True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: She Vanished One Block From Her Car - Body Found 80 Miles Away | Cori Daye Desmond

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

The mystery deepens. In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, the investigation into the disappearance of Cori Daye Desmond takes a darker turn as detectives and loved ones dig deeper into the final hours before she vanished just steps from safety. New details, troubling inconsistencies, and haunting questions begin to surface. What did surveillance truly reveal, and could someone have been watching Cori that night? True Crime with Kimbyr continues the compassionate, in-depth exploration of Cori’s story—uncovering new leads while honoring the woman at the center of a case that still demands answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He didn't want anyone to forget her. He wanted Corey's face everywhere. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history.

Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at Yamaha. So Mark.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. So Mark started with flyers. He printed hundreds of them with Corey's photo at the top and a plea for information printed below. He taped them to storefront windows to light poles to coffee shops and gas stations.

Anywhere people might stop long enough to take a look. He didn't want people to just see a missing woman. He wanted them to see his daughter, Corey. Not as a headline or a case number, but a person, a friend, someone relatable, someone just like one of their own loved ones. That way they would feel something and they would spread the word. Then came the billboard campaign. Mark paid out of pocket to put Corey's face above traffic towering over intersections and stoplights near where she was last seen off Artesia Boulevard. You could not miss them driving through Redonda Beach. You couldn't escape Corey Day Desmond, and that was the point. I heard that there was 90 of these billboards put up.

And sadly, I've heard people say this when I've read comments here on YouTube, when I'm watching videos on current cases, like the one that's unfolding right now. Nancy Guthrie, being missing. I've seen people literally say, I'm sick of hearing about this case. Really? I find that to be so cold. That's someone's family member. It's not just entertainment, but to raise awareness, to solve cases,

to remember victims and to honor survivors. True crime videos can serve many purposes, but seeing comments like that, it makes me realize that many people are desensitized to how painful this really is. And for Corey's father, if someone out there knew something, if they knew anything, he was going to make it impossible for them to forget Corey. Mark talked to everyone, neighbors, bartenders, local reporters, bar owners, cashiers, and random people walking on the sidewalk. He told her story over and over, not just in search of a lead, but to keep her name from disappearing beneath the weight of time. Because as time passes, you know how quickly people can move on.

He wasn't going to let that happen. Detectives would later say that Mark had a tremendous impact. He brought in tips. He kept pressure on the department when leads would dry up, and he reminded the public loudly and relentlessly that Corey's killer was still out there and that they needed to do something if they knew anything. His persistence became the fuel for the investigation

that had started to stall. And while most tips that came in were just noise and they were hunches and secondhand stories and flashes of paranoia, one of them stood out. Months had passed. It was now man. And after seeing Corey's face all over this town between flyers and stores, at gas stations, on pumps and windshields of cars and parking lots,

and Mark's billboards, an anonymous caller contacted the local police. It was a woman. She was a young mom. She was whispering, and there was fear in her voice. She didn't talk for long. She gave them a name, Tony Perez, her boyfriend. She said he could have done it. And that was it.

She hung up. No additional information, no reasons, just to name Tony Perez. But that was a common name in Southern California shared by countless men across multiple counties. The caller didn't provide an age, an address, or where this person worked. There was no description of a car, a license plate, and no physical description or a direct link to Corey that detectives could treat. to this name. And they tried. They followed up on every lead because you just never know. They ran database searches. They began sorting through hundreds of Tony Perez's trying to narrow the list using geography, criminal history, and proximity to Redondo Beach. However, without more

details, the lead seemed almost impossible to follow in any focused way. But still, lead detective Travis Newport would not give up. He had a photo of Corey printed on his desk, with two words written underneath, solve it. This wasn't for anyone else. It was for him, a daily reminder that someone's child had been taken from their family. And it was his responsibility to find the monster who did it. Now, eight months had passed. It was the beginning of October of 2009,

and what detectives didn't know was that same anonymous caller from back in May had been fighting her conscience. She was 31-year-old Tiffany Ware, and she had a feeling she could not shake that her own boyfriend, 34-year-old Tony Perez, a guy that she dated for almost a decade, and she lived with and shared a three-year-old son with, was Corey's killer. Just imagine that.

