Palms where Aaron was last seen
00:36:51
is a remote desert city over 100 miles outside of LA and it could not be more different 29 Palms is sleepy and sparse
00:37:03
Route 62 Cuts right through its Center there's a casino a few hotels a single Starbucks for a city there's a lot of
00:37:13
blank empty space across its 58 square miles that's about the same size as Disney
00:37:21
World but it used to be bustling a long time ago in the 1800s the area was teaming with gold miners Legend has it
00:37:30
after a long day's work they would make their way to the town's main water source a spring surrounded by 29 Palm
00:37:39
Trees so when the miners would describe where they had been they opted for 29 palms and it's
00:37:46
stuck you could drive through it in you know I don't know 15 minutes and maybe less here's 48 Hours producer Paul L Roa
00:37:55
who reported on Aaron's case it's the desert you know and the desert draws its own unique brand of
00:38:02
people there are two sides to 29 Palms the side connected to the Marines which is the majority of the population and
00:38:10
then there's a fraction of folks who are locals with no connection to the base the two worlds are starkly different and
00:38:19
yet they are constantly colliding it's kind of funky in its own way I mean you'd probably be surprised and you'd
00:38:26
probably want to visit some of like the sort of offbeat shops there the locals are known to wear cowboy hats and Sport
00:38:34
turquoise jewelry after all 29 Palms was once a mining town There's shops that sell crystals there's a few places to
00:38:44
eat then there's the Marine base the Marine base entrance is located in 29 Palms but the base itself is its
00:38:55
own entity that exists just outside of the city limits nestled up against a mountain
00:39:02
range the base eclipses the city in size at over 1,000 square miles Marines come
00:39:09
from all over the country to serve here at the world's largest Marine Corps training base and they bring their
00:39:16
families toward the base entrance it feels more like a small suburban neighborhood than a military site with
00:39:24
young families living in culdesac the grounds are pristine surrounded by desert and Mountain Vistas
00:39:32
there is one main strip of buildings where much of bass life takes place Bas like this you're going to go to the same
00:39:40
movie theater you're going to go to the same Watering Hole a lot of the events that are put on on base everybody goes
00:39:48
to and you're going to run into each other special agent Randolph knows firsthand the small town feel of 2019
00:39:57
Palms he lived in town and commuted to his office on base every day there are new people always coming in there uh
00:40:05
people always leaving there are people always returning uh even NCIS we we don't stay there permanently
00:40:12
but you become a part of the community if they were going to find Aaron they had to start looking at this particular
00:40:20
Community most of the population are transplants far away from their hometowns because the majority of people
00:40:27
are connected to the Marine base which means families are only stationed here for brief periods of time before a
00:40:35
marine is relocated or deployed bottom line military families don't stay in 29 Palms for too
00:40:43
long this is also true for NCIS Personnel who get bounced around depending on where they're needed like
00:40:51
analyst did chelin who transferred from Camp Pendleton California to 29 Palms because help was needed when it came to
00:40:59
finding Aaron Corwin it was my first time at an NCIS field office because prior to that I had started at our
00:41:06
headquarters analyst Delfin picked up on the close-knit feel of the 29 Palms Marine base as soon as she arrived
00:41:14
there's not a whole lot there so you really rely on that base life because if you're a dependent spouse and your
00:41:21
husband's deployed then you're you're socializing with other dependent spouses and everybody's talking
00:41:29
Aaron started making friends with her neighbors like Nicole Lee who brought Aaron to the nearby horse ranch and she
00:41:36
was also a Marine's wife so I think for a 19-year-old in that situation you're you're trying to
00:41:43
find your Social Circle you're trying to find your Niche and I think it's easy to
00:41:48
get emotionally invested in things that may not be in your best interest that you realize in hindsight
00:41:57
as the NCIS agents progressed their investigation into Aaron's whereabouts they zeroed in on these Social
00:42:05
Circles on a Marine base where everyone knows everyone the agent's investigation
00:42:11
revealed that not everyone is who they say they are when Aaron felt lonely in the
00:42:24
close-knit crowd she'd call back home it was a big adjustment to live away from home and in such close proximity to
00:42:33
other young military couples she'd tell her mom lore what her new life was like there was maybe six apartments in this
00:42:42
little quad it was a little two-bedroom apartment I mean didn't anything bigger it wasn't fancy but you know it met your
00:42:51
needs on the base housing is free for Aaron and John this was a no-brainer plus the base would be a secure enclosed
00:43:00
neighborhood giving Aaron's family back home much better peace of mind you know he was just starting out in the Marines
00:43:07
he wasn't getting a huge stien for off based housing so they probably wouldn't be living in the nicest area of 29 palms
00:43:17
and we just felt they and we felt like she would be safer on base their housing was on one of the many culde saacs in
00:43:25
town all the buildings look like desert homes minimalist Style with clean lines and neutral colors most were equipped
00:43:33
with Spanish tile roofs the ones with Clay shingles to manage the internal temperatures during those hot summer
00:43:41
days in the complex there were two couples in particular who Aaron and her husband John connected with first
00:43:49
ashleen and Connor Maliki who lived downstairs and second the family who introduced Aaron to the White Rock horse
00:43:57
rescue Nicole and Chris Lee the Le their kitchen's actually touched she also made friends with the
00:44:06
people that live below them young husbands and young wives living in the desert with not much to do she had had a
00:44:14
couple other people but these three couples were tight they did a lot together cooked out a lot would stay up
00:44:22
all night playing board games whatever and then would make breakfast together and the guys would hang out
00:44:30
together everyone in that complex was sort of like a military melrose's place this is Beth Ford Roth a public radio
00:44:39
reporter who covered Aaron's case once news spread that she was missing and it had spread to many local news stations
00:44:48
it seemed like the media could not get enough of Aon story The Missing Marine's wife she lives in 29 Palms with her
00:44:56
Marine husband Jonathan and he reported her missing on June 2ia where her husband is stationed anyone with
00:45:02
information Marine Corporal husband reported her missing the day after she disappeared as soon as Beth heard about
00:45:08
the case she followed it closely because it was right up her alley I am the daughter of a retired lieutenant colonel
00:45:17
in the Army Reserve and was interested in telling the story that a lot of people don't know which is military
00:45:25
wives Ser just as much as their husbands do she made it her life's work to write
00:45:30
about its intricacies and pitfalls so I I wanted to cover not just the dry black
00:45:37
and white stuff that goes on a barbecue or a parade or that kind of thing but just sort of what's it like to raise
00:45:43
children on your own when your husband's in Afghanistan what's it like when he comes back what kind of support network
00:45:50
do they have I was inspired by my mother who became an army wife just knowing that how alone she felt and didn't
00:45:58
really find a support system that she needed so Aaron's case felt personal as Beth covered the story she
00:46:08
came to know the people living in aon's apartment block well the husbands all Marines supported their families
00:46:15
financially the wives were Homemakers the Le from the horse ranch were older than the other couples by a few years
00:46:24
Christopher was sort of like the leader of of the group the guys generally got along the three Marines would have
00:46:33
cookouts every week they would drink and just you know have a good time together and they could sort of bond
00:46:42
over the the different aspects of what it's like to be in the military and where they were deployed or if they'd
00:46:49
been to okanawa if they'd been to Afghanistan now the three women were kind of different
00:46:58
of the three couples Aaron and John were the only ones without kids but Ashley Malaki from downstairs was similar to
00:47:06
Aaron in temperament shy and quiet just trying to be a supportive Marine wife I remember Ashley Malaki saying that her
00:47:16
husband had an open door policy which meant anyone could come in and out and she sort of went along with that now
00:47:25
Nicole Chris's wife was not very popular on bass she was known for being abrasive
00:47:31
and maybe even a bit distracted neighbors sometimes raised an eyebrow at her parenting of her
00:47:37
six-year-old daughter according to Beth Nicole would let her daughter wander around alone in the complex popping into
00:47:44
other people's Apartments unannounced so these three couples may not have seen eye to eye on everything
00:47:52
but in order to avoid total isolation they stuck together [Music] in different circumstances these couples
00:48:01
could have been in college in a lot of ways they still behaved like college kids according to multiple accounts the
00:48:09
couples partied often drank heavily and made questionable decisions spending their small stiens on luxuries like new
00:48:17
clothes and cars Aaron's days transformed from the quiet routine of church in her hometown
00:48:24
horse barn to the Rowdy world of young Marines so instead of dorm life it was Bas
00:48:31
life unlike most 19-year-olds whose lives revolve around themselves Aaron's life revolved around the Marines it was
00:48:40
an easy place to feel lost in the women sort of followed the men's lead because it's important for Marines to get along
00:48:50
with each other it reflects well and it might help their chances of getting promoted in the
00:48:55
future Beth Ford Roth says that the women also had a role to play so it's kind of up to the wives to make sure
00:49:03
they present a good front even if maybe they're not going to be best friends with someone because it's in their
00:49:09
husband's best interest to move up the ranks and the [Music] Marines Aaron did her best to play her
00:49:17
role as a marine wife she made friends with the other spouses did all the requisite socializing and when she was
00:49:25
asked she would happily have about her neighbors Aaron would babysit when Chris and Nicole would go out on dates Aaron
00:49:33
just cared for anyone who was vulnerable or smaller than she was and she really bonded with that little girl and wanted
00:49:43
a child of her [Music] own it was only a matter of time before Aaron joined her neighbors in motherhood
00:49:52
another duty of a marine wife but this she was excited for her babysitting on the base struck a cord in her heart back
00:50:01
home in Tennessee lur noticed her daughter nurturing children often she was very tenderhearted very attentive to
00:50:09
people like the younger kids at the barn and at church absolutely loved Aaron because when they talked to her she made
00:50:18
them feel like the most important person there it was in those moments that the true Aaron would come out of her shell
00:50:25
she looked at them she got on their level if they were younger and she wasn't one of those people that looked
00:50:31
around to see who else she could talk to while they were talking to her they were
00:50:35
her focal point Aaron missed her own childhood home full of kids after 4 months of living in 29 Palms she
00:50:45
couldn't wait to get back home for Christmas in Tennessee and spend some time with her
00:50:50
family we um got to spend I think like 10 days with them or so soon after the visit was over lur got a call from Aaron
00:51:00
and right after they got back she found out she was pregnant from the very beginning of
00:51:06
their relationship John and Aaron both wanted to have children and start a family together Aaron was very excited
00:51:15
to be pregnant they I mean they wanted and they're both great with kids it was the beginning of 2014 John and Aaron
00:51:22
couldn't be happier gushing about the pregnancy Aaron took to Facebook guess what I'm pregnant with images of a stor
00:51:30
flying through the clouds her Facebook friends people from Tennesse and 29 Palms congratulated her so excited for
00:51:39
her new chapter she was in her first trimester around 8 weeks and by the end of January maybe
00:51:50
the first part of February she miscarried Aaron was wasn't sure how to deal with
00:51:59
something like that I mean she was a baby for anyone a miscarriage is a painful experience but for such a young
00:52:07
couple it was devastating territory they were not equipped to navigate and I don't think either one of them knew how
00:52:15
to handle that grief process to lose the baby and the hormones doing crazy things
00:52:22
to you the miscarriage took its toll on John and Aaron but it was not the first issue they had in their marriage when
00:52:31
John finally arrived to 29 Palms after his deployment Aaron said she sensed a shift in him he wasn't the sweet boy she
00:52:40
came to love in Tennessee anymore he started to harden and became distant the two started fighting more and more
00:52:49
here's reporter Beth Ford Roth again they went from having sort of a sweet romantic dating relationship where
00:52:57
they'd go out for french fries and a soda to a fullon marriage with the possibility of
00:53:06
being parents or not being parents what it's like to have to pay bills what it's
00:53:11
like to have to get along with people who aren't from Tennessee and so that the change would
00:53:20
be difficult I think for anyone but they were 18 19 years old Beth thinks that at
00:53:26
19 Aaron and John were still trying to figure out who they were John as I think any teenage husband would have
00:53:36
difficulty communicating his sorrow his grief or understanding how his wife felt
00:53:42
and there was a a split there from afar Aaron's mother lore noticed the couple was
00:53:49
struggling I think that's kind of when things kind of started spiraling just over 48 hours after Aaron's
00:54:02
Disappearance in the Rolling Sands at the Mojave Desert the authorities gathered around aon's blue Corolla NCIS
00:54:11
special agent Randol needed to keep track of all the evidence found by Aaron's car looking around that vehicle trying
00:54:20
to find any clue that would have led to where she went to next from that location where that vehicle most part
00:54:27
and if anybody else was there with her the car was found just a Stones throw away from the Marine base it was clear
00:54:36
she was not alone when she left for the desert Specialists were called in to look at the tire tracks the desert sand
00:54:44
held the tread well and the Specialists were able to create three-dimensional impressions of the tracks the design of
00:54:52
the tread and its Dimensions can help positively match the tire to a type of vehicle investigators determined that
00:55:00
the car that had pulled up next to Aaron was a Jeep now this was something the NCIS agents could work
00:55:08
with but first they had to question Aaron's husband John again the last known person to have seen her when was
00:55:17
the last time you saw her where did she say she was going to go does she have any friends and that's where Jessica
00:55:23
comes in Jessica known as Jesse was Aaron's closest friend back home in Tennessee
00:55:30
Aaron and Jesse texted daily often hourly Ever Since Aaron moved to 29 Palms Jessica Trenton reached out to
00:55:38
John Corwin the day after Aaron disappeared she disclosed information related to those messages that she had
00:55:45
with Aaron because she was concerned that Aaron didn't return analist chelen knew it was time for NCIS to use its
00:55:53
Network and reach to locate Jesse and learn everything she may know we contacted our agent out there close to
00:56:02
Jessica asked him to get all that information from Jessica my name is sha Nash I'm a
00:56:11
special agent with NCIS assigned to the Memphis Tennessee office and I was asked
00:56:16
to run some leads on the Aaron Corman investigation the NCIS Tennessee office was small only two agents ran it in
00:56:26
including special agent Shan Nash we cover all of Tennessee and all of Arkansas so if there's anybody that
00:56:33
needs to be interviewed anybody needs to be interrogated uh evidence needs to be
00:56:38
collected that kind of thing if an NCIS office across the world needs something done in those two states they they call
00:56:45
us and ask us to do it for them special agent Nash made his way to Jesse as soon
00:56:50
as he got the call luckily Jesse was ready to tell all she told him that he initially she was nervous to share
00:56:58
information but now her fear for Aaron's well-being overcame her loyalty Jessica
00:57:05
was very concerned about her friend Aaron and was upset uh so she was very cooperative and helped us in any way
00:57:13
that that we needed special agent Nash's main objective was to copy everything off
00:57:20
Jesse's phone especially her text messages with Aaron the text mess Mees explaining the
00:57:28
locations she might have gone would be important timelines would be important the 29 Palms NCIS office was very eager
00:57:35
to get these because this would explain who she was with uh prior to her disappearance the NCIS has a digital
00:57:44
system for things like this the software itself can extract a variety of data from devices including call logs texts
00:57:53
photos browsing history and more we tried to uh download her information uh from her cell phone the system should
00:58:04
duplicate all the info and data from Jesse's cell phone onto the NCIS database special agent Nash linked
00:58:12
Jesse's phone to it using a laptop and tried to begin the download unfortunately there was a problem an
00:58:21
error message popped up she had just gotten a new phone brand new phone her other one had broken and
00:58:29
so the system did not have the updates for her brand new phone even with some of the best available Tech it was no
00:58:36
match for an updated smartphone they'd have to do it the old-fashioned way special agent Nash looked through
00:58:45
all her messages cataloged them manually by taking pictures of Jesse's phone with
00:58:51
his phone and during the manual search we identified several uh text messages that were important to the investigation
00:58:58
as he comb through Jesse's text with Aaron special agent Nash found a name Christopher Lee was a marine that was
00:59:07
the nextd door neighbor of Aaron Corwin at the time and there were some text messages that involved him and Aaron
00:59:15
Corwin according to the text between Aaron and Jesse Aaron was planning on meeting Chris Lee in Joshua Tree
00:59:22
National Park the day she went missing Chris Lee Nicole Le's husband and Aaron's neighbor
00:59:30
the day before Aaron went missing she had text her friend Jessica apparently this surprise trip is super important
00:59:38
you know I had heard of Chris Lee before I knew that they had hung out together it seemed kind of odd to me that she'd
00:59:46
be going out there with you know just Chris that's the question on everyone's mind why would Aaron go into the desert
00:59:54
alone with her neighbor Chris Lee what surprise could he possibly have for her and why didn't she tell her husband
