True Crime Campfire - 'Til Death: A Grab Bag of Newlywed Murders, with Nina Jones from Twisted Mirror

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Marriage. It might not be for everybody, but for a lot of us, it’s great stuff. You get to join up with your best friend, the love of your life, somebody you can just be you around, somebody who feels like home. And of course most of us begin that journey with a wedding: a beautiful ceremony where you pledge to hang together for better or worse, then throw down and join your best buds for some cake. Most of the time, the worst case scenario with all this stuff is divorce. But in the stories we’re about to tell you, that would have been a walk in the park. First, a startling case from Brazil in which a brand-new groom murders his bride and best man during the wedding reception--then the story of a new bride who pushed her husband off a cliff just eight days after they wed. Sources:Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-brazil-groom-who-killed-his-wedding-partyCBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rogerio-damascena-shoots-his-bride-best-man-then-self-at-brazilian-wedding-after-announcing-surprise/NPR NewsUniversity of Sao PaoloFlathead Beacon, Justin Franz: https://justinfranz.com/writing/a-murder-in-glacier-park/Oxygen's "Snapped," episode "Jordan Graham"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://shop.spreadshirt.com/true-crime-campfire/Nina's podcast, "Twisted Mirror:"https://www.twistedmirrorpodcast.comFacebook @twistedmirrorpodIG: TwistedmirrorpodcastBecome 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. Marriage. It might not be for everybody, but for a lot of us, it's great stuff. You get to join up with your best friend, the love of your life, somebody you can just be you around. somebody who feels like home. And of course, most of us begin that journey with a wedding. A beautiful ceremony where you pledge to hang together for better or worse, then throw down and

join your best buds for some cake. Most of the time, the worst case scenario with all this stuff is divorce, which is bad enough already, but in the stories we're about to tell you, that would have been a walk in the park. This is Till Death, a grab bag of newlywed murders. Campers, we're excited today because we have a special guest, friend, author, and podcast goddess Nina Jones. Nina has a brand new podcast called Twisted Mirror. She only has a few episodes out so far, but so far she's never failed to scare the absolute, sweet, sweet, be jeepers out of me. It's so good. If you love the kind of slow building horror where you get like about a third of the way through the story and you start thinking, oh no, oh God, why did I get

myself into this? But now you're like invested and you have to, you know, just suffer. Then you're going to love Nina's stuff. It's instantly addictive and so well produced. I mean, it's just a beautifully professional work and sound effects. It's awesome. But in addition to being a horror queen, Nina's into true crime too, right? And well, welcome, by the way. Hi. Thank you. I do have to say, like, it's especially creepy because all of, like, my apartment complex parking lot lights, for some reason, are all out. And I can only assume that you are personally responsible because I have to take my dog out to go to the bathroom. All the lights are out. And I'm listening to, like, your voice in my ear. And I'm like, I'm being stalked. Absolutely. I'm being stocked. I have news for you. Yeah, I had a moment. Yes, this is true. And like, Camper is one of my favorite tropes in horror is like, because, so fun fact, the part of your brain that processes being scared is the same part of your brain that also processes comedy.

So like that's why horror and comedy so often go hand in hand. And like so much of Nina's writing is also just hysterically funny. I, you know, I did not know that. As someone who writes horror, you would think I would be privy to this information about the brain. Well, now you know. And, like, you do it so naturally. Like, I'm surprised you didn't because in the most recent podcast, we were talking about this before, it's called Ms. Perfect. It's fantastic.

Everyone needs to listen to it. Yeah. The narrator is this kind of, like, waspy, like, middle-aged Lula-Roe mom. And... Uh-huh. Starbucks mom. And she has two children. As you pointed out, Nina, they are indigo children.

Yes, they're very special. They're gifted. They're highly gifted. Named Praxton and Bresley. And like the first three times I heard the names, it did not register with me that they were weird and reversed. And as soon as it hit me, I was dying. It was so fucking funny. It reminds.

I think about that like you know that meme it's like so old but it's that woman and she's got a board and there's like names crossed off of like you know what to choose and people just right right yes exactly yeah so um you know with that particular story it was one of the more lighthearted ones and I just kind of want to you know there's just so much going like I feel like moms I don't have kids and the reason for that is I think there's a lot of pressure on moms I can't handle that kind of stress um and so I kind of of, you know, but it's funny because I sometimes also see that the worst critics of moms can be other moms, like when you're in a Facebook group and like, you know, someone does a slight faux pa or just maybe isn't completely perfect. And the next thing, you know, there's just like a thread attacking this person. Oh, it's vicious. Absolutely. You would think that they were like the worst human being in the world based on, you know. They're just land on or like a pack of hyenas. I've seen it myself.

It's really scary. When, you know, you would think that we'd be like supporting each other. and lifting each other up. So that story, Ms. Perfect, is like that, just taken to the nth degree. And it's like Katie says, both hilarious at times and really creepy. And you start to kind of see where it's headed and you're just like, oh, no, oh, no. But also you're kind of like, yeah. You're so talented.

