Murder With My Husband - 58. Cory Lovelace - The Dedicated Mom

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the death of Cory Lovelace. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/video/mystery-on-the-mississippi-part-7-1068986947524 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cory-lovelace-curtis-lovelace-case-did-illinois-mother-die-from-alcohol-abuse-or-was-she-murdered/ https://whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/5034/lovelace-died-valentines-day-murder Link: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I am Peyton Mourland and I'm Garrett Mourland and he's the husband and I'm the husband. If you're tuning in on YouTube please subscribe so you can get a notification every single time we upload and also please leave a comment. If you are listening on any podcast platform thank you so much we are so happy to have you and if possible please leave us a review. Garrett do you have 10 seconds for this week's episode? Yes I do.. Um, I was just going to talk about our lawn again. Oh, but it's not green yet.

I'm just a little upset about it. It's the first time that I've taken care of a lawn, like my own lawn. And so I'm still trying to learn. That's probably pretty boring to most people, but I just thought I let everyone out. Oh, also we painted our cabinets black. Oh, yeah, yeah, we did paint our cabinets black. I think that was kind of a big deal. Yeah, that was kind of a big deal, because they were white before. Yeah.

And now they're not. Yeah, so we like the black cabinets. And so everyone was questioning our decision, but they look amazing. They do, they look really good. I have 10 seconds, because I have been babysitting a dog this week. And so if you hear him, his name's Jeppy,

and if you hear him in the podcast, I'm so sorry because I don't know how to really tell him to be quiet, but it's been really fun. But I don't think we'll get a dog. It's true. Real quick, before we jump into the case, I just wanted to let you guys know that our videos have been beginning to get demonetized on YouTube because

of the content that we are talking about. And there are other channels who talk about the same stuff, so we're trying to work through it and figure it out, but currently right now, we are basically demonetized. And so if you could please leave a comment on our social media or on YouTube, we're just kind of engaged in any way that would be super, super helpful for us on our end as we tried to kind of figure this whole thing out with YouTube. Okay, so our case sources this week are NBC News, CBS News,

and What Lies Beyond boards.net, and there were a couple articles for each NBC and CBS. Okay. Which will be listed in the episode notes. Our case this week starts at Quincy High School in the 80s. Quincy High is located in Quincy, Illinois, and athlete Curtis Lovelace is star of the show and Golden Boy at this school.

He was both a straight-A student and number one football player. So much so that when Curtis was given a scholarship to play football at University of Illinois after graduation, a picture of him would go up at the high school under a bulletin called Quincy Blue Devil Hall of Fame. Curtis, who was studying as a business administration major at the University of Illinois, was considered to be one of the top offensive men in the Big Ten and actually named as a team captain. He led his team to a championship his senior year, but ended with a bad knee injury

which kept him out of the NFL, in which he actually had been a prospect for until his injury. But his reality didn't devastate Curtis as he had been taking his studies very seriously while playing football in college and he actually had a promising career ahead of him. During college, Curtis had been long-distance dating a girl named Corey Detrickson who was studying communications

in Ohio. Corey had actually gone to high school with Curtis and Corey and Curtis' mutual friends from high school described Curtis as being a gentleman. He was very fun, loving, and smart. They say that Corey was a vibrant and had an admiring stubbornness about her. She could be a little spicy, a little feisty, but also just like, drew everybody in. Although the couple didn't date in high school, they actually bumped into each other after her and were smitten instantly fell in love. Friends described them as the golden couple, they were both beautiful, according to societal standards, and it seemed like the star football player was dating the star girl

type of relationship. In 1991, Corey and Curtis were married just one year after college graduation. Everyone from their hometown attended the marriage, and it seemed as if everything was going perfectly for these two. Curtis attended law school after graduation and became an assistant state's attorney in their hometown of Quincy. Yeah. His dreams continuing to unfold

as they both bought a home together in Quincy. So they grew up in Quincy. Both were very successful in high school, went on to college, ended up dating, are very successful after college move back to their hometown, and now he's this fancy lawyer, and everything is going great for that. Yeah, they both seem very smart.

