True Crime with Kendall Rae - Wife Pushes Husband Off Cliff After 8 Days of Marriage? The Murder of Cody Johnson

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

On July 7th, 2013, just eight days after their wedding, Jordan Graham lured her new husband Cody Johnson to a cliff in Glacier National Park, and shoved him off. She told a lot of different people a lot of different stories as to what happened, but it seemed that she did it because she just didn’t want to be married to him. This episode is sponsored by: Vegamour - promo code: kendallrae Care/Of - promo code: kendallrae50 Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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It's not golf. It's top golf. Download the app, book a bay, and come play around. Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. So today, I'm covering a case that has actually, I don't think it's been that highly requested I just found it in my request box and I'm glad I looked more into this because it is a really interesting case I know you guys are gonna have a lot of thoughts on this one and I am really interested to hear what those thoughts are So let's just go ahead and dive right in today

We are gonna be talking about Cody Johnson. So Cody was born on April 8th of 1998 in San Jose, California, and he grew up living with his mom Sherry Johnson. And the two of them had a very close relationship. He really loved his mom. Sherry would do anything for Cody, and she wanted him to have the best life possible. So eventually she thought it was a good idea to move to a little bit of a smaller town, so he could have a safer and happier childhood. So in 2002 she decided to relocate them to this tourist town that's called Callis Bell. It's in northwestern Montana and he really thrived there. This is known as a very low-key outdoors oriented place. It's in a valley known as Flathead Valley,

which is between Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park, which we will be talking about a lot today. It's a beautiful national park. It has 700 miles of trails, and it's in the northern Rocky Mountains. I've personally always wanted to visit Montana. It looks gorgeous. I would love to go to Glacier Park.

And this definitely was a good move for Cody. He loved this area, and he loved going to Glacier National. And this definitely was a good move for Cody. He loved this area and he loved going to Glacier National Park. He was a very outdoorsy type of kid. He liked to go out and go shooting with his friends or just right around on dirt bikes. And he was obsessed with cars and the whole car lifestyle. His friends said he was a car fanatic. And always wanted to talk about cars. He was always trying to get anyone to talk about cars with him even if they weren't interested. And as he got older, this hobby continued into his adulthood and he really enjoyed working on cars and kind of souping them up for

racing. But people really loved him because he was very charismatic and friendly and real and he made a lot of genuine friends. He was a very personable person who liked to joke around a lot. His friends and family say he was always making jokes. People in his life also describe him as selfless, willing to do anything for anybody. And with all those qualities, like I said, he had a lot of friends and a lot of them he met in the car world.

So a lot of them were interested in cars as well. When he was younger, he would work on other people's cars and make them custom cars and eventually he turned that into a business. But he actually added in commercial cars and he really focused on that and he was a custom commercial car builder. Later on he ended up getting a job at Nomad, which is a communications company, and this was a really exciting job for him. And he also really liked it because he worked with his uncle and several of his friends there. So it was a really good setup for him. And his boss was actually his best friend from childhood Cameron Fredrickson. And he loved him. So it was a perfect fit. So this point, things are going pretty well for Cody.

He was happy in his job. He had tons of friends in his life. He has a good relationship with his family. The one thing that was missing for him was a wife, and he wanted to find his life partner. Cody had always said he wanted to settle down one day and raise a family that was really important to him. And he told his friends that he wanted to meet a nice church girl. I don't wanna church girl, I gotta church.

Lucky for him on Halloween of 2011, he found that church girl, I wanna church. Lucky for him on Halloween of 2011, he found that church girl. And her name was Jordan Graham. So let's talk about Jordan Graham for a second. So Jordan was born in August of 1991, and she was very different than Cody. She was known as being shy, not very charismatic, a lot more introverted than him,

but she was one of those people that once she knew you a little better, she would kinda of open up and she did have a silly side to her and Cody saw this side to her and really, really liked her. And one thing that they did have in common was that they both loved the outdoors and they loved Glacier National Park. And like I said, Jordan was definitely that church girl that Cody was looking for, she was very, very religious growing up. She grew up in a really strict Christian household with lots of rules and lots of expectations for how you're supposed to live your life. She was always involved in the church growing up.

All of her friends were in church. It was her whole world and was very important to her. Her faith was everything to Jordan. She was a very active member of the faith Baptist church. And in high school, she helped out in the nursery and was known for being great with kids. And after she graduated, she also worked as a nanny for families in the church and she loved kids. And knew she wanted a family one day.

And Cody really liked that about her because he knew he wanted a family one day. And Jordan's dream was to one day be a stay at home mom and fully devote her life to raising her kids. So like I said, it was Halloween 2011 and Cody was introduced to Jordan. At first, she was pretty shy around him for the most part, but her friends could tell she really liked him. But Jordan was not looking to jump right into anything. It was not really a priority for her. And Cody was definitely more into it than her,

and wanted to be in a relationship with her quickly. But they decided to start kind of dating, but it was pretty much just friendship because Jordan really wanted someone who was more involved in the church. So Cody decided to start going to her church and becoming more involved. Before meeting Jordan, he was religious, but very casually religious, and when he met Jordan, he took it up a notch and started going to church, you know, as much as he could. He started meeting, you know, all her friends in the church, and eventually they had the same friend group. They were hanging out with all the same people and going out doing activities together, and they officially started really dating in November of 2011. Now, Cody seemed to be completely in love with Jordan

