Going West: True Crime - Cory Barron // 329

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

In July of 2014, a 22-year-old man went missing during a massive country music concert in Ohio. As police reviewed surveillance and interviewed patrons, they didn’t find any evidence that he had left the stadium at all. But after searching the entire stadium, they didn’t find him in it either. As the mystery deepened as to what exactly happened to him, a call came in to police that would change everything. This is the story of Cory Barron. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Sarah for recommending this case. She recommended it last year. That is how behind we can be because we get so many case recommendations, but we wanted to do this one now because it is pretty much this feels like the end of summer to me. I don't know about you.

August 1st to me is like the first day of all. It's like the death of summer is upon us. It's like harvest, carnivals, and then September, we are like fully in fall, even though. Not really in Los Angeles. I mean, it's pretty much hot here. It's all in my mind. November. Yeah, so true.

Yeah, we're not going to get real fall. But today's case is kind of reminiscent of a case that you might have heard of, the Brian Schaefer case. So I'm not going to give you the details on it quite yet, but it is very reminiscent of that case. Yes, there are totally similarities between these two cases. This one is super tragic. I feel like none of the people talk about it, so make sure that you share it. Thank you so much for tuning in and let's talk about it Heath.

Alright guys, this is episode 329 of Going West, so let's get into it. In July of 2014, a 22-year-old man went missing during a massive country music concert in Ohio. As police reviewed surveillance and interviewed patrons, they didn't find any evidence that he had left the stadium at all. And even after searching the entire stadium, they didn't find him in it either. As the mystery deepened as to what exactly happened to him, a call came into police that would change everything. This is the story of Cory Barron was born on April 28, 1992 in Fremont, Ohio, which was located between Toledo and Cleveland and not far from Lake Erie.

When he was born, he joined parents Karen and Matt, a sister named Britta, and a brother named Clay. His obituary claims that quote, his favorite times were spent with family and friends. And Corey was known to be a warm, loving, and spirited person with an appreciation for arts of all kinds, like he loved every type of music and movie. But the other side of him was very devoted to sports. He was an avid golfer and a fan of all of his hometown sports teams like the Cleveland Guardians, the Browns and Cavaliers, as well as Notre Dame for College Football. After graduating from Fremont Ross High School in 2010, Corey went on to attend

Bowling Green State University, majoring in communications with a focus on marketing. After graduating in the spring of 2014, 22-year-old Corey immediately secured a full-time job as a recruiter for a global recruitment company based nearby in Sandusky, Ohio. So things were going well, summer was in full swing, and Corey was ready to start a new phase of life. As I said, Corey loved music, so on Friday, July 18, 2014, he attended a country music concert at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from Fremont. Progressive Field is where Cleveland's baseball team,

the Guardians play, and can host close to 35,000 fans. A Cleveland news station described this concert as follows, quote, The stadium leg of country star Jason Aldean's Burnit down tour kicked off in crazy fashion. There was some pretty good country music, a lot of plaid, bad tattoos, fireworks and alcohol, during a night unlike any other this year. Regarded by some publications as the biggest concert of 2014, it was a huge night of country music for the Cleveland area and

Here's who was playing. I'm sure a lot of you country music fans will know some are probably all of these artists I don't think there's probably there's a lot that I don't know There's a couple that you're probably just at least know the name of so um Tyler far Florida Georgia line and Miranda Lambert all performed before headliner Jason Aldine came on. And Corey went with some friends, his brother Clay and his sister, Britta. The group were seated in section 541, which is toward the back of the stadium behind the pitcher's mound. And we're going to post a photo for those who want a visual of the map of the stadium,

but basically they were like at the top behind the club lounge. Like there was, I don't know exactly what row they were in, but there was no section behind them. Would you call that the nose leads? Yeah, exactly. So according to his buddies who were there that evening, nothing out of the ordinary happen for most of the night. And they were having a fantastic time just dancing, drinking, and singing along

to the music. Around 9.30 pm, Corey told Disciblings and friends that he was going to visit another group of friends who were attending the concert that night in a different part of the stadium. At this time, the headlining artist Jason Aldin had yet to come on, so there was no reason for Corey to leave the stadium all together because I'm sure he probably would have wanted to see him. So telling his group that he would be back shortly, but without telling them exactly where he was headed, he left to go say hi to his other friends. But he never returned.

