Speaker 1: Heads up to listeners. This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Speaker 1: Please take care while listening. In the summer of twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: that first COVID summer, a few months after Teleina went missing,
Speaker 1: before anyone had been arrested, a licensed realtor in Mina,
Speaker 1: Arkansas gets a phone call. The person on the other
Speaker 1: end of the line is a woman eager to buy
Speaker 1: some land in the area, but not just any land,
Speaker 1: a specific parcel. Here's how she later described that call,
Speaker 1: as read by a voice actor.
Speaker 2: When I answered the phone, she said there was a
Speaker 2: piece of property she wanted to buy.
Speaker 1: The realtor looks up the property on her computer. It's
Speaker 1: a four acre plot of undeveloped forest in Arkansas.
Speaker 3: She asks the.
Speaker 1: Woman if she wanted to be shown the property, they
Speaker 1: could do a tour.
Speaker 2: And she said no, she had already looked at it,
Speaker 2: she'd walked every step of it, and she just loved it.
Speaker 1: Weird but okay. Then the woman says she's planning to
Speaker 1: live there, but the realtor can see from the plot's
Speaker 1: description that that might be difficult.
Speaker 2: And I said, you do understand. There's no utilities, there's
Speaker 2: no water, no electric nothing there.
Speaker 1: The woman is undeterred, and she said.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to live there and I'm going to
Speaker 2: buy this piece of property, and I want to buy
Speaker 2: it today.
Speaker 1: A sale is a sale. So the realtor pulls up
Speaker 1: some forms and asks for the woman's information.
Speaker 2: She said her name was Deb Bomily or something like that.
Speaker 2: Her first name was Corey, but she said she didn't
Speaker 2: use that name. She used the name of Deb.
Speaker 1: Even though it's getting late in the day. The realtor
Speaker 1: prepares a contract for the sale of the property and
Speaker 1: Corey signs it just after midnight, but the contract is
Speaker 1: rejected by the seller because of financing issues. The realtor
Speaker 1: updates Corey.
Speaker 2: I talked to her several times and we text back
Speaker 2: and forth because it was rejected, and she said she
Speaker 2: still wanted to buy it, and I asked her how
Speaker 2: she wanted to do that, and she said she was
Speaker 2: going to sell some stuff and just come pay cash
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: The realtor follows up to check on the progress of
Speaker 1: Corey's cash flow.
Speaker 2: I called her and I never got a reply, so
Speaker 2: that was the end. I just filed everything away.
Speaker 1: The property remains unsold. Seven months later, police will descend
Speaker 1: on this unassuming plot of land off a dead end
Speaker 1: logging road called Woody Lane from iHeart Podcasts. I'm Melissa Jell.
Speaker 1: This is what happened to Telena's our.
Speaker 3: We could solve what happened, We could fix it. Maybe
Speaker 3: the first thing that happened, she gets bad migraines.
Speaker 4: By then, we all had a suspicion that something bad
Speaker 4: had happened.
Speaker 5: We're armchair investigators over here, so we just didn't know
Speaker 5: something like that could have happened to Tolena.
Speaker 6: He was like, I've been talking to Corey trying to
Speaker 6: get her to tell me what happened.
Speaker 7: So what happened?
Speaker 3: In a nutshell? And then Sherry told me the exact
Speaker 3: story of what had happened.
Speaker 4: If you suspected something like that happened, who would be
Speaker 4: the people you would suspect the most.
Speaker 8: All of a sudden move, already thought, no explanation, No,
Speaker 8: this is what happened.
Speaker 3: I don't know she was willing to forgive him for
Speaker 3: whatever it happened, or maybe he had paid her back.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, this just certainly can't possibly be what happened.
Speaker 3: And I come back and crying.
Speaker 1: And everysing what happened, Episode eight Horizon. I want to
Speaker 1: take you back to this moment when Telena's body is found.
Speaker 1: It's the dead of winter in a forest in Arkansas,
Speaker 1: and a deputy is standing over a white box freezer.
Speaker 1: He opens the lid to find visible human remains, but
Speaker 1: standing just a few paces behind him is a woman
Speaker 1: watching all this unfold. She's the woman who found the
Speaker 1: freezer and called the police. She's also the woman who
Speaker 1: seven months earlier, saw a suspicious truck and trailer drive
Speaker 1: down Woody Lane and Park. At that time, she wrote
Speaker 1: down the license plate number of the truck on a
Speaker 1: small piece of paper. Even though it's been seven months,
Speaker 1: she still has it. The woman hands over the paper
Speaker 1: to investigators. Police run the plates and they matched Tolena's truck,
Speaker 1: the two thousand and seven Dodge Ram that Corey later
Speaker 1: sold for scrap metal. This small piece of paper is
Speaker 1: the evidence the detective Joel Weber has been waiting for.