according to people around him. He seemed to just adore her and he wanted to be around her day and night. And after only a couple weeks of dating, he actually told his mom that he wanted to marry Jordan. So things were moving quickly. And one thing that was really important to Jordan was celibacy before marriage. And this was fine with Cody. He was okay waiting until they were married to consummate the marriage. So they seem to compliment each other perfectly. They had the right things in common

and they complimented each other in all the right ways. Since Cody was very social and outgoing, Jordan was a little bit more reserved. Cody was able to kind of be a little more social for both of them and got her to do more things. So she was really happy. But one thing that pretty much everyone in their lives noticed was that Cody seemed to be way more into Jordan

than she was into him. Most people just kind of chalked it up to her shy nature, but it definitely seemed like Cody was head over heels and she was kind of halfway in. She liked him, but did she love him? People said that they were not a fact in it in public at all. They didn't kiss or even hold hands, but that could have been due to religious reasons. So after dating for a whole year, in December of 2012, they got engaged.

And some of her friends were pretty surprised that Jordan was actually going to get married because they thought that she wasn't that into Cody and she wasn't serious enough to marry him and to get engaged after a year seemed a little fast to them, but they were happy that she was happy she seemed happy. But it became clear very quickly that she was really mostly happy about the idea of having a wedding and just the whole fairy tale of it all, then she actually was about marriage. This episode is brought to you by Dr. Teals. A bath is a great way to relax and recharge.

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She posted a picture of the ring on Instagram with the caption, he proposed best early Christmas present ever, smiley fakes. They said a date for June 29, 2013, and started planning the big day, started figuring out who is going to be in the wedding, what are the colors gonna be, where are they gonna get the cake, etc., etc. And Jordan was eating it up. She chose her best friend Kim really Martinez to be her matriot of honor and help with the wedding planning. So it was mainly her and Kim and then Cody as well planning the wedding, Cody was also really into planning the whole thing. And they wanted it to be very unique and special and one thing that they decided to do was have their own song written for them to dance to for the first dance. Like they literally paid a songwriter to make them their own custom song. They hired this woman named Elizabeth Shea who is a professional songwriter and she spent a lot of time with Jordan and Cody and interviewed them multiple times to write the perfect lyrics to describe their love. She said that she really enjoyed working with them, that she really enjoyed working with Jordan

and thought that she was in love with Cody. She said that she seemed excited to start her new life and to be married and was definitely excited for the wedding. And Jordan and Cody seemed really excited to get married because they did buy this house and once they got married they were going to be able to move in together into this house and they were going to decorate it and they were working on all these plans really kind of looking towards the future. So the big day finally arrives Cody and Jordan are going to get married. They're going to have this really nice outdoor ceremony with all their friends and family and their custom song and Jordan had picked out a beautiful dress. She was super excited but very nervous because obviously she knew something big

was going to be coming on her wedding night and she would possibly be expected to consummate her marriage. And Jordan just didn't know if she was ready for this. So they had the wedding ceremony and Cody's friends thought that Jordan seemed a bit awkward that she was looking down a lot. Almost seemed like she didn't really want to be there. Like she wouldn't really make eye contact with Cody much and they thought it was a little weird. But her friend said that she was just really nervous and that she really did love Cody and she was happy to be there and happy to be getting married. Obviously your wedding day can be super, super nerve-wracking for both of you. I remember being so stressed out trying to read my vows and I'm so dyslexic in front of, you know, all these people.

There's a lot of expectations and everyone's eyes are on you and some people don't thrive in that situation, you know, so who really knows how Jordan was feeling that day? But the awkwardness seemed to kind of melt away when it was time for their first dance. Their custom song came on and Jordan seemed to kind of forget everyone else was there and just kind of focused in on Cody And so Cody and Jordan were officially newly wedged. Cody was 25 years old and Jordan was 21 Now Cody made it clear to everyone that he was overjoyed to be with Jordan And he was excited to consummate the marriage for sure

And he told his friends that he was so happy about being married to Jordan that he felt high He said his wedding day was the best day of his life. So they went to a hotel and had one night for their honeymoon kind of, and then they decided to go and settle into their new home and Cody had a whole week off of work, so he could just focus on his wife and settling it. They spent the whole week together unpacking their stuff, decorating their house, kind of getting in the swing of things, and they also got outside during this time a lot. On the last day before he had to go back to work, he was supposed to go golfing with his friends, but he ended up canceling to hang out with Jordan instead. It was a Sunday,

so of course they're gonna go to church, so they did that first, but then after church they went to go spend some time on the lake. This was something they loved to do together. Then at 5.30, they went back to the church to meet up with some friends and they all went out to Dairy Queen for dinner. They enjoyed their dairy queen, had a normal dinner, hanging out with friends, and then they left at around 8.30. So the next morning, Monday,