Imagine having a gut feeling that you're living with someone who could be capable of this. But she felt like there were signs. Well, there were the physical billboard signs, of course. 50 of them now still all over Los Angeles. And one of them was right to be right. outside near her apartment. And those billboards had been glaring at her for months. Their apartment happened to be located on Carnegie Lane in Redondo Beach, just one block away

from Bogie's bar and only 500 feet from where Corey's Jeep had been parked that night. But that wasn't all. It was the whole Valentine's Day night that stood out the most to Tiffany. Maybe if it wasn't a holiday, Tiffany wouldn't have taken notice as much as she did. Because there she was. It's Valentine's Day. She's home waiting for her boyfriend because he said he was going to do something special for her that night, at dinner at home, something casual, but still something for Valentine's when he got off work. But he never showed up. And it got later and later, and Tiffany got more and more upset. She had no idea where he was, which was out of character for him. Once midnight rolled around, she actually started to think that something bad may have happened.

Maybe he got in a car accident or there was a medical emergency. She could hardly sleep. But finally, Tony got into bed around 4.30 a.m. And Tiffany was pissed. She immediately asked him, what the hell happened? Where were you? He calmly explained it wasn't intentional. He said after his shift was over at Spitfire Grill at the Santa Monica Airport where he worked,

he was a general manager and a part-time chef. He stayed around to have some drinks. friends and he realized that once he got back to his car, he was too intoxicated to drive home. So we tried sleeping it off inside of his Dodge Durango. And when he woke up, it was close to 4 a.m. and he just drove home. That was it. Now Tiffany thought about it.

That was smart on one hand. You don't want to get a DUI. You don't want to, you know, have something even worse happened, put other people in danger. But the more she thought about it, it sounded like a lie. But the worst she thought was that maybe he cheated on her. She and Tony had their fair share of relationship problems, mostly stemming from Tony's seemingly unsatiable desire for sex. When Tiffany refused, he had become aggressive in the past. He would demand it every day multiple times, and it just never seemed to be enough for him.

Back in 2006, after their son was born, Tiffany was, of course, healing from childbirth, and yet Tony didn't seem to care. There were two times in the middle of the night, after she had taken her pain medication, that she woke up with Tony on top of her without her consent and willingness to engage with him. It was so traumatizing. She took her son and she moved out to Colorado to separate herself from Tony. She stayed there for about a year. But eventually, she and Tony decided to reconcile for the sake of their son.

And Tiffany moved back in. But recently, in the months leading up to Valentine's Day, Tiffany had noticed Tony was back to his old ways, but it was worse. It was like an addiction to him. So much so, she caught him watching adult material on his computer and pleasuring himself while she and her son were in the next room. And to her, that was over the top. All of this, along with the fact that Tony was gone all night, the same time that Corey had been killed,

but also Tony was disappearing again the next night. That made Tiffany start to take notes, especially after hearing the news and seeing the flyers and the billboards. No matter where Tiffany went, she couldn't escape it. Everywhere she went, Corey's face was staring back at her, almost begging her to come forward. She remembered how rehearsed Tony sounded at 4.30 a.m., and he was dishevelled-looking.

But when it happened again the next night, she watched more carefully, trying to catch him in a lie. Again, thinking that he was cheating, on her. He was nervous. He was on edge and he was really irritated and defensive in a way she had never seen before. But it wasn't just these two nights back to back that he was gone that stood out. It was what happened in the next few days. For the first time in all the years she knew this man, Tony went out and purchased cleaning supplies and was scrubbing not only the outside, but scrubbing the interior of their white Dodge Duranco SUV. Vigurously. That's suspicious,

especially when a girl was murdered a block away. He cleaned with urgency. And Tiffany had never seen this before. And then, without warning, Tony calls Tiffany on his lunch break a couple days later. He's like, hey, babe, guess what? I just bought a new car. And Tiffany was stunned. Financially, that made no sense.