Oh, thank you. At making, first of all, getting us really invested in the story. But also, there's this almost Hitchcockian kind of way. way where you're kind of, with that story anyway, you're kind of rooting for the villain sometimes, you know, like you're not entirely, like you, like I found myself thinking, oh, don't get caught, don't get caught. And then like, what do you think? Like, yeah, because she deserves to get caught. For sure. I, you know what's funny. Of course, Hitchcock was great at that too. Yeah, I was actually talking to my husband about, you know, in each story, I try to, I pull from my own experiences,

as I think many writers do, or just small, like, slivers of an emotion you may feel. But I was telling him, like, just to be clear, even though I can identify with a specific emotion, like, I'm not going to, like, do the thing she did or even close to that. It's just, like, a tiny, tiny seed, but then I'll extrapolate on it and take it to the extreme. Sure. So please don't be frightened by me as a human being or cold a copse or anything like that based on what I'm like. I have had that conversation with my husband as well. I must admit. Whereas like, just understand that, yes, I may, you know, Monday morning quarterback

murderers constantly as I'm watching investigation discovery. But that doesn't mean I want them to win, okay? I don't want them to win. It's, you know, we're odd people. Fortunately, we found people who appreciate our oddness. So I love that you had to reassure him about that. So by the way, Katie has got a nasty cold today. I don't know if you can tell. She has that kind of sexy whiskey voice going on. So she's probably not going to talk as much as usual in this one, because we don't want her burning out her vocal cords. So I just wanted to warn you about that. But Cambers, we have got a couple of banana pants cases for you, both of which involve weddings, which is really funny because my brother is getting married this weekend. And I swear to God, we did not do it on purpose. We

planned this one before we even knew what the date of the wedding was. So for the record, I think that It's terrific that my bro is getting married. I'm super excited. This has nothing to do with y'all, although I do want to dedicate this episode to you because it's hilarious. But love you both. Can't wait for Saturday. So anywho, y'all aren't going out like this, I promise.

You should present it like on a flash drive, like a fancy flash drive to them. With like a little ribbon. Yeah, exactly. You're right. And then they'll listen to it on their wedding night just like, what the hell? What message is she sending us? On their wedding night. Oh, my God. I hope they'll have better things to do.

So, and also we want to thank Nina, because she brought us the first case that we're doing. And it was one that neither of us had ever heard of, which is impressive, given what huge crime nerds we are. And she also did all of the research and wrote most of this first one. So thank you for that. Gave me a nice little break this week. It did not have to work as hard as usual. So this one took place December 19, 2010, in Brazil, at a place called Casa Grande Daldaya, a resort-type venue in the town of Kamar, G-bay, and y'all, I apologize in advance for how badly I'm going to butcher these

beautiful Brazilian names. I am going to try my best. Rogerio Damasina and Renata Coelho had been together for about three years. Rogerio was a motorbike salesman. Their wedding cake-toper was a little bride and groom on a motorcycle, adorable, and Renata was an attorney. They were both in their 20s, both gorgeous and smart and upwardly mobile, the kind of couple you'd look at at first glance and just think, damn, goals, right?

right? And their wedding ceremony had gone off without a hitch. There were over 200 people there, and the reception was bumping. Everybody was having a great time. Bride and groom were dancing, going around to say hi to their guests the way you do, and just eating and drinking and generally having the time of their lives, or so it appeared. Just seemed like your typical wedding. A beautiful celebration of two families joining forces supporting this gorgeous young couple with their whole lives ahead of them. What's not to like? So at about 2.30 in the morning, the party started to wind down, and it was right around then when Rosario, beaming and holding his new wife's hand, hugged his father, Joal, and said, Dad, I love you. I'm happy. People were starting to get up and leave, and

Ruggiero waved his arms to get everybody's attention. He said, I've got a surprise for you. Wait just a minute. And then he disappeared to the parking lot, with everybody kind of hanging back and curious to see what the big surprise was going to be. Rizario was back within a minute or two. He walked right over to his new bride, Renata, gave her a kiss, and then in a moment that would no doubt haunt the nightmares of everybody who witnessed it for the rest of their lives, he pulled out a 380 revolver and shot Renata in the head. Nobody even had time to react before he smoothly turned the gun on a new victim, his boss

and best man, Marcelo Guilleres. He shot Marcelo in the arm first, and the poor guy tried to throw up a hand to protect his face. And then he shot him again and again, and this time Marcelo fell, fatally shot in the head. One of Renata's cousins later talked about feeling one of the bullets just barely graze his cheek, as Rogerio fired at his best man.

He saw Marcelo hit the ground, watched as chaos erupted all around him. Some people seemed frozen in fear. Others were screaming and running away. There were two expanding pools of blood under the victims, and neither one was moving. Time gets weird when stuff like this happens. It's almost like it speeds up and stops at the same time. So it could have been a few seconds, or it could have been even quicker than that.

