Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Boating Accident or HOMICIDE? The Curious Case of Graham McCormick

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

Rand Hooper and Graham McCormick are both from the Richmond area. McCormick moved to Atlanta for a job but took time to return to Irvington to visit his friend, staying with him at his home. The next day, Sallie Graham gets a text from Hooper asking if she’s heard from her son, if not, then he is missing. Graham says her son was known for his responsibility, as signified by his fraternity nickname... Grahampa, a reference to maturity. Graham asks about a search to find McCormick, searching the water, checking with neighbors in town, and more. The answer: He's not there. McCormick’s mother, father and brother drive from their home as they learn McCormick was missing. Graham checks by the dock, where her son was last known to be, using an oar to poke and prod at the water.  From there, Graham knocks on neighbors’ doors, then returns to the Hoopers. Soon, a neighbor tells Sallie Graham, a body had been found. Graham McCormick’s body is found floating in Carter Creek off the Rappahannock River around 11:30 that morning, around two miles north of the Hooper’s home. The State Medical Examiner ruled that McCormick died from drowning,  blunt-force trauma a contributing factor in the death. Three days after the initial visit to the home,  Lancaster sheriff’s detectives spot damage to the Hooper family boat. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reconstructed a crash and determined the boat had been involved in an accident near where McCormick’s body was found. The investigation reveals that McCormick and Hooper spent the evening drinking, then took Hooper’s 1999 Boston Whaler boat out.   The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries concluded that the vessel struck a bulkhead jutting out of the water near where McCormick was found. Investigators believe McCormick was ejected from the boat. Police say it appeared that it had been slammed against the rocks, over and over again. McCormick had lacerations on the left side of his head and the back of his body, and blunt-force trauma. The medical examiner concluded that the injuries alone would not have killed the 31-year-old McCormick. Those injuries should have been survivable, she said.  However, McCormick’s blood alcohol level was 186. It would be three years before Rand Hooper would face additional charges in Graham McCormick’s death. Initially, Hooper was charged with a misdemeanor count of failing to make a timely report of the boat accident.   Those charges were upgraded to involuntary manslaughter with a proposed deal of just one year in prison, but a special prosecutor determined that more charges were appropriate as Hooper was accused of operating his boat while intoxicated, leading to a crash that killed McCormick. Hooper was arrested and charged with felony murder, involuntary manslaughter while under the influence operating a watercraft, and failure to stop and assist with serious injury or death.  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Burke McCormick- Graham’s Father, Attorney  Gordon McCormick – Graham’s Brother; Twitter: @GhostofBPH  Catherine McCormick- Graham’s Sister  Dale Carson – High-profile Attorney (Jacksonville), Former FBI Agent & Former Police Officer (Miami-Dade County); Author: “Arrest-Proof Yourself” Dr. Jorey Krawczyn – Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. – Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide”  Capt. Tim Self- Lancaster Sheriff’s Office in Virginia  Dr. Jan Gorniak – Medical Examiner, Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner (Las Vegas, NV), Board Certified Forensic Pathologist Melissa Hipolit- Investigative Reporter for WTVR CBS 6; Twitter: @MelissaCBS6  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What happened to Graham McCormick? Handsome, young, full of energy, his life before him. How does he end up dead with head injuries floating in the water? How did that happen? We want justice. How did it happen? I think I know.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Sirius XM 111. Graham McCormick, if you could look at his photo, you just see life just brimming with vim and vigor. Young, good looking, college educated. It's got the world by the tail. How did this happen? First of all, take a listen to our friends at WTVR. They've never expressed any remorse or said they were sorry or anything. It's just a social sense of betrayal that my family feels. The revelation came after Lancaster

detectives discovered a Boston whaler boat at the Hooper home with a large amount of damage that matched damage on the bulkhead where they found Graham's body. But when police charged Rand and... I want to stop with where they found Graham's body. Connection with Graham's death, that was only the beginning in the McCormick family's four and a half year fight for justice. So I've known Graham my whole life. For more than four years, Mackie Peebles has wondered what exactly happened the day his friend, Graham McCormick, died in the Rappahannock River. Everybody wants to know what what really happened. I want to know what really happened. But first of all, who is Graham? Listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com.

Graham McCormick grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He was a proud member of the Boy Scouts and became an Eagle Scout before graduating from Douglas Southall Freeman High School. At Hampton Sydney College, McCormick continued to distinguish himself as a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity with his two brothers. He was also a past president of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and the Interfraternity Council. As a loving son and big brother who always put his family first, McCormick became especially close to his younger brother, Will. When Will was diagnosed with brain cancer and as hospice care was called to help, Graham McCormick became even more devoted to his terminal brother. Everything that I've learned about Graham McCormick makes me wish I had known him in life and that I didn't get to know him after his death. Listen. After college, Graham McCormick pursued his career in finance and moved to Atlanta as a

corporate finance analyst with SunTrust Bank. Even though he lived in Atlanta, McCormick returned to the Richmond area often to visit family and friends. It was during one of his visits that Graham McCormick was hanging out with his old friend Rand Hooper on the dock of Hooper's parents' river house on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia. They relaxed on the dock and played cards into the night when, according to Rand Hooper, they decided to call it a night. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, I want to go to Burke McCormick. This is Graham's father joining us. Mr. McCormick, thank you so much for being with us here at Crime Stories.