01:00:02
about it you know cuz she was a secret so I could tell her my secrets that's next episode on 48 Hours
01:00:17
NCIS alone in a chilly room in the San Bernardino sheriff's department Corporal John Corwin sat with his feet flat on
01:00:25
the floor back straight and sensors wrapped around his chest and abdomen he was hooked up to a polygraph with wires
01:00:34
running from his fingers to the machine next to him the first suspect when Aaron went
01:00:40
missing was her husband John Beth Ford Roth is a reporter who covered Aaron's disappearance he waited 24 hours to call
01:00:50
to say that she was missing he said it was because watching True Crime programs he believed he had to wait 24 hours I'm
01:00:59
sure authorities always look at the spouse first so the authorities called him in once hooked up to the polygraph
01:01:09
machine they tracked changes in John's heart rate and blood pressure 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa heard how that day
01:01:17
went the sheriff's deputies and the Sheriff's Office had a lot of questions for him they were like you know tell us
01:01:23
where she went he didn't know tell tell us what did she have with her a Bott of Gatorade so far John seemed to be
01:01:31
keeping his cool he wasn't showing the type of physiological reactions people have when
01:01:38
lying the type of responses that polygraphs are known for exposing like increased sweating heavy breathing and
01:01:46
an elevated heart rate according to NCIS analyst Ashley deelen that was enough for the sheriff's department to
01:01:54
determine that John was telling the truth when s berardino County Sheriff's Department conducted the polygraph
01:02:00
examination on Jonathan Corwin they did not detect any deception John had passed
01:02:06
his polygraph examination and that confirmed what Aaron's mother lore already thought I never suspected John never
01:02:17
never crossed my mind the authorities floated another theory one that seemed to come out of left field was it
01:02:24
possible that Aaron had been planning to leave John maybe there hadn't been Foul
01:02:29
Play but instead she ran away Aaron's mother however didn't buy that theory at all remember lur had planned to visit
01:02:39
for her daughter's 20th birthday instead she ended up flying out after Aaron disappeared and you know when I got to
01:02:47
her apartment all those ingredients for the meals that she wanted me to cook were there she was pretty excited about
01:02:55
mom coming and and cooking her favorite meals Aaron was not planning on going anywhere so that means someone else must
01:03:02
have been responsible with her husband John Corwin ruled out it was time for the authorities to look at the next
01:03:09
suspect on their [Music] list I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours
01:03:19
NCIS episode 3 Russian Roulette [Music] lur heavin arrived in California shortly
01:03:29
after she found out that Aaron was missing she knew that the chances of Aaron making it out alive were not high
01:03:37
but still she was her mother she had to remain hopeful and she knew that if they
01:03:42
did find Aaron the very first thing she would want was her mother lur was staying at Aaron and John's Apartment
01:03:50
along with John's parents the first night we all spent spent the night in the apartment and the
01:03:58
sheriff's department had knocked on the door and they were going to interview us
01:04:02
so we all get up and they just took us individually and just you know pretty much asked us about our relationship
01:04:10
with Aaron despite their jurisdiction over all of San Bernardino County the sheriff's department couldn't just walk
01:04:17
on to the military base that's where NCIS came into play together they went door too taking hours to speak to
01:04:26
everyone they needed to Beth Ford Roth heard the details of those interactions after the fact the sheriff's deputies
01:04:34
went upstairs to talk to Christopher Nicole Lee and Chris answered the door he was
01:04:41
very nervous he said he was in a hurry and the sheriff's deputy asked him do you know Aaron Corwin and he said she's
01:04:50
my neighbor but I mean we're acquaintances I know her husband but yeah we're not we're not close and he he
01:04:59
had to go somewhere he just ended the conversation right away up until that point Christopher Lee
01:05:06
appeared to be a background figure in Aaron's life someone she knew Loosely from babysitting his daughter or would
01:05:13
occasionally see at the horse ranch with his wife Nicole but as we found out in the previous episode from NCIS special
01:05:21
agent sha Nash Aaron had told her best friend Jesse that Chris was planning some kind of surprise for Aaron a trip
01:05:29
to Joshua Tree National Park that in itself was not suspicious it was a pretty normal place to visit while
01:05:37
living on the 29 Palms military base but was it a trip that two acquaintances would make and without their
01:05:45
spouses San Bernardino sheriffs were not convinced so they brought Chris back in
01:05:50
to get a better sense of who he was and how he had met Aaron d details that they
01:05:56
hadn't been able to sus out in their first quick conversation with him he entered the sheriff's department
01:06:05
Chris was stalky with a round face and broad shoulders he was somber with dark hair and matching dark brown eyes he sat
01:06:15
down the interview started out slowly they needed to establish a rapport with him so he would be comfortable sharing
01:06:23
information that could help them down the line okay uh some some of the Fall questions stuff that I need to ask you a
01:06:31
little bit um just to kind of close up some of these gaps they talked for a while about his childhood he grew up in
01:06:37
Anchorage Alaska with a sister and two brothers and played High School football it was also where he met his wife Nicole
01:06:45
before he became a marine and moved to 29 Palms he couldn't recall answers to everything they asked about though like
01:06:54
past trips or mind things about his own personal life the police tape you're about to hear is a little hard to
01:07:01
understand my memor is really really bad fighting or football explosions he said his memory was really bad because
01:07:12
of football and his proximity to explosions while serving in the military unless he experienced something
01:07:19
impactful Chris generally couldn't remember it with that in mind officers moved on to what Chris had been up to
01:07:26
lately and his future plans he was set to be released from active duty on July 6
01:07:33
2014 just a few days away the process for being discharged had started months before this first Chris like all Marines
01:07:43
had to take a transition Readiness seminar then he needed to complete and submit an outbound review get that
01:07:50
review approved and complete a final physical even with all that done Chris and Nicole still needed to clear out
01:07:57
their apartment and ran a U-Haul to get it all back to Alaska he' had a lot going on in the
01:08:03
last few months and it was during this long transition period that he'd also met John and Aaron I met her she moved
01:08:12
in before he got back we didn't really like it's kind of like hey you're the new neighbor what's up didn't really
01:08:17
have any interaction with her until John got back from Oka they were neighbors but he didn't
01:08:25
actually interact with Aaron until John came back from his deployment in Japan it was then that Chris and Nicole
01:08:32
started hanging out with them as a couple along with their downstairs neighbors Connor and ashleen Malaki
01:08:39
Chris was already close with Connor and would regularly go out into the desert to go coyote hunting shoot pellets or
01:08:46
race their cars here's my road back here that kind of makes a really nice RAC track I like to see D Jeep on the
01:08:54
corners and stuff like that so out in the desert Chris said he liked to see how fast he could race his
01:09:00
Jeep when John Corin returned from his deployment he became a part of their group they talked about their jobs and
01:09:08
being in the military had cookouts together and bonded over being far away from their homes with few friends and
01:09:15
little to no familial support in California despite his blossoming friendships and the fact that he would
01:09:22
soon be out of the military Chris was struggling he had had one six-month Tour of Duty in Afghanistan but he'd been
01:09:31
back for a year and had become depressed when it became clear he would not be redeployed he told investigators it was
01:09:39
easier there in Afghanistan all you have to do is quote wake up stand post call patrols simple stuff with no real life
01:09:49
type responsibilities he came home and had a difficult time adjusting to life after
01:09:56
deployment like state was like I didn't anything I was just kind of falling apartment Chris said he was falling
01:10:04
apart mentally it was hard for him to be at home he and his wife Nicole had gotten used to being away from each
01:10:11
other and no longer knew how to communicate he said they'd argue over minor things like whether she made
01:10:18
dinner the right way when she told him she thought he needed help he didn't want to
01:10:24
listen there was a tension in the air he'd be drinking they'd occasionally blow up at each other it's weird like
01:10:32
you're there like you miss him a lot and you come back and it's like it's not the
01:10:36
picture perfect thing you had in mind and so like Beth Ford Roth recalled hearing stories about Nicole while
01:10:42
covering the case Nicole was not a well-liked lady in that area she was gossipy she had sort of a bad reputation
01:10:54
about things that may have happened in other housing complexes and relationships just gossip Melrose Place
01:11:01
gossip basically in the house and outside of the house Nicole was not the most popular person to many people on
01:11:09
and around the base she was abrasive strict and controlling telling Chris what he could and could not do according
01:11:17
to multiple people in Aaron's life her spouse John was also controlling of her spending and her abil to get a job when
01:11:27
she bought a puppy to keep herself company he made her get rid of it the greatest Solace she could find was at
01:11:34
Isabelle megley horse ranch but even when she was alone and away from John she still didn't feel free she felt like
01:11:42
she was being controlled that's 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa they had two cars but one one car broke down they only had
01:11:50
one car so sometimes Aaron was by herself without a car on this isolated mil military base so it meant a lot to
01:11:57
Aaron that Chris Lee would sometimes drive her along with Nicole to the horse ranch and as they got to know each other
01:12:04
better in the context of the neighborhood and the stable they realized just how much they had in
01:12:18
Comon back in the interrogation room Chris had finally started sharing information that was useful to the
01:12:25
authorities he had a lot to say about Aaron and John's relationship some that was frankly shocking even to
01:12:33
investigators he said Aaron was unhappy that she was scared of JN to Chris it sounded like a cry for help one that he
01:12:41
could do something about and in the process maybe she could help him too I was like oh I can fix this like
01:12:50
broken pieces fix each other so we just kind of started developing a bond that grew stronger
01:12:55
it was like she was like a distraction from everything else that was going wrong in my line Chris said they were
01:13:03
both distractions for each other Aaron had met someone who was passionate about her interests who understood how trapped
01:13:10
she felt and Chris had someone to nurture him to take care of him he told police something else that revealed just
01:13:18
how close to the edge he'd been I would I was playing Russian R like three four times a week not get care about anything
01:13:28
Chris told the sheriff's deputies that he was playing Russian roulette multiple times a
01:13:34
week he told them that he had stopped caring about anything including whether he lived or died but talking to Aaron
01:13:42
commiserating and playing video games together gave him something to care about something to live for over time
01:13:50
you know we started getting closer having longer conversations it wasn't difficult for
01:13:55
producer Paul L Roa to piece together how those longer conversations turned into something more it starts as an
01:14:03
emotional affair right I mean aon's depressed Chris is depressed they confide in each other they bond over
01:14:11
their love of horses he was in a lot of ways what John was not he was more emotional he was he had more character
01:14:19
he had more personality he was the polar opposite of John her husband but like many emotional Affairs it didn't just
01:14:27
stop there and then we ended up we kissed a few times at her place they had kissed multiple times at
01:14:35
Aaron's place they had now connected on an emotional and physical level that Aaron was missing with John Chris had
01:14:43
started writing poetry for her he sent loving texts he told her they were perfect together just like Paul L Roa
01:14:52
Beth Ford Roth could also understand exactly how this affair came to be H having been a 19-year-old girl myself
01:15:01
you fall in love like there's no tomorrow and I believe that Chris said all of the right things that eron needed
01:15:11
to hear he was a poet or a self-proclaimed poet and he wrote love poetry to Aaron I don't know any
01:15:21
19-year-old girl who wouldn't be impressed with that ESP especially if she feels like her husband is not
01:15:29
emotionally there for her at this critical time soon instead of Russian Roulette Chris was getting his Thrills
01:15:35
from Aaron he'd have an argument with Nicole and immediately Text Aaron she was an escape from The Real World where
01:15:43
he could make believe that he was in a happy place he could confide anything and everything in her you know cuz she
01:15:51
was a secret so I could tell her my secrets because she was a secret Chris could tell her all of his own
01:15:59
Secrets at this point Aaron Corwin and Christopher Lee were having a full-blown Affair mentally and physically and had
01:16:07
been for months they were able to keep it hidden at first but then Beth says things got a little precarious for
01:16:15
everyone so it was Valentine's Day of 2014 and the military families all sort of got together the the little military
01:16:25
Melrose Place got together to uh watch a movie Mulan Rouge they met at the Malaki
01:16:33
downstairs apartment at some point the party broke up John went back upstairs Ashley Malaki who had a six-month-old
01:16:41
baby went to her room to put the baby to bed Chris and Aaron stayed that's when ashleen came back out to fix a bottle
01:16:50
for the baby and saw that Christopher Lee and Aaron Corwin were still there on the couch together and she saw them
01:17:01
kissing Chris and Aaron had gotten so wrapped up in each other that they had actually kissed out in the open in their
01:17:08
neighbor's apartment they may have been living in a fantasy world but unfortunately the
01:17:14
consequences of their actions were about to get very real so after Christopher got up and left Ashley's apartment
01:17:23
ashleen went over to to Aaron who was still on the couch and confronted her and said I saw you kissing what are what
01:17:31
are you doing you can't can't do this and Aaron told ashleen that they weren't kissing that Chris was whispering
01:17:41
something to her he was trying to comfort her Ashley knew what she saw it's kind of hard to
01:17:48
mistake passionate kissing with Whispering it put ashleen in an incredibly awkward position she and her
01:17:55
husband Connor were friends with both the Le's and the Corwin they saw each other in the apartment complex every day
01:18:03
and now ashleen couldn't make eye contact with any of them she didn't know why Aaron wasn't
01:18:11
being honest with her because the two had shared a pretty meaningful friendship and Aaron basically
01:18:19
left and that was kind of the end of their friendship weeks went by and when it became clear that neither Aaron nor
01:18:28
Chris was going to own up to what they did ashleen could no longer keep quiet ashleen said that she told mcole and
01:18:38
John and that's how the spouses found out after that Chris said Nicole went through his phone she found their texts
01:18:46
came into the bedroom and threw the phone at his head things grew increasingly tense
01:18:53
within their small bubble the friendships they once shared were no longer to make amends Aaron and Chris
01:19:01
promised to put an end to their Affair but Nicole had already made up her mind about Aaron amiable
01:19:11
interactions turned into Stony silence trust that had previously formed while Aaron Babys the Le's daughter went out
01:19:19
the window Nicole went so far as to try to ban Aaron from one of the only places
01:19:25
where she had the freedom to be herself Isabelle megley horse ranch Nicole came to me and told me that Aaron wasn't
01:19:33
allowed at the ranch anymore she has done some unforgivable uh acts and that she was
01:19:42
she told her she couldn't come here Nicole's anger towards Aaron was so Dynamic the word she said I couldn't
01:19:50
repeat she said I wouldn't care if she died she said uh she unspeakable what she's done but never
01:19:58
would she say what she did despite his own tense relationship with Aaron Jon seemed more understanding of her
01:20:06
indiscretion and wanted to work together to leave it in the past according to Beth Ford Roth Aaron told John that the
01:20:15
affair was over they went to coup's counsiling John was under the impression that things were improving they were
01:20:24
trying to have a child and John believed that things were going in the right direction Aaron's mother lore knew that
01:20:44
Aaron and John were young and naive but she believed their relationship was solid when she came out to California
01:20:51
after her daughter was reported missing she was shocked to find out about the affair that Aaron had been carrying
01:20:58
on she'd had no idea that information had seemed was reserved for Jesse Aaron's best friend in
01:21:07
Tennessee Aaron definitely confided in Jesse in a different way than she confided with me I know now that Aaron
01:21:17
had shared about her affair with Chris to Jesse I feel like she she knew what she was doing was not
01:21:27
right and that I would probably try to talk her out of what she was doing whereas Jesse was going to be more
01:21:36
accepting for Shawn Nash the NCIS special agent who interviewed Jesse this was far from the first time he'd seen
01:21:44
something like this play out while I was stationed at cample Jour there was a lot
01:21:49
of 18 19 20-year-old Marines living aboard the base we had seen a lot of Young Marines get married before they
01:21:57
deployed and uh then they would leave their spouse for a long period of time there were a lot of instances where the
01:22:06
spouses would be cheating on their uh deployed husbands or wives and one of the common themes is uh the spouse Left
01:22:15
Behind is lonely and will reach out for other people for companionship it's important to
01:22:22
understand just how high the stakes are for for committing adultery while in the
01:22:26
military not necessarily for Aaron but for Chris NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr has seen what happens to
01:22:36
military members who engage in extramarital Affairs to have an extramarital affair is a violation of
01:22:44
the uniform code of military Justice someone that is found guilty of it would be subject to military criminal
01:22:51
prosecution [Music] adultery Falls within ncis's jurisdiction to investigate while it's
