Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Missing Florida Woman Found Murdered in Georgia Landfill

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

A 65-year-old Florida woman seemingly disappeared from her Fleming Island home mid-renovation. Following a massive search effort involving the FBI and local law enforcement, her remains were discovered nearly three months later in the Chesser Island Road Landfill in Folkston, Georgia. Investigators determined that a suspect killed Mauldin and disposed of her body in a waste transfer facility. Find out what happened to Susan Mauldin on this episode of "Prime Crime with Jesse Weber." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thursday morning when I started calling her. Her cell phone went straight to voicemail, and I looked in the garage windows. I thought, dang, her car's here. I told Dan my husband, I'm worried about Sue. I said, oh, nothing's happened with her. A widow, well-loved, very involved in this close-knit Florida community, she just suddenly disappears out of nowhere. This is something that just doesn't happen.

On October 24th, Susan Mulden was reported. missing from her Harbor Island home. They made it sound like you did it. Yeah, they're investigating me. You did not kill that woman, did you? No, not no. I'm going to start calling you murderer, Benderham. No, don't do that.

If I see on the phone, they probably listen. Susan Malden's close friend, Phyllis Yates, had gone to the home and noticed that her vehicle was still in the garage, that the TV was on, but that Susan was nowhere to be found. Phyllis's husband used Susan's key to open the door and come in. When he unlocked the door and opened it, the chain or the latch up top was still in place.

So he actually had to reach in and unlock the chain with his hand. And when he went inside, he saw that her bed was unmade, which was unlike Susan Mauna. She was very meticulous in how she kept things in her home. So they were concerned and worried, and that's when they called the sheriff's office. When we first arrived when we started assessing the scene,

And we observed a couple things that looked out of place, including the picture frame that was on the wall and a couple figurines and a table that were a jar in the living room as well as the water in the sink in the master bathroom. Now Susan was making some improvements to her home, so some mess was to be expected. But Phyllis knows her friend better than anybody.

She would not have left her house in this condition. We noticed she had a little home office set up in one of the rooms to the side of the bathroom that had been demoed. I noticed that Maldon's laptop was missing, her phone was missing. Law enforcement immediately began an investigation to try to locate Susan Maldon. Susan Maldon seems to have vanished out of nowhere. It is so strange. Investigators, they immediately speak with her friends and her neighbors to learn a little bit more about her.

Susan Malden was a 65-year-old British widow who was living in Fleming Island, Florida, at the time she went missing. While she didn't have any close relatives that were living nearby, she did have a very close-knit network of friends. Susan was very social. She was part of several different clubs. The main club that she was a part of was the British club. So she was a prominent figure in that club. Everybody loved her in there. She was a Jacksonville Jaguars fan. Friends described. to her as outgoing, bubbly, great personality. From a detective's perspective, the first thing you want to do in a missing person investigation

is rule out that they didn't just take a trip and decide not to tell anybody. So it was beneficial to learn from her friends that she was a creature of habit. She did talk to people on a regular basis, so it was completely unusual for her to just disappear and not talk to anybody or respond to calls. In fact, she had a doctor's appointment

that day that she was supposed to attend, that she missed as well. as well, so all of that was out of character. Investigators follow-up with Phyllis Yates. Again, this is Susan Malden's friend who originally reported her missing. Sue and I met generally every Wednesday

at her house, and every week she gave me an update on, I called him Jackrabbit, okay? What all has she told you about that contractor? Now, Dan and I both don't know this Corey guy from Adam. All we've heard is he's in his 40s and a strong guy.

Don't know the man. One of the key takeaways from Yates interview with the police was that she told them about the difficulties that Malden was having with her contractor, Corey Benderum. Susan entered into a contract agreement with Cory Benderum. So she hired him. He requested an upfront payment. She gave him about $12,000 a little more. So he took that money. He demoed her bathroom.

And when I say demo, he tore the sheetrock off down to the studs, removed the toilet and the sink and cabinets. And then he just left it there. And every time she tried to get him to come back to finish the job, he always had an excuse. Every time he's supposed to show up on Monday, he'd always text her with a new excuse. Susan was extremely meticulous and detail-oriented in her interactions with people. And she had a calendar that every time she talked to Corey, she would write down the date, the time, and what he said. For instance, his sister died, and he had to go to another state. and pick her body up and bring her body back himself.

