- I'm kate snow,
And this is "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
- The desert is a strange place.
So isolated.
Somebody got lost out there.
A marine's wife had gone missing.
I never expected to be a part of this.
A huge piece of a murder case.
- A treacherous journey.
- One wrong turn can be your last.
- To solve a mystery.
A shy young wife who vanished.
- My heart just sunk.
Something had happened.
I know my daughter.
- She was headed, she said,
To joshua tree national park.
Desolate and vast.
- We don't know if she's stranded in the desert
Or if she's being held somewhere.
Can we find her before she meets a horrible end?
- Police questioned her husband.
- They treated me like a suspect.
- Then they discovered her lover.
Were there more secrets to uncover?
- There was something big going on there.
- We didn't realize that there would be a predator.
- What would they find deep in the desert?
- It makes me think of "indiana jones."
- I had no idea what we were getting into.
- She's dealing with the devil.
- My heart aches so bad.
This really can't be happening.
♪♪
- Hello, and welcome to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Though shy as a child,
Erin heavilin grew up fast.
By 19, she was married,
Had moved across the country,
And wanted to start a family.
Then she vanished.
Investigators believed the desert
Was holding the secret of her disappearance
And assembled an elite search team
Willing to push the limits to unearth the truth.
But would they find erin?
Here's andrea canning with "the last day."
- They say if you're feeling down,
It's time to saddle up.
With a little love, trust, and respect,
These majestic creatures can emerge
As loyal and gentle companions.
For both horse and rider, there's nothing like it.
- She transformed into this awesome horse handler,
And she knew what she was doing
And what she was talking about.
- If only romantic relationships were that simple.
This is the story of a young woman,
So gentle, so vulnerable.
She may have understood what makes horses tick,
But humans?
A different beast indeed.
- This doesn't happen to people we know.
It just doesn't.
- It was crushing.
I cried. I cried for days.
I still cry when I think about it.
We weren't really sure what type of person
It takes to do that.
- Oak ridge, tennessee.
Nestled along the beautiful clinch river
Is an unassuming place with a big story.
- Atomic capital of the world,
Oak ridge, tennessee, home of--
- They call it the secret city
For its part in the manhattan project,
Which produced the first atomic bomb.
Oak ridge still prides itself on being a community
That values science and education
And it's a good place to raise a family.
This is where erin heavilin grew up.
- When erin was three weeks old,
She joined our family as a foster child.
- Erin's mom, lore.
- She was a teeny, tiny little thing.
I think she was five pounds, three ounces when we got her.
- That's small.
- Oh, we thought she was the sweetest little thing.
Our oldest girls were 16
And they carried her around.
- She was like their little doll.
- Yeah. They loved her.
- Lore and her husband
Officially adopted their little doll
When she was three.
Erin grew into a shy little girl,
Reserved around those she didn't know.
But with the horses she cared for
At the east tennessee riding club,
That was a different story.
- When I think of erin with horses,
I think of her as a bigger--
She's very confident.
She knows exactly what she wants
And what she's going to do.
- Erin's friend, abby gouge.
- But with people, she was much meeker,
Much quieter, calmer.
- Horses would always be erin's first love.
But as she entered her teen years,
A certain young man caught her eye.
His name is john corwin.
What was it about you
That could kind of break through to erin?
Because her mom says how shy she was
And she was better with horses than people.
So what was it about you?
- I guess it's my charming personality.
[laughs]
I-I have no idea.
It still surprises me today.
- Really? - Yes.
I guess that I'm--
I was always able to talk to her,
Figure out what she was feeling.
- Erin's parents had strict rules
About when she could start dating.
- We were those parents. We were the mean parents.
- John was sure to get their blessing first.
- I ended up driving over to her parents house
And asking if I could date their daughter.
- That's very chivalrous of you
To go to her parents.
- That's the way I was raised,
You should always get the parents' permission
Before anything.
- After graduating from high school,
John joined the marines.
He asked erin to marry him when she was just 18 years old
With an unusual proposal.
There was no champagne,
But there was a cup of sprite.
- Hands are clammy and everything,
Nervous as heck.
And so, I go grab the sprite,
I put the ring on top of it,
And asked her to marry me.
- So the ring was around the straw.
- Yes. - Did she see it right away?
- No.
I told her, "hey, look at your drink."
- Oh!
And what did she--
What was her reaction when she finally looked down?
- She was crying tears of joy, ecstatic.
And just screaming, "yes, yes, yes,
I would love to."
- Erin's mom had heard that being a military wife
Comes with sacrifice.
I'm a marine corps wife myself
And I know that it can be a very lonely life
For people and it's not easy.
Did you try to warn her?
- Oh, yes.
- And did she listen?
- "I know, mom. I know, mom."
You know, and of course, when I was 18,
I knew also.
You know, you probably couldn't tell me a whole lot.
- The couple decided to elope to las vegas
And tied the knot after an annual formal celebration
Known as the marine corps ball.
Okay, so my husband and I
Have had a lot of fun at marine balls.
However, I never thought about getting married
At one of them.
Why did you guys decide to get married there?
- Because we were young, it was vegas.
We honestly didn't plan on a lot of things.
It was more like spur of the moment type deal,
And that's how we lived.
- John was assigned to the 29 palms marine base
Out in the california desert.
In September, 2013,
Erin packed up for her move to join him.
Her mom saw her off at the airport.
- She's very directionally challenged
And she had two layovers.
And I'm like, "when you get off that plane,
You ask somebody where you need to go
And you let me know as soon as you get there."
- What emotions were you feeling
Letting your baby go to start her new life?
- It was scary for me.
You know, I knew that
It was gonna be harder than she ever dreamt.
- Like any parent,
Lore worried about her daughter
Finding her place in this new life.
- She's very shy
And I did have concerns about her making friends.
We felt like base housing would be safer for her,
Because her husband was out in the field so often.
- It wasn't long before john and erin learned
They were expecting a baby.
- She was very excited. I was excited for her.
- Sadly, her excitement was short-lived.
In early 2014,
She suffered a miscarriage.
Was it hard for both of you to hear that news?
- It was very hard.
I was actually in the middle of a training exercise
Out in the field and, um,
I received the message over the radio.
My co called me down to his vehicle
And said that, "your wife had just had a miscarriage
When she was in the hospital."
So, it was kind of shocking.
And that night,
I got drove back to the hospital
And I met up with her and she was in tears.
- After she lost the baby,
You know, part of me wanted to go out there
And be with her,
But I felt like they would do a better job
Of getting through their grief
If they didn't have to worry about entertaining mom.
- Wanting desperately to be a mother,
Erin vowed to try again.
Around four months later, in June of that same year,
During a visit to the hospital for nausea,
The couple got good news.
Erin was pregnant again.
Here you are again.
How did it feel this time?
- We were happy.
But we were also fearful.
Um, afraid that it was gonna happen again.
- Yeah.
Were you cautiously optimistic?
- Yes.
- She decided to wait to surprise her mom with the news.
Lore already had a trip planned to visit
The following month.
- We had, you know, plans of, like,
Just going for walks.
We were gonna go to san diego to go to seaworld
And, uh, san diego zoo.
But mostly to spend time together.
- You both must've been really wanting,
Needing this trip. - Absolutely.
- In anticipation of her mother's visit,
Erin told her husband she was going to scout out
Some good hiking locations
At nearby joshua tree national park.
- She had woke up and gotten dressed
And gave me a kiss goodbye and said,
"hey, I'm heading out for the day and I love you."
Told her, "I love you, too,"
And I rolled back over and went to sleep.
- A routine goodbye, or so it seemed.
Until erin corwin vanished without a trace.
Coming up...
What had happened to erin?
- Called her throughout the night.
- How many times would you say you tried to call her
Or text her?
- At least 50 times.
- John was concerned, but he was withdrawn.
When you have a spouse who's not extremely frantic,
You've gotta question,
Why aren't they super upset?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- 19 year old erin corwin couldn't wait.
Her mom would soon be making her first trip
To see erin and her husband, john,
At their new home in twentynine palms, california.
At the marine base in the middle of the mojave desert.
Around seven in the morning, erin said goodbye to john
And told him she was coming here,
To joshua tree national park
To scout out hiking trails
For her mother's upcoming visit.
John expected her home that afternoon,
But she didn't show.
He tried her phone.
No answer.
Did you keep calling?
