Going West: True Crime - Cody Johnson // 501

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

In June of 2013, a 25-year-old newlywed vanished in the picturesque mountains of Montana, just days after saying "I do." What began as a missing persons case in a tight-knit community quickly turned into something far darker, as investigators uncovered chilling secrets, a cryptic email regarding his death, and a truth that no one saw coming. This is the murder of Cody Johnson.

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going West Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in today and for everybody who checked out episode 500 of going west. Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in today. And for everybody who checked out episode 500 of going west, it is crazy to be past that milestone. And as you guys know, we interviewed Holly Madison. So in general, just a very special episode. We talked about the summer of hell, which is a series of murders that was just wild that took place in the early 1980s.

So if you haven't checked it out yet, please do. Yeah, definitely go check it out. But today we have a story for you guys that takes a lot of twists and turns. It's one that I hadn't heard of before. I didn't see anybody recommend it, but if you did, thank you for doing so. But yeah, guys, we are gonna go on quite the ride today.

And in such a beautiful setting as well. So without further ado, let's get into this one. All right guys, this is episode 501 of Going West, so let's get into it. Music In June of 2013, a 25-year-old newlywed vanished in the picturesque mountains of Montana just days after saying, I do. What began as a missing persons case in a tight-knit community quickly turned into something far darker as investigators uncovered chilling secrets, a cryptic email regarding his death, and a truth that no one saw coming. This is the Murderer of Cody Johnson was born on April 8, 1988 in San Jose, California to his mother Sherry Johnson, who by the time Cody was born, had divorced Cody's biological father.

So it appears that he was not in the picture. Cody was an only child, so it is safe to say that he was the light of his mother's life, but not just because he was her only child, but because he was known to be loving, very outgoing and could quote, make anybody laugh. Cody spent his early childhood in the San Jose, California area, but in 2002, when he was about 14 years old, his mother Sherry decided that she wanted to bring her son to a more relaxed environment. So as Cody was entering high school,

they moved over 1000 miles north to the city of Kalispell, Montana. Now Kalispell is a beautiful small city situated in Northwest Montana in the Flathead Valley with a population of around 16,000 people back in 2002. It's known as the gateway to the stunning Glacier National Park only being about 30 miles from the entrance to the park. And for those who don't know, Glacier National Park is one of the most beautiful national parks in the country. It encompasses more than 1 million acres of land, with 130 lakes and over 100 different

types of wildlife, including about 300 grizzly bears, 600 black bears and other animals like moose, bighorn sheep, bison, mountain lions and grey wolves. The park showcases the massive peaks of the Rocky Mountains and the eye-catching turquoise color of its rivers, lakes, and streams. I mean, I'm sure you guys can picture it, but we will post photos on our socials. And it will be clear why about three million people

visit this park every year. And I mean, it's no wonder to me why Sherry wanted to leave the very congested Bay Area city life for the beautiful wonders of this area, especially for the benefit of her child. And as well as the quaint small-town feel of Kalispell. But little did she know when she made this move that the incredible landscape around her would play a major role in the eventual death of her son.

And even though Cody was a new teenager moving there, and this transition could have been you know, very difficult for him, when he initially moved to Kalispell, he actually had a fairly simple time switching from the urban city life to rural outdoor living. In fact, Cody actually thrived in this environment, taking up a love of hunting, four-wheeling, kayaking, and separately, developing a passion for cars. Friends later explained that Cody enjoyed souping up cars to race them in the area. So, after graduating from high school in 2006, it only made sense that Cody turned his love of cars into a profession. And he was hired by Nomad Global Communication Solutions, which is a company that specializes in off-pavement grid independent tactical vehicles and comprehensive mobile command centers. So it's not really like, it's not really like cars, but it's more like

traveling kind of RVs that can be fixed up to be command centers. Yeah, which was still of interest to him. Not exactly, like you said, he was he was so into souping cars up and doing all the the fun things, but he was very technical as well. And to be honest, this kind of was a perfect fit for Cody because he could work on vehicles while also being financially capable of moving out of his mom's house and renting his own place right there in Kalispell. So now Cody had this exciting social life with his car buddies, he's got a great job doing something that he loves, and he's got a place of his own as a bachelor and young adult. But one thing that was missing was a companion to share his life with.

Though a chance encounter at the local Taco Bell would change his life forever. So one night in October of 2011, after a Sunday night church service, the congregants of the Faith Baptist Church walked into the local Kalispell Taco Bell for a late-night bite and that's when Cody first laid his eyes on Jordan Graham. Jordan Graham was born in August of 1991 to her mother Lindy and she was raised by her mother and her stepfather Steve Rutledge right there in Kalispell. Now, as you can tell by the fact that I said she was a part of the Faith Baptist Church, Jordan was very, very active in her local congregation, and in fact, that's where her stepfather and mother actually met when she was in fourth grade.

