00:00:03
[theme music] NARRATOR: A deadly fall from
a desolate mountain trail. DICK SINE: We had received
word that a body had been found
00:00:16
in Glacier National Park. NARRATOR: A newlywed's
life cut short just days after saying "I do."
00:00:22
AMBER HAQUE: This was a case
that had everybody gripped. What about to start their life
together and one of them
00:00:28
has ended up dead. NARRATOR: Was it simply
a terrible accident? JUSTIN FRANZ: She told
law enforcement that they
00:00:35
had gotten into an argument. NARRATOR: Or the result
of something far more sinister?
00:00:56
[theme music] JUSTIN FRANZ: Cody Johnson was
born in California in 1988, and grew up in Montana.
00:01:20
AMBER HAQUE: Cody
loved being outdoors. He loved sports, he loved
going to his church,
00:01:25
and he also was
obsessed with cars. He loved driving
them, fixing them up. He was a person who loved
life and his hobbies.
00:01:34
JUSTIN FRANZ: He was just very
popular among his friends. He was very outgoing. NARRATOR: Cody's
hometown of Kalispell
00:01:40
was the county seat
of Flathead County. DICK SINE: The county
is phenomenally large.
00:01:47
It stretches all the way
from the Canadian border down to the Bob
Marshall Wilderness.
00:01:53
The county is a very wide river
valley formed by glaciers eons ago, and there are a number
of glaciers in the mountains.
00:02:05
And that's kind of a big reason
why people like to come here, is to go to that remote area.
00:02:13
NARRATOR: Cody had been
single for some time. In October 2011, he
met Jordan Graham.
00:02:21
AMBER HAQUE: Jordan and Cody
met at a Halloween party. Jordan was a little
bit shy as she
00:02:25
was slightly more introverted. Cody was larger than life,
really out there, extroverted,
00:02:30
but they got on really well. They had so much in common. Both really active, loved
the outdoors, loved hiking.
00:02:37
They both were avid
church-goers as well. And the relationship
progressed quite quickly.
00:02:43
JUSTIN FRANZ: Cody was head
over heels with Jordan. This was infatuated with her.
00:02:48
He once told
a friend that if he could wake up next to her every
day for the rest of his life,
00:02:51
he would be happy. AMBER HAQUE:
The relationship moved fast. And a little over a year
later, in December 2012,
00:02:59
Cody proposed. JUSTIN FRANZ: They're very
involved in their church and would often go
at least once a week,
00:03:08
but sometimes twice in one day. DONNA YOUNGS: Cody
and Jordan were both members of the Faith Baptist
Church, a very conservative
00:03:17
branch of the Christian faith. Jordan was particularly
devout member, and her beliefs were very
much that sex was something
00:03:29
to be reserved for marriage. AMBER HAQUE:
On June 29 in 2013, the couple married in a modest
celebration, surrounded
00:03:40
by family and friends. After the ceremony,
the couple had a one-night
honeymoon in a place
00:03:47
called Bigfork in Montana. Cody really spoiled
Jordan that night. He decorated
the room with flowers
00:03:53
to make it a really
romantic evening for them. NARRATOR: When they returned
from their honeymoon,
00:04:00
the newlyweds moved
into their first home together. - The couple had time off work
booked in to decorate their new
00:04:07
place together, and Cody was
due back into work on Monday, the 8th of July. JUSTIN FRANZ: They got
up, went to church.
00:04:14
People were asking Cody what
they were planning to do that Sunday, and Cody said
that Jordan had told him
00:04:20
that she had
a surprise for him, but he didn't know
what the surprise was. After church, they met
some other church members
00:04:28
at the Dairy Queen
in Kalispell. After spending time with their
friends, Cody and Jordan went
00:04:34
home about 8:30 that night. NARRATOR: Later that evening,
Jordan made an unexpected phone
00:04:43
call to her brother. - On the evening of July
7, at about 11:15, Jordan calls up her brother and
she tells him that her and Cody
00:04:53
had gotten into a fight and he
had gotten into a car with some of his car buddies
to go joyriding, and
00:05:01
she didn't know where he was. And she didn't want to talk to
him or look for him that night,
00:05:05
but she just wanted to talk
to him the next day. NARRATOR: Later that
night, around 1:00 AM,
00:05:14
Jordan drove to her best
friend Kimberly's house. AMBER HAQUE: When she
turned up on her doorstep,
00:05:20
Kimberly noticed that
Jordan seemed nervous. JUSTIN FRANZ: She told
Kimberly that the argument had
00:05:26
happened so quickly,
and that she didn't really want to talk to Cody. She just wanted
to see if he showed
00:05:32
up to work the next morning. NARRATOR: On July 8, Cody
was due on the early shift
00:05:39
at the local car
dealership where he worked building custom-made
vehicles with his coworker
00:05:44
and close friend, Cameron. AMBER HAQUE: Cameron
was expecting him to show up for work that
day, but he never showed.