01:23:00
not a criminal offense for civilians the military doesn't take kindly to cheating
01:23:06
it can even lead to a dishonorable discharge forfeiture of all pay and allowances and up to one year of
01:23:14
confinement in a military Brig that may seem extreme and oldfashioned but the uniform code of military Justice exists
01:23:23
to ensure professionalism and discipline within the military a core component of this code
01:23:30
is the rule that any action that could discredit the Armed Forces can be prosecuted from adultery to bigamy even
01:23:38
writing bad checks it's a catchall intended to quote maintain the military's moral fabric it's as serious
01:23:47
as it sounds and everyone within the Armed Forces is aware of it so there's a very good reason reason why Chris may
01:23:55
have first lied about the extent of his relationship with Aaron a dishonorable discharge would put his entire future at
01:24:02
stake likely revoking his access to VA benefits unemployment and federal student loans and severely limiting any
01:24:11
postmilitary career opportunities it would follow him for the rest of his life and as someone
01:24:17
whose discharge from the military was fast approaching admitting to an affair wasn't something Chris could
01:24:25
afford and all of this in response to an affair that only lasted a few months after all Aaron and Chris ended things
01:24:34
after their spouses found out but according to Jesse that's not actually what happened Beth Ford Roth
01:24:42
recounted the full story she was the only one who knew that that relationship was still
01:24:49
ongoing Aaron's spouse John and Chris's spouse Nicole both had found out about the affair and everyone believed it was
01:24:58
over but it wasn't and from there things only got more complicated not only had they continued their Affair in secret
01:25:08
but special agent Shawn Nash and Tennessee had uncovered another shocking piece of information Jessica had told us
01:25:16
that Aaron was 3 months pregnant and that the baby might have been Christopher Lee Aaron was pregnant again
01:25:24
I did not know that Aaron was pregnant her mother learned about this pregnancy for the first time when she arrived at
01:25:31
the Corwin's place in California John knew about the pregnancy they found out on Father's Day and they told his dad on
01:25:39
Father's Day that she was pregnant despite knowing about her pregnancy for 2 weeks Aaron hadn't told her mother
01:25:47
anything she'd been open about her first pregnancy and miscarriage so why not this one aon's lack of communication
01:25:55
with her mother left everyone with questions what else had she been holding back and depending how far along she was
01:26:03
whose baby was it with John and his family Aaron had acted like the baby was his but with
01:26:11
Jesse Aaron was adamant that the baby was actually Chris Lee's at the prospect of having Chris's
01:26:25
baby Aaron seemed excited and hopeful happily ever after with John didn't seem to be in the card he was too cold too
01:26:34
controlling too uninterested in her Hobbies but Chris Chris made her excited Chris gave her purpose according to Beth
01:26:45
Chris he made her feel like she was the reason he was alive she was his reason for living maybe Chris could be her
01:26:55
happily ever after police even found information on Aaron's laptop about apartments in Alaska she'd been
01:27:03
seriously thinking about their future together so Aaron texted her friend Jesse in Tennessee that Chris was very
01:27:12
excited about it that he wanted to tell everyone he wanted to tell Aaron's mother it was going to be this big
01:27:21
announcement that Aaron was pregnant they were in love and they were going to move to Alaska together because Chris
01:27:28
was getting ready to leave the Marines and uh that's what Aaron thought was happening and that's what she conveyed
01:27:37
to her friend Jesse now Chris and Aaron's upcoming surprise trip to Joshua Tree made much more sense it was a
01:27:46
perfect place to be alone together something that was hard to come by in their apartment complex where they were
01:27:52
constantly under watchful eyes Aaron seemed thoroughly convinced that both of them were in it for the long haul that
01:28:01
much was clear to analyst Ashley deelin it seemed that Aaron was in love with Christopher Le because she was willing
01:28:08
to take that next step with him in her life and I don't believe personally that she would have done that if if she
01:28:16
didn't really care about him NCIS agents were now convinced that Aaron was in love with Chris she was serious about
01:28:24
their future but the question remained was Chris also in it for the long haul or did he have other
01:28:32
plans on the next episode of 48 Hours NCIS what else was chrisly hiding we're going to find Aaron right
01:28:41
now the Marine Corp base is helping us they're Gathering as many soldiers as they possibly can to go out and start
01:28:47
checking all these areas we're going to find her [Music] a warning to listeners this episode
01:29:01
contains graphic depictions of [Music] violence Chris Le was going to be out of the military soon he was just days away
01:29:13
from being honorably discharged while the cloud of Suspicion for Aaron Corwin's disappearance hung over him no
01:29:20
charges had been filed against him the Le had planned their move back to Alaska where Chris was from but before
01:29:29
they left they won't have a home because they're out of their Barracks that's White Rock horse rescue
01:29:36
owner Isabelle megley Chris and Isabelle had spent a lot of time together at the ranch so
01:29:42
they had become friends at this point when Chris was in a jam he asked Isabelle if his family could stay at the
01:29:48
ranch while they planned their move to Alaska we made this agreement I said well you can stay at the bunk house
01:29:56
until you leave 7 Days how in innocent was that but that's not how it turned out once Aaron Corwin went missing the
01:30:05
police had started to suspect that Chris might be connected but they still hadn't
01:30:11
found her and all the evidence against Chris was circumstantial or hearsay they needed something
01:30:18
firm the police were here the detectives were here he had his uh U-Haul here and
01:30:25
they were going they wanted to go through this U-Haul uh they had them handcuffed to
01:30:31
the chairs over at the house where they did this they checked my house uh they did not think I was involved but my
01:30:38
vehicles were involved because Chris Le had used them the police didn't find a literal or
01:30:45
figurative Smoking Gun in Chris's belongings but they knew a lot about him that he had been having an affair with
01:30:53
Aaron an affair that continued in secret even after they were exposed before Aaron disappeared she'd
01:31:02
been texting her friend Jessica or as she called her Jesse about her relationship with Chris but there was
01:31:09
one message that caught the eye of the police a text that gave them a clue on where they'd find
01:31:16
Aaron this is NCIS agent sha Nash who saw the text this text message referred to a
01:31:24
trip that Aaron and Christopher Lee had made uh the day before she went [Music] missing all Chris told Aaron was that
01:31:35
this trip was going to take a couple of hours and Aaron thought this meant she was in for some big romantic
01:31:42
gesture Aaron had text Jessica laugh out loud I seriously don't know why he would
01:31:49
drag to a very special place to be a dumb surprise Jessica had text back to Aaron uh some
01:31:57
Emojis with a ring and a diamond and then uh kiss symbols I would assumed that would be an
01:32:05
engagement R the detectives knew the trip would likely have been out to the Mojave
01:32:11
Desert surrounding Joshua Tree but they didn't know which specific part the search and rescue teams were
01:32:19
beginning to look for Aaron and learning where she could have gone with Chris could be the key to finding
01:32:28
her I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours NCIS episode 4 the perfect
01:32:40
[Music] mine Aaron's car was found on July 1st 20 4 a few days after she went missing
01:32:57
the car was parked just a few miles outside the 29 Palms military base with nothing missing or really any sign of
01:33:05
disturbance there was however another pair of tire tracks when san berino county Sheri's
01:33:14
Department located Aaron Coran's car the tire Impressions surrounding the car did
01:33:19
not match Aaron's car this is NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr who worked with the sheriff's department and
01:33:28
local detectives on Aaron Corwin's case special agent Randolph says that it looked like Aaron drove out to this spot
01:33:35
to meet up with someone in a second car then went out to the desert it seemed that someone drove out
01:33:45
to that location and she got out of the car got into to this other vehicle and went somewhere else
01:33:54
uh with those tracks ending at the black asphalt road out [Music] there investigators believed that the
01:34:04
tracks were left by a Jeep and it just so happens Chris Lee drove a Jeep this was one of the reasons that
01:34:13
the San Bernardino sheriff's department initially brought him in for questioning
01:34:18
three days after Aaron's disappearance you already heard some of what he said his issues with memory loss challenges
01:34:26
adjusting to life after deployment and how he met Aaron in video of the interrogation
01:34:34
Chris sat down under the dim hum of fluorescent lights in a t-shirt shorts and flipflops the detective sat across
01:34:42
from him at a small table and asked about his plans for the future I think we're going to live with her brother cuz
01:34:49
we got our two horses that we're shipping up there and then I'm going to use my GI Bill try to come on Chris told
01:34:55
the detective that in the coming weeks his family would be driving cross country to Alaska where he grew up to
01:35:02
start a new life yeah it's scary like I mean but and I'm ready for a change my wife she's defin ready
01:35:12
get this interview was a very important opportunity for the detectives on aon's case Chris wasn't named a suspect at
01:35:20
this point he was invited in to answer if few simple questions about Aaron the detectives had an opportunity to talk to
01:35:28
Chris without a lawyer and to get his story on the record they also could use information to their advantage Chris did
01:35:38
not know what the detectives knew that he'd been having an affair with Aaron her pregnancy and the possible proposal
01:35:46
and that the two had planned a mysterious trip out to the Mojave Desert just before Aaron vanished
01:35:54
then they started to talk more about Chris and Aaron's relationship Chris admitted that he and
01:36:00
Aaron became an emotional support system for each other and that the relationship
01:36:05
turned physical he also talked about his wife Nicole when she found out about the
01:36:11
affair and the effect it had on their marriage and during the time that you were
01:36:17
texting Aaron how was your relationship withle um it was under a lot of us a lot
01:36:24
of strain like she kept trying to like talk about things and I just kept shutting her out our relationship was
01:36:31
under a lot of strain Chris said she kept trying to talk about things and I just kept shutting her out he called
01:36:38
Aaron his make believe wife but while recounting their Affair Chris also seemed to downplay it they only kissed a
01:36:46
few times Chris said that's where things stopped according to him that was a reckoning point he broke things off with
01:36:54
Aaron after they got caught and then that was the end of it okay and was kind of like my Reckoning point where I
01:37:02
realized you know I was messed up and I needed to ask for help now the detectives tried to get
01:37:11
more details they wanted to get Chris to describe what he was doing in the days leading up to Aaron's disappearance
01:37:20
Chris did not know that the investigators had found Aaron's car car and that they believed he might have
01:37:26
been out in the desert with her the detective asked Chris when was the last time he saw Aaron okay and then you saw
01:37:36
her Wednesday of last week I think so% sure Wednesday that was 3 days before Aaron went missing but then Chris second
01:37:48
guessed himself I'm not 100% sure Chris said she and John had come out of the house but I would usually try to avoid
01:37:57
them when detectives asked for more specifics Chris's memory got hazy once again so when you would you see their
01:38:07
cars there on the weekend um sometimes um I really don't keep track of things and so like I said un like I she FES
01:38:16
something like wrong or different I don't remember sometimes I don't keep track of
01:38:21
things I don't really remember he said Chris referenced memory problems several times throughout the interview
01:38:29
sometimes blaming shell shock or PTSD then the detective started asking Chris about the desert while they talked
01:38:38
volunteers were searching the desert for any evidence of Aaron so the detective wanted Chris to piece together his
01:38:46
whereabouts where did he go around the time Aaron went missing maybe if he told them about his
01:38:54
trips out to the desert he'd give up a piece of information that might help them find Aaron the detective asked
01:39:02
about Saturday June 28th the day Aaron went missing okay I went to bed midnight one time to wake up Saturday uh
01:39:13
6 okay um cuz I was Chris said he woke up that morning and went coyote hunting and then he guided the police along the
01:39:26
Route he took so I went by myself and then I went down Adobe took left on Chris's story had morphed and changed
01:39:37
several times over the hours he spent in that interrogation room but it was couched in hazy Recollections and other
01:39:45
memory problems Chris said then Chris's story took a wild turn it's at this moment as he described
01:39:55
wandering around the desert coyote hunting that Chris said he heard gunfire and then I got kind of lost and
01:40:04
at one point in time I'm not sure the time of the day that I checked but uh I'm not sure if the individual shot at
01:40:10
me or if he was just like reparation shooting but there was an individual Chris said that he heard four booms
01:40:16
claiming that he saw someone out there with a handgun this boom and I heard four shots as I was coming
01:40:26
back down the bridge line I got out of there as fast as I could Chris said he said he couldn't tell if they were
01:40:32
intentionally shooting at him or not while Chris told this story he gave detailed descriptions of where he went
01:40:41
Chris talked the detective through his hiking trails that carve through the mountains and dunes in the desert he
01:40:47
even marked up a map that the interrogators brought in to show them where he went just put like an X where
01:40:54
your house is at okay and then so you go out that way to the 62 to a gold crown did you make any other stops prior
01:41:04
whether he knew it or not Chris gave investigators tons of details to work with evidence that could help the search
01:41:11
and rescue efforts for Aaron that were continuing in the desert Chris could be telling the police which parts of the
01:41:19
vast desert to focus on the Mojave Desert stretched on for thousands of miles and dotted through it
01:41:28
were the landmarks of a literal Golden Age the hundreds of abandoned M shafts that filled the
01:41:35
Horizon the desert is at the edge of two plates of the Earth's crust that Collision meant that this land was rich
01:41:42
with minerals ore for Iron and Steel but most importantly gold so during the Gold
01:41:49
Rush of the mid 1800s people started coming from around the world to scour this land for wealth more kept coming
01:41:57
and making money through World Wars 1 and two before the resources started to dry up the legacy of that time were the
01:42:06
abandoned Shacks Mills Railways and mine shafts carved out of the earth that dot
01:42:13
this Sandy landscape this is where the investigators were looking for Aaron Corwin she'd been missing long enough
01:42:23
that the teams had to prepare themselves for the possibility they were looking for her body the first aerial searches
01:42:31
via helicopter identified over 100 abandoned mine shafts that were big enough to hide a corpse the task ahead
01:42:40
of the search and rescue teams would be daunting so they Enlisted the help of an
01:42:46
expert a local Man by the name of Doug Billings Doug Billings who we called the mine Whisperer experts like Doug
01:42:55
Billings he's also been called The Cave Whisperer he knows all about every single mine that is out in the Mojave
01:43:05
Desert by day Doug Billings is a softspoken owner of his family's hardware store in his free time though
01:43:13
he was an experienced and Savvy cave diver the 48 Hours team went out with Doug to the desert where he showed them
01:43:21
the land that he knew like the best back of his hand as I stand here right now I'm looking at a beautiful turquoise
01:43:26
rock and I'm looking at another white crystal rock and I'm looking at the skyline and these black Iron mountains
01:43:33
and thinking about you know Prospectors who a hundred years ago were with a pick
01:43:37
and shovel trying to make a living out here there's nature there's history you know there's Wildlife out here you see
01:43:43
it is beautiful it's God's country Doug doesn't like to call himself an expert but his connection to
01:43:51
this terrain runs deep his grandparents had a homestead here as he grew up Doug started exploring the caves dotting the
01:44:00
very stretch of land where Aaron Corwin went missing many of the Mind chefs that the
01:44:06
search and rescue teams were looking at Doug had already been in and spent a decade or more going through every
01:44:14
single one of them reading journals about them mapping them taking inventories of what you could find in
01:44:20
them when Aaron went missing the search and rescue teams came to Doug to get his
01:44:25
advice on where to start looking and he ended up joining them the teams went out
01:44:31
into the desert in Red Hats and yellow jackets and traveled in small groups of two or three temperatures would swell
01:44:40
above 100° in the Sun so their days had to start Before Dawn at first the search
01:44:46
was being largely done by volunteers who had to rig safety equipment lights and cameras just to look inside some of
01:44:54
these mine shafts Doug and the team assigned numbers to every mine they could find
01:45:00
and they color coordinated which ones had been searched and which ones hadn't well the goal was to basically
01:45:08
check every mine until we we either cleared them or found her and and there was a lot of jumping around at the
01:45:15
beginning I mean you just had evidence and you had to decide of the evidence what was worthy and what's not all the
01:45:22
while the detectives interviewing Chris Lee were relaying information to the search teams those stories that Chris
01:45:30
Lee told about the desert were coming in handy you had a story of the suspect saying he drove up a canyon over here
01:45:39
you or some Ranger saw something funny in this mine over here so we were bopping all
01:45:44
around but as days turned to weeks without finding Aaron or her body Doug and the rest of the team had to go back
01:45:52
to the drawing board which parts of the desert could Aaron be in the answer might be found in Chris
01:45:59
Le's interrogation the interview you heard in the beginning of the episode The Detectives spent hours in
01:46:07
that interrogation room asking Chris questions and pouring over evidence they had already gone through Chris's phone
01:46:14
and computer where they found something strange um one other thing I want to ask
01:46:21
