00:00:05
alone in a chilly room in the San Bernardino sheriff's department Corporal John Corwin sat with his feet flat on
00:00:12
the floor back straight and sensors wrapped around his chest and abdomen he was hooked up to a polygraph with wires
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running from his fingers to the machine next to him the first suspect when Aaron
00:00:27
went missing was her husband John Beth Ford Roth is a reporter who covered Aaron's disappearance he waited 24 hours
00:00:36
to call to say that she was missing he said it was because watching True Crime programs he believed he had to wait 24
00:00:45
hours I'm sure authorities always look at the spouse first so the authorities called him
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in once hooked up to the polygraph machine they tracked changes in John's heart rate and blood pressure 48 Hours
00:01:02
producer Paul Arosa heard how that day went the sheriff's deputies and Sheriff's Office had a lot of questions
00:01:09
for him they were like you know tell us where she went he didn't know tell us what did she have with her a bottle of
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Gatorade so far JN seemed to be keeping his cool he wasn't showing the type of physiological reactions people have when
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lying the type of responses that polygraphs are known for exposing in like increased sweating heavy breathing
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and an elevated heart rate according to NCIS analyst Ashley duelin that was enough for the sheriff's department to
00:01:41
determine that John was telling the truth when san berino county sheriff's department conducted the polygraph
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examination on Jonathan Corwin they did not detect any deception John had passed
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his polygraph examination and that confirmed what aon's mother lore already thought
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I never suspected John never never crossed my mind the authorities floated another theory one that seemed to come
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out of left field was it possible that Aaron had been planning to leave JN maybe there hadn't been Foul Play but
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instead she ran away Aaron's mother however didn't buy that theory at all remember lur had planned to visit
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for her daughter's 20th birthday instead she ended up flying out after Aaron disappeared and you know when I got to
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her apartment all those ingredients for the meals that she wanted me to cook were there she was pretty excited about
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mom coming and cooking her favorite meals Aaron was not planning on going anywhere so that means someone else must
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have been responsible with her husband John Corwin ruled out it was time for the authorities to look at the next
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suspect on their list I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours
00:03:06
NCIS episode three Russian Roulette lur havin arrived in California shortly after she found out that Aaron
00:03:18
was missing she knew that the chances of Aaron making it out alive were not high
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but still she was her mother she had to remain hopeful and she knew that if they
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did find Aaron the very first thing she would want was her mother lur was staying at Aaron and John's Apartment
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along with John's parents the first night we all spent the night in the apartment and the sheriff's
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department had knocked on the door and they were going to interview us so we all get up and they just took us
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individually and just you know pretty much asked us about our relationship with Aaron despite their jurisdiction
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over all of San Bernardino County the sheriff's department couldn't just walk on to the military base that's where
00:04:06
NCIS came into play together they went door too taking hours to speak to everyone they needed to Beth Ford Roth
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heard the details of those interactions after the fact the sheriff's deputies went upstairs to talk to Christopher
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Nicole Lee and Chris answered the door he was very nervous he said he was in a hurry
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and the sheriff's deputy asked him do you know Aaron Corwin and he said she's my neighbor but I mean we're
00:04:41
acquaintances I know her husband but yeah we're not we're not close and he he had to go somewhere he just ended the
00:04:48
conversation right away up until that point Christopher Lee appeared to be a background figure in
00:04:55
Aaron's life someone she knew Loosely from babysitting his daughter or would occasionally see at the horse ranch with
00:05:02
his wife Nicole but as we found out in the previous episode from NCIS special agent sha Nash Aaron had told her best
00:05:11