Speaker 9: With this new information, investigators began looking again at the
Speaker 9: data retreat from Corey Bamiley's cellular phones on previous search warrants.
Speaker 1: They discover evidence from Corey's phone that she had been
Speaker 1: in the area of Arkansas, where Teleina's body was found
Speaker 1: multiple times in June and July. And they also find
Speaker 1: out that the very day that Teleina's truck was spotted
Speaker 1: parked on Woody Lane, Corey tried to buy that exact property.
Speaker 9: Investigators found that corey bamily had been attempting to purchase
Speaker 9: the very plot of land where the body was found
Speaker 9: from a realtor in Mina, just hours after she was
Speaker 9: seen there. The realtor advised Corey was adamant about purchasing
Speaker 9: the land. Corey refused to meet the realtor to tour
Speaker 9: the land, but stated she had already walked on every
Speaker 9: foot of the property and demanded that she be able
Speaker 9: to purchase it.
Speaker 1: Now able to connect Corey directly to Tellina's body, Wagner
Speaker 1: detectives jump into action. They apply for an arrest warrant
Speaker 1: for murder. Corey is currently living in Wisconsin with her mom, Janet,
Speaker 1: so the Wagner cops coordinate with the Dane County Sheriff's
Speaker 1: office in Wisconsin to track her down. On January twenty first,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, a week after Tellina's body is discovered,
Speaker 1: a few squad cars are dispatched to Janet's home with
Speaker 1: no immediate sign of Corey. Police follow her mom as
Speaker 1: she goes about her day. We've recreated what happened based
Speaker 1: on police reports.
Speaker 10: Subjects seen departing the Meadow Road address on two separate occasions.
Speaker 1: Sometime in the afternoon, Corey's mom leaves her house once
Speaker 1: more and drives her Chevy Equinox to a mechanic.
Speaker 10: Subject parked in the parking lot for a number of
Speaker 10: minutes before a second subject was observed walking towards the
Speaker 10: Equinox and getting into the front passenger side seat.
Speaker 1: Corey gets in the car with her mom behind the wheel.
Speaker 10: The decision was made to attempt a traffic stop in
Speaker 10: the appropriate location and take Bamilei into custody on the
Speaker 10: afforementioned warrant.
Speaker 1: But arresting Corey isn't going to be so easy.
Speaker 10: At approximately two forty two PM, I pulled behind the
Speaker 10: vehicle and activated my squad's emergency red and blue lights
Speaker 10: in an attempt to stop the vehicle. However, it did
Speaker 10: not stop.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the conversation was in the car
Speaker 1: between Corey and her mom, if she explained what was
Speaker 1: happening or pretended to be clueless or if they honestly
Speaker 1: didn't see the police car behind them, But they don't
Speaker 1: pull over. Corey's mom keeps driving, so a deputy puts
Speaker 1: on his siren.
Speaker 10: And again the vehicle did not pull over.
Speaker 1: One of the detectives in another squad car speeds up
Speaker 1: and cuts in front of them.
Speaker 10: He did begin to break slightly, and it appeared as
Speaker 10: though the operator then saw my squad behind her, and
Speaker 10: she immediately pulled to the right shoulder of the road
Speaker 10: and stopped.
Speaker 1: Gun drawn, the deputy approaches Corey's side of the car
Speaker 1: and tells her to step out of the vehicle.
Speaker 10: Bombily asked what am I under arrest for? And my
Speaker 10: response was murder charges out of Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: Corey also wants to know had they found her missing
Speaker 1: roommate's body. The next day, Wagner County District Attorney Jack
Speaker 1: Thorpe updates the public on Corey's arrest.
Speaker 10: I charged her.
Speaker 11: With first degree murder of Tolina Galloway, and we allege
Speaker 11: that those crimes did occur here in Wagner County, Oklahoma.
Speaker 12: Corey Bomily is also charged with desecration of a corpse.
Speaker 4: She is presumed innocent.
Speaker 11: Of both of those charges, and that presumption will remain
Speaker 11: throughout the duration of this investigation and prosecution up to
Speaker 11: and if she is proven guilty by proof beyond a
Speaker 11: reasonable doubt.