Much like Cody, Jordan didn't know her biological father, so Steve entering the picture was a welcome addition to the family. And within a year of meeting, Steve and Lindy were married and welcomed a son named Michael. Now, the Rutledge household was very strict when it came to religion, but that apparently didn't bother Jordan at all because she was very devoted to the church throughout her life. She was described by those who knew her as, a shy introvert But a Montana girl through and through who was not afraid to get her hands dirty While she was still in high school Jordan would also babysit for local families of the church

And she was adored by the parents who hired her So during her junior year of high school Jordan began working for blessed beginnings daycare and one member of the community said of Jordan, quote, Outside of daycare, Jordan spent time wherever I needed a babysitter. Always my son's first request, as mine. It was always, Mom, call George. And that was just a little nickname that that family gave her. A few weeks after Cody and Jordan initially met at Taco Bell, they attended the same Halloween party.

Again, this is in 2011. That night at the party, the two of them really hit it off. Though some friends would later say that they didn't really necessarily see the connection because, I mean, these two people are complete opposites. Like, Cody was known as the life of the party and Jordan was much more reserved and soft-spoken. Jordan's mother later stated, quote, when Jordan was young, she didn't share emotions very well.

She didn't like to cry in front of others. The only time she would cry in front of others is when she would see a family member crying. She kept her emotions for when she was by herself. But, nevertheless, even in their differences, Cody fell completely in love with Jordan. You know, she was kind of the yin to his yang. And he later told a friend, quote, If I get to wake up every day under the same roof as the woman I love, I'd be happy. Shortly after this Halloween party, Cody and Jordan began officially dating, and they did seem very happy together.

Actually, the only problem that it seemed like they faced was that Jordan wanted to share her passion for religion with her partner. But Cody totally disintegrated this concern by joining her church to make her happy and be a part of something important to her. So with this action, Jordan felt so much more secure in her relationship with Cody, even getting his mom Sherry to start attending Faith Baptist.

Just over a year after Cody and Jordan started dating, Cody felt like it was time to start the next chapter of his life and take the next step in his relationship. So in December of 2012, 24-year-old Cody popped the question and Jordan excitedly said yes, posting on Instagram, quote, he proposed best early Christmas present ever while showing off her engagement ring. Now this was obviously a pretty big move, you know, especially after such a short amount of time

together and still being quite young. Jordan is 21, Cody is 24, but it was one that they believed that they were ready for. Also, Jordan just really wanted to be a mom. So with this proposal, she actually dropped out of community college to go all in on her relationship with Cody Despite their shared excitement people in Cody's life thought that he was moving a little bit too fast So much so that some of them even made bets on how long it would take for them to file for divorce

One of Cody's closest friends Cameron stated, stated in an interview, quote, I told him not to marry Jordan. I had reservations about the relationship because it did not seem healthy. Cody was giving his all and he just wasn't getting much back. Cody's other friend, Jeremiah, echoed this by saying, quote, He did everything for her. He did everything to make her happy, and I didn't see from what he would tell me any input or any effort on her end to accommodate what Cody did for her.

One time while in a restaurant with his friends, Cody actually stormed out of the building when they began to poke at the durability of his relationship. So obviously, you know, this was a pretty upsetting topic for him, either because he knew deep down that they were right, or because he just wanted them to see what he saw in Jordan. But despite all of this, Cody was set on being with Jordan, so they scheduled their wedding for June of 2013, six months after the proposal. Months before tying the knot in April of 2013, 21-year-old Jordan was expressing her excitement

of getting married to friends and family. She had even borrowed money from her mom to fly to California and record a song for Cody that was meant to be played during their first dance. While she was in California, she visited the studio of professional songwriter Elizabeth Shea, who explained that Jordan was very shy and standoffish, but that when it came to talking about her wedding plans, Jordan would quote, light up, and that seemed very genuine to me. And I want to read you guys some of the lyrics from this song because they are truly eerie and very foreshadowing.

Here's just a few lines from the song. Quote, "'Everyone wants a safe place to fall and you're mine. You helped me to climb higher for a better view. You're my safe place to fall. You never let me go.'" She later explained that the lyrics kind of just reflected their joint love of the outdoors,

but it's really hard to tell. So after recording this surprise song, she headed back to Montana, but her behavior continued to prove pretty odd. With her maid of honor, Kimberly, receiving some pretty strange texts from Jordan. Jordan was asking Kimberly if she thought that she was making the right decision by marrying Cody. Which feels a bit strange because at this point we only know of issues from Cody's side of things and his friends. So why Jordan would be hesitant to marry Cody seems a little interesting here. I mean it's possible this was like a typical case of cold feet, but it's like we don't know what was going on in her head.