- Called her throughout the night.
- How many times would you say you tried to call her
Or text her?
- At least 50 times.
I was just so stressed and worried.
- Hours passed, and by the next morning,
John was frantic.
- John calls and he said, "erin's missing."
- Lore heavilin got the call
Back home in tennessee.
- He said, "she left yesterday morning
And I haven't seen her since."
My first question was,
"how much water did she have with her?"
- You're thinking this is, like,
Maybe a hiking situation.
She's gotten-- - well, you know,
This is the child that has no sense of direction.
You know, so I'm assuming she's lost.
- John reported his wife's disappearance
To the local police station.
The san bernardino county sheriff's department
Was soon notified
And trevis newport was assigned to the case.
- Obviously, we were concerned, can we find her
Before something, you know, horrible--
Before she meets a horrible end.
You don't know if she's being held somewhere,
We don't know if she's stranded in the desert still.
- Lore's phone rang again.
This time, it was a deputy.
He had another idea about what might've happened to erin.
- One of his first questions was,
"do you think she's driving home?"
- To tennessee? - Yes.
And-- - so maybe she's just left.
- Yes.
And I about laughed
Because I know how much she hates to drive,
Has no sense of direction.
And there's absolutely no way she would give up
A trip to seaworld.
And the zoo.
- Back at twentynine palms,
John rounded up some of his marine buddies
And headed into the national park.
It's a vast expanse of nearly 800,000 acres
Of rugged rock formations,
Twisted joshua trees,
And desolate open desert,
Where summer temperatures climb well past 100 degrees.
- We literally drove around
Joshua tree national park all day
Trying to find any signs, any clues
Of where she might've been.
- Do you see anything? Any signs of her?
Her car?
A piece of clothing, anything?
- Nothing.
- There's a certain protocol detectives follow
When investigating a missing person.
Start small and close to home.
That inner circle of friends and family,
The ones who know the person best.
So when john corwin reported
That his wife, erin, had disappeared,
It was natural they'd look at him.
- So, like, with any investigation,
We start closest to the source of a missing person.
So we had a lot of questions for john.
- Investigators learned that once childhood sweethearts,
Erin and john, settled in twentynine palms,
Things were far from perfect.
- Their relationship wasn't intertwined.
We knew that it was a relationship
That was probably starting to dwindle.
- There was her miscarriage in early 2014.
John says it was heartbreaking
And erin had trouble coping.
- She became very enclosed and depressed
And would stay at home.
And I'm definitely not the one that actually
Speaks out on his emotions.
I've always kept 'em bottled up my whole life.
She felt like I didn't care about him,
And I did.
It actually hurt me a whole lot.
It really took a toll on our relationship.
- And erin's mom, lore,
Knew that the young married couple
Also had money problems.
- We gave each of our kids
A certain amount of money when they got married
And they kept just buying things
And all of a sudden,
I think that huge chunk of money was not there.
- You struggled with finances?
- Definitely.
The pay is not that great,
But we had food on the table.
We just didn't have any money for extracurriculars.
- Was that hard for erin?
I know there was an issue with her credit card.
- Yes. It was hard.
Um, we ended up racking up debt.
I ended up having to take away the card.
- Times were lean?
- Yes, very lean.
- They were grown up problems
For a couple barely out of high school.
Erin shared her worries with her friend, abby.
- It's just hard to transition from
Being on your own to being married.
And sometimes a hard hand is what you need.
And I think that's what john was teaching her
And she didn't like it.
- Detective newport and his colleague, jonathan woods
Wondered about john's behavior
When his wife didn't return home.
Why did he wait a whole day to call police?
- It was a little suspicious that he waited till the next day
To report her as missing.
- John said he explained to the investigators
He thought that was how these things worked.
- You see these common things on television now,
You can't report a missing person until
24 hours after they've been missing.
And I truly believed that.
- Made sense, maybe.
But detectives noticed something.
- John was kind of withdrawn.
He was concerned, but he was withdrawn.
And at times, we wondered is it his,
You know, his military background?
You know, when you have a spouse
Who's not extremely frantic,
You-you've gotta question,
You know, why-why aren't they super excited?
Why aren't they super upset?
- John had gone into the park to search for his wife.
Sign of a concerned husband, or something else?
- Well, obviously as an investigator,
You have to wonder,
Is this person trying to put themselves there?
Is this person trying to give us a reason
Why they would be there
Where the last person was seen or was possibly contacted?
- You were seriously looking at him.
- Yes.
- I did think maybe john.
And I think that's normal.
That doesn't make it right,
But I think that it's a normal human response
To think the spouse.
- But really,
They might've been getting ahead of themselves.
Erin was missing
And could well've run off on her own.
There was no reason yet to believe
Any harm had come to her,
Much less that john was responsible.
There were other people to talk to,
And a new place to explore.
A sanctuary for erin right here in the desert,
One that would prove to be full of clues and secrets.
Coming up...
- They were laughing and carrying on.
- Anything flirtatious?
- Giggly.
I hadn't seen her act like that.
It was like a-a kid in a candy store.
I wasn't used to it, so it stuck out.
- Erin, the shy young wife.
Exactly what kind of secret was she keeping?
- Any time you have a spouse who's missing
And you hear that there might be some infidelity there,
It's just human nature, not just as an investigator,
But as a human being to question whether or not
That person might possibly be involved in
The significant other's missing.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- When erin corwin went missing
After a trip to joshua tree national park,
Detectives started out by questioning her husband, john.
Then they widened the circle,
Trying to learn as much as they could
About her life at the marine base
Here in twentynine palms.
They discovered that erin had been lonely
When she first moved to the base,
But quickly bonded with other military families.
It was, like, kind of like melrose place in there.
- That is a perfect description
Of that apartment complex.
- Everybody's friends.
- Everybody's door's ten foot away
From the next couple's door.
- Erin and john grew close
With their fellow marine corps neighbors,
Including nicole and chris lee,
A couple originally from alaska.
Erin's mom, lore.
- Chris and nicole and john and erin
Cooked out together all the time.
I was happy, you know,
That she had this.
- Erin and nicole shared a common passion for horses.
- I was excited when erin and nicole met
Because nicole was into horses,
And I knew erin needed the horses.
- Nicole introduced erin to the white rock horse rescue ranch
And its owner, isabel megli.
You're not very far away from twentynine palms,
The marine corps base. - No.
45 minutes.
- So, is this not only kind of
A sanctuary for the animals,
But maybe a little bit for the marine corps wives?
- Yeah.
- Isabelle started the ranch in 2004.
- The spouses come to the ranch
When their husbands or their fiances or boyfriends
Are out in the field.
They have nothing to do. Most of them don't work.
And they get very lonely.
Loneliness is probably the biggest problem that they have.
- And this is where erin
Had her horse. - This-- yes.
- Named?
- Cassie. - Cassie.
- Uh-huh.
- And that was very special to her.
- Yes it was.
- Come here, cassie.
Come here.
Hi.
So you're erin's horse.
- She picked a horse
That I would never have chosen for her.
- Why, what was-- what was with the horse?
- The horse was standoffish.
It didn't like anybody.
And sh-- it liked her.
This horse was so bonded to her.
And we couldn't believe it.
- Before long,
Erin and john, chris and nicole
Were spending more and more time at the ranch together.
- We'd go shooting.
Go out in the desert and shoot our guns
And, um, we'd go out to the horse ranch
And typical shenanigans.
I had a little dune buggy
That we'd all go take off road in
While the girls were doing their horse stuff.
- Isabelle said, when the couples were together,
Chris was always the life of the party.
- At the ranch,
Chris was very funny.
He was a real soft individual
And he talked about his daughter,
His wife, his family.
But he also had the, uh, ability to be very stern.
- The ranch was clearly an escape for chris,
Who struggled after returning from deployment
In afghanistan.
- There was something that--
You just stayed away from that subject.
- So he might've had a rough time overseas.
- Yes, he did. Had a very hard time.
- But, said isabelle, chris was a loving father
To his and nicole's daughter, liberty.
Erin took to the little girl, too,
And would help out her friends
By babysitting the six year old.
Erin's mom said she was always good with children.
- Gentle, very gentle.
The younger kids at the barn.
You know, they knew that she cared about them.
- So erin had found her place here,
Surrounded by friends and horses.