He fell out of the back of his truck and hurt his shoulder and had to go to the hospital. There was always an excuse why he couldn't come back and do the job, and it was very frustrating for her. She said, you'll never believe what Corey did now, Phil. He may be really uncomfortable. One day, just a few weeks back, he shows up, and he goes in her house,

and he tells her how good she looks that day. And how old are you, Sue? And she said, I'm 65, and he says, and he said, man, you look good. Are you widowed? And she said, yes, I am. And he said, man, you're looking good. He said, I was wondering, could I get alone?

She said, alone, Corey, you got 12 grand of my money. I have no money to give you. You've done nothing for me. Now, this is her story to me. The description is concerning. One, we start to think that he was finding a way to try to take advantage of a woman that was older than him and perhaps by complimenting her. able to get her to provide additional money. It also may have indicated that he was kind of testing

whether she lived alone, whether it would be easy for him to potentially steal things. Did she say that he was upset or anything about that? No, oh, he just told her I'll go to the bank and get alone. So then she told me, feel I'm really uncomfortable with him now. I said, Sue, I told you, I think there's an issue here. The man's done nothing. She said, well, I'm going to get my money back. Yates informed law enforcement that Malden made a decision that she was going to confront Bindrum, demand her money back, and if you refused to give it to her, that she was going to get the police involved.

She was angry Wednesday at him. So I knew if he showed up and he didn't have a cashier's check, it probably wasn't going to go real well for him. Not real eyes and it maybe wouldn't go well for her. And at that point, who knows what took place. She was adamant. If something did happen to Susan, Corey definitely. had something to do with it.

I'm looking for my buddy, and I'm praying to God. I'm praying that she comes back alive, and if she's angry with me for getting somebody to go through all her stuff, I will hug her, cry with her, and then slap the snot out of her because I'm going to be angry. Yeah, absolutely. A good friend's doing exactly what you're doing. Yeah. And if she would ever get angry to that, then, you know, what?

I can live with it. And I can live with her not being my friend at that point after I get her back safe. Exactly. After speaking with Phyllis Yates, investigators immediately dig deeper into Susan's contractor. Corey Benderham was a local Clay County resident. Grew up there, went to high school there, had lots of friends. Corey's wife Cassidy and their two daughters, by all accounts, lived a normal everyday American life in small town, Clay County. She worked for CSX.

He worked as a self-employed contractor. The kids did well in school. They were in a fluent neighborhood, doing well for each other. Hey. Are you? Yes, sir. I just want to follow up with you with a couple of questions. Okay.

I mean, I'll answer your questions. Yeah, I mean, I know it's about. What's about Sue? What's about Sue? The detectives came to my house Saturday and asked me a bunch of questions about Sue because I was contacted with the last week. Apparently still missing. Yeah, she is still missing.

Yeah. We are concerned about her and that's what I want to talk to you about. What was the last time you saw her for the truth? It was Thursday morning. We got there about a... Was she expected? Yeah. This contract pulled on for a very long time.

I demoed the guestman. She took about a month and a half to figure out with the house. She wanted. She bought it. I really got it. Then it came time to talk about tub and fixtures and all of that. She just couldn't make a decision. He painted a picture that Susan was an extremely difficult client to work with,

that she was routinely changing her mind, a complete opposite picture of what Susan had been painting to Phyllis about what was going on. Fast forward, I was taking jobs again that she would get frustrated when I couldn't go right now. And so it just got to the point where it was just better for both of those. I just refunded her money. I went about my way, she could find someone else. That was the conversation. So we went through the paper world.

paperwork and I wrote a check and I had some stuff still there. I had a tool bag with some plumbing tools. I had a bed with some plumbing parts. So I loaded that in my truck. He loaded those up in the back of his truck and he left and that was the end. Last time he saw her and she was completely fine. She gave me 12-000. That was 1200. Yeah, yeah, it was only 1200. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I gave her back. Law enforcement knew from Phyllis Yates that the cost of the contract was $12,000. So they thought it was interesting that Benderham gave her a check for $1,200 and said that that was it. I'm straight up with you.