They only had a few payments left on the Dodge Drango, and he traded it in for an excursion. Now, Tiffany was upset. They would have been without a car, payment. Why did he do that? It was later that she started connecting the dots in Corey's case. That's when Tiffany couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't about finances. He got rid of that car because he was getting rid of something else. And then a few days later, he suggested something even stranger, a road trip, just to two of them. And guess what the destination was?

Big Bear, which is in the San Bernardino Mountains, tracing the same winding roads where Corey's body had been found. And at one point, he pulls over. Remember, this is days after she was murdered. He pulls over. He points out the window at a wooded stretch of land, and he says, do you think that's where they dumped her? Okay, sure.

It had been a huge story. in their area. But Tiffany said she felt a feeling like the blood was drained out of her body at that point. Like she went numb. Because by then, she knew this wasn't just a coincidence. This wasn't just paranoia. She could be living with someone who committed a murder.

So all of that was why she eventually called in that anonymous tip in May, and she thought it was going to be enough that Tony would be looked into, but months were on and nothing happened. She knew she had to go. go one step further. So she called the police again. This time she asked to speak to the lead detective on Corey's case. Travis Newport picked up and she explained everything I just told you. At that point, he asked her to come down to the station for a formal interview, but she said no. She said,

I'm way too scared, please. Can you meet me close by to my home? That way, it would appear like, you know, if someone was watching, she was just at the park with her son. So Detective Newport agreed because he believed that Tiffany from the moment she called him was telling the truth. He could tell. She was really afraid and she was sincere with her admissions. So they met in a public park in Redonda Beach, just a quiet corner surrounded by dog walkers and joggers, and Tiffany kept scanning the entire area. She was so scared that somehow Tony, who was supposed to be at work, would be watching. And when she sat down with the detective, she began to to unload everything.

She said, I don't have hard evidence. I don't have receipts. There are no things like location pings or camera footage, but she had an instinct and dread and a story that wouldn't leave her alone. And as she recounted the behavior, the lies, the cleaning, the car, the trip, the question about the dump site, Detective Newport saw a pattern, one that matched

some of the unknown facts of the case and the known facts, and this gave him a new direction. and a name and a timeline, and a possible vehicle that could contain DNA evidence. But he knew he needed to act fast to track it down. It'd already been months since Tony sold it. Meanwhile, Detective Newport staged a so-called routine canvas of Tony's apartment complex that just so happened to include Tony's unit.

He made it look like everyone was just being re-interviewed. When Tony answered the door, he was calm and polite. he came off as a concerned member of the community. Tony told them he heard about the murder and he expressed his sympathies. He said, unfortunately, he wouldn't be much help because he knew nothing about Cory Desmond or the crime. His demeanor wasn't suspicious at all, but still, Detective Newport couldn't shake the feeling that Tiffany's instincts were right. Now, after speaking with him, Detective Newport ran a full background check on Tony Perez, And he was expecting at least a few red flags to come up to the surface, but instead,

the results were unexpectedly ordinary. He had no criminal record. He maintained steady employment. He had a family life that on paper looked stable. To someone scanning Tony's file for the first time, it was unremarkable, just another working man in town. He was a long-time resident in the South Bay, one of eight siblings, and even his parents grew up in the L.A. area. Tony graduated, Tony graduated from Miracosta High School in Manhattan Beach, which is widely recognized as a top-rated public school. And because of its location in an affluent community, it does serve a student body from very wealthy families.

A lot of those include high-profile professionals, executives, and residents in the beach cities. It's not specifically known as a celebrity school, but it does have notable alumni, including musicians, Olympic athletes, and, professional sports players. The only thing on Tony's record that stood out was an old DUI. And on the surface, Tony Perez really didn't look like a killer at all. But detectives knew not to judge a suspect by their appearance alone. Some of the most violent crimes are committed by people who blend

seamlessly into everyday life, another scary thought. Let's not forget about Tiffany, though, and what she said that Tony had done to her without her consent. She specifically said, the intensity in which he pursued intercourse had become greater in January and February of that year. Corey's pants and underwear were down when she was found. Tony was missing that night. Plus, he lived close, so close, but they needed more. And luckily, it didn't take more than a VIN to find the SUV that he sold. And when they did, crime scene technicians process it like a crime scene.