But isabelle said that around christmas of 2013,
She started to see a connection between chris and erin
That seemed a little too close for comfort.
- They were laughing and carrying on
About something on the computer.
- Was there anything flirtatious about it?
Or was it just too close for you?
- Giggly.
I hadn't seen her act like that.
It was like a-a kid in a candy store.
I wasn't used to it, so it stuck out.
- Isabelle said she found the behavior so alarming,
She mentioned it to chris's wife, nicole.
- I said, "nicole...
"something's wrong."
I said, "the way they're acting."
She says, "no, no.
"there's nothing going on."
She says, "they-- they connect."
- What was it that they could relate to each other about?
- She said they could relate to being sad.
She said chris was sad.
And that, uh,
When he came back from the service,
He was a different person
And that he just wasn't himself.
And erin could understand depression.
She said they were just friends.
- But two months later,
Nicole told erin's husband, john,
She needed to talk to him.
And by then, she was singing
A very different tune about erin corwin.
- Nicole had found out that chris had been having
An affair with erin.
I didn't actually get specifics at the time.
- You're totally clueless.
- Yes.
- Is this just a bombshell to hear this news?
- Yes, it was a bombshell. It was earth shattering.
- But john said he still loved his wife
And was committed to his marriage.
- I tried my hardest to make it work.
- Were you in this for life?
- Yes. - This marriage?
- Definitely.
There's-- you should always try to fix something
Instead of just replacing it,
And I was trying everything I could to fix it.
- He says that over time, he and erin reconciled
And even patched things up with chris and nicole.
- They started hanging back out with us.
- Really? - Yes.
- You were able to accept them in,
Knowing what chris had done
With erin? - Yes.
It wasn't the same that it was before, but...
You always give somebody a second chance.
- Or do you?
Erin was now missing.
And the fact that she'd been unfaithful to her husband
Just added to investigator's suspicions about him.
- Any time you have a-a spouse who's missing
And you hear that there might be some
Infidelity there involved,
You're-- it's just human nature,
Not just as an investigator, but as a human being
To question whether or not that person
Might possibly be involved in the significant other's missing.
- But then detectives found out something
That made the potential pool of suspects
A whole lot deeper.
Coming up...
- It wasn't just your friendship,
Slight infidelity, it was full on
They were completely involved with each other.
- Stunner number one,
The secret affair with the neighbor
Wasn't exactly over.
- How betrayed did you feel?
- Felt like somebody just stuck a--
Literally stuck a knife in my back.
- And stunner number two...
This baby might not even be his?
I mean, that's heavy stuff for someone to deal with.
- Absolutely.
And john realized that it was very likely not his kid,
Which again, that brings motive to a spouse.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Detectives in san bernardino, california
Were working around the clock
To figure out what had happened to 19 year old marine wife,
Erin corwin.
They soon learned that erin had had an affair,
And that made them suspect that her husband, john
May have had something to do with her disappearance.
Some of the detectives thought that your behavior was strange,
That you weren't acting sad enough.
Do you get why they were thinking that?
- I understand.
I'm a very inclusive kind of person.
I don't show emotions at all.
- Did you worry at all in the moment that,
They're looking at me?
- No, I did not.
- John told detectives
That his wife said the affair was over.
He and erin had reconciled
And he'd even reestablished his friendship
With erin's former lover, chris lee,
And chris's wife, nicole.
But in the first days of their investigation,
Detectives learned that erin's relationship with chris
Seemed to be going strong
Right up until the day she disappeared.
- It wasn't just your friendship,
Slight infidelity, it was full on
They were completely involved with each other.
- One of erin's close friends back in tennessee
Told investigators she talked and texted with erin
Nearly every day.
Erin, the friend said,
Was making plans for a life with chris lee.
- Erin had expressed to this friend
That she was going to get married to chris.
- The friend told investigators
Erin said that chris was taking her on a special trip
The morning she disappeared
And she texted her all about it.
Erin wrote...
Erin told her friend she didn't know what plans
Chris had in store.
The friend responded with a series of emojis,
Including a diamond ring, hearts, and question marks,
Suggesting perhaps an engagement?
Erin responded, "maybe!"
And mentioned, "he was mysteriously playing
With my ring the other night."
Erin added, "we shall see!
This day cannot come quick enough!"
And, "it apparently takes two hours just to get there.
A long, slow drive.
Good talking time, though."
After erin went missing,
That same friend spoke to john.
- She had told me that erin had supposedly
Went out with chris that day and...
That she was expecting that chris was supposed to
Propose to her that day.
- How betrayed did you feel?
- It was earth shattering. I was...
Felt like somebody had just stuck a--
Literally stuck a knife in my back.
I was honestly ready to about strangle chris.
- But detectives soon learned
Something even more explosive.
Remember, erin had recently found out she was pregnant.
She told her friend that she believed
The father of her baby was her lover, chris,
Not her husband.
Did you think that the possibility existed
That he did find out
That this affair had not ended like he had thought?
And that this baby might not even be his?
I mean, that's heavy stuff for someone to deal with.
- Absolutely.
That's why we wanted to question him so much.
Did john realize that it was very likely not his kid?
Which again,
That brings motive to a spouse.
- Did you have anything to do
With your wife's disappearance?
- No, I did not.
Everybody that knew me personally
Knew that there was no way I could do that.
- But john says marines on the base
Who didn't know him well seemed suspicious.
- You could tell that they would look at me differently
And I eventually ended up staying home because of it.
- Were you not able to do your job then?
If you didn't wanna leave the house?
- No.
At the time,
They considered me to be mentally unstable
And, um, they took me away from everything pretty much,
Because we handle firearms every day.
And so, I stayed at home.
- But now,
John wasn't the only one on detectives' radar.
If his fellow marine, chris lee
Might be the father of erin's baby
And the person she was going to meet that day,
Then chris, too, might have a motive and an opportunity.
- Did you look at both chris and john as suspects?
- Yes. Absolutely.
- There was at least one other possibility,
That erin, naive and just 19 years old
Had simply decided to run away from her troubles.
Whatever happened,
There was still no sign of her.
That is, until this woman noticed something strange.
Something she had never seen before.
- I didn't know if somebody was doing drugs in there
Or if somebody was just up to no good.
And I knew that it wasn't supposed to be there.
Coming up...
A breakthrough new clue.
- As we were driving down the road there,
I noticed a car parked off to the left hand side of the road
That wasn't there the night before.
- There were shoe impressions, tire impressions.
- Something had happened.
I know my daughter.
I couldn't get to twentynine palms quick enough.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Twentynine palms is definitely--
It's an experience to live out there.
The desert is one of those places
That you go out to find yourself
And then after you've found yourself,
You're really happy to leave the place behind.
- Debbie valek and her family
Lived just outside the marine corps base
In twentynine palms, california.
- It's pretty barren.
It's really flat.
You can see for hundreds of miles in every direction.
- It was so remote, in fact,
That a Saturday morning doughnut craving
Meant an eight-mile drive to the nearest grocery store.
So around 8:30 on June 28th, 2014,
Debbie and her daughter set off.
- And we were gonna go get doughnuts together.
And my daughter was all excited.
- They took their typical path into town
Via ranch road.
- And as we were driving down the road there,
I noticed a car parked off to the left-hand side
Of the road that wasn't there the night before.
- Debbie said it was extremely rare
To ever see cars parked near their home in this
Desolate stretch of desert outside the national park,
A full five miles from the entrance.
- I thought it was odd because there was no reason
For it to be there.
There's no hiking trails near my property.
There's nothing to do out there,
And if you don't live out there,
There's no reason for the car to be there.
- About 30 minutes later, on their return drive from town,
Debbie said she was surprised
To see the vehicle still sitting there.
- And I decided to drive up behind the car
And take some pictures with my cell phone.
[cell phone camera snapping] - from inside her truck,
She took three photos of the back of the car.
- I didn't wanna get out of my truck,
Because I didn't know what was inside the car,
And who it belonged to.
- She had no idea at the time
How important those photos would become.
Debbie and her daughter went home,
Enjoyed those doughnuts, and got on with their day.
She said she thought about
Reporting the car to police, but...
- I think I thought my imagination was just
Getting the better of me, and somebody had probably
Parked it out there with good reason.
- So there it sat, until two days later.
9:00 am, Monday, June 30th. Debbie and her family
Were eating breakfast, when to their surprise
They heard choppers overhead.