Right and at this point in her life. She's you know 21 years old That's does seem fairly young to be getting married even though. I know a lot of people do that But maybe a lot of religious people oh absolutely so maybe just for her She felt like the timing wasn't perfect for her But I mean she's still going through with this and one other thing that I find really interesting here Is that when we talk about Cody and Jordan being opposites it kind of feels like? I mean, she's still going through with this. And one other thing that I find really interesting here is that when we talk about Cody and Jordan being opposites, it kind of feels like Cody came from California and wanted a more quiet and peaceful life.

And Jordan, because she spent all of her time in Montana, where there's probably you know, she wants to get out of Montana. She even mentioned possibly moving to California someday. And so it really feels like they're living these opposite lives. Yeah, but maybe because Cody seemed like a great guy in all these ways and he had her stepfather's blessing for them to get married. Maybe she just felt like, oh, this is what I'm supposed to do. I want to be a mom. I want to be a homemaker. Right. It's kind of like that pressure of life hitting you in the face. And it does feel like there was love there.

She wrote this song for him. She flew to California to record a song that she wrote for their wedding. She said yes in the first place. She was so excited, excitedly posted about their engagement on Instagram. Not that that necessarily means anything because people can be very fake on social media, but it's just it feels like these feelings are in a way kind of coming out of nowhere as she's getting closer to the nuptials. And I do think that that's kind of a natural thing. I think that happens with a lot of a lot of people. Absolutely and naturally so. You're about to be

bound to the legally bound to this person. So fast forward a couple months later to Saturday, June 29th, 2013, the day that Cody and Jordan would officially become husband and wife. The ceremony took place within the lush greenery of Woodland Park in Kalispell, with Jordan's maid of honor again, Kimberly, stating, quote, the best possible thing happened and I'm so happy for you too. But other wedding guests stated that they felt like something was off with Jordan that day and that she seemed almost uninterested in the process.

Yeah, it's kind of strange because people were saying that she looked like she was just hysterically crying, like they were like, it didn't seem strange because people were saying that she looked like she was just hysterically crying. Like, they were like, it didn't seem like she was crying happy tears. It seemed like she was crying because her life was ending. Yeah, like she wasn't smiling and lovingly throwing herself at him, like a lot of people do to their new spouses on their wedding day. This is supposed to happen for a positive reason, it's supposed to be a great day. Well, when the ceremony ended,

the newlyweds made their way down to Big Fork, Montana, which is only about 18 miles south of Kalispell. And this was in order to celebrate their first official night together, where Cody had their room decorated with flowers for Jordan as a little surprise. They spent one evening away before heading back to Kalispell where they now shared a residence and planned to start this next chapter of their lives, again as husband and wife.

Maybe Jordan would soon become pregnant, she could be this housewife and mom that she was telling everybody that she wanted to be. But still, something was off with Jordan even after the wedding ended. So on June 30th, the day after the wedding, she texted Kimberly saying, quote, totally just had a meltdown. I'm completely second guessing everything. I don't know if all of this was the right thing to do. So much happened last night. I just don't know if all of this was the right thing to do. So much happened last night. I just don't know." And I think kind of what she's referring to here is

We know that Jordan, you know, didn't have pre-marital sex So the night, you know of their wedding It seems like she was kind of having an issue with being intimate with Cody like that was a big deal for her So I think slightly that's kind of what she's talking about as well as just, I'm young, I'm now married. Yes, exactly. I'm actually just about to go into the intimacy thing because it does seem like that was a really big angle here.

So it's like, is it that, or is she hinting that something bad happened on their first night together? You know, either way, something is really alarming. Kimberly with this text, she's making it seem like something bad is going on. So Kimberly said about what are you okay? 21 year old Jordan then explained that she was concerned about being intimate with Cody and expressed her distaste towards the idea of it, which could just be nerves talking or maybe she's like, wait, I don't want to

be married to this person. Then the next day, which was July 1st, Jordan texted Kimberly yet again at 9pm saying, quote, I cannot freaking pull myself together. I haven't stopped crying since I was married I wish someone would have stood up and asked me what I wanted, but I can't go back and change anything I should be happy and I'm just not I don't feel like myself. It's just so freaking hard I want my happy self back, but I'm a loser who can't open my mouth and say how I feel Well that week seemed like an absolute blur.

It just passed by so quickly with Jordan trying to get it together and make the best of her new marriage with this reportedly amazing man. The couple took their kayaks out on the 4th of July, and despite Kimberly explaining to Jordan that what she was feeling was completely normal and that maybe she and Cody should speak with their pastor, Jordan just couldn't shake the feeling that she had made a bad decision. She continued to text Kimberly saying, quote, dead serious, if you don't hear from me, something happened. So obviously, that was a very scary text to receive. But you know, it seemed like maybe she was kind of over exaggerating, maybe over reacting, because it didn't appear like anything was really wrong between Cody and Jordan during

that first week of their marriage. And it doesn't seem like she was necessarily saying, oh, if you don't hear from me during this trip on the 4th of July, something happened. Like it seems like she means that in general, like if I kind of go dark, something's wrong. Almost insinuating that Cody would be behind something or that she would flee. Yeah. Like, she's being really vague and not saying what any issues actually are. Yeah, and on top of that, it didn't appear that Cody had ever been physical with her

in any sort of like violent way, so this is kind of coming out of nowhere. On July 7th, 2013, Cody's new father-in-law, Steve Rutledge, ran into Cody at an evening church service. He had caught wind that Jordan had set up a plan to surprise Cody. But when asked what the surprise was, Cody explained that he didn't know, because it hadn't happened yet. Which like, sorry Steve, why would you ask him that?