Cory had actually wanted to be a mother and a wife who was involved in her family's life, and involved in the town of Quincy that they loved so much. She kind of wanted to be like a socialite of sorts is what I'm getting. Okay. And in 1993, Cory and Curtis welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Lindsay. After Lindsay came Logan and then Lincoln and then finally their third son, Larson.

Okay. So one girl and three boys for this family. Cory is an amazing mom. She's head of the PTA. She's involved in the kids' lives, always going to games and recitals. She would play and dance with her kids, just making amazing memories with them. So it sounds like this picture perfect, like suburban family. Yes.

And during this time in 2005, Curtis actually decided to start his own law firm. And he also became president of the school board. And then he also became a captain in the Illinois National Guard and a part-time professor at Quincy University. Oh, how's he able to do all this? Right, so he was super busy, but he was following his dreams.

Like, he was like, I just want to go do all of these things. I'm gonna do it. Yeah, good for him. So their life together was full and complete and busy. Her busing the kids around him following his dreams. And as Corey was taking care of the kids and also processing the decline of her father's health due to cancer, Curtis was doing everything he could, but that meant he was away from home, a lot, long, long hours. So this whole situation began to take a toll on their picture-perfect marriage. And neighbors reported loud and contentious arguments coming from the house, and then it comes out that they both were heavy drinkers, which made these fights worse,

and the turmoil continued to grow. Cory's family says that Cory might have had an eating disorder also, and that combined with the couple's alcoholism together was definitely not healthy for her. And meanwhile, she's watching her father die, and so that's not healthy for her. Just goes to show you never really know what's going on in someone's life. The weekend before Valentine's Day in 2006, Corey began filling sick. She was showing flu-like symptoms, but on Monday, the night before Valentine's Day,

despite filling under the weather still, Corey assembled the kids' Valentine's Day cards for school the next day. And I don't know if you're listening outside of the United States, here we have a tradition where on Valentine's Day cards for school the next day. And I don't know if you're listening outside of the United States, here we have a tradition where on Valentine's Day elementary school kids bring a Valentine for each kid in their class. They're called Valentine's Day cards.

So I don't know if that's like a worldwide thing. Well, I also don't know if every elementary school does it. Oh, maybe, yeah, actually maybe not. I did it. I did it. I feel like it's a pretty custom thing. So anyways, she gets all the Valentine's Day cards ready to go for school the next day for all of the kids and Lindsey, Corey's only daughter who's now 12. She's 12 years old. Cuddled up with her mom on the couch afterwards and watched the Winter Olympics. So although Corey's feeling sick like this night is pretty normal. But the next morning, Valentine's Day 2006, Cory wakes up still feeling sick. Curtis and she decided that he will cancel his morning class that he was supposed to

teach and instead take the kids to school for her so she could get some rest that morning. He would do what she normally did, help the kids get ready for school, and then get them off. Corey did come downstairs that morning to help, but went back to rest in bed before the family took off. Curtis drove the kids to school, dropped them off, and made his way back to the house. Couldn't have been more than 30 minutes he was gone. When Curtis arrives home, he walks inside and assumes that Cory's sleeping. He sits down in the kitchen and looks over his emails for a while and then heads upstairs to take a shower.

On the way to the bathroom, Curtis passes the couple's bedroom and sees Cory laying down in their bed through the open door. So he's in the hallway, he's looking through their open door that goes into their bedroom and he sees his wife laying in their bed. Do you know if she was face down or face up? Face up. Okay. Curtis pauses as he looks at his sick wife and bed, an uneasy filling looms as he claims

to notice that something was wrong. Curtis steps closer and notices the pale skin, the lack of movement. He walks into the room and tries to wake his wife up. He shakes her, calls her name, and Cory doesn't respond. At this point, Curtis remembers that their four-year-old son, Larsen, who was too young for school, had stayed home that morning like he always does, and he was in the house. He usually stayed home with mom, and he was probably in his bedroom. So Curtis went to check on Larsen, scooped him up out of his room, and took him to Corey's

mom's house that was just like just a few houses away. Just ran outside, took him over. Corey's mom answered the door to her son-in-law and four-year-old grandson, that Valentine's Day morning, only to be handed Larson and told by Curtis that her 38-year-old daughter was dead. Did he not call the police yet? He has not called the police. Okay. Curtis handed him off and headed back to his own house to be with Corey. At this point, Curtis calls his boss and tells him, hey, my wife's dead. What? No, he didn't call the police. He later says that he knew she was dead and all he was thinking is she's dead.