Repeated calls and texts to Cory's phone went unanswered throughout the evening and after the show. And his friends and siblings scattered around the stadium and parking lot looking for him, but they found nothing. They eventually were able to talk to the friends that he was supposed to have been meeting up with, but Corey had never even made it to them. So their initial thoughts are, did something happen to him between section 541 and the area in which his friends were, or did he willingly leave for whatever reason? Yeah, I mean they have no idea where he's at, so he could have left the stadium all together,

but we are going to get into that. Absolutely. So by early the next morning, his family had reported him missing. Police questioned if he had any reason to run away from the life that he was living, but his family said that there was just no way. Because like Daphne said, he was about to start this exciting new chapter of his life, and things were really working out well for him. Also, leaving in the middle of a concert that you attended with family and friends would

have been a sudden and strange way to disappear. But not only that, his family claimed that he had no reason to leave. He had a good job, no enemies, no financial troubles, and according to his family, he never struggled with his mental health at all. It was such an alarming and strange situation that the FBI got involved immediately. Investigators combed every inch of the ballpark over the course of the next few days, pouring over surveillance footage from inside the stadium, but they saw nothing out of the ordinary. Nor did they find any sign of Cory.

However, investigators admitted that there were many areas in the stadium that were not covered by cameras, leaving, you know, many blind spots where foul play could have definitely occurred. So next, police brought scent dogs through the stadium to track Corey's movements, but they did not employ cadaver dogs, which are specifically trained to sniff out the scent of decay. And the reason for this was because this police team apparently didn't have access to trained cadaver dogs at this point in time. An air search of the area was performed as well as a search of the nearby Kaya Hoga River,

coming to banks just to see if Kory had maybe fallen in or been disposed of there. But strangely, although the stadium was a finite area, they found absolutely no trace of Kory. Right, so then it's like, well then how did he get out of there? Right. So every organization who could possibly be held responsible for Cory's disappearance seemed to want to pass the buck. The development corporation who owns the field claimed that live nation entertainment was responsible for staffing security on the evening of the concert. And when asked what security measures were taken for the show,

the spokesperson for live nation entertainment who provided their ticketing services that night stated quote, were the promoter? Those questions would go through the building manager. So it's just like, okay, it's not us. Don't ask us. Ask this guy. Yeah, everyone's like pointing away from them. Yeah.

Not me, not me. But the vice president of the building operations declined to speak with reporters. And then a spokesperson from another department within the stadium said, quote, I can't comment on anything like that now. There will be a time and place, but we aren't there yet. So reporters were not allowed to access the stadium

to take pictures of the layout in order to kind of surmise what could have happened to Corey that evening. So everyone was just left wondering how this could have happened. How could he not be in the stadium when it was searched, but also not show up leaving the stadium? And that's exactly why this case reminds us of Brian Chiefer's case because, you know, it's like we know that he went in there, but we didn't see him leaving, so where did he go? Such an eerie conundrum.

And you would imagine that at the entrances and the exits of this stadium, there probably are cameras in those places. Well like you said, there were blind spots, so it's like technically could he have snaked out without being seen, probably. Sure. But then where did he go? Where is he now? Like, they have no idea where he is. So the days following the concert were a total blur for Corey's friends and family as they

worked to just plaster missing posters anywhere they could and tried to get the word out online to anyone who had attended the concert that night just in case anyone had seen or heard anything. But with tens of thousands of people in attendance, it was a really difficult feat, and I actually I wouldn't be surprised if somebody listening to this was at the show. But then, four days later, on July 22, 2014, Corey's loved ones got the answers they were looking for, but it wasn't the one they wanted.

At 1.45pm on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 22, 2014, 9-1-1 received a call from an employee at a landfill in Lorraine County. It's never a good thing when you get a call from somebody at a landfill. Yeah, such a scary call, but then this does click as to how he could have gotten out of the stadium, right? So, Lorraine County, by the way, this area where this landfill was, is about 35 miles or 56 kilometers away from the stadium where Corey disappeared. So, the caller reported, quote, there's a dead body in the trash. We hope someone can come out here and take a look at it. The dispatcher cautioned them, quote, don't touch anything, okay?

To which the caller responded, quote, we've stopped everything. No more trucks, nothing moving, we just noticed it. To the devastation of Cory's family and friends, the remains did belong to 22-year-old Cory Baron. But this is only the beginning, this is going to get so much more strange. Oh yeah.