Once Marcella was down, Rosario de Mascena, brand new groom, shot him. himself in the head. His dad started running even before his son hit the floor, desperate to try and save him and shouting for somebody to please, please call an ambulance. And although paramedics would quickly discover that the bride and best man had both died pretty much instantaneously, Rosario was still alive when they arrived, bleeding profusely, but still alive? They rushed him to the hospital, but it was no good. he died later that day what a horror and what a surreal end to what had seemed like such a perfect day what the hell happened here why we know although we wish we didn't that a woman

dying at the hands of her significant other isn't an uncommon thing the stats vary a bit depending on the year and the place but to cite just one example in 2013 nearly five thousand women were murdered in Brazil, and a little over 33% of those died at the hands of current or ex-partners. Yikes. Wow. And according to NPR, the numbers are even scarier in the States. We're not, like, innocent of this.

In 2017, more than half of all female murder victims were killed by intimate partners. Jesus. If there's a gun in the house, the chances of a woman falling victim to intimate partner homicide are way higher six times higher in fact but stats aside what makes this murder really terrifying is that nobody seemed to see it coming even on the day of the murders even seconds before the murders nobody saw any signs the wedding ceremony was lovely really moving and the reception afterward was a party a celebration none of the guests publicly reported any fighting nobody even noticed the bride or groom being in a bad mood. One of the musicians who played the reception said he spoke to Rogario

and the guy seemed to be in great spirits. Everybody was planning to meet back up again the next morning for breakfast. The bride's family had bought her and Rogerio a house. They were supposed to be writing off into the sunset. They were supposed to be happy. They had a whole network of people who loved and supported them. His dad later told a reporter, quote, he was a happy boy with life. Lots of plans for the future, for Renata and him. The more I think, the more I search, the more I ask, the more I anguish, the more I ask God to declare, to show me the reason. I don't know. He didn't have motives to commit this crime.

Yeah, Renata's family had similar reactions. Her sister Lucia told the Daily Mail, he was happy, she was happy. The party was beautiful. His family adored her and don't understand this. he killed his best friend the boss who was there with his wife which oh my god can you even imagine like watching your husband's best friend just murder him in cold blood with no warning whatsoever

I can't even begin to think what that was like for her the police were pretty baffled themselves especially when they realized that the gun was missing from the murder scene later on that mystery would be solved when rogeria's dad turned it in he'd taken it away in all the chaos before the police got there. He knew what was wrong, he said. He just was desperate to protect his son in that moment, and obviously not thinking clearly. But he'd lied to them about it repeatedly, said he had no idea

where the gun went, said he had no idea his son had even owned a gun. Later, he'd end up charged with obstruction of justice for that, but we couldn't find any info on what happened with the charge, whether he served any time, any of that. Kind of suspect they dropped it. Yeah, I hope so, honestly. I mean, obviously, that is not a great thing to do. There should be limits, hard limits, to what you'll do to protect your kids, like we were saying with Wanda Holloway a couple of weeks ago. But the guy had just been through a trauma like most of us couldn't even begin to imagine. So, you know, maybe just give the guy a break and don't slap an obstruction charge on him, especially given the fact that you had a whole reception hall full of witnesses who saw the guy

do the murders. And it's not like this is an unsolved mystery. Settle down, right? So, Anywho, the police started to dig into Egerio's background, and initially they were hearing a lot of, he's a great guy, great worker, good friend. They couldn't find any evidence of a history of mental illness or violence or anything like that. People seem to think he just snapped. But experienced homicide detectives know that nobody really just snaps. It doesn't work like that. There are always warning signs, precipitating stressors, things that people will often see with a lot more clarity after the awful thing has happened. In Gereo's case, there were a few things that pointed to premeditation.

First, we've got the fact that he brought the gun with him in the first place. Dude was not known to carry a gun around with him. In fact, his family said they didn't even know he owned one until the day of the murders. Second, the fact that nobody, not one witness, reported seeing or hearing anything at the wedding that should have sparked anger or violence. So this had to have been Bruin for a while beforehand. In fact, it seemed like Ruggiero had specifically set out

to marry Rannata before he murdered her in the biggest, splashiest, most public way he could think to do it. This was a guy who was planning to go out with the bang. So this was a planned execution all right, but what set him off? Well, the one thing detectives were starting to unearth about Ruggiero amid all the

he's a great guy stuff was that he had a jealous streak about a light year wide. And when he was feeling jealous, he tended to rage. One of Renata's friends told the press that his temper had actually led to a temporary breakup in 2008, two years before the murders. Yeah, and the attorney who ended up representing Renata's family backed this up too, saying Rosario was, quote, an extremely jealous person. A lot of people had never seen this side of Rosario, but obviously, at least a few people had. Renata's brother, once saw him shove a guy he thought was flirting with her. It was her niece's husband, too, by the way.

which just seems bizarre. What are the odds that your nephew is going to try to mac on you in front of your fiancé? Right. Not great, I would think. Seems like Rosario might have been prone to paranoia

when it came to a soon-to-be-wife. Yeah, I gotta say, it's never even occurred to me to make googie eyes at any of my uncles. Honestly, whether they're uncles by blood or uncles by marriage, that is just, ew, no thank you.