What do I do now? Not she's dead. She needs help. Got it. So he didn't think to call the ambulance. He was more worried about getting his son somewhere safe and kind of handling the situation. Which I guess I could see. I mean, I'm sure the story's going to play out, but but it's not that makes sense.

It's not like it's like to suspicious. Yes. Yes. Um, I's like to suspicious. Yes. Yes. Um, I agree. I agree. Okay. So his boss is like on the phone with him and he goes, okay, well, do you want me to call 911 and like get the paramedics there just in case she could be revived? And he's like, yeah.

So his boss calls 911 and Jeff Barry, a detective with Quincy PD, was assigned to the investigation and the coroner stated that the time of death was very recent within the past hour. Well, he was only gone for 30 minutes. Yes. Approximately. Approximately. So it would make sense, right? Like, that lines up with his story that something happened while he was gone.

No signs pointed to how it had happened though. There was no signs of struggle. It looked as if she had just died in her sleep, not that long ago, but it was the position of her body that alerted everyone. Her arms were up by her chest kind of in the air, and if you are watching on YouTube, I will be inserting a drawing of what the position

that her body was found in, and if not, it will be posted on our social media. That's murder with my husband if you want to go check it out. So police ask the husband if blankets had been like over her chest with her arms bent up out of them. And then when he saw her, had he moved them to like try to check her pulse or anything and he said no.

So how I can explain this is that her elbows are on the bed but her forearms are in the air. So she's just like this? She's just like this. And one's kind of up higher and one's lower, and her hands are like strained, like this, which is normal for a body that's been dead for 10 to 12 hours because rigor mortis sets in, and that's when your body freezes up.

Okay. So bodies can like stay, but if she'd only been dead for 30 minutes, it's very unlikely that her body had frozen up that much to where gravity wouldn't just like pull her hands down. Okay, got it. Huh. The Lovelace's home is searched and they collect a styrofoam cup from the bed, and Curtis tells them that it was her cup

and it was full of alcohol, even though she was sick. Curtis also says that Cory had been falling a lot lately, falling out of bed, falling up the stairs, and struggling with an eating disorder. Police noticed that Curtis seems upset. His wife is dead, but he's being cooperative. He's answering questions. Cory left behind a family, a husband, and four children.

After the interviews were over, Curtis drove to school to pick up his kids. Lindsay remembers being told by her dad that day that her mom had died. And after this, the news kind of began to spread through the town. She was so young, she seemed so healthy. Their life seemed so perfect. How could she just die in her sleep?

The autopsy shows a small abrasion around Cory's mouth and a cut inside her lip. They also note that- That's weird. It's weird. They also note that Cory had fatty liver disease, which would be from heavy drinking. And at the end of the autopsy,

the cause of death was ruled undetermined because nothing else was found. Like they couldn't, they literally couldn't find water. They literally, no. All they noticed was she had liver disease and she has a small abrasion on her mouth, but small, like that's it. I'm confused because things right now don't point to him. Right.

So I don't, I don't know what to expect. They also are like, she was throwing up a lot because of her eating disorder It was bulimia, which means you make yourself throw up consistently Yeah, and then also she has liver problems and she's drinking a lot and that combination is just not not good So had she had she died because of that had she become unhealthy and that's kind of what they decide they closed the case You know her body was warm when we showed up. He was gone. Yeah.

