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on June 30th 2014 2 days after Aaron Corwin went missing workers with the local water department in the desert
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town of 29 Palms showed up to a job by the Marine base a crew member noticed a car which
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was strange they were in the middle of the Mojave Desert the car appeared to be abandoned so they called it in to the
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police the was a blue Toyota Corolla the car Aaron Corwin was driving the day she went
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missing Aon corin's car was located approximately 2 miles from the back gate of the military base and that's still
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significantly far from Joshua Tree National Park's entrance but why is a car located close
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to base NCIS special agent Clifton ran doph Jr and his team tried to make sense of this did Aaron walk all the way to
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Joshua Tree to scope out Trails for her mom's upcoming visit they investigated the area prowled over the Sands and they
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noticed a second pair of tire tracks another vehicle seemed to indicate she didn't go wherever she went
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alone NCIS and San Bernardino authorities followed Aaron's shoo blueprints walking out of her car and
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into someone else's and then they followed the tracks of the second vehicle with those tracks ending at the
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black asphalt road out there it appeared that the second car drove off into the desert the terrain out there it's it's
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like Mars I think they did some type of training for the moon mission somewhere in that area NCIS analyst Ashley did
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chelin remembers when they initially found the car where the vehicle was found was was a clue because it was it
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was not found in an area you would think it was a much needed clue but still it's
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just a question of where is Aaron in the days after Aaron Corwin was reported missing NCIS and the local
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police department exhausted all leads once they found her car with clear evidence she was with someone else the
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search for the 19-year-old Marine's wife gathered speed and urgency it was summertime which gets
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very hot it can be very foding that there's no literally no water available in that area during the day and at night
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there's nothing to light your way and many dangerous uh animals that are in that habitat the harshness of the desert
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was troubling to to say the least and time was not on ncis's side between myself cliff and our program support the
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three of us were back and forth like working long days in and out and as new leads were developed and information
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came in then we just kind of put our our heads to the next the next hurdle or challenge that we needed to overcome but
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some challenges were insurmountable there was still no trace of Aaron after 48 hours and if she was
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was lost in the desert away from her car it was hard for lore aon's mom not to think the worst when I found out they
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found her car without her that's when I knew something had happened and I really kind of had that
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mother gut instinct that maybe she was no longer alive now it was not just a question of
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where is Aaron it was also a question of who had been with Aaron in the desert I'm CBS News correspondent
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Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours NCIS episode 2 the honeymoon is over this new information finding
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Aaron's car and the second pair of tire tracks in the sand changed everything the authorities needed to go back over
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what they knew about Aaron's life in 29 Palms before she went missing they needed to look at 29 Palms as Aaron had
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and retrace her steps in order to identify where she frequented and who she knew 29 Palms where Aaron was last seen
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is a remote desert city over 100 miles outside of LA and it could not be more different 29 Palms is sleepy and sparse
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Route 62 Cuts right through its Center there's a cassino a few hotels a single Starbucks for a city there's a lot of
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blank empty space across its 58 square miles that's about the same size as Disney
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World but it used to be bustling a long time ago in the 1800s the area was teeming with gold min ERS Legend has it
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after a long day's work they would make their way to the town's main water source a spring surrounded by 29 Palm
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Trees so when the miners would describe where they had been they opted for 29 palms and it's
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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
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who reported on Aaron's case it's the desert you know and the desert draws its own unique brand of
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people there are two sides to 29 Palms the side connected to the Marines which is the majority of the population and
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then there's a fraction of folks who are locals with no connection to the base the two worlds are starkly different and
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yet they are constantly colliding it's kind of funky in its own way I mean you'd probably be surprised and you'd
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probably want to visit some of like the sort of offbeat shops there the locals are known to wear cowboy hats and Sport
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turquoise jewelry after all 29 Palms was once a mining town There's shops that sell crystals there's a few places to
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eat then there's the Marine base the Marine base entrance is located in 29 Palms but the base itself is its
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own entity that exists just outside of the city limits nestled up against a mountain
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range the base eclipses the city in size at over 1,000 square miles Marines come
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from all over the country to serve here at the world's largest Marine Corps training base and they bring their
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families toward the base entrance it feels more like a small suburban neighborhood than a military site with