- I guess it dawned on me at that moment
That I probably should have called the police, um,
Because it-- you could tell there was something big
Going on there.
- Someone else had called police,
Who quickly determined the abandoned vehicle
Was erin corwin's.
Debbie's photos showed it had been there for two days,
Since the morning erin disappeared.
What's more, next to erin's car,
Detectives noticed tire tracks and shoe prints.
Those tire impressions made what appeared to be a loop
Back towards the vehicle, erin's vehicle.
And there were shoe impressions that appeared to walk from
The driver's side of erin's vehicle
To those tire impressions that came through that area.
- It appeared to detectives that erin had driven
To this spot, and possibly switched into another car
And gone off. - I realized, at that point,
We were dealing with a situation where...
We're being led into one direction,
Which is the joshua tree national park,
Whereas in fact, now her car is several miles north
Of that location, so I'm obviously
Very concerned that we hadn't been searching the right area.
- That's a daunting task.
Joshua tree national park is huge,
And then now you're adding on
This new area.
Is it like finding a needle in a haystack?
Did it feel like that?
- It's like finding a needle in a thousand haystacks.
- When erin's mom heard about the car,
Her mind went to the worst possible place.
- When they found her car, without her...
That's when I knew...
Something else...
Had happened, and I think at that point in time
I knew she was not with us anymore.
- You knew, just from the car? - Yeah.
I know my daughter.
And it was just...
I couldn't get...
To 29 palms quick enough.
- What's that like getting on a plane,
You've had this revelation, the worst...
Kind of revelation, and there--
- You have to turn your phone off.
You know? You can't get any communication,
Until you get back on the ground.
I mean, it was...
- Must be excruciating. - It was.
The plane could not fly fast enough.
- But detectives had to keep an open mind.
They had no way to know yet whether erin had run away,
Or gotten lost,
Or was the victim of a crime.
- We had to bifurcate the investigation.
We had to turn it into a search and rescue mission,
And potential homicide investigation.
One was to try and look for a live and well, hopefully,
Erin corwin. And the other was to work another angle
Whereas, unfortunately, we might be looking for
A deceased erin corwin.
Whichever course the investigation took,
They knew they needed to check out a key piece
Of information. Erin had told her friend
Back in tennessee that she was supposed to meet up with someone
The day she vanished.
Her neighbor, and lover, chris lee.
Deputies first knocked on chris' door
The day erin was reported missing.
Christopher lee told the deputies
The extent of any contact he had ever had with erin corwin
Was waving hi in passing in a hallway
Of the apartment complex.
- Apparently, that wasn't true.
But it wasn't necessarily incriminating, either.
Chris had every reason to downplay
His relationship with erin.
Nevertheless, detectives knew it was time
To talk to chris lee again.
He seemed surprised that we found the car.
- Did he start to tense up after this reveal?
- Yes.
I could see definitely, him more tense in his body.
- Marine corporal chris lee prepares for battle.
- It was just a very unusual, wild story
That he was telling me.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow.
Detectives weren't sure if erin corwin was missing or dead,
But they did know the newlywed had fallen hard
For her neighbor, chris lee.
Erin told a friend chris was planning a secret date
In the desert, and hoped he might propose.
But under interrogation, chris would share
A different tale, of a romance riddled with lies.
Back to andrea canning with "the last day."
♪♪
- Two days after erin corwin disappeared,
Chris lee sat down for a formal interview.
Was he being cooperative?
- Yes, he was.
- How you doin'?
- Detective daniel hanke was part of the team
Investigating erin corwin's disappearance.
He wanted to know why chris didn't admit to police
Right away that he and erin were more than just friends.
But now chris began to open up.
He said his relationship with erin started innocently enough.
He was depressed after his 2013 tour in afghanistan.
Erin was someone he could talk to.
He said erin confided in him as well,
A terrible secret, that she suffered physical abuse
At the hands of her husband john.
The way chris told it, erin's story of john's abuse
Is what brought them together.
Chris said that bonding soon turned to love.
Remember, police had heard from a friend of erin's
That she thought she was pregnant with chris's baby,
But chris insisted the relationship
Had stayed pretty pg.
Chris said they talked about running away together,
But he didn't want to risk losing his daughter liberty.
He said the affair ended abruptly
When his wife nicole found out about it.
Chris also said that's when he learned a big part
Of his bonding with erin was based on lies.
He said he never talked to erin again after that.
But detectives had those text messages
Between erin and her friend back in tennessee,
Which seemed to show the affair was far from over.
Detective travis newport confronted chris.
Chris suggested erin had overheard his plans
For a trip to the desert,
And, upset that she wasn't invited,
Lied to her friends, saying chris planned
To meet her that day.
We all know cheating in the military,
That can be a dishonorable discharge.
Did you think that that could be
A possible reason he didn't want to talk about it?
- Yes, and it's not uncommon to see
A military personnel deny such a relationship
Because they know that it could lead to repercussions.
- Still, they pressed chris on his whereabouts
The day she went missing.
He told them he'd taken a drive to joshua tree national park
To hunt coyotes,
And that he'd shot his .22 caliber rifle
Four to five times at some rocks,
And at one point, he said he encountered
Another man with a gun.
- He was very descriptive about, um, this guy
And his clothing, and where he was out
On a ridgeline, and you know, that he was reloading,
And he fired, you know, four rounds at him.
It was just a very unusual, wild story
That I thought he was telling me.
- So detective hanke tried to shake chris up
With new information.
- He seemed surprised that we had found the car.
- Did he start to tense up after this reveal?
- Yes.
I could see it-- definitely him more tense,
Uh, in his body.
- And then, hanke tried bluffing.
- But you didn't know for sure.
- I didn't know for sure, but I had a suspicion.
- Under pressure now, chris changed his story,
Slightly, saying that while he didn't see erin
The day she disappeared, he did see her car.
That didn't ring true to hanke,
And his ears perked up even more when chris said this.
You heard that word, "we." - yes, yes.
Yeah, that was a big tell for me.
He had told me this entire time that he was by himself.
- Detectives interviewed chris for nine hours,
And thought they'd caught him in numerous lies,
But they didn't have proof he'd committed a crime,
Or, for that matter,
That anything bad had even happened to erin.
So detective hanke drove chris home.
Anything telling from that car ride?
- Yes, so it was, uh, pretty chilling, actually,
Some of the questions he asked me.
- Like what? What was he asking you?
- He asked me how good I was at my job,
And how good, um, our detective team was.
- What did you tell him? Really good?
- I told him we were very good.
He asked me specifically how many bodies
Have we not found in the desert.
- That's a freaky conversation. - Yeah.
- It wouldn't be long before investigators
Heard another strange thing, this time from chris's wife,
Nicole, about something out at isabelle megli's horse ranch.
Nicole told you that something was hidden
In isabelle's closet. - Yes.
- What was that? - It was a rifle.
A .22 caliber rifle.
- Chris lee's wife. - Extremely uncooperative.
Angry, just not what you would expect
Of somebody who's trying to assist in an investigation.
- A chilling morning.
- Tell erin that if she ever had anything else
To do with her husband, she'd kill her herself.
- That is a very strong statement
And now very relevant. - Yes.
- Did you have to consider her as a possible suspect as well?
- Well, of course we did.
Hearing a statement like that, obviously,
Just raises all kinds of red flags,
Really makes you wonder, did this person pay somebody
To harm erin?
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Welcome back to "dateline: Secrets uncovered."
Chris lee admitted to an affair with erin corwin,
But denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Detectives found his story about the day she vanished bizarre.
Even stranger, he then asked detectives how good they were
At finding bodies in the desert.
Chris, they suspected, knew more about erin's fate
Than he led on, and soon, they'd wonder
If he was the only one keeping secrets.
Once again, here's andrea canning
With "the last day."
- Three days had passed since erin corwin
Told her husband she was going out to scout
Hiking locations in joshua tree national park.
But there was still no sign of her,
And so detectives turned their attention back here,
The horse rescue ranch that seemed to hold
So many secrets.
- Erin corwin and john, chris lee, his wife,
They were all tied to that ranch.
- You conducted a search of that entire ranch?
- Yes. - Looking, possibly,
For a body on that ranch?
- Not just a body, but we were looking for
Any piece of evidence that we could.
You know, anything linking anybody to erin's disappearance.
- I said, "she's not here."