And they're like, we think she just shut down. We think she just was unhealthy and died in her sleep. And accidents like this happen all the time. They do. And so they closed the case. There's no sign of foul play. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads

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his best without his wife. Everyone in Corey's life begins making the adjustments that happened without her. But six months after Corey's death, Curtis begins dating a student that had been in his class while Corey was alive. Uh oh. So his class while Corey was alive. Uh-oh. So that class he missed that morning.

Yeah. He began dating a girl that was in that class. That's suspicious. He had bumped into her at a nightclub and they had supposedly exchanged numbers and then they began dating. So she's also young. I mean, this is a college class that he was teaching. And her name's Erica.

And she moved in with Curtis and the kids, bringing one kid of her own into the mix. And Lindsay, the daughter was frustrated and unhappy. How does Lindsay at this point? I think she's like 12 or 13. OK. And Lindsay and Erica do not get along. And at one point, Erica throws all of Lindsay's clothes out

into the street and is like like get out of our house. Whoa. Yeah. So this new, the student does that to Lindsay. And so Lindsay is like, that's it. I'm going to live with grandma. So she moves in with grandma. It was about two years after Erica had moved in that they married. So about two and a half years after Corey's death, Curtis got remarried to a student. So about two and a half years after Corey's death Curtis got remarried to a student Erica joined Curtis in the National Guard so they both joined. Oh really? Yeah, so she joined in there and they ended up buying a new place in town Finally moving out of the house where Corey had passed so he had been sleeping in the same room With this new girl. I that just seems weird to me. I think I would have Like moved on laid laid it to rest. It'd be hard for me. I think I would have like moved on late late at terrest

It'd be hard for me to do that. It's traumatic, right? I agree. What was he still a lawyer? Yes, okay, so he still had his own firm at this point as well. Yes, okay So all things seemed jolly at first for this new couple But it didn't take long for the fighting to begin explosive fights on happy times Curtis felt like he had made a mistake, marrying Erica. He had rebounded with her and rushed into something

that was unhealthy for both him and his kids. That's what he says. Erica felt like Curtis was not the same man she had married. She married this guy and now he was different. So in 2013, after five years of marriage, Curtis files for divorce from America and they get divorced. Is it pretty recent? Yes. After the divorce, Curtis was once again quick to find love. He reconnected with a girl that he had taken to homecoming back in his glory days in high school

and they began dating. Her name was Christine. Around six months after they had began dating, they were married. And 20-year-old Lindsay came to the wedding and actually supported it. She felt okay about it. She felt like her brother's deserved a mom. Everyone deserved to be happy in her family. And this would be okay for their family. Christine stepped into the mother role for the boys, taking them to school, cooking, cleaning, and she ended up adopting the boys as her own. Oh, wow. So it was late 2013. So everything seems to be going good then.

Yes, with this new marriage. It was late 2013, eight years after Cory's suspicious death. And Adam Gibson, with the Quincy Police Department, was sifting through old files. He read Corey Lovelace's report, a small file, interviews with the husband, children, and some photos, and that's about it. He stopped as he found the pictures of her body. The arms, elbows on the bed, forearms up in the air, frozen.

It looked as if she had been in rigor mortis for hours, so he checks the notes. She had only died within the last hour. Adam passed on the photos to other detectives asking, does anyone else think this is weird? Detectives were stunned. How had no one questioned this earlier? How? No one questioned it? Well, they were like, this is weird, but they closed the case.

They didn't figure out why her arms had been standing straight up. They just were kind of like, well, one, you know, it's something crazy happened. Something crazy happened. It could happen. So everyone now eight years later in the police department is like, what were we doing? Like this is weird. They take the file back to the original doctor and Asked her to review her report. She reviews and says, no, this is correct. Like this is what this is right. They decide they want to do another autopsy. But they find out that Corey had been cremated just days after she was found dead that morning. So there was no option for another autopsy.