With the seat still intact and the surfaces untouched since the sale, the technicians moved carefully through the VINC. vehicle. They dusted for prints, they vacuum fibers, they took swabs, and then they brought out Blue Star. This is a chemical like Luminal that reacts with trace amounts of blood, even blood that's been wiped away or scrub from sight. You can clean a surface, you can steam clean a carpet, but Blue Star will tell the truth of what was there. And when they sprayed the floorboard beneath the driver's seat, it lit up. A large, portion reacted that was impossible to ignore.

There had been blood in that vehicle in the backseat leading up under the driver's seat. And they needed to know whose it was. That would take time. And while those results were processing, they needed to question Mr. Tony Perez more formally. They called him into the station saying, they just needed, you know, a few things on record

to check him off as a resident they cleared. And they didn't reveal what they found, of course, not yet. He was calm. He was polite. But they noticed he was very careful with his words. From the moment he entered the room, it was very clear. The Tony wasn't reacting like someone innocent who was just relaying what he knew or what he didn't know. He was reacting like someone who was building a story.

At first, he denied ever knowing Corey, ever meeting Corey. He said, I don't know her. I never seen her before. I only saw the billboard and flyers in my neighborhood. But here's what I really love about detectives. They use psychological tactics. And these tactics are meant to open people up slowly. They press and pressing, are you sure? Tony, what if someone saw you that night with her?

What if a camera caught you and her in your car that night? They say things that could be true to see if his story would change. Even if they don't have that evidence, it was possible that a potential suspect may believe, may believe detectives are on to something, and they can get nervous and try to maybe explain why those things would have happened. And by pushing Tony more and more, his story starts to change. Now he admits, I was really drunk that night.

Something we already know, because remember, Tiffany said he drank with his buddies at work. He slept in his car. He came home at 4.30. Well, now he adds to detectives that he could have possibly seen a girl who looked like Corey near Bogie's bar that night. Well, that's interesting. How?

Because she was there at 2.26 a.m. approximately. And remember, he said he was sleeping in his car over in Santa Monica until just before he drove home and he was back at 4.30 a.m. That's only a 23-minute drive. So detectives know they need to lean into this discrepancy, but of course without tipping Tony off because they know that story doesn't add. So they would say things like, you know, Corey, she was so beautiful, she's so pretty, I'm sure she would be really hard to miss.

They were like, man to man, did you interact with her? Did you say anything? And all he said was he may have whistled at her from across the street. But you see how each new version of his story puts him closer and closer to a murdered woman? That's strange. But of course, when he makes this statement, he says, well, You know, I was drinking, so I can't really be sure. I don't really remember.

Detectives kept letting him talk because those DNA results were about to drop on their desk. And when they did, they confirmed it. Corey's DNA was inside of Tony's car. That was conclusive. She had been there. She bled in his car. And that was something that no version of any story he could explain would make that go away. He could try, though.

And when they confronted him with this reality, he changed the story yet again, which, by the way, I'm sure you know that's not a good sign. Truth doesn't change. So are you ready for this? Listen carefully. Tony was about to tell a story that none of these detectives could believe. But was it possible? Well, you will hear and see some of it from Tony himself because he said he found Corey that night. Found her.

That's right. He said he was walking back from parking his car when he saw her under a street light, just lying on the sidewalk. And according to him, she appeared unconscious. Now, if you know me, I like to look at exact places where things occurred, and they looked at Google Maps. The latest I could go back was to 2011, and there was a street light about 100 feet from the corner of bogies. This would be in the direction that Corey would have been walking to her car. And here's why detectives think she took a back road, because she was never caught on the bank CTTV footage going back on Artija or any of the other bar footage in that direction. It made sense she kept walking down Sloss and Lane,

turned left on Vanderbilt, and then made another left on McKay, and she would have been at her car. It would have been a five-minute walk easily. There's another street light on Vanderbilt as well, right in front of the Castle of Bonito Apartments. So is that where you found her? Or was it right at that corner near Bogies, like he said, when he said, I might have whistled at her from across the street.