Tell me about your son. He was absolutely a wonderful son. As honest as the day is long, devoted to our family, well- a lot of his friends and was a leader. And he was just the kindest, most considerate, best older brother and son that anybody could wish for. Did I hear correctly that he was an Eagle Scout? Yes, he was, along with his two brothers who also were. Can I tell you something? If you're not in the scouting world, I grew up in 4-H in a very rural area. But now I'm a scout because both my son and my daughter, they're twins, are working on Eagle.

Can I tell you how many years they've been working on Eagle? It takes a long time. In the sixth grade, they're in the 10th grade now, and they've finished their all the merit badges and all the camping nights. It's years and years process culminating in a giant project that you do to help other people. My son is planning, Mr. McCormick, a water filtration system, and he's saving money now to go to Kenya with him and his sister to implement the water purification system. That's his project. Hers is about animals, which is equally as impressive.

And I'm telling you, when you tell me that your son was an Eagle Scout, that says a lot. It really does. I can't tell you how impressed I am that you have raised a family like this. And I've asked this question so many times. I'm going to throw this to Dale Carson joining me, high profile lawyer out of the Jacksonville jurisdiction. And what I like about him, he's a former fed with the FBI, author of Arrest Proof Yourself at DaleCarsonLaw.com. Dale, you know, I've talked about this so many times. I've prosecuted a lot of cases. You've investigated a lot of cases as an FBI agent. Why is it the very best people on this earth, they're the ones that become crime victims, get murdered, get mistreated?

Why is that? I don't want it to happen to anybody, but why can't this happen to a dope dealer standing outside an elementary school? Why? Why are there all these registered sex offenders when good, decent, wonderful people become victims? It's because Graham is an individual who loved people and they draw to themselves people who are not worthy often. And certainly that was the case here, although that took a minute to figure that out.

I'll tell you why it's getting me so upset right now, because something about him, not necessarily his looks, but did your son have blue eyes, Burke? Yes. That's what it was. The first time I looked at him in the eyes,

it reminded me of my fiance, Keith, who was murdered. And when you think of somebody just hitting their stride, getting out of high school, getting out of college, launching an incredible career, but comes home and stays at home to take care of his terminally ill brother. I mean, it's also with me, in addition to Burke and Dale, is Catherine McCormick. This is Graham's sister. Catherine, thank you for being with us. And I know I hate talking about Keith's murder, but I do it when I have to. Tell me about your brother. Graham was like a second father figure to me. He was seven years older than me and he taught me how to drive, taught me how to save money. He really allowed me to grow into the person who I am today. He pursued me to follow my dreams and obtain my dream job by the time I was 23.

And I really owe a lot of my accomplishments to him. You know, you've got so much love in your voice, Catherine McCormick. Gordon McCormick is with me. This is Graham's brother. And think about it. All three of these family members are here today with me on Crime Stories because they want the truth. They want justice., they want justice

and they love Graham Gordon tell me about your brother. Well he was too good for this world. I think y'all pretty well encapsulated it when you said that very very pure soul and they too often do

I think attract the wrong types but for anyone who's familiar with the show Game of Thrones, I mean, he was like the Ned Stark of people I know. Just his character and integrity was above reproach. And he was a person that everybody could look to with reverence to resolve, mediate disagreements. And that's why he was always kind of highly respected by everybody.

I've never met a single person who said who had one bad thing to say about him. And that's more than I can say for myself. Likewise, me too. You know, Burke McCormick, a very well-respected lawyer in that jurisdiction there in Lancaster County, Virginia. I always thought I knew it all about suffering and grieving when Keith, my fiance, was killed shortly before our wedding. But when I had the twins, that changed everything because there is no love like the love you have for your children. There's just nothing. There's nothing like it.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and it seems like maybe it was a bad dream and then all of a sudden you remember it's real? Yes. I mean, we had just lost Will 18 months earlier, and when we lost Graham, it was unbelievable. And Will, you know, suffered for a long time, and we at least had a chance to say goodbye to him. But Graham, there was no saying goodbye, and it was just such a shock and a terrible blow to lose not just one but two children over the span of 18 months.

It's been very hard on our family, but we've had the love and support of the community and friends, and that has at least sustained me and I guess the others. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. So we left off with Graham coming back home to visit. He's with his friend. They're hanging out on the dock and playing cards into the night when after they ate and had a good time, according to the best friend, they decided to call it a night. But then everything takes a bizarre twist. Listen to our friends at Crime Online. The next day, Sally Graham gets a text from Hooper asking if she's heard from her son.

If not, then he is missing. Graham says her son was known for his responsibility as signified by his fraternity nickname, Grandpa, a reference to maturity. Graham asks about a search to find McCormick, searching the water, checking with neighbors, checking in town, and more. The answers? He's not there. Okay, so they were just out on the dock. They ate supper. They're sitting around, I guess, playing cards, having a good old time until it gets dark, and then they wake up and he's just gone. He mysteriously disappears. Take a listen to Melissa Hippolyt, WTVR. Rand told that he, Graham, and another man played cards and drank on the dock of his

parents' river house, and then they all went to bed. When Rand woke up, Graham was nowhere to be found, and Rand speculated he had gone out on the dock to call his girlfriend and fallen into the water, or perhaps he had a panic attack and went to the emergency room. He even watched as Graham's mother used an oar to search the water by the dock for her son. Joining me right now is Melissa Hippolyt. You were just hearing her, investigative reporter, WTVR-CBS. Melissa, thank you for being with us. Shed some light on this for me. Could you explain to me what John Randolph Rand Hopper said about a panic attack or that possibly Graham went out on the dock to make a phone call? Why would you go out on a dock in the dead of night to make a phone call?