They ask their chief if they can find another pathologist to review the notes and see if they too agree with the original doctor. Detectives also decide to interview anyone who originally knew Corey and Curtis back at the time of death. They're gonna reopen this case. Wow, okay. Corey's mom, after talking to the new detectives,

begins questioning if her daughter's death was really an accident. There was no reason for her to think originally that it wasn't, but it did feel weird and she kinda just kept it closed up all this time. Detectives also question Lindsay, the daughter, who was now at college and he asks her about her parents' relationship and that Valentine's Day morning. And Lindsay says that her mother had been up and walking that morning, she had in fact been alive up until they all left for school which cooperates Curtis's story and also cooperates the ME who showed up and said

her body was still warm she just barely died. Around this time the new pathologist was reviewing the reports like the detective she fills like the death of the victim had to have been about 10 to 12 hours before those pictures were taken. So the night before Valentine's Day, not the morning of. So this new doctor reviews the autopsy report and said this person did not die that morning. She died the night before. Oh my gosh, okay. But Lindsay, who's, I don't know, no, no, no, no, no, no,

I don't know. Lindsay, who was too old? A couple theories, but I don't wanna like. No, tell me, tell me. One, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, mean, I don't know. I guess you know, so let's go. I actually hadn't thought about Erica. Oh, okay. So that's an interesting thing. Did you think about the dressing up as a inter-close?

No, I don't think so either. Maybe I'm crazy. No, it's a good theory, though. I didn't even think of anything. I was just like, what the heck? Like, how could that be? And how could that be? Because Lindsay just said she saw her that morning. Yep

And the pathologist suggests like the original officer that something was underneath Cori's arms when she died and That's why they were stuck up and then it was later removed after Rig Amortus had set in explaining why they were stuck in that position The abrasions around and inside of the mouth suggest stuck in that position. The abrasions around and inside of the mouth suggest suffocation occurred. That's what this new doctor says. And this new pathologist rules the manner of death as homicide. So two pathologists, two conclusions, two detectives, two conclusions. Yep. Was Curtis given the benefit of the doubt earlier because he was a pillar of the community. I mean, he was a lawyer. He sat on the board of the school like he was in the national guard. I mean, it wasn't like he was in easy suspects.

I thought I was going to say to is he was a lawyer, right? So he knew what to say. He knew what to do. He knew he knew how to act. Yes. And like where the cops like, there's no need to question it. This guy didn't kill his wife. He's a great guy, which I think I would, I mean, I think I'm in the same boat. We haven't really gotten to a conclusion. Yeah. But there were no defensive wounds,

no fragments in the mouth and no signs of suffocation. If someone had got on top of her insufficator, there would have been bruises, which she have scratched them. She's laid there while someone suffocated. The only thing was a little abrasion in the mouth So it's just confusing. It's confusing. I guess it didn't matter though because on Wednesday in August 2014 Detective Gibson arrested Curtis Loveless for the murder of his wife Corey Loveless back in 2006 You are not missing any evidence. This is all they have.

And they arrested him. And they arrested him. All they have is this new pathologist who said no, she died the night before. So Curtis has taken in, and in his interview, he claims to not even remember if he took the kids to school that day. He's like, I don't, that was so long ago you guys,

I don't even remember that morning. All I remember is finding her. And I don't think this is that weird because trauma sometimes leaves our minds, like we block it out on purpose. The detectives then ask if he smothered his wife with a pillow and he says, no, I didn't smother her. They indict him anyways.

And Curtis's world is now completely different than it had been the day before. Detectives then bring in each boy from the family and Larsen, the four-year-old at the time, tells them in his interview that his mom didn't wake up that morning and that he had actually gone into her room to wake her up and he couldn't wake her up so he just went back downstairs, hang out with his dad. He was four that morning and it's been eight years. But he remembers that. That's what he says with his dad. He was four that morning, and it's been eight years. But he remembers that.

That's what he says in his interview. But the older two boys say, no, for certain, our mom was alive and walking around that morning before school. One of them even says, no, I had a full conversation with her. I remember the last words I sent to her. That makes no, okay, this is crazy. And around the time of Curtis's arrest,

we don't have any really details and we will not speculate out of respect for the family, but Lindsay had actually been cut off from the family and wasn't allowed to talk to her brothers and wasn't talking to Christine, his third wife, or her dad. So he gets arrested and she's not involved with the family at this point. You got it. Curtis is charged with murder and pleads not guilty. His trial date is set. I'm I guess I'm confused because how are they having a trial with no evidence?