you about when we do an on your computers and your phones and all that stuff um are we going to see anything
01:46:26
about uh murder or anything like that um probably Chris admitted to something he
01:46:36
said that he had been doing research on the best ways to get rid of a dead body Chris chocked it up to harmless research
01:46:45
he did after an off-hand conversation with a friend I was having a conversation with one of the guys in the
01:46:51
duty that uh it came up randomly you know random Mar talk about the best way to [Music]
01:47:03
body as Chris talked to the police a detective asked more about his phone remember the search and rescue team was
01:47:10
trying to use cell phone data to find out where Chris may have traveled and when you took off Saturday
01:47:18
um did you have your phone with you mhm okay yeah but put it in Airplane Mode Chris said he did have his phone with
01:47:27
him but it was on airplane mode to save the battery then the detective asked about Aaron have you and Aaron ever met
01:47:36
in this area have you and Aaron ever met in this dirt area no does she know about this
01:47:43
area uh maybe I me if she drives on that way you can see it was in this moment that the cat and
01:47:55
mouse game between Chris and the detectives in the room changed things became more
01:48:03
confrontational and that's why I'm asking about uh her car okay cuz that's we found her car how did you yeah it was
01:48:10
parked in that dirt okay okay so any reason why she would have been parked in that dirt no not not
01:48:19
that I can think maybe she was meeting up with somebody the detective pressed Chris on his story all right Chris
01:48:27
here's the deal man we've been doing this a long time okay we found our vehicle okay we found your tire
01:48:38
tracks we know that you were going to meet her on Saturday we know that we know that you
01:48:44
were going to go take her for a long drive and it was going to be a surprise we know those
01:48:49
things okay and we also know that you were one of the last people to see her alive the detective pulled his chair
01:49:01
close to Chris sitting just inches away from him while Chris leaned back against
01:49:06
the wall stone-faced have you ever been up with her up in the mountains or in this area no I
01:49:15
haven't okay do you know if she's been in this area I don't but the police kept the pressure on only
01:49:27
problem is is there's so many different versions of your story that nobody's nobody can believe
01:49:33
you honestly then the police confronted Chris over aon's pregnancy I don't know what might have been going through
01:49:47
your head when you found out she was pregnant but I can only imagine if it were me I'd
01:49:57
have a hell of a lot to think about there' be a lot of emotions there'll be a lot of stuff
01:50:03
built up inside and I'm telling you manto man Any Man based in that type of situation has a lot to worry
01:50:15
about at every question he faced Chris denied any wrongdoing at this point it might have
01:50:22
felt like they had reached an impass but finally during a long silence several hours in Chris revealed a small sliver
01:50:31
of critical information I didn't see her on Saturday I just saw her vehicle I was at that way
01:50:39
when I was picking up more tires for a fire and I drove past it to see if she was in there but she wasn't he told
01:50:45
detectives that he did see Aaron's car the day she went missing I drove past it to see if she was in there but she was
01:50:52
wasn't Chris said I didn't actually ever see her on Saturday and I was worried that if I told you guys I saw her car
01:51:01
because of my previous relationship with her he would automatically assume I did
01:51:07
something I was worried that if I told you guys I saw her car you would automatically assume I did something the
01:51:14
interrogators tried to give Chris opportunities to confess I'm not here to play games with you but I can tell you
01:51:23
something happened out there something something definitely happened it's only a matter of was it
01:51:31
planned was it a cold blooded killing or did something just happen that's all it
01:51:39
is but Chris stuck to his story and without Aaron's body the police had nothing directly linking Chris to her
01:51:48
disappearance so they were forced to let chrisly go with warning we're going to find
01:51:56
Aaron right now the Marine Corps base is helping us they are gathering as many soldiers
01:52:02
as they possibly can to go out and start checking all these areas we're going to find
01:52:09
her after his interrogation Chris left the police department and went to Isabelle mey's White Rock horse ranch
01:52:18
his family had been living there as his military service ended and they prepared
01:52:22
to move to Alaska it was an awkward Arrangement Chris and his wife and daughter all living in a spare room at
01:52:30
the ranch the news about Chris and Aaron's Affair and his possible involvement in Aaron's disappearance put
01:52:39
the ranch's owner Isabelle megley in an uncomfortable position Chris never reacted to anything from the time she
01:52:48
went missing he never uttered a word to me never talk to me it was the strangest
01:52:54
thing I've ever seen in the days after Aaron's disappearance Isabelle was becoming
01:53:01
increasingly suspicious of Chris and she was thinking back to the odd things Chris would do when he was
01:53:08
around one time Isabelle remembered Chris taking a cattle prod and shocking people for fun he also made a garat it's
01:53:17
a small handheld Weapon made up of a nylon cord stretched height between two small plastic handles the finished
01:53:26
product looks sort of like a pair of nunchucks at the horse ranch Chris even showed some local kids how to use it he
01:53:35
was very proud of it so we would put it on their next and show them how to how to eliminate them he found great
01:53:47
pleasure in showing him Chris was no stranger to weapons he' grown up hunting he served in
01:53:57
Afghanistan and back in the States friends Rec called how he liked playing with explosives and shooting target
01:54:03
practice with his guns but something else stuck with Isabelle something Chris told her after returning from the desert
01:54:12
about a week before Aaron disappeared he said to me uh in a very exciting tone I found the perfect
01:54:25
mine he said no one will ever find it the mine was totally isolated he had to go off-roading for 2 hours just to find
01:54:36
it and I looked at the pictures uh that he showed me but I couldn't tell a mine at that time it was just rocks to me and
01:54:45
I wasn't interested to tell you the truth and then when she went missing I told the detectives
01:54:54
this was potentially a big lead the pictures of this mine that Chris Lee took could be the key to finding
01:55:03
[Music] Aaron Cave expert Doug Billings and the rest of the team were weeks into their
01:55:10
Surge and still scouring the desert for Aaron I was I was in the sheriff's office going over some of the evidence
01:55:18
trying to uh narrow down the search and we talking about is Aaron really in a m shaft and
01:55:27
he walks up to me and he pokes me on my chest a couple times says she's in a m shaft and he points to me goes and
01:55:33
you're going to find her I said okay let's do it over the course of the search Doug
01:55:42
dropped down 30 mins himself but the entire search effort covered more than 100 mines in total the teams were
01:55:49
fighting 115° day dehydration yeah I mean some of the other hazards we were encountering right
01:55:58
from the day one in addition to the heat was probably one out of every three mines we went into had a rattlesnake in
01:56:04
it and a few of them had giant black widow nests blocking them and uh you had rock falls and and we had even one
01:56:13
incidence where we had a big colony of Africanized bees basically infest our camp and the heat the heat was just
01:56:19
terrible you know it was just so hot you know and it slows you down eventually Doug was brought into
01:56:27
the crime lab to see the pictures that chrisly took during his trip out to the mines the pictures that Isabelle megley
01:56:35
had mentioned Doug saw them and recognize the area she has to be in that Canyon and as I started making a list of
01:56:44
everything there I really had a lot of areas where said I'm not sure everything in there was searched so I went back and
01:56:50
redrew up a new map and really highlighted of the areas that got missed the M shaft itself is small and
01:56:58
nondescript tucked between the desert and a small mountain range while the search and rescue teams made their way
01:57:05
toward this spot NCIS investigators and local detectives were trying to keep an eye on Chris Lee he no longer had
01:57:13
anything tying him to the 29 Palms military base and because they couldn't charge him with the crime Chris was a
01:57:21
Flight Risk things changed when Isabelle megley mentioned something else in passing to
01:57:27
the detectives she said that Chris borrowed Meg's car to run an errand and when he returned she noticed something
01:57:34
in the back this big metal contraption that she couldn't really make sense of I said what is that thing in my car it's a
01:57:44
potato launcher I said what's a potato launcher and out of the blue comes a detective he
01:57:51
came out he said said what did you say and and so we repeated it that it was in my car I don't know what it is I have no
01:57:59
idea why anyone would have a potato gun NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr again potato gun is a high-powered
01:58:09
destructive device that basically launches potatoes or projectiles of that type here's where a small part of
01:58:19
California law became very important to this story because in California that potato gun is classified as a
01:58:28
destructive device that meant owning one was illegal here's Isabelle megley again
01:58:36
he said that's a felony we will get him right away and so Chris Lee was arrested not because of
01:58:44
Aaron's disappearance but instead because he was in possession of a destructive device a potato gun it's a
01:58:52
relatively minor charge in the scheme of things but the important thing is that even if Chris made bail he'd have to
01:59:00
stay in the state of California as a condition of his bond it's a plan that investigators concocted to keep tabs on
01:59:08
Chris as they kept up the search for Aaron and as each day passed the pressure on those investigators was
01:59:16
building this is a person this isn't a case and CIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr again you put that
01:59:27
photograph of Aaron in your case and that humanizes the person that you're looking for you you can't forget that
01:59:36
this person has a family has a husband has a mother has a you know brother a sister a friend they wanted to know
01:59:44
where Aaron was and you can't forget that Aaron's case only captured local headlines at first
01:59:52
but on August 1st People magazine published a six-page cover story headlined pregnant and missing mystery
02:00:00
of the Marine's wife the front page featured a picture of Aaron and John John in his blue Marine uniform and
02:00:09
Aaron in a matching gown pasted next to a picture of Chris Lee in his cowboy hat
02:00:16
these faces were now plastered across magazines from coast to coast the Corin investigation had officially captured
02:00:24
the national Spotlight so the pressure on investigators was going to be higher than
02:00:30
ever around this time NCIS special agent Randolph stepped onto an airplane only to see row after row of passengers
02:00:39
reading that very People magazine story you see a sea of it walking down that aisle and I
02:00:47
remembered I think weeks after that I kept seeing that image in my head there and like constantly reminding me hey you
02:00:55
have a job to do with the national Spotlight on Aaron the search for her continued back in the
02:01:04
desert but six weeks into the search the sheriff's department scaled back their efforts saying there was too much ground
02:01:12
to cover and not enough manpower Doug Billings was helping the remaining search and rescue teams pick
02:01:19
up the slack they were still focused on finding that mine that chrisly visited before Aaron disappeared Doug had been
02:01:27
leading searches at spots that fit that description they were wrapping up a search on the evening of Saturday August
02:01:35
16th when a firefighter took one last look deep down one of the mine shafts a 10x10 Gap in the rocks that looked down
02:01:46
into a dark Chasm flashlights didn't reveal much but something stood out to the team as they approached
02:01:54
it the smell of gasoline and a smell of decomposition this is reporter Beth Ford
02:02:01
Roth again she says the firefighters were on high alert could this finally be it they wondered could this be Aaron's
02:02:10
resting place the mines were dangerous some didn't have enough oxygen for a human being to
02:02:17
survive so what the Searchers were doing they were taking buckets putting a camera inside the bucket and then
02:02:24
lowering the bucket down the mines Beth Ford Roth has seen the terrifying video taken during this
02:02:33
search she said you can hear the bucket scraping against rock as it slid down into darkness all of a sudden you start
02:02:42
to see color and you see a little flash of pink and you see you know what looks like Denim and
02:02:52
they realized that it was a body the firefighters then repelled down into the dark
02:03:01
Cavern there laying on a Ledge 140 ft beneath the Earth was Aaron's body identified by her tattered pink
02:03:12
shirt and denim shorts then they looked around because other things had been dumped down the
02:03:21
Min shaft as well basically um the person who killed Aaron used it as sort of a Dumping
02:03:29
Ground for every possible piece of evidence that would tie him to Aaron there was a propane tank a
02:03:38
makeshift torch a bottle of sprite some old tires and a Marine Corp t-shirt but when they were able to
02:03:48
finally pull Aaron's body out of the hole they found something else something wrapped around her neck a nylon cord
02:03:57
stretched between two pieces of rebar a handmade garant next time on 48 Hours NCIS while
02:04:09
aon's family Mourns her death The Manhunt for Chris Lee begins since Aaron's body had been found
02:04:23
in a desert mine authorities were finally able to charge someone for her murder and Chris Lee was suspect number
02:04:32
one before finding Aaron's body police were able to arrest Chris for possession of a potato gun he had made bail and was
02:04:42
told not to leave San Bernardino County this way authorities could keep tabs on him as they continued to search for
02:04:50
Aaron investigators knew Chris was staying at Isabelle meckley's horse ranch before he
02:04:57
was picked up for the potato gun so they made their way to the ranch after they found Aaron's
02:05:02
Body by the time investigators arrived Chris and his family were gone breaking the conditions of his
02:05:11
bail Christopher Le and aoli did disappear and nobody really knew where they went the family they were planning to
02:05:20
leave the area how are they going to do this they were were they going to move themselves were they going to contract a
02:05:28
moving company we needed to know that information and so that's when Cliff asked me if I could I could assist with
02:05:35
potentially trying to locate Lee in coordination with s Bernardino NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr and
02:05:41
NCIS analyst Ashley delfen scoured their military database to gather everything they could on Chris and zeroed in on
02:05:51
where he might have gone but since Chris had just been honorably discharged getting an exact
02:05:59
location proved to be difficult if you move in the military usually there are contractors that can move you and those
02:06:08
are military records part of your permanent change of station however with outside contracted
02:06:15
military moves takes a little more digging to locate of how someone is going to move once a marine moves on
02:06:24
their own accord into civilian life the military no longer keeps track of them so NCIS Personnel sifted through more
02:06:32
than just military records well if you left 29 Palms how did he leave we did a little bit of research and found that he
02:06:42
had rented a car and appeared to have driven up to Washington State and then crossed over into Alaska
02:06:52
eventually NCIS was able to pinpoint where Chris had gone back to his hometown of Anchorage Alaska soon after
02:07:01
local authorities arrested Chris after finding him driving his mother's car while searching the vehicle they found
02:07:09
blue climbing rope several knives and a handmade garant during all of this investigators
02:07:18
made sure to keep lore Aaron's mom updated it probably wasn't 30 minutes after I
02:07:25
got that phone call saying that it was definitely Aaron that I got another phone call saying Chris was arrested in
02:07:32
Alaska Anchorage Alaska is Christopher Lee's Hometown he was a small boy here once playing in the snow learning
02:07:41
survival techniques like hunting and fishing as a teenager he played football on his High School varsity team once
02:07:49
Chris graduated he prepared to leave snowy Anchorage to join The Honorable Marine Corps it's also here in Anchorage
02:07:58
Alaska where Chris Lee was arrested for murder I think he was confident enough that they would never find Aaron's body
02:08:07
that he could just go on with life I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales and this is 48 Hours
02:08:17
NCIS episode 5 weapon of choice numb you felt numb you just go through the motions you just do what you have to
02:08:32
do lur had been preparing to hear the worst for weeks when she and her husband Bill finally got the call that they
02:08:40
found her daughter's body she did her best to stay strong for her other children you know it's midnight and
02:08:48
we're dis bill and I discuss you know there's no reason to wake them up a few of her kids still lived in the
02:08:53
house a few had moved out and started their own families they might as well have a good night's sleep so we decideed
02:09:00
we'd wait until the next morning to call them the weight of it all was unbearable a few weeks after they
02:09:10
confirmed it was Aaron's body in the Min shaft Laura and her family were able to
02:09:15
properly grieve in the middle of September of 200 14 we had a candlelight vigil at the
02:09:25
barn where she had kept her horse a final goodbye in honor of Aaron Corwin's life the barn was located at the East
02:09:34
Tennessee Riding Club in Oakridge it's small tucked away off the side roads there were posters hung all over the
02:09:42
walls collages of Aaron and her favorite things in life her animals and her family it was dusk everyone held a
02:09:52
candle and sat on the bleachers anyone who wanted to share a few words about Aaron was invited to do
02:09:58
so a couple of her friends spoke one of the youth leaders from church spoke and the minister that baptized her
02:10:08
as a child said the prayer over it John Aaron's husband was there as well but he
02:10:15
didn't say anything he held his candle looking stoic Beyond her friends and family
02:10:22
Aaron's tragedy touched so many there were so many people hundreds of people there I hugged so many necks of people I
02:10:29
didn't know the support that we got from complete strangers is just unbelievable lur was able to see the
02:10:39
beauty and strangers empathizing with her it gave her strength in the midst of her nightmare the body of a pregnant Oak
02:10:47
Ridge woman has been found 19-year-old Aaron corwell had been missing for nearly 2 months friends remembered Aaron
02:10:54
as a shy teenager Who Loved animals we need to remember that she's a person first she's a daughter a sister a wife a