It's such an absurd thing to get worked up about, but people can lose their complete shit when they're prone to jealousy. Did you see that episode of Dr. Phil where the woman had installed security cameras and voice recorders all over the house because she was so sure her husband was cheating on her. She was so sure that she would make herself see stuff on the security footage when there was clearly nothing there.

This woman actually convinced herself that her husband was bringing his mistress into the bed with them at night while she was in it and like just, I guess, banging her just real quiet while the wife was asleep next to him. And then she'd point to this, like, grainy-ass security footage of them just obviously just lay in there asleep. Like, look, see? I told you. Just for God's sake. Get help.

Get help. Oh, my God. I know. And to answer, no, I have not seen that episode of Dr. Phil. But, yeah, that sounds insane. Whitney can send it to you because this was something I had not seen. Oh, I will. Yeah.

Before Whitney sent it to me. And this poor guy. would not divorce this woman. He was just like, let me stay with you. I love you. And this woman's like, it was sad how much he loved her.

And she was just constantly accusing him. And she would follow him around like he was some kind of contractor or something. And he was about to lose his business because she was just following him around. So the job sites and just kind of looking at him, like just sitting there staring at him in case he like, I don't know, went off to one of the porta pots and had sex with somebody behind her back or something. I don't know.

it was bug nuts these invisible lovers apparently i mean you know i feel back because he's being abused of course but it you know it's it's so absurd like she's obviously just like at a level and i think that's probably the case here with ruggiero where there is just it's gone into delusion like they're just crafting stories in their head based on who knows what i mean he could have marcella could have laughed at a joke she made once and he's like they're they're banging You know, like, it could be as simple as that. Yeah. So obviously, this guy had a dark side, and the green-eyed monster was what brought it out.

Speculation began to loom that Bride Renata and Best Man Marcello must have been having an affair. According to a survey by the University of Sao Paulo, cheating on your spouse is pretty common in Brazil, as I suspect it is almost everywhere. On that survey, half the wives admitted to cheating on their husbands. And 66% of the husband said they cheated on their wives. That, wow. Love is dead, man. But, you know. Or it's everywhere.

It's spreading. You know, just people can't keep it to themselves. To one couple, you know. Exactly, exactly. You know, I guess they didn't survey any gay couples, so we don't have any stats on that. But obviously, there's a fair bit of cheating going on. And you can bet on a survey like that. The real numbers are probably even bigger.

People tend to lie about affairs, even in an anonymous survey. The Daily Beast quotes Brazilian psychologist Rodrigo Nicolato, I hope I'd nail that one, who had given a talk about the dangers of jealousy just a few weeks before the murders. He said that a little jealousy is normal, but when it gets excessive, the fallout can be extreme. Okay, so what you're saying is we can all have a little jealousy as a treat, but we got to watch it so it doesn't get out of control. Just like cats and salami Right

Exactly Exactly Just a little bit Professor Nicolato said That if your partner is preoccupied With the idea of being cheated on That can be a big red flag Don't you think

In fact That level of jealousy Can trigger a psychotic episode And the person can get to a point Where he's seeing betrayal everywhere Even where there is none Just like your lady on Dr. Phil Yeah

Possessive does jealousy, always accusing your partner of cheating, those are massive, flaming, warning signs that you have to pay attention to. And if you're already in that kind of headspace and then you pour a bunch of alcohol onto the situation, you can have a recipe for disaster. Police wondered if that's what happened with Rogario. They looked into their affair theory, by the way. And from the sources we saw, it doesn't seem like Renato was involved with Marcello at all, or anybody else for that matter. Marcella's wife was certain of it.

She told the press, quote, he is not the person that people are thinking. He was a family person, a loving husband and father to our two children, a boy of eight and a girl of four. Bless her heart and those kids too. But of course, just because the affair wasn't real, doesn't mean it couldn't have been what motivated Regerio to murder.

The trigger could have been something as small as a smile passing between Renata and Marcello or a hug that he thought went on a moment too long. Mm-hmm. Like Professor Nicolato said, once you're down that road of extreme jealousy, you're going to see treachery around every corner. It's not real,

but it's real to you. And listen, if your partner is doing this to you, if they're accusing you of cheating all the time, wanting to go through your phone, whatever, we need you to understand something. This is not on you. Okay? You're not doing anything to spark this, this kind of shit comes from the inside out.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. And what that means, campers, is this. You didn't create this, and you can't fix it. There's no amount of password sharing or checking in or transparency or reassurance you can give your jealous partner that's going to calm them down and make them stop acting like this.

That change would have to come from inside. This is all about their own insecurity, and that's deep, personal stuff, that it takes a lot of time and effort to change. They have to acknowledge that, and they have to take it upon themselves to get help to fix it. It's way above your pay grade, and you do not, do not deserve to be treated like that. Amen. So was jealousy behind this awful crime? seems like the most likely explanation. But unfortunately, we can't really know for sure.