Speaker 12: It is very important for me to note to you
Speaker 12: this that this is still a very active investigation and
Speaker 12: it will remain so for some time after today. If
Speaker 12: you do have any information, or you may know of
Speaker 12: someone that has some relation or knows something about this case,
Speaker 12: please have that person contact the Wagner County Sheriff's Office.
Speaker 3: I would agree that I have never had a case
Speaker 3: involving these kinds of details.
Speaker 1: After her arrest for murder, Corey retains a lawyer, Janet Hudson,
Speaker 1: who defends her client in an interview with KATUL, a
Speaker 1: television station out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: I think she's shocked. I think she's concerned. Anybody who's
Speaker 3: been charged with such a serious assas should be shocked
Speaker 3: and should be concerned.
Speaker 1: Corey's lawyer adds that she's worried about her client getting
Speaker 1: a fair trial.
Speaker 8: I realize there are going to be those that see
Speaker 8: this as sensational and frightening and have opinions, and I
Speaker 8: have to fight against that.
Speaker 1: Soon afterwards, Corey is extradited from Wisconsin to Wagner. A
Speaker 1: short video taken by a local reporter shows her in
Speaker 1: handcuffs being escorted by police into the station. She's walking
Speaker 1: with her head down, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. Corey,
Speaker 1: what do you have to say about Telena's family, Corey says, nothing.
Speaker 1: Doesn't even look back. More than four years later, as
Speaker 1: I write this episode in June twenty twenty five, Corey
Speaker 1: is still awaiting trial on these charges.
Speaker 13: One day, I was driving on the freeway, riding in
Speaker 13: the freeway with my husband, and we passed a trailer
Speaker 13: that had a freezer on it.
Speaker 1: The details of Teleina's death, they'd be difficult for anyone
Speaker 1: to stomach. Here's Nicole, Talina's friend in Tennessee, who still
Speaker 1: fills the trauma long after receiving the news.
Speaker 3: And again, I just had a complete meltdown. I had
Speaker 3: to get him to pull over because I couldn't be
Speaker 3: next to that freezer on that trainer.
Speaker 1: Talina's friends have had a lot of time to ruminate
Speaker 1: on the events that occurred in the beginning of the pandemic.
Speaker 5: Here's Greg to you know, basically, murdered her and chop
Speaker 5: her up and put her somewhere where nobody would ever
Speaker 5: find or it just I Caro, in the world can
Speaker 5: somebody even contemplate doing so? How evil can one person
Speaker 5: really be? Tolena was a good lady and did not
Speaker 5: deserve what happened to her. For me to be involved
Speaker 5: in this whole situation just blows my mind. And like
Speaker 5: I said, I live a really boring life here in Oklahoma,
Speaker 5: and me and my wife we watch tram stories, but
Speaker 5: for us to live you know, living Wood, it's totally different,
Speaker 5: and it makes us not want to trust anybody. It
Speaker 5: makes us look at people a little bit differently now
Speaker 5: and be a little bit more untrusting about what they're
Speaker 5: saying or what they're telling us. And I don't want
Speaker 5: to be that type of person because I feel like
Speaker 5: I'm a person of faith and I feel like I
Speaker 5: want to get everybody the opportunity to prove me wrong,
Speaker 5: you know, show me that they're bad. But you know,
Speaker 5: through this Coury situation, I I look at people a
Speaker 5: lot differently now.
Speaker 1: For Tolena's Oklahoma friends in particular, it's hard to wrap
Speaker 1: their heads around what Corey's been accused of Within months
Speaker 1: of Corey settling into Wagner, she had woven herself into
Speaker 1: their worlds, eating dinner in their homes and sharing beers
Speaker 1: around backyard fires. Was she manipulating them the whole time?
Speaker 1: Was she waiting for just the right opportunity to enrich
Speaker 1: herself or to pull off some long held devious fantasy.
Speaker 1: Neighbors are left re examining every moment with her, wondering
Speaker 1: if she exploited their goodwill. For Greg, it's the mattress
Speaker 1: frame he discarded for Corey that bothers him the most.
Speaker 1: Did his actions help Corey get away with murder for
Speaker 1: a while? At least?
Speaker 5: I look back on that and I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 5: just still at that point didn't even have a clue
Speaker 5: of what was transpiring, what had happened, And she was
Speaker 5: that comfortable around us and doing the things that she
Speaker 5: was doing under our noses. You know what, what else
Speaker 5: is she capable of? Or what has she done in
Speaker 5: the past.