At the whole weekend we'll be looking for. Good finder. You're the last person in the time. I understand it. And if I don't check that box, somebody will be like, why the hell do you check that box? I mean, look, if there's anything, I don't buy it. You know, she's a very lovely lady.

Since Benderham was the last last. was the last person to see Susan alive, investigators keep a close eye on. And that is also when they go back to Susan's house and they come upon new evidence. Sergeant Calhoun noticed a small drop of what at the time appeared to be blood on the living room floors.

Our forensic analyst came in and they located more blood spatter on the lampshade next to where that blood drop was found. And then through the course of process in the home with Luminaw, we found signs of blood signs of blood cleanup in front of the kitchen sink on the floor in front of the kitchen cabinet where we had also found a small droplet of blood as well. Finding traces of blood indicates that this might not just be a missing person but something much more sinister.

When we found the blood in her home, I mean that left no doubt in my mind at that point that something horrible had happened inside that home to Susan and Corey was a number one person of interest. Investigators turned their attention to Benderham storage unit. He had taken the tools that he removed from Susan's home to its storage unit. At this point in our investigation, we're considering that Susan is deceased.

So we had a cadaver dog come out, and the cadaver dog went into Corey Benderum's storage unit and gave a positive alert for the presence of human decomposition on the bag that Corey had removed from Susan's home in close proximity to those tools. Investigators never found Susan's cell phone, so they get a store. search warrant for Benderham's cell phone data to see what information that can give them.

When we got the data back from the search warrant on his phone, it was consistent that there was actual communication going on between them. And once we got looking into that data on that particular day, the 24th, it was obvious to us that he had deleted data off his phone associated with that time frame. So detectives had the Corey Benderum's home to question, but they are also armed with a warrant to seize his truck. Hey, how are you? Oh, hey, sorry. What's going on?

I had a look at my man. This is, oh. This is my wife, Cassidy. Hey. Hey, nice to meet you. Hey. What's going on? You all about to have dinner or something?

No, my daughter just came on. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Can we talk for a second? You already with him? Sure. Yeah. Just him?

Yeah. Is that okay? I know, I know why I worry. He talked to me outside in front of his home, explained to him. We were taking his truck. Why we were taking his truck? You're on a long pier right now and you're coming to a short end.

So I'd like to talk to you about that before we get to the end of the pier if you'd like to do that. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm not saying you did, but... Well, you're saying checking boxes, but I don't necessarily believe that. I think you guys have pegged me and think you've got tunnel vision. You've talked to me twice. You've looked at my storage unit. Now, you're more than welcome to take my truck regardless of whether you have a warrant or not.

I don't have anything to hide. I know you're in construction, you've got all sorts of nicks and scratches all over you. I noticed the other day when I talked to you, you had one on the inside of your arm that looked pretty fresh right here above your tattoo. What's that from? I do demo work. It's from all kinds of stuff. I noticed that he had a pretty significant scratch on his arm right above his hand and knowing in these type of potential violent confrontations that, you know, a victim can, in the process of trying to defend themselves, scratch, their offender. You know, I'd asked if we could document it digitally, and he agreed. Pardon me? That's my wife. Hey, they're still here. I'm going over this search warrant.

Hey, honey? Yeah. They are looking at me like I'm the reason why Sue is missing. They've got me pegged for something having to do with Sue. This is a warrant to take the truck. I'm not going in, they're not taking me into custody. No, not at all. I don't know why they're. They came with half of the detective force, but they're just taking my truck to process. I decided at that time they put a little pressure on him and just explained to him that we had found multiple inconsistencies in his story and this was starting to narrow down the investigation really in his neck of the woods and on him and that if there was anything he had to tell us to give us a better opportunity to find Susan, now would be the time.

Can you tell me what happened to her? I don't know. I don't have any clue. Clearly, I have a picture of something, right? I don't know where she is. I had nothing to do with her. I know you don't know where she is now. But you know what happened to her? No, I don't. No, I don't.

I shook her hand on the front porch and that was that. But there's still questions. Every time I'm pulling cameras, every time I'm going to places and businesses that you may have visited, none of it is telling me Corey doesn't know. All of it's telling me, Corey knows. Telling you what you wanted to say.