Cody is expected to show up at work. His friend Cameron, who's his boss, is waiting for him. He was excited to see him, you know, he'd been off. He wanted to congratulate him on his marriage and everything, and Cody never showed up. And Cody normally got there early, he normally showed up at work around 6am, so 615 comes, 630, he's still not there, and they're getting concerned. So Cameron went over to their house to look for Cody, and when he got there, no one was answering, and he got really concerned and just broken. And as Cameron's looking around, he just gets this bad feeling that he can't shake. That's something is wrong. And he starts looking around for any evidence

of a break in or any criminal activity. He was hoping to find maybe some clues about where Cody could be. Maybe he left somewhere, maybe they went on a trip, maybe they went on a surprise, honeymoon and didn't tell anybody. But then he went into the garage, and he found Cody's phone, which really concerned him, because Cody always had his phone on him. This was very unlike him. So Cameron starts calling all of Cody's friends and family members, and everyone that had seen him the day before hadn't seen him since 8.30 that night at the dairy queen. And he didn't know where Jordan was either, so he decided to go to the police station

and make a police report. This is all on July 8, 2013, so they'd only been married for like a week. And officers could tell right away that Cameron thought something really bad could have happened to Cody. So the police took this case seriously from the beginning. Sergeant Chad Zimmerman was one of the officers

who first talked to Cameron, and he wondered why Cody's boss was reporting him instead of his wife, his newly wed wife. So then later that day, finally, someone hears from Jordan. She texted one of her friends and asked if she had seen Cody anywhere. And then she ends up telling her friend

that Cody had left their house that night and she wasn't sure who he was with. She said he was in the garage. She went out there to talk to him and he was gone. She walks out over to the driveway, looks out, and she sees him pulling out with a bunch of friends. She said she saw Cody in the backseat and that he texted her and said that he was going out with some friends. But these weren't their mutual friends. These are random friends that Jordan's never met from out of town. So, words start to spread to Cody's friends and family that he is missing and that he's supposedly with some friends from out of town. And everyone is automatically really concerned and just confused. I mean, he had just gotten

married. This makes no sense. So, everyone goes over to their house. And when they got there, they noticed that Jordan was not acting the way they thought she should be. She seemed to be upset that everyone was there instead of happy and thankful for the support and the help. She didn't want to talk to anybody, she didn't want to throw out ideas of where he could possibly be, or you know, try to come up with any way that they could spread awareness about him being missing. People said that she was mostly quiet. Just sat on the couch. And at one point while everyone was there, she got so upset that she stood up and threw her wedding ring across the room, which everyone thought was very odd. When you download the Kroger app,

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Cookie dough! The flavor party isn't gonna last forever, so hurry in and get your cake Only a DQ. Happy taste good. So the police, like I said, took this case very seriously and they started the search for Cody right away. They of course interviewed all their family and friends. They put up missing person signs. And of course, they brought Jordan in multiple times for questioning. When they first brought her in on June 9th, she told them the whole story that she had told her friends. She said they had dinner at the dairy queen, they drive home, and on the way home he gets this phone call,

and whoever he's on the phone with makes him really upset, and she decides that she should give him some space to cool off. A little while later, she realizes she left her phone charger at work, she goes to go get it, and on her way back, she gets this text from Cody saying he's going for a ride with friends. I was going to go for a ride with some of the out of town buddies that were visiting. I don't know anything more. Any of them. Where about to anything? I got a text saying he's going.

He's like, I just want to go. She gets home around 10 p.m. She sees a dark color green sedan pulling out the driveway with Cody in the back seat. She said she thought she saw a Washington State license plate, but she wasn't completely sure on that. She said before she knew it, the car pulled out and disappeared around the corner. She told detectives that she didn't know who these people were, where he was going, or when he would be back.

So investigators are trying to piece together why Cody would just leave like that. They tried to see if maybe they had been fighting that night, but Jordan said that they didn't fight. Everything was fine. He just left. So investigators started thinking that maybe these friends from out of town were actually drug dealers because there was a lot of drug activity in this town. But Jordan said it was nothing like that and explained that he just did this with his friends. That they loved cars, they loved driving around really fast. They would go out into the dark into windy roads and drive as fast as they could around the corners and they would call them joy rides.

She said this is something that he did all the time and that he usually came back in a few hours so it was odd when he didn't come home. So they asked, why didn't you report him missing? Why did his friend report him missing? And she said, well, I assumed he was gonna come back. And I was worried if I made a missing persons report that he would be angry with me. After interviewing Jordan, they brought in Cody's mom Sherry and she was

very upset and very worried that something really bad had happened to Cody. She had the same feelings that Cameron did and she had also already gotten his phone records from Verizon so she brought them into the police department to have a look at those. The first thing they did is try to look for that upsetting phone call that he had gotten according to Jordan after they were coming home from Dairy Queen. There was a call from a random Washington state number and they ended up tracking it back to this guy named Jose. So they called Jose and they asked him about the phone call and, you know, what were you and Cody talking about, was he upset, etc. And he said that Cody wasn't upset at all. They were talking about a tool that he had borrowed. Cody would let people borrow his tools all the time

and Jose had lost this tool, but he was calling Cody to let him know he had found it and he could get it back to him. Of course they can't prove that this is what they talked about, but they were able to prove that Jose had nothing to do with Cody's disappearance because he had a rock solid alibi. That night, Jose's wife was having a baby and he was in the hospital with her, so he was not involved in this at all. So they cleared him of any suspicion,

but now they were confused, and they're looking back at Jordan. They tried to figure out, you know, why would Jordan think that he was upset when clearly he wasn't? I mean, according to Jose, he was completely fine. So there were multiple search parties organized to search the whole town, and people drove around looked in fields abandoned barns alleyways anywhere they could think of that Cody could possibly be. But by Wednesday July 10th he still was nowhere to be found.