Like, oh I hear there's a surprise coming for you, what is it? Like, Cody doesn't know there's a surprise. I don't fucking know dude. That's like literally the point. Well, just after the service at 7.15pm, members of the church, including Jordan and Cody, walked into the local Dairy Queen, which was pretty customary for this group. I mean, it really did seem like, after most of these evening church services, they would

go get a bite to eat. Like how they were at Taco Bell when she met Cody. Exactly. Well, the couple spent about an hour there before deciding that they wanted to head back home. And this is where things took a real turn, because Jordan's intentions for heading home early was so that she could finally confront Cody about her feelings. At 11pm that night, again July 7th, 2013, Jordan texted Kimberly in a panic saying, quote, Now I'm freaking out.

I don't even know what to do right now. I talked to him and all it did was cause me to get scratched and him to leave. There's no way I'm going to be able to fall asleep. If I do, I won't wake up. Still, so vague. What do you mean you got scratched? Like Cody scratched you? Yeah.

And like, there's no way you're gonna be able to fall asleep, maybe because you're so upset. If I do, I won't wake up. Why would you not wake up? Are you insinuating that he's gonna hurt you in your sleep? Like, it's such a weirdly cryptic message that has no explanation, even though there are details within it. Yeah, I mean, just add a little bit of context. Well, Kimberly again, very worried here. This is one of her best friends. So she's just trying to press Jordan for answers because like us, Kimberly does not know

what the hell is going on. But Jordan refused to respond. Then just 15 minutes later, Jordan called her younger brother Michael and asked him to come over to her house because she didn't want to be alone, and he obliged. While Michael sat in the living room of his sister's home, she explained to him that she and Cody had gotten into an argument and that during the fight, Cody got a message from some out-of of state car buddies.

The next thing she knew, Cody was being picked up by a dark colored car with Washington plates and was taken off for a joyride. She told Michael that that was the last time she saw her husband and that she was worried that something happened to him. That night Jordan also texted somebody else, a 17 year old high school student from church named Nikki. Remember Jordan is 21 so they're not that far apart in age, they are obviously very friendly because Jordan texted Nikki quote, dude you better work on those sweet moves although you are pretty amazing already. And then Nikki responded saying that her dance moves were far better,

to which Jordan replied, quote, Whoa, whoa, too far, homie. We'd kill it on the dance floor. So obviously you guys are probably very confused and we're very confused because it's pretty clear that Jordan's emotions are all over the place. You know, she's texting Kimberly in a panic. She's asking her brother to come over and comfort her, but then she's just casually texting this girl Nikki about dance moves. Totally. To be fair, sometimes like I'm not doing well and I'm happily texting people back so that I don't have to go into what's wrong. Like for some people you're like I'm just gonna put on a face or put on

something else and just be happy and not let that sadness show. But it's definitely gonna look more concerning later regarding this particular situation, because it is weird. She doesn't know where, it's not just like, oh, I'm in a bad mood. It's like, my husband is missing and he went off in this car and I don't know where he is and we got into a fight and I don't know if I wanna be married to him, she has a lot going on.

But I also don't necessarily see her dumping that on this 17 year old church pal, you know?" Yeah I mean maybe she was just trying to kinda cope with the situation. So Michael ended up falling asleep around 1.20am that night at his sister's house, still awaiting word on Cody. And after he fell asleep, Jordan decided that she needed to be in the company of a friend, so she headed to Kimberly's house shortly after he fell asleep. So this is a very very late visit. Kimberly explained that Jordan was shaking, and when asked if she wanted to go out and look for Cody, Jordan's response was

quote, I really don't want anyone to talk to him today. It all happened so fast. Shaking and when asked if she wanted to go out and look for Cody Jordan's response was quote I really don't want anyone to talk to him today. It all happened so fast. It'll backfire on me I'd rather wait and see if he shows up to work in the morning. Why wouldn't he you know? Yeah What do you what are you insinuating here Jordan? Well at 830 a.m. On Monday 8th, Cody's employer from Nomad Solutions tried to contact him to ask him why he hadn't shown up for work, but they received no response. And this just really was not like Cody, you know, he was never late to work and never missed his shift, so from the jump, something really appeared to be off.