There are a bunch of streetlights on this road that leads to McKay Lane. Who knows which one he was talking about? Only Tony did. But details in stories are important, because the truth blends with lies. Remember that. So what did he do? Did he call 911? Did he flag someone down for help?

No. He said he walked up to her. He knelt down. and he shook her. She was unresponsive. Detectives were like, what do you mean unresponsive? Did you feel her neck for a pulse? Knowing that she had been strangled.

That's why they asked that question in particular. And he said yes. So now they have him with his hands on her neck by his own admission. He said he didn't feel a pulse and he thought she was already dead. Okay, so is that one he called 911? No, no, he didn't. He said he panicked. Okay, that's normal to be afraid.

You just found someone you think is deceased. But no, that's not why he was scared. He was scared. He was going to be blamed for her death. Yeah. His exact words were, it looked like she was crossed up. So I shook her and she felt cold. And oh, shit, I thought, is she dead?

Wait a minute, I'm drunk. Someone's going to think I did it. I got scared and I panicked. And that's when I put her in my car. end quote. Yeah, his car. His car that happened to be right there and he picked her up and he put her inside. Who does that? The detectives were like, did anyone see you? Was anyone there? And he's like, no, no one was around. So if no one was around, who did he think was going to blame him? And why would you get blamed for just trying to help someone.

And why wouldn't you call the police? He insisted to them, I didn't kill her. She was already dead when I found her. Detectives asked him to show them exactly where this supposedly happened. And they videotaped this part for evidence. So this gave me a much clearer idea of where he was saying this occurred, which matters. They told him that all they were trying to do was clear him. He still thinks that they're going to believe this story,

but in actuality, he's prime suspect number one. And I'm just going to say this now. I think that this is the spot where it happened or he said that he found her. It's because this is a one place that's blurred on Vanderbilt Lane. I can definitely understand why someone would want to blur their property on Google Maps.

But what's crazy, as this was only one minute walking distance to where Corey's Jeep was parked and only a three-minute walk from Tony's apartment, so it makes sense. He might have parked his car over there or been looking for a spot before seeing her on the ground or seeing her walking if she was ever even on the ground. But we're going to get to that. Because there is a lot more. Let me show you the video of him explaining what happened to the police that night.

Now, the audio isn't great. I will try my best to clean it up. Her body right here laying in a weird position. Like, she was knocked out of sleep. I should have one hand. And then I actually shook her. What happened when you shook her? Nothing.

There was no response or anything. So how did she feel to get cold? Do you see the positioning of his hands when he said he shook her? Let me pause it and I'm gonna zoom in. Look at that. I don't know about you, but it looks like the positions where you would put your hands if you were choking someone. Just look at it. This is not the way that you would normally position your hands to shake someone

if you find out that they were laying there unresponsive. responsive. Maybe you would take one hand, you might put on their back. So considering what the detectives just saw, one of them says, I'm going to pretend like I'm Corey. I'm going to get on the floor. Can you show me how you shook her? And I swear, you can't even make this stuff up. I swear, it's crazy. Watch this. Tony put one of his hands on the detective's throat and was actually choking him. It wasn't gentle either. Even in the demonstration, it was a lot of force. So the detective said, did you put more pressure than that on her? And he said, probably. I was like, wow, wow. And they were stunned. They didn't believe his story, but they asked, how did Corey end up a hundred miles

away then? And he said, well, I went home. I got into bed after this, which by the way, she is in the backseat of his Durango. And we know that Tiffany said he came in at four Corey left Bogies at 2.30. So that's a whole two hours. And it only takes three minutes from Bogies to where Tony said that he found Corey. And he wants everyone to believe that she's just lying on the ground in front of these homes for a couple hours.

But he went on to explain. He went to bed. He woke up before the sun came up, and he went outside to check in his words to see if it was a nightmare. He said, I opened the door, and it was not a nightmare. a nightmare. It was true. My first thought when I heard him say those words, the word nightmare, is why would it be a nightmare for you if you hadn't done anything? What was the nightmare? Bad luck.