00:05:56
JUSTIN FRANZ: Cody
always came to work on time, sometimes early, and
was a very dedicated worker.
00:06:01
And so for him to not be
at work was very unusual. NARRATOR: Two
hours later, there
00:06:06
was still no sign of Cody. JUSTIN FRANZ: Cameron
text, he called, but it went to voicemail every time.
00:06:13
- About 4:30, he texted Jordan. Jordan told Cameron that the
couple had gotten into a fight,
00:06:21
and that Cody had taken
off with some car bodies, apparently from Washington. NARRATOR: By July 9,
it had been two days
00:06:31
since Cody had last been seen. JUSTIN FRANZ: Cameron went to
Cody and Jordan's house to see
00:06:37
if he could find Cody himself. When he got there, he started
looking around the house
00:06:41
and found the back door
unlocked and went inside, but could not find Cody. And Cameron continued to get
more and more concerned,
00:06:49
so he started to call friends
and call police departments and to see if anyone matching
Cody's description showed up.
00:06:57
He called hospitals
from Kalispell all the way
to Spokane, Washington, to see if they had found Cody.
00:07:03
NARRATOR: But there was
no sign of him anywhere. AMBER HAQUE: Jordan
gathered some friends
00:07:10
and began to search around
the local area for Cody. When they were
driving back, Jordan
00:07:16
received a call from
the police asking her to come in for questioning. JUSTIN FRANZ: She goes to the
Kalispell Police Department
00:07:26
to talk to a Sergeant
Zimmerman and tell him what she knows about his disappearance.
00:07:32
Jordan said that
Cody had received a phone call that evening that
upset him and agitated him.
00:07:41
- Jordan speculated
that it could have been a call from
somebody called Jose, who she said owed Cody money.
00:07:48
JUSTIN FRANZ: Then she
left Cody that evening for a little bit
because she had forgotten
00:07:51
her phone charger
at one of the places where she worked as a nanny. When she came home,
Cody was gone.
00:08:07
She also told
the law enforcement that she'd seen a dark-colored
car pick up Cody
00:08:12
in the driveway and drive off. [tense music] AMBER HAQUE: A missing
persons report was
00:08:25
launched in northwest Montana. This went out to all
of the authorities in the local area who
then began a search.
00:08:34
NARRATOR: Dick Sine was one of
the officers on duty that day. DICK SINE: In 2013,
I was the chief
00:08:42
of detectives for the Flathead
County Sheriff's Department. Under Montana law,
the elected Sheriff
00:08:49
is also the elected Coroner. I know Glacier
National Park because I was a law enforcement ranger
there for about eight years.
00:09:00
Hiking on the trails is
not recommended at night. It's rugged. It's remote. A lot of times you're on a
narrow rock ledge with mountain
00:09:11
to one side of you and a sharp
fall off to the other side. And if you just
trip and fall, you
00:09:19
can go downhill a long ways,
and some of those falls can be very fatal. When someone goes
missing, they generally
00:09:29
do a radio broadcast
that can be received by all law enforcement
agencies in the area.
00:09:36
So in the summer months,
you get these all the time because of the extreme
number of visitors
00:09:44
we have in the area. Most of these are resolved
within a few hours. They just come out way
later than they planned on,
00:09:52
or they overnight somewhere
and come out the next day. Rarely are they
actually missing.
00:09:59
The report of Cody
Johnson missing was not an unusual event. The fact that he stayed
missing longer than most than
00:10:09
made it more intense, and more
of interest to law enforcement to be looking with
greater diligence.
00:10:19
AMBER HAQUE: It's now two days
since Cody's last been seen. His friends and his
colleagues were really
00:10:24
starting to get worried. NARRATOR: Cody Johnson had been
missing from the Kalispell area
00:10:36
for over two days. While local police
began their search, his wife of only
10 days, Jordan,
00:10:44
continued to be
questioned by detectives. JUSTIN FRANZ: When asked
why she didn't immediately
00:10:50
report him missing, Jordan
told law enforcement that she didn't know that she could.