02:11:02
friend Beth Ford Roth who covered aon's case for public radio remembers how media Outlets all over the country clung
02:11:09
to this story when you see a photograph of Aaron Corwin you know why because she
02:11:15
was sweet naive pregnant Marine wife a teenager from Eastern Tennessee a family who loved her there was the obvious
02:11:25
salacious nature of it all but Beth believes it was more than that she's a small town girl she doesn't
02:11:33
have a lot of experience with men and this is a crazy situation that she found herself in she looked to the wrong
02:11:40
person to help her get out of it most of us have fallen for the wrong person When
02:11:45
We Were Young most of us have made rash and dramatic decisions in our teenage years
02:11:52
but most of us get to learn and grow from them I think if women are honest with themselves and they look back at
02:11:59
how innocent or naive they may have been at that age it could have been any one of us but
02:12:05
we got to move on we got to suffer the Heartbreak and then move on and Aon never got that chance she'll never get
02:12:12
that [Music] chance police and NCIS had done their part and now it was up to the judicial
02:12:21
system to do theirs it was time to get a conviction and hopefully some justice for Aaron lore remembers the grueling
02:12:31
wait for trial to start it took almost 2 and 1/2 years for the trial to happen started October
02:12:40
2016 during that time Chris Lee had been held in a San Bernardino County jail he
02:12:46
was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to murder before the start of the trial lur headed back to San Bernardino to be
02:12:54
there in person her sister accompanied her Aaron's Father Bill would not attend I don't think I could have contained
02:13:01
myself unable to do that that would have put more stress on my wife she had enough stress with going to the trial
02:13:07
herself but to worry about how I would handle it would not be any better I attended every moment of the
02:13:17
trial the San Bernardino County Superior Court is only only 60 Mi outside of LA and 90 Mi outside of 29 Palms the
02:13:27
courthouse itself looks like any major municipal building massive and old with large imposing pillars at the
02:13:36
front the courtroom looks like a church rows of wooden pews facing forward toward the bench where the judge
02:13:44
presides Chris walked in wearing a white button-down shirt a blue tie khakis and a clean shaven face Chris sat down
02:13:55
calmly on the defense side of the courtroom lur thought he looked different Chris lost a ton of weight lur
02:14:03
had met Chris years ago during the investigation so when she first saw Chris enter the courtroom she was
02:14:11
shocked by his appearance I don't know that I would have recognized him if I was just
02:14:15
walking down the street and saw him he almost kind of looked scary [Music] based on court transcripts there was a
02:14:33
long list of witnesses who were called to testify for the prosecution this included Aaron's mom
02:14:40
lore her husband John her hometown best friend Jesse and the malakes aon's neighbors who live
02:14:48
downstairs laur's family expected her to report back about the trial daily but some of the information was so dense it
02:14:56
was hard for her to keep all the facts in her head during a break in the proceedings
02:15:02
Laura and her sister looked around the room they noticed a woman sitting behind them just a few feet away writing on a
02:15:09
notepad fervently it was reporter Beth Ford Roth that first day it just poured out of
02:15:17
me Beth published daily updates from the trial on her blog to sit so close to aon's family members she was their
02:15:27
daughter their wife and then also to sit in the same room with the man who ended
02:15:33
her life and it was I was filled with so much emotion I didn't know what else to
02:15:37
do so I wrote it down Beth had initially started as a public radio reporter covering the case but she had become so
02:15:46
attached to Aaron's story she decided to continue reporting on it through a personal blog she created called Justice
02:15:54
for Aaron Corwin Laura's sister approached Beth after court one day and said thank you
02:16:01
because of her blog lore did not have to retell every detail of the trial to the
02:16:05
rest of the family instead she could just send them over to Beth's website when I was attending the trial and
02:16:14
writing the blog my older sister was following it on the blog she hadn't heard the story before and she called me
02:16:20
one night after the day of the trial and she said oh my God Bethy that could have
02:16:25
been me and I said I know it could have been me Beth attended trial every day she said in a strange way the courtroom
02:16:34
reminded her of a wedding instead of the bride's family on one side and the groom's family on the other it's it's
02:16:41
Lor's family and friends on one side and on the other side it's the family friends of Christopher Lee the defendant
02:16:51
not far from her was the prosecutor my name is Shawn dhy I'm a deputy district attorney with sanino
02:16:58
County and I was the trial prosecutor on the case of people versus Christopher Lee sha Doty has been an attorney for
02:17:05
over 20 years and has exclusively worked on homicide cases since 2009 as soon as he heard of Aaron's case
02:17:14
it moved him DH asked to be assigned to the case the theory of my case is that chrisly was uh about to discharge from
02:17:21
the Marines that he had planned and told his wife that they were going to move their family back to Alaska but there
02:17:28
was a hitch as the result of his relationship outside of his marriage with Aaron Corwin she had become
02:17:34
pregnant and she had told him he was the Father which would interrupt not only his marriage but his plans Chris Lee
02:17:42
backed himself into a corner and the only way out was to kill Aaron prosecutor D appeared to have a
02:17:50
pleas plethora of evidence at his disposal he started by showing the video footage from inside the mine where Aaron
02:17:58
was found and then it sort of stayed on that image and it was kind of hard to make
02:18:07
out because of the fact that Aaron had been there for 6 weeks in the Heat and jurors were covering their mouths I I
02:18:17
was looking down eron's mother was looking down even the defense attorney would look up and then look down but
02:18:25
Beth noticed one person who didn't look away Christopher Lee was forward looking
02:18:32
like this the entire time and I was thinking I never met Aaron I can't look at this the jurors never met her they
02:18:39
can't look at this at the very least he had a friendship with her and he was almost like looking at his
02:18:46
handiwork with pictures and visuals prosecutor DH was able to ensure that the jury would see the gruesome end
02:18:54
Aaron met they stayed on a photograph of her hand and you could see the nail polish you couldn't really recognize her
02:19:06
but you saw the finger nail polish and all of a sudden it was like oh yeah she's a 19-year-old girl Beth kept an
02:19:12
eye on Chris Lee through it all he just did not show any emotion that someone who was friendly with Aaron let alone
02:19:23
someone who had an intimate relationship with her would have had it I I couldn't
02:19:28
believe it but then a guilty man doesn't know how an innocent man would [Music] act prosecutor DH continued on
02:19:39
establishing Aaron as a sweet young girl who could be easily influenced then went through each piece
02:19:46
of evidence in great detail the fact that Chris's story changed multiple times during initial questioning before
02:19:55
Chris was even brought to the station he was caught lying to the police when they
02:20:00
first asked him questions outside of his apartment building they inquired about his
02:20:06
neighbor Aaron Corwin and Chrisley's initial response was I don't even know her I know who she is but that's about
02:20:12
it later that day uh they found out that there in fact was a relationship and he
02:20:18
more than knew her once Chris was brought in for questioning he admitted to the affair with
02:20:25
Aaron in that same interrogation he would get tangled up in another lie at first Chris stated he did not
02:20:34
cross pass with Aaron at all that day she went missing he just happened to be in the desert doing his own thing but
02:20:41
then there were the tire tracks found by her abandoned car when investigators looked at those they looked visually
02:20:48
similar to Chrisley's Jeep they told him that they had that evidence and asked him if he wanted to change his story
02:20:57
Chris changed his story again he at that point said I didn't see her that day I did see her car in that
02:21:05
same interrogation Chris was asked if they would find anything suspicious in his search history if they checked and
02:21:12
Chrisley indicated that he had been searching for the best way to get rid of a dead body during the interrogation
02:21:18
Chris claimed that he and some fell Marines had a benign conversation about how to dispose of a body Chris said his
02:21:27
internet search was out of pure curiosity Chris started to describe the different tactics he had found online
02:21:35
here's a bit of that recording from the interrogation room the results what' you
02:21:40
find out um pigs pigs mhm what does it say pigs do they them are you serious I've never heard of that Chris said one
02:21:49
of the best ways of getting rid of a body was feeding it to pigs Chris continued on with his findings
02:21:58
describing one scenario that was particularly relevant to the trial He also mentioned burning a body with tires
02:22:06
or getting a body extremely hot and then later in the interview it indicated that
02:22:09
tires can become extremely hot when they're set on fire and remember tires were found in the mine shaft with
02:22:16
Aaron's body and a propane tank the same mine Chris had talked about earlier with
02:22:22
friends in town he was excited about having discovered these Minds that he felt no one knew anything about but it
02:22:29
wasn't just tires and a propane tank found in the mine authorities also found a soda bottle with DNA
02:22:37
evidence and on the mouth of the Sprite bottle was both Chris Le's DNA and Aaron
02:22:42
Corwin's DNA the matching DNA evidence was especially damning bit by bit all the
02:22:51
evidence was mounting up against Chris for prosecutor D there was no way Chris could explain all this all the
02:23:00
circumstantial evidence uh was somehow explainable it would make him essentially the unluckiest man in the
02:23:07
world from changing his story to the tire tracks that matched his Jeep to the DNA evidence placing him at the scene of
02:23:16
the crime things were not looking good for Chris the then the defense decided to do something very unusual put their
02:23:25
defendant Chris Lee on the stand as their one and only witness here's Beth Ford Roth
02:23:32
again when his name was announced there was sort of this electricity in the courtroom
02:23:40
because no one had any idea that he was going to testify with the defense having only one
02:23:49
witness who happened to be the defendant himself it seemed there was hardly a case to be presented it didn't make any
02:23:56
sense to Beth why they'd bring chrisly to the stand the evidence against him was so
02:24:02
overwhelming what could he possibly say maybe they're just trying to make him human enough it was shocking to say the
02:24:12
least Beth wasn't wrong the defense tried to humanize Chris in front of the jury Chris seemed ready to take the
02:24:19
stand [Music] he was wearing his his crisp white shirt and a blue tie and khaki pants and his
02:24:29
hair was cut short and he was handsome and he had a Charisma about him that wasn't captured in any photograph I'd
02:24:39
seen before the defense started to question Chris Lee asked about his childhood what his Hobbies were to make
02:24:48
him seem like you know he could be anyone's kid although his Hobbies were things like blowing things up they were
02:24:54
trying to make him seem like a oh gosh golly kind of guy and he loved his wife and he loved his daughter and he loved
02:25:01
his country and that's the only thing that meant anything to him was to be a marine and to protect his
02:25:08
country the questioning went on like this for a while nothing about the actual case nothing about Aaron the
02:25:17
defense pushed for the jury to sympathize with Chris the young patriotic Marine I I had a good feeling
02:25:24
in this case just based on how the evidence played out that he was going to have to testify and he was going to have
02:25:29
to either explain away all the circumstantial evidence against him or admit that he did it but come up with
02:25:35
some reason for why he did it and that's exactly what happened the defense attorney asked
02:25:44
Christopher Brandon Lee did you kill Aaron Corwin and Chris said yes I did that was the first time that he
02:25:57
admitted he had done it the courtroom was still reeling from Chris admitting that he killed Aaron it
02:26:11
was at this stage of the trial when everything came out in the open it was like slow
02:26:18
motion to it admit to the crime within a half hour of taking the stand after lying about it for years
02:26:29
was just I I mean my hand was shaking trying to take notes and trying to stay in the moment and realize this was
02:26:37
actually really happening he was confessing there was the truth according to Chris Lee and then there was what
02:26:44
really happened Christopher Brandon Lee made sure to match his story with with the evidence that was
02:26:53
found according to Chris Lee on Saturday June 28th Aaron met Chris by the Marine
02:27:00
base she climbed into Chris's passenger seat there was a particular place Chris wanted to take Aaron he had scouted the
02:27:09
spot less than a week earlier but it was a long drive and he wanted to be sure he
02:27:13
had the route down because they weren't heading to an official trail head they were on their way to a remote abandoned
02:27:21
mine Aaron had told her friend Jesse over text she was excited this all seemed very romantic to her he was
02:27:31
planning a trip with Aaron maybe he told her it was a big surprise but he actually was going to tell her that they
02:27:39
shouldn't be together anymore and he was moving back to Alaska and he was going to stay with his wife Chris says he got
02:27:47
the breakup over with in the car basically he claimed that he told Aaron when I move to Alaska it's over between
02:27:56
us and that they listened to music for 2 and 1 half hours until they reached the
02:28:01
point where the mine was despite breaking up with Aaron they continued on with the trip Chris Lee told the jury
02:28:10
that he took Aaron out to this area because he wanted to blow up a mine shaft which was sort of curious because
02:28:21
why would Aaron be excited about accompanying him to blow up a m shaft it's not every girl's dream to watch
02:28:29
this you know hunk a man shoot a propane tank and watch it blow up Chris said Aron was not phased by the breakup she
02:28:38
just wanted to spend time with the person she was in love with it was going to be a chance just for the two of them
02:28:45
to spend the day together alone Aaron didn't get a chance to get out often to use the car and and this was a chance
02:28:52
for her to spend time with him and to be together Chris drove to a mine in the desert he unloaded the car a propane
02:29:01
tank lighter fluid a torch when they reached that area Chris tried to blow up a propane tank this is
02:29:12
his way of explaining why there was a propane tank down in the mine shaft according to Chris he threw the
02:29:19
propane tank down the mine and a lit torch so that it would blow up but it didn't blow he had forgotten to put the
02:29:27
lighter fluid on the torch so it didn't burn hot enough and that was just one more sign
02:29:34
for him that his life was not going the way he wanted it to and he felt desperate and so he decided to play
02:29:42
Russian Roulette remember Chris was supposedly still very depressed it wasn't abnormal
02:29:49
for him to drive drive around with a gun in the back seat as he liked to hunt and
02:29:53
shoot at rattlesnakes and coyotes in the desert after ending his relationship with Aaron and having failed to
02:30:01
successfully blow up the propane tank allegedly this was the last draw now when he first explained all of this he
02:30:10
said he only brought this 22 rifle well there were enough gun experts out there to say you can't play Russian roulette
02:30:17
with a rifle it has to be a revolver so suddenly there was a revolver there so he took the revolver and he he told Aon
02:30:24
I'm going to play Russian Roulette and Aaron said well I I I can't watch this and so she in 110 degree weather with
02:30:32
sandals on walked into the mine shaft there were actually two mines in the area near Chris and Aaron there was
02:30:42
one that was a horizontal mine shaft that was more like a cave but then there was another mine that was like a deep
02:30:48
rabbit hole said the horizontal Min shaft is the one Aaron walked into and that she just waited in there
02:30:56
and then came back out when he was unsuccessful with ending his life playing Russian roulette after hearing
02:31:04
The Gunshot that's when Aaron walked out into the sun Aaron came over to Chris and wanted to go
02:31:16
home during Chris's testimony Beth was sitting behind lore in the courtroom I watched sort of the back of
02:31:24
her head just trying to imagine what is going through her mind laur's eyes were fixed on Chris as he spoke over the
02:31:33
course of the trial prosecutor Shawn dty had a feeling that the defense would call into question aon's character tried
02:31:41
to dehumanize her as they had humanized Chris dhy made sure to prepare lore for something like this
02:31:51
Sean had prepared me he said that he you know may put some allegations against Aaron and I had said
02:32:00
from the very beginning that if they're going to try to dig up dirt on Aaron they're going to have to make something
02:32:08
up but I never dreamt they would make up what they made [Music] up in Chris's testimony Aaron became so
02:32:18
upset from watching him play roulette that she broke down he said she told him that she wanted a life with him and his
02:32:26
daughter that the three of them could run away together Chris talks about how he and Aaron went on this ride and
02:32:33
everything and um how Aaron was talking about them getting together as a family and he says
02:32:42
well I'm not going to do that to my daughter aon's like well but I I love her and he actually said he was jealous
02:32:51
of the relationship that Aaron had with his daughter and it was at this point in
02:32:58
Chris's jealousy that he allegedly pieced together the story he found out something terrible something that would
02:33:06
throw him into a fit of rage something that had warranted murder Chris asks eron or he says he
02:33:17
asked her whether or not she had been molesting his daughter and Aaron I guess according to his
02:33:28
version kind of stammered a little bit and then he got louder and asked her again and she supposedly said
02:33:37
yes the courtroom was shocked silent Beth sitting in one of the front rows shook her head in disbelief Chris
02:33:46
testified that at that point 2 hours from you know the nearest phone no cell reception 110 degree
02:33:55
weather that pregnant Aaron Corwin 19 decided to confess that she had molested his
02:34:04
daughter with no way of of rescue or no way of responding if he was going to act
02:34:11
negatively that she blurted out this is what I did the jury now f face their decision
02:34:20
with new damning information did Aaron abuse Chris Le's daughter and any anybody that knows
02:34:28