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young families living in culdesac the grounds are pristine surrounded by desert and Mountain Vistas
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there is one main strip of buildings where much of Base Life takes place based like this you're going to go to
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the same movie theater you're going to go to the same Watering Hole a lot of the events that are put on on base
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everybody goes to and you're going to run into each other special agent Randolph knows
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firsthand the small town feel of 29 Palms he lives in town and commuted to his office on base every day there are
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new people always coming in there are uh people always leaving there are people always returning uh even
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NCIS we we don't stay there permanently but you become a part of the community if they were going to find Aaron they
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had to start looking at this particular Community most of the population are transplants far away from their
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hometowns because the majority of people are connected to the Marine B case which
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means families are only stationed here for brief periods of time before a marine is relocated or
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deployed bottom line military families don't stay in 29 Palms for too long this is also true for NCIS
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Personnel who get bounced around depending on where they're needed like Analyst at chelin who transferred from
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Camp Pendleton California to 29 Palms because her help was needed when it came to finding Aaron Corwin it was my first
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time at an NCIS field office because prior to that I had started at our headquarters analyst ditchin picked up
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on the close-knit feel of the 29 Palms Marine base as soon as she arrived there's not a whole lot there so you
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really rely on that base life because if you're a dependent spouse and your husband's deployed then you're you're
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socializing with other dependent spouses and everybody's talking Aaron started making friends with her
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neighbors like Nicole Lee who brought Aaron to the nearby horse ranch and she was also a Marine's wife so I think for
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a 19-year-old in that situation you're you're trying to find your Social Circle you're trying to find your Niche and I
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think it's easy to get emotionally invested in things that may not be in your best
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interest that you realize in hindsight as the NCIS a agents progressed their investigation into
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Aaron's whereabouts they zeroed in on these Social Circles on a Marine base where everyone knows everyone the
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agent's investigation revealed that not everyone is who they say they are when Aaron felt lonely in the
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close-knit crowd she'd call back home it was a big adjustment to live away from home and in such close proximity to
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other young military couples she'd tell her mom lore what her new life was like there was maybe six apartments in this
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little quad it was little two-bedroom apartment I mean didn't anything bigger it wasn't fancy but you know it met your
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needs on the base housing is free for Aaron and John this was a no-brainer plus the base would be a secure en
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closed neighborhood giving Aaron's family back home much better peace of mind you know he was just starting out
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in the Marines he wasn't getting a huge stien for off- based housing so they probably wouldn't be living in the
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nicest area of 29 palms and we just felt they and we felt like she would be safer
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on base their housing was on one of the many CEST sacks in town all the buildings look like desert homes
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minimalist Style with clean lines and neutral colors most were equipped with Spanish tile roofs the ones with Clay
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shingles to manage the internal temperatures during those hot summer days in the complex there were two
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couples in particular who Aaron and her husband John connected with first ashleen and Connor Maliki who live
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downstairs and second the family who introduced Aaron to the White Rock horse rescue Nicole and Chris
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Lee the Le their kitchen's actually touched she also made friends with the people that live below them young
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husbands and young wives living in the desert with not much to do she had had a couple other people but these three
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couples were tight they did a lot together cooked out a lot would stay up all night playing board games whatever
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then then would make breakfast together and the guys would hang out together everyone in that complex was
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sort of like a military Melrose Place this is Beth Ford Roth a public radio reporter who covered Aaron's case once
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news spread that she was missing and it had spread to many local news stations it seemed like the media could not get
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enough of Aaron's story The Missing Marine's wife she lives in 29 Palms with her Marine husband Jonathan and he
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reported her where her husband is stationed anyone with information Marine Corporal husband
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reported her missing the day after she disappeared as soon as Beth heard about the case she followed it closely because
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it was right up her alley I am the daughter of a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and was interested
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in telling the story that a lot of people don't know which is military wives serve just as much as their
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husbands do she made it her life's work to write about its intricacies and pitfalls so I
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I wanted to cover not just the dry black and white stuff that goes on a barbecue
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or a parade or that kind of thing but just sort of what's it like to raise children on your own when your husband's
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in Afghanistan what's it like when he comes back what kind of support network do they have I was inspired by my mother