So Cory's body had been concealed in a dumpster that had been removed from progressive field, which again is why he didn't show up leaving the stadium, but how the hell did he get in there? Corey's pocket still contained his wallet with cash, his ID, credit cards, and his ticket from the concert, so at least they had all these identifiers to help figure out who he was. But this was clearly a shocking discovery, and police just weren't sure what to make of it at first, as they kind of scrambled to figure out if this had been an accident or if something suspicious had happened. So, Cory's remains were taken to the medical examiner so that an autopsy could be performed, but because his body had spent days in a dumpster during

the heat of summer, it was badly decomposed and some tests came back inconclusive. However, it was determined that his ultimate cause of death was, quote, multiple blunt impacts to the head, trunk, and extremities due to the fall down the trash shoot into the enclosed dumpster. Because Corey had plunged five stories to the dumpster below inside the stadium. The manner of death, however, was ruled undetermined. Now, it was initially believed that he had died on impact due to the steep fall, but the

medical examiner also concluded that Corey had sustained injuries before his fall. Although it was impossible to know if it was because of the fall down the shoot itself, or if those had been inflicted by an attack before he fell, or before he was pushed. Due to the extent of his injuries, it seems more possible that someone had injured him before he wound up in the trash shoot. Corey's blood alcohol content could not be determined because of the amount of decomposition, but his blood did note that he had been drinking that evening, though he tested negative for any drugs. And obviously we know this, he was having a good time

with his friends and his family at this concert, so yeah, they probably had some drinks. So with no explicit indication that foul play was involved, the medical examiner reported, quote, "'I'm less than happy. We'll never know the circumstances of how he wound up in the trash shoot. I wish I had that for the family. And frustratingly, there were no cameras around the area of the trash shoot, so that couldn't help in figuring this part out.

The investigators knew the exact path that he had taken because there was only one way into the room that housed this trash shoot. So basically, to give you more of a visual, this trash shoot is in a small room. Yes. Right. And we're gonna mention this later, but there is like no pictures of the trash-shoot. I mean, why would there be online? But just in general, like nobody's supposed to go in there. Exactly. So, but there is a blueprint that we're gonna post, but it's still kind of hard to understand, but it's just what you would imagine, like this little garbage room that hosts a box on the wall that you open the door and you put the trash bags down.

Correct. So another thing they couldn't figure out was why he was in the room from which he fell into the shoot in the first place. Like, why would he have ended up in there at all if he was just trying to visit his friends? Well, the door to the room containing the trash-shoot had been left unlocked because it was broken, which seems like a major oversight here, especially since the stadium was aware

that it was broken, but hadn't got around to fixing it yet. The access door to the trash-shoot was very close to the section that Cory and his group were sitting in, meaning that he didn't make it very far at all. The shoot led to a 50-foot drop and his belief to measure only about 2 feet by 2 feet, which is very bizarre as Cory weighed about 225 pounds and he also stood at 6 feet 2 inches tall. So the fact that he was able to fit in the shoot at all was extremely surprising. Yeah, I mean, so you came up to Heath earlier with the... She did, she measured my shoulders just to see how wide your shoulders are.

Well, Heath is, you're a little bit smaller than he is, not smaller. I'm about six foot, maybe two 20. Just in case anybody's wondering. But you know, no, you know. But I came the clothing measuring tape, like the soft one. You know?

So your shoulders are about 22 to 24 inches, as we all know, 24 inches equals two feet, which is how wide this shoot was. But then you have to kind of account for like arm fat and the width of your arm, which that's why I say 22 to 24. I imagine it would have been around the same for Corey. So just keep that in mind because that would have been a squeeze. Yeah, it would have been very tight.

It wouldn't have been easy to just open this door and fall in. It's not this wide mouthed hole. It's a square and it is a tight square. Right, but here's the thing that kind of made things more confusing. And it was the fact that one of his friends described him as extremely intoxicated that night.

But there was still no reason for him to have chosen to jump in or hide in a garbage shoot, unless he was being chased or coerced to do so. Well, but that's a whole thing. Yes. We'll speculate on that later once we get the facts down. Right, but because there was alcohol involved, investigators seemed to err on the side of an accidental fall.