Aaron knows that there is no way there's just no way absolutely no way Aaron would do anything like
02:34:38
that next time on the final episode of 48 Hours NCIS is there any truth to Chris's story
02:34:55
a warning to listeners that this episode contains graphic depictions of violence just over 2 years since Aaron
02:35:04
left the Marine base and never came back her family finally had the answer of what happened to her and who did
02:35:13
it Christopher Lee killed her for the first time they finally learned his story why according to Aaron's killer she
02:35:24
allegedly abused his daughter the court was shocked by Chris Le's testimony it was hard to
02:35:32
believe it kind of came out of left field it kind of seemed like it was this last attempt to paint Aaron in a in a
02:35:38
horrible light to make some type of excuse for his behavior and it was hard to watch NCIS analyst
02:35:48
Ashley deelin kept up with a case thanks to reporter Beth Ford Roth's blog and the national news coverage since ncis's
02:35:56
official involvement in Aaron's story had concluded the NCIS agents had done their
02:36:02
job they helped find Aaron and the person who killed her but special agent Clifton Randolph Jr said it was hard to
02:36:12
move on from a case they had worked on so intensely years before it never goes away especially when you you had such a
02:36:21
big role in it in the news coverage the agents remembered seeing a side of Chris
02:36:27
Lee that chilled them when I saw it his testimony I was surprised by what he said that he had
02:36:36
done to Aaron Corwin I was surprised that he admitted what he did in the detail that he did I I was surprised by
02:36:44
his facial expressions kind of like he was reading off a script yeah the scri it was shocking and almost
02:36:53
robotic but was Chris Lee telling the truth I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours
02:37:04
NCIS episode 6 last breath the error in the courtroom when he testified I think initially uh became very very heavy
02:37:26
prosecutor sha D was seated at the prosecution's table the one closest to the jury when Chris testified you could
02:37:34
feel the emotions in the courtroom you could see it on the juror's faces could have heard a pin drop I
02:37:40
think very quiet very serious very heavy prosecutor dty said the court was silent when Chris claimed that many
02:37:51
months before he killed Aaron his wife Nicole was giving their daughter a bath when she notic something wrong and that
02:38:00
Nicole said I I think that maybe she's been molested and I think Aaron did it reporter Beth Ford Roth sat in her usual
02:38:09
seat in the courtroom right behind Aaron's mother lore she had watched every second of the trial making note of
02:38:18
every piece of evidence she didn't want to miss anything in her daily write up for the blog she knew the
02:38:24
rest of Aaron's family would be following along and this part would be especially difficult for them to
02:38:32
read up to this point the court knew that Aaron would sometimes babysit Chris and Nicole's daughter so it might have
02:38:39
seemed plausible to the jurors that something could have happened to the Lee's daughter and that Aaron could have
02:38:46
done it but the time came for prosecutor DH to cross-examine Chris and DH was prepared for something like this Chris's
02:38:57
last ditch attempt to save himself he spoke to lur first to prepare her for this possibility when Sean first told me
02:39:07
I was just like you know there's just no way absolutely no way Aaron would do anything like that sea had actually
02:39:15
asked him if they'd noticed any difference in their daughter's Behavior once this supposedly all
02:39:24
started and Chris answered no like why in the world are you even asking me this you
02:39:33
know Chris had made the allegation now he had to prove it Beth watched how quickly the claim dissolved
02:39:42
Under Pressure did they call military police no did they go to a pediatri rtion who
02:39:50
would have been required to call the police no there was no evidence entered in by anyone to say there's evidence
02:39:59
this child was molested special agent Randolph said the NCIS never received a report about the
02:40:06
Lee's daughter on the 29 Palms Marine base it was known protocol that anyone on base who has any sort of problem any
02:40:15
criminal matter could and should report it to n CIS there's at least one agent working
02:40:24
24 hours a day that can take any report of any wrongdoing especially on a military installation and we don't
02:40:32
operate in secret we interact with the commands and say hey we're here we're here to assist so that's why I was
02:40:39
shocked being in that area that was never reported to us clearly if Aaron actually abused the
02:40:48
Lee's daughter her parents didn't appear to take it very seriously to say well oh we thought
02:40:55
Aaron did it like six months ago but we kept letting her babysit and you know I was still having a romantic relationship
02:41:02
with her no we didn't tell anyone we just sort of Let It Go it didn't make any sense at all but as for why this
02:41:09
allegation came up now that made perfect sense well the reason to do this was to
02:41:16
get the jury to vote for voluntary manslaughter voluntary manslaughter is the crime of killing another person in
02:41:23
circumstances that do not amount to murder for example killing without premeditation that's what the defense
02:41:31
attorney in his closing arguments said that this was not premeditated very last minute he didn't think about it at all
02:41:41
until he was actually doing it he didn't really know what he was doing and it was
02:41:45
brought in by this incredible love for his daughter and protection for his daughter and therefore he would not be
02:41:52
guilty of first-degree murder not even second deegree murder but voluntary manslaughter when Chris Lee was arrested
02:42:00
he was charged with first-degree murder killing with a full intention to kill it's the most serious type of murder and
02:42:09
punished accordingly in California if you are convicted of first-degree murder you
02:42:15
face 25 years to life in State Prison if you are convicted of voluntary manslaughter it's a much lesser
02:42:24
punishment you face a sentence of up to 11 years in state prison and a fine of up to
02:42:30
$10,000 so if prison was unavoidable Chris wanted to do as little time as possible I argued during the trial that
02:42:40
he wasn't confessing out of some sense of remorse or sadness or anything else he couldn't care less about that or
02:42:47
Aaron for that matter he was telling them that story in the hopes that someone would buy uh the heat of passion
02:42:53
argument and in order for anyone to believe the heat of passion argument his child abuse allegation against Aaron
02:43:02
would have to be airtight the jury would have to believe it to be true it was horrifying because the only
02:43:11
thing worse than a murderer is a child molester and so Christopher Brandon Lee tried to make himself the second most
02:43:21
terrible person in this story and if Aaron was the worst person then he would have been Justified for what he did in
02:43:29
the courtroom Beth couldn't believe what she was hearing my reaction was immediate emotion I had to put my head
02:43:38
down because I began to cry this man not only broke this poor girl's heart he murdered her and now to save his own
02:43:50
skin he was going to try and ruin her name and turn her into some sort of monster it was so
02:43:58
horrific and I have a flash of looking at the jury and the jury's face reflected that it sounded like an
02:44:06
absolute complete and total lie there was no evidence Aaron Corin was molesting his daughter other than from
02:44:12
him uh his story was ridiculous even from the basic fact of a 19-year-old girl being out in the middle of the
02:44:20
desert with someone she loves and according to him confessing to a horrible crime just doesn't pass the smell test
02:44:29
at all in the very first row of the courtroom lur sat listening she watched Chris Lee admit to killing her daughter
02:44:38
and then she had to watch him try to avoid responsibility in order to shave off a few years from a prison
02:44:45
sentence Chris was trying to cover all his his basis trying to do whatever he needed to do to make things less
02:44:55
horrible for him prosecutor DH had one more thread to pull that he hadn't [Music]
02:45:04
already according to Chris's testimony he found out about Aaron allegedly abusing his daughter from his wife
02:45:11
Nicole Lee so Nicole was sort of this little Insidious thread throughout the trial the jury never saw her testify but
02:45:20
she was there and her name was mentioned and there was always a suspicion of what
02:45:26
did she know when did she know it there were no charges against Nicole and while she was kept on call as a
02:45:34
witness for both sides at points in the trial she was never called to testify spousal privilege means that wives don't
02:45:42
have to testify against their husbands and the defense never did end up calling Nicole for reasons that are
02:45:51
unclear she told more than one person that she didn't care if Aaron had died that if there's no body there's no case
02:46:00
and that they'll never find the body and that her husband needs to keep his story
02:46:04
straight so there's every indication that Nicole knew in my opinion but no charges have been brought against
02:46:13
her it was only when the judge was questioning Chris's heat of passion argument that Nicole was called to
02:46:21
court after Christopher brenon Lee testified that Aaron had abused his daughter and that was the reason why he
02:46:30
had killed her the prosecutor asked that Nicole be brought into the courtroom when Nicole
02:46:37
arrived in court she seemed at peace she had a big smile on her face she was wearing her husband's dog tags you know
02:46:45
she was dressed business suit makeup just everything was great Nicole stood in the middle of the court
02:46:55
in front of prosecutor DH and the judge D said if Nicole's daughter really was put in danger if Aaron really was
02:47:04
abusing her he was prepared to call the child to the stand as soon as the prosecutor said you
02:47:13
need to have your daughter available to be brought in as a witness she started to
02:47:20
shake and got very very angry I think she was absolutely shocked that the prosecutor sort of called their
02:47:31
Bluff and said okay if you're going to use your daughter as a tool to try and get your husband off of
02:47:40
murdering his mistress we're going to ask her questions if she was really abused that we we should want to find
02:47:49
out what happened to her according to Beth Nicole stormed out of the courtroom Beth felt Nicole's emotional response
02:47:57
wasn't out of concern for her daughter's well-being it was almost like at that moment she realized that that lie wasn't
02:48:05
going to work and that her husband was going to get convicted of murder so if Aaron was innocent why
02:48:14
would Chris kill her to prosecutor DH Chris's motive was clear Chris Lee killed Aaron Corwin
02:48:23
because he didn't want the baggage of a child with another woman and the fact that she was going to be a part of his
02:48:30
life for the rest of his life Chris when he was on the stand was talking about the fact that he joined the Marines
02:48:36
because he wanted to protect our country and he had several deployments but none of them involved him being in
02:48:48
action and he was very disappointed that he did not get to kill anybody he actually said
02:48:55
that he said that if that was painful for lore to hear the next bit was excruciating a warning to listeners that
02:49:07
what you're about to hear is graphic I knew about the grot before the trial it was still around her neck
02:49:19
as prosecutor DH cross-examined Chris on the stand he felt Chris's story and the
02:49:25
way he told it made murdering Aaron sound sort of sterile and one-dimensional doy needed to help the
02:49:33
jury better visualize the crime he had a strategy he had prepared lore for it as
02:49:40
he knew she would be watching in the courtroom Sean warned me that he was going to have Chris demonstrate how he
02:49:47
used the garot and I did not watch it when I cross-examined chrisly and we reached the point where I was bringing
02:49:54
out the dummy and the Gat uh I believe my question was show me how you did it show me how you killed
02:50:01
her reporter Beth Ford Roth was seated near the front of the courtroom as usual her eyes fixed on Chris she watched as
02:50:10
he stepped down from the stand the prosecutor had sort of a um it looked like a ra giant rag doll
02:50:17
basically a a sized doll and he asked Christopher Lee to demonstrate on the doll how he used the Gat on Aaron Corwin
02:50:29
I was absolutely shocked because he had no emotion about it it was kind of like oh okay yeah I'll do that Chris Lee
02:50:37
faced the court his back to the judge Beth couldn't look away we can see his face the doll is in
02:50:46
front of him he puts the G rot around the doll's neck and then he when he twists it he turns
02:50:56
around and the doll went up it flew up in the air Beth heard a gasp the demonstration was violent but Chris
02:51:06
didn't seem aware of this he continued when he twisted it he wasn't facing her anymore she was back to back
02:51:14
with him he didn't have to look at her when he was doing this the people in court didn't have to
02:51:21
imagine Aaron's shock or how her body responded because she was so tiny her feet would have flown up in the
02:51:30
air and they never did find her shoes when she was down there they must have flown off her
02:51:41
feet Beth's eyes moved from Chris to lore I sat there and and put my head down and closed my eyes while he was
02:51:52
demonstrating what he had done to my daughter and then the prosecutor timed what happened just so that the
02:52:06
jury could see how many moments how many seconds how many minutes he had to change his
02:52:14
mind and stop doing what he was doing to save Aaron's life earlier in the trial the medical
02:52:22
examiner had testified that it would have taken 20 seconds for Aaron to black out which means that for 20 seconds she
02:52:31
experienced pure conscious panic and so the prosecutor timed out 20 seconds of what she must have
02:52:40
experienced and I would ask him every 20 seconds or so could have stopped you could have stopped you could have
02:52:45
stopped the jurors reactions they're right in front of me they're squirming in their
02:52:55
chairs uh several of them were tearing up I think a lot of us hoped it was she didn't see it coming at least she didn't
02:53:03
know what was about to happen to her but she did the medical examiner testified that
02:53:09
it would have taken 4 and 1 half to 5 minutes for Aaron to die Chris stood with the dummy hanging
02:53:18
over his shoulder its legs kicked out and Limp he held the Gat taut until he was told to stop it was dead silent and
02:53:29
um I got the point across I I I did I I stopped they get it it was so brutal to know that he just stayed there after she
02:53:40
was no longer conscious and and held her like that for 4 minutes to make sure she was was
02:53:51
dead the demonstration proved that Aaron's death was no accident regardless of whether it was voluntary manslaughter
02:53:59
or first-degree murder what I was showing is the to the jury is he had plenty of time to think about life
02:54:05
letting someone live or think about killing them and once you've had that opportunity that's premeditation to
02:54:10
Liberation when you choose death and that's certainly what he did and and he could have stopped which even further
02:54:17
shows PR meditation Del Liberation in the desert with the Gat still around Aaron's neck Chris had to
02:54:28
get rid of her body the prosecutor asked how Aaron ended up in the mine and he said I
02:54:35
dragged her with the garat and she went down head first into the mine he didn't initially want to answer
02:54:43
and eventually he admitted that's the way he did it it was important for the jurors to hear that it was was important
02:54:49
for everyone to hear that but he he did he threw down like a piece of garbage lur kept her head down during
02:54:56
the demonstration but she knew she would never forget it one thing that does kind
02:55:02
of haunt me is what was going through her brain what was she thinking when he was joking her she was with somebody
02:55:10
that she thought loved her somebody she felt she could trust and my only saving grace is
02:55:24
I choose to believe that she was unconscious very quick that she didn't have much time to think about
02:55:40
it after three full days in court spread across the month of October 2016 the judge sent the jury to
02:55:49
deliberate the day the jury went out I was so totally drained that I literally was tripping just
02:55:59
walking I could not pick my feet up reporter Beth Ford Roth recalled that it didn't take long for the jury to come
02:56:07
back with a decision so the jury was given the case the last day of trial after the closing arguments that
02:56:14
afternoon and by the next morning they had a verdict it was just a very scary day cuz you just don't know you know
02:56:25
what are all these people thinking when the jury filed in I mean you're still very apprehensive you know I don't have
02:56:32
a good read on them the courtroom held its breath awaiting the verdict Christopher Brandon Lee was
02:56:41
convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole
02:56:48
when they read that the verdict I you know immediately thought we've got Justice for you
02:56:57
Aaron prosecutor Shawn dar's strategies in court had paid off the special circumstance allegation in the case was
02:57:05
lying and wait and that is he essentially waited and watched for an opportunity to act to kill with the
02:57:12
intent to kill all the evidence in this case pointed that that's exactly what he
02:57:16
did Chris sat in the defendant's chair in handcuffs his expression did not change I didn't look over at him I I've
02:57:25
heard he didn't react at all behind him his mother started to cry lur Aaron's mother fixed her eyes on
02:57:35
Chris Chris would not look at me when he was sitting on the stand and saying how
02:57:41
sorry he was that he did this to her I literally stared at him during that time and he was would not look up at me you
02:57:50
know if you're truly sorry look at me and tell me you're sorry but he would not look at
02:57:56
[Music] me Chris was led away in handcuffs the judge returned to his Chambers and the
02:58:06
rest of the room filed out after four long days in court and two years since Aaron's murder perhaps the community
02:58:15
could finally start healing but but there would be no peace for lore not yet Chris wasn't done fighting he filed an
02:58:25
appeal on November 29th 2016 the day of the sentencing hearing in his appeal Chris claimed that had the jury been
02:58:33
more fully instructed it could have found that he did not premeditate and deliberate The Killing and therefore the
02:58:41
jury could have convicted him of second degree murder instead of first degree murder the Appellate Court
02:58:48
disagreed and affirmed the judgment and they're basically saying you have nothing to stand
02:58:55
on but then his attorney has a chance to reply again this could go on for years and
02:59:02
years and years and years it's just like you're going along just fine and then all of a sudden
02:59:09
someone rips your emotional scab off again today Chris is in prison in San Bernardino County since he lost the
02:59:19
appeal he filed in 2016 he has not filed another and since the day he was sentenced when he couldn't look lore in
02:59:27
the eyes it's not clear whether he feels any real remorse for taking Aaron's life
02:59:34
