True Crime Campfire - Satisfaction: The Murder of Cory Voss

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

The Rolling Stones released “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” in 1965, when I’m pretty sure Mick Jagger could get all the satisfaction he wanted, but that’s neither here nor there. The song has been striking a chord with countless listeners for going on 60 years since because people recognize what it’s about either in themselves or others, that relentless unquenchable appetite for SOMETHING, whether it be money, attention, whatever. It’s a part of human nature that can get someone into a whole lot of trouble. Join us for the story of a woman who couldn't get enough, and the good man who had to suffer for her greed. Sources:CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cory-voss-killing-how-ncis-investigators-unraveled-a-navy-officers-atm-homicide/ https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1622926.htmlStripes.com: https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2021-11-29/army-veteran-hitman-naval-officer-death-row-new-sentencing-3796190.htmlhttps://militaryjusticeforall.com/tag/cory-voss/Oxygen's "Snapped," episode “Catherina Voss”Investigation Discovery's "Wicked Attraction," episode “Sex, Lies and Bloody Goodbyes” Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireFacebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. The Rolling Stones released I Can't Get No Satisfaction in 1965, when I'm pretty sure Mick Jagger could get all the satisfaction. he wanted, but that's neither here nor there. The song has been striking a chord with countless listeners for going on 60 years since because people recognize what it's about, either in themselves or others, that relentless unquenchable appetite for something, whether it be money, attention,

whatever. It's a part of human nature that can get someone into a whole lot of trouble. This is Satisfaction, the murder of Corey Voss. So, campers, for this one, we're in Newport News, Virginia, April 30th, 2007. Corey and Kat Voss were just finishing up a romantic dinner to celebrate Corey getting back from deployment. Newport News is right across the bay from the Norfolk Navy base, and like a lot of people who lived there, Corey served in the U.S. Navy. He'd taken to Navy life like a fish to water, but even so, it was always a relief to come home to his wife and their two little kids. They were having a nice evening. And then around 11 p.m.,

just as they were heading to bed, Kat suddenly remembered that the kids didn't have any money for lunch at school the next day. Would Corey take her car to the ATM and get out some cash? This was no big deal for Corey. The ATM was just a couple miles away, so he said, sure, and took the card. The cat was one of life's big talkers, and she liked to keep in touch. Even on this short little drive, she called Corey and told him to be safe. And that, as it turned out, would be the last time she ever spoke to him. Corey didn't come home. He wasn't answering his phone.

This wasn't like him at all. Corey was a meticulous, steady guy, just like you'd expect a young Naval Inson to be. Before long, Kat was on the phone to Corey's ship to see if anybody'd heard from him. Nobody had. So she started calling hospitals. And finally, the police, to see if there'd been any bad traffic accident. that night. But no, there'd been no accidents at all. Exhausted from stress, Kat finally managed to grab a few hours' sleep. When she woke up, there was still no sign of Corey, and she called the

police again. They still had nothing, so Kat reported him missing. He wasn't going to stay missing for long, though. Just a couple hours after Kat reported her husband missing, a woman was on her way to her job at a doctor's office across the street from Kat and Corey's bank. The lady noticed a strange thing, a gray Ford Ranger pickup truck with its tailgate down and a missing hubcap on one of the front tires. Something just felt sort of off about it to her, so on the way into her office, she took a peek inside. And to her shock, there was a man in the truck, slumped over the steering wheel, not moving. He didn't even seem to be breathing. The woman called 911.

When the police got there, they quickly realized the truck matched the description from the missing persons report Kat Voss had filed just a couple hours earlier. and sure enough, inside they found Corey Voss. He was dead, shot five times, most likely by someone in the passenger seat of the truck. And sadly, it hadn't been an easy death. One of the bullets had paralyzed Corey from the waist down, leaving him trapped in his truck as he slowly bled to death. Ugh.

Yeah, it's awful. Investigators went over to talk to Kat and break the sad news. Kat's mom had already come over for support and one of the officers showed her a picture of Corey's body from the truck, hoping to get an ID, and I guess thinking Kat's mom was less likely to freak out, but Mom didn't play along. She shrieked when she recognized Corey, and a moment later, when she figured out what was going on,

Kat did too, sobbing and screaming, so distraught that the officers thought they might have to send her to the hospital. So here we have an up-and-coming naval officer, shot to death in his own truck, leaving his wife without a husband and his two young children without a father. How'd we get here? Well, Corey Voss was born in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn, Illinois in 1977, and by his mom's account, he was a little bit of a handful.