Which is just hard for me to believe Automatically just because it's like had you accidentally fall into a tight two by two Square inside a room where you have to hold the door open right and also Like like investigators are saying. What are you doing in that room in the first place? Yeah, he was going to see his friends If he opened the door he would have been like oh, this isn't the bathroom You know what I mean? This is the trash you area totally So after the tragic news Jason Aldin did write to Twitter He said quote my sincere condolences go out to Corey Barron's family and friends my heart is heavy for you all And you're in my thoughts and prayers now Corey's dad Matt Barron did respond with gratitude but he also

kind of just hope that Jason because he has a bigger influence he has a lot of followers that he would have kind of posted more to help the search like you know maybe maybe help ask fans for help but he didn't do that so Matt said quote we appreciate that Jason Aldin tweeted something after he heard about Corey but it would be great if he could reach out to his fans that were there that night and ask them if they saw or heard anything. We could use all the help we can get. We're a very close family, we need to get some answers, some closure.

After Corey was found deceased, a witness came forward saying that they had seen a group of men urinating on and spitting at people near the trash chutes on the night of this concert. May people are just pissing on other people, just drunk in idiots. So these witnesses claim that this rowdy group of concert goers left their seats around the same time that Cory had left his seat to find his friends, and that the group returned to their seats a while later, likely after Cory had disappeared. Now again, this began around 9.30 pm before Jason Aldin, again who was the headliner of this concert, had even taken the stage.

So there wasn't really a reason to leave their seats yet, unless they were looking for somebody. Another witness spoke to police and claimed that they had seen Corey in a quote, heated confrontation with another man, though it wasn't clear what this was about. It's also unknown if these were the same group of men, but it seems kind of likely that they were. Because, you know, I mean, what are the chances? There's this rowdy group of dummies around the trash shoot, pissing and spitting on people,

cause and trouble. Right. And then obviously Corey goes walking in that vicinity to go look for his friends. So this was all just obviously endlessly frustrating for Corey's family because live nation, having issued the tickets for the event, would have had a manifest of every single person there that night, including Cory's potential attacker or murderer, assuming he was, in fact, met with foul play as his family thoroughly believes and as we believe due to evidence that is to come.

Now, allegedly, after police obtained their subpoena for information from live nation, they were able to identify some of the men believed to be in this group. But when these men were asked to be interviewed and polygraphed, they refused. They didn't wanna say a word about the evening. Sounds a bit suspicious if you didn't do anything wrong.

There's no reason why you wouldn't at least just talk to the police about it. Absolutely. So with dwindling leads, police determined that Cory Barron's death had just been an accident, surmising that he had been drunk, crawled into the trash chute, and fallen to his death by mistake. And by 2015, Cleveland prosecutors and police ruled that there was no evidence that a homicide had occurred. But within years of this ruling, everything would change. Before that break, Daphne explained to us that police ruled Corey's death an accident, but that answer was not sufficient for Corey's family, who didn't feel like the piece is

really matched up here. For four long years, the family fought to get the cause of death on Corey's death certificate changed, from undetermined to homicide. So in 2019, they hired private investigator Dick Ren. Then they established a hotline for tips and information, they put up billboards in the area imploring anyone who had attended the concert to come forward with any information that they could remember, and they also established a reward fund totaling $50,000. Based on the information he gleaned from the initial police investigation, combined with what

you know he was able to determine doing his own research, Dick concluded, quote, we believe that somebody hit him in the head, kicked him in the ribs, picked him up, and dropped him down that shoot. Due to the bruising on Corey's head and ribs, picked him up and dropped him down that shoot. Due to the bruising on Corey's head and ribs, Dick Ren as well as Corey's family now believe that he was attacked and then discarded in that trash shoot, where he died when he made contact with the dumpster after plunging five whole fucking stories. Dick explains quote, Corey was not a fighter. He had no history of being a fighter.

He's a good-sized young man. There are too many people around in that location for someone to have not seen something. Though slowly, more information began to trickle out. Dick spoke with another witness who said that they overheard two men and a woman discussing an assault on someone that had apparently just happened minutes prior. It's entirely possible, and in fact likely, that multiple people saw something that evening,

but may have not realized how dire the situation really was. And Corey may have been a victim of the bystander effect, like maybe people saw a fight breakout, even watching as it spilled into the room that housed the garbage shoot, but declined to get involved because they were scared, or because they thought that someone else would take care of it. Very true, that happens a lot. Yeah, sometimes you see something happening over in the corner of your eye, and you're like, I'm just not gonna deal with that.