But that day there was a big break in the case because Jordan got a surprise email from this random email address and she told her friend Hannah about it. The person who had sent this email was calling themselves Tony the carman or Tony S. And here is what the email said. Hello Jordan, my name is Tony. There is no bother in looking for Cody anymore. He's gone. So call off the Missing Persons report.

Cody is for sure gone. According to this email, according to Tony, Cody went hiking in Glacier National Park and he fell and he was dead so there was no use for the cops to look for him anymore. So yeah, pretty short and sweet. Basically, Cody fell off a cliff in Glacier National Park when he was with three friends and he's dead so police should stop looking for him. Extremely weird. The email is so matter of fact, it's just disturbing and very odd. And please, obviously knew something was off with this. But they had to consider it because Cody and his friends did like to go to Glacier National Park and drive on these really

windy roads as fast as they could. It was something they were known for doing. So when Jordan first told Hannah this, she was acting very casual about it. Like, hey, I just got this email. Apparently she just stood there reading it to her. Like, it was lab results. Like, she was reading some story to her and was completely calm. And Hannah afterwards was like, you need to go bring this to the police if they're saying that he's dead. You know, police need to follow up on this lead. Isn't there any urgency for you to get it over to them? And at first, she was like hesitant to bring it to the place and was like, oh whatever. And Hannah had to be like, you need to go right now. And when she first went to the PlayStation, she was just being very calm,

not upset at all. It was just like, hey, I got this email that my husband's dead. She seemed extremely cold and unemotional about it, but please thought maybe she was in shock. Maybe she didn't want to face reality of what was going on. You know, it's hard to judge someone on how they're grieving. But detectives were definitely suspicious and really suspicious of the email right away. I mean, it's super weird. So of course, they wanted to know who this Tony person was. And that's when Jordan told the police that Cody actually worked with this guy named Tony Stalkup, and then she handed over this guy's contact information and said, you know, maybe he knows something.

So the contact Tony, they bring him in for questioning, and when he gets there, he knows nothing about this. He says, I don't even work with Cody. We've hung out a few times because we're both in a car, but we don't work together. He hadn't seen Cody in a really long time, and he didn't even know anything had happened to him. He knew nothing about this whole situation.

But he really liked Kody and was really worried about him being missing so he was very cooperative with the police and let them have, you know, access to all his email accounts and his phone and everything like that. And he did not have a Tony the Carman account on Gmail. This email did not come from him. So he was clear to have any suspicion, but they still needed to figure out who had sent this email. And it's not easy for them to just get the IP address that fast, especially back then. This was a Gmail account, so they had to follow Google's special process

for subpoenaing the records and getting that IP address. But eventually they were able to get Cody and Jordan cellphone records, and they were hoping this would make more sense of everything. But it would take a couple of days for them to get full access to all of these records. So in the meantime, they had to focus on other leads. And it's crazy because whoever wrote this email

from Tony the car man clearly wanted the investigation to stop and for all of this to go away. But it actually did the opposite. It really charged everything up and gave them some good clues. And it also gave Cody's friends and family somewhere that they could search. Clayshore National Park. But it was super overwhelming for them because it's 1,500 square miles of wilderness and they just didn't even know where to start. It's a treacherous area for a search party to just go walking around looking.

It wasn't like walking through the woods. I mean this park has swift rivers, steep cliffs, dangerous wildlife, black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and who knows what's out there. And they do have like protective fencing and guardrails that are set up to block hikers from the most hazardous spots where they could possibly fall. But everyone's searching knew that not everywhere

was protected and one wrong slip anywhere in this park and you could fall to your death easily. When you download the Croger app, you have easy access to savings every day. Shop weekly sales and get personalized coupons to get the most value out of every trip every time, whether you shop in-store or online. Download the Croger app now to save big. Croger, fresh for everyone, must have a digital account to redeem offers. Restrictions may apply, see site for details. Save big on your favorites with the Buy, Fiver more, save a dollar each sale. Simply buy five or more participating items and save a dollar each with your card. Kruger, fresh for everyone.

They also hung up a ton of flyers in the park and around the park, hoping that people may have seen him when they were walking through. And as time went on and they still didn't hear from Cody and they didn't find any clues, you know, people started to get worried that maybe this Tony the Carman was right, maybe he really did fall off a cliff. So after she is done being interviewed by police, Jordan and her friend Hannah go and join everybody looking for Cody out in Glacier National Park. And Hannah says that during this whole time, Jordan was acting weird. And I mean, she understood her friend was going through a lot.

She was trying to be as supportive as she could to her, but she felt frustrated because Jordan didn't seem to really care that much about what was going on. She didn't seem that worried about Cody and she didn't seem to want to help with the search. They walked around, looked in several places and didn't find him and eventually they all went back home for the night. The next day was Thursday, July 11th. They all decided to go back to the National Park and keep looking for Cody there and this time she brings her little brother Michael with her. So as they drove through the park, Hannah kept trying to get them to stop and pull over and kept pointing out places like he could be here, he could be here, let's start here and here. But Jordan didn't want to stop anywhere.