With all we've presented. Not no evidence but with all I've presented you. Yeah. So in January of 2016, also, this is 2016. Like it's not like we're in the 80s or, you know, and it's like, oh well, we were kind of behind on the justice system and no, I don't feel like there's any excuse. And don't get me wrong, I'm suspicious. Like something weird. It's weird. Obviously happened.

So I want to know what happened. So in January of 2016, the trial begins. And Curtis is facing 20 to 60 years in prison. Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. The state brings up, you know, he didn't call 911. The dropping off of his kid at the mother-in-law's house and just bluntly telling her your daughter's dead, he never tried CPR.

Did Curtis get special treatment from the cops? Because of who he was, the neighbors testified about their rocky marriage and the fighting. Prosecution also says that Curtis smothered Corey with a pillow the night before, making that injury on her mouth, and then let the pillow sit there overnight, and her arms were resting

on top of it and in that morning he removed the pillow because it's evidence obviously it would have her DNA on it and her arm stayed in that position. Oh, okay. I could see that. When Lindsay testified she tells jurors, she's no longer sure that she saw her mom that morning despite the fact that she had told cops twice that she had. She claims that she just told the story that she was always given, that that was the story, that mom was walking around that morning, and so that's what she told police. But she doesn't

actually remember anything. She says it was very traumatic for me. I literally don't remember much from that day. And the state also says that there was a two-day gap between the death of their mom and the interviews with the kids. This kind of does leave room for dad saying over and over, I don't know guys, she was walking around, she even talked to you like a couple days ago.

When you're a kid, I mean, even I am like, wait, what day did I eat that? It's hard to remember. And she had been sick for a while. So did they just mix up their days like, no, mom was sick, but she came down and made breakfast. Well, was that Sunday? Or was that Monday?

The only scientific part of this case at trial is the picture of the body being in rigor mortis. And this was determined years after, not at the scene that day. But that still is no direct tie to Curtis. Like even though that body, the timeline is off, that still is not physical evidence tying him to the death, right? Yeah. It's just weird. Could you suffocate someone without any other evidence besides a cut on the lip. How was the body warm? Two, police touched her body, and both of them wrote in their notes, her body was still warm.

OK. Why do the older kids remember seeing her that morning, the oldest recalling the conversation that they had? Because her body wouldn't have been warm the next morning. No. No. Once, if Rigger mortises said in your body's cold, your body drops temperature.

OK. As, and I'm not quite sure, sure like how much it drops per hour or whatever, but your body drops temperature because you're dead. You're no longer having any movement. Your body organs are moving. Yes. So you drop temperature as you go, but her body was warm according to two, to two reports from that. Confused.

Was detective Gibson just eager to close this case because he had only been an detective for a week when he was sifting through those cases. So he was promoted. The guy who reopened this case had been promoted a week before and was going through old cases because it's good to come in and close a case

right off the bat. It proves something. Was he just eager to close a case and get one under his belt? And that's why he rushed into this decision. You know, she did have a significant disease in her liver. She was throwing up a lot. She was drinking a lot. Was this natural death due to health concerns?

The jury had all the same questions that we just talked about. And because of that, it was six guilty, six not. The judge declares a misch trial. That's crazy that it was split half and a half like that. Exactly. But can Curtis and his family go through another trial? Or should he just plead guilty to second degree murder? Because when a state loses a case,

it's a misch trial, it's embarrassing. And so they are going to retry. They're going to get that closure. Curtis and his new wife say, no, we are going to go to trial. You are not going to say that you did this because you didn't do it. And so they get ready for another trial. But they're completely out of funds because they spent all of their money on this first trial on a good defense team.