00:10:55
She thought she had to wait
48 hours before reporting someone missing. Jordan also said
that she believed
00:11:02
if Cody had come
home and found out that she had called law
enforcement, that he
00:11:07
would have gotten upset. Law enforcement was
suspicious of Jordan's story because she had been
telling different people
00:11:15
different things throughout
the previous few days. NARRATOR: The following
morning on July 10, 2013,
00:11:42
Jordan returned to Kalispell
Police Department along with her mother and some
vital new information.
00:11:55
JUSTIN FRANZ: In that
email, the person wrote, "my name is Tony. There's no bother
looking for Cody anymore.
00:12:00
He's gone. He had come with some buddies,
met up with me on Sunday night in Columbia Falls.
00:12:07
He was saying he needed to be
with his buddies for a bit and take them for a joyride."
00:12:11
AMBER HAQUE: "Three of the guys
came back saying that they had gone for a ride
in the woods somewhere,
00:12:16
and Cody got out of the car,
went for a little hike, and they are positive that he
fell and he is dead, Jordan."
00:12:25
JUSTIN FRANZ: "I don't
know who the guys were, but they took off. So call off the missing
persons report.
00:12:30
Cody is gone for sure." - This really turned
the investigation on its head. When she gave this email to law
enforcement that essentially
00:12:39
said her husband was dead. She was acting very unusual. She wasn't freaked out. She wasn't crying.
00:12:46
She wasn't sad. She seemed to be showing
almost no emotion at all. - For a woman who's
potentially just
00:12:55
found out that her
new husband is dead, this reaction is not
what you would expect.
00:13:06
AMBER HAQUE: Jordan said that
she didn't know who Tony was, but she gave police contact
details for somebody
00:13:12
called Tony Stallcup. - Law enforcement immediately
thought the email was sketchy,
00:13:16
but it was still
a lead nonetheless. So they subpoenaed
Google for information about where the IP address
of the email had been created,
00:13:23
and they also decided
to track down this Tony. NARRATOR: While police tried
to trace Tony Stallcup,
00:13:34
Jordan regrouped with
her search party. AMBER HAQUE: Armed with this
information from this email,
00:13:40
Jordan gathers up her
friends, her brother Michael. They all head
to Glacier National Park
00:13:45
and begin a search. JUSTIN FRANZ:
At a few points, they would stop and get
out of the car
00:13:53
and start hiking around
looking for Cody. But it was kind of like
finding a needle in a haystack.
00:13:59
Glacier National Park
is a million acres. It's a huge landscape, and so
finding a single person in it
00:14:05
would be nearly impossible. One of the spots that
Jordan wanted to look at was this location
called The Loop.
00:14:16
They parked the car
and looked around briefly, but it was getting late
and so they went home.
00:14:22
The following day, they
went back to the spot, and Jordan was pretty
insistent that they
00:14:26
searched this area again,
and so they started walking. At one point, Jordan started
to climb down the embankment.
00:14:33
It's this very
steep embankment. That's over this river. Very dangerous, but Jordan
was insistent about going
00:14:45
down this embankment. - Her brother tries
to say to her, "it's not safe over there."
00:14:49
But she just says to him, "no,
I've just got this feeling that we might find something."
00:14:54
JUSTIN FRANZ: After a few
minutes of walking around, she spotted something
in the ravine below.
00:15:01
Her brother Michael came
alongside her and there he was. [sinister music] It was Cody's
body at the bottom
00:15:12
of the steep and rocky ravine. Michael immediately became
emotional and started crying,
00:15:20
but Jordan was very
cold and didn't seem to show a lot
of emotion at all about what she had just seen.
00:15:30
NARRATOR: With no phone signal
on the remote hiking trail, Jordan and her friends drove
to the nearest general store
00:15:37
to alert the authorities. - From there, a call
is made to say that the body has been found.
00:15:45
NARRATOR: Park rangers
confirmed the presence of a body, but due
to the difficult and dangerous
00:15:50
terrain, recovery teams waited
until the following day, July 12, to attempt
to retrieve it from the ravine.
00:15:59
DICK SINE: We had received
word that a body had been found in Glacier
National Park,
00:16:04
that they suspected that it
was, in fact, Cody Johnson. So I was assigned
as a coroner, not as
00:16:11
a detective,
but as a coroner, to go and investigate the death. We were taken to a spot
where you could look over
00:16:22
the edge of the gorge,
and you could see the body and the water below. And then we came up with a game
plan of how to get down to it.