Speaker 6: No one ever really prepares you for her, small men.
Speaker 7: There's no amounts of training that can't prepare you for
Speaker 7: how to feel or what to.
Speaker 1: Expect for Aris. She can't stop thinking about this moment
Speaker 1: a week after Telena went missing, when she brought over
Speaker 1: sausage that Telena had paid for, but Corey wouldn't take it.
Speaker 8: She wasn't me and said, you guys should go ahead
Speaker 8: and take it. Our creator is stuffed full of meat.
Speaker 3: I didn't find out about how she was found until obviously.
Speaker 4: Months months, months, months after that interaction.
Speaker 8: But what I read the details is how her remains
Speaker 8: were found.
Speaker 1: I collapsed.
Speaker 5: Well, I connected those who coming back conversation that information together.
Speaker 3: How would you say that?
Speaker 1: Certain stories from Corey's past also take on new meaning,
Speaker 1: like the rumor she once worked at a coroner's office,
Speaker 1: or how she told people she cut up her horse.
Speaker 1: Here's Rachel, Telena's friend and fellow animal lover.
Speaker 14: She had this.
Speaker 4: Horse dye and apparently it had this horse for yours.
Speaker 4: Instead of calling somebody to come pick this animal up
Speaker 4: and or even finding somebody with a back hoe that
Speaker 4: could help her bury it, she cut it up like
Speaker 4: it was literally just a piece of meat.
Speaker 5: What who even knows how to do some work like that?
Speaker 1: Whoever did cut up Telena's body appeared to have had practice.
Speaker 1: The Arkansas Medical Examiner who performed Telena's autopsy, setting court
Speaker 1: documents that the dismemberment appeared to be almost expertly done.
Speaker 1: The incision point points were so clean, so precise, that
Speaker 1: there was only one cut mark on a bone, no
Speaker 1: saw or chop marks at all. The medical examiner added
Speaker 1: that the way it was done required some knowledge of
Speaker 1: how joints are structured so that they could be cut
Speaker 1: around and the limbs removed. As far as the cause
Speaker 1: of Telena's death, the medical examiner found that she died
Speaker 1: from blunt force trauma to the skull. Because of the
Speaker 1: lack of injuries on the rest of her body, he
Speaker 1: believed she was killed before she had a chance to
Speaker 1: defend herself.
Speaker 3: What do I think happened? Like my theory.
Speaker 1: In the years since Corey's arrest, Jess our internet sleuth
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, has had plenty of time to refine her
Speaker 1: theory of what exactly happened to telena'sar I asked her
Speaker 1: to lay it out from start to finish her best guess,
Speaker 1: based on the research she's done and the people she's
Speaker 1: talked to.
Speaker 3: I think Telina found out that Corey had either opened
Speaker 3: a credit card in her name or ad used one
Speaker 3: without her permission, and then once the pandemic hit, Teleina
Speaker 3: was no longer traveling for work and she was home
Speaker 3: looking at the bills, and that's when she found it,
Speaker 3: and I think she confronted Corey and told her she
Speaker 3: had to leave. But I think Corey also played to
Speaker 3: Telina's feelings and was like, I have nowhere to go,
Speaker 3: give me some time. After speaking to her ex husbands,
Speaker 3: I learned that Corey was all about waiting on end
Speaker 3: times of sorts, and I think she believed that that
Speaker 3: was coming. When COVID hit, she thought this is it
Speaker 3: and that's when everything started to spiral.
Speaker 9: The mayor today calling the spread unpredictable and.
Speaker 10: When get indicated, they die.
Speaker 3: The psycho repeat, and that's when Corey started planning her murder.
Speaker 3: I think she either poisoned her over time to make
Speaker 3: her week, or slip something into her food or drink
Speaker 3: that night's make her extra sleepy.
Speaker 5: She was going to lay down.
Speaker 8: For a while and said that she would chat with
Speaker 8: her later.
Speaker 3: And once Teleina was completely out, Corey probably hit her
Speaker 3: in the back of the head. I think she started
Speaker 3: cutting her up in the bathtub in the master bedroom
Speaker 3: because it was big, and then I think after that
Speaker 3: she moved her into the garage and finished there because
Speaker 3: that's where the freezer was and it was closest.
Speaker 4: When we got to the kitchen, we noticed the freezer
Speaker 4: was not there.