Yeah, your guess is as good as mine, Nancy, but thanks for having me. He just shared a variety of different stories, speculative stories with people about what may have happened to Graham, suggesting that I guess he'd had maybe panic attacks in the past and he thought he may have had another one and gotten himself to the emergency room or that he had maybe gone back outside to call his girlfriend and did that on the dock and perhaps he fell in the water while out there at that time. Okay, let me find out about these panic attacks. First of all, what is a panic attack? Dr. Jory Carlson with me, a very well-known psychologist, former law enforcement faculty, St. Leo University consultant and author of Operation SOS. Dr. Jory, what is a panic attack exactly?

Physically speaking, a panic attack is just like a heart attack. Okay. It comes out of the parasympathetic system. I've had a heart attack and a panic attack and they're both the same. Okay. So you're going to have that physiological response. It's the panic. You're not going to die of a panic attack, are you? No, no, not now. But the panic attack comes out of the parasympathetic, that survival, fight or flight syndrome. And you have this sense of fear, apprehension, and you really don't understand why it is, but it's physically

affecting the respiratory system, your cardiovascular system, your mental process of thinking. Okay. So panic attacks are, you know, part of the anxiety spectrum. Well, if you can't think, how could you drive yourself to a hospital? How could you, if you can't think, how could you think, wow, I'm having a panic attack. I need to get in the car and drive myself to the hospital. People that have panic attacks, they know they can sense them coming on and they have, say, coping areas or coping skills they've learned to deal with it. It could be through breathing, deep breathing, different things that they learn over time. There are medications that work real quick with that, like the diazepam-based Xanax.

They place that under the tongue and within five to six minutes, that calms that parasympathetic system physiologically and kind of gives them stability and balance. Let's get to the bottom of it. You're hearing Dr. Jory Carlson and Bert McCormick is Graham's dad. Did Graham have panic attacks? He had one the year before in Atlanta. So let me understand. He had had one panic attack one year before.

Okay. Also with us, as I introduced earlier, Melissa Hippolyt. So out of the blue, he goes missing. Graham goes missing. Last seen on the dot the night before. And best friend says maybe he had another panic attack and drove himself to the hospital. But there was not a car there for him to drive. And all the cars that had been there were still there. So that doesn't make sense. None of it made sense. Yeah. And, you know, just envision this time period. So Graham is missing. Word starts spreading to Graham's family members, many of whom are on this call, that he's missing.

Many of them are rushing to the river to try to locate him. His mother shows up there, and I believe in the testimony we heard, it was actually Rand himself who handed Sally McCormick the oar and suggested maybe you could search around the dock here for his body. Oh, my stars. Handing a mother the oar to a boat and saying, hey, why don't you dig around with the oar and see if you can find your son's body? That's exactly what happened. Listen. Graham McCormick's disappearance isn't reported to police until around 1030 in the morning. Witnesses told police that they were to their rooms just after midnight. McCormick's mother, father, and brother drove from their home to the Hooper's home as soon as they learned McCormick was missing. Graham checked by the dock using an oar to poke and prod at the water.

From there, Graham knocked on neighbors' doors, then returned to the Hooper's. A few minutes later, the neighbor told Graham a body had been found. McCormick's body was found floating in Carter Creek off the Rappahannock River about an hour after the missing persons report was made. The state medical examiner ruled that McCormick died from drowning. Blunt force trauma was a contributing factor in the death. I want to go straight out to Bert McCormick, who was there trying to find his son, the family using an oar to feel down in the water around the dock to find his body. Burke, what happened?

Well, Gordon and I did not arrive until after Graham's body had been found. Sally was there first, and she was the one who was looking for Graham and hoping against all hope that nothing had happened. Gordon and I arrived just as the police rolled up and notified everyone that they had found Graham. And we were, of course, devastated, and it was awful. Joining me right now is Captain Tim Self, captain at the Lancaster Sheriff's Office there in Virginia,

who worked this case. Captain Self, thank you for being with us. When did you first get involved in the case? I got involved on that Monday morning, that 14th, August the 14th. What did you do? Well, I was the chief investigator at the time, and I review all reports that come into the office, and I sign the cases out to my detectives. What, if anything, did you learn? When I reviewed this report and found out that the body was recovered 1.9 miles from exactly where they said that he fell off the dock, it's impossible. I found that was impossible

for the way up in Carter's Creek for a body to float that far in and out of several different inlets to get to the rock jetty, it was impossible for a body to land up there that quick. Why do you say it was impossible for his body to land there that quickly because with within uh time the body was reported uh located and the time to report and with the time period that uh ran said he fell overboard possibly fell overboard because he was on the phone it it it didn't match there's no way a body can float that far if it's if it falls off that dock and we videoed the the creeks to prove that he would have got hung up in shorelines or shallow water the way it's the curve of the creek to get to where the body was. Did you describe the water for me?