She worried about the kids he was hanging out with. Specifically, she was worried he'd get sucked into a gang. And she couldn't have been happy when at 18 years old, Corey dropped out of high school. Come on, Corey, man, you're 18. You're like five minutes from graduation. Hang in there, man. But Corey was a bright kid, and it didn't take him long to realize that he knew. needed to find some direction in his life. He took the armed services recruitment test and

kind of aced it. He decided to get his GED, join the Navy, and see how far he could go. It might seem weird for a Midwestern kid who grew up 600 miles from the ocean, but Corey in the Navy went together like mac and cheese. Some people are lucky enough to find not just a career, but a calling. That was the sailor's life for Corey. His superiors recognized his potential from day one. They helped him get a four-year degree and encouraged him to pursue officer training. By the time of his death, Corey was an ensign, a navigation specialist serving on the USS Elrod and working on a five-year training program to run his own ship. His executive officer said Corey was one of the top three officers he'd ever supervised. Damn. In other words, Corey was

going places, liked and respected both by his superiors and the people who served under him, and before long, he was going to be captaining his very own ship. Of course, by that point, he'd acquired a family. He and Kat met in 1999 in a bar in Newport News, and Corey was pretty much a smitten kitten from the second he laid eyes on her. Cat, Catarina, was blonde, curvy, and fun, full of life and laughs, and she spoke with a sexy Ukrainian accent that Corey could not get enough of. Yeah, I get that. I mean, 20 years of marriage, and I could still listen to my husband read the dictionary in that Scottish-English hybrid accent is woof, woof. Katerina told Corey she'd been born and raised in Ukraine by a Ukrainian father and an American

mother, only coming over to the States in seventh grade. Sparks flew between her and Corey, and they were dating in no time. He took Kat to meet his mom, and they hit it off too. Corey's mom liked her, and she liked Kat and Corey together, thought they were well-matched, and Kat's Ukrainian accent made her seem exotic, too. We don't know what Corey thought of Kat bringing out the accent in front of his mom, but by then they'd been together a little while, and he knew a little secret. Katerina was actually Kathleen Wiggins, born and bred in Newport News, Virginia. The Ukrainian accent was fake.

Just a bit she did in bars to make herself seem more interesting to the guy she flirted with. And, you know, that's fine, I guess. If you want to have a little fun when you're out on the prow, go for it. I mean, you know. Okay. But turning it on for your potential in-laws is just weird. Like, and for once, I'm not going to be judgmental. I mean, okay, a little, but I could be worse, okay?

I could be worse. I'm judging this one. That's freaking weird. Putting on a fake accent is weird. I went to college with somebody that did this, so I've seen it in action. And it never works. First of all, your accent is not ever nearly as good as you. you think it is and um second like yeah everyone's going to think you're charming when you're hammered

but in the in the cold light of day with your potential former future in-laws like come on well you have to keep it up for the rest of your life if you meet somebody you like you either have to admit that you're a freaking lion weirdo or you got to keep it up for the rest of your life it's just a lose lose well I was just thinking because like I was like you you would have to answer the phone in the accent like even like I mean that's what I'm saying you you're you're saying you You have to either admit you're a lying weirdo or keep it up for the rest of your life. Until you die. And then inevitably people will find out through your obituary.

Three months after they met, Kat found out she was pregnant. Corey proposed right away and Kat said yes. And while the phrase, a shotgun wedding might be rattling around in your head, according to Corey's mom, he was happy as a clam about the whole thing. He was head over heels in love with Kat and couldn't wait to be a dad. But there was one fly in the Chardonnay of Corey and Cass engagement. And we're not talking about a little Nat here. We're talking a huge, freakish, non-sexy Jeff Goldblum-sized fly.