00:16:31
NARRATOR: Cody's body
was almost 200 feet below in a creek at the bottom
of the canyon.
00:16:37
- The fastest and easiest
way would have been to rappel down on ropes. But because the body was
at the bottom of the gorge,
00:16:46
we weren't sure how
the cliff faces were involved in what happened, so we
didn't want to disturb
00:16:52
anything on the cliff faces. So we walked down
through wooded area and followed the creek that
he was in and approached him
00:17:02
that way, was not
to disrupt any evidence or forensic findings
that might be there.
00:17:14
When we came upon the body, it
was in a small pool of water, which roughly was 3-foot deep.
00:17:23
Prone, arms hanging down at his
side, legs down underneath him. As coroners were
taught, everything
00:17:31
is a homicide until the
evidence and the information proves otherwise. We also know people
fall and die in the park
00:17:52
with some regularity. For the most part,
almost three a year. So you try to start
with an unbiased mind.
00:17:59
A number of investigators
and myself took a series
of photographs looking at the body from all angles,
so you get a good perspective
00:18:07
of where they're at. Then we go into the physical
examination of the body. There was no blood.
00:18:16
You could see some skin
defects, which is corner terms for tears and skin. But with his face
down, we couldn't
00:18:24
see any trauma associated
with his head or skull from that position. In his back pocket was
the outline of a wallet.
00:18:35
So I recovered that wallet. I found a Montana
operator's license which was issued to Cody,
and the physical description
00:18:44
matched the general
physical description that we had in front of us. So now we were able
to say that this,
00:18:50
in fact, was Cody Johnson. We have to put our emotion
behind and look at things from a clinical standpoint.
00:19:00
It was not a pleasant thing
to look at by any means, but it was part
of my job and I try
00:19:07
to do my job with
the greatest efficiency and professionalism I can. As I panned the area
taking photographs,
00:19:18
I noticed two objects that
were not naturally occurring. One was a piece of black
cloth or fabric,
00:19:25
and another one was a tennis
shoe up on the cliff edge. So that was the first clue
from where he came down,
00:19:36
because he could have
come down from either side of that canyon. But then we knew he came
from the south side of it
00:19:42
because of the placement
of that shoe. The plan was made that we would
put Cody in a water bag, which
00:19:52
is basically a large mesh
bag, and try and hoist it up the side of a mountain. In rolling him over
to position him in the bag
00:20:00
was the first frontal
view of his face and the frontal
lobes of his head. And he had massive trauma that
would be, the descriptor we use
00:20:13
is inconsistent with life. And that further
gave indication that he fell from altitude.
00:20:18
He didn't just trip and fall
there in that body of water. Everything that we saw, the
totality of the information,
00:20:27
suggested that he came from
the south rim of that Canyon up in that loop area and hit
rock objects all the way down.
00:20:44
DONNA YOUNGS: This sets
up some big questions. What was Cody doing there
and how did he fall?
00:20:58
NARRATOR: Cody's body was
airlifted out of the ravine and sent for autopsy. Later that day,
the autopsy results
00:21:05
confirmed he had
died from blunt force trauma consistent with
a fall from 200 feet.
00:21:13
Meanwhile, news
of Cody's death spread throughout the local community. JUSTIN FRANZ: The discovery
of Cody's body
00:21:20
in Glacier National Park
was a big story locally. People go missing in the park
with some regularity,
00:21:26
and occasionally people die. But this was very mysterious
about how he ended up at the bottom of the ravine.
00:21:35
NARRATOR: On July
22, 2013, 11 days after Cody's body was
found, friends and family
00:21:43
gathered for his funeral. AMBER HAQUE: Cody's mom,
Shari, led the tribute service.
00:21:49
They had a memorial
fund there to pay for some of the expenses,
but the room was full of all
of Cody's loved ones,
00:21:56
his friends, his colleagues. However, the mourners described
that Jordan's demeanor
00:22:00
was unusual. JUSTIN FRANZ: She
seemed very disengaged from the entire event. She wasn't very
emotional, especially
00:22:08
considering that she just lost
her husband of eight days. And some people later said
that she spent most of the time
00:22:13
looking at her phone. NARRATOR: Concerned
about her best friend Jordan's Maid
of Honor, Kimberly,
00:22:23
contacted the police
about some worrying text messages she'd
received from Jordan
00:22:27
in the run up to the wedding. JUSTIN FRANZ: Jordan
had been sending her a lot of texts
about issues that she
00:22:34
and Cody had been having. AMBER HAQUE: She kept saying to
Kimberly she wasn't sure if she
00:22:40
wanted to go through with it. Kimberly said Jordan
seemed more concerned with being a bride
than a wife, and
00:22:47
that also she had some
nerves around the night of the wedding. Because she was
deeply religious,
00:22:55
she was nervous
about the prospect that Cody might
want to consummate the marriage that night.
