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I don't want to know I don't think I want to know what she saw. I mean I know what she saw but I don't think I want to
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hear it from her. I I just don't think I want to hear it from her. You know, my father was killed from a
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shotgun blast at close range. Um and my sister happened upon that. Yeah, I was in the bathroom believe it or not.
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And the phone was ringing and normally I don't I don't answer the phone in the bathroom.
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Uh just getting ready to wash my hands and I looked down and it was my it was my brother-in-law.
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And for whatever reason I I I answered it. I was like, you know, Lane, what's going on?
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And it was a very quick conversation. It was like Will, Mindy just called me and said
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something about she was frantic and said something about Poppy being shot. We call my dad Poppy, that's what the
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the grandkids all call him. And I said, what? This is Will Corporon. In April, his
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father and nephew were shot to death by former KKK member Frazier Glenn Cross, also known as Frazier Glenn Miller,
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outside of a Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. Cross then killed a third person in
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another location, a woman by the name of Terri LaManno. It was a huge news story
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at the time. Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. is a well-known neo-Nazi. >> Police say he used a shotgun killing two
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outside the center. Inside, about 75 mostly young children took cover in the building's theater The Overland Park
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community is mourning the victims, none of whom were Jewish. Will was at his daughter's cheerleading competition when
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he got the call. You know, I'm thinking at the shooting range, he accidentally shot him. I mean, you know, I
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I didn't even know didn't even know what to make of it. And the phone rang and I looked down and
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it was Mom's cell. And so I walked out to where I could hear. And then she And she told me
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She said, you you know, your father's dead. Family members of murder victims are
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often captured on television. We're shown their grief and we watch them try to respond when they're asked impossible
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questions. They're given this nightmare of a task trying to introduce their loved ones to the world while at the
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exact same time eulogizing them. What we rarely hear is the family's personal timeline. How they decide to
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tell their story. What to share and when. I'm Phoebe Judge and this is Criminal.
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The late Dr. William Corpron Sr. was 69 years old. He was a doctor, a hunter, and close to his family. He'd taken his
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grandson, 14-year-old Reed Underwood, to a talent competition. Reed's mom, Mindy, was at a lacrosse
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game with her other son. But when that game got rained out, Mindy headed to the community center to try to
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catch Reed's performance. When she drove into the parking lot, there weren't any police, no ambulances,
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there was no sign of emergency. She just happened to be one of the first people on the scene.
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That's when she recognized the body of her father. So, from a distance, she saw him laying there with the door open,
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thought that was strange, thought he'd had a heart attack or something. You know, your mind is racing.
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Um and I'm quoting her now, you know, she got up there and looked at him and knew immediately he was in heaven.
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Went around to the other side of the car and there were two men cradling Rhett. Um and very quickly
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a bystander or or someone else there who she calls Mickey. I'm not sure the last
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name. I don't remember. But I think he's a volunteer a worker there at the Jewish Community Center
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literally I think grabbed her up in both arms and whisked her into the doors of the Community Center which
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were probably maybe you know 30 ft away off to the right. That that that seems um
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that seems like I can't I can't even imagine. Yeah, I I can't either. We've not talked about it and I don't
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know that I'll ever really talk about it with her. Will and Mindy's mother arrived on the
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scene. She forced her way through the police barricade and found Mindy inside the Community Center. That's when they
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called Will at the cheerleading competition to tell him that his father was dead.
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When they walked back outside, Rhett was gone. No one would tell them what hospital
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he'd been taken to. Police say they do have a person of interest in custody. A shotgun was used
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and possibly a handgun and assault rifle, police said. No motive has been released. The FBI is also investigating.
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When did you find out about Rhett? Well, we were probably I'm thinking we were probably about 25
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to 30 minutes outside of Tulsa and the phone rings. And it was Len's cell. And this is the it's the worst call I've
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ever received in my life. He he's not so much sobbing or screaming or I mean I I I
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I've never heard someone's soul cry. But I I I'm telling you I I heard a man's soul
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cry. It was awful. And he just said, "Reed's gone." And I just remember I kept saying, "What?"
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"Reed's gone." "Reed's gone. We lost him. Reed's gone." Will and his wife took their kids home
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to Arkansas and began the 3-hour drive north to Kansas. It had only been a few hours since the shootings and Will got a
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call from a PR woman at the hospital where they'd taken Reed. She was working on a press release and wanted Will's
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approval. She'd made a comment about maybe waiting to release the names until, you know, sometime when the
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police department would do it either Monday or Tuesday. And it was literally right then when she
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said that that something kind of a switch went off and I kind of got my second wind and said,
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"No, we you know, okay, thank you." And then I texted my sister and brother and said, "We you know, we can't do that."