Especially coupled with what Jordan was saying about them getting into a verbal argument and her getting scratched up. Well, two hours later Nomad tried to contact Cody yet again at 10.30am, but this time the call went straight to voicemail. Hours later at 4.30pm, Jordan texted Cody's supervisor and friend asking if Cody had shown up to work, but obviously the supervisor said no Jordan then relayed the same story that she was telling other people that she and Cody had gotten into this fight and that Cody drove Off with some friends from out of state She also told Cody's supervisor that she had even followed this dark car to Hungry Horse, which is an unincorporated rural community just a few minutes drive from Glacier National Park, but that she somehow lost

track of this car and just decided to head home. Jordan would later tell investigators, quote, He always told me this one thing, is when his friends came to visit, he would take them to Glacier Park. On Tuesday, July 9th, 2013, the day after Cody hadn't shown up for work, his supervisor, who was completely dumbfounded at what could have happened to him, decided to pay the Johnson household a visit, hoping to glean some information. And when I say Johnson household, I mean the home of Cody and Jordan. Now when he arrived, he found that the back door to the home was unlocked, but he didn't find anybody to be there at the time. So he decided that he needed to call the police as well as actually area

hospitals to see if maybe Cody had been in a car accident, but he didn't find any evidence of that being the case. And the reason why nobody was home that day, obviously Cody is MIA, but Jordan was out looking for Cody with a group of friends. A friend of Jordan's named Amy expressed later that Jordan was acting very strange that day. And not just like, oh, she's in a weird dark mood

because she can't find her husband. She's actually the kind of the opposite. Yeah. Amy said, quote, she was giggling and texting. She didn't seem that interested in looking or helping. Obviously all these people care about Cody too, but they're really here for Jordan. And she's like, face in her phone, laughing about like, girl, what? Like la-dee-da-dee-da, having a great day here. But still, the group pressed on and made their way up to Hungry Horse Dam

until that search proved fruitless. While the group headed back to Kalispell, Jordan received a call from police sergeant, Chad Zimmerman, asking if Jordan could come answer a few questions. And around 7 p.m. that day, Jordan made her way down to the police station. You know, this is very normal.

Police always talk to the person closest to the missing person or the murdered individual. Yeah, they got to do their due diligence. So she went on down. But here's the thing. Jordan told Sergeant Zimmerman that Cody left the night of Sunday, July 7th, so 8 days after their wedding, by the way, while she was picking up a phone charger from a house she used to babysit at. So she's saying she didn't see him leave that night because she was gone. But Sergeant Zimmerman had heard from others that she told them Cody left their driveway in a dark colored car

And watched it take off into the night So why she had two different stories immediately piqued his interest And we also know of course that she told police that she chased the car near Hungry Horse Like I just said, but that she couldn't keep up with it. So it's like What is it? Yeah, so there were already inconsistencies within Jordan's story that she just couldn't explain, but without any evidence or any more information,

Jordan was free to go that night. But the next day would make this entire investigation even more confusing, because on on Wednesday July 10th Jordan received a very cryptic email from someone that she didn't even know The email came from the address car man Tony 607 at gmail.com and the email read quote My name is Tony. There's no bother looking for Cody anymore. He's gone. I saw your post on Twitter and I thought I would email you.

He had come with some buddies and met up with me on Sunday night in Columbia Falls. He was saying that he needed to be with his buddies for a bit and take them for a joy ride. Three of the guys came back saying that they had gone for a ride in the woods somewhere and Cody got out of the car and went for a little hike, and they're positive that he fell and he is dead, Jordan. I don't know who the guys were, but they took off. So call off the missing persons report.

Cody is gone for sure. Tony. So with this new and very mysterious piece of information, Jordan and her mom Lindy headed down to the police station to share it with investigators. Detective Corey Clark admitted that the email quote, seemed kinda sketchy, and asked if Jordan had ever met anybody named Tony S, to which she responded that she hadn't. Detectives noted that Jordan seemed very calm at this point, which she explained away by saying that she didn't really like to show emotion in front of people. Which, as we know, her mother claimed as well.

But, she told them that right before she broke down in tears, confessing that she wanted to go home. So it's almost like they're like, hey, why aren't you showing any emotion? And then she's like, well I don't really like to be emotional in front of other people. And then she just starts bawling, like out of nowhere, like almost to appease them in some way. Again, it's like, what is the truth here? Well, that's when Detective Melissa Smith

walked into the interview room. Detective Smith calmly told Jordan that she wasn't under arrest for anything, but that she needed to ask Jordan a few more questions, considering how close she and Cody were and that she was one of the last people to see him. She also told Jordan that she needed to look through her phone to kind of look at the text between she and Cody, just to see if there's anything that could like possibly lead to his whereabouts. Yeah, maybe Cody sent her something that would be a good clue for investigators.