All we have is guesses and speculation. Yeah, we'll never know what went through Egerio's head in those final days and hours. Why he went through with the wedding and celebrated as if he was looking forward to a life with Renata and then murdered two of the closest people to him and traumatized everybody else. Had he just lost the plot, misinterpreting some little tiny sign as undeniable, proof that his fiance and his best friend were betraying him? What was going on in the mind of a man whose last words to his father were, Dad, I'm happy, before turning right around and committing two horrendous acts of violence

than taking his own life? Police couldn't come to a solid conclusion. There's no note, no diary, no living man to ask. Their final ruling was that it was probably a perfect storm of jealousy and alcohol, some sort of psychotic rage. Not the foaming at the mouth rage that we often imagine in events like this, but a quiet, seething, calculated rage. One that would drive a man to bring a revolver to his own wedding

with plans to murder his wife and best friend. One that would force so many innocent people, including his own father, to witness the carnage of those he loved. Could Rogerio have been stopped? Could somebody have reasoned with him if only they'd seen the signs? I'm sure those are questions that torture both families and all the couple's friends. But, of course, this isn't just a wedding massacre. It's a case of domestic abuse.

And it's a chilling example of something that a lot of people don't realize about domestic homicide, that in many cases the very first violence and abusive partner will ever inflict on their victim is murder. There will be a history of abuse, but a lot of times you won't find any physical abuse. it'll be controlling and possessive behavior jealousy verbal and emotional abuse maybe sexual abuse coercive control but sometimes there won't actually be any violence until the actual murder as far as we've been able to tell it seems like rogerio had never laid a hand on ronata before he killed her but there was that typical pattern of unhealthy possessiveness and jealousy and the thing is there are so many things that can stand in the way of a person a realizing that they're in an

abusive, potentially dangerous relationship, and be getting the hell out of there safely once they do. For one thing, and this is so sad to me, a lot of people think domestic abuse only happens to a certain kind of person, TM. Like, I can't be an abuse spouse. I'm educated. I'm upper middle class. I'm X or Y or Z. And that is just nonsense, y'all. Abuse happens to people of all genders, all races, all ages, all levels of education and status and income. There is no type who ends up in an abusive relationship. It can happen to anybody. And by the same token, any kind of person can be an abuser too. So it's not about the age or the gender, the intelligence level, or prestige, or sexual orientation, or income. It's about the behavior. That's it. And just because you're not

getting hit does not mean you're not being abused. The other thing is the stigma around domestic abuse. So many people suffer in silence because they're embarrassed or scared or they think nobody will believe them because a lot of abusers are charming and good at grooming everybody to think they're great guys oh yeah just like rogerio everybody said that he's a great guy people said that about chris watts too and don't get me start on the people who still insist he is i can't oh hell no oh my god it's like yeah that really takes me off um you know the really good guy who masquered his whole family who murdered his children right Yeah, exactly.

But sadly, sometimes escalation doesn't happen in a perfect 45-degree slope. Sometimes it's a slow, steady climb, small things that people can cast aside as typical relationship drama, until the unthinkable happens. And then everybody is shocked and devastated, wondering how they miss the signs. The next case we're going to tell you about is a little different. It's not so much about a pattern of domestic abuse. as it is about selfishness and fear and the pressure some people feel to wear a mask all the time. were in Calispell, Montana, July 8th, 2013. 25-year-old, newly married Cody Johnson

didn't show up to his job at Nomad Global Communication Services. This wasn't like him at all. Just like Rosario from our first case, oddly enough, Cody was best buds with his boss at Nomad, a guy named Cameron Fredericksson, and Cameron was worried pretty much from minute one. He texted Cody at 8.30. Where are you? Is everything okay? But there was no answer. It felt ominous. And that feeling

got worse as the day went on. Cameron tried calling, no answer, and the call went straight to voicemail. He tried calling several other friends and co-workers, but nobody had heard from Cody all day. And then, at 4.30 that afternoon, Cameron's text tone went off. He hoped maybe it was Cody, finally texting back with some kind of explanation for where the hell he had been all day. But it wasn't. It was Cody's brand new bride, Jordan Graham. Did Cody show up at work today? She wanted to know. When he told her no, Jordan launched into a story. She said she and Cody had gotten into a fight the night before, and he'd ended up storming out to meet some of his, quote, car buddies from Seattle. She hadn't heard from him since. Huh?

This didn't make any sense to Cameron. It didn't sound like something Cody would do, and why would these car buddies show up at night to whisk him away from an argument with his brand-new wife? As people are always saying on Dateline, something just didn't feel right. Cameron got even more suspicious when he talked to a couple other mutual friends later that day,

and they'd heard a different story from Jordan. In the version she'd told them, Jordan had gotten in her car and followed Cody and the car buddies for a while before finally losing them and turning around for home. Why was this woman telling different people, different stories? Cameron's hackles were up. He later told the flathead beacon that he immediately suspected Jordan had done something to Cody. And by the next day, when he still hadn't heard from his friend and neither had anyone else,

he called the Callis Bell Police Department. Nobody was really saying it out loud yet, but Cameron wasn't the only one who was getting a bad feeling about Cody's new wife, Jordan. A lot of Cody's friends had tried to talk him out of marrying her. It had caused a couple fights in recent weeks. At one point, they were all out for dinner, and the guy started jokingly taking bets about how long the marriage would last. Cody got so mad he stormed out of the restaurant.