Yeah, he was not sexy. The only iteration of Jeff Goldblum that isn't sexy. No. Because you see, Miss Kat was already married. Great. I don't think the military loves bigamy because, like, all right, she'd been kind of a wild child in high school, apparently. And I mean, literally in high school. Like, she and her boyfriend, Steve, couldn't keep it in their pants long enough to leave the building. And it's probably not going to shock you to hear that teenagers having quickies in the school bathroom probably aren't thinking too much about birth control. God, I'm having flashbacks to when I taught high school forever ago. And there was this one couple. at this one school that were just notorious. I mean, he would just be all up on her

against the wall between classes with his hand-up her shirt. I mean, I actually went over and I'm like, you know we can see you, right? Like, it's just, they didn't care. He'd break up a hose. Oh, God, yeah, exactly. So, when she was 17,

Kat got pregs, and she and Steve ran off and got married. Their daughter would wind up being raised by Kat's mom, and Kat and Steve's marriage would be Rocky. No, get out, right? They mainly fought about money. Cat liked to spend it, and there was never enough. Spending money was one of the great loves of Kat's life.

When she was a young teenager, one of her great aunts died and left her an inheritance of about $25,000, which Kat was supposed to get when she turned 16. Kat fucking counted the minutes, okay? And then on her 16th birthday, like the second she turned 16, she told her Aunt Carol that she was going over her dad's house, and if her dad didn't have her money by the end of her birthday, she turned 16. She told her Aunt Carol that she was going over her dad's house, and if her dad didn't have her money by the end of business that day, she was going to call the cops on him. Like, I don't care where you've got it invested. I want it now, or I'm calling 5-0. On her dad. It's like, damn, girl. So Kat got her money, and she went six kinds of wild. As Auntie Carroll put it, she hit that department store like a rat in a cheese factory.

Just spend, spend, spend. She could not get enough of buying shit. just for herself. Like she bought stuff for Carol and her kids. It wasn't so much that Cat was inquisitive. Like she didn't want to hoard a load of stuff or anything. It was throwing around the money that made her happy. Got her hired in a cloud. And three weeks later, every cent of that $25,000 was gone. Three weeks. You know, when I heard that she spent that money that fast, I was like, okay, maybe she bought a car. No, uh, no. No, she was spending money. Homegirl was spending money. Like it was her full-time job. Yeah, it was just a little piddly shit.

Yeah. As an adult, Katz still like to splash around the cash. When she'd go out with friends, she'd buy all the rounds, drop the barman a $50 tip, just glorying and acting like a big shot. We all know these people, right? Got to be the big man at the table. And sometimes, they'll end up being the brokeest one of the group because they're always doing that shit, right?

Kat's friend Ashley later told investigation discovery that being out with Kat was like being out with a celebrity. Except she wasn't a celebrity, of course. She didn't even have a job. And these shenanigans were stretching Steve's military pay to the breaking point. So things were already pretty rough when in 1999 Steve came home from a long deployment and Kat told him she was six months pregnant.

Now the math here wasn't hard. This obviously wasn't Steve's kid. The father was Corey Voss. Nevertheless, Steve tried to talk Katten to staying with him, but she was having none of it. She was done with him. Steve and Kat were soon divorced, and in 2000, right after their daughter Casey was born, Kat and Corey tied the knot.

A year later, they had a son, Corey Jr. I'm not sure whether Kat's first child ever spent time with him. It wasn't real clear from the sources, but as far as I know, that kid just kept living with Kat's mother, which, dang, like I can imagine that being pretty hard for a kid to swallow. Mom's got a new guy and two new kids, you know, and here I am with grandma. But from the outside in, anyway, for the next seven years, Kat and Corey seemed to have your basic, average, happy, suburban family, TM. Corey's successful Navy career meant they were pretty comfortable.

Had a nice house, and when investigators looked into Corey's life, they couldn't find anybody who might wish him harm. Everybody who knew him seemed to like him a lot. They asked Kat about their marriage, you know, whether they had any problems. She made it all sound pretty rosy. The investigators did start to get an idea of what happened to Corey, though, even if they didn't know why. They got hold of the surveillance footage from the Langley Federal Credit Union.

the bank cat had sent Corey to withdraw the money from. As it always seems to be with surveillance footage, the video was, of course, super grainy, but it showed Corey trying several times to take money out of the ATM, and then, this is incredibly creepy I've seen it, a figure in a black hoodie yanks open the passenger door and rushes into the truck and appears to point a weapon at Corey. Corey, of course, looks shocked and terrified, and a moment later, he drives off. And then like two or three minutes after that, he was back at the same ATM again, still with this like figure in the hoodie right next to him.