So this is when the Exoneration Project hears about the case and they decide to take the case pro bono. What's the Exoneration Project? So the Exoneration Project is when people do research into a case and get in contact with the defendant and they feel like he's innocent. Or he's serving in prison for something he didn't commit.

Wait, he's in prison? This is the first case, the Exoneration Project has done where the person actually hasn't been sentenced yet. But they're going to try to prevent a wrongful sentence. And so most of the people they help have been sitting in prison and they get them out of prison for wrongful conviction. So they take it pro bono,

and all of the friends gathered enough money to get Curtis out of gel on bail. So he'd been sitting in gel for two years, because these trials take a long time. So he'd been sitting there, and they're like, he can't sit in there and wait for another trial. So we're gonna get him out on bail.

They raised the funds, they do it. So he now has a new defense team for this trial. I guess I'm confused how he was sitting there, though, if he was, if it was a mistrial. Because you can either sit in prison while people prepare for your trial or you can get out on Bell. Even if it's a mistrial? Yes, even if it's a mistrial. Because they just re-arrest him. It's different than being not guilty. Yes, it's different than being not guilty. It's a mistrial. They, The next day, they re-arrest him and say, we're charging you with this crime again. Wow, okay.

So he was going to sit there again. The new trial was moved to a city about two hours away because they said it just, everyone in this town knows about this. He was such a pillar of the community. He can't get a fair trial here. This time, cameras were allowed. And so in March of 2017, his second trial starts. There were a couple different things that this trial, and one of

them was the Erica Curtis's second wife, the student testified at this trial. She didn't testify at the first trial. And she states that during their marriage, Curtis was drinking a lot and he was physically violent towards her. And that when drunk, he once blurted out, she was writhing underneath me. And Erica was like, what? And he was like, oh, nothing. And then just brushed it off. What the heck? During cross examination, the defense confronts Erica about her allegations. Because when she reported abuse during the marriage, she had said, well, actually, she had had an injury and she told them, oh, it was an accident and didn't include any details about him actually hurting her. And that's not, that's not like rare. That's common even for like a domestic abuse situation for them to claim it was an accident. I don't hold

value in that as much, but she also went down afterwards a huge lift with a defense of everything else Curtis had done to her during their marriage. Blurting out at the end that he had been poisoning her just like he did this, he did that, he was doing this, he was even poisoning me. And the defense actually did this on purpose.

What else did he do? What else did he do? What else did he do? What else did he do? His own team asking because by the time she finished on the stand, she came off extremely exuberant and unbelievable, even crazy. They like made her have meltdowns like got it and just kind of go on a tangent about him and then turned around and said she obviously just hates him Got it like she obviously just wants to see him suffer So it didn't work it worked for the defense instead of working for the state and the big blow that came at the second trial

Was the responding EMT officer who testified at the second trial, but didn't testify at the first trial claims that he had moved Corey's arms when he arrived to check for heartbeat, follow protocol, and this was before those pictures were taken that were in the file that basically started these trials. So this EMT gets up and goes, oh, I moved her arms into those positions so I could get to her chest. Oh, wow. gets up and goes, oh, I moved her arms into those positions so I could get to her chest. Oh, wow. And then that changes everything.

Yes. So then they bring up the detective who reopened this case and they say, did you know that? He's like, no, I didn't. I was not aware that he moved the arms. And they were like, but those pictures, those were the sole reason you reevaluated this case, right? And he just kind of sits there and says, yeah, yeah, like that's the reason we reopened this case. And now we just figured out that possibly her arms were in that position because the EMT had

moved them before photographs were taken. After a seven-day trial, the jury came back only after two hours of deliberating. Okay. Not guilty. Eleven years after Cory's death and 2.5 years for Curtis and Gell, he was now convicted, not guilty. Holy crap, this thing is crazy. One, because I'm still confused how she died. Two, because he was in jail potentially for something he, I mean, well, he's now

been convicted not guilty. Not guilty. So it's what happens then. Like, it's just the whole thing's crazy. It's insane. So as of 2017, I couldn't really find much recent information. And I also don't love like getting on Reddit and reading the hometown gossip version of it because it might not be true.