friend Jesse that Chris was planning some kind of surprise for Aaron a trip to Joshua Tree National Park that in
00:05:20
itself was not suspicious it was a pretty normal place to visit while living on the 29 Palms military base but
00:05:27
was it a trip that two acquaintances would make and without their spouses San Bernardino sheriffs were not
00:05:35
convinced so they brought Chris back in to get a better sense of who he was and how he had met Aaron details that they
00:05:43
hadn't been able to sus out in their first quick conversation with him he entered the sheriff's department
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Chris was stocky with a round face and broad shoulders he was somber with dark hair and matching dark brown eyes he sat
00:06:02
down the interview started out slowly they needed to establish a rapport with him so he would be comfortable sharing
00:06:10
information that could help them down the line okay uh some some of the Fall questions stuff that I need to ask you a
00:06:18
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
00:06:24
Anchorage Alaska with a sister and two brothers and played High School football it was also where he met his wife Nicole
00:06:32
before he became a marine and moved to 29 Palms he couldn't recall answers to everything they asked about though like
00:06:41
past trips or minor things about his own personal life the police tape you're about to hear is a little hard to
00:06:48
understand my memory is really really bad anymore fighting or football explosions he said his memory was really
00:06:58
bad because of football and his proximity to explosions while serving in the military unless he experienced
00:07:05
something impactful Chris generally couldn't remember it with that in mind officers moved on to what Chris had been
00:07:13
up to lately and his future plans he was set to be released from active duty on July 6
00:07:20
2014 just a few days away the process for being discharged had started months before this first Chris like all Marine
00:07:30
had to take a transition Readiness seminar then he needed to complete and submit an outbound review get that
00:07:37
review approved and complete a final physical even with all that done Chris and Nicole still needed to clear out
00:07:44
their apartment and ran a U-Haul to get it all back to Alaska he'd had a lot going on in the
00:07:50
last few months and it was during this long transition period that he'd also met John and Aaron I met her uh she
00:07:59
moved 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
00:08:04
have any interaction with her until John got back from Oka they were neighbors but he didn't
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actually interact with Aaron until John came back from his deployment in Japan it was then that Chris and Nicole
00:08:19
started hanging out with them as a couple along with their downstairs neighbors Connor and ashleen Malaki
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Chris was already close with Connor and would regularly go out into the desert to go coyote hunting shoot pellets or
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race their cars there's my road back here that kind Mak a really nice race track I like to see how D my Jeep on the
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corners and stuff like that so out in the desert Chris said he liked to see how fast he could race his
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Jeep when John Corin returned from his deployment he became a part of their group they talked about their jobs and
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being in the military had cookouts together and bonded over being far away from their homes with few friends and
00:09:02
little to no familial support in California despite his blossoming friendships and the fact that he would
00:09:09
soon be out of the military Chris was struggling he had had one six Monon Tour of Duty in Afghanistan but he'd been
00:09:18
back for a year and had become depressed when it became clear he would not be redeployed he told investigators it was
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easier there in Afghanistan all you have to do do is quote wake up stand post call patrols simple stuff with no real
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life type responsibilities he came home and had a difficult time adjusting to life after
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deployment like I most say it was like I didn't give anything I was just kind of
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falling apart mentally Chris said he was falling apart mentally it was hard for him to be at home he and his wife Nicole
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had gotten used to being away from each other and no longer knew how to communicate he said they'd argue over
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minor things like whether she made dinner the right way when she told him she thought he needed help he didn't
00:10:10
want to listen there was a tension in the air he'd be drinking they'd occasionally
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blow up at each other it's weird CU you're there like you miss them on a lot and you come back and it's like it's not
00:10:23
the picture perfect thing you had in mind so Beth Ford Roth recalled hearing stories about Nicole while covering the
00:10:29
case Nicole was not a well-liked lady in that area she was gossipy she had sort of a bad reputation