Which is understandable, honestly. I mean, that's a shitty thing to do. But in their defense, it is really hard to watch your friend marry somebody that, you know, damn well is wrong for him. I've been in that situation a couple times, and it's... And they're both divorced now, by the way. Is it hard being right all the time, Whitney? Oh, hush.

I'm just teasing. She watches a lot of Dr. Phil. She's an expert. Oh, God. Don't. Don't even. Oh, he is the worst. I hate watch, Dr. Phil.

Hate watch. Yes. It's an important distinction. That is true. Cody's friends, many of whom had known him since junior high, all felt pretty much the same way about the relationship. that it wasn't good for Cody. He and Jordan were really different people. For one thing, Cody was a happy guy, full of energy and fun, tons of friends, tons of plans for the future. But Jordan, she was just the opposite personality-wise. She was reserved, almost flat,

fond of given one-word answers to questions, and there's nothing wrong with being reserved, but they seemed like a really weird match. And beyond that, the relationship seemed totally unequal. Cody tended to just give and give, and Jordan didn't seem to give. give much of anything back. But Cody was head over heels for her ever since they'd met at a Halloween party a couple years earlier, and he was seeing her through those good old love goggles. You know those things? You put them on? And suddenly you're looking at snow white in the forest with little bluebirds landing on her shoulders and bunnies hopping into her lap. And, you know, that may or may not be the actual picture. But that's what the love goggles are showing you.

Even Jordan's friends have said that she was immature for 21, probably not anywhere near ready for marriage. But Cody was in love, and he saved up for months to buy her beautiful engagement ring. They set a date for June, and they both seemed excited. At least, Jordan seemed excited about the wedding planning. She didn't really talk much about the marriage, the relationship. She was just all caught up in the fairy tale stuff, dresses and flowers and that kind of stuff. She even went out to California to record a song for Cody. It's this really cool service called Our Story, Our Song, where, like, a songwriter will talk. to you about your relationship and then write you a custom song and let you record it,

which is neat, right? Like, I totally want to do that for my husband sometimes. It's very cute, I have to say. Shit, I should have kept that to myself. Forget you heard that. Okay. I want to be surprised. So, wedding came around on June 29th, and all day, people were noticing that something felt way, way off. So y'all have been to weddings, right? I mean, usually the atmosphere is just really buzzy and upbeat and everybody's running around all excited and all nervous and the bride's all smiling and happy. Yeah, not so much. Jordan was just sobbing for most of the day.

Like, not happy crying, hysterical, like, sobbing. And as she walked down the aisle on her dad's arm, one of the groomsmen actually whispered to another one, have you ever seen a bride cry this much? Jordan's maid of honor Kimberly was afraid, quote, something was going to happen during the ceremony. And she didn't say what exactly, but my impression was she thought Jordan was going to throw down that

and run out the door. And during the vows, everybody noticed that Jordan wouldn't even look at Cody. Yikes. Oh. By the reception, though, she seemed to have brightened up. She seemed like she was enjoying the party. She and Cody danced their first dance together to the song she commissioned for him, and everybody filmed it.

And people made sentimental toasts. People thought, okay, maybe that was just last-minute nerves. But no. the next day Jordan's best friend Kimberly got a flurry of freaked out texts from the brand new bride totally just had a meltdown Jordan wrote I'm completely second-guessing everything I don't know if all of this was the right thing to do so much happened last night I just don't know Kimberly was confused about what she texted back are you okay Jordan was not okay She wasn't sure she should have married Cody, she said, and she was scared to death of having sex with him.

See, Jordan grew up in a tight-knit Baptist church community. God and church were the center of life for the people in that congregation. And for Jordan, this would be the first time she'd ever had sex with a guy. Kimberly got the impression they hadn't consummated the marriage on their wedding night, and Jordan was desperate to keep putting it off. Kimberly tried to reassure her. Like, hey, it's normal to be a little nervous. Don't beat yourself up.

It'll get better. But over the next few days, the texts kept coming. And thanks to Justin Franz of the Flathead Beacon for these texts, by the way, and a lot of the info we have on this case. On July 1st, Jordan texted Kimberly. I cannot freaking pull myself together. I haven't stopped crying since I was married. I wish someone would have stood up and asked,

me what I wanted, but I can't go back and change anything. I should be happy and I'm just not. I don't feel like myself. When Kimberly told her to talk to Cody about how she was feeling, Jordan said she didn't feel like she could. He was so happy, she said. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. She was just going to try playing the I'm on my period card again

if he wanted to have sex, she said. Yeah. Even with a public school, health education, there's a limit on how many times you can do that. Be a lot better to, you know, be honest with your partner. And if you feel like you shouldn't have married him, that's why the good Lord made an nolmits. But Jordan didn't seem to consider that an option.