Speaker 3: I think she then wracked up Telina in garbage bags
Speaker 3: and put her in the freezer and waited. Eventually she
Speaker 3: brought the freezer in the white trailer over to Billie's
Speaker 3: and plugged it in to keep the body frozen.
Speaker 5: Saw an orange extension cord going into the back of
Speaker 5: this trailer. That's weird.
Speaker 3: And then when she went to the interview with Weber,
Speaker 3: he asked her about the trailer and she freaked out,
Speaker 3: and that's why she sold it and rented the U haul.
Speaker 9: They said there was some sort of travel trailer in
Speaker 9: the driveway, a white cargo trailer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's old.
Speaker 3: She took the truck, hitched up the rented trailer with
Speaker 3: the freezer, and drove to Arkansas to the remote property
Speaker 3: she'd been looking at buying.
Speaker 2: And she said, well, I want to buy it today.
Speaker 3: After she returned, she scrapped the truck and tried to
Speaker 3: tie up loose sentence, but the truck was in too
Speaker 3: good of shape to actually scrap so it raised some alarms.
Speaker 3: As for the motive, Corey had nothing. She had no job,
Speaker 3: no money, no car. The car she was even driving,
Speaker 3: the G six, belonged to Telina, So.
Speaker 9: Doing things as an executor before we know she's dead
Speaker 9: is presumptuous.
Speaker 3: And she realized she'd been caught and she started scrambling,
Speaker 3: and there's really nothing else.
Speaker 1: Jess has had little doubt about Corey's guilt pretty much
Speaker 1: from the beginning, but today she is still on shore.
Speaker 1: If Corey acted alone and if Marty was involved in
Speaker 1: any way. She even shared these concerns with the district attorney.
Speaker 3: I get the number for Jack Thorpe, and I put
Speaker 3: Rosie on three way on conference, and I said, will
Speaker 3: you just mute yourself and just be there, like emotionally,
Speaker 3: just just so I know somebody else is there. And
Speaker 3: I can remember what said later on like I'm really upset,
Speaker 3: And I said, I think Marty helped. I literally told him,
Speaker 3: I'm positive in my mind that he had something to
Speaker 3: do with all of this.
Speaker 1: Jess mentioned that she had been communicating with Marty regularly
Speaker 1: throughout this whole time. She had a lot of material
Speaker 1: that could potentially be useful.
Speaker 3: I shared an album with him on Facebook, I think
Speaker 3: the same one that I shared with you, because he
Speaker 3: wanted all of our screenshots, but two and two together.
Speaker 1: Still, after their call, Jess was left with the distinct
Speaker 1: feeling that the DA disapproved of how much she inserted
Speaker 1: herself into the case.
Speaker 3: He was kind of scolding me. I mean, he made
Speaker 3: me feel I'm sure he's really good at his job.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he's not saying his bedside manner. Maybe
Speaker 3: isn't that cool. He made me feel like I was
Speaker 3: responsible for something that I'm not the police.
Speaker 6: I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm some girl just on the internet and I didn't know.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I had until afterwards.
Speaker 1: Since Corey's arrest for Telena's murder, she's also been charged
Speaker 1: with attempted murder in Wisconsin, accused of trying to fatally
Speaker 1: poison her former neighbors, Sherry and Mike Siegler using homemade ricin.
Speaker 7: We came home to stuff kitty litter or broken sheet
Speaker 7: rock material scattered throughout our house, especially on my side
Speaker 7: of the bed and in my underwear drawer. This was
Speaker 7: very personal and I felt particularly scared.
Speaker 1: It's unclear why but prosecutors decided Corey should face charges
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin first before standing trial for Telena's murder. The
Speaker 1: rice In trial has been delayed for years, but finally
Speaker 1: it's scheduled to take place in June twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: just a week after this episode airs. I'll be attending
Speaker 1: and I'll update you all from Wisconsin. Still there's no
Speaker 1: trial date set for the murder of Tilena. Her loved
Speaker 1: ones are waiting, clinging to the hope that a murder
Speaker 1: trial will bring long overdue answers about what really happened
Speaker 1: in the confusing, chaotic early days of the pandemic. There's
Speaker 1: no question that COVID hindered the efforts of the official investigation,
Speaker 1: made it harder to see people behind their masks, isolation, fear, distraction.
Speaker 1: These were unprecedented challenges in a world gone mad for
Speaker 1: a while, and maybe that's exactly what the perpetrator was
Speaker 1: hoping for. Talina's family worries that the more time passes,
Speaker 1: the harder it may get to prosecute the case, that memories,
Speaker 1: evidence could be lost to the winds of time.