That's not my problem. What do they say? See something, say something. Right. So though the quality isn't the best, one attendee came forward with a broken cell phone that contained pictures of the section that Corey was sitting that night. Dick Ren noted, quote, we also want to reach out to others at the concert that evening and find out if they saw Corey in any other section.

One of the most promising leads has a description attached to it, so Dick claims that one of the witnesses who spoke with him about that night has described a woman who was either with the rowdy group that evening, the one that was pissing and spitting, or in the vicinity of them, and may have known something about what happened. She's described as a white woman with blonde hair in her late 30s or early 40s who stands at about five feet eight inches tall, which feels like the most basic description ever.

It's an extremely basic description of probably half of the people that were at this show at night. I know, it's so true. But we do know that on the night of the concert, she was wearing a homemade t-shirt that featured a lyric from Miranda Lambert song Automatic. And that lyric is, quote, I learned to drive that 55 just like a queen.

So if you saw a blonde gal in her late 30s or early 40s, wearing that, she might have seen what happened, but police have not been able to find this woman. But finally, after three long years of work from Dick and Cory's family, Cory's cause of death was officially updated from undetermined to homicide in 2022. It's so crazy how things happen like that. How this cases can be undetermined at first, and then years and years later, will come out to actually be considered a homicide.

And this happened just last year. Yeah, I mean, after eight years of fighting. So this time, a different coroner reported, quote, since the death of Cory Barron in 2014, additional investigation has been conducted by private investigators and the Cleveland Division of Police. The Lorraine County Coroner has been provided with information by the Cleveland Police that Cory Barron was involved in an altercation at Progressive Field

prior to his disappearance and death. In light of the additional information, his death was due to the actions or failure to act of another person or persons. The manner of death for Cory Barron has been changed from undetermined to homicide. The cause of death for Cory Barron is unchanged and is sequelae, meaning a consequence of multiple blunt force impacts to the head, trunk, and extremities due to the descent down a trash shoot into an enclosed dumpster. The manor is homicide.

Cory's sister, Britta, has been very open about sharing her family's journey on Facebook. Addressing getting his case reopened, she wrote, quote, My brother was murdered. This is something you don't think would ever happen to you, but it did to my family, and it's been a nightmare. Every day is difficult without quarry, but to be able to say that someone else is responsible

for quarry's death, and there are no questions, no assumptions, no rebuttals, is it different kind of feeling? Other people standing by this statement including the Cleveland Police and the corner, validating what we knew over 8 years ago and what we know today is surreal. There's a mix of emotion, heartbreak, triumph, reassurance, anger, relief, but most importantly, hope. Time does not matter.

It may have taken us time to get here, but that's because we continue to voice and fight for the truth and hopes of getting answers. We will never give up fighting for my brother's justice, and the evil that took away one of the best, most kind, most generous people to walk this earth. This is a huge step forward and justice for Corey, massive. Someone took him from us, from so many, never getting a chance to live his life and experience everything that he could have after the age of 22. And now that his death has been ruled a homicide, the police can continue to

seek out those responsible. We pray this is just the beginning. For those of you who doubted, let this show. You can't make accurate claims without knowing all of the details. For those of you who have stood by my family, thank you for the continued support. Thank you is not enough. And then Corey's brother Clay echoed this saying, quote, someone's at fault, we know that now. There's no better time to keep pushing forward. Naturally, theories have circulated the community based on conjecture and the fragmented eyewitness accounts, but some people on online forums still claim

they believe it was an accident. Based on the blueprints of the stadium that I kind of touched on earlier, the bathrooms were near the room that housed the trash shoot, and some of posed the idea that maybe Corey was disoriented and went there looking for the bathroom but fell into the shoot instead. However, the blueprints referred to in the Discourse surrounding Corey's death are from 1990, and the stadium wasn't built until 1992, so it hasn't even been confirmed that there is a men's bathroom next door to the shoot

and we haven't been to the stadium so we cannot personally confirm and it doesn't feel like anybody online has confirmed this either that we've seen. But even if it is there, it seems unlikely that Cory would go so far as to hoist himself into this tiny two by two trash shoot behind a closed door when he was simply looking