00:23:02
NARRATOR: Jordan's doubts about
her relationship with Cody continued in the days
following the wedding.
00:23:08
JUSTIN FRANZ: Kimberly
told law enforcement that a lot of the text messages
she had received from Jordan
00:23:12
were about how she felt
like she had made a mistake. She wished she hadn't
gotten married to Cody.
00:23:19
She was really struggling with
settling into married life and settling into adulthood.
00:23:24
She was also having trouble
being intimate with Cody. She would make up excuses
why they couldn't be intimate
00:23:29
together, and she was
just really struggling with that part of marriage. DONNA YOUNGS: These
messages are about
00:23:38
more than post-wedding blues. They're not simply
a reaction to the end of the excitement
and the anticipation
00:23:45
leading up to the wedding. These messages imply somebody
who feels frightened, who feels trapped.
00:23:52
What we have here
is somebody who doesn't really have the
emotional maturity for
00:23:57
marriage yet. NARRATOR: There was
one text message in particular sent the night
Cody went missing that raised
00:24:06
alarm bells for officers. - Kimberly told law enforcement
that on the night of July 7,
00:24:12
Jordan had texted
Kimberly and said that she was going
to finally bring up these feelings with
Cody and that they
00:24:19
were going to have that
conversation that evening. She also told Kimberly that if
she didn't hear from her later,
00:24:25
that she should be worried
that something had happened. [ominous music] NARRATOR:
As the investigation continued
00:24:37
into the death of Cody
Johnson after a fatal fall in Glacier National
Park, his friends
00:24:43
began to question
the behavior of his now widow, Jordan Graham,
in the aftermath.
00:24:50
JUSTIN FRANZ: In the days
after they found Cody's body, all of Cody
and Jordan's friends
00:24:56
started to look at the events
of the previous week or two in a different light. They started to remember
that at the wedding,
00:25:05
she was acting very
unusual, that she wasn't really expressing
a lot of emotion or even excitement
about the wedding.
00:25:12
While she had been excited
about the event itself, she didn't seem to be excited
about getting married to Cody.
00:25:21
When she was walking
down the aisle, Jordan was actually crying. At the time, her
friends thought
00:25:26
that maybe they
were tears of joy, but with the passage
of time, they started to think
that maybe those were
00:25:33
tears meant something else. AMBER HAQUE: When people
reflected back on that wedding
00:25:42
day, it seemed even
more suspicious now Cody had gone missing. NARRATOR: Jordan's
behavior during the search
00:25:51
for her missing husband
had also taken friends and family by surprise. AMBER HAQUE: She was giggling.
00:25:58
She was texting on her phone. And then when they eventually
did find her dead husband's
00:26:03
body, she made this
comment and say, "oh, well, they call off the search now. The detectives can
get off my back
00:26:09
and get out of my business." JUSTIN FRANZ: Later
that day, they were driving home in Cody's car.
00:26:17
One of Jordan's
friends was driving and she was obviously
very emotional. I mean, they just found
their friend's body
00:26:23
and they were
driving erratically. And at one point Jordan told
this friend, "hey, slow down,
00:26:29
drive safe. This isn't my car." And then she paused and said,
"well, actually it is now."
00:26:36
That just seemed very
unusual to be more focused on the car that
you have, instead
00:26:42
of the fact that you just
discovered your dead husband at the bottom of a ravine.
00:26:47
DONNA YOUNGS: All
of this tells me that this is someone
who's not surprised by the discovery
of the body, who's
00:26:52
not emotionally impacted
by the discovery of the body. Someone who's unaware of the
world that she's living in,
00:27:00
who hasn't admitted
to herself what's going on. NARRATOR: But what
really set alarm bells
00:27:08
ringing was how
quickly Jordan found Cody's body in Glacier National
Park, a sprawling wilderness
00:27:15
spanning over 1 million acres. JUSTIN FRANZ:
The odds of finding a body in Glacier
National Park are slim.
00:27:22
The odds of finding
your dead husband in Glacier National Park is
probably one in a billion.
00:27:32
DICK SINE: The park
has hundreds of miles of trails, hundreds
of lakes, several rivers.