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who became an army wife just knowing that how alone she felt and didn't really find a support system that she
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needed so Aaron's case felt personal as Beth covered the story she came to know the people living in aon's
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apartment block well the husbands all Marines supported their families financially the wives were Homemakers
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the Le from the horse ranch were older than the other couples by a few years Christopher was sort of like the leader
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of of the group the guys generally got along the three Marines would have cookouts every week
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they would drink and just you know have a good time together and they could sort of bond
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over the the different aspects of what it's like to be in the military and where they were deployed or if they'd
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been to okanawa if they'd been to Afghanistan now the three women were kind of different of the three couples Aaron and
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John were the only ones without kids but Ashley Malaki from downstairs was similar to Aaron in temperament shy and
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quiet just trying to be a supportive Marine wife I remember ashleen Malaki saying that her husband had an open door
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policy which meant anyone could come in and out and she sort of went along with that now Nicole Chris's wife was not
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very popular on Bas she was known for being abrasive and maybe even a bit distracted neighbors sometimes raised an
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eyebrow at her parenting of her six-year-old daughter according to Beth Nicole would let her daughter wander
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around alone in the complex popping into other people's Apartments unannounced so these three couples may
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not have seen eye to eye on everything but in order to avoid total isolation they stuck together
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[Music] in different circumstances these couples could have been in college in a lot of
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ways they still behaved like college kids according to multiple accounts the couples partied often drank heavily and
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made questionable decisions spending their small stiens on luxuries like new clothes and
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cars Aaron's days transformed from their quiet routine of church in her hometown
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horse barn to the Rowdy world of Young Marines so so instead of dorm life it was Bas
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life unlike most 19-year-olds whose lives revolve around themselves Aaron's life revolved around the Marines it was
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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
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with each other it reflects well and it might help their chances of getting promoted in the
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future Beth Ford Roth says that the Wom women also had a role to play so it's kind of up to the wives to make sure
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they present a good front even if maybe they're not going to be best friends with someone because it's in their
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husband's best interest to move up the ranks and the [Music] Marines Aaron did her best to play her
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role as a marine wife she made friends with the other spouses did all the requisite socializing and when she was
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asked she would happily help out her neighbors Aaron would babysit when Chris and
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Nicole would go out on dates Aaron just cared for anyone who was vulnerable or smaller than she was and she really
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bonded with that little girl and wanted a child of her [Music] own it was only a matter of time before
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Aaron joined her neighbors in motherhood another duty of a marine wife but this she was excited for her babysitting on
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the base struck a cord in her heart back home in Tennessee Lura noticed her daughter nurturing children often she
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was very tender-hearted very attentive to people like the younger kids at the barn and at church absolutely loved
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Aaron because when they talked to her she made them feel like the most important person there it was in those
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moments that the true Aaron would come out of her shell she looked at them she got out on their level if they were
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younger and she wasn't one of those people that looked around to see who else she could talk to while they were
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talking to her they were her focal point Aaron missed her own childhood home full
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of kids after 4 months of living in 29 Palms she couldn't wait to get back home for Christmas in Tennessee and spend
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some time with her family we um got to spend I think like 10 days with them or so soon after the
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visit was over lur got a call for Aon and right after they got back she found out she was
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pregnant from the very beginning of their relationship John and Aaron both wanted to have children and start a
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family together Aaron was very excited to be pregnant they I mean they wanted and they're both great with kids it was
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the beginning of 2014 John and Aaron couldn't be happier gushing about the pregnancy Aaron took to Facebook guess
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what I'm pregnant with images of a stork flying through the clouds her Facebook friends people from Tennessee and 29
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Palms congratulated her so excited for her new chapter she was in her first trimester
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around 8 weeks and by the end of January maybe the first part of February she miscarried
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Aaron wasn't sure how to deal with something like that I mean she was a baby for anyone a miscarriage is a
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painful experience but for such a young couple it was devastating territory they
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were not equipped to navigate and I don't think either one of them knew how to handle that grief process to lose the
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baby and the hormones doing crazy things to you the miscarriage took its toll on
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John and Aaron but was not the first issue they had in their marriage when JN finally arrived at 29 Palms after his