for a toilet. Like again, many of us know what a trash shoot looks like. You know, it's, yeah. There's a little door on it, and I'm assuming this one had a door again. Oh, by all accounts, it did have a door, but we haven't seen a picture of it. And so if it has a door,

it's one of those that you kind of lift up. Yeah. Worst case, it didn did have a door, but we haven't seen a picture of it And so if it has a door, it's one of those that you kind of lift up. Yeah, um, worst case it didn't have a door And it's just this open to by two square But again, you've got to squeeze yourself into that. It's not something you can you can stumble into right and we know that he did go down face first because he hit his head when he went down the shoot So there's no possible way that he's crawling into it feet first. So that to me kind of seems like, if you were beating somebody up in a room like that and you were like, I'm in a dispose of their body, you would put them down probably head first, right? You would hoist them in, you know, from the back of their shirt. That seems

more likely to me. Yeah, I agree. And so that's why that really does seem like a likely scenario, especially because we know that there was this altercation outside the trash shoot. We know that witnesses have said that they believe that Corey was involved in that for whatever reason. And also just the fact that it was changed to a homicide.

So these people online, on these online forums, I get it. You want to speculate on the case and say, oh yeah, it probably was an accident, but it has now been officially ruled a homicide. Yes, it has. So there's no other questions. Well, let's kind of talk about like the possible reasoning. So a lot of people are assuming that maybe this argument occurred because

of an accent that Cory had made. Like maybe he bumped into somebody's friend or girlfriend or spilled somebody's drink by mistake because like Dick had said and his family said like he wasn't a fighter. He's not this aggressive guy. He's a sweetie. He's not going to just start a fight for no reason. Even though he was intoxicated, like his friend said. Well, that's what I wanted to go back to and touch on real quick, is the fact that alcohol makes people do a lot of different things. You throw your inhibitions to the wind, even if you're not a fighter, it's possible. A lot of people kind of mouth off when they get drunk and get a little crazy sometimes.

So is it possible that maybe he did bump did bump into somebody spilled their drink and they cursed him out and he stood up for himself and said you know fuck you or whatever or maybe he had absolutely or he was like standing up for somebody if he saw them you know being on the you know what i mean was you were doing this this group if it was indeed this group we're doing a bunch of rude shit to other people so maybe he wanted to step in and be the nice guy,

like who knows whatever the reason was that this fight started, it shouldn't have ended the way that it did if that is indeed what happened. And of course, since Cory was by himself, if this is a group of people, they would have outnumbered him. So it's likely that things just quickly got out of control and the attack led to serious bodily harm. And then maybe Corey's attackers panicked and disposed of his body in the nearby shoot. One other theory that hasn't really been addressed much is that this was possibly done by an employee. Now the motive seems

even less clear in this scenario, but this would explain how somebody knew the quickest and most efficient way to dispose of a body in that exact section of the stadium. I mean, yeah, that does make sense. Like, an employee would know where that garbage room was. Yeah, they know the whole layout, but why would that happen? Like, somebody on the clock just decides to murder a random patron? Yeah, it seems a lot less likely, in my opinion. Same, I agree.

Well, let's just stop real quick and maybe get a little bit more detailed on the statistics of how many people actually fall down garbage shoots every year. So every single year, multiple people worldwide fall to their deaths in a trash shoot. And the inevitable assumption is that they climbed in on their own accord. And while that definitely is a possibility, it just doesn't seem likely in this case to us, and there remains no motive. It's also possible that Cory was trying to hide from someone he thought was after him, and that in his heightened state, he didn't realize how far the shoot actually dropped and how dangerous it actually was. But again, this seems like a less than plausible explanation, as he likely would have realized

as soon as he opened the hatch that it was a tight space with a steep drop. And again, of course, it has been ruled a homicide, which means that officially, according to all of their research and investigating for years that it was in that there was enough evidence to prove that he was murdered and that he didn't go down. The experts are on this. But of course all this is really important to bring up just to prove that point even further that even though it does happen it just doesn't seem like trash shoots I think most and all trash shoots like this, in apartment buildings, and other buildings, and stadiums, and venues, and everything are quite small.