you he's stolen so much from us but I also talked about the huge ripple effect you know yes it affects us
02:59:44
it affects her siblings it affects her nieces and nephews it affects her friends but lore demonstrates an
02:59:53
unbelievable Grace I felt a peace that couldn't be explained pretty much through the whole
03:00:02
trial I had so many people praying for me that's the only way I can explain the peace that I
03:00:08
felt I have no hate or animosity towards Chris I've forgiven him a long time ago if I was hateful and bitter it
03:00:19
wasn't going to bother Chris at all it would destroy me and I decided he's already taken
03:00:25
enough from me he's not going to get my heart my mind my soul lore knows that Aaron is not the only victim here not
03:00:35
only did he throw Aaron under the bus he threw his daughter under the bus I mean
03:00:40
what's she going to think when she grows up and Googles all this with astonishing empathy lur thinks
03:00:46
of the rest of Chris's family you know when his mom gave birth to him and holding him the dream she had
03:00:53
for him and surely this wasn't one of her dreams and how proud was she of him when he played football and how proud
03:01:01
was she of him when he joined the Marines and how excited was she when he was getting discharged and coming home
03:01:07
not only did he destroy our family he destroyed his fames too following his sentencing Chris Le's
03:01:27
military service record was amended with a dishonorable discharge Beth Ford Roth with her
03:01:34
reporting background on military family life says this is a huge deal so you're never supposed to say that someone is an
03:01:42
xmarine he's an ex-marine after he was honorably discharged he was dishonorably discharged
03:01:48
with dishonorable discharge status the US government does not legally consider Chris Lee a veteran and therefore he
03:01:56
cannot receive veteran benefits it is an indelible mark on his service permanent
03:02:02
for the rest of his life and while this doesn't have a serious effect on Chris serving a life sentence it means his
03:02:10
family isn't eligible for benefits either but as far as we can tell Nicole is still married to Chris
03:02:18
we couldn't find any divorce records her latest address is listed as Chris's mom's house in
03:02:27
Alaska at the White Rock horse rescue where Aaron and the Lee family first came together Isabelle megley has
03:02:34
reminders of Aaron everywhere I had her horse her horse just passed away every time I saw that horse I thought of her
03:02:43
Aaron's murder changed how Isabelle runs the horse rescue I learned that anything
03:02:48
can happen that the friendship I had with a volunteer is now different I don't trust uh I I can't believe what
03:02:59
they say and it has changed me to be a little harder but for the best because it can
03:03:06
happen and you can see in this instant good went to bad in a minute Beth maintains that it was a
03:03:15
formative court case for her to cover as a journalist she thinks of Aaron often but there's this fun of oh my gosh it
03:03:24
all could have stopped at age 19 and it could have been me it could have been my older sister it could have been
03:03:34
any 19-year-old girl who fell in love with the wrong guy prosecutor Shawn DH still defends Aaron in a sense he
03:03:42
remembers how vulnerable she was I I've heard the sentiment that Aaron was at fault for having an affair um I just
03:03:51
always thought it was important to keep in mind her age and her lack of experience as for John Aaron's husband
03:03:59
he is as enigmatic as ever we know he was remarried after Aaron's murder and they had a child he's divorced
03:04:09
now the NCIS agents officially closed the case once Chris was convicted but Aaron's story stays with them
03:04:18
when you work a case like that everyone's ultimate goal is to get Justice for the victim and to
03:04:23
ensure that families have closure and obviously it was a very sad circumstance and a very sad thing that occurred and I
03:04:31
think my main focus was are we getting Justice for Aaron and her family and the people who loved
03:04:37
her in Aaron's case the NCIS agents helped ensure that Justice was served but her case was just one of many invest
03:04:47
tigations that the agents were conducting at the time Aaron Corwin was just one victim whose special agent
03:04:55
Randolph and analyst ditch hin fought for you're working cases simultaneously there's always male coming in you know
03:05:03
deliveries are going out but mail's coming in it's a constant process so there's no moving on really is
03:05:12
compartmentalized this is what I'm working with here this is what I'm working with here okay we got a
03:05:16
conviction here did we do everything we needed to do to shore this up and ensure
03:05:21
that we did everything on our part so you're never really over it like because I I still I remember that case I haven't
03:05:28
forgotten [Music] it we are at the Min shaft where aon's body was found in March 2018 almost four
03:05:42
years after Aaron's murder lur visits the place for the first time where her daughter took her last breaths she goes
03:05:50
with 48 Hours producer Paul L Roa I wanted the opportunity to be able to come up here to have like a memorial
03:06:00
service for her like you see the flowers on the side of the road when someone has
03:06:05
passed away I wanted to remember the last place where my daughter was alive in the desert Lura stands at the
03:06:15
opening of the Min shaft Wind Blows against the Sands it's hard to imagine how desolate it is here pictures don't
03:06:25
do it justice it's very desolate very vast but Beauty just a different kind of beauty Laura bows her
03:06:40
head Aron Renee our sweet precious daughter sister Aunt friend when you were taken from us we lost a breath of
03:06:48
fresh air shy loving nurturing trusting naive animal Whisperer you were such a wonderful young lady a gift from God we
03:06:57
were blessed to be chosen to be your family I'm sure the Angels were saying come to Jesus as you left us
03:07:05
here my Aon size hole in my heart is a little bit deeper right now to know that this was
03:07:19
where her life was taken from her didn't know that she had dreams that were stolen from
03:07:27
her memories that were taken from us in in this spot times that we could have spent
03:07:34
together do you feel Aaron here no Aaron's not here Aaron's in heaven [Music] from CBS News and CBS Studios this is 48
03:07:51
Hours NCIS original reporting by 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa Anthony Batson is the senior producer for 48 hours Jamie
03:08:02
Benson is the senior producer for Paramount audio special thanks to 48 Hours executive producer Judy igard CBS
03:08:10
studi senior vice president Rob luchow and Paramount audio vice president Megan Marcus our podcast was written and
03:08:18
produced by Jay venables Isabelle Kirby mcowan Cara shillan Max Johnston Megan adoli and Ian Enright additional
03:08:28
reporting and recording by Isabelle Kirby mcowan Jay venables and Megan adoli our executive producers are Megan
03:08:35
adoli and Ian Enright theme and music by epidemic sound original music from goat
03:08:43
rodeo with additional music from Paramount Final Mix by Rebecca Sidell Ian Enright is our fact Checker our
03:08:51
production manager is Megan adoli I'm Natalie Morales if you're enjoying this show be sure to give it a
03:08:59
rating and review it helps more people find it and hear our reporting if you liked 48 Hours NCIS check out the rest
03:09:07
of our 48 Hours podcasts by searching 48 Hours on your favorite podcast app thanks for listening
03:09:26
[Music] [Music] Jos Tree National Park is a very large and desolate area there's not a lot of water in these
03:09:51
areas and it gets very hot during the day and very cold at night it's a beautiful
03:10:00
area the Joshua trees are like something out of a Dr Seuss book Aaron Corwin was
03:10:08
a 19-year-old pregnant Marine wife on June 28th 2014 Aaron woke up up her husband John Corwin about 600 or 7
03:10:20
in the morning the initial story we received was Aaron had gone to Joshua Tree National Park to look for a nice hiking
03:10:31
routes for her and her mother John called and he said Aaron's missing and I'm like what do you mean
03:10:42
Aaron's missing and my first thought is she's gotten lost Aaron has no sense of direction I actually got a call from the
03:10:51
base commander saying that he had sent out troops to help look for her and they had found nothing it becomes very
03:10:58
drastic at that point she's not very large and she's not going to last long out [Music]
03:11:06
there there was a massive search and rescue to locate Aaron Corwin they searched in temper
03:11:17
that climbed as high as 110 [Music] 115 the dogs were getting heat stroke they even encountered Killer Bees it was
03:11:28
a really grueling tough search you don't know what the monster is in the dark in
03:11:33
the closet out there I think a lot of people first became familiar with Joshua Tree
03:11:42
National Park through the album Joshua Tree by the Irish band You2 that came out in in the
03:11:49
1980s and there's a song on that album called mothers of the [Applause] Disappeared but the words really spoke
03:12:00
with what I felt like Laura must have gone through not knowing where her daughter was and out in the desert where
03:12:09
the Joshua trees were she was out there somewhere it was big news for such a small area everybody was talking about
03:12:20
it people were looking for her there was Buzz on base we know that she is out there it's just a matter of
03:12:28
us trying to figure out exactly [Music] where John did tell me that he thought she'd taken a
03:12:41
Gatorade which is nothing in those situations he sounded concerned Ed there wasn't a lot of emotion in his voice but
03:12:51
John that's John there seemed to be evidence that he liked to keep an eye on Aaron and make
03:12:59
sure that he knew where she was you're not pointing fingers you want to find where Aaron is you're
03:13:06
questioning him of course when was the last time you saw her where did she say she was going to
03:13:12
go does she have any friends Aaron was not the type of person who would just leave and not tell anyone
03:13:22
her husband was calling her her mother was calling her her friends were calling her and it went straight to voicemail
03:13:29
that was a sign that something was wrong when they handed me that card that said special investigative homicide team
03:13:41
it just makes your heart sink [Music] the NCIS mission is global we're on aircraft carriers we're in foreign ports
03:13:55
we watch after each other we take care of each other NCIS deal with every type of crime cyber fraud
03:14:03
murder General crimes Counter Intelligence counterterrorism every crime is a tragedy involves sisters
03:14:10
brothers husbands that's the only way to find the truth we live in dangerous times and we're never going to give up n
03:14:17
the cases they can't [Music] forget I think agents become so attached to these cases yeah because it's such a
03:14:35
huge investment it's not a 9 to-5 job it takes so much Focus so much energy to stay on some of these cases to
03:14:46
follow them through to the end this is a person this isn't a case this is not a number this is a
03:14:56
human being you can't forget that this person has a family has a husband has a mother they wanted to know where Aaron
03:15:04
was and you can't forget that Aaron was one of our adopted children she came to the house when she
03:15:11
was 17 days old it's a lot to take in especially from probably your least adventurous
03:15:19
child a child that you would never expect something like that to happen to a helicopter took off Friday morning
03:15:28
the San Bernardino sheriff's search and rescue team paired up with NCIS agents for the massive job of finding Aaron
03:15:36
Corin last seen driving away from her home at the base for a trip to Joshua Tree National Park they had to comb
03:15:41
through more than 300 rugged Acres of desert pitted with more than a th000 abandoned mil
03:15:47
so I flew out the next day I was thinking when they find her she's going to be really in bad shape and she's
03:15:52
going to want her mom Aron was petite 52 small girl blue eyes dirty blonde hair very pretty of course I'm her
03:16:05
mom at first it seemed like a small story out in 29 Palms but for me it had a lot to do with photographs of her
03:16:17
Beth Ford Roth was a journalist with national public radio in San Diego when she first heard about Aaron Corwin the
03:16:24
story struck a cord you could see Aaron was a shy bashful sweet kind girl and I had a soft spot for her because of her
03:16:34
love for Animals it was hard to find a photo of Aaron where she wasn't holding a cat or with her
03:16:42
horse we are at East Tennessee Riding Club in Oak bridge this is where Aaron first really experienced horses when she
03:16:51
first started I assured her we would never get a horse we ended up with two this place was actually Aaron's
03:16:59
second home and I believe if she could she would have slept here Aaron and John met at the barn she
03:17:06
was like in fifth grade at that time she was 15 then they kind of reconnected and
03:17:12
they started dating on her 16th birthday John was great for Aaron he was a good kid he already knew he was going to be a
03:17:21
marine Aaron was 18 when she married John they got married in November of 2012 soon after Aaron and John moved to
03:17:30
the Marine combat base in 29 Palms California Jon took part in artillery drills that sometimes kept him out in
03:17:37
the desert for as long as a month at a time while Aaron was left to adjust to living on a military base 29 Palms
03:17:45
itself is very unique because it's in a desert community which is very remote and there's not a whole lot there
03:17:54
uh base like this is very close-knit you're going to go to the same grocery store you're going to go to
03:18:00
the same movie theater you're going to run into each other you're going to see everybody there all the
03:18:06
time no one on the base reported seeing Aaron leave so NCIS agents naturally began their investigation with her
03:18:15
husband he waited 24 hours to call to say that she was missing which seemed sort of suspicious at
03:18:24
first but JN had passed a polygraph test authorities also said digital evidence LED them to conclude that Jon
03:18:32
had been at the base nearly the entire day Aaron had gone missing shortly after Aaron Corwin
03:18:39
disappeared investigators found her car abandoned cor's car was located significantly far from Joshua Tree
03:18:47
National Park's entrance she was not with the vehicle it was a mystery to us why that car was parked in that location
03:18:56
and not closer to the park Aaron's mother Laura havlin sounded the alarm to aon's
03:19:04
friends this is not the time to be loyal if you've heard from her you need to let
03:19:09
somebody know I searched through a bunch of individuals Facebook friends including
03:19:16
erens and I was trying to find common links between who was friends with who and how those people knew each other and
03:19:24
I slowly grew to know Aaron from my research she started volunteering at the White Rock horse rescue ranch and that's
03:19:34
where she started meeting some people and slowly Gathering her Social Circle agent Delfin discovered that Aaron had
03:19:40
become close friends with her nextdoor neighbors Marine Corporal Chris Lee his wife Nicole and the couple's 5-year-old
03:19:47
daughter Liberty they all loved horses and spent a lot of time at the rescue ranch she came to the White Rock horse
03:19:54
rescue to find a horse for her own personal use and Nicole would come with her cuz Nicole had a horse so they rode
03:20:01
together Aaron also loved children and became a babysitter to the Lee's daughter and Aaron really took her in
03:20:08
and Liberty was very very fond of Aaron and she really bonded with that little girl I think Aaron was enjoying some
03:20:16
aspects of being a marine wife and other aspects I think it was harder than what
03:20:22
she anticipated harder and Full Of Heartache when after posting news of her pregnancy
03:20:28
on Facebook early in 2014 Aaron suffered a miscarriage I don't think either one of
03:20:36
them knew how to handle that grief process Aaron was devastated and really didn't have anyone to talk to and
03:20:44
Christopher Lee saw that as his in to Aaron he knew the right way to approach her because she was hurting so badly and
03:20:55
as he even said we were two broken pieces that fit together he took advantage of her being so
03:21:03
naive and he manipulated her I actually called Jesse and asked her about it Jessica trenum also known as Jesse was
03:21:12
Aaron's best friend who was still back in their hometown of Oakridge Tennessee Aaron definitely confided to Jesse in a
03:21:20
different way than she confided with me June 29th after Jesse and I had talked on the phone she texted me and said that
03:21:29
Aaron was going out to the desert with someone by the name of Chris Lee Aaron confided to Jesse that she and Chris Lee
03:21:40
had become close developing feelings for each other Christopher Lee was not happy
03:21:45
with the direction his life was going in and Aaron was a nextdoor neighbor who was beautiful and innocent and sweet
03:21:55
Christopher Lee prayed on the part of Aaron that loved to take care of things that were
03:22:00
hurting and he used that to get her to fall in love with him [Music] we have this responsibility to help
03:22:28
protect the war fighter and by extension the war Fighters dependence we take that very
03:22:39
seriously I remember being on an airplane every other passenger had that P magazine
03:22:48
cover with John Corwin and Aaron Corwin's picture I was like overwhelmed this is
03:22:55
so big and I'm a part of this that just also reminds you you have a job to do NCIS agent Clifton Randolph
03:23:05
had learned that a friend of aerons possessed important information about The 19-year-old's
03:23:11
Disappearance so he quickly dispatched agent Shawn Nash to the home of Jessica trenum back
03:23:18
in Tennessee I first meet Jessica at her residence we did a manual search of her
03:23:28
phone and we identified several text messages that were important to the investigation it appeared that Aaron and
03:23:35
Christopher Lee had a romantic relationship Jessica confirmed the information in those texts telling agent
03:23:44
Nash that Aaron Corwin and Chris Lee had been having a torrid love affair for months ever since Chris learned of
03:23:50
Aaron's miscarriage he made her feel important by saying I'm going through a really
03:23:56
tough time now too I don't connect with my family anymore I play Russian Roulette every morning that decides
03:24:04
whether I'm going to have another day or not and Aaron had a purpose now it was to keep Chris
03:24:12
alive Jesse was the only person who knew knew that relationship was ongoing to this day I have a hard time wrapping my
03:24:21
brain around that because that's not who Aaron was that wasn't the only secret Aaron
03:24:31
had been keeping from her mother I did not know that Aaron was pregnant I found out when I got to the apartment John
03:24:40
told me she was pregnant this new pregnancy came only months after Aaron's Miss carriage and John was
03:24:48
overjoyed he believed he was the father and had no idea that Aaron had secretly confided to Chris that the baby was his
03:24:56
according to Jessica trenum Aaron texted her friend Jesse in Tennessee that Chris was very excited
03:25:06
about it that he wanted to tell everyone at least that's what Chris apparently told Aaron in the in the
03:25:16
meantime he was making plans to move his family back to Alaska in late June 2014 Chris was under
03:25:24
pressure from all sides when he texted Aaron and invited her out to the desert for a
03:25:32