Was it marshy? You're saying endless. Would the body have had to take twists and turns? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, no way that happened. Graham going missing was not reported until 10.30 the following morning. The family race to the scene, start dipping down into the water with oars to find their beloved son, their brother, running door to door, knocking on doors. And then they learn Graham's body is how far away, Melissa Hippolyt, two miles?

Yeah, I think it was 1.9 miles, correct? That's correct. 1.9 miles away. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Dr. Jan Gorniak joining us now. She's a renowned pathologist and former medical examiner for Clark County. If you don't know, that's Vegas. And there's certainly never a lack of business for the medical examiners there. Dr. Gorniak, what do you make of Graham's injuries?

How did he die from a blow to the head? Shouldn't it have been drowning if he fell off the dock? What do you make of it? From what I've read and what I, you know, from the medical examiner's report, that it's obviously he didn't go straight into the water. He has contusions, which are bruises and abrasions, scrapes about his head. But he didn't have enough head injury to have caused his death. So the head injuries could have been a contributing factor, as in he might have had a concussion. The head trauma might have, he might have been passed out.

So therefore, he's unresponsive in the water. So ultimately, he dies of drowning because he couldn't rescue himself out of the water. So the COD was drowning, correct? That is correct. With other conditions, the head trauma. So when you have on a death certificate, the main COD or cause of death is drowning. But other conditions stands for conditions that contributed to the death but are not the cause so the head trauma

contributed to his death because obviously he couldn't self rescue himself out of the water I'm not sure if he was a good swimmer or not but it seemed like it was late at night or early morning and then it starts you get disoriented so even if he didn't pass out from the head trauma, he would have been, you know, you get your bell run, so to say. Well, I can tell you this much, Dr. Gorniak. I take it you are not an Eagle Scout because to be an Eagle Scout, you have to, I know this by heart, you have to pass a swimming merit badge.

And I stood there and watched both of my twins swim i forgot how far they had to swim a really long way i couldn't have made it but they did it so i can guarantee you this guy knew how to swim he knew how to swim um so take away why didn't he save himself because of the blow to the head like i I said, so the blow to the head could have gotten him like knocked out, you know, a little bit or just made him disoriented. Yeah. I don't know if you ever hit your head or fall down the stairs. You're like, where the heck am I? And I mean, so you get confused. He's disoriented.

It's dark. and I've been taught you know is in drowning because you know people can drown in shallow water because you they say that your your instincts is to use your arms so there could have been a point that he was trying to rescue himself and he got exhausted so and he just couldn't self-rescue unfortunately there's many factors in in drowning once you, like you said, he has head trauma. It's late at night. Like I said, he just could not rescue himself out of the water. Unfortunately. I don't really know what happened because I can tell you this much.

I agree with Captain Tim Self and the sheriff's office. That body did not end up two miles away with a story that he fell off the dock talking on the phone. Nancy, I've handled quite a number of autopsies as law enforcement's presence in the ME. And I will simply tell you, and I live in an area like the captain does, where there's a lot of water. So I have seen a number of deaths over the decades. The fact is that not only did the body probably end up close to where it fell in the water, but also the fact that there, as I've read in part of the news reporting, that there was foam at his mouth.

The fact that he's floating so quickly after falling in the water tells me his lungs were full of water and that he was alive for a period of time after he fell in the water. But then a bizarre twist. Stories began to change. Listen. Three days after the initial visit to the home, Lancaster Sheriff's detectives spotted damage to the boat. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reconstructed a crash and determined the boat had been involved in an accident. John Hooper told investigators that he remembers getting the boat off the bulkhead after it crashed. He says he had no memory of who was driving. Hooper is initially charged with the misdemeanor count of failing to make a timely report of the boat accident. What? I've got so many things colliding in my head. Number one, misdemeanor with a dead body. Okay, that's wrong. That's wrong. But what about his

story? This is the best friend, John Randolph Randhopper. What about the story that I was asleep? I don't know what happened. He probably talked on the phone on the dock in the middle of the night and fell off. Then this beautiful son and brother's body is found two miles away with blows to the head. Yeah, none of that fits together. Now he changes his story only after sheriffs find damage to the boat. Okay, Melissa Hipplett, sounds like he changes his story after the damage is found to the boat. Yeah, and I just wanted to reiterate the fact that Captain Self and his colleagues found the damage to the boat

three days after the body was found. But then it wasn't until 25 days later that Rand Hooper comes into the department and shares a new story. Isn't that correct, Captain Self? That is correct, Melissa. Took him 25 more days to come in. Okay. Melissa Hiplett, thank you.

I didn't know a 25-day period passed while Graham's parents twisted the wind wondering what happened. Captain Tim Self joining us from Lancaster Sheriffs in Virginia. Tell me about you guys finding the damage to the boat. And this boat is the boat of the friend, Rand Hopper. That's correct. What happened? On that 14th, when I reviewed the report, when I saw that the body was recovered 1.9 miles away, and me knowing I've been raised on that creek all my, since I was a boy, I knew that was impossible. So I, when the report came through,

it's written up as a drowning accidental. And I grabbed my crew. I said, no, we're going to the house. What made you? It must have been just all the years you've been in L.A., law enforcement. What made you say, no, we're not going to the scene. We're not going to the river. We're going to the house. I figured since that Monday that they would still be at the house.