00:27:40
If you could look
at an acre a day, it would exceed
a human lifetime. It's beyond
reasonable imagination
00:27:50
that they just happen
to luck on to the right spot at the right time. Just incredibly unusual.
00:27:59
I can't think of another
time in my career that that has happened. NARRATOR: As suspicions
swirled around Jordan,
00:28:08
detectives continued
to follow up on the lead she had
provided to police when Cody was reported missing.
00:28:15
JUSTIN FRANZ: Initially,
Jordan had told law enforcement that Cody had received a phone
call on the night of July 7
00:28:22
that had upset him. [tense music] AMBER HAQUE: The police
did investigate this call, which Jordan
said Cody received
00:28:31
from Jose in Washington. Turns out Jose
did call Cody, but this was just about
a work-related incident,
00:28:38
so the police quickly
cleared him of any suspicion. Detectives then began
to investigate the email.
00:28:45
Jordan had said that
this came from a man called Tony Stallcup. They made contact with Tony.
00:28:51
He had nothing to do
with this email. The police then subpoenaed
Google to find out more
00:28:56
information about the account. [tense music] Two key pieces
of information were found.
00:29:03
This account was set up
on July the 10, the same day that the email was sent. And the IP address led back
to Jordan's parents' house.
00:29:14
This now strongly suggested
that Jordan had set up this email account
to send a fake email
00:29:20
to create a fake
narrative about what really happened to Cody. DONNA YOUNGS: Now, if Jordan
sent this email to herself,
00:29:28
this tells me that we're
dealing with somebody who's desperately thrashing
about, who's
00:29:33
on the back foot
scrambling, and who's simply reacting to events
rather than having pre-planned
00:29:39
them in any way at all. NARRATOR: Then came another
shocking revelation. JUSTIN FRANZ: During
the course of law enforcement's
00:29:47
investigation, they
were able to subpoena the cell phone data
of Jordan's phone and where it had been
on the evening of July 7.
00:29:57
That information
told them that Jordan was headed towards
Glacier National Park and eventually entered
the park, where she lost cell
00:30:05
phone service for a while. Later, it showed
her leaving the park going back to Kalispell.
00:30:11
NARRATOR: This confirmed that
Jordan, or at least her phone, had been in the park
on the same night
00:30:16
that Cody fell to his death. And then detectives
uncovered another key piece of evidence that would
change the course
00:30:26
of the entire investigation. On the evening of July 16,
Jordan was asked to come
00:30:32
in for further questioning. - Initially, she thought
it was just an interview to wrap things up,
but when she got there,
00:30:39
she wasn't talking
to detectives with the Kalispell Police
Department anymore. She was talking
to an FBI agent.
00:30:45
[tense music] The FBI was involved
because Cody's body had been discovered
in Glacier National Park,
00:30:52
which is federal jurisdiction. The agent asked Jordan
to explain the night of Cody's disappearance.
00:31:00
Jordan told him about
the car buddies, how they had gotten
into a disagreement. But at one point, the agent
told Jordan to stop
00:31:14
and said that he
knew she was lying. He flips over a photo
from the security cameras
00:31:20
at the west gate
of Glacier National Park. Right there was Jordan
and Cody and their car
00:31:26
and a timestamp saying
that they were there the night that Cody died. [tense music]
00:31:34
- The police used this piece
of irrefutable evidence of her lying
to break Jordan down.
00:31:43
Faced with this evidence, she
breaks down and confesses. - Jordan said that they
drove into the park
00:31:53
and they decided
to go on a hike. JUSTIN FRANZ: She
told law enforcement that they had gotten
into an argument,
00:32:03
that she had finally confronted
Cody about her feelings of not wanting to be married.
00:32:10
And the argument
got heated quickly. DONNA YOUNGS: In that
moment, although I think she will have been
aware at the back of her mind
00:32:48
of the consequences
of what she's telling, I think, actually,
Jordan will have experienced this as a relief
to be finally saying the truth.
00:33:00
NARRATOR: Following
her confession, Jordan was released
and placed under house arrest,
00:33:05
while detectives
continued to build a case to prove this wasn't
an accident but a meticulously planned murder.
00:33:12
[tense music] That August, she was indicted
by a federal grand jury. - Prosecutors managed
to secure an indictment against
00:33:24
Jordan for first
and second-degree murder and lying to authorities. The police department
called Jordan
00:33:30
in asking her to return some
evidence, but when she arrived, they arrested her
on suspicion of Cody's murder.