And we're talking about real people and victims. So as of 2017, according to reliable sources, Lindsey hadn't talked to her family still, even after the trial. Cory's mom has kind of kept her opinion to herself about whether or not she thinks Curtis did it. And Curtis and Christine moved out of Quincy after he was, you know, convicted not guilty and they started their own exoneration programs to help people get out of prison who are not guilty. This case is hard because kind of what you

were just saying. If he didn't do it, he not only had his wife die unexpectedly, he also had two and a half years of his life taken away. But if he did do it, it's horrible for Cory and her family because there's this huge question mark about how and why she died and was it murder, was it just an accident? So it's just kind of like a, it's a hard situation. And I was going through and reading comments on these articles and someone mentioned that if Corey that morning had had a seizure due to lack of eating, right? She was not only had an eating disorder, but she was sick. Most of us don't eat a ton when we're sick because you know like we're already not feeling good. So she hadn't been

eating anything and was obviously drinking alcohol. There was alcohol on the night stand next to her and had liver like failure. She had a disease in her liver. Number one, a lot of times people with seizures end up biting their tongue. That's a really good point. Or they end up with a lip injury. Like they tell you to make sure to put a pencil in their mouth or something because they'll hurt their mouths and that's the only abrasion that they found on her body. And number two, cut her body have stiffened faster because she had a seizure and then kind of stayed that way. So when the EMT moved her arms,

she was still like in a weird position even though Rigor Mordis hadn't said in because she had been seized up. Yeah, that makes sense. That's a really good point. And to me, that kind of explains the early rigor mortis. Also, she was very tiny. Rigger mortis sets in faster, depending on your body weight, the lighter you are, the

faster it comes. Also like air temperature affects how fast rigor mortis sets in. And so to me, I'm going to take the stance that this was an accidental death. Yeah, I was going to say, I usually don't take stances. I know. And that's the thing is, I mean, usually we don't take stances. I know. I, and that's the thing is I'm, I mean, I'm, that's just my person. Yeah, no, I think according to what you've told me, I would say not guilty. Yeah. Yeah, I just think that's what I believe, but also there's always a question mark. But yeah, I don't, I didn't go to the trial. Yeah, I want to say you probably didn't.

According to all the evidence, it doesn't seem like you did it. Well, I just don't know how the body would have been warm. Yes. And the first, I feel like it means a lot. And the EMT literally said, oh, I moved her arms. Like, I moved her arms up so I could get to her chest. And then it's like, well, if she had a seizure, her hands might be funky shaped. I don't know.

Crazy. All right, that's, that was crazy. It's insane, but I do really feel for the family because there's still this huge question mark of how she died. And if he didn't do it, which I do really feel for the family because there's still this huge question mark of how she died. And if he didn't do it, which I'm going to follow law and say he didn't because he was convicted, not guilty. This is also hard for him because his wife, he doesn't know how she died either. I mean, he just came home and found her.

Yeah. And so it's just horrible that question mark. I just, it's already horrible to begin with, but I know that it could help with some closure. And so this one's just difficult because we don't have full closure on exactly how she died. Yeah. But yeah, that is the case of Corey and Curtis,

Loveless. Crazy. It's almost like almost a cold case, but not really. Yeah, because I mean, it's been solved. It's been closed. And then reopened and then tried twice. So, and then they just reclosed it. They didn't like try to find anyone else.

Yeah. So it's pretty crazy case. But if you want to see the imagery we were talking about, you can watch any of our episodes on YouTube. And we include a lot more imagery on there. Or you can just check out our social media murder with my husband. We included all of the important graphics on there and also there's some conversations

in the comments. You can talk about if you know any more information about this case or any details that were left out or anything like that. It's awesome. If you want to check out our Patreon and support the show, the Patreon link will be in this episode notes wherever you are listening and we will see you guys next week for another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye. and 50% off energy charges all summer. Everybody's on for automatic energy savings. Plus free energy on the hottest day.

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