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Will works in insurance in Arkansas, but he used to be in TV news. So, he knows something about what it's like to make
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calls to perfect strangers and ask invasive questions. He knows what it's like when your job is to make someone
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else's private life public. That old news guy kicked in. Knowing that the media is going to get
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the information they need. You know, they may not be able to release the names, but they're going to they're
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going to find it out. So, you either let the wave crash over you or you ride the wave.
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And I guess it was just instinctual. You know, I wanted to get out in front of it. I knew they were going to find
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pictures somewhere and And told them I you don't want the first picture of dad and Reed also has a driver's license a
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permit. I said, you don't want the the pictures of dad and Reed to be out there to be their driver's license photos.
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That's not what we want. That's not who they are. And more on those two that we've confirmed were shot and killed
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today. A family statement released read in part Dr. Corcoran was a well-loved physician who moved to Johnson County to
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be closer to grandchildren. He cherished his family and more than anything had a
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passion for others. Reed was a 14-year-old freshman Blue Valley High School a school he loved. Reed had a
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passion for life and touched so many people in his young age. We take comfort knowing they are together in heaven.
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Just 14 years old Don one of the victims in today's shooting. Of course, we will
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learn more about that third victim who is yet to be named. All three morning shows I think had called.
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Mindy chose the Today show because frankly she likes Savannah Guthrie. Never met her. She just likes her. You
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know, just one of those things. There were people that called that I did not feel comfortable with that I turned
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down. Local, national, print. You could just kind of hear an edge to their voice. Um,
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they didn't sound the least bit sympathetic. They just sounded like they were they were doing a job. You know?
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Will was scheduled to talk to CBS at a church in Kansas City. He expected an intimate sit-down. But when he and his
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sister arrived, the church was mobbed by reporters. And there are satellite trucks everywhere,
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live trucks everywhere, cables running here and there. We walk in and look off into the the main, you know, narthex
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and there's a bank of cameras and a you know, the the the whole news conference scene, you know.
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So, we went in as a family went into um to just a side room. Kind of a a little chapel off to the side and
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just kind of gathered ourselves and I said, you know, Mindy, we didn't you know, this news
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conference is not anything that was in the plan. I said, if you're okay, that you know, they're
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here and we can certainly go and talk to them. If not, um you know, we don't have to. You know,
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what do you want to do? Uh and she said, no, I'm okay. I talked to the transplant group today.
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That was not an easy call. And um hopefully my son will be um a tissue donor, possibly an organ donor. They don't
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know. He was 14 and he had his permit and he had already signed up to be a donor on
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his own and they knew that. Your sister speaks with such detail about the events
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and it's so surprising to hear her not only I mean, I have I have no idea the strength and courage to be able to
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stand up and do that, but also to speak so so rationally about about what she saw
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and wanting everyone to know, hey, this is exactly what you want to know what happened. This is exactly what happened.
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Did that surprise you at all? You know, I it did it did surprise me. Um her strength of
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character, you know, and all that, no, not at all. I none of that surprises me, but but the way she's handled herself
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with such dignity and strength after losing her son and her father and seeing her father, you know,
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lying in the rain on the blacktop, you know, obviously dead. You know, to be able then to
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to articulate that um yes, that that that did surprise me. Did you ever think about while this was
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happening, about how your father would have been handling it? Yes and no. You know,
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we've talked about this after the fact. You know, you look for any little glimmer of something.
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There are ways we think this could have ended worse even than it did. How? >> Um well,
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if Dad would have somehow survived and Reed had been killed, that would have been a slow torturous
00:12:00
death for my father. It would have killed him, but it would have taken a while. But I I want to ask you one question and
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and that is um do you think that you did that the way that you handled this, that you did
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justice to your father and Reed's memory? I felt like the decisions we made were good. The pictures we released, the
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news release that we did early on, um were great pictures. The information was good.
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And you know, I do. I feel like that we did my father and Reed proud. And I think we continue to. And maybe helping
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people figure out how to get through it. You know, that it is okay to release the
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names and release some pictures. It's okay. Tell your story. Tell your loved one's
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story the way you want it to be told. It's going to get told one way or the other.
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You may as well be the ones, you know, trying to do the telling. Reed's mother, Mindy Corporon, telling
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Fox 4 News her son was a beautiful singer. She was proud to post video of her son's performances on YouTube. She
00:13:07
said >> Reed was 14 and he wanted to sing. He was with his grandfather at the time of
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his death. Frasier Glenn Cross has been charged with three murders. Will Corporon Sr.,
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Reed Underwood, and the third victim, Terri LaManno. She was 53. He's being held in a jail in Johnson County, Kansas
00:13:32
awaiting trial. Criminal is produced by Eric Mennel, Lauren Spore and me. You can find out
00:13:47
more information about the show on our website thisiscriminal.org. We're on Facebook and also on Twitter at
00:13:54
Criminal Show. If you like what we're doing, you can subscribe in iTunes where you can find all of our previous
00:14:00
episodes. I'm Phoebe Judge and this is Criminal.