Was that part of the nightmare? He said he went back inside and he tried to sleep. Then he went to work the next morning with Corey's body still in the back seat of his SUV. That is unreal. And then the detectives asked, can you show us where your SUV was parked at your workplace. So they drove over to Spitfire Grill in Santa Monica and he said that during his shift on February 15th, he had to run an errand because he drank a 12-pack of Bud Light from the bar on Valentine's Day the night before and he needed to replace it before anyone noticed. Okay, so now he just admitted he drank a 12-pack before he encountered Corey that night. Maybe more. We don't know. While on his break, he tells the investigators he took black trash bags from the

the restaurant, goes back to his car, opens the door, gets inside, and puts them on Corey's body. He put one of them on the top over her head, tightening it, and one for her legs. He waited then until he got off work. And during the night, he drove out to San Bernardino Mountains to that turnout below Big Bear. He parked. He said he was really nervous. He pulled to the edge of the cliff. He pulled her out, and in his words, I think I flung her, kind of.

That was basically it. Then I sprinted back to the car. He said he was so nervous, he almost ran. That's how he put it. He added, he might have dragged her a little as he pulled her to the edge. I have to say, there's a world in which a combination of this or these stories and evidence can be true. It's usually somewhere in between all the very details. And in that in-between is where there's a theory that Corey could have been intoxicated to a point of unconsciousness.

So when he says he found her on the ground of the sidewalk, it could be true. When I bring you these cases, I do my best not to leave out pertinent information. And in the toxicology report on Corey, it did show that her blood alcohol content when her body was examined at autopsy was 0.35%. which is more than four times the legal limit to drive. This is in no way to portray Corey in a negative light whatsoever, but it is important. I did not have information on Corey's exact height and weight, but I did research on blood alcohol levels of 0.35 in an average woman

that is slender, athletic, and about 5'7. And even with those results, this was considered critically high and potentially fatal. This level indicates severe, beer alcohol poisoning and represents an immediate medical emergency in many people. But of course, we have to take tolerance into consideration. I don't know Corey's particular tolerance. A chronic drinker might appear conscious at this level.

But for an average person, this is a life-threatening amount of alcohol. It's emergency level intoxication according to what I read. So to put that into perspective, this was at her death. death and over 40 hours later. So that's high. But here's what's a little confusing about post-mortem blood alcohol concentrations. They can naturally be slightly higher than they were before death. I know. It's confusing. But the body itself lets off its own natural alcohol through decomposition. But usually not by much. We know that Corey had been drinking that night. And to be fair, she could, with this amount of alcohol, have passed out before Tony came upon her that night.

But here's the thing. She wasn't dead. She could have been in a critical condition and in need of help. She could have been merely stumbling and never even fell. But Tony admitted something. When he was up on that cliffside showing the detectives where he put her body, he said, she woke up after he shook her on the side. So the plot thickens.

Tony was already under arrest before he went out to the mountains to reenact what he had done with Corey after he wrapped her in trash bags, brought her to the side of the cliff. And he was still cooperating at this point. Here is this clip that I'm showing you on the screen. He's already in his orange jailhouse outfit. He's already been charged with her murder. And now he says, there he was trying to help her on the sidewalk, and then she started to scream when she woke up. And that's interesting because I said, lies mixed with truth. Even one of the detectives said, the story of the truth is somewhere in

between all of this. He said she wouldn't stop screaming and he was panicking and he was trying to put his hands over her mouth and he was only trying to calm her down. When she wouldn't stop screaming, he said, he put his hands around her neck and he accidentally killed her. But here's the thing. The bruises to her face, her neck and her head and a broken high-way bone in her neck proved there was a struggle. It was more likely Corey was walking down that street alone in the dark, a beautiful woman in a vulnerable situation, intoxicated. And Tony saw her. He might have even offered her a ride. Who knows? But at some point, he was able to pull her into his vehicle, and that is most likely where the struggle occurred. He's bigger than she is.