And again, he tried to take out money. And then he drove off again. So at first glance, this looked like an opportunistic robbery attempt. Some low life lurking around an ATM late at night, waiting for his chance to jump into a vehicle and force some poor soul to empty out his bank account. When Corey couldn't get any money out of the account, I guess that made the robber angry. angry enough to shoot Corey five times and leave him to bleed to death in his own truck? That was weird. A robber bringing homicide heat down on himself for absolutely zero gain.

But, you know, people making a career out of ATM stickups probably don't have a track record of stellar life choices. There was nothing in the footage that let investigators identify Corey's likely killer. They even sent the footage to NASA to see if they could clean it up, but no joy. It didn't take long for a lead to open up, though. Less than 24 hours after Corey was killed, Newport News police received an anonymous call from a young woman who told them they needed to take a closer look at Kat. Kat Voss had a whole string of affairs while Corey was away on deployment, the caller said.

And one in particular had been getting pretty serious. For the detectives, this was a potential goldmine. They pressed the caller for more information and asked her if she'd be willing to come in and talk to them. And after a few minutes, she agreed and told them who she was. Ashley Doyle, one of Kat's best friends. Oh, it's the best friend again, just like in the Linda Jones case a few weeks ago. You got to watch those besties, people.

They'll rat you right out. Yeah, I will. I know you're listening. I know you will. I don't doubt it. From Ashley, investigators learned that as far as Kat was concerned, she was only married when Corey was home. Like, you know, that old joke about Jody's taking care of your car.

girlfriend when you're deployed. Yeah. When he was out for deployment, Cat was foot loose and fancy free, hitting the bars, turning on the faux Ukrainian charm, and going after whatever guys or gals caught her eye. She and Ashley would sometimes pick up partners together and bring them back to Kat's house.

Ashley didn't always want these evenings to end in sex, but Cat did every single time. Of course, it's not easy to go out cruising for Nookie when you're taking care of two young kids. But Kat wasn't going to let that stop her. That little thing, nah. She loved picking up new playtime partners. It was a high, a thrill,

the second great love of her life. Two great fairy tale loves, spending cash and slamming ass. The kind of girl whose dearest wish is to throw herself head first into a pile of dicks and $50 bills. And ain't no way she was going to let those kids stand in the way, cramping her style.

So she came up with a foolproof method. She'd just slip Casey and Corey Jr. some Benadryl. So they'd sleep right through the whole thing. And look. Yeah. Look, listen. Y'all know we protect sluts in this house. Ain't nothing wrong with liking lots of sex.

Although it's better if you're not cheating on your husband in the process. Yeah, for sure. And also just, you know, don't poison your kids to do it. Yeah, that's probably the most salient point out of all of this. Right, especially not. You don't want to poison your children. It's crazy how often this pops up in cases we cover, especially with the bad bitches. This sort of casual poisoning, like, remember how Celeste Beard Johnson would always dose up her husband so she could go out with her friends?

Yep. It's a great example of that narcissistic personality. Like, you're in my way, so I'm going to take you out of commission. It's almost like murder light, decaf murder. diet murder. Diet murder, absolutely. I'm sure in Katerina's mind, it was no big deal at all. It just shows you how little the people in her life mattered to her. They were just puppets, toys to play with, and when she was done with them, they ceased to exist in her mind. They were, what does it, you always say, surplus to requirements?

Surplus to requirements. Mm-hmm. And another thing. Apparently, her friend knew about it too and didn't call CPS or anything, just kind of fucked up, too, if you ask me. Right? It's like we know she has the capacity to wrap people out, so why didn't you ran her out for that if you knew about it? That's messed up. Those poor kids. Getting dosed. So Ashley told investigators that all Kat's romantic interests had been focused on one guy lately, a specimen by the name of Michael Draven. A cat had met Draven on Myspace. Oh, hi, 2007. How are you doing? I remember Myspace?