He knows something. You could paint a picture. When I left Sue, she was standing upright in her doorway. We shook hands. That was it. He denied and maintained his same composure that he had nothing to do with it. But as we dug in to find more about him, we learned that he actually, as a young adult, 17 years old, had actually participated in a robbery and a shooting in the Clay County area.

And your tunnel vision, you're focused on me instead of finding her. I certainly hope so. It was 27 years ago. I certainly... I certainly... Corey Binderam did have a prior criminal record. He had set up a bunch of off-duty soldiers to sell them firearms. When the soldiers went out in the woods to look for the guns,

Bindram and a juvenile co-defendant ended up actually shooting at them. Binderum was convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm. It was sentenced to three to seven years in prison, as well as 10 years probation. I know you're trying to convince me that I'm just locked on to you because you did some stupid when you were 17 years old. Before I even knew you did stupid shit 17 years old, I already had several things that were like smacking me in the face. I'm telling you, I'm not here because you did something stupid at 17.

I'm here because of what happened between you two. That's why I'm here. You know you lied to me, right? About what? About what? You said all you owed her was $1,294. and 54 cents and that's the carbon check you showed me dated for 1024 that's the check that I wrote her to reimburse you owed her $12,000 and I have all the checks that she wrote out to you

there's three of them along with her meticulous detailed list of the money that she gave right why would you lie about that because $1,200 is a big difference in $12,000 no $200 so you're still adamant even though I'm telling you I've got the checks that she gave you $12,000 you're saying that she was okay with that Thursday when y'all talks yeah She was like, all right, I'm good. I'll let you do the work. Even though there's tons of it were saying she had enough, she was done, you were either going to give for her cash or cashiers check,

or she was going to sue you and report you. I'm going to have a great weekend now. All right. I'm sorry to mess it up for you. Take care, buddy. Corey Benderum is not happy to be the number one suspect in this investigation. And strangely enough, after detectives sees his truck, he falls off their radar.

The fact that Corey Bindrum disappears after his vehicle is seized is an indication that potentially Cory Bendram has something to hide. Cassidy contacted me and said that Corey had left town and she had no idea where he was at. He wasn't answering her phone calls. And our investigation led us to a report that Corey was a suspect in a theft in Jacksonville. The client provided information that Corey had went in to his home, stole a check for forged the check for $5,000, forced the client signature, cash the check, and then fled Florida. Clay County Sheriff's Office detectives have identified a person of interest in the investigation into a Fleming Island woman's disappearance.

On October 24, Susan Mulden was reported missing from her Harbor Island home through the investigation she was determined to be missing and endangered. Mr. Benderham has cooperated during the course of its investigation, but until recently, he's left the area all of a sudden with no explanation. his whereabouts are unknown at this time. Anyone with information which may lead to the whereabouts of Susan Maldon and Corey Benderum are urged to contact Detective Friar with the Clay County Sheriff's Office homicide unit. Corey Benderum disappears. He's got a stolen check with him and law enforcement is unable to locate him for several weeks. The problem for anybody who tries to go off the grid is we live in a digital world.

No matter what you try to do, you are tracked in all different kinds of ways. And nowadays, almost everyone and everything has a surveillance camera. So Corey Binderum doesn't go undetected for long. We got camera footage that he was in the car and cast a check and left. And then we made contact with our federal partners in the U.S. Marshal Service, who were able to start tracking his phone so he was getting what we commonly call burner phones. He would call Cassidy or his daughter from those numbers. They would provide us those numbers.

We'd give him to the U.S. Marshals, they would track him. He was somewhere out in Colorado. He ultimately made contact through Cassidy with an attorney, and the attorney convinced him to turn himself in on the local fraud charges. He was arrested and arraigned in the Duval County Jail for those fraud charges. So Corey Benderm is now back in town,

but investigators aren't any closer to finding Susan Malden dead or alive, so they need to expand their focus. Lee Locklear was working with Corey at the time that Susan went missing. So she was an important person for us to track down and talk to. Thursday, we were texting the 24th. Yeah, he said just a heads up, I'm still home.

So he was supposed to pick me up, and then he was back and forth and back and forth. Can I see? Yeah, one minute he's like him all my way. The next minute he's not on his way, next one he is, and at this point I was just pissed on. So this is 9.41 a.m. Yeah.