She kept driving and seemed to want to go to somewhere specific within the park. She drove down going to the sun road, which is a very narrow winding road that's about 30 miles long. And she said that she wanted to drive all the way up to the sun road, which is a very narrow winding road that's about 30 miles long. And she said that she wanted to drive all the way up to the top. So the group decided to just let her lead the way, and they did. They went all the way down this long road to the very top. At the top, there's a parking lot.

They stopped there. It's right across from this loop trail. And when they get to the parking lot, Jordan gets out. She starts talking to her friends and family, telling them that this is a really special place for her and Cody that they went here a lot. This trail runs along a 200-foot deep ravine. It's very dangerous.

It's a super, super steep drop. Then there's a series of rocks that you have to climb over and step down to the edge of a cliff. It's a very scenic lookout. It's beautiful by it's very dangerous to stand in this spot. So the rocks on the other side of the safety wall are not approved for hikers, but of course people still go on them. So the search party starts walking the trail, and when they get to this part, Jordan just hops over these rocks like it's no problem, like she's clearly done it many times before. She knew just how to get to this one small

cliff looking out over the ravine. And the whole group just watched her as she went to the very edge of the cliff Through a rock off and then looked down and said I think he's down there Obviously, they were all shocked by this and then Jordan looks down again a little further and says oh my gosh It's him so her brother Michael climbs over the wall to look over and see if it's really him. And when he looked, he realized that there was definitely something down there, but it was so far, and you know, just over the point where you are almost going to fall off if you look any further. So he couldn't really tell if it was a body, but he knew it was something. But of course, he's way down there. And there's no way for them to get to him. And apparently her brother Michael was so traumatized and shocked seeing this that he couldn't

even stand up. He was hysterically crying and had to crawl back to the car. But Jordan was just fine. So two of her friends stayed near the trail with Michael because he was so upset. And then Jordan and her other friend actually drove 20 miles down to Lake McDonald's Lodge where they reported the body to the park rangers there. They went there and looked down and decided this was going to be a major recovery mission so they planned it for the next day. When professionals tried to get a better look they were able to see a blue tennis shoe and it was

confirmed that Cody was wearing blue tennis shoes on the day that he went missing. So they thought this was probably Cody, but they needed visual confirmation of the body, and they weren't able to see clearly enough to make sure that this actually was a body. They were gonna be risking their lives trying to get down to this point, so they had to make sure that there really was a body there before moving forward with the recovery mission. So one of the FBI special agents volunteered to go down there and get a better look. And I don't know how people do this,

but he literally tied a rope around his waist, tied it to a tree, and climbed down there. He leaned way out over the edge, and when he did, he was able to confirm that there was a body down there. There was a little body of water down there and Cody's body was just laying in it. But he could see that getting to this area in the ravine was going to be really difficult.

This was a very tricky spot. In fact, some of the park rangers that they interviewed think that this is possibly a remote spot that no person has actually physically been before. And there's no way to just go straight down. They have to hike a long way around the river and then around this cliff edge. And all I carrying backpacks with supplies for evidence collection. It was really stressful for everybody involved, but eventually they did get to the bottom. And when they got down there, they saw that Cody's body was lying in a pool of water at the bottom of this waterfall. And he was in really bad shape shape as you can imagine. His head and his arms had most of the damage and he did have his wallet on him so the corner was able to identify him on the scene. So they got him carefully into the body bag but then they realized that there was no

way to carry him up out of there. They were literally gonna have to bring the helicopter in and air lift him out. The helicopter ended up having to drop a 200-foot line to get down to Cody. That's how far down he had fallen. And then of course investigators had the really rough duty of telling the friends and family of Cody that he was found down there. And everyone who knew Cody was crushed by this news because Cody was really so close with so many people and so well-loved. Like, he had a lot of friends and his family loved him. His mother was devastated. I mean, they just had this huge wedding. He just moved in with his new bride. It was a huge moment in his

life, a huge milestone. And now he was dead. They just can't even wrap their minds around it. So now that they knew that Cody was no longer alive and they had his body, they decided to go back to the drawing board and re-interview all his family and friends. And when they interviewed Cody's friends, they found out that Cody was actually afraid of heights. And it didn't make any sense for why he would be out on this cliff edge. And a few of his friends even said to police that they felt like someone had to have lured him there. So now they felt like this missing person's case was a potential homicide. And the most promising lead that they have now is the email from Tony the car man because Cody was found in Glacier National Park.

Clearly this person knew that he was there. But they still weren't able to track where the email actually came from because they did not have permission yet from Google. They were still waiting to get the IP address. And they were also waiting on phone records, text messages, all of that, which is going to tell them a lot. For the time being, all they could do was ask as many questions as they could and try to get to know Cody's life as best as they could, try to understand why this happened, how this could have happened. But then they had a break in the case because Kimberly Martinez came into the police station to talk to them.