She was in panic mode. By July 7th, though, about a week later, things seemed to have calmed down a little. Cody and Jordan went to church that morning, and Cody was gritting ear to ear, telling everybody that Jordan had some kind of surprise for him. His friends got the impression the surprise was probably sex. But despite the smile on her face at church that morning, Jordan was still texting Kimberly about her worries. I'm going to talk to him tonight, she said, and then she texted something odd, something that would later chill Kimberly to the core of her soul. Dead serious, Jordan said. If you don't hear from me, something happened. Whoa. That church,

service and dinner at Dairy Queen afterwards was the last time anybody saw Cody Johnson alive. He didn't show up for work the next morning and by July 9th, the Calispell police were involved. As the days went by and Cody's friends and loved ones got more and more desperate to find him, it became increasingly clear to just about everyone that Jordan wasn't telling everything she knew. At the police station, she told the same story about him leaving with his car friends from Seattle, but she seemed frustrated at having to be there. At one point, she whined to her mom that she just wanted to go home. Not the way most of us would react if our brand new husband was missing.

As friends and family went out to search for Cody, people noticed Jordan didn't really seem to be paying attention. She was playing on her phone instead. While everybody else was grim-faced and scared, Jordan seemed either bored or giggly. And the police were starting to notice the inconsistencies in her story, of which there were many. They were also suspicious about the fact that Jordan couldn't produce any of the text messages she and Cody had allegedly exchanged on the night he supposedly took off with his car buds.

Now, her excuse for this was that she and Cody always deleted their texts, because the kids she babysat for like playing around with her phone. Now, why that had anything to do with Cody delete and his, I can't imagine, but the cops weren't buying it. And they were pressing her now, showing doubt. And then, on July 10th, Jordan and her mom showed up at the police station with an email Jordan said she'd just received. It was from an account called Carman Tony 607 at gmail.com, and it said, quote, my name is Tony. There is no bother looking for Cody anymore. He is gone.

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

So call off the missing persons report. Cody is gone for sure. Tony. Oh, campers. Roll your eyes with me now. We've seen this before, haven't we? And what does it always mean? Shenanigans?

shenanigans. It means somebody's trying to get all artsy. And in this case, it seems like somebody wants the investigation to stop. Cody's gone. Just quit looking. Oh, okay. Thanks, Tony. As if that would ever in one million years be the cop's reaction. For God's sake. Like, they're just going to be like, oh, okay. Thanks. We'll just call it all off. So, of course, eventually the detectives would trace the IP address of the email from Carman Tony. And I know this is going to stun you. so prepare yourself. You might want to sit down. Whoever had written this little masterpiece had done so from Jordan's parents' house, where Ms. Jordan had been hanging out a lot over the past few days. I know it's stunning, right?

She's a criminal mastermind, they tell you. She's a criminal mastermind. Bless her heart. So, of course, that info took a little while to get, though. And in the meantime, Jordan must have realized that her best laid plan was going tits up. So she tried a Hail Mary pass. Everybody had been continuously searching for Cody for days now.

and one of the places where they were concentrating was Glacier Park, a beautiful, vast woodland area where people like to go hiking and rock climbing and stuff like that. Jordan had told everybody that this was one of the places Cody and his car friends liked to hang out. So after she left the police station, Jordan joined some of her friends and family at the park to keep looking for Cody. And suddenly, Jordan seemed to know exactly where she was going. A rock wall that stood between her and a sheer drop into a river. ravine. She was like a scent dog climbing around that wall, staring down into the ravine. When people asked her why she was so interested in that particular place, she said,

I just have a feeling. And lo and behold, a few minutes later, Jordan shouted, I see him. Her brother, Michael, was the first to reach her. And when he saw where she was pointing, he dropped to his knees and started sobbing. It was Cody. and it was obvious he was dead. He'd fallen face first, 200 feet off the steep embankment. Oh, my God. Jordan, calm as ever, just stepped away from the drop-off and waited for everybody else. A few minutes later, as a friend drove her down to a nearby lodge to call for help, she said,

now that we found him, that detective can get out of my business. Oh my God. Wow. I never understand these people, like, they just can't even fake it for a little bit. I know. She can't help her so. Yeah. So somehow, Jordan had led her family right to the spot where Cody Johnson had died. When a detective asked her about that later, she said, well, that was one of the places Cody always wanted to see before he died.

It's getting chilly in here. Yeah, and allow me to add a little detail here. Remember that custom song, Jordan, commission for the wedding dance? Yeah, well, the lyrics are all about finding your, quote, safe place to fall and stuff like that. So that is just 15 kinds of creepy. Later, it would come out that as they were recovering Cody's body, one of the detectives happened to be walking his dog in Jordan's neighborhood, and he noticed her trash can on the curb.

It was bulging with teddy bears, cards, and love letters from Cody and Jordan's wedding dress. She'd thrown out every reminder of him. Cody had suffered a horrifying death. The fall crushed one of his eye sockets and left a seven-inch fracture in his skull. He had broken bones in his legs, and worst of all, The impact tore his heart muscle. So, campers, she literally tore his heart into.