Mm-hmm. He was a lanky, depressed-looking dude whose meticulously managed online presence definitely trended capital G. Goth. Of course, his name was Draven. Right. He had lots of pictures up of himself

and dramatic, high-contrast lighting with black eyeliner, slapped on with a trowel, you know. Personally, I think all this made him look like a fourth-rate stage magician whose career was on the twisty slide down from the American Legion Hall to a 12-year-old's birthday party,

but it was the look he wanted. and cats seemed to dig it. Drupy dogs, cradle of filth, love, and cousin. Or I guess at the time it would have been like joy division or something, I don't know. Michael claimed to be a successful photographer and a filmmaker with his own production company, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Of course, he said he was a filmmaker slash photographer slash producer. Now, this sort of wispy, artsy type was a million miles from the military dudes who'd been cat's romantic bread and butter till now, but she fell hard for Michael Draven.

even after she found out that Michael Draven was just about as real as Katerina from Ukraine. Of course he was lying. Yeah. Michael had started out life as Anthony Neff. So, why Michael Draven? Well, 90s kids and others

might remember that Eric Draven was the name of Brandon Lee's character in The Crow, and that was definitely the vibe Michael built his whole identity around, such as it was. Now hold on to your seats for this, but despite what he claimed on MySpace, Michael was not in fact a highly sought-after photographer and filmmaker pulling in six figures. He actually still lived in his mom's trailer,

and he had two jobs, which not even the most generous soul would describe as glamorous. One was delivering newspapers, when his mom could actually force him out of bed and out the door early enough to do it, and his other gig was volunteering to take experimental medications up in Baltimore. And look I know it gets me every time No shade on anybody who's done it It's just the combination of those two things

It's like you got to do what you got to make a buck I'm just saying If Michael Draven put half the effort He spent maintaining his exotic online persona Into like actual work His resume might be a little more impressive than you know paperboy slash human guinea pig

I'm just saying In fairness to Tony maintaining your personal brand on MySpace was basically a full-time job. Like, I don't know if y'all remember it, but like you got to pick out the unpossable song. You want to automatically play when someone visits your page. You got to curate your top eight friends. And you have to learn HTML. Like, come on.

No time for a job after all that. I'm going to have to disagree with you there because I was a full grown adult when Myspace came out. It just took me a couple minutes. But I realized you were not. No, I was obsessed. There were sparkly banners. Mind and soul is not an adult. I do love that they had the, I love the song thing.

That was great. The Facebook could really learn something from that. So Kat's friend Ashley could not believe that she was still seeing Michael after the truth about all this came out. But Kat stood by her new man. I mean, I guess she just realized like, hey, we're both liars. We're meant for each other. So she started making excuses for him. And Ashley knew her friend was serious about this flipping weirdo.

and just how serious became clear a month before Corey's death when Kat started talking about divorcing Corey. To Ashley, this seemed like the worst idea in the history of ideas. For one thing, Michael was just weird, and for two, Kat had never worked a day in her life. She'd had two husbands making solid middle class money, and Kat needed money like a fish needs water. Even if Michael really stretched himself and got an extra paper route or something, it wouldn't be enough to keep Kat in the manner to which she'd become accustomed. To Michael, though, it was already a done deal that he'd soon be taking Corey's place, including in some pretty creepy ways. He put pictures of little Casey and Corey Jr. up on his MySpace page, labeling them my daughter and my son.

Like I said, creepy. Then, one morning, Ashley was getting ready for work and saw a story on the news about a guy being found dead in his truck. She recognized Corey's Ford Ranger right away. It was pretty distinctive because, the tailgate was busted and was always down and the front left hubcap was missing. Ashley's heart sank and the very first thought that came into her head was, oh my God, she's done it.

After hearing Ashley's story, investigators honed in on Cat and Michael and they enlisted Ashley to help even more, convincing her to wear a wire and carry a tiny little camera that peeked out of a hole in her purse. If they could get Cat confessing on camera, the murder of Corey Voss could be wrapped up pretty quick. But no dice.

If Kat was involved in Corey's death, she wasn't spilling the beans to her friend. In fact, Ashley's heart froze during this attempted filming when Kat, sitting across the table from her, put her can of Pepsi down right in front of the camera in Ashley's purse. Had she spotted the camera? Was she onto the sting? It seems like this was actually just a coincidence, but it's a hell of a thing to have to worry about when you're trying to get a confession from a murder suspect. Oh, yeah.