00:33:43
The trial began
on December 9, 2013, at a federal court
in Missoula, Montana. NARRATOR: Jordan pleaded
not guilty to charges
00:33:52
of first-degree murder,
second-degree murder, and making false
statements to authorities.
00:33:58
JUSTIN FRANZ:
First-degree murder suggests that it
was premeditated and that she had
planned it all out.
00:34:04
Second-degree murder was
that it was an accident. The purpose of the trial was
to determine whether or not she
00:34:09
had killed Cody on purpose. NARRATOR:
If the prosecution could prove Jordan was guilty
of first-degree murder,
00:34:18
she could be facing
life in prison. On December 9, 2013, just
five months after Cody Johnson
00:34:30
died after a fatal fall
in Glacier National Park, his widow, Jordan Graham,
stood trial for his murder.
00:34:39
- The prosecution brought
various pieces of evidence. These included the fact that
Jordan took Cody for a surprise
00:34:46
that night up on the mountain. The fact that she sent
these text messages on the night of his
death to Kimberly,
00:34:52
all of her nerves
before the marriage, as well as her lies after
Cody was found dead.
00:34:58
- The prosecution is painting
a picture of Jordan as somebody utterly cold, somebody who
was able to ruthlessly hold
00:35:08
a secret from her
friends and family, somebody who strategically
tried to take control of the narrative.
00:35:16
NARRATOR: There was one
further piece of evidence that prosecutors
hoped would convince
00:35:21
the jury that Cody's
death had been planned. JUSTIN FRANZ: There
was a cloth that
00:35:27
was found near
Cody in the park, and prosecutors believe that
it might have been a blindfold.
00:35:35
Jordan had put
a blindfold on Cody before he had been
pushed off the cliff. Prosecutors tried to introduce
the blindfold at trial,
00:35:45
but because it hadn't been
put in a proper evidence bag, they were not able to submit
it as formal evidence
00:35:53
in the trial. - They were looking
for DNA on it and it was stored in a plastic
bag and it was damp.
00:35:58
Well, things stored in plastic
bags that are damp putrefy and destroy DNA evidence.
00:36:04
[tense music] NARRATOR: Jordan's
defense team continued to claim that Cody's fatal fall
had been a tragic accident.
00:36:15
JUSTIN FRANZ:
Jordan's attorneys argued that Jordan
was an immature person and that she wasn't ready
for the responsibilities
00:36:22
of marriage, but that she
didn't purposely kill Cody. Their argument was that
Cody and Jordan had gotten
00:36:30
into a fight that night
in Glacier National Park, and that she had pushed him
off the cliff by accident.
00:36:38
And that everything that
she had done in the days after his death, all
the lies she told,
00:36:45
was because she
didn't think anyone would believe her
version of events. - There's no doubt this is
a plausible explanation.
00:36:52
I'm just not sure it's
consistent with somebody who is also able
the next day to create
00:37:00
an email alibi, deflecting
blame on somebody else. NARRATOR: During the course of
the trial, dozens of witnesses
00:37:10
were called
to testify, including then chief of detectives
and county coroner Dick Sine.
00:37:17
DICK SINE: I was brought
into the courtroom and the questioning involved
was about the location.
00:37:25
How did I take
the remains into my care, and how was the integrity of
them going forward to the crime
00:37:31
lab, those mechanical sorts
of things which one cannot take for granted at trial.
00:37:41
JUSTIN FRANZ: They also
put his mother on the stand for a very emotional testimony.
00:37:46
She told the court
that Cody was super happy to have
been getting married, that he'd always wanted to buy
a home and start a family,
00:37:54
and that she'd always wanted
to become a grandmother. And so she was kind
of on cloud 9 in the days
00:38:01
after Cody
and Jordan's wedding. But unfortunately, those
dreams were quickly dashed.
00:38:06
[pensive music] There was a lot
of emotional testimony throughout the course
of that week,
00:38:12
but the entire time Jordan
showed very little emotion. [pensive music] DONNA YOUNGS: It's almost
as if her reactions are
00:38:22
the reactions
of somebody who doesn't actually think that she's
done anything wrong.
00:38:26
It's as if she's
the victim somehow. NARRATOR: As the trial
progressed, more shocking evidence
came to light.
00:38:34
JUSTIN FRANZ: One
of the investigators happened to live in Cody
and Jordan's neighborhood,
00:38:39
and he was out for a jog
when he discovered that someone at Cody
and Jordan's house
00:38:44
had taken out the trash. Once trash can's on the curb,
it's kind of fair game. And so he took the trash can,
brought it home, and dumped out
00:38:52
everything that was inside. He found cards and Teddy
Bears and other gifts that Cody had given Jordan.