But they said they had to follow every lead
That they thought might be possible,
So that's what they did.
- Detectives knew one thing they were looking for.
Nicole told them she had stashed a rifle
In isabelle's bedroom closet.
- You had no idea it was there.
- Had no idea.
- It was the .22 caliber rifle that chris had told detectives
He took with him to the park the day erin went missing.
- I was very disturbed.
I-I can't imagine somebody hiding something in my house
And not tellin' me, so I was starting to get
More angry at chris and nicole,
Because now I'm part of it, and I didn't even know
I was part of it. - And you don't allow guns here.
- No, I don't.
- Now isabelle told detectives that the day erin disappeared,
She received a text from nicole saying
She and chris wouldn't be at the ranch that day
Because she was sick.
The next morning, chris and nicole
Were back at the ranch.
By then, isabelle had received a call that erin was missing.
- And I kinda blew it off, because I-I couldn't believe it.
They'll find her.
- Isabelle noticed things were tense
Between chris and nicole that day,
And that nicole had nothing good to say about her missing friend.
- Nicole was telling me that erin is probably
Hiding out somewhere to make chris's life miserable.
That-- she's setting us up. She's trying to hurt our family.
Erin's doing this just to get even.
Uh, she's trying to get sympathy.
- Chris was about to be discharged from the marines,
And planned to move back to alaska.
Isabelle had lent them her suv
To move some of their belongings.
Detectives searched the suv and found a potato launcher
Like this one,
A sort of homemade cannon that shoots chunks of potato
Or other small objects.
- And the officer said, "you didn't know that's a--
"that's a-- that's a weapon?"
I said I had no idea it was even in my car.
- A weapon, as it happens, that is illegal in california.
Detectives were already suspicious of chris.
Now, they used that potato launcher
To get some leverage on him.
- He was arrested here. - This patio we're sitting on.
- Yes. - Is where chris was arrested?
- He was handcuffed to a chair.
- The charge, possession of a destructive device.
Chris had already spoken to detectives at length,
But now that he was under arrest,
Isabelle noticed that nicole seemed to be getting nervous,
And she started to say some odd things.
- She was very concerned
That he would get his story confused.
Because he wasn't in control of the facts
As much as she was.
Detectives had already noticed nicole didn't seem interested
In helping to find her friend erin.
- Extremely uncooperative, angry, just not what
You would expect of somebody who's trying to assist
In an investigation.
- Isabelle told them chris and nicole had also
Searched the internet for some very specific information.
- They had researched how to-- how to dispose of a body,
A dead body.
She said that, um...
"we've watched enough of those csi movies
"to know no body, no case."
- Remember, it was nicole who told john about the affair.
According to isabelle,
Nicole said that she then confronted erin.
- It was very important to her to tell erin
That if she every had anything else to do
With her husband, she'd kill her herself.
- Given that erin has disappeared,
That is a very strong statement, and now very relevant.
- Yes.
- Did you have to consider her as a possible suspect as well?
- Well, of course we did.
Hearing a statement like that, obviously,
Just raises all kinds of red flags.
- Nicole lee had an alibi.
Detectives learned she was at home with her child
The day erin disappeared, but even if she wasn't out
In the desert that day, investigators believed
She still could have played a role
In arranging erin's disappearance.
- Really makes you wonder, you know,
Did this person pay somebody to harm erin?
- Erin's mom lore had suspicions of her own.
In those initial days following erin's disappearance,
Lore stayed at erin and john's apartment
On the base.
- I went for a walk, and I come back,
And nicole's sitting on their walkway, and...
If looks could kill. - Toward you?
- Towards me.
- Must have been an odd moment.
- I guess it, for some reason, didn't surprise me.
- Instead of shrinking, the suspect pool
Seemed to be growing,
But there was still no proof any crime had even occurred,
Except, maybe, possession of a potato gun.
Chris bailed out on July 5th, 2014,
One week after erin disappeared.
Two days later, he was officially discharged
From the marines,
And the lees returned to alaska.
- People kept having a fit
Because they let him go to alaska.
- Meanwhile, detectives in san bernardino
Continued to hunt for clues
As to where erin corwin might be found.
And they learned something that would launch them
On a massive, treacherous search in the desert.
- Coming up...
Danger in the heart of the desert.
- It makes me think of indiana jones.
- What would investigators find?
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Was erin corwin still alive somewhere in the desert,
Or was she the victim of foul play?
This is a huge operation,
Trying to find erin corwin.
- Yes.
- Yeah, we had, uh, hundreds of searchers
From four different counties.
- But with such an enormous area to cover,
The search dragged on,
And in the withering desert heat,
The odds of finding erin alive dwindled.
Her parents had long ago returned home to tennessee.
It must've been so hard getting on that plane.
- It-it was.
- Was there any part of you that felt like,
Of course it's reasonable, but did you feel guilt,
Or that you shouldn't be leaving? - Oh, yes.
- Or what if they find her tonight or tomorrow, or...
- Right, right.
- The investigation had narrowed in one way.
Detectives cleared erin's husband jon
Of any wrongdoing in connection with her disappearance.
Cell phone and computer records show jon was on the base
The entire day that erin went missing.
They also concluded chris was lying
When he said erin claimed jon had been abusive.
- Over the period of the investigation,
Jon was interviewed multiple times.
Uh, jon submitted to a polygraph test.
I mean, e-easily 20 hours total
We had spoken with jon.
- Did he pass the polygraph?
- Yes.
- I knew what was true,
And I gave them my honest answers
And I never lied to them.
And the light shined through.
- But chris lee had lied to them,
And seemed interested in how to dispose of a body.
- Come on, baby.
- And isabel told them he'd taken a trip to the desert
With a friend the week before erin disappeared.
- We-we found a lot of mines, but I found this one mine...
No one will ever find.
- Detectives believed it was all adding up.
Chris killed erin and then dumped her body in a mine shaft.
So they decided to start searching,
But here was the problem:
The mojave desert is pockmarked
With hundreds of mine shafts.
Detectives knew they needed help.
- The search and rescue folks explained
That there was a guy who knew a lot about the desert,
Knew a lot about the caves.
You know, would be a-a great resource to us.
- This is the man they were talking about.
Doug billings. Cave doug to his pals,
As much desert rat as the gold miners
Who used to roam the mojave a century ago.
But instead of a pickaxe and a mule,
He's outfitted with gps and a hummer.
- I've been down every one of these mines
Including the one we're standing in front of right now.
I-I know how deep they are. I know what's inside 'em.
- When other kids were playing little league,
Billings was hanging off a rope catching rattlers.
By the time he was an adult,
Billings was traveling the globe
Exploring the underworld,
But the mojave is his home.
So detective newport and billings started talking,
And a relationship quickly formed.
- Almost every day, doug and I would talk on the phone,
And he would send me photographs,
Aerial images, satellite images,
And say, "check these mine shafts."
You know, "these are more than I have located."
- Just getting to a mine shaft could be an ordeal
As we discovered.
Billings took us out
To one of the high priority search areas,
But the road got so rugged and treacherous,
We were forced to leave behind our suv,
Along with two members of the crew.
And carry on in billings's hummer.
- This is really hard to get around.
- Yes, yeah. - I mean, this is sort of,
At times, white knuckle driving.
- Yeah, yeah, this is-- - I have to admit.
Yeah, I mean, you look straight down,
You don't wanna make one wrong little turn.
- Yeah, yeah, one wrong turn can be, uh, your last turn.
- So th-this is one of the mines that was searched?
- Yes.
- Billings and the other volunteers checked off
One dangerous mine shaft after the next.
- We're monitoring the oxygen, so it's all clear.
The next step we do is we also will always
Throw in a little bit of rocks.
And you listen quietly for a rattlesnake.
It's kind of a general protocol.
Uh, this part of the desert,
They love to come and hide out in these mines
To get out of the sun. - It's cool in here.
- Yeah, you see the temperature drop.
And, uh, as we walk in here, click your light on.
- Ooh, that could be scary, the drop down.
- Yeah, yeah, so this could be a false floor here.
- Yeah. - We'll stay on this side here.
- It makes me think of indiana jones.
- Yeah. - Kind of the--
The unknown trap, almost. - Uh-huh.
Well, I've seen that in real life.
We would send this down.
- These are the most dangerous shafts to search,
Vertical ones that go straight down
Into a crumbling abyss.