Absolutely. Because they're supposed to fit a narrow trash bag. But still, it just doesn't, it would make more sense if he was shoved in, like somebody is forcefully pushing him down, that would make sense how he could squeeze in. But it just not on your own. Not this one. Doesn't feel like it at all. Well, one Cleveland police sergeant stated that he hopes more eyewitness accounts will come to light given the corner's ruling of homicide. He said, quote, just based on eyewitness,

people that we've interviewed, you know, we know that there was some type of incident. I would expect there to be multiple more witnesses available based on what we've been told by other people. But the revival of the case is completely due to the devotion of Cory's family, and his dad, Matt, stated, quote, we want answers. We left as a family, had plans as a family, we came home without Corey. In addition to their tireless efforts to have Corey's death investigated as a homicide, Corey's family sued progressive field for their multiple failures to keep their attendees safe, which definitely makes sense in this case. Well, especially if they knew about the venue knew about this broken lock. He wouldn't have been able to get into that room, neither would his potential attackers, if that lock had not been broken

and none of this might have happened or he would have gotten beat up outside or beaten up outside the trash shoot and somebody would have stepped in. Yeah, maybe somebody would have seen it and stepped in right. Right. Because he wouldn't have been able to be murdered around tens of thousands of people i mean he could have been that's let's we could have been sure he definitely could have been but i i feel less likely less likely than in a uh... small dark room the scenario definitely would have been different right but let's get more into that broken lock so in two thousand sixteen

the barons filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and this lawsuit details that the stadium had known for months, that months, that the lock on the door of the access room to the garbage shoot had been broken, and that they chose not to address it, which feels like a really easy thing to fix. The insurance company for the Cleveland Guardians didn't inspect on the stadium prior to this country concert

in July, and addressed the lock on that door specifically in their report, stating that it needed to be fixed immediately. The lawsuit reads, quote, these conditions were permitted to continue to exist, even though the Cleveland Guardians have been specifically warned in a security briefing by the Jason Aldin tour that the Burnett Down concert to be held at Progressive Field on July 18, 2014 would involve a very active and inebriated crowd. All to predictably, a young man lost his life that night as a result.

The family sought damages to the tune of $125,000. That's $25,000 each for negligent security guards, wrongful death, general negligence, failure to secure and protect a patron, and survivorship against all defendants, meaning that a victim, survivors can posthumously protect their interests by seeking legal action on their behalf. On July 18th of this year, so 2023, marking nine years since Cory's death. Britta wrote, quote, "'Time moves so fast in so many ways, but so slow in others. Nine years without Cory. Nine years as a family of four when it should have been five.

Nine years of pain. There's not a day, heck, most of the time it seems like there's not an hour that goes by that I don't think of Corey or see something that makes me think of him. It's hard to picture what life would be like if he were still here. I imagine it would be much, much different

in a lot of ways. One thing is for certain, I know it would have been immeasurably more fun, it would be warmer, the world would be kinder, and without a doubt life would simply be more beautiful. I pray every day that we continue forward on a path finding and holding responsible, the person or persons who murdered my brother. The people who stopped him from getting to live, to pursue any dream he had,

the people that destroyed our family. We will not stop and better believe we will keep going. Here's to hope, here's to justice, here's to Corey Jean Barron. I miss you and I love you for eternity. If you have any information about the murder of Corey Barron, please call the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit at 216-623-5464 or Crime Stoppers at 216-252-7463. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Make sure that you share this story because the fact that it's been ruled a homicide and they pretty much have the names of whoever would have done this. They possibly have the exact names because that group of guys that they wanted to interview refused to be interviewed so they just need more tips and more information from concert goers who saw something or maybe even heard afterwards about what happened. The family is begging for answers, please make sure you share and thank you guys so much for listening to this one.

I mean, you gotta imagine, there's 35,000 people at this concert, there's probably a couple hundred in each section or maybe even more than that I don't know but somebody had to have seen something or possibly heard something and if you know anything about that girl the blonde girl with the Miranda Lambert t-shirt the homemade one please just call in call in the tip line let please know. Yes absolutely and you know like we had discussed in the episode if there was a bathroom nearby you would imagine that on the level where the trash shoot is,

that's probably an easily accessible area. There's people walking by constantly, probably people walking to the bar to get more drinks, people going to the bathroom, people trying to find their seats. So there's people passing by constantly. As we know, there were already witnesses who saw this altercation happening,

but there's just not quite enough to bring it to the next level. So make sure that you share it once again. Thank you so much and we'll see you in a few days. All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% Thank you.