Just let that sink in for a minute. Oh, that poor guy. By now, almost everybody was side-eyeing the hell out of Jordan. That only got worse at Cody's memorial service a couple days later, where Jordan seemed almost giddy, texting and laughing while everybody else cried. She had what she wanted. wanted. She was out of the marriage, and she didn't have to disappoint everybody at church by getting a divorce. As Cody's loved ones mourned, the Callisbell Police were finding some disturbing evidence back

at Glacier Park. For example, near Cody's head, they found a black piece of cloth that looked eerily like a blindfold. It wasn't long after this that the info about the IP address came in, confirming what the investigators already suspected, that there was no car man Tony and Jordan had written in the email asking cops to call off the search. And then they found yet another stick of dynamite, security cam footage from Glacier Park, showing Jordan and Cody arriving at the park on the night of July 7th, and then Jordan leaving alone. It was time to put the habeas grabbis on our girl. Jordan initially pled not guilty, and her trial for the first-degree murder of Cody Johnson began in December. Prosecutors believe that Jordan, wanting out of her brand-new

marriage and not wanting to disappoint her church friends by asking for a divorce, lured Cody to Glacier Park with the promise of a surprise. Then she pushed him off a cliff, possibly after blindfolding him first. There's another surprise, just like what is there you? That's so creepy. Jordan didn't deny that she'd pushed him, but she claimed that it was just a terrible accident. they'd argued he grabbed her she tried to push him away and ended up accidentally pushing him off the embankment instead she said she only lied because she was afraid no one would believe her

yeah i don't believe her and neither should you because as soon as the trial wrapped up and the jury was about to deliberate jordan and her lawyers called an audible hoping to avoid that first-degree murder conviction jordan pled guilty to second-degree murder admitting that she'd coaxed cote out to the park, led him to the cliffside, put both hands on his back, and pushed him face first to his death. Wow. Now Jordan Lynn Graham is serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of her husband, which is an awful steep price to pay for maintaining your mask. And of course, the price was even worse for Cody and everybody who loved him. And if anybody's feeling sorry for Jordan for growing up in a community so sex negative and prescriptive that she felt like she had to commit murder to

keep from losing face, which I could understand in a way, because there's a lot going on with that, no doubt. That stuff can be toxic. But before you feel too sorry for Jordan, consider this. During the trial, it came out that within an hour or two of killing Cody, Jordan was texting back and forth with a friend about who had the better dance moves. Dude, you better work on those sweet moves, she said. We'd kill it on the dance floor. She could have had the courage to walk away, and she'd still be busting a move today. And Cody could have moved on to somebody who really did love him. So yeah, what a fucking bummer, right? Nina, do us a favor and cheer us up a little bit and tell us where to find your awesome podcast. Well, I don't know if it's the best place to

cheer people up, but first of all, thank you for having me. We had some technical difficulties to start, so I was highly frazzled in the beginning, and I'm not a troll that just doesn't, you know, I appreciate you having me on here. And I also love this podcast so it's it's really cool to be like the third voice in it um so it's really cool um and i have online we've been in the same circles for a while in our group so it's been so cool i remember when you all started this podcast so it's really cool to see it grow and your success with it um thank you so much and we we have loved having you on and you're seriously your show is so good and i'm excited and honored to have you on like right at the beginning where you're just

brand new because I promise you it's going to blow up like the first episode when I listened to it I was like oh this is going to be huge so seriously y'all she said that oh thank you so good that's I'll remember that as I'm throwing my laptop across the wall because you know I have like lip smacking sounds I have to end up and stuff um don't we all yeah exactly um but yeah it's uh you can go to twisted mirror podcast.com and that website will have all the info um on Facebook. It's Add Twisted Mirror Pod on IG, Twisted Mirror Podcast. It's on all the podcast platforms or whatever they're called. I can never find the right term. Are they podcatcher? I don't know what the cool way to call them is, but you know, it's on Apple, it's on Spotify, all those

things. Everywhere you listen. Yeah, wherever you listen. That's probably a better way to put it. And I'm only four in. I have one coming out this Friday. It's a two-partier. I kind of took the Thanksgiving week off and this one has like a kind of it's kind of in line with Thanksgiving because it's kind of about it's called the ones you love and it's about when the probably the best emotion we feel as human beings turns dangerous so I cannot wait about that one yeah it's going to be fun so thanks again for having me and these stories were real bummers but also very fascinating just the the the psychology of these people to just like turn on a dime like that it's just crazy it really is and it's

two people who both were really well regarded and nobody saw it coming in a million years so it's real life horror right yeah exactly right fictional horror this is real life horror 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 we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Cassie, Catea. Please let me know if I said that wrong and I'll fix it next week. Taru, Nicholas Shelley, and Mangey Cat.

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 more, plus an extra episode a month. And once you hit the $5 in up categories, you get even more cool stuff. a free sticker at $5 a rad enamel pin while supplies last at 10 virtual events with Katie and me we will read to you we will show you our pets and we're always looking for new stuff to do for you so if you can come join us