Speaker 8: There's the typical process of this, there's the murder, the investigation, hopefully.
Speaker 8: You know, somebody is a family you know and arrested,
Speaker 8: you know, and the family, you know, they bury their
Speaker 8: loved one and then two three years down the road
Speaker 8: there's a trial as typical. Correct, That is not our case.
Speaker 1: Over many conversations, Talina's sister, Cheryl told me that her
Speaker 1: family was struggling with the fact that Talina's body wasn't
Speaker 1: yet cremated according to her wishes, They were unable to
Speaker 1: give her a final resting place.
Speaker 8: We do not blame authorities. What happened was they determine
Speaker 8: that they needed her body. This case is more circumstantial
Speaker 8: than evidence wise because of the time frame she went missing.
Speaker 8: The body wasn't found for several months, badly decomposed in
Speaker 8: a freezer, and so they said we need to keep
Speaker 8: the body. We haven't. It's beyond the initial trauma. It
Speaker 8: She just said, when I woke up today, she is
Speaker 8: in pieces in a freezer. In my moon't and we
Speaker 8: woke up today, she's in pieces in a freezer. When
Speaker 8: we woke up yesterday, she was a piece of in
Speaker 8: a freezer, And when we wake up tomorrow she will
Speaker 8: be in pieces in a freezer. And that's our reality.
Speaker 3: We accept that.
Speaker 8: It doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, it's gotten harder.
Speaker 8: Our biggest source of pain in a lot of ways
Speaker 8: is how much pain my mom is seen. Her horrific
Speaker 8: grief that my fore mom, she's in worse pain for
Speaker 8: her entire exists. Is the worst pain anyone could ever feel.
Speaker 8: And we can't do anything to consult her. And we
Speaker 8: know that.
Speaker 1: For many years after Telena's murder, her family did not
Speaker 1: speak openly about what happened.
Speaker 8: I had worked at my place of work for eighteen years.
Speaker 8: I know many people, I work with them four years,
Speaker 8: and until about a year ago, a year ago, for
Speaker 8: the very first time I uttered the words to someone
Speaker 8: outside the family, my sister was murdered. It took me
Speaker 8: that well to be able to save those words to
Speaker 8: someone else. She can't tell, she said, you know, moham,
Speaker 8: I can't. I've never even talked.
Speaker 2: About this.
Speaker 8: Until she said a couple of months ago, her good friend,
Speaker 8: she said, she was telling me about some mystery things
Speaker 8: she'd seen on TV, a dateline type of thing. You know,
Speaker 8: as she said, my aunt was murdered, the first time
Speaker 8: she had uttered those words. And all of this time,
Speaker 8: my oldest daughter Serisia's never ever said anything outside the family.
Speaker 8: Teacher and my youngest daughter, Telsea her too. I know
Speaker 8: my mom outside of the coach. He has a small
Speaker 8: church group, so of course you know the news got there.
Speaker 8: Outside of that, no, nobody. We haven't been able to
Speaker 8: even say it outside of our own in our own
Speaker 8: world that is so raw and painful because of where
Speaker 8: we're trapped.
Speaker 1: Agreeing to do this podcast has meant that Cheryl has
Speaker 1: been able to talk more openly about Telena to me,
Speaker 1: to the world, but also to her family, and those
Speaker 1: long overdue conversations seem like the next step in a
Speaker 1: healing process.
Speaker 8: We haven't lost side. We have the horizon. We are
Speaker 8: still looking at the horizon. We know these days will ahead,
Speaker 8: these times will come. We will be able to gather,
Speaker 8: lay flowers and remember my mom. Her biggest fear that
Speaker 8: she expresses is she says, I don't want her to
Speaker 8: be forgotten. And I know she says that because there
Speaker 8: is not a gathering place of remembrance yet for her,
Speaker 8: and for some reason in her she fears her daughter
Speaker 8: will just be forgotten.
Speaker 3: I'm just really grateful that you decided to do this
Speaker 3: for to Lena not for me, but for her. Everybody's
Speaker 3: going to know, hopefully, and I think they need to.
Speaker 14: When you tell people about this whole thing, like how
Speaker 14: do you explain it to people?
Speaker 3: Like what you were involved in? Usually tell people I
Speaker 3: helped solve a murder, because I do feel like the
Speaker 3: effort that I put forth, along with you know, Nicole
Speaker 3: and all the people I talked to, did help catch Corey.