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deployment Aron said she sensed a shift in him he wasn't the sweet boy she came to love in Tennessee anymore he started
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to harden and became distant the two started fighting more and more here's reporter Beth Ford Roth again they went
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from having sort of a sweet romantic dating relationship where they'd go out for french fries and a soda to a
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fullon marriage with the possibility of being parents or not being parents what it's like to have to pay bills what it's
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like to have to get along with people who aren't from Tennessee and so that the change would
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be difficult I think for anyone but they were 18 19 years old Beth thinks that at
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19 Aaron and John were still trying to figure out who they were John as I think any teenage husband would have
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difficulty communicating his sorrow his grief or understanding how his wife felt
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and there was a a split there from afar aon's mother lore noticed the couple was
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struggling I think that's kind of one things kind of started spiraling just over 48 hours after Aaron's
00:22:03
Disappearance in the Rolling Sands of the Mojave Desert the authorities gathered around Aaron's blue Corolla
00:22:11
NCIS special agent Randolph needed to keep track of all the evidence found by Aaron's
00:22:17
car looking around that vehicle trying to find any clue that would have led to where she went to next from that
00:22:25
location where that vehicle was parked and if any body else was there with her the car was found just a Stones throw
00:22:33
away from the Marine base it was clear she was not alone when she left for the desert Specialists were called in to
00:22:42
look at the tire tracks the desert sand held the tread well and the Specialists were able to create three-dimensional
00:22:50
impressions of the tracks the design of the tread and its Dimensions can help positively match the tire to a type of
00:22:57
vehicle investigators determined that the car that had pulled up next to Aaron was a
00:23:04
Jeep now this was something the NCIS agents could work with but first they had to question
00:23:11
Aaron's husband John again the last known person to have seen her when was the last time you saw her where did she
00:23:19
say she was going to go does she have any friends and that's where Jessica comes
00:23:25
in Jessica known as Jesse was Aaron's closest friend back home in Tennessee Aaron and Jesse texted daily often
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hourly Ever Since Aaron moved to 29 Palms Jessica Trenton reached out to John Corwin the day after Aaron
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disappeared she disclosed information related to those messages that she had with Aaron because she was concerned
00:23:47
that Aaron didn't return analyst D chelen knew it was time for NCIS to use its Network and reach to locate Jesse
00:23:56
and learn everything she may know no we contacted our agent out there close to Jessica asked him to get all that
00:24:05
information from Jessica my name is Sean Nash I'm a special agent with NCIS assigned to the
00:24:13
Memphis Tennessee office and I was asked to run some leads on the Aaron Corman investigation the NCIS Tennessee office
00:24:23
was small only two agents ran it including special agent Sean Nash we cover all of Tennessee and all of
00:24:32
Arkansas so if there's anybody that needs to be interviewed anybody needs to be interrogated uh evidence needs to be
00:24:39
collected that kind of thing if an NCIS office across the world needs something done in those two states they they call
00:24:46
us and ask us to do it for them special agent Nash made his way to Jesse as soon
00:24:51
as he got the call luckily Jesse was ready to tell all she told him that initially she was nervous to share
00:24:59
information but now her fear for Aaron's well-being overcame her loyalty Jessica
00:25:05
was very concerned about her friend Aaron and was upset uh so she was very cooperative and helped us in any way
00:25:14
that that we needed special agent Nash's main objective was to copy everything off
00:25:20
Jesse's phone especially her text messages with Aaron the text messages explaining the
00:25:28
locations she might have gone would be important timelines would be important the 29 Palms NCIS office was very eager
00:25:36
to get these because this would explain who she was with uh prior to her disappearance the NCIS has a digital
00:25:44
system for things like this the software itself can extract a variety of data from devices including call logs texts
00:25:53
photos browsing history and more we Tred to uh download her information uh from her cell phone the system should
00:26:05
duplicate all the info and data from Jesse's cell phone onto the NCIS database special agent Nash linked
00:26:13
Jesse's phone to it using a laptop and tried to begin the download unfortunately there was a problem an
00:26:21
error message popped up she had just gotten a new phone brand new phone her other one had broken and
00:26:30
so the system did not have the updates for her brand new phone even with some of the best available Tech it was no
00:26:37
match for an updated smartphone they'd have to do it the old-fashioned way special agent Nash looked through
00:26:45
all her messages cataloged them manually by taking pictures of Jesse's phone with
00:26:51
his phone and during the manual search we identified several uh text messages that were important to the investigation
00:26:59
as he comb through Jesse's text with Aaron special agent Nash found a name Christopher Lee was a marine that was
00:27:08
the nextdoor neighbor of Aaron Corwin at the time and there were some text messages that involved him and Aaron
00:27:16
Corwin according to the text between Aaron and Jesse Aaron was planning on meeting Chris Lee and Joshua Tree
00:27:23
National Park the day she went missing Chris Lee Nicole Lee's husband and Aaron's neighbor the day before Aaron
00:27:32
went missing she had text her friend Jessica apparently this surprise trip is super important you know I had heard of
00:27:41
chrisly before I knew that they had hung out together it seemed kind of odd to me
00:27:46
that she'd be going out there with you know just Chris that's the question on everyone's
00:27:52
mind why would Aaron go into the desert alone with her neighbor Chris Lee what surprise could he possibly have for her
00:28:01
and why didn't she tell her husband about it you know cuz she was a secret so I can tell her my
00:28:08
secrets that's next episode on 48 Hours NCIS from CBS News and CBS Studios this is 48 Hours
00:28:22
NCIS original reporting by 48 Hours producer Paula Rosa Anthony bats is the senior producer for 48 hours Jamie
00:28:31
Benson is the senior producer for Paramount audio special thanks to 48 Hours executive producer Judy igard CBS
00:28:39
studi senior vice president Rob luchow and Paramount audio vice president Megan Marcus our podcast was written and
00:28:47
produced by Jay venables Isabelle Kirby mcowan Cara shillan Max Johnston Megan adoli and Ian Enright additional
00:28:57
reporting at recording by Isabelle Kirby mcowan Jay venables and Megan adoli our
00:29:03
executive producers are Megan nadolski and Ian Enright theme and music by epidemic sound original music from goat
00:29:12
rodeo with additional music from Paramount Final Mix by Rebecca Sidell Ian Enright is our fact Checker our
00:29:21
production manager is Megan adoli I'm Natalie Morales if you're enjoying this show be sure to give it a
00:29:28
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