But here's the thing. Jordan basically explained that she always cleared their text messages at the end of every day, so she didn't have any to show them, which just obviously seems really odd, but Jordan said that they did this because the kids that she babysat for would always mess with her phone, and she really just didn't want them to stumble upon some private messages. And shortly after this, Jordan yet again ended the interview. In the meantime, investigators really needed to figure out

who this Tony S person was. So they sent a subpoena to Google to obtain the IP address for this email. That same day, again, July 10th, Jordan once again put together a search party to go out and look for her husband, Cody. But this time, they focused on an area of Glacier National Park called The Loop.

When they arrived in the park, Jordan began walking around aimlessly, telling family that she wanted to search a particular area. But at that point, it was getting pretty dark. So the group called off the search for the night and decided to just head back out the next morning. So that next morning, they returned to the loop, but made a few stops to put up missing posters in the area first. And while everybody was looking around this particular area in the national park, Jordan just kept saying

that she wanted to check out a particular spot, like she had brought up the previous evening, which her friends and family took note of because she was really harping on this whole, I wanna go check out this particular area thing. Yeah, they're like, why do you keep bringing this up? Maybe just chill out. But also at first it's Yeah, they're like, why do you keep bringing this up? Maybe just chill out.

But also at first it's like, okay, sure, let's do it. It wasn't weird until they figured out why, right? So she told them, quote, I just have this feeling. And lo and behold, when they took a closer look at this particular spot, about 200 feet below the cliff they were on, which is equivalent to over 15 stories high, by the way, they discovered the body of 25-year-old Cody Johnson

lying face down in a pool of water. Jordan's brother Michael instantly broke down into sobs, but Jordan simply walked back to the parking lot. At 8.30pm that night, July 11th, Park Ranger Steve Powell received a call that a body had been found in a ravine within Glacier National Park. He later stated, quote, I thought it was odd she knew where to find the body. When I asked about it, she said it was a place that Cody wanted to see before he died. Obviously, they didn't get this report until right before the sunset,

so it would have been a really dangerous situation for them to go down there. Like I said, it's 200 feet below a cliff. Yeah, that night they just really didn't have the resources to get down to Cody's body, so unfortunately, they did have to wait until the next day. Yeah, and that is exactly what they did. They waited until the sun came up on the morning of July 12th, and they were finally able to collect Cody's body. So that is when they positively identified his remains. And as far as the extent of Cody's injuries go, he suffered a lot. So he had a shattered right eye socket, a seven inch fracture to his skull, several broken ribs, bruising all over his body, and his heart had been torn open. Man, this poor guy.

And just to put this into perspective, I know that seems like a lot. Obviously though, if you fall off a 200 foot cliff and you hit rock, like it's gonna mess you up. Yeah, absolutely. Which is why when the autopsy was conducted, the examiner compared Cody's injuries to being hit head on in a high speed car crash. Yeah, I mean, there was just really nothing to break his fall. There was no cushion there. There was no grass. It was just pure rock.

Well, one of his shoes had come off during the fall and was located about 100 feet away from his body. But the weird thing is Cody didn't have any jewelry on him, not even his wedding ring. He had only been married for eight days and it's already off his finger. So that kind of leads us to believe that that fight really did occur,

and maybe an even worse one. But on top of the lack of wedding ring, laying close to Cody's body was a thin black cloth that looked very reminiscent to a blindfold. But let's put a pin in that for a second because something happened the day before Cody's body was airlifted out of that ravine. That turned all eyes towards his 21-year-old wife, Jordan.

So going back just the day before, on July 11th, the very day that Jordan found Cody's body, Detective Cory Clark, who actually happened to live in Jordan's neighborhood, was walking his dog that morning. Remember, Jordan is not home during this time. And when he passed by Cody and Jordan's house, something caught his eye about their trash can in front of the house.

It kind of seemed like it was nearly spilling out into the street because it was so full. And Detective Clark just kind of found this a little bit strange. So he went to open the lid and inside he found love letters, flowers, teddy bears, and a part of a wedding dress that was stuffed inside. So this guy, I mean this guy was completely amazing, he actually dragged their trash bag over to his own house, dumped out the contents of the items on his garage floor, and he took photos of everything

before dragging it back over to Jordan's house without anybody seeing him. Honestly, very insightful of this detective, especially so early on in the investigation of his disappearance before his body was even found. Like, before the trash can be picked up, you're like, this might be of use to me. That is so, so insightful. Yeah, and actually, after dragging that trash back over to Jordan's house,

he finally got the call that they found Cody's body. So, Detective Clark headed out to Glacier to help with the investigation. And he happened to run into Jordan and her friends. Jordan's friend had been driving Cody's Audi that day with Jordan riding in the passenger seat, and this friend remembered that on the way home, Jordan actually told her friend, quote, Please don't speed. This isn't my car. Well, now it is. Now, remember when we told you guys about that email that Jordan received from somebody named Tony S?