Kat's private and public reactions to Corey's death were very different. When she was at home with Ashley visiting, Corey's grieving mom would call and Cat would just roll her eyes and let the machine pick up saying, oh, God, it's Corey's mom again. Oh, that's horrible. I know. But at the funeral, she had a full dramatic meltdown, wailing and crying and throwing herself on the casket, so exaggeratedly distraught that Corey's mom, whose own heart was just broken into pieces, had to comfort her.

Oh, my God, I want to slap her. Mm-hmm. Kat had no idea the police were looking into her at this point, but they were quietly gathering some pieces of a pretty suspicious puzzle. For one, the bank account that Kat had sent Corey to withdraw cash from was one she'd only recently opened. It took $5 to open it, and that was all that was in the account. There had been zero activity since the day she'd opened it,

so why send Corey to try and withdraw 60? Maybe it was just an honest mistake and Kat had given him the wrong card. Or maybe she wanted him spending some frustrating minutes wasting time at the ATM, enough time for his killer to rush into the truck. And if the main impediment to Kat and Michael getting together was money, well, that was being taken care of too. As Corey's next of kin, Kat was entitled to an immediate $100,000 death benefit. The first thing she did was whisk Michael and the kids

out to the outer banks for an expensive vacation, splurging on fancy hotels and restaurants, buying a fistful of jewelry for herself, and generally putting her recently murdered husband firmly in the rearview mirror. She even paid rent on Michael Draven's new apartment so he could finally move out of his mom's place. Oh, God's sake.

And remember when Kat was a teenager and burned through that 25 grand's worth of inheritance money in three weeks? Well, she was 32 now. but not much had changed. She had four times that amount of money now, and it took her exactly four times as long to burn through it. Three months after Kat got that $100,000 check, it was gone. Kat wasn't worried, though.

Corey had had a $400,000 life insurance policy, too, which Kat figured would set her up for life. That is a serious lack of self-insight there. Well, man, you just spent a hundred thousand dollar. hundred grand in three months. Corey's life insurance would last her maybe a year if she tightened her belt and really got a hold of herself. You know, if she bought herself a Mercedes instead of a Porsche. But Kat would only be eligible to receive that money if the insurance company excluded her

from being involved in Corey's death. And the police had already had a quiet word with them to put a hold on her payout. This pissed Kat off to the ends of the earth. She started bombarding the insurance company and police department with calls and emails, complaining that they weren't working hard enough on Corey's death, so she could get her money. Of course, the police were working plenty hard. Kat just didn't know they were investigating her. By now, investigators were 90% sure Kat and Michael were involved in Corey's murder up to their necks, but they were short on actual evidence.

I mean, they had plenty of evidence that Kat was a dick and Michael was creepy, but you can't really arrest somebody on that. Otherwise, you and I would be sentenced to life without parole. Hang on, which one's the dick and which one's creepy? Depends on the day. Oh, God. Yeah, that's fair. But then they got a big break while looking into Michael Draven's past.

About a month before Corey's murder, Michael had been arrested on an outstanding warrant for assaulting an old girlfriend, harming. And although no charges were ultimately filed, he'd spent 60. days in jail. And during those six days, he'd called Kat literally hundreds of times, and those calls, of course, are recorded. And Kat knew that. When Michael, aka Eeyore's pissy first cousin, was complaining about how everything sucked, Kat told him, well, there's one little factor that'll be taken care of very soon just to let you know. Don't say it on here because it's recorded. We'll smooth there, Kat. Way to stay off the radar. And despite that warning, they both continued flapping their dumb-ass mouths.

And pretty soon, Michael introduced a new character into the discussion. You said that you and David was talking? Kat had indeed been talking to this David. He wanted more money and $500 up front. They didn't come out and say exactly what David was getting paid for. The calls were recorded, after all, and they didn't want to say anything suspicious. Kat, Michael, you glorious dipshits, that ship already sailed all the way over the horizon, okay? Because if you want to make sure that any future detectives, going back and listening to those calls,

pricks up their ears and starts really paying close attention, say, don't say it here because it's recorded. For God's sakes. Dumbasses. Anyway, so Kat rounds things off by telling Michael, I'm just letting you know, I'll take care of it from here on. And the way she says is, like, very determined, like she's going to take charge because Michael wasn't doing enough. It's like, Kat, for God's sake, go easy on this poor bastard, okay? Number one, he's sitting in jail. Number two, he's exhausted from having experimental drugs pumped into him, okay?