- Originally, we were dropping mine shafts.
We were physically going down the shaft.
We rigged the ropes, rappel in,
Check it, clear it, and move on.
Um, but it became not feasible
With the amount of mines we had to search.
- So they outfitted buckets with cameras.
- And then you just begin feeding it down the shaft.
- It sped up the process to be sure,
But with hundreds of mines to explore,
The search dragged on for days,
Then weeks.
Detectives were often side by side
With the hundreds of searchers looking for erin.
- We were digging holes, we were searching.
Um, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans
Going into mine shafts. We wanted to find her.
So we were doing everything we could to help.
- And yet, there was no sign of erin corwin anywhere.
No clothing, no footprints, nothing.
But then, detectives caught a break.
Remember that trip chris took with a friend
To look at mines?
Turns out chris's friend had taken pictures.
Detectives obtained the photos.
And seven weeks into the search,
Showed them to cave doug.
Without skipping a beat,
Mr. Billings almost immediately began
Identifying each photograph,
And we began plotting them on the topographical map.
- The first picture they showed me
Was of the mine across here,
Immediately recognized the tower.
They showed the-the shaft-- going down the shaft.
I recognized that.
Second, they showed me the cabin.
And then-and then the next picture was of
Actually the mine we're standing next to.
- So they bet on billings's memory,
And focused their efforts here,
Around what's known as the rose of peru mine.
Around the rose of peru mine
Are hundreds of other abandoned mines like this one.
And any one of them could have been
A potential burial site.
Investigators had high hopes that
They were finally targeting the right area.
But after an exhaustive and expensive search
That lasted for weeks and weeks,
They decided this was it.
Saturday, August 16th, 2014
Would be the last day of the search.
- We felt we had one more shot at it.
- In the early evening, they headed
For the very last mine on their list.
- And as nighttime falls out there,
We don't want anybody out there still,
So we began to really collect our thoughts
And decide, you know, any minute now
We need to start calling this search.
- A member of the san bernardino cave rescue team,
A doctor in fact, came upon this mine,
And right away noticed a strange smell.
It was the stench of gasoline.
There was also a shell casing
Resting near the mouth of the mine.
The searchers lowered a bucket cam.
- We received a phone call from one of the satellite phones
That was out there with the search team.
And they could see what appeared to be
A leg or some sort of a body part,
Uh, down at the very bottom of the mine shaft.
- That is unbelievable...
That this search was minutes away
From being called off after weeks and weeks,
And you find something.
- It was very unbelievable.
- A full exploration of the mine
Would have to wait until daybreak.
- Detective hanke, he called me at roughly,
Um, 9:00 or 10:00 that night
And said that we had found a body
At the bottom of this mine shaft.
- Did you sleep at all that night?
- I did not, no.
- Coming up...
- I had no idea what we were getting into.
Do I want to put my life in danger?
- Journey to the bottom of the mine.
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- A massive search effort that once spread
Across 2,000 square miles of desert
Was now focused on a single 4x6 foot hole.
- I had no idea what we were getting into.
- Paul anastasia and brenton baum
Are with the san bernardino county fire department's
Elite urban search and rescue team.
- I was told they had found a body
Approximately 140 feet in a mine shaft.
- But there were problems.
- They detected propane gasoline fumes.
- The bucket cam used the day before
Picked up images of a gas can and propane tank
Which were venting fumes into the shaft.
That's why anastasia and baum were called.
They're trained to work inside tight spaces
While using sophisticated breathing equipment.
The two regularly risk their lives
To rescue people in danger,
But in this case, taking a grave risk
In order to recover a dead body gave them pause.
- It was risk versus gain.
Do I want to put my life in danger?
- After talking it over
And knowing how important their recovery efforts
Could be to solving erin's disappearance,
They agreed to go.
Baum, who's admittedly claustrophobic
Got the short straw and was first in the hole.
- I started descending down.
- How deep were you going in?
- About 100, 140 feet.
You know, it's a lot deeper than I'd ever been.
- And what are you seeing as you're on your way down,
How-how tight is it? How--?
- It-it was eerie.
Rock collapsing, um, uh, snakes.
Uh, yeah. - Rattlesnakes.
- And also, just the heat.
It was about 110 degrees, topside.
I believe it was about 90 degrees downside.
So work in that environment, you only have
A limited amount of time effectiveness
Before you're quickly fatigued.
- What did you see?
- The, uh, sprite bottle.
Um, a rope.
A tire down there, propane tank.
Um, some plastic jugs.
Um, a lot of rock and rock debris.
Some-some [indistinct].
- And then, he saw it. A human body.
That sounds like out of s-- a horror movie.
I mean, I hate to say it like that,
But to-to rappel down and then to see
A decomposing body. - Yeah, yeah.
Obviously we see a lot of death in this line of work.
Over time, you just develop a method
Where you-you just ignore your emotions
For a little while and you just focus
On the task that you need to do.
And then, you know, face up with your emotions later.
- Baum first took photos while suspended
Above the grisly crime scene,
Then, methodically set about gathering evidence
And sending it back to the surface.
- The original plan was for me to do the whole operation,
But I had been down there about 45 minutes,
And I was pretty fatigued.
So our captain made the decision
To go ahead and rotate us out.
- How did you feel when-when you finally
Got out of that mine?
- I took my mask off.
I was hit with the smell all of a sudden.
What I-what I had been immersed in
And didn't smell in the shaft,
I smelled on the topside,
'cause it was all saturating my clothes.
I started dry heaving.
- Then, it was anastasia's turn.
His assignment, get the body.
- I would be lying if I said I was excited
About going down in that mine shaft.
Uh, I never put the body in a bag.
- Once in the mine, anastasia realized
Retrieving the body was going to be
Far harder than expected.
- I did a little assessment with my flashlight,
And I-I realized that that was a false bottom,
And then I got a little more concerned
With some rocks coming down
And knocking out that false bottom,
Or loosening it up.
- 'cause then, everything would be gone.
- Yeah, I had no-- - it would go to the bottom of the mine.
- I had no idea how deep that shaft was.
- So suspended in mid-air,
Anastasia began placing the body in the bag
Without disturbing the false bottom
On which it rested.
Once that was done, he found something else.
- A torch, uh, in the corner of the mine.
- Had it been lit?
- It didn't look like it had been lit to me.
It looked like it was brand new,
Like someone had just made it.
- Ever so carefully, anastasia made his way
Back up the mine shaft with that torch
And with the body.
Back on the surface, detectives made a positive id.
After eight weeks of searching,
On the day they decided would be their last,
They had finally found erin corwin.
- All these hours we had worked
And just thinking, deep down inside,
"she's gotta be somewhere in one of these last caves.
"she just has to be."
And then actually having that confirmed,
Just over-- overwhelming emotion.
- A few minutes before midnight,
The phone rings again.
Wakes us up, and it's detective dan.
He says it's her.
It's like this really can't be happening to us.
You know, not that child.
- The cause of erin's death,
Possible blunt force head injury
And apparently strangulation with a sinister tool.
- The pathologist, uh, discovered,
Uh, what's known as a garrote.
I was unfamiliar with that at the time.
I quickly learned what that was.
It was a-a paracord with two rebar handles.
And it was-- it circled her neck.
- Isabel from the horse ranch said
Nicole lee once told her no body, no case.
Now detectives finally had the body,
And soon, they had an arrest warrant.
The charge, murder.
- Coming up...
- Ladies and gentlemen, at its core
This is really a very simple case.
- An accused killer on trial
When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
- Welcome back.
The quest investigators described as
Finding a needle in a thousand haystacks
Was completed, a search team recovered
Erin corwin's body in an abandoned mine
Along with a torch, a sprite bottle,
And a propane tank.
Chris lee was immediately arrested.
Now, prosecutors were about to argue that each of those
Items revealed a chilling secret about erin's killer.
Here again is andrea canning with
"the last day."
- Ladies and gentlemen, at its core, uh,
This is really a very simple case.
- October, 2016, two and a half years
After erin corwin's death, a jury gathered
In the san bernardino court room.
The person on trial? Chris lee.
The charge? First degree murder.
Prosecutor, sean daugherty.
- All of the evidence in this case
Points to one person.
One person who prepared, planned, studied,
And executed the murder of erin corwin.