How could we forget? Well, guess what? When detectives obtained the IP address, they found that the email was sent from Jordan's parent's computer. And the account was set up the very same day that that email was sent. Can we read the email again? We? I think we need to go back. Yes, please do. I think we should go back and take a look at that. It says, My name is Tony. There is no bother looking for Cody anymore. He is gone. I saw your post on Twitter and thought I would email you.

He had come with some buddies and met up with me on Sunday night in Columbia Falls. He was saying he needed to be with his buddies for a up with me on Sunday night in Columbia Falls. He was saying he needed to be with his buddies for a bit and take them for a joy ride. Three of the guys came back saying that they had gone for a ride in the woods somewhere, and Cody got out of the car and went for a little hike. And they are positive he fell and he is dead, Jordan. I don't know who the guys were but they took off so call off the missing persons report Cody is gone for sure so that was written from her

parents computer meaning who do you think wrote that yeah I mean it's pretty obvious at this point and the really stupid thing here is that she she made the email address car man Tony 607 like are you serious? She's trying to paint the picture of these the car buddies angle. Yeah it was them. She was the one perpetuating this idea that it was his car buddies so yeah of course she had to put that in the email but it is very funny. And I gotta say this is not to give a spoiler but for the Sherry Coleman case we covered last week This is giving

Serious that case vibes with how foreshadowing the email was how all these details came out before the crime took place Before anything was uncovered all the attempts to kind of cover up all the details anything was uncovered. All the attempts to kind of cover up all the details and blame it on somebody else. It does not look good. But this email was not the only bombshell in the case because Jordan had told police that Cody drove off with some car buddies the night that he disappeared.

But as it turns out, there happened to be security cameras at the entrance to Glacier National Park. And when detectives played back the footage from the night of July 7th at 917pm, so 20 minutes after the sunset, they witnessed Cody and Jordan enter the park. And by the way, the park is open 24 hours, 365 days of the year. But anyway, now the whole jig was basically up because the police had concrete proof that Jordan had lied to them. So for the third time in a little over a week, on July 16th, Jordan was back at the Kalispell Police Department, only this time the FBI was

waiting for her. Now of course she told them the same old story that she had no idea how Cody ended up in that ravine, but then a printed photo was slid to Jordan across the desk that showed her at the entrance to the park with Cody. That must have been such a fuck moment. Yeah, that's like such a gangster move too. Like she tells this whole bullshit story and then they just calmly slide a photo of her like entering the fucking park. So obviously

to seeing it she just kind of hung her head in silence. FBI agent Stacey Smidala looked at her and said, Jordan it's time to tell the truth. And that's when Jordan broke down into tears and told detectives that after leaving Dairy Queen that fateful night, she expressed her marriage regrets to Cody and they started to fight. So in order to cool down and talk things out, Jordan suggested that they take a drive to Glacier National Park, driving together to the west entrance. Like Heath just said, the sun had just gone down for the day, but Jordan still insisted

that they take a moonlight walk. When the couple left the car, Jordan took Cody's keys, stating that this was something she always did in order to keep track of them. They also left their cell phones in the car as they marched down the loop trail just off Going to the Sun Road. Unfortunately, the argument apparently only intensified from there, to the point where Cody allegedly grabbed Jordan's arm. After telling him to let her go, she says she brushed away Cody's hand, and while he had his back turned away from her,

she instinctively used both of her hands to push Cody to his death. Now I do want to mention that there was never any evidence that Cody had ever been violent with Jordan in any way, and based on the placement of Cody's body at the bottom of the ravine, it was concluded that the push was very intentional. Yeah, I mean you can definitely tell these things. The difference between like, your foot slipping and you falling to being physically pushed, your body would probably be a little bit further out from the cliff if you were pushed rather than accidentally falling.

Yeah, and she definitely could have said that he put his hands on her so that she has a reason for why pushing him was okay. Like, oh well, he had his hands on me and I was just trying to get him off me so I pushed him and then he fell off a cliff. Yeah, I was defending myself, but it really doesn't justify two-hand pushing someone in the back off of a cliff. Yeah, truly. But even with her claiming that it happened in the moment and that the push was like a natural reaction to the physical touching and the shoving that their argument apparently included, the police were not convinced. But they didn't arrest her right then and there because they wanted

to corroborate her confession with real evidence which took them two months to do and on September 9th 2013 newly 22 year old Jordan Graham was arrested for the murder of 25 year old Cody Johnson well a few weeks later on October 3rd, 2013, Jordan Graham was indicted on charges of first degree murder, second degree murder,

as well as making false statements to investigators. But shockingly, the very next day, Jordan pleaded not guilty. I mean, she already told people that she did it, so I don't really know why you would plead not guilty. Because, as we always talk about on this show, they want to try to get away with it. She wants it now. She's a lawyer it up, and she's like, you know what? Maybe I didn't do this. Well, two months later, on December 9th, 2013,

Jordan's trial finally began, and during it, the defense tried to paint the picture that in the midst of being in survival mode, believing that Cody may hurt her, she reacted to the threat with the shove, and Cody lost his balance, apparently. But the prosecution had one trick up their sleeve that seemed to paint a very different picture. The black blindfold that was found near Cody's body. They claimed that the surprise Jordan had been talking about was really never a surprise at all, and that Jordan lured Cody blindfolded out to that cliff so that she could escape the unhappy marriage that she found herself in.