You're lucky he hadn't grown a third nipple. Give the man a break. Now, it didn't take long to track down this David. Kat's phone records showed calls to a David Runyon in Morgantown, West Virginia, a former Army sharpshooter who happened to have the same side gig as Michael Draven, getting test pharmaceuticals shot into him at the same hospital in Baltimore. A search of Runyon's home uncovered a box of 357 ammunition, the same kind used to kill Corey Voss, and five cartridges were missing.

If you recall, Corey had been shot five times. In Runyon's backpack, they found a shopping list for murder, a knife, tarp, a black hoodie, new boots. But it was when Morgantown police stopped Runyon's truck and searched it that they had paid hurt. In the center console between the seats, they found a printed picture of Michael and Kat, and a map of Newport News with handwritten notes on it. They read, Langley Federal Credit Union, 97 Grey Ford Ranger,

front left hubcap missing, tailgate down, J. Morris Boulevard, and then in all caps, Corey. Wow. So a description on Corey's vehicle and the exact location of where he'd been

when he was murdered. That was plenty, and the cops put the old hay-haven, grab us on David Runyon right there on the roadside. So why the hell had he kept this incredibly incriminating piece of evidence just sitting in his truck? Well, it's just possible that David Runyon is not the best and brightest to have ever served the U.S. Army. Investigators think he just forgot it was in there. Bless his heart.

He might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but David Runyon was plenty tough. Throughout his interrogation, he was calm, virgin on icy. Yeah, that was his map. Yeah, that was his handbook. writing, but he didn't remember writing those words. My dude, come on, that's one small step down from the dog ate my alibi, okay? He absolutely refused to spill any beans, and right up to when he asked for a lawyer

and clammed up completely, his affect was that he just didn't give a shit. About anything. Michael and Cat are both weirdo personalities in their own ways, but of the three involved in this case, David Runyon is the one that gives me the major Wiggins. It's like, there's nobody in there. It wasn't a secret that an arrest had been made in relation to Corey Voss's murder, nor that it had been made in Morgantown. Cat and Michael both knew exactly what that meant.

The police had their boy David Runyon, and Michael Draven lost his complete shit. He stalked around the cold, rainy streets of Newport News like a sad, damp little crow, so obviously miserable in the grip of some deep personal crisis that multiple people called the cops because they were worried. he might do himself harm. And like, bless those people's hearts for calling the cops.

But I do have to say something. If you're going to get yourself a goth boyfriend, this is just part and parcel of the experience. Like, one, they're going to just wander around looking sad in the rain. Okay? That's just what they do. That's like, that's basically their only form of exercise. They're going to steal your eyeliner. Yes, yes.

You're going to have to share eyeliner. So make sure they have good taste. Two, you're going to have to perform some kind of sex act in a cemetery. I'm sorry, that's just part of having a goth partner, okay? And three, you may have to drink blood, okay? We've talked about it several times on the show. Oh, yes. We've been through this.

The blood drinking is, yeah. But in this case, maybe they were right to worry because police were still monitoring Michael's phone. He was the kind who liked to share the misery, and both his mom and cat got to hear long, gloomy rants about how terrible everything was, and that he was going to go to the James River Bridge and throw himself in. That jolted the police into an all-out effort to pick him up before he could hurt himself. He wasn't hard to find. There weren't a lot of tall, skinny gotts out walking in the rain. He was freezing cold, soaking wet, and utterly exhausted.