If you don't remember who that is, that's Jordan's matron of honor. And she told the police something that they had not heard before. And that was that Jordan did not want to marry Cody. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms and APRs depend on meeting are underwriting an income criteria and may require

collateral. First Franklin financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS and the 141654, not available in North Carolina. She explained that Jordan was having serious doubts leading up to the wedding, especially on the wedding day, mainly because she was afraid of doing anything sexual and she was afraid she'd be pressured into it. Apparently, sex was not something that Jordan was looking forward to at all, and she was pretty much dreading it. Kim said that Jordan asked her over and over again if she should get married, if she was doing the right thing, and she seemed terrified of marriage. And it turns out that they did not have sex on their wedding night. Jordan actually told him that she was on her period

the entire week after they got married. This was her way of avoiding sleeping with him. And she told Kim that if he had tried anything with her anyway, she would have freaked out. She said it was clear that sex was something that Jordan was afraid of. And after the wedding, Jordan actually texted this to Kim. She said, 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. Then there was this text of her second guessing everything. Totally just had a meltdown. I'm completely second-guessing everything right now. Kim told her that she should talk to Cody about this, but she said that she couldn't that it would break his heart. I should be happy and I'm just not.

If I tell him how I'm really feeling, it's going to break his heart. And then two days before Cody went missing on July 5th, Jordan texted this to Kim. He held me down the other night and was in my face. He gets a temper fast.

She said that Cody had tried to hold her down. And when she did get away, he dropped his keys and then he scratched her. But when everyone saw them on Sunday, when they were at Derrick Queen, Cody seemed fine. They didn't seem to be fighting. But then they found a text message on July 7th from Jordan to Kim, saying pretty much tonight's the night, I'm gonna tell Cody the truth about how I feel about all of this. Oh well, I'm about to talk to him. Her friend replies, I'll pray for you guys. Graham then texts, but dead serious. If you don't hear from me at all again tonight, something happens. It seemed that Jordan was afraid that Cody was gonna react really badly to the news that his new wife didn't want to have sex with him. And not only that, it sounded like Jordan

didn't even want to be married at all. It almost seemed like she was a bit afraid of Cody. Then really late on July 7th, Jordan actually went over to Kim's house and said that she had talked to Cody and it didn't go well. She said that he got really angry, freaked out at her, and that she decided to leave so he could cool off. She said to get her mind off thing, she went over to her mom and her step-dads house to hang out with her step-brother Michael. So detectives now knew that Jordan was telling different stories to different people, which is never a good sign. So they went back and interviewed the park rangers that Jordan had come to when they had found the body, and they

said they were all very alarmed with her lack of emotion having just found her husband's body out in this national park and then she comes down there and acts completely normal like she's checking in at country buffet. Everyone else in the group was crying but she was just completely calm and they were also weird it out that she was the one who. And they were also weirded out that she was the one who was able to find the body in that huge national park. It seemed like she knew exactly where to look. And when police pressed her a little bit more about this and asked her, you know, how did you know exactly where to look? She said that this was

a place that Cody had on his bucket list. This is one of the spots that Cody wanted to see before he died, and that's why she thought to look there. And then Jordan starts saying that she got a feeling from God, from the Holy Spirit, that it led her to his body. So now detectives are really suspicious of Jordan because that is weird, and people who say things like that, normally they're the ones who did it. Things were just not adding up here, and it started to look like Jordan knew exactly what happened. So eventually they heard back from Google, and they had the IP address, and when they traced it back, it actually went to Jordan's stepfather's house.

Someone at their house, I don't know who, had created the account, and then written the email all in the same day. So they interview her mom, her stepdad and her brother Michael and all of them say that they did not write this email. So that just leaves Jordan. Then the cell phone records came in for Jordan and for Cody. It turns out that both of their cell phones had been in Glacier Park on July 7th.

The night Cody disappeared and that they entered the park at 9.17 p.m. And at that they entered the park at 917pm. And at the entrance of the park, there is a camera that takes a picture of every car that drives in. So detectives are pulling up this grainy photo from the night at that time and sure enough what did they see. Jordan and Cody driving into Glacier National Park. So clearly this is hard evidence and proves that everything else that Jordan has been telling police

up until now is a lie. So on July 16th, they bring Jordan back in for questioning and they prepare to tell her about the evidence they have now. She starts out the conversation trying to talk about these friends that Cody could have been with that night, but they just stopped her and said, you know what, let's not even waste time here. One of the detectives just casually slid her the photo of her and Cody driving into the park.

And when she saw this picture, she cracked and she instantly started to cry. Probably the most she had cried this entire time. She knew it was over and she decided to tell them everything. She said that that night when they got home from Dairy Queen, she decided to tell Cody that she was not happy in the marriage after eight days. According to her, Cody's temper flared. He was obviously very upset. And this eventually turned into a really big argument with a lot of yelling. But at some point in the night, they decided to take a break and go to Glacier National Park.

This is about an hour away from them. It's not like it's down the street, so it's really odd. She said that they went to the park together, they went up to that parking lot at the top near the loop trail, and they went down near the rocks, climbed over that wall, and up onto that ledge overlooking the ravine. And according to Jordan, when they get there, the fight starts back up again, and Cody starts yelling at her. She said as they were arguing, things start getting physical, and as she turned to walk away from him, he grabbed her arm, and then he kind of yanked on her jacket, and she really did not like that.