And when I loaded the crew up and we went there and there was a cleaning company, cleaning windows, cleaning the house and all that, which put a red flag up for me then, which probably didn't pertain to me. Why did that throw up a red flag that they were having the house professionally cleaned? Well, you know, you treat every case as a homicide, not a missing person or unattended to death. We treat every case as a homicide, as everyone should, because you never know the circumstances that's behind it. So you go to the house, and what happens? Go to the house.

The cleaning crew's there. They're cleaning the house, and we knock on the door, and Gary Hooper approached us to the front yard. And I was understanding that you were, that he was, you know, out of the country in Africa. And another flag went up on how quick you could get a flight to get home in a day. That was baffling to me. Now, who is this? Is this the friend, John Randolph Randhopper's dad? Yes.

Okay. So he suddenly flies home from Africa. Okay. Flies home from Africa. And I believe Melissa would know that also, that I think he got a flight home and he was home within a day and a half. When I rode up there, we got to the house and stuff and explained to him that, you know, could we see, you know, the dock area where it possibly fell off the dock? He was very cooperative. He said, absolutely.

Before we went in, I looked, and I could see that he had outside cameras. The cameras were on the house, also on the garage. There was a camera that was pointed down to the dock. So I asked him about the camera system, and he said that he had a camera system, and it all worked off of his phone through an app. So I said, great. I said, is there any way we can get that? He says, I can get all the cameras except for the one on the garage.

And fortunately, the one on the garage is pointing at the dock. What? A coincidence. Yeah. What a coincidence. Yeah. So then we go in. He carries us in the house.

We go down to where Graham was staying in the room and saw where the room he was at and the door. And then as we were going down to the dock, I could see that there was a couple of lights that were knocked over as somebody had bumped them or hit them or whatever, which we found out what that was from. So we go down, walk down to the dock, and we get on the dock and start looking, and we were told the first day, that Friday, that the boat used was the little, I believe, 16-foot or 15-foot Boston Whaler that was on the left side of the dock, that that's what they used to go creek riding and all that. It was the only boat that they used. So, and then I go down to the end of the dock, and I see wine glasses that, and then I go down to the end of the dock, and I see wine glasses that's broken under the benches at the end of the dock.

So when I bend down to pick the glass up, and I question Gary, but he said, I guess they were drinking out here. They drink all the time. They leave the glass, and they fall over, and they break. So as I turn, and I said, how about this boat? And he says, that's my boat. And I looked, and i could see damage to the lower unit and so i questioned the lower unit damage and he said oh no that happens we

pull up to a beach and it gets damaged and i looked at that damage and i said no this is fresh damage wait how did you know that captain experience? Experience, I've owned a boat, too, again, for 30 years. And I know what it's like if you hit something. I pull my boat up on a beach like every other Sunday in the Caratoman, and I don't get any damage to my lower unit. And then when I bent over to look at the lower unit, I seen on the stern of the boat on the right side just in front of the trim tail. I want to analyze what you just said. When you pull up on a beach, you don't get damage to your boat. People pull up

on beaches all the time. It's sand. It's mushy. That's not going to damage your boat unless you pull up on rocks. I think he was saying it was a rocky spot there to where he pulls up, but the rocky spot, in order for that lower unit in the back, that boat would have bottomed out

before it hit the beach, so it shouldn't have, you know, it wouldn't have tore the lower unit up like that. It was actually bent. And the prop was damaged heavily. And so this is the father talking to you, the father of the friend, Rand Hopper, right? Yes, the father. And he said he caused that damage to the boat pulling up on a beach. He said that the damage, that he had damage when he hit up on a beach prior to with the prop, and I told him not that much damage.

What was his reaction? When I bent over and I looked under the bottom of the boat and there was fresh fiberglass peeled off the stern bottom of that boat. And he bent down and looked and I said, that didn't happen at a beach. And he says, no, you're right. And that was pretty much the end of the conversation. And then while I'm looking at the stern of the boat, Detective Sorensen is standing at the bow of the boat. It's on a lift, on a two-motor lift that's raised up above the dock. And he looks. He said, Lieutenant, you might want to come up here.

So I climbed on the lift, got down, and then there was holes in the fiberglass on the bow of the boat so that's when at that time I photographed it and then I asked Gary if we could have the boat and he said absolutely he said but I gotta get a trailer straight because my trailer needs repair before we can pull it up. And I said, okay. He said, if you give me until tomorrow, I'll get this done. Well, so we photographed that and looked around there, and then we left. And then the next day, I got the call that if I wanted the boat, he's not released the boat per his attorney.

So then that's what we did. Well, wait. So first of all, they say you can have the boat, and's not released the boat per his attorney. So then that's what. Well, wait. So first of all, they say you can have the boat and that's without a search warrant. You see it. And of course, that's perfectly legal because any person walking by can see it. So a cop can see it, too. A sheriff like you can see it. But then to take the boat somewhere and examine it forensically, you know, looking for particles of rock or even blood.