So he said, I have to run by my storage unit and the Home Depot to pick up the floor and I'll let you know when I leave. Something came up. That went all morning. Like, he was super spastic. He always like that? Yeah, but he's been dabbling in some things that have made him even more spastic lately.

Like what's he? He's been doing a lot of cocaine. We uncovered via Cassidy that he had a substance abuse problem using cocaine. He had sought treatment and was back on the straight and arrow, but she made it crystal clear to him that if he fell back into that path again, that she would absolutely leave him and not give him another chance and take the girls with him. Powder or... Yeah.

So I've kind of chopped. it up to he's done too much blow. She helped confirm a picture of Corey's substance abuse had reared its ugly head again that he was using on a regular basis. He was acting strange and off. But there is one particular thing Lee says that piques the interest of investigators. You told me that if he were to have killed somebody who was going to do something with the body, that he would dump it in a specific place. Remember saying that?

Mm-hmm. And what was that? The dump. Tell me the whole story again. So we went to dump and we were unloading stuff. And I had just joked, I was joking about it and I said, oh, it's a perfect place to dump a body. And he goes, yeah, it's a perfect place to dump a body.

And then we kind of joked and laughed. You know, it wasn't serious. Mm-hmm. Do you remember where y'all went in the dump? Mm-hmm. We always go to the same spot. It's this big bill, like you pull in. When you get through the scales,

you can tell every contractor goes there. because it's sheetrock, it's carpet, it's paint buckets. So it's like construction debris? That's it, yeah. And we always go to the same exact spot. During this interview with police, Lee Locklear confirms that the landfill that she and Corey Binderum joked about bearing a body at

was the Rosemary Hill Transfer Station. This is a landfill that Corey Binderum often visited. Do you think he really killed her? Do I think what? That he really killed her. Oh, I don't know. And that's what the investigation is for. out what happened through and where she's that.

I'm hoping that's not the case. That's freaking creepy. Oh, geez and rice. Lee Locklear has provided detectives with their biggest lead yet. So what they do is they set up a controlled phone call between Lee and Binderum in the hopes that he will divulge more details. Hello.

Hey. What you doing? I'm going to shoot you. Why do you shoot me? Because I just got a phone. call from Clay County and they're sending people to my house that won't you talk to me. So I don't know what I'm supposed to say. They made it sound like you did it.

Yeah, they're investigating me. You did not kill that woman, did you? No, not no. I'm gonna start calling you murderer, Benderum. No, don't do that. So I see on the phone, they probably listen. I highly doubt that. They were asking about all the job side I've been on you.

They were asked me what materials were used and things like that. My hands, you know, uh. And they kept asking me over and over about concrete. Concrete? Yeah. We didn't use any concrete. That's what I'm worried about. Because after they said that, then they kept on with the concrete portion,

and I don't know where this concrete thing's coming from. I was doing. Law enforcement obtained video from Home Depot on the day that Susan Malden disappears. In those videos, Binder Room is seen buying contractor bags as well as quick-dried concrete. What did you use concrete for? I was going to use... Yeah? ...point.

Do you still have the concrete? I was about to say, just take it back to the store and get a refunded and then you have a receipt. Yeah, ma'am, but I bet that's why they're asking. When she asked him what happened to the concrete that he purchased that morning, he said the bed of his truck leaks sometimes and gets wet, so he dumped the concrete. concrete bags and got rid of them. Investigators need to find out what Corey Binderum did with that concrete. So using data from cell phone towers and Binderum's own Life 360 app,

they are able to track his movements on the day that Susan disappeared. The Life 360 data is a result of Corey's prior substance abuse. It was a agreement between him and his wife that he would have that app installed on his phone so that she could keep track of his movements. So that's another piece to the puzzle that he had. the Life 360 going the whole time that morning when he went to Home Depot, that morning when he went to Susan's house, when he was backed up to her garage, we were able to track with that data. It appears that on the day of Susan Malden's disappearance, he turned it off from around

8.45 in the morning for about an hour. And the fact that he turned off the app, thereby disappearing digitally, was concerning to law enforcement. So it was odd when we determined the Life 360 was turned off when he went to Rosemary Hill landfill and then was turned back on when he came back home after the landfill. When he went into Rosemary landfill, he had to check in and then they'd take his weight, his truck, total weight with him and everything in it. He went in at about 300 pounds, and when he left, he came out 300 pounds lighter. But remember, in that phone call between Lee and Binderum, he said he had only 120 pounds of concrete that he needed to dump. So what's the discrepancy? We knew exactly what Susan's weight was around that time because she had a recent Doc's appointment.