He looked like he hadn't slept in a week. The officers who took him in thought he seemed almost relieved they found him. I bet he was. And given his fragile mental state, it shouldn't. surprise you to learn that once they got him into that warm, dry interrogation room, Michael Draven cracked like an egg in a blender. Cad had been the driving force behind Corey's murder, he said, asking Michael to, quote, take him out. But Michael was self-aware enough to know perfectly well that he did not

have it in him to kill anybody, at least not in person. He was fine with arranging a killing, though, and he knew a guy who might help. Michael and David Runyon had gotten to to know each other at the hospital where they both volunteered for medical testing. And David had bragged enough about violence and shady shit during his time in the army that Michael asked him if he knew anybody who could help a guy, you know, have a little accident. David certainly did. I'll do it, he said. I've done it before. Michael put him in touch with Kat and the wheel started turning. All this while, Kat was telling her friend Ashley that she was thinking about

divorcing Corey. There wouldn't be a need for that because she was already planning to have him killed. They settled on paying David $20,000 to kill Corey with $500 up front. The fact that David agreed to that is more proof that he probably wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

Only $500 up front? Dude, you are never seeing that $20,000. Hell no. Mm-mm. In fact, Michael and Kat, who just a couple months ago had gotten 100,000 from the government, couldn't even scrape together that 500 bucks. The entire amount that David Runyon received for killing Corey Voss was a Western Union money transfer for $275. Pretty damn cheap for a good man's life. That's nauseating.

Michael's interrogators convinced him to call Kat and tell her he was at the police station and freaking out and she needed to come pick him up. Kat did so. And, And as soon as she stepped out of her car in the parking lot, cops swarmed her and applied a mass grabbis that apparently astonished cat to her core. Seriously? Bitch, both your co-conspirators have been interrogated and you're all shocked Pikachu face when the cops come for you? Unbelievable. Like, Michael, once the cops had her in an interrogation room, cat crumpled like tissue paper. Sobbing and crying and y'all, it is kind of funny.

I'm sorry. It's always funny when they get weepy in my... I mean, it's like, just save your damn crocodile tears. But in the process of crumpling, she still tried to throw Michael Draven under the bus. Oh, yeah. It had been his idea to kill Corey, she said, and he kept pushing and pushing. Of course, she didn't know about the jailhouse phone recording at this point, where she told Michael that she was going to take care of things from now on. Of course not.

Kat said that once things started moving, She just had no way to stop him. Girl, you're the one that sent Corey to the ATM to be shot and killed. You spoke to him on the damn phone when he was on his way there. Stopping this would have been the easiest thing in the world. But she didn't, of course, because she didn't want to. She wanted that big pile of cash. And at least for now, she wanted Michael Draven.

But I don't think we should fool ourselves on how long that was going to last. Kat had cheated repeatedly and delightedly on every guy she'd been with, and they were conveniently away on military service a lot of the time. She liked attention, and she liked new, exciting partners. Michael Draven, mooching around her place like the sad little storm cloud he was, wasn't going to hold her attention for long. The combination of confessions, recorded phone calls, and physical evidence gave prosecutors a damn solid case.

The cat, easily, the smartest of the three involved in the murder plot, seems like the only one who recognized that. She took a plea deal, agreeing to testify against Michael and David, in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. She was sentenced to four life terms in federal prison. Michael Draven was sentenced to life in federal prison, and David Runyon was sent to death row, where he remains to this day. But he's set to get a new sentencing hearing for a couple of reasons. One, because Virginia abolished the death penalty in 2021, and two, because an appeals court has ordered a new hearing to determine if his defense attorney was

ineffective at trial. Now, that's still pending as of this recording, so we don't know what's going to happen. We do know Runyon's a scary guy, so we'll try and keep you updated. As for Corey's family, they've been left with the kind of void these kinds of cases always leave for the victim's loved ones. Sadness, anger, confusion. Most of us can't imagine taking our kids' dad away from them for an amount of money that would probably have been gone in less than a year. Kats got the rest of her life to sit in prison and reflect on whether it was worth it. But something tells me she hasn't learned a damn thing. So that was a wild one, right, campers? You know, we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together

again around the True Crime Campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Eric, Farai, Jodi, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jody, Jolie, Jody. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And if you're not yet a patron, you are missing out. patrons of our show get every episode ad-free at least a day early sometimes even two plus an extra episode a month and once you hit the five dollar in up categories you get even more cool stuff a free sticker at five dollars a rad enamel pin while supplies last at ten virtual events with katie and me and we're always looking for new stuff to do for you so if you can come join us at patreon dot com slash true crime campfire and for great tccccmurch visit the true crime campfire store at spreadshirt dot com Thank you.