00:39:00
And he also found part
of Jordan's wedding dress. And it was kind of unusual
that Jordan just
00:39:08
decided to throw them out,
especially immediately after his disappearance. - This is not
somebody sentimentally
00:39:15
holding on to the loss
of a loved bereaved partner. This is somebody
cold and calculating.
00:39:22
[pensive music] AMBER HAQUE: As the trial
was nearing its conclusion, Jordan's defense were
faced with lots of evidence
00:39:31
mounting up against her. They had her confession,
they had the falsified email that she'd sent,
witness testimony,
00:39:39
and the trash can discovery. It was not looking
good for Jordan. JUSTIN FRANZ: Before the trial,
and we are anticipating closing
00:39:51
arguments from both sides. But after lunch break, everyone
got back into the courtroom
00:39:56
and there was a surprise. Jordan had decided to plead
guilty to second-degree murder.
00:40:08
It was a very shocking moment. The defense realized
that there was no way a jury was going to find
her innocent of these charges.
00:40:16
- She accepted the charge
of second degree murder in agreement that
the charge of first-degree
00:40:21
murder and her lying to
authorities would be dropped. [smashes] NARRATOR: On March 27,
2014, Jordan Graham
00:40:30
was sentenced to 30
years in federal prison with 5 years of supervised
release following her term.
00:40:39
JUSTIN FRANZ: She also had
to pay restitution to law enforcement of about
$17,000 to cover the cost
00:40:46
of recovering Cody's body. - It's reassuring that
something horrible that happened
to another human being
00:40:54
is not without its penalty. And there's remorse
because a young lady lost any semblance
of a future she
00:41:06
was going to have
for a momentary occurrence where she ruined
multiple lives. She obviously took
the life of her husband.
00:41:15
She condemned herself to the
bulk of her adult life in jail. She had family and friends
that lost respect for her.
00:41:24
She had other people
and other family members that lost a son, lost
a good friend, lost a coworker.
00:41:38
AMBER HAQUE: Cody Johnson
left behind a family and friends who loved him dearly.
00:41:43
Dying in his
mid-20s when he was just at the start of his life. This was such a tragic case.
00:41:51
JUSTIN FRANZ: I don't
think anyone doubts that Jordan did
it, but I certainly do think that even
a decade later,
00:41:58
there's a lot
of questions that linger about the entire episode. Whether she planned
it out and lured him
00:42:06
to some cliff with a blindfold
on, or whether it was just an accident and she
pushed him off the cliff
00:42:13
in a moment of passion. The only person who
knows for certain what happened that night is Jordan.
00:42:20
[pensive music] I don't think she was
really ready to be married. She wasn't ready for that
type of commitment.
00:42:27
And I do have to wonder--
logically, you would think, well,
if you get married and you're immediately unhappy,
we'll just file for divorce.
00:42:37
But I don't really know
if that was an option for her, you know, considering her
very religious background.
00:42:46
That might have
been tough for her. And so I do think
she maybe felt she was trapped
in that marriage
00:42:54
and that there was no
way to get out of it. DICK SINE: We are all
products of our upbringing
00:43:01
and the culture we live in. You have to ask
yourself, are any of the other people that
had those constraints
00:43:07
killing their spouses? [melancholy music] NARRATOR: Following the trial,
friends and family held
00:43:19
a memorial service for Cody. JUSTIN FRANZ: And it was--
it was very well attended.
00:43:24
There were a few hundred
people, lots of Cody's friends and family, and just a lot
of memories about the type
00:43:32
of person Cody was. I think while there was a lot
of emotion at that event, I think there was
also a lot of relief
00:43:40
that they finally knew
what had happened, or at least as much
as they're ever going to know
00:43:45
about what had happened. But it was very
an emotional event. Cody was a beloved person,
and that event reflected that.
00:43:54
- This was a real tragedy
where two lives were ruined. Jordan found herself in this
situation where she got herself
00:44:02
30 years in prison,
and then Cody's family and friends who loved him dearly
have been left with that loss
00:44:09
and that grief
of a young man who was just starting out his life. - With the guilty verdict,
the family and friends of Cody
00:44:17
have got justice,
but they forever lost the bubbly, vivacious
character that was their son,
00:44:27
their brother, their friend. [melancholy music] [theme music]