You'd want a warrant for that unless they handed it over. So he says, yeah, you can take it, but then the next day you can't take it? Yes, I was informed by the attorney, the attorney advised that they're not releasing the boat. So that's when we obtained the search warrant. Okay, well, I don't get it. Burke McCormick, this is Graham's dad, who was also a lawyer. They're going to get the boat, whether it's with a warrant or with permission. And that is a huge red flag when they wouldn't hand over the boat. Absolutely. Right there, I smell a rat. Yeah, we knew it was going to happen. And I'd like to go back to one

thing, if you don't mind, about the cell phone, the cell service that he was saying that he went down to the dock because there's no cell service there. Right. Only a few people know that because he's exactly right. There is no cell phone service there at that location. All that was, in my opinion, was another red flag because he knew that there was no cell phone service. So it's a good story. Hey, he left out of the house to go down to the inner dock to get cell phone service so they could cover the store that they went on the boat.

Because he knew there was no cell service there. Okay, then what happened, Captain? So then I wanted to go to where the body was located. So we go around. Well, I mean mean with the boat? You get a warrant. You get the boat anyway. And where do you take it?

Well, we brought it to the sheriff's office, and then we took it to Jack's Marine in Burgess so that he could put it over that overhead lift so that the forensic examination could be done. Okay. And did the forensic exam take place? Yes, it did. And what, if anything, did they learn? They learned that the boat had large damage to the undercarriage, the bow under, and the motor. You did not get that from pulling up on a sandy beach. Okay. Then what did you do? No. So then we, I wanted to go to where the body was found.

And when we went over to that point, we started looking around, and I walked up to the bulkhead. And the bulkhead, it's top-layered with salt-treated trim, like a 2x12 or 2x10. And then it's a fiberglass bulk wall. That was all damaged so and perfect to look at where that had been damaged to it it was right there if the boat come off the bulkhead and went around and hit those jetties the body was laying right there and then you could see fiberglass where it jumped the jetty and there was a old pollen that was over on the opposite left side of the jetty where the boat had to jump the jetty to get back into the channel

where the body was located. And it was fiberglass on a pollen which was recovered. And that was also sent to the forensic lab for analysis. You know what, to the McCormick family, you better hope this captain gets reelected again. Because if he had not gone out and they found that fiberglass evidence at the scene of the crash, you may never have gotten justice. Did you know that, Burt McCormick? I absolutely did, Nancy. And we feel so lucky because if Captain Self and his team hadn't pursued this doggedly, this would have been swept under the rug. If Graham's body had not been found, he might have floated out into Chesapeake Bay

and never been found. Actually, you just gave me chills all up and down my arms thinking people that have children out there thinking of your child floating around, never found out in the Chesapeake Bay is not something you want to think about. And it was no coincidence that Captain Self found that. It's because he went out there and he searched and he knew what to look for. And he saved you and your family, you and Gordon and Catherine, Graham's mother, from the pain of never knowing what happened. But I want you to hear more of what Melissa Hippolyt has to say in our cut for. We thought Rand Hooper was a close family

friend. But 25 days after detectives recovered Graham's body, his family received some shocking news. Rand had just told detectives in the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office that he and Graham took a boat ride in the early morning hours of August 11th in 2017. Hooper said he could not remember who was driving the boat, but he remembered the boat hitting something hard, turning the boat's engine off, calling out for Graham. And when he didn't see or hear him, he figured his friend was a good swimmer and could make it to shore, got his bearing straight to the tides in, and then remembered nothing after that. Okay, I don't think that's the whole story, Burke McCormick,

because he stood by and let the mom frantically search with an oar off the dock. He knew all along what had happened. Of course he did, Nancy. He came home that night, went to bed, got up the next morning and made tea times for everybody, pretended that he didn't know where Graham was. And when there was a report that a body had been found floating in the creek, people who were there said his eyes got as big as saucers. But he knew he had been found out. He had hoped that we'd never find Graham and that he would just act like nothing had happened. And, you know, it just was despicable.

I've got to hear that again. Hold on. Hold on. The level of deception. I mean, when I try to tell a lie, I feel hot all over. I can't look anybody in the face. And then I think about it afterwards and it actually makes my stomach hurt. And I'm sure I'm going to get caught. And I always do get caught. Melissa Hiplett, what happened? How did the friend, how did he act Hopper, the next day? If you'll recall, he was, you know, setting up tee times. He was sharing stories of what he believed may have happened to Graham. Tee times to go out and play golf?

He was on the phones? Okay, go ahead. He made a tee time the next morning at the Indian Creek Country Club for Graham and he and others to play. Including Graham? Yes. Okay, I need a shrink and I need one fast. Dr. Jory Croson, you wake up the next morning, you have coffee, and you start making tea times for golf at some country club when the night before you know,

D-A-R-N-well, that your friend, in best case scenario, got hit in the head and fell in the water and drowned and you're covering it up and you're planning to go play golf and pretending he's going to join? What is that? It was all part of the cover up. Yeah. I'm for a loss of words as a psychologist

but to try to decipher what he was thinking is like next impossible. I mean, I could see, you know, disassociating all that stuff. But this is his best friend. I mean, you know, they, you know, best friends are like closer than family, you know, and to do this. Yeah. I mean, I'm really at a loss of words for it.