There was so much, um, connecting him
Out there at that mine shaft,
Even the very location of that particular mine,
That tied him to the crime, um,
That for him not to have done it he would be--
Probably be the unluckiest man ever.
- The prosecutor used friends and family of
The lee's and corwin's
To lay out the case against chris.
Several people who knew chris,
Including this fellow marine,
Testified he'd shown a lot of interest
In how to dispose of a body.
- He did mention the benefits of, uh, hiding a body
In a vertical position so ground penetrating radar
Wouldn't be able to see the outline of a body.
- Former downstairs neighbor and one time friend,
Aisling malakie, also took the stand.
- How many times prior to June 28th did you hear
The defendant talking about murder?
- More than I can count.
- Aisling also told the jury about chris's wife
Nicole's odd and cold response
When she heard erin was missing.
- I called nicole and said, "where's your husband?
"'cause people here are looking for her.
"you know, erin's missing."
She replied with, "I don't care what happened
"to that little bitch."
And she laughed at me
And told me to mind my own business.
And then I hung up on her.
- And aisling's husband, conor malakie,
Testified he saw chris lee around 6:00
The morning erin disappeared,
And in the back of his jeep he noticed something.
- I saw a bunch of items covered by a tarp
And I saw a white propane cylinder.
- White propane cylinder? - Correct.
- Like a-- for a barbecue? - Yes.
- Conor said the propane tank he saw on the jeep
Looked like the one recovered from the mine.
- I asked him why it was in there,
What he was planning on doing with it.
- What was the defendant's response?
- That he was going to blow up a mineshaft with it.
- Isabel megli, from the horse ranch,
Told the jury she also recognized the tank
Pulled up from the mine.
She said chris had borrowed it from her the day before
Erin disappeared.
- I asked him if he was gonna have a barbecue.
- And what was his response?
- He said no, he was gonna use it to play games.
- Did the defendant ever return the propane tank?
- No.
- And detective woods testified that a search of
The suv chris was driving at the time of his arrest
Yielded another piece of evidence.
- That is the garrote that was located
Underneath the front passenger seat.
I'd only seen one of those in my life and that was
The one that was wrapped around miss corwin's neck.
And for the second time in the same week
I saw the second one.
- And there was another link to chris, that shell casing
Found near the mouth of the mineshaft,
It matched chris's rifle.
The jury also got to hear from erin's confidant
Back in tennessee.
Jessica trentham was erin's close friend
And secret keeper.
She's the one who told detectives everything
She knew about erin's affair with chris.
- Did she tell you how she felt
About christopher lee?
- She made it known that she loved him
More than her husband.
- Jessica said erin had plans for a future
With chris.
- She stated that she believed
She would be divorcing her husband,
Or that a divorce would come,
And that she was hoping to be able to stay with him.
- She said chris told erin he had
A special trip planned for her
The weekend she disappeared.
- She said that he was going to surprise her
With a trip out to the desert.
- How'd she sound?
What was her feelings about it?
What-what'd she sound like to you?
- She was excited to get to spend time with him.
- Jessica also testified about a text she got
From erin.
"my mother comes in a week.
"I'm excited!"
Jessica responded, "are you gonna tell her?"
- What did you mean when you sent the text,
"are you gonna tell her?" - that she was pregnant.
- Erin texted back,
"well, chris wanted to tell everyone next week..."
On June 28th, 2014,
Jessica spoke to her friend for the last time.
At 7:19 am, california time,
Erin called jessica back in tennessee.
- She said that she was getting ready
And about to leave the apartment,
Um, to go meet chris to have their special date.
- Did, um-- what was your response to that?
- I was excited for her.
I-- - why?
- I wanted her to be happy.
- Did you guys make plans or talk about, uh,
Her calling you later?
- She was supposed to call and let me know how it went.
- Did you ever get that phone call?
- No.
- Do you think she was planning to start
This new life with him, with the baby in alaska?
- Seemed-seemed so. It seemed so.
It was really hard to hear that.
Um, I think one of the harder things
Is to know that she was going through all that
And she did not share it.
It just makes me wonder
The level of his manipulation,
'cause obviously he was leading her on.
- But perhaps the most damning evidence
Came from this dna expert
Who analyzed the items that were pulled out of
The mineshaft where erin's body was recovered.
- In this case I chose to go with the more
Substantial testing.
- Remember that homemade torch?
It consisted of a piece of wood with a green tee shirt
Wrapped around one end.
On the shirt's collar, dna.
- In this particular case, we have a major dna profile
Which includes christopher, uh, christopher lee.
- There was also dna around the mouth of
The sprite bottle found in the mine.
- I have a mixture of two individuals, uh,
Christopher brandon lee and erin corwin.
- Erin and chris, it appeared,
Had been sharing a sprite that day.
The same drink her husband had once used
To propose marriage.
- I believe christopher lee took erin corwin
Out to the desert to kill her that day
Because she was a hurdle between
Him and the rest of his life.
By the end of this entire investigation,
We realized christopher lee
Didn't care about anybody but himself.
- The prosecution said chris took erin out to the mine,
Strangled her with the garrote,
And dropped her in.
He may have intended to use the propane tank and torch
To blow up the mine and conceal her body,
Although he apparently didn't follow through.
Their conclusion, it was a carefully planned,
Cold-blooded murder.
The evidence seemed overwhelming.
But now, it was the defense's turn
And jurors were in for a surprise.
Chris lee was about to testify and no one
Was prepared for the dark tale he would tell.
- Coming up...
A story from the stand that stuns the court.
- I couldn't live with myself if I kept this
A secret any longer.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- I need to tell the truth.
- Chris lee, a husband, father, and decorated marine
Would be the first and only witness
In his defense.
His attorney, david kaloyanides,
Took chris through his version of events.
- I couldn't live with myself if I kept this
A secret any longer.
- By June, 2014,
Chris was preparing to leave the marines.
He told the jury that he knew it was time
To end his relationship with erin.
- Did you have any plans after leaving the corps?
- Uh, yes.
Me, nicole, and liberty were planning on, uh,
Moving back up to alaska.
- Had you told erin this? - I did.
- Chris said that he had planned a hunting trip
And that he invited erin along so they could talk.
- Was it just gonna be you and erin?
- No, it wasn't.
- Chris had asked two friends to
Join him, including his neighbor conor.
- Why were you inviting all these other friends
Of yours if you needed to talk to erin?
- Because I didn't really wanna have
Lengthy conversations, so I wanted to be able
To go hang out with my friends
And actually do some hunting, um,
In case the conversation got too deep or became
To the point where I was uncomfortable with it.
- But chris said by the morning of June 28th,
He found out his friends had bailed,
So he and erin set out for the park,
Just the two of them.
Chris had a propane tank and he said he wanted
To blow off some steam, literally.
- Had you told erin that you were going to
Actually try to blow up this mine?
- On the way there.
- Do you remember what her reaction was?
- Uh, she wasn't happy about it.
She thought it was stupid, unsafe.
Um, you know, she thought this trip
Was gonna be about us talking
And I told her that it was, but, you know,
That I wanted to try and do this too.
- When they arrived, chris began unloading
His supplies.
- I took the tires out of my jeep
And I tossed 'em down the mine shaft.
- What was erin doing during this time?
- Uh, she was sitting in the jeep,
Listening to music.
She didn't want to be near any of this.
- All right, so what did you do next
To blow the mine?
- I went to the back of the jeep to grab my torch
And I realized I had not doused it in gasoline.
- Feeling frustrated,
Chris said he returned to his jeep.
- We started having a conversation, uh, about--
- About what? - About plans.
Uh, she wanted to come to alaska.
She wanted to be part of liberty's life.
Um, I had told her, you know,
I-I didn't want that.
Told her, you know, I had decided that, you know,
You can't be a part of liberty's life
And she said that she wanted to,
That she loved liberty.
You know, and I told her,
You know, "it's not your choice.
"it's not your daughter.
"you don't get to love her, she's mine."
- What were you thinking at that point?
- I was thinking there's no reason
For erin to love liberty.
She's not hers.
She shouldn't have any kind of
Emotional attachment to her.
- And then, chris said,
He remembered something else.
A story that would be central to his defense
And would stun this courtroom.
He said he recalled something his wife
Had shown him one night
When she was giving liberty a bath.
Signs, chris said, that nicole believed
Showed sexual abuse.
- That she thought maybe erin had molested liberty
Because she was uncomfortable with the way
She was around her when she had been watching her.