She jerked her hand away, and then now Cody is just standing right on the edge of this 200-foot drop. And then she told investigators that in that moment, she thought, I'm not gonna let this happen to myself this time. I'm going to defend myself. I went to grab my arm and my jacket and I said, no, I said I'm not gonna let the top of it. So I'm gonna defend myself.

I said, well, I'll go on, I pushed and you went over. And then I took off and... So Jordan could have easily walked away in that moment, went back to the car, called for help even if she felt unsafe in any way. But instead, Jordan shoved her new husband right off of the cliff with both

hands. She put one hand on his back, one hand on his shoulder, and just pushed him right off. She said she was absolutely terrified, but she happened to have the keys in her pocket, so she just ran back to the car, and instead of calling for help or letting anyone know this happened, she did nothing.

And instead, she started thinking about what lies she was gonna tell, about what really happened to Cody. But in this moment with police, she's telling them, you know, this was an accident, though. This was an accident, like I just shoved him. I didn't know he was gonna fall. He was standing on a 200-foot drop and you shoved him right off. This is not an accident. Like, I just shoved him. I didn't know he was gonna fall. He was standing on a 200-foot drop and you shoved him right off.

This is not an accident. She also, of course, admitted that she was the one who made up this Tony character and she wrote the email from her step-dads house. So after she confesses all of this, investigators are blown away, but they knew this was coming. They had a feeling that she was involved, but they ended up releasing her right away because they had to collect a little bit more evidence and solidify that case against her before charging her. But in the meantime, everyone wanted answers about what really happened to Cody. No one else, but Jordan really had all the information about what the police knew at this point.

But on July 22nd, they had his funeral and Jordan went and during the funeral she had the nerve to be on her phone the whole time and all of his family thought that was just the strangest thing. At his funeral she didn't even shed a tear she showed like no emotion that he was gone probably because she was so worried about herself at this point and what the rest of her life was gonna look like. texting on our phone Sitting on our phone in there just like Audida dog just text and already there was At the funeral Will you suspicious Did you not that point what do you think?

I was in suspicious I kind of already named it personally I'd do yep no woman he has about her husband like that. I don't know. That's what. Just straight. She was on her phone. Rather it was texting or a mobile app. I knew right then and there's something was not right.

So I don't really understand what took the police so long to make this arrest, but it took a while. It took all the way until September. And Cameron, his friend who found him, said that he actually thought Jordan was involved in the beginning. So that seemed to become the narrative for pretty much all of his friends very quickly. They all came to the conclusion that Jordan was involved in this way before they even arrested her. In August, someone even started a Twitter account called Who Killed Cody to post updates and try to figure out who actually did this. Even though everyone really knew who did it. And finally, on September 9, 2013, Jordan was arrested

and she was charged with second-degree murder and making false statements to authorities. And in typical Jordan style, she was completely unemotional during her arrest. She didn't cry, she didn't get upset. She stayed completely calm. At this point, the story was picked up by national news and made headlines all over the country because people were fascinated that this woman literally shoved her new husband off a cliff

a few days after marrying him like a week. But the question still remained, why did she do this? How premeditated was it? Was it just on a whim? Could this have really been a tragic accident like Jordan tries to say, or was this premeditated murder? And as if it didn't take long enough for them to arrest her, then a judge failed to prove that she was a risk to the community, and she was released. They gave her an electric monitoring device and placed her on house arrest instead at her parents home. And Cody's friends and family were just outraged that she was allowed out of jail.

I want them to do the right thing. I want justice for Cody. He didn't deserve whatever end she gave him. He never earned anything that Jordan did to him. The judge also ordered a mental health evaluation for her in this time and she had to complete any treatment that they recommended. But then finally in October, she was indicted of first and second-degree murder charges and a jury added the charge of premeditated first-degree murder, which has a minimum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. The trial finally began on December 9, 2013, and it took place in Missoula, Montana. And the judge had another case coming up in a different Montana city,

so he made sure that this was a speedy trial. And Jordan didn't testify. In fact, she didn't say anything at any point. She was silently sitting there during the whole trial and as normal showed no emotion. So obviously when there's a first degree murder charge on the table, this really raises the stakes for everything. The prosecution at this point has to prove

beyond a reasonable doubt that Jordan did push him off the cliff and that this was premeditated murder. It has be proved that she did it with malice and forethought. This is trickier than you'd think. Jordan was represented by federal public defender Michael Donahue and Michael did not argue that Jordan didn't push Cody off the cliff, of of course because this had been established as fact. So instead he argued that she pushed him off in self-defense. But he also has to try to explain why Jordan lied to investigators to Cody's friends and family to her own friends and family. She knew that Cody was dead the whole time. So arguing her case was going to be really difficult. The prosecution brought up a ton of Jordan Cody's friends to tell the truth about their odd relationship

and the strange dynamic where it seemed like Jordan wanted to get married but really didn't. Like, like the idea of marriage, but didn't actually want to be married and didn't really like Cody that much. She wasn't happy, she dreaded having sex with him and she felt like she couldn't make any more excuses. The period thing only lasted for her for so long, and eventually she had to be honest. She obviously didn't want to get divorced

now because that wasn't gonna look good to her friends and family, so it seemed like she felt like she had one option, and that was to get rid of Cody by killing him. But of course the defense has a completely different spin. They argued that Jordan didn't do this on purpose, that she didn't plan it in advance that it was spur of the moment to defend herself. And that the reason she didn't tell anyone was because she was scared that it would look bad and that they wouldn't believe her. They argued that she was a very young, you know, she's only 21 years old, socially awkward. Woman who just was in over her head and didn't know what she was doing. And she was married to this popular well-liked guy, she was worried that no one would believe her.