00:10:41
about things that may have happened in other housing complexes and relationship just gossip Melrose Place gossip
00:10:49
basically in the house and outside of the house Nicole was not the most popular person to many people on and
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around the base she was abrasive strict and controlling telling Chris what he could and could not do according to
00:11:04
multiple people in Aaron's life her spouse John was also controlling of her spending and her ability to get a job
00:11:13
when she bought a puppy to keep herself company he made her get rid of it the greatest Solace she could find was at
00:11:21
Isabelle megley horse ranch but even when she was alone and away from John she still didn't feel free she felt like
00:11:29
she was being controlled that's 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa they had two cars but one one car broke down they only had
00:11:37
one car so sometimes Aaron was by herself without a car on this isolated military base so it meant a lot to Aaron
00:11:44
that Chrisley would sometimes drive her along with Nicole to the horse ranch and
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as they got to know each other better in the context of the neighborhood and the
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stable they realized just how much they had in common back in the interrogation room Chris had
00:12:09
finally started sharing information that was useful to the authorities he had a lot to say about Aon and John's
00:12:16
relationship some that was frankly shocking even to investigators he said Aaron was unhappy
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that she was scared of John to Chris it sounded like a cry for help one that he could do something thing about and in
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the process maybe she could help him too I was like oh I can fix this I broken pieces fix each other so we just
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kind of started developing a bond that grew stronger it was like she was like a distraction from everything else was
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going wrong in my life Chris said they were both distractions for each other Aaron had met someone who was passionate
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about her interests who understood how trapped she felt and Chris had someone to nurture him to take care of him he
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told police something else that revealed just how close to the edge he'd been I would I was playing Russian rouette
00:13:10
three four times a week like not getting car about anything Chris told the sheriff's deputies that he was playing
00:13:17
Russian roulette multiple times a week he told them that he had stopped caring about anything including whether
00:13:26
he lived or died but talking to to Aaron commiserating and playing video games together gave him something to care
00:13:33
about something to live for over time you know we started getting closer having longer
00:13:40
conversations it wasn't difficult for producer Paul L Roa to piece together how those longer conversations turned
00:13:47
into something more it starts as an emotional affair right I mean eron's depressed Chris is depressed they
00:13:55
confide in each other they bond over their love of horses he was in a lot of ways what John was not he was more
00:14:03
emotional he was he had more character he had more personality he was a polar opposite of John her husband but like
00:14:11
many emotional Affairs it didn't just stop there and then uh we end up we kissed a few times at her
00:14:19
place they had kissed multiple times at Aaron's place they had now connected on an emotional and physical level that
00:14:28
Aaron was missing with John Chris had started writing poetry for her he sent loving texts he told her they were
00:14:35
perfect together just like Paul L Roa Beth Ford Roth could also understand exactly how this affair came to be H
00:14:46
having been a 19-year-old girl myself you fall in love like there's no tomorrow and I believe that Chris said
00:14:55
all of the right things that eron needed to hear he was a poet or a self-proclaimed poet
00:15:03
and he wrote love poetry to Aaron I don't know any 19-year-old girl who wouldn't be impressed with that
00:15:11
especially if she feels like her husband is not emotionally there for her at this
00:15:17
critical time soon instead of Russian Roulette Chris was getting his Thrills from Aaron he'd have an argument with
00:15:25
Nicole and immediately Text Aaron she was an escape from The Real World where he could make Bel that he was in a happy
00:15:32
place he could confide anything and everything in her you know cuz she was a secret so I could tell her my secrets
00:15:41
because she was a secret Chris could tell her all of his own Secrets at this point Aaron Corwin and
00:15:48
Christopher Lee were having a full-blown Affair mentally and physically and had been for months they were able to keep
00:15:57
it hidden at first but then Beth says things got a little precarious for everyone so it was Valentine's Day of
00:16:06
2014 and the military families all sort of got together the the little military Melrose Place got together to uh watch a
00:16:16
movie Mulan Rouge they met at the malak's downstairs apartment at some point the party broke up John went back
00:16:25
upstairs ashleen Maliki who had a six-month old baby went to her room to put the baby to bed