surprise supposedly he had a special surprise for her in response to her pregnancy Aaron texted
03:25:39
Jessica and he said he's honestly not sure how I'm going to react Jessica had text back to Aaron and some Emojis with
03:25:48
a ring and a diamond and then kiss symbols I would assume that would be an engagement
03:25:57
ring the strong bond between Aaron and Chris did not surprise Isabelle megley the owner of the horse ranch where the
03:26:04
couple spent so many hours Chris Lee loved to make people laugh on on and Aaron was somebody that gave him
03:26:17
the pleasure whereas Nicole was very strict told him what to do and that's what the problem was was that Chris and
03:26:26
Nicole didn't have that relationship but he found the relationship with Eric upon hearing about these Tangled
03:26:37
relationships investigators with the help of NCIS went to question Chris Lee he said that he knew Aaron but they were
03:26:49
just acquaintances and he knew her from the horse ranch detectives were also questioning
03:26:56
Isabelle megley and she told them about a memorable conversation she'd had with Chris the weekend before Aaron went
03:27:05
missing Chris was saying he went on an Excursion in the desert with his front and I said oh that must have been
03:27:13
funny he said oh wa you see my pictures and I found the perfect mine I found this mine that nobody will
03:27:23
ever find and I just said wow and then when she went missing I knew she was in a
03:27:36
mine so I told the detectives [Music] as NCIS agents and deputies from the San Bernardino sheriff's office continued
03:28:01
their joint investigation into Aaron Corwin's disappearance they discovered that Chris Lee had been looking at mines
03:28:08
the weekend before Aaron disappeared but which Minds josa Tree National Park and the
03:28:17
surrounding area they have thousands of [Music] Mines but investigators needed an expert
03:28:30
to help them comb through all those Minds search and rescue members pointed to one man Doug
03:28:40
Billings you guys okay back there you see belted in Doug Billings is is a expert in caves
03:28:47
and mines he actually grew up in the area of Joshua tree and as a child spent his
03:28:54
Summers there with his grandparents Doug Billings is the caveman then I'm just going to rig the rack he's also been
03:29:00
called the mine Whisperer all right everything looks good on the clip he knows all about every single mine that
03:29:08
is out in the Mojave Desert backwards we walk and he's the only human being on the planet who does there's a lot of
03:29:16
debris on The Ledges pretty crumbly I didn't even know Aaron's name at the beginning and then I shortly got a call
03:29:26
back saying as they found more information that there was some information about Abandoned mines
03:29:30
possibly being involved in the [Music] search there's so many M shafts out [Music]
03:29:42
there and so much vast territory where don't do it justice it's just a whole lot of nothing
03:29:49
out [Music] there but Doug and the sheriff's search and rescue team pushed on and then on
03:30:02
July 1st 3 days after Aaron told her friend that she was heading into the desert to meet Chris Lee investigators
03:30:09
brought the Marine in for a formal interview he was cooperative did not request a lawyer and honest enough to
03:30:16
admit that he and Aaron had been having an emotional affair she was someone that I could tell
03:30:22
stuff that I didn't want to tell anybody else you know cuz she was a secret so I
03:30:26
could tell her my secrets Christopher Lee had the advantage over Aaron Corin in a sense
03:30:34
that he was older he had seen combat he had more experience than her that he could manipulate the situation with
03:30:43
Aaron Corwin didn't neverone past kissing okay um any had never had any type of intercourse
03:30:51
with her [Music] no the first we went was making out and like hands moving across each other's
03:31:00
bodies I I thought I was in love with her but like it was just that make believe life that I was in love with
03:31:10
when you told her that you loved her did she tell you that she loved she did okay
03:31:14
and I honestly I kind of think she did 3 hours into the interrogation investigators changed
03:31:24
tactics all right here's the deal man I've been doing this a long time and we're going
03:31:31
to find out what happen to Aon she's not okay something happened out there and she's not
03:31:39
okay and we're not going to stop until the truth is out there we know that you met with her on
03:31:46
Saturday morning the day that she went missing we know that and we also know that you were one
03:31:55
of the last people to see her alive are you a cold blooded killer did something happen was there an accident I
03:32:03
didn't see better okay we're we're past that this moment okay this moment right now is the most important moment of your
03:32:11
life we can't change what happened in the past and we can choose our Fai for from right now if something happen
03:32:18
whatever it is we have to be honest you guys [Music] are because you know she was pregnant
03:32:29
with your child she wasn't pregnant with my child maybe you really don't know I don't
03:32:35
know that's what she's telling everybody detective strongly suspected Chris Lee had killed Aaron
03:32:44
Corwin but lack the proof to arrest him we'll meet your home right now right after 4 hours of
03:32:51
questioning you he's ARR investigators turned him loose by sheer coincidence Chris Lee
03:32:59
finished his tour of service with the Marines that weekend and with no charges pending against him he was honorably
03:33:06
discharged but the discharge meant he had to move out of base housing so Chris his wife Nicole and
03:33:13
their 5-year-old daughter Liberty temp temporarily moved into an extra room at Isabelle mle's horse
03:33:21
ranch it turned out to be very stressful the police were here detectives were here detectives were talking to megley
03:33:31
when she casually mentioned an item she says Chris Lee had left in her car a potato gun or potato
03:33:39
launcher like this one a potato gun is a high-powered destructive device that basically launches
03:33:49
potatoes projectiles of that type out of the blue comes a detective he said that's a
03:33:56
felony we will get him right away cuz he put it in your car so they went and got a ward based on
03:34:04
the potato launcher it actually qualifies uh in California as an explosive device that is how they got
03:34:15
got him arrested cuz they couldn't get him arrested without a reason after being arrested for
03:34:22
possession of a destructive device Chris Lee got a lawyer made bail and was ordered not to leave the
03:34:30
area with the desert temperature soaring and no sign of Aaron her mother who had held out hope
03:34:39
that their 19-year-old daughter would be found alive came to accept that Aaron was
03:34:44
likely dead murdered by the man who had stolen her [Music] heart they found on her laptop that she
03:34:55
had been looking for apartments in Alaska I believe he was probably leading her on I know he was writing her love
03:35:03
notes when the relationship was found out and they felt they couldn't see each other anymore he wrote her a poem that
03:35:09
was found actually in her materials after she disappeared like it or not you still hold a piece of my heart ready or
03:35:17
not we were going to get caught don't give up and I won't too hopefully like me you still think I love
03:35:27
you Aaron bought into it hook line and sinker but by winning Aaron's heart Chris had backed himself into a corner
03:35:35
how is he going to explain Aaron's pregnancy to his wife Nicole I believe at some point Chris Le
03:35:42
knew that the gig was up he knew that the only way he was going to be able to solve this problem was to kill Aaron
03:35:48
Corwin so he began figuring out the best way to do that without getting caught thanks to information provided by
03:35:56
Isabelle megley investigators had located these photos of abandoned Minds that Chris and a friend had taken the
03:36:02
week before Aaron went missing detectives presented those photos to Doug Billings and I looked at
03:36:10
them and I said yeah I know exactly where those are and describe the area Doug pinpointed a nondescript hole in
03:36:18
the ground called the rose of Peru mine and we just like she has to be in that [Music]
03:36:32
Canyon told it was the last mine of the day the way they conducted the search was to drop essentially a video camera
03:36:41
down to the bottom of the M shaft they were getting ready to end it for the day and at the bottom of this
03:36:49
particular M shaft they saw the body of Aaron Corwin and sure enough she was right
03:36:58
there she was steps away from me on August 16th at about midnight our time the phone rang and it was one of the
03:37:08
detectives telling me that they had found a body down a Min shaft and they were pretty sure that it was
03:37:14
Aaron I I would say it's a major miracle that they found Aaron was like finding a needle and a
03:37:23
thousand Hy Stacks detectives immediately went to the horse ranch to arrest Chris Lee but
03:37:33
there was a surprise in store Chris and his family had vanished after Aaron Corwin's body was discovered
03:37:54
in the rose of Peru M shaft an autopsy revealed that the 19-year-old had been strangled but Aaron's body was too badly
03:38:02
decomposed to determine if she was pregnant Christopher Lee uh strangled a in Coran with a homemade garat it's
03:38:12
pretty brutal it's horrifying it's a terrible thing to even imagine someone doing to somebody else let alone
03:38:18
somebody that they had a romantic relationship with somebody that they had been intimate with makes you wonder if
03:38:26
she knew who she was getting involved with did he ever really care about her Aaron's remains were turned over to
03:38:33
her husband John Aaron was cremated and John has her ashes a few of us in the family have a
03:38:43
few ashes in like a little pendant the Marines did Grant him leave he was pretty quiet that's typical John it's
03:38:53
hard to read him to know what his thoughts are John was part of the candlelight vigil later held at
03:39:00
the Tennessee Barn where Aaron first learned a ride I hugged so many necks of people I didn't know the support that we
03:39:08
got from complete strangers is just unbelievable in the days following the discovery of
03:39:17
Aaron's body NCIS agents and sheriff's deputies had continued the manhood for Chris Lee who had fled from the horse
03:39:24
ranch along with his wife and daughter that's when Cliff asked me if I could assist with potentially trying to
03:39:31
locate Lee in coordination with s Bernardino I have access to database checks and the average person does not
03:39:38
have access to those same databases NCIS agent Ashley Delfin was able to track Chris Lee to his home
03:39:45
state of Alaska and on August 22nd 2014 6 days after Aaron's remains were found Chris Lee was arrested for her
03:39:56
murder prosecutor Shawn Dy says evidence found in Lee's car further tied him to Aaron's murder when Chris Lee was
03:40:04
arrested in Alaska the vehicle he was pulled over in contained a makeshift garat that garat was similar to the one
03:40:12
found wrapped around Aaron's neck it was just one of several pieces of evidence discovered with Aaron's body that M
03:40:19
shaft turned out to be filled with evidentiary gold at the bottom of the mine was along with Aaron was a propane
03:40:27
tank that propane tank was seen by a neighbor a fellow Marine that morning in the back of Chrisley's Jeep he asked
03:40:35
Chrisley about it and Chrisley said he was going to blow up a m shaft that propane tank was borrowed
03:40:41
from a horse ranch that both Chris Lee and Aaron corn adopted and took care of horses at he saw my propane tank and
03:40:49
said can I have this and I said you can have it if you want it so he took it and
03:40:55
he never brought it back all of the evidence would point to him being at the M shaft with Aaron
03:41:03
Corwin and him committing the murder there was numerous pieces of circumstantial evidence there was a
03:41:10
makeshift torch which was a stick with a Marine Core t-shirt wrapped around it and there was only one person's DNA on
03:41:22
the t-shirt and that was Christopher Lee the most damning piece of evidence was a
03:41:28
Sprite bottle with the cap still on it and it had the DNA of only two people Aaron Corwin and Christopher
03:41:37
Lee in October 2016 after a change in venue and more than 2 years after Aaron had killed
03:41:45
kissed her husband Goodbye Chris Lee stood trial for first-degree murder in a San Bernardino courtroom Aaron's mother
03:41:53
was there filled she says with an eerie calm I felt a piece that couldn't be explained pretty much through the whole
03:42:02
trial I had so many people praying for me that's the only way I can explain the peace that I felt like everyone else at
03:42:08
the trial Aaron's mother was struck by the dramatic change in Chris Lee's appearance Chris lost a ton of way
03:42:15
I don't know that I would have recognized him if I was just walking down the street the prosecutor presented
03:42:20
a parade of witnesses and after 8 days of wrenching testimony the prosecutor ended his case by showing jurs the love
03:42:27
poem Chris Lee wrote to Aaron Corwin the evidence seemed overwhelming the defense would need
03:42:33
something dramatic to counter the state's evidence and it did not disappoint I just
03:42:40
felt so much hate so much rage I wasn't going to let anybody hurt my daughter [Music]
03:43:01
again no one was prepared for what Chris Lee would say when he took the stand in
03:43:05
his own defense but his testimony brought the trial to a stand still and I think that the jury saw
03:43:13
exactly what type of person Chris Le was I was surprised when I saw his testimony
03:43:19
what he said that he had done to Aaron Corwin and the manner and his facial expressions kind of like he was reading
03:43:28
off a script yeah the script the former Marine began explaining to the jurors that on June
03:43:36
28th 2014 in the desert surrounding Joshua Tree National Park he and Aaron were two
03:43:43
very different people with two very different agendas he claimed that he told Aaron
03:43:52
when I moved to Alaska it's over between us I sat there and put my head down and
03:44:00
closed my eyes but Laura havin says she heard every word Chris Lee in his direct
03:44:07
testimony essentially said that while he was out there he'd been having a hard time emotionally and struggling and at
03:44:14
one point while was there he grabbed a weapon and was playing Russian roulette Aaron became very disturbed by that
03:44:21
became upset she told him that she wanted to be part of his daughter's life that she wanted to be with him and
03:44:29
wanted to move to Alaska with him he became enraged and told her that his daughter was his and not hers and she
03:44:37
didn't have any right to want to be with her and asked Aaron if Aaron had molested his daughter and
03:44:47
Aaron said yes but that accusation came out of the blue but hit like a lightning
03:44:55
bolt the prosecutor says it was blatantly false because Chris and Nicole had never called police about the
03:45:01
alleged abuse and they had never taken Liberty to a doctor to report it his story was
03:45:12
ridiculous just even from the base fact of a 19-year-old girl being out in the middle of the desert with someone she
03:45:20
loves and according to him confessing to a horrible crime just doesn't pass the smell test
03:45:28
at all not only did he throw Aaron under the bus he threw his daughter under the
03:45:34
bus there's just no way absolutely no way Aaron would do anything like that but Chris did not back away from
03:45:45
his story he doubled down on it saying he was stunned by Aaron's supposed [Music]
03:45:52
confession I just kept choking her I don't know how long it was might have been 5 minutes 10 minutes it felt like
03:46:01
forever and I just kept choking her one thing that does kind of haunt me is what was going through her brain what
03:46:10
was she thinking when he was choking her she was with some somebody that she thought loved
03:46:17
her somebody she felt she could trust and my only saving grace is I choose to believe that she was
03:46:32
unconscious very quick that she didn't have much time to think about it then you threw her down a m shaft
03:46:42
didn't you I did like a piece of trash I threw it down the M shaft yes like a piece of
03:46:48
[Music] truck right is that a question yes yes important for the jurors to hear that it was important for everyone to
03:46:58
hear that that he threw down like a piece of garbage journalist Beth Ford Roth said
03:47:07
the courtroom became extremely quiet as everyone absorbed the horror of Aaron's murder and I had to put my head down
03:47:15
because I began to cry because it was so horrific to me that this man not only broke this poor girl's heart he murdered
03:47:29
her it was so horrific there was no evidence Aaron corn was molesting his daughter other
03:47:38
than from him but prosecutor dity was not done with Chris Lee prosecutor had sort of a
03:47:45
giant rag doll basically a a humanized doll he puts the garat around the doll's neck and I heard a
03:47:58
gasp and you were going to follow through that see yes okay that's about 10 seconds in you could have
03:48:06
stopped right no minute 20 still no huh no can let go can you let go now yes sir
03:48:15
seconds can drag on forever when you're just silent and I I think it was it was powerful and um I think it got his point
03:48:27
[Music] across at any time during that 3 minutes when he's strangling her he could have
03:48:38
stopped which even further shows premeditation deliberation during closing arguments
03:48:45
the defense strategy became clear was it murder when Chris Lee's lawyers argued his client was guilty only of
03:48:51
involuntary manslaughter we have to talk about what the evidence actually is not
03:48:57
first deegree murder he claimed Chris had not planned to kill Aaron the day the jury went
03:49:05
out I was so totally drained that I literally was tripping just walking I could not pick my feet up
03:49:15
it was just a very scary day cuz you just don't know you know what are all these people thinking by the next
03:49:22
morning they had a verdict guilty of murder in the first degree we the jury and the when they
03:49:32
read the verdict you know immediately thought we've got Justice for you [Music] Aaron Chris Lee received a sentence of
03:49:44
life without the possibility of parole it's a case I'll never forget it this is a case I won't forget either
03:49:51
because it's just something that hits close to home there were times where it was a little emotional because she's 19
03:49:58
and she had her whole life ahead of her Laura havin asked if she could accompany us to the m shaft where
03:50:07
Aaron's body was discovered she had never been there but wanted to see it for herself when you were taken from us we
03:50:16
lost our breath of fresh air I know without a doubt that you are walking the streets of gold with Jesus and I will
03:50:22
see you again nearby Laura also visited Aaron's Garden the makeshift Memorial Doug
03:50:34
Billings created near Joshua Tree National Park I want people to know that Aaron
03:50:41
was sweet naive and incred incredible young lady she was not a perfect teenager but you
03:50:49
couldn't have asked for a better teenager when Aaron was talking to you you felt like you were the most
03:50:54
important person in the room we just didn't have enough time with Aaron you know you're not supposed to bury your
03:51:01
babies she just he went too fast [Music] we have to show that if you murder a dependent spouse we will pursue you
03:51:20
relentlessly and at some point you will be brought to [Music] Justice 48 Hours don't miss an episode
03:51:37
[Music]