- What was your reaction to that?
- I felt so safe in my little community
That I-I didn't think it was possible.
- So you didn't believe nicole?
- No, not at the time.
- But now, as they talked at the mine, he said
Erin seemed way too attached to liberty.
- When erin told me she loved liberty
And that she wanted to be with her,
You know, something clicked.
It turned a gear in my head and I said,
"why do you care about liberty so much?
"why-why do you want to be part of her life?"
And erin-erin told me, you know,
"I just-- I just love her."
And I-- and I stood up and I stopped her
And I said, "did you touch liberty?"
And she reeled back a little bit and started stuttering
Of her words and she was saying, "you know, I-I--"
And I stopped her again
And I yelled at her this time.
I said, "did you molest my daughter?"
And she said, "yes, but--"
And that was the last thing I heard her say.
- What an explosive allegation against
The victim.
- Did you worry that that could really
Turn off the jury? - Absolutely.
But it was what chris insisted was the truth.
- Erin's husband said it simply wasn't possible.
- She was nurturing, caring, and never did anything
Loose or crude or harmful.
Nobody that personally knows erin
Or has even heard of erin
Would believe that.
- And for detectives...
- I personally felt disgusted.
From all the people we've talked to that knew erin,
Um, we didn't think this was even an angle that
Christopher lee would play.
It just came outta left field.
- But chris said it was hearing what he believed to
Be a confession from erin that caused the horrible
Events he now recounted in chilling detail.
- I stumbled back and I sat on the edge of my jeep
And caught myself with my hands.
And in my right hand I felt the metal from the garrote.
It-it set me off.
I just felt so much hate, so much rage.
And I grabbed it and I stood up and I came up behind her
And I put it around her neck.
Training took over then.
I turned around and I started pulling.
Nothing would've stopped me from doing what I was doing.
I told myself while I was doing this, "never again."
I wasn't gonna let anybody hurt my daughter again.
I had let her into my daughter's life.
It was my fault that my daughter was hurt.
I just kept choking her.
I don't know how long it was.
Might've been five minutes,
Ten minutes.
It felt like forever.
And I just kept choking her.
And then, the anger, that feeling of disgust
And hate ebbed a little bit, and I let go
And she dropped to the ground.
- Christopher lee was describing for the jury
How he had killed erin corwin.
- After a few minutes my body realized
What happened.
I know I killed her.
And so, the garrote was still around her neck,
So I grabbed it and I dragged her
To the edge of the mineshaft
And I pushed her in.
- His story accounted for all the physical evidence
And portrayed the killing as a crime of passion
Committed by an outraged father.
But now, the prosecution took over
And shocked the courtroom all over again.
- Coming up...
A heart stopping moment.
- So, for the record,
You could've stopped there, right?
- No. - You couldn't have stopped?
- No. - Why not?
- Nothing would've stopped me at this point.
I was too angry.
- When "dateline: Secrets uncovered" continues.
♪♪
- Chris lee had shocked the courtroom,
Telling the jury that he did kill erin corwin,
But it wasn't premeditated.
Instead, he said, he snapped when
He claimed erin confessed to him
That she'd been molesting his daughter.
Now, prosecutor, sean daugherty,
Cross examined chris, confronting him
On those allegations against erin.
- You heard these accusations from your wife,
Who you loved, right? - Yes.
- So you needed to pick up and call the police.
- No.
- Nicole immediately picked up and called the police?
- No.
- So you're still having sex with the woman who your wife
Thought was molesting your daughter, right?
- Yes.
- The prosecution's mission, show the jury that
They could not believe chris
Because he'd lied, claiming not to know
Where erin was through all eight weeks
She was missing.
- People lie for a reason.
It was important that I point out that
He lies to protect himself.
You had a choice to tell the truth, right?
- I did.
- You knew erin had a mother?
- Yes.
- You knew she had people that loved her?
- Yes.
- You knew a lot of people were looking for her?
- Yes, I did.
- You essentially made the decision to
Hold them hostage, right? - Yes.
- Perhaps the biggest moment in court came
When the prosecutor found a striking way
To demonstrate how chris had killed erin.
- Okay, so for the record, what you did was you put it
Around the dummy's neck that I'm holding.
You twisted around
And then you turned backwards.
So you're actually back to back with her.
- Yes, sir.
- Okay, and you testified earlier that you pulled
Really, really hard. - Yes, sir.
- You could've stopped there, right?
- No. - You couldn't have stopped?
- No.
- You already made the decision to kill her?
- Yes.
- And you were gonna follow through on that decision?
- Yes. - Okay.
My goal was to show the jury
How long it takes to kill somebody like that
And to show them the brutality
Of what was done.
It's one thing to say as he did on-on direct,
"well, then I strangled her
"and I pushed her down the hole."
It's another thing for him to actually
Show us what you did.
So, I think the jury was entitled to see that.
It was heavy.
It was one of the heavier moments I've had in court.
That's about ten seconds in.
You could've stopped, right? - No.
- Twenty seconds, you could've stopped.
- No. - Why not?
- Nothing would've stopped me at this point.
I was too angry.
- I saw the reactions of the jurors,
Uh, it was pained.
Their expressions were pained.
So we're about 40 seconds in, you're still doing it?
- Yes, sir.
- That's about a minute in, still doing it?
- Yes, sir.
- And your testimony is you couldn't have stop?
You couldn't have just let go of those handles.
- No.
- A minute 20, still no, huh?
- No. - Okay.
You can let go.
Can you let go now? - Yes, sir.
- Then you threw her down a mineshaft, didn't you?
- I did. - Like a piece of trash.
- I threw her down the mineshaft, yes.
- Like a piece of trash.
Right? - Is that a question?
- Yes. - Yes.
- The jurors had heard a confession from chris lee.
Would they think it was voluntary manslaughter?
A killing carried out in the heat of passion?
Or was it premeditated murder?
The prosecutor made his final appeal
To the jury.
- You think the defendant testified
To express remorse.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you do
That is your mistake.
The defendant is not remorseful.
He didn't care.
He didn't care when search and rescue
And homicide and people in fire departments
Are putting their life at risk looking for erin.
He didn't care that he was holding her mother hostage.
He didn't care one bit until it came time to talk to you,
The people who are going to decide
What crime he's guilty of.
- Defense attorney, david kaloyanides,
Asked the jury to consider this case
As a tragic crime of passion,
Not one of premeditated murder.
- Mr. Lee was provoked.
Only you can decide whether that provocation
Was sufficient to justify a lesser included
Not justify the killing because it wasn't justified.
But, was it murder?
Was it deliberate willful premeditated
Lying in wait murder?
Or was it a tragic killing
That shouldn't have happened?
- The jurors pondered those questions
For just an hour and a half.
Then, they reached a verdict.
- We the jury find the defendant,
Christopher brandon lee,
Guilty of first degree murder.
The defendant intentionally killed the victim
By means of lying in wait.
- Christopher lee was convicted on all counts.
He will spend the rest of his life in prison
Without the possibility of parole.
- What was that moment like for you?
That-that was pretty final at that point, guilty.
- It was like taking a breath of fresh air.
- Although jon corwin still feels
The lasting pain of regret.
- I sure wish I could've been there for her more.
I tried my hardest but it wasn't enough.
- Erin was a kid.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
She just didn't know that, in my opinion,
She was dealing with the devil.
- Chris's wife, nicole, told detectives she had
Nothing to do with erin's disappearance
And she has not been charged with any crime.
Is there still a chance?
Is nicole out of the woods?
- Not every door has been closed.
- But for erin's mom,
The door on chris lee is closed
And she breathes a little easier knowing it.
- Every time there's a hearing
Your emotional scab gets ripped off.
And to know that I'm not gonna have to
Deal with that.
- Lore finds comfort here,
Way out in the joshua tree desert
Where doug billings, cave doug, created this.
In the desolate place where erin's life was cut short
A garden now grows in her memory.
- When you look at that desert garden,
What are you thinking?
- It's beautiful, like my girl.
It's a peaceful place.
I have a peace that can't be explained.
I decided I couldn't be bitter and angry.
He's already taken enough from me
And if I'm bitter and angry he's taking
My mind, my soul, and my heart,
And I'm not giving him that.
- That's all for this edition of
"dateline: Secrets uncovered."
I'm kate snow, thank you for watching.