Concrete bags and her weight equaled right up to that 300 pounds. So it was telling us that he felt like he needed to offset that scale if he was going to take her body out there and dispose of her. Now the big question for investigators is, if we assume that the trash that Corey dumped contains both the concrete and Susan's remains, where exactly is it now? We're able to narrow down and identify where her remains potentially went to a facility in Folkton, Georgia, Chesser Island, and coordinated efforts with FBI to conduct a search for Susan's remains at the Chester Island landfill. The area that we were searching, they described it as the size of a baseball done, but honestly it felt a lot bigger than that to me. It's so high that when we got out there, you can't even see the top from the bottom. Law enforcement ended up going through approximately 7,600 tons of garbage in an effort to find Susan Malden's body. It was our information that we received at the time that no agency had had a successful, full recovery of human remains at a landfill.

So it was unclear to them whether they would ever find Susan Malden's body. Nine days in and we hadn't found anything, you're starting to get a little downtrodden and think that you're not going to find anything, especially when you only have one day left. They knew they were looking for Susan Mulden, but they had no idea what state her body was in at the time. So they had to examine every single thing they found, no matter how big or small. I was down at the bottom doing my search, and I got a call to respond to the top deck, and that it was pretty important. I could hear it in their voice. I ran up to the top deck, ran over there to where the investigators were shifting through, and all activity had stopped. And I went over to the lead individual up there, and he said, we've found some.

ultimately we discovered a piece of her lower jawbone. I knew it was Susan. Like there was no doubt in my mind. One of our detectives went to Susan's local dentist, got dental records. We had the jawbone transported to the ME's office, and then they were able to confirm that was in fact Susan Malden's lower jawbone

and part of her remains. We started sifting through the remaining debris in that particular line, and that's when we came across the contractor bag and the rest of her remains inside that contractor bag. Plainly visible in plain sight on the bags was the same logo that matched the ones that Corey purchased that morning before going to Susan's home.

Along with the remains of Susan Maldon, police located two fingernails. They did a DNA test in order to attempt to determine whose DNA, if anyone, would be found on those fingernails. The DNA in Fingernail A was traced. back to Susan Maldon. The DNA on Fingernail B was traced back to Susan Maldon as well as a male. Before they can charge Corey Binderum,

law enforcement needs one more piece of the puzzle, the cause and matter of death. The forensic pathologist did an autopsy and determined that Susan Maldon's death was in fact a homicide, that she died from blunt force trauma and strangulation. The forensic pathologist made a significant discovery that pointed to Susan Malden's hyoid bone being fractured at or near death,

not after death as a result of compaction in the landfill, which was consistent in homicide investigations with an individual being strangled. Now investigators have a firm timeline and theory of what happened to Susan on that fateful day, and it is chilling. On October 24th, 2019, Corey Benderham, on his way to Susan Mauden's home that morning, he stopped and purchased concrete bags at the Home Depot, got contractor bags to help facilitate that crime, went to her home that morning, knocked on the door. We believe she let him in, where he immediately confronted her. She fled from him during that encounter. He pursued

her. He struck her, which knocked her to the ground. She could continued to try to get away into the kitchen where ultimately he strangled her until she died. He cleaned the scene up the best he could, went out the garage door, loaded her body up with his tool bag, took her body to the dump and disposed to her in the landfill. On January 31st, 2020, investigators move into arrest Corey Binderum for the murder of Susan Malden. Corey was actually already incarcerated at the Duval County jail for fraud. So we went straight to meet him in the interview room and serve him, notice that he was being arrested for Susan Malden's murder.

Cut right to the chase. When we talked about before, you indicated that I had tunnel vision. I didn't have tunnel vision. We know what she did. We located Susan. We're bringing her home. And you're going to be charged with murder and temperate evidence to begin with. I know that's a lot to hit you at one second, but obviously you've known this whole time.