It's pure evil. I mean, let's see. Isn't it true, Catherine McCormick, this is Graham's sister, that Rand Hopper actually spoke at your brother's funeral? Yes. So Graham was actually buried before his funeral service. my brother Gordon and I lowered his remains into the ground in a very emotional, intimate setting with close friends and family. And as our family was leaving the burial site to go up to the parish hall to get ready to recess into the church, the first person who met me at the top of the steps was Rand and his girlfriend Willis. Rand held me, he hugged me, and he whispered in my ear and said, everything is going to be okay. Just moments before, I delivered a very tearful eulogy in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. He was the only reader who read at the

funeral that was not a close family member. Gordon McCormick, this is Graham's brother. Is that how you remember it? Yes. Yes, that is how I remember it. And I also got reports from other friends who were acting as ushers that he was very it ish and kind of like pale white and sweaty and seemed very nervous before the service began. And I wanted to point out one other thing. Captain Self, correct me if I'm wrong,

but when the police first showed up and took their initial report, didn't Rand tell your guys that Graham was a drug addict? I believe it. I believe it did. That sent my mother into basically a fit of rage where she had to fight the courts to try to get that removed from the, from like,

cause I think that was included in his autopsy. And unfortunately the court was not able to remove it. I don't think from the, from the report, they could only add an asterisk saying according to the accused, basically. But yeah, that goes to show Graham, of course, as you've already learned, was the opposite of a drug addict. He was the guy who would try to prevent somebody from taking drugs. So you had to know right then that he was hiding something. That would be just like if somebody told me, Jackie, my longtime friend and producer is a drug addict.

No way, that's not true. And whoever says that is lying. So I got to figure out why are they lying? Oh, I bet your mom did a backflip when she heard him say her Eagle Scout baby boy was a drug addict. They had to know he was lying then, right? We didn't know anything about Rand's dark past, Nancy, including the 2011 incident where he shot someone that Melissa has reported on. And I don't believe Rand knew anything about this either.

Rand was very good at concealing these dark, dark things. And as I say, it was just such a betrayal of a person we thought was a good family friend. Bert, do you remember him reading at your son's funeral? Absolutely. We asked him because we thought he was Graham's friend and we thought he was grieving along with us. And my wife went up to him before the funeral and said, you can't blame yourself for what happened. And when she found out the truth about what happened, she was just livid because she felt like an idiot for saying something like that.

And, and Graham, Graham's parents kept coming up to me at the funeral and hugging me and, uh, three or four times. Oh, the same parents who wouldn't let you have the boat. Yeah. Well, they can give you their hugs. Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. It would be three years before Rand Hooper would face additional charges in Graham McCormick's death.

Initially, Hooper was charged with a misdemeanor count of failing to make a timely report of the boat accident. Those charges were upgraded to involuntary manslaughter with a proposed deal of just one year in prison, but a special prosecutor determined that more charges were appropriate as Hooper was accused of operating his boat while intoxicated, leading to a crash that killed McDormick. Hooper was arrested and charged with felony murder, involuntary manslaughter while under the influence operating a watercraft, and failure to stop and assist with serious injury or death. Melissa Hippolyt, hold on just a moment. Investigative reporter WTVR, they were going to let him have one year, which turns out to be maybe three months is what that really means, on a misdemeanor? What? Yeah, so initially, and Captain Self can speak to this a little bit more, but there was the initial misdemeanor charge. I think they were gathering evidence, and then they were finally able to get the involuntary manslaughter charge. Why'd they have to bring in a special prosecutor?

Okay, so there was the Commonwealth's attorney at the time. This is like the local district attorney who was responsible for representing Graham McCormick's family who said, you know what, we're going to broker a plea agreement with Rand Hooper and his lawyers. They met, they discussed this, and in exchange for a guilty plea, he will serve one year behind bars. Burke McCormick, one year, which as we all know, you get one year in the county jail. You'll probably be out in two or three months.

One year? What? This Commonwealth's attorney was incompetent. He's now been, he lost re-election and is no longer a member of the Virginia Bar. His license was suspended over his conduct in this case. Wow. We were not getting justice, and this was a whole other story about us not getting justice. This prosecutor, he wouldn't have done anything if we didn't push him constantly.

He was not going to do anything. To bring in a special prosecutor? He wouldn't bring one in. We begged him to bring a help in to help him prosecute, and he refused because he thought it would look bad for his re-election. Whoa, he's right about that. That re-election didn't work out very well for him. Take a listen to our cut six, WTVR.

Two and a half years ago when things went sideways, I felt alone. I felt abandoned. I felt like my family was, well, kind of left out in the cold. And I prayed and asked for, I asked God for warriors. This case has had more twists and turns than a bobsled run. From 2017 until now, the McCormicks endured a plea deal thrown out by a judge, a prosecutor who had his law license suspended, another prosecutor who was removed from the case, new more serious charges, and COVID delays. I've spent the majority of my 20s waiting for justice for my brother.

And finally, I believe God did intervene on behalf of Graham McCormick's family. Listen. On Thursday, their long wait finally came to an end when a Norfolk jury found Rand Hooper guilty of involuntary manslaughter and failure to stop and render assistance in a boating crash. The judge revoked his bond. Once I saw that the handcuffs come on, that's when it became real. And that's when I felt like it was time to turn the page and I got my life back. Next up in this case, the judge will determine Rand Hooper's sentence. Now, during the prosecution of this case, they were not allowed to bring up Rand Hooper's prior record of

DUIs, as well as the time that he shot his friend while drunk in the fan district. But during the sentencing phase, the judge can consider those things. You're hearing Melissa Hiplett. You're hearing what the judge can consider in sentencing. But first, can we just take a moment and say, PTL, after all the family went through, that there is a guilty verdict. But what about sentencing? Listen. For the first time, we heard from Rand Hooper just before the judge gave him his sentence. He said that Graham McCormick was one of the greatest people he had ever met. And he said the safety of everyone at his parents' river house that day was his responsibility.