There was blunt force trauma to the back of her head. Could she have fallen in her? sustained those injuries by the force when she hit the ground? Sure. But he also could have hit her over the head when he took her. And then he tried to force himself on her and she fought back. He probably did put his hands over her mouth and nose to silence her because she was smothered. The autopsy report shows suffocation and strangulation. And when she wouldn't stop fighting him, he killed her. There was no evidence of male DNA, but that doesn't mean he didn't attempt anything. recall her pants being down to her knees. Could she have fallen from intoxication and hit her head?

Sure. But what remains clear is he moved her, he fought with her, he smothered her. He put his hands on her neck enough to force her high bone to break. He killed her. And after securing the arrest and the evidence, detectives returned to Tiffany to tell her, you were right. And that was what she dreaded. but also what she needed to hear.

She wanted to know that her instincts had been correct, but it meant facing a devastating truth. A man that she loved and trusted, the father of her child had been arrested for murder. Tony Perez entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday, October 13th of 2009. His trial was set for July of 2011. And for Corey's father, the moment Tony Perez was arrested, it did not bring closure.

It did bring something that he hadn't felt in months. It was some kind of relief. It had been eight excruciating months since Corey's murder. Months filled with waiting and searching and pushing and longing and hoping. And Mark had poured everything he had, his own money, his time, everything, into keeping her case alive. And because of that, because of his efforts, because he didn't want Corey's face to be forgotten, Tiffany didn't.

and she came forward. And now the man accused of killing his daughter was finally in handcuffs and behind bars. But even then, the pain doesn't just go away. Arrest doesn't mean justice. Justice wasn't Corey, and he wasn't alone in that feeling. Across Redondo Beach, the arrest, of course, sent a ripple effect through the community

and even beyond. They had been waiting so long. This wasn't just some far-off headline when it happens in your own city. It's personal. people had seen Corey serving drinks, heard her voice on karaoke nights, passed her smiling face on billboards

while they were commuting to work. Her murder had unsettled the entire South Bay, and now they finally had a name for a monster. When words spread that the suspect had finally been arrested, the reaction was instant in this community. It was vindication, but it was also disbelief, because Tony Perez wasn't some shadowy person lurking through their community.

He was living right there within walking distance of the very bar that she left that night. He blended in, passing by those billboards, moving through the same streets, the same stores, the neighborhood where they lived while they were searching for that monster. And all along, he was hiding in plain sight, and I told you, he worked at a restaurant as a manager. Will it came out? He even lied to friends. He said he had once been a sheriff's deputy, and his partner was killed in the line of duty.

He fabricated an entire backstory. He painted himself as some kind of brave and honorable hero. That was the opposite of what investigators now believed him to be. But there were people who called him hardworking, great with kids. He would take his nieces and nephews on fishing trips, and their mother said they loved their Uncle Tony. And I'm sure they did. But Uncle Tony treated women very differently.

He forced himself on his own girlfriend when she was on pain meds healing from childbirth. He couldn't control his urges, and it's not an excuse. It's a reason detectives believe he couldn't leave Corey alone that night. The trial began in late July of 2011. Deputy District Attorney Karen Kim led the prosecution, and she laid out the story piece by piece methodically. Tony Perez, she argued, he had not panicked. He hunted. He targeted. He lied. And he killed. She showed the surveillance footage that captured Corey leaving the bar alone,

the timeline of when she passed her Jeep. The last ATM sighting, the fact that Tony lived just blocks from where she disappeared. She told the jury that this wasn't an accident. It was control. It was domination. This was three full minutes of force. And then Karen Kim did something that no one in that courtroom could forget. She pulled out a stopwatch. She held it up for the jury to see and then she pressed start. The courtroom fell completely silent.

For one full minute, no one moved. No one even coughed. No one whispered. By the second minute, people were fidgeting. They were shifting in their seats. They were looking at the clock. They were wondering, when is it going to be? When is it going to end? And by the third minute, the silence was unbearable.

Three minutes. That's how long it takes to manually strangle someone to death. No one in that courtroom could escape the weight of that. Because three minutes isn't a moment. That's a choice. Repeat it again and again and again. Go ahead. Set a timer yourself and see how long three minutes can be.