In his trial brief, public defender Michael Donahoe stated, quote, Witnesses will describe Jordan Graham as a naive, immature, and shy woman who deals better with the children that she watched over as a daycare worker than with most adults. Many of Jordan's family, friends, and acquaintances penned letters to the judge, pleading with him to take mercy on her. Oh, please. Yeah, a bunch of people actually did this, like ten people. Like one person wrote, quote, Jordan has been a faithful churchgoer her entire life. She has no record of any of the teen problems so prevalent in our society, and she has never

had any involvement with drugs of any kind. I truly believe that she has within her the qualities that can make her a valuable, contributing member of society." Now, Jordan also claimed that she had been abused in previous relationships, but prosecutors immediately poked holes in this, stating that she had only dated like one other person previous to Cody, so, and they also just found no evidence to prove this claim. Another witness said that in June of 2013, so five weeks before her wedding, Jordan told this witness that she could, quote,

"'kill her parents.'" Prosecutors said of this, quote, "'It should be admitted to negate innocent intent "'and demonstrate the likelihood that the defendant "'didn inact with the requisite intent in the charged case." Which kind of feels like what they're saying is that they're taking that instance into account along with what she did to Cody. Um, because it seemed like if she's capable of saying she wanted to kill her parents and then she killed her husband it all kind of ties in And I know you guys probably want to know a lot more about that So do we but nothing more has been released on that or like in what context she said that like

Maybe she was frustrated at them and she was being dramatic or maybe she went into further detail with this person on Actually wanting them dead because we don't know exactly what she said. We don't even know who she said this to. So it's really hard to try to describe it further. Yeah. And I only added this in because I felt like there were so many headlines talking about this, but then they didn't really go into any detail, but it is, I guess, worth noting. Well on December 12th, so a few days into the trial,

prosecutors were able to offer Jordan Graham a plea deal of second degree murder, if she would tell the truth and also plead guilty to the charges. And Jordan accepted this deal. Then on March 27th, 2014, so nine months after Cody was murdered. Jordan Graham was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison

with 5 years of supervised release. Meaning she will be out by the time she's in her 50s. As you guys can imagine, her family and Cody's alike experienced so much confusion and grief surrounding this entire ordeal. During Cody's memorial before anybody knew that Jordan was even involved, as she played on her cell phone, Cody's mom Sherry put her arm around Jordan and said through tears, quote, everything will be okay. Cody's with Jesus now. Which feels like particularly sad knowing religion

was like a new part of his life and Sherry's. And here she was likely looking on the bright side of things and trying to find a way to make Jordan feel better, yet she was the one to take his life. Yeah, it feels incredibly unfair. Jordan's brother Michael even explained during the trial, quote, She could have told us the truth, but she kept telling lies to cover it up. Jordan later tried to appeal her guilty plea, but like going so back and forth constantly,

but that request was denied. She stated in a recorded interview, quote, It was a quick thing. I just wanted to get him off me. I don't feel like I killed him. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What an intriguing story. What a such a twisty story as well. I really want to know what you guys think about this one.

So please leave us a comment on our socials. We're on Instagram at going west podcast We are also on Facebook. So let us know it's really hard for me to believe Jordan and her saying that this was an accident She was just trying to get him off her because she lied so many times her behavior was so weird She was giggling texting texting people, being happy, not giving a shit about searching for Cody. And then there was the email where she was trying to cover her tracks.

Yeah, thank you. One of the biggest pieces of this where she's trying to say, basically try to paint the picture that Cody fell off a cliff so that when they eventually found him at the bottom of a cliff, they would have to look for these car buddies that didn't exist. And I mean, the real MVP of this story was that photo of them entering the park together,

because then investigators knew that she was there with Cody that night. Yeah, after she lied so many times. So just a really sad case because Cody sacrificed so much for her. He really just wanted to find his person and live his life he was really happy in other ways it's just so devastating and the overall message and what I would like to leave you guys with is get a divorce and believe your friends when they're telling you that they see shit that you don't see if your friends are telling you why are you with

this person fucking believe them yeah I Yeah, I mean, yeah, absolutely. Not to like shame Cody, but I just mean it's a valuable lesson that like sometimes you're blinded by certain elements that your friends will see and they're trying to tell you and you don't want to believe them so you don't. So, so sad this wedding never should have happened.

But thank you guys so much for diving into this story with us. If you want more episodes of Going West, check out episode 500 if you haven't already. And we also have some amazing new bonus episodes that we released last week. So check those out as well. All right, guys, I think that's it. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Music