You just kind of made on it, I'm sure. Not at all. I'm sure you're familiar with this process how it goes from here. Yeah, I'm going to tell you I'm not going to say anything. Get upset again. Hey, hey, we won. We got her body. You're being charged. I didn't have anything to do with it. There was multiple avenues of this investigation that we took to try to determine

if there was any other potential scenarios where someone else had something to do. And all of our investigation led back to Corey Bendham. What my mind goes to is I want to know why. That's what keeps me up at night. I just want to know why. Because at this point, we're past if you did it. That's a lock. What is important now is why.

And that's what I want to know. Obviously, that'd be up to you. But that's, at some point, I'd love to be able to have that conversation with you. Okay? You got any questions for me? No. Good luck. Almost five years after Susan Malden was first reported missing, that is when Corey Benderham finally goes on trial for her murder.

Mr. Venderman is charged with three counts, murder of the first degree, burglary with an assault or battery, and tampering with evidence. The defendant has entered a plea of not guilty, that means you must presume or believe the defendant is innocent. Now, the stakes couldn't be higher in Florida, because if convicted of Susan's murder, Corey Binderum faces the death penalty. So on October 24, 2019, Susan Walden gave Corey Bindrom the ultimatum

the ultimatum, my money back, where there will be consequences. And on October 24th, 2019, Susan Walden vanished because those were the words. that we're going to cause this defendant's life to crumble around him. The prosecution argued that there was one person who had a motive to want Susan Maldon dead, and that was Corey Bendram. He went to her house and killed her. And then he tossed her out like the garbage she thought that she was at the end of everything. Those actions by this defendant will be clear to you.

And the other thing that will be clear is that he is guilty as charged on all three counts. I think the prosecution had an incredibly strong circumstantial case against Corey Bindrom. But anytime you have a circumstantial evidence case, it means that you don't have eyewitnesses. When you don't have eyewitnesses, sometimes a jury will say, well, it's not enough for me. The state's case is a circumstantial evidence case. And small, which remains were found. When they were found, there were two things. They were now A as the DNA just as long.

Figure now a mixture of three people. You have Ms. Small one. The other two people is an unknown female and unknown male. That unknown male in that DNA mixture, The DNA, not being binurams is huge for the defense. It opens that door of reasonable doubt that every criminal defendant is counting on. The court of menor not guilty draw counts because there is reasonable doubt in this case. The prosecution has the burden of proof here, so they need to take big swings to solidify their case.

And that is when they call Cassidy Bindrom to the stand. She is arguably the best person to speak to Bindrom's character and behavior around the time of this alleged murder. Do you know a man named Corey Bindrom? I do. That's my ex-husband. And at some point during your marriage, did you find out that the defendant was having an issue with drugs? I did. He had told me that he was using cocaine.

had been going through a lot of money. Did he then go to rehab and try to get himself clean? He did. That was a mandate that I gave him. Was he also aware that if you ever found out about drug use again, that you would be gone? Yes. Did you and the defendant go through the ring camera video from the October 24th date? We did. And when you observed the ring camera from him coming home around 8.44 a.m., what did you see on that camera? One thing that I noticed was when he arrived home, he backed his truck into our garage and shut the garage door. That was something unusual because I'd never seen him do that before. The other significant thing was when he arrived home and when he left, he was in different clothes.

Cassidy said that when she looked at the footage, she noticed that he had different clothes on, which we confirmed with the Home Depot footage that we saw were when he came in the morning before he went, before he went to Susan's house. He had on different clothes. The prosecution then calls up Thomas Smith, an inmate that shared a cell block with Binderham. And as you can imagine, he has some information that is relevant to this case.

He went to go get some money from, go to collect money. And she said he wasn't done with a job yet. And he wasn't getting paid to, he had an argument and got out of control, I guess. Was there any of mine? She started getting loud and he was trying to shut her up. So he hit her and then he started screaming and choked her.

And there's also police interview footage with Thomas Smith where he goes into even more detail about what Bindrom allegedly told him. You mentioned something about strangling. He said he yoked her out and that means that strangled, you know, nothing that. He said it felt weird because she said you felt something bright. It was incredible because we hadn't released that information to anybody else throughout the course of the investigation. But on cross, the defense goes after Thomas Smith's credibility. He said that you had eight felony convictions, is that right?