Speaker 3: Granted I didn't arrest her or build a case that
Speaker 3: I could take to court. I don't take any credit
Speaker 3: for that, and anybody with half a brain knows that
Speaker 3: a civilian can do that. But I do said I
Speaker 3: contributed to it because I truly feel like I did.
Speaker 1: Jess is proud of the work she and the online
Speaker 1: sleuths did to bring to Lena's case to a close.
Speaker 1: The true extent of how much they helped the investigation
Speaker 1: and any ways they may have unintentionally hindered it will
Speaker 1: likely come to light when Corey finally goes to trial
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma. Jess will be right in the middle of
Speaker 1: that too. It's still early days, but the defense has
Speaker 1: indicated it plans to subpoena Jess as a witness. In
Speaker 1: a court document, lawyer wrote that Jess would be expected
Speaker 1: to testify about documents she provided to the police and
Speaker 1: the DA and conversation she had with Nicole Marty, Corey's
Speaker 1: ex Alec Adams, and other Wagner folk like Airis and Greg.
Speaker 1: Jess would also be asked to testify about quote any
Speaker 1: credentials she possesses regarding a homicide investigation.
Speaker 3: I do, at this point feel like I'm almost a
Speaker 3: Corey expert. I mean, when you stalk somebody essentially for
Speaker 3: almost five years, you know them. I feel like I
Speaker 3: know who she is. My obsession might be a problem.
Speaker 3: This might be a problem, This might be an issue.
Speaker 1: A true crime obsession, coupled with the isolation of early
Speaker 1: COVID is what got Jess and the online sleuths started
Speaker 1: down this path. But as time passed, Rosie, Brittany and
Speaker 1: the others moved on their real lives, taking over the
Speaker 1: virtual ones they had created.
Speaker 6: I found out that I was actually pregnant, so I
Speaker 6: remember I messaged them. I was like, hey, guys, I
Speaker 6: don't know how much help I'm gonna be. I'm gonna
Speaker 6: have to take a step back a little bit.
Speaker 3: But I still follow all the.
Speaker 6: Updates and stuff all the time, and I'll message her
Speaker 6: and ask her about stuff.
Speaker 13: Slowly, as time has gone on, and this has sort
Speaker 13: of become less of a forefront in our lives. You know,
Speaker 13: we went from talking hours a day with each other
Speaker 13: to less and less and less.
Speaker 1: For Jess this case, this calling only became more central
Speaker 1: to her identity. The obsession grew shifted focus. These days,
Speaker 1: the narrative just tells herself about what happened to Tolenazar.
Speaker 1: Is less of a who done it and more of
Speaker 1: an epic tale of good versus evil?
Speaker 14: And what did you learn about yourself during this process?
Speaker 14: This five year process, I've.
Speaker 3: Learned a lot about myself, some of it not so endearing.
Speaker 3: Keep thinking about how I lied, and these people are
Speaker 3: going to think my bad person. I think the biggest
Speaker 3: thing I learned is that my sense of right and
Speaker 3: wrong is very black and white. I don't have much
Speaker 3: of a gray area anymore. I'm even lumping myself in
Speaker 3: with the bad guys for being a liar.
Speaker 1: In this version of Jess's story, She's uneasy about some
Speaker 1: of the things she did in her search for the truth,
Speaker 1: but ultimately the ends justified the means. She took on
Speaker 1: a villain and won.
Speaker 3: Any regrets you have about getting involved, no, I think
Speaker 3: the only thing I would have done differently is I
Speaker 3: would have gone straight to Oklahoma. I think I would
Speaker 3: have just driven there and help look for and confront
Speaker 3: Corey literally had on I feel like, and I'm not
Speaker 3: saying I could. I just a feeling that I had
Speaker 3: is that I could have like provoked her enough to
Speaker 3: get angry and say she did it. I would have
Speaker 3: sat outside her house harassing her. Literally just sat there
Speaker 3: and stared at her house until she came out and
Speaker 3: blew up, and I could have got her in trouble
Speaker 3: for something. That's my only regret is that I didn't
Speaker 3: travel there. I don't regret this at all. I don't
Speaker 3: think I ever will.
Speaker 1: Teleina's murder trial is still very far off. First, Corey
Speaker 1: must stand trial for attempted murder in Wisconsin, and Jess
Speaker 1: will be there. Of course, she is now friends with
Speaker 1: Sherry Ziegler and will be staying at her house, the
Speaker 1: house where Risin was found while she attends Corey's trial.