They showed pictures and video of the wedding trying to prove that Jordan was happy. She was smiling the whole day while she got ready and through their first dance. They argued that Jordan was just naive, immature, and deeply religious. She was incapable of planning and going through with a murder. At one point, the defense even tried to compare her to a frightened rabbit who instinctively ran away from the situation. That doesn't make any sense. I have like four rabbits and none of them murder. So a lot of details came out during the trial about their relationship and it was a strange dynamic. Jordan had told one of her friends that Cody had really been pressuring her into doing sexual things that she didn't want to, that she was absolutely

repulsed by the idea of having sex with him. She literally said that the idea of getting intimate with him made her feel physically ill. She had told Kim Martinez that Cody had gotten violent with her at times, and who knows. Then they showed this text message that Jordan had sent Kim that night that he had first gone missing. And it said, dude, I'm freaking out. I'm about to go for a walk or something, jump off a freaking bridge. I don't know. I've lost it.

And apparently right before they got married, she was hysterically crying. She did not want to go through this at all. And then Jordan's stepbrother Michael took this stand as well and he was very emotional. The corner also testified about the way that Cody was found. It turns out that he was found without his wedding ring on and they were able to prove that he'd fallen head first. And in trial it was also revealed that Cody had canceled his plans to play golf with his friends that day because he said that Jordan had a surprise for him. And most of his friends thought that this was something sexual. They said that it

seemed like Cody thought that that's what it was. So it was argued that maybe Jordan led him there promising something sexual out on this private area in the park. So prosecutors try to use this to prove that this was premeditated. And what makes this theory even more believable is they found this black long cloth down near Cody's body and Jordan had said something about how Cody had put on this eye mask, this blindfold and was like, oh, I can walk around here, I can jump around and I won't fall because I know this area well. And was just joking around while wearing this mask. And they thought this was kind of weird that Jordan just said this randomly. And then when they actually found it, it seemed like maybe he was blindfolded

and brought out to that spot. They introduced a whole theory that she really did lure him there, blindfold him with the promise of some type of sexual encounter. And then when they got there there she pushed him off. And in court they played the videos of her just lying about police and showed how she was able to change her story so quickly. The next day there was a video showing Jordan telling detectives

about an email that she had gotten from Tony the car man and that just made her look really bad. And then to finish it off, they played the clip of her admitting that she was the one who killed Cody. Of course, her defense attorneys tried to argue that there was more to the story. They even tried to claim that the first hour and 20 minutes of her interview was not recorded and that wasn't fair.

But then in a surprise move for everybody, Jordan decided to take a plea deal. Instead, on December 12, 2013, she pled guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree murder. And in exchange for her plea, she was given a three-year sentence. That's it. She agreed that what she did was reckless and an extreme disregard, but maintained that it wasn't accident. She said she wasn't thinking about where they were, how dangerous, where they were standing was, that she just reacted in the moment and pushed in without thinking that it was all a big mistake. But shortly after this, Jordan changed her mind

because she had read a document that said the prosecutors were asking for a 50-year sentence now because the killing was premeditated. So now it was up to a judge whether or not to keep her plea or move forward with a new trial. But the judge ended up deciding against the new trial and instead they sentenced her. She was sentenced to the 30 years that they agreed upon without the possibility of parole. The sentence today is going to send a message that if he kills someone in a subject of federal jurisdiction, you will be prosecuted judge also said that j or showed any remorse of course Cody's friend disappointed with this. They were hoping for a

maybe for her to never several times over the appeal. The sentence,. Her final appeal was rejected in 2016, so now she will complete her sentence. Jordan will not be released from prison until she's 50, but hey, at least she's alive, right? That's more than Cody's family can say, because she just decided to push him off in that moment. It's really sad because Cody seemed to be really looking for this partner in life that he really wanted to start a family and find that love and instead he found Jordan who didn't seem

to want that at all and just went along with this wedding for I don't even know why. And I'm sure Cody would have much rather taken the heartbreak and the truth than have you push him off a cliff because you don't know how to get out of this situation that you got yourself in. I think this case is absolutely disgusting. I think Jordan's a really sick person and she should be in prison a lot longer than

30 years in my opinion. But it's just a crazy story. I mean, the lengths that people will go to before they just get a divorce always blows my mind. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked.

Or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living, offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more.

All loans terms and APRs depend on meeting are underwriting an income criteria and may require collateral. First Franklin Financial Corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS and the 14165 for not available in North Carolina. From joyful occasions to the unexpected, first Franklin financial makes loans for living,

offering fixed rates and flexible terms on loans up to $15,000. The next time you're looking for some extra cash to help make ends meet, come see the friendly Franklin folks, or visit us at 1ffc.com to learn more. All loan terms in APRs depend on meeting our underwriting and income criteria and may require collateral. First rank and financial corporation is licensed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission CFI-215, Georgia Residential Mortgage Licency 5656, MMLS, and the 141654, not available in North Carolina.