Now imagine someone with their hands, pressing harder and harder for three minutes. The prosecutor paced back and forth in front of the jury, holding out her hand like she was squeezing someone's neck. She said, live or die. Kill or not kill? Let her breathe or squeeze harder. That's a choice. Now, it only does take 15 to 20 seconds for a strangulation victim to lose consciousness, but three minutes until they never wake up.

The prosecutor made it clear to the jury of six men and six women that Tony certainly had enough time to decide whether Corey should live or die. And because of how much time it took, she said that Tony Perez should be found guilty of first-degree murder. It was intentional, deliberate, and premeditated. Why? Because he could have left. He could have kept driving or walked away.

He could have chosen not to pursue her, not to drag her, not to drag her to his car and not to kill her. Premeditation can happen in the blink of an eye, and that choice matters. In interviews before the trial, Tony admitted to, I don't know how I'm going to say it on here with YouTube, but to sitting in his car that night, and he had done this before, sitting near the bars,

waiting for women to walk by because he was inside his car with his pants down doing something to himself. Need I say more? And he needed some material. for his viewing pleasure. But Tony's defense attorney claimed, his client was innocent. And he found Corey passed out.

He tried to help and she screamed. And he panicked so that no one would think he was hurting her and he ended up squeezing too hard. He said to the jury, in this day and age, you've all heard things more bizarre than that in your life. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And he asked them to consider reasonable doubt. And instead of finding a reason,

his client guilty of first-degree murder, find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, which carried a maximum of four years in prison instead of life or 25 years to life. Pleading with the jury that maybe you and I, we would have acted differently. This doesn't get him off the hook, not by a long shot. But I think this is all his attorney could argue

because Tony admitted he killed Corey. The prosecution said in her closing arguments, Tony's story is a web of lies. And she asked the jury to consider whether the events were reasonable or unreasonable talking about reasonable doubt. She asked, if you, reasonable people, encountered someone passed out on a sidewalk and they start screaming, would you place your hand over their mouth? She reiterated that Corey's injuries were bruises to her face, her neck, her head, and a broken hyoi bone. It proved there was a violent struggle. And she said, he's guilty.

Point blank. This prosecutor was so good. She really was. She fought for Corey. And Corey's father called it a long fight. And he felt so grateful that Tony was at least off the streets. And so many of her friends and family drove that 90 minutes to the San Bernardino courtroom to witness this entire trial.

They said they wanted to honor her memory and bring closure for themselves. And when it came time to deliver, The jury didn't take very long, less than a day. The evidence was strong. Even Tony's girlfriend Tiffany testified. The lies were too many, and the forensic trail was way too clear. The pain in that courtroom was too loud to ignore. On July 27, the 2011, the jury returned its verdict.

Guilty on first-degree murder. And at the September 2011 sentencing both Corey's biological mother, Debbie, and her father, Mark, read their victim in impact statements along with others, and they read them aloud to the court. Tony eventually got sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Corey's memory didn't just live in candlelight vigils or courtrooms. It lived in the memories of tattoos and karaoke tributes from her loved ones and her father, who never stopped being Corey's father.

Not even when she died. Not even when she was found. Not when the case stalled. He kept her alive in every interview. in every tip line, in every conversation with people who might have known something. He turned his grief into movement, his pain into pressure, and silence into momentum. He shared to a dedicated Facebook for Corey up until March 31st of 2020, when he was finally reunited with her again.

Because sadly, Mark lost his three-year battle with lung and pancreatic cancer. Corey's story is a tragedy, but it's also a reminder. It's a story for every woman who's walked alone at night, who's trusted the wrong smile, who's been taught to shrink herself to stay safe. It's a story about what happens in the margins, in the in-between spaces after the bar closes, after your friends go home, after the cameras aren't flashing anymore.

But it's more than that. It's a story of refusal. Mark refused to be silent. Tiffany refused to stay scared. This case reminds us that monsters don't always lurk in shadows. Sometimes they walk right beside you. Sometimes they live on your own street or in your own house. But the moment you name them, the moment you speak the truth out loud, they lose their power.

And the people they try to erase, they become unforgettable. Don't forget, Corey. I know that I won't. And I'm so sorry to her loved ones. Hold yours tight. And I will see you in my next video. Bye. Thank you.