Speaker 1: Jess is eagerly anticipating the moment when she finally gets
Speaker 1: to see Corey in person. In handcuffs, being held to account.
Speaker 3: It would just be interesting to see how she acted
Speaker 3: in the courtroom, and I could see her testify if
Speaker 3: she will. I read a couple books on it, eating
Speaker 3: body language, and I'm by no means an expert. I
Speaker 3: read some books, but I feel like I could pick
Speaker 3: up something on her. I just want to. I'd have
Speaker 3: to know. I feel like it's a neat. It's not
Speaker 3: even a want, It's like I need it. You're looking
Speaker 3: at me like I might be crazy.
Speaker 1: Jess and Corey their fates forever intertwined. Jess is convinced
Speaker 1: that Corey's got more to hide, that beyond Sherry Ziegler
Speaker 1: and Tealina Tzar, there might be other victims in other states,
Speaker 1: other bodies in remote forests. Who's going to dig up
Speaker 1: that history if not her.
Speaker 3: I think there's so much more to Corey and so
Speaker 3: many more crimes. It feels like this isn't going to
Speaker 3: be over for years. I really love to just when
Speaker 3: she's convicted, sit down and be like, just tell me,
Speaker 3: just tell me what else did you do so we
Speaker 3: can all stop wondering. Because I don't think this is
Speaker 3: ever going to be over for me. I know Corey's
Speaker 3: done more just from knowing who she is. I know
Speaker 3: she's done more.
Speaker 14: So you're not going to put it down.
Speaker 3: I don't think I can. I don't know if I
Speaker 3: want to. It's that terrible.
Speaker 1: A few weeks before the Wisconsin trial was scheduled to begin,
Speaker 1: I got a series of text messages from Cheryl, Telena's sister.
Speaker 1: After years of waiting, Tealina's body had been cremated and
Speaker 1: her ashes sent back to her family in a box.
Speaker 1: Cheryl purchased a special urn, white with purple butterflies, just
Speaker 1: to Lena's style, and sent it to her mother. Talina's
Speaker 1: mother placed the ashes into the urn by herself alone
Speaker 1: in her apartment. She said it was her role to
Speaker 1: lay Teleina to rest. Cheryl sent me a photo, and
Speaker 1: I have to admit when I received this image, I
Speaker 1: was hit with an overwhelming sense of relief. I have
Speaker 1: felt for Teleina's family, particularly Telena's mother, and how difficult
Speaker 1: it was not to have a place of memorial for her.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that they at least got that, even as
Speaker 1: they await answers on what happened to Teleina during her
Speaker 1: final days. You can't see this photo, but I want
Speaker 1: to describe it to you. At the top of a
Speaker 1: bookshelf Toleina's urn sits between two framed photographs. On the right,
Speaker 1: a picture of Teleina's brother as an infant, on the left,
Speaker 1: a photo of Telena and Cheryl as toddlers, dressed in
Speaker 1: matching white sweat and matching banks, smiling at the camera,
Speaker 1: looking very much like twins. On this top shelf, the
Speaker 1: family is together. Thank you for listening to What Happened
Speaker 1: to Tealinazar. Although this is our last full episode, we
Speaker 1: will be releasing bonus episodes from the Wisconsin trial and beyond,
Speaker 1: so make sure you're subscribed. I'm always looking for tips
Speaker 1: and feedback, so if you have anything to share, you
Speaker 1: can email me at m J E L. T. S
Speaker 1: e n at gmail dot com. What Happened to Tealina
Speaker 1: Czar is a production of iHeart Podcasts. It's written and
Speaker 1: reported and hosted by me Melissa Jeltson, with writing and
Speaker 1: story editing by Lauren Hansen. Our executive producer is Ryan Murdoch.
Speaker 1: For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Jason English and Carl Catele.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Maya Shukri Zoey Denkla is our associate producer.
Speaker 1: Jeremy Thal is our editor. Original music by Aaron Kaufman,
Speaker 1: with additional music by Jeremy Thal and Gideon Crevishet. Additional
Speaker 1: sound design by Marita Spee. Episodes are mixed and mastered
Speaker 1: by Carl Catle. Voice acting by Lizzie Gore, Chris Berry,
Speaker 1: Stephanie Frame, Pete Monica, Ethan Richard, and Molly Maslin. Our
Speaker 1: logo is designed by Edo Moore. Thanks so much for listening.