00:16:32
Chris and Aaron stayed that's when ashleen came back out to fix a bottle for the baby and saw that Christopher
00:16:40
Lee and Aaron Corwin were still there on the couch together and she saw them kissing Chris and Aaron had gotten so
00:16:51
wrapped up in each other that they had actually kissed out in the open in their neighbor's
00:16:56
apartment they may have been living in a fantasy world but unfortunately the consequences of their actions were about
00:17:04
to get very real so after Christopher got up and left Ashley's apartment ashleen went over to Aaron who was still
00:17:12
on the couch and confronted her and said I saw you kissing what are what are you
00:17:18
doing you can't can't do this and Aaron told ashleen that they weren't kissing that Chris was whispering something to
00:17:28
her he was trying to comfort her Ashley knew what she saw it's kind of hard to mistake passionate kissing with
00:17:37
Whispering it put ashleen in an incredibly awkward position she and her husband Connor were friends with both
00:17:44
the Le and the Corwin they saw each other in the apartment complex every day and now ashleen couldn't make eye
00:17:52
contact with any of them she didn't know why Aaron wasn't being honest with her because the two
00:18:00
had shared a a pretty meaningful friendship and Aaron basically left and that was kind of the end of
00:18:09
their friendship weeks went by and when it became clear that neither Aaron nor Chris was going to own up to what they
00:18:17
did ashleen could no longer keep quiet ashleen said that she told mcole and John and that's how the spouses found
00:18:27
out after that Chris said Nicole went through his phone she found their texts came into the bedroom and threw the
00:18:35
phone at his head things grew increasingly tense within their small bubble the friendships they once shared were no
00:18:45
longer to make amends Aaron and Chris promised to put an end to their Affair but Nicole had already made up
00:18:56
her mind about Aaron amiable Interac actions turned into Stony silence trust that had previously formed while Aaron
00:19:04
babysat the Le's daughter went out the window Nicole went so far as to try to ban Aaron from one of the only places
00:19:12
where she had the freedom to be herself Isabelle megley horse ranch Nicole came to me and told me that Aaron wasn't
00:19:20
allowed at the ranch anymore she has done some unforgivable uh acts and that she was
00:19:29
she told her she couldn't come here Nicole's anger towards Aaron was so Dynamic the words she said I couldn't
00:19:37
repeat she said I wouldn't care if she died she said uh she was unspeakable which she's done but never would she say
00:19:45
what she did despite his own tense relationship with Aaron Jon seemed more understanding of her indiscretion and
00:19:54
wanted to work together to leave it in the past according to Beth Roth Aaron told John that the affair was over they
00:20:04
went to coup's counseling John was under the impression that things were improving they were trying to have a a
00:20:13
child and John believed that things were going in the right direction Aaron's mother lore knew that Aaron and
00:20:31
John were young and naive but she believed their relationship was solid when she came out to California after
00:20:38
her daughter was reported missing she was shocked to find out about the affair that Aaron had been carrying
00:20:45
on she'd had no idea that information it seemed was reserved for Jesse Aaron's best friend in
00:20:54
Tennessee Aaron definitely confided in Jesse and in a different way than she confided with me I know now that Aaron
00:21:04
had shared about her affair with Chris to Jesse I feel like she she knew what she was doing was not
00:21:14
right and that I would probably try to talk her out of what she was doing whereas Jesse was going to be more
00:21:23
accepting for Shawn Nash the NCIS special agent who interviewed Jess this was far from the first time he'd
00:21:31
seen something like this play out while I was stationed at cample Jour there was
00:21:36
a lot of 18 19 20-year-old Marines living aboard the base we had seen a lot of Young Marines get married before they
00:21:44
deployed and uh then they would leave their spouse for a long period of time there were a lot of instances where the
00:21:53
spouses would be cheating on their uh deployed husbands or wives and one of the common themes is uh the spouse Left
00:22:02
Behind is lonely and will reach out for other people for companionship it's important to
00:22:09
understand just how high the stakes are for committing adultery while in the military not necessarily for Aaron but
00:22:16
for Chris NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr has seen what happens to military members who engage in
00:22:25
extramarital Affairs to have in the extramarital affair is a violation of the uniform code of military Justice
00:22:33
someone that is found guilty of it will be subject to military criminal prosecution adultery Falls within ncis's
00:22:45
jurisdiction to investigate while it's not a criminal offense for civilians the military doesn't take kindly to cheating
00:22:54
it can even lead to a dishonorable discharge forfeiture of all pay and allowances and up to one year of
00:23:01
confinement in a military Brig that may seem extreme and old fashioned but the uniform code of military Justice exists
00:23:10
to ensure professionalism and discipline within the military a core component of this code
00:23:17