Yes. We had one crime of dishonesty. Is that right? Yes, sir. You're hoping that testifying for the state will help you out on your other two-thony cases. Not. No, not. No, not.

Jurors usually look at jailhouse informants quite suspect, because these are individuals that have an absolute motive to lie, because usually they're getting a deal in exchange for that testimony. The defense keeps pushing back. The next witness, Nicholas Kutu, the crime lab technician who conducted the DNA analysis on Susan Mulden's remains, he is directly in the defense's crosshairs. On January 20th of 2021, you release your report that excludes Mr. Binderum from the DNA found on Nail B. Correct.

Corey Binderum was excluded as a contributor to the mixed DNA profile obtained from this item. Not only excluded from the mixture of Nail B, but none of his DNA was found on NALA, right? Correct. The DNA types that were developed were only consistent with Susan Maldon from that item. And you were sent no additional flaws. Correct. Only one individual was listed as a subject at the time, Corey Bindrom. The defense was able to argue that that mixture of DNA found in Fingernel B, exonerated Corey Bindrom. If the prosecution claims that Susan Malden fought back against her attacker,

then one would assume that Corey Bindrom's DNA would be found in her fingernail. However, we find foreign DNA. We find someone else entirely, and we have no idea who that person is. That, according to the defense, that was reasonable doubt. After four days of testimony, the trial heads into closing arguments. Nothing that we do today will ever bring Susan Malden back, but it will forever define what happened to her on October 24th of 2019. There was only one person whose life was going to blow up if Susan Malden missed the police. There's only one person who's guilty in his case, and it's Corey Benderham, and the state.

and say he asked that he can find him guilty as charged on all three kids. Corey Venderman did not kill Susan Moulton. The proof of that is the foreign DNA under Susan Maltin's fingernail. The nail and both nails had no DNA from Cory Vindner. Because he did not attack her, he did not kill it. What really happened to you is that law enforcement started with a picture of court in your own, and they made their investigation fit. You'll find those reasonable doubts raised by accomplice of evidence, lack of evidence on the evidence itself.

We ask that you find this defendant not guilty on all charges. This trial had really strong arguments on both sides, but the truth is, is you never know what's going to stick with the jury. And after just four hours of deliberations, they came back with their verdict. State of Florida, this is a court of these indivin. Be the jury crime of defending a guilty of first of murder as charged in indictment.

Me the jury behind the felony guilty at Berkeley as charged in the indictment. Be the jury kind of the defendant of guilty of tampering with evidence as charged in in an indictment. So to say we all. Following his conviction for first three murder, Corey Ben had a second phase of his trial where the jury was going to determine whether or not the death penalty was warranted in this case. In a truly full circle moment, the prosecution calls Phyllis Yates.

Remember, she's the person who basically started this whole investigation, and she delivers a victim impact statement on behalf of Susan. I'm thankful now justice is being served. We will now cling to the memories that we built with Susan Mulden, December 2006 through my last standing lunch date with my best friend on October 23rd, 2019. I'm looking forward to seeing my special friend in heaven. Sue was such a blessing to Dan and I and such a joy to have in our life. To know Sue was to love Sue. Now before the jury votes on a sentence,

victim advocate Leah Wilson reads a letter from me. Corey Binderum's daughters. Dear members of the jury and honorable court, our names are Bailey and Megan Benderum. We are Corey Bindrom's daughters. We cannot imagine dad hurting anyone. He has been a protective and loving father to us throughout our lives. We love our father very much and ask you to show mercy when considering his sentence.

The jury then goes to deliberate whether Corey Binderum is sentenced to life without parole, or death. Ladies and gentlemen, I understand the jury has reached its verdict as to the sentence recommendation. We the jury, present the defendant, 40, Louis Vetterman, should be sentenced as follows. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Five. Death, seven. The jury came back with seven in favor of death, five in favor of life.

In Florida, they're required to have at least eight votes. for death. And because they didn't, he was sentenced to life without parole. I absolutely think that we achieved justice for Susan Malden, and we held Corey Benderham accountable for what he did. And my biggest takeaway from the Susan Malden investigation is you never know who you're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. And it's always important to try to vet individuals that you're allowing into your home.