And for that, he was sorry. Gordon McCormick says he believes his brother's former friend, Rand Hooper, finally understands that actions have consequences. I could hear something in his voice that he should have said what he said five years ago. Judge Charles Poston sentenced Hooper to six years behind bars for driving a boat while drunk, crashing it into a bulkhead, which threw Graham McCormick out of the boat and then leaving without trying to find his friend who ended up dying. Well, I have to tell the McCormick family that I believe they were entirely wrong. I think he said what he felt he had to say to get a reduced sentence, because guess what?

He is now appealing. Listen. Rand Hooper's lawyer submitted a motion last week requesting a sentence reduction. A judge sentenced him to six years behind bars in May. Now, in his motion, Cooley says the boat involved in the crash that resulted in Graham McCormick's death was recently released from the sheriff's office. He claims the boat did not have nearly as much damage as the prosecution claimed it had during the trial. He argues the boat's damage shows no indication of who was driving the boat at the time of the crash and re-highlighted his argument that he made during the trial

that there was no evidence that Rand Hooper was driving the boat at the time of the crash. Therefore, he could not be held responsible for Graham McCormick's death. Okay, does it never end with Rand Hooper, Burke McCormick? This canard about who was driving the boat has been repeated even up through the appeal. And it's so ridiculous. The Commonwealth's attorneys who prosecuted this case did a brilliant job of showing how the physics showed that Graham was ejected from the boat while Rand held on. And it's been rejected by every judge in court that has heard the argument. But that's all they have to talk about is there's no proof that Rand was driving the boat, and that's absurd. Who else could have been driving the boat besides him? He claimed Graham was, and there's absolutely zero evidence to suggest that Graham did it. Graham wouldn't

even drive a golf cart at somebody else's golf club. He would not have been driving a boat even during the day, much less at night, and the Court of Appeals, in its opinion, did a masterful job of showing how absurd that argument was. Well, I've got a question. How can we be sure that that is how Graham McCormick got the blows to the head? How do we know he got blows to the head from being ejected from the boat? The expert testimony that was given from the medical examiner that provides that information. So let me ask the McCormick family, the appeal has been denied, but you know, on a six-year sentence, he will probably be out in two years, maybe?

Four years. The projected release date is January 2026. That's what we think. But what do you make of that, Catherine? It does make me very uncomfortable. We had to live in Richmond with him for five years before we even went to trial.

I ran into him at the vet when I took my new puppy in to see for his first appointment. So thinking of him walking free makes me feel very unsafe. But I am glad that we were able to get justice. What about it, Gordon McCormick? Well, I think, you know, we did what we needed to do. We got closure and justice in the form of a conviction.

And as we said from the get-go, we weren't really too concerned with the final outcome of the sentence. And we really just wanted the truth. And, you know, we're only covering half the story here. The other half, of course, is my dad called the prosecutor incompetent. But the truth is, he was corrupt. He actually had, I believe, a criminal history before he took office. That's a story for another time. But having to fight that that character and I mean, the stuff that he said in our private meetings to my mother, I can't repeat here because they're so profane that, you know, defeating him, that was catharsis in and of itself. Why did any prosecutor speak to the victim's mother that way, Bert McCormick?

The first prosecutor we had was awful. He was so unprofessional. And as an attorney, I was embarrassed for the legal system that my family had to see such an unprofessional and incompetent Commonwealth attorney. But we were perilous to do anything under Virginia law. Only the voters could remove him. The attorney general had no power to intervene. And fortunately, the voters in 2019 did remove him. But it was it was just such an awful experience. So that's really the second track of the story was that justice was delayed, but eventually we did get justice. We would have been very happy to take

a four-year prison sentence in the 2019 plea deal, but that wasn't even on the table. So although we would have liked to have seen him in jail for longer than four years, we would have been very happy with that at the beginning. If I can jump back in here, the scene back in June of 2019, when we went in for that plea deal to be accepted, was almost identical to the scene you had here a month or two back with Hunter Biden, when he went in for his plea deal deal exact same circumstances where there was an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant they thought it was a done a done deal and then the judge said hold on a minute um i don't think so so that that uh was a very dramatic twist to the whole situation itself and you know three different judges were involved i think four different. So this thing was a good

cop, bad cop, uh, everything. I mean, I wouldn't call Yon Smith a cop. He's just a more of a con man, but, um, you know, politician type, but, uh, yeah. The second judge, when he rejected the plea deal and he said that, that Rand had a cold and malignant heart, Yon Smith, the prosecutor had already been defeated for reelection because this was in December of 2019 and the election was in November. He had 12 days left in office. And after the judge rejected the plea deal, Yon Smith, behind everyone's back, went back with the defense lawyers, knowing he had 12 days left in office and he entered the exact

same plea deal. So when the new prosecutor took office in January, he was stunned to find out about it and he had to work to have the plea deal set aside. After years and years of waiting, finally, the truth about the death of Graham McCormick. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.