is the rule that any action that could discredit the Armed Forces can be prosecuted from adultery to bigamy even
00:23:25
writing bad checks it's a catch intended to quote maintain the military's moral fabric it's as serious as it sounds and
00:23:36
everyone within the Armed Forces is aware of it so there's a very good reason why Chris may have first lied
00:23:43
about the extent of his relationship with Aaron a dishonorable discharge would put his entire future at stake
00:23:50
likely revoking his access to VA benefits unemployment and federal student loans and severely limiting any
00:23:58
post military career opportunities it would follow him for the rest of his life and as someone
00:24:04
whose discharge from the military was fast approaching admitting to an affair wasn't something Chris could
00:24:12
afford and all of this in response to an affair that only lasted a few months after all Aaron and Chris ended things
00:24:21
after their spouses found out but according to Jesse that's not actually what happened Beth Ford Roth
00:24:29
recounted the full story she was the only one who knew that that relationship was still
00:24:36
ongoing Aaron's spouse John and Chris's spouse Nicole both had found out about the affair and everyone believed it was
00:24:46
over but it wasn't and from there things only got more complicated not only had they continued their Affair in secret
00:24:55
but special agent Shawn Nash in Tennessee had uncovered another shocking piece of information Jessica had told us
00:25:03
that Aaron was 3 months pregnant and that the baby might have been Christoper Aaron was pregnant
00:25:10
again I did not know that Aaron was pregnant her mother learned about this pregnancy for the first time when she
00:25:18
arrived at the Corn's place in California John knew about the pregnancy they found out on Father's Day and they
00:25:24
told his dad on Father's Day that she was pregnant despite knowing about her pregnancy for 2 weeks Aaron hadn't told
00:25:33
her mother anything she'd been open about her first pregnancy and miscarriage so why not this one Aaron's
00:25:41
lack of communication with her mother left everyone with questions what else had she been holding back and depending
00:25:48
how far along she was whose baby was it with Jon and his family Aaron had acted like the baby was his but with
00:25:58
Jesse Aaron was adamant that the baby was actually Chris Le at the prospect of having Chris's
00:26:12
baby Aaron seemed excited and hopeful happily ever after with John didn't seem to be in the card he was too cold too
00:26:21
controlling too uninterested in her Hobbies but Chris Chris made her excited Chris gave her purpose according to Beth
00:26:32
Chris he made her feel like she was the reason he was alive she was his reason for living maybe Chris could be her
00:26:42
happily ever after police even found information on Aaron's laptop about apartments in Alaska she'd been
00:26:50
seriously thinking about their future together so Aaron texted her friend Jesse in Tennessee that Chris was very
00:26:59
excited about it that he wanted to tell everyone he wanted to tell Aaron's mother it was going to be this big
00:27:08
announcement that Aaron was pregnant they were in love and they were going to move to Alaska together because Chris
00:27:16
was getting ready to leave the Marines and uh that's what Aaron thought was happening and that's what she conveyed
00:27:24
to her friend Jesse now Chris and Aaron's up coming surprise trip to Joshua Tree made much more sense it was
00:27:33
a perfect place to be alone together something that was hard to come by in their apartment complex where they were
00:27:39
constantly under watchful eyes Aaron seemed thoroughly convinced that both of them were in it for the long haul that
00:27:48
much was clear to analyst Ashley deelin it seemed that Aaron was in love with Christopher Lee because she was willing
00:27:55
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
00:28:03
didn't really care about him NCIS agents were now convinced that Aaron was in love with Chris she was serious about
00:28:11
their future but the question remained was Chris also in it for the long haul or did he have other
00:28:19
plans on the next episode of 48 Hours NCIS what else was chrisly hiding we're going to find here
00:28:28
right now the Marine Corps base is helping us they are gathering as many soldiers as they possibly can to go out
00:28:34
and search check in all these areas we're going to find [Music] her from CBS News and CBS Studios this
00:28:49
is 48 Hours NCIS original reporting by 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa Anthony Batson is
00:28:57
the senior producer for 48 hours Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount audio special thanks to 48
00:29:05
Hours executive producer Judy igard CBS studi senior vice president Rob luchow and Paramount audio vice president Megan
00:29:14
Marcus our podcast was written and produced by Jay venables Isabelle Kirby mcowan Cara shillin Max Johnston Megan
00:29:23
adoli and Ian Enright additional reporting and recording by is Kirby mcowan Jay venables and Megan adoli our
00:29:32
executive producers are Megan adoli and Ian Enright theme and music by epidemic sound original music from goat rodeo
00:29:42
with additional music from Paramount Final Mix by Rebecca Sidell Ian Enright is our fact Checker our production
00:29:50
manager is Megan aduli I'm Natalie Morales if you're enjoying this show be sure to give it a
00:29:57
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