The Unspeakable

about today takes place in Joshua Tree National Park in California. It's a story that's

been covered across various true crime television programs and news publications since it happened in 2014. There's even a book about it by author Shana Hogan titled "Secrets of a Marine's Wife," a true story of marriage, obsession, and murder, which I highly recommend

“you read if you want to dive into this case even further. That book was an invaluable piece of research”

material for me and was a resource that Laura Hevelyn, the mother of the victim in this story, asked me to read before covering the case. And when I tell you guys it brought me to tears, I'm not exaggerating. By the end of it, I was unwell. Laura graciously agreed to do an interview with me for this episode, despite it being several years since she's discussed the crime with a journalist.

She told me that she never wants her daughter's legacy to be forgotten. Plus,

she's an avid listener of Park Predators. During our first phone call, she told me that while listening to previous episodes of this show, she often wondered if I was ever going to cover her daughter's case. Well, here I am, and this is the official episode about the life and murder of 19-year-old Aaron Corwin. [Music]

“On the evening of Saturday, June 28, 2014, 21-year-old John Corwin was sitting at his apartment”

inside the Marine Corps Airground Combat Center Military Base in 29 Poms, California,

racking his brain. He had no idea where his 19-year-old wife Aaron was, and it was getting later and later.

The last time they'd spoken was around 7 a.m. that morning when Aaron left their place to visit Joshua Tree National Park. Her plan was to take some time to herself and scout out scenic areas in the park that she and her mother, Laura, would visit when more fluent from Tennessee for Aaron's birthday, which was on July 15. When they'd last spoken, Aaron had told John she would be home by 4 p.m. but that time had come and gone and Aaron had still not called texted or otherwise contacted her husband.

So, starting shortly after 4 p.m., John dialed his wife's cell phone a few times, but each attempt went straight voicemail. Not wanting to think the worst, John convinced himself that Aaron was

“probably just at a friend's house or had bad cell phone reception. But as the hours ticked by,”

his resolve waned. It was unlike Aaron to not pick up the phone, so by midnight, fraught with worry and waiting desperately for her to call him, he dialed her a few dozen times. But once again, was unsuccessful at reaching her. By sunrise the following morning, Sunday, June 29, he knew something was very wrong, so he got in touch with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and reported Aaron missing. He also called Laura, Aaron's mom, and explained

what was going on. The last time Laura had spoken with Aaron was on Thursday, June 26, two days before she disappeared. During that phone call, the two women discussed Laura's upcoming trip to California and ironed out some of the details of their trip to Joshua Tree, and they also had plans to go to a zoo and theme park in San Diego. Before hanging up the phone, Aaron had told her mom, she loved her, and Laura responded in kind. Not long after John made

the official missing person's report, two officials came out to the military base and met with him at his apartment. Those investigators took down basic information about what Aaron looked like, when she last been seen, and contact information for her family members and friends who lived in Tennessee. The deputies also canvas the Courwind's apartment building and talked with neighbors to see if anyone had heard from or seen Aaron, but no one claimed to have. In particular,

they'd chatted with a man named Chris Lee, who lived in the unit next to John and Aaron, with his wife Nicole and a young daughter. Chris answered authorities questions, but wasn't much help because he claimed he didn't really know Aaron well and hadn't noticed relief or come home recently. However, when the investigators spoke with a couple who lived in an apartment beneath the Courwind's and leaves, they learned something totally different.

A woman in that unit told police that not only did Chris know the Courwind's well, he'd had an extra marital affair with Aaron several months prior, which had ended badly and taken a toll on the friendships between everyone in the building. Now, this revelation immediately peaked the authorities' suspicions because it completely contradicted what Chris Lee had just

out the discrepancy, he was nowhere to be found. He'd left his family's apartment abruptly.

“While detectives attempted to track him down, the sheriff's department launched a full-scale search”

for Aaron in and around the National Park. They utilized ground teams as well as an aircraft overhead to cover as much of the desert as possible. John jumped in as well and wrangled several Marines he knew to help search for his missing wife. It seemed that everyone's initial assumption was that Aaron had likely gotten lost or become dehydrated. It was a common occurrence especially during the summer months, so time was of the essence to locate her and get her some help.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Aaron's mom lore was growing more and more concerned about her daughter's well-being. Flurries of messages and phone calls steadily flew between her family members and people in their community who were worried about what was going on. To help get the word out and manage the influx of support, Aaron's loved ones created a Facebook page titled "Locate Aaron," as it means to update folks on the search for her as well as drive tips and information to California

“authorities. The physical description that investigators put out about Aaron was that she was white,”

way to 120 pounds was five feet to inches tall and had brown hair and blue eyes. The vehicle she and John owned, which authorities had established was missing from the couple's apartment, was a blue 2013 Toyota Corolla. Around noon that same day, authorities who'd remained at the Corolla's apartment complex spotted Chris Lee returning and immediately confronted him about his

prior affair with Aaron, and the fact that he'd failed to reveal that information when they first

spoke with him. In a tape statement taken at that time, Chris admitted to having had an affair with Aaron several months earlier, but claimed it was over and the only reason he'd gotten involved with her was because he was dealing with depression and she'd manipulated him by lying about being a victim of spousal abuse. Investigators weren't sure what to make of Chris's claim since Aaron wasn't around to give her sight of the story, so for the time being they kept their eye on

“him and continued to look for her. At that point in time, they didn't have any evidence that the”

couple's illicit affair was connected to her disappearance, and furthermore, they knew that Chris wasn't the only guy in the apartment building that would have been affected by that relationship.

John Corwin, Aaron's husband, was someone authorities, needed to take a harder look at as well.

When investigators questioned him one-on-one, John answered their questions to the best of his ability, but unfortunately, he didn't have a rock-solid alibi for Saturday the 28th. He'd been home by himself all day while Aaron was out. He claimed he hadn't left the military base at any point, and had no idea where exactly in the national park his wife had planned to go. His phone data and computer records later confirmed his account of not having been off-base,

and that in tandem with the fact that he passed a polygraph test after 20 total hours of being interviewed, seemed to convince authorities he was telling the truth. The next day, Monday, June 30th, investigators discovered a clue that was both useful but also deep in the mystery. An area water district employee found Aaron's blue toyodacurola parked about five miles outside the boundary of the national park. It was locked, covered in dust,

and pulled off to the side of the road. The location was noteworthy because it was only a couple miles away from the bat gate of the military base. A local resident quickly came forward and told police she'd noticed the vehicle parked on the side of the road on the morning of the 28th, and she had photos to prove it. This witness said the only reason she grabbed her phone and snapped the pictures on Saturday morning was because a random car being parked in such a remote

area felt oddly out of place to her. So much so, she felt like she needed to document it. She gave her pictures to detectives, and that was all the proof they needed to feel confident that something had likely happened to Aaron shortly after she left the military base on the morning of the 28th. While processing the car, investigators noticed there was a single set of shoe prints that led away from the driver's side and disappeared next to a set of tire tracks that

didn't belong to Aaron's vehicle. That clue suggested she'd likely gotten into another car, but who's car and why? Authorities weren't sure, but they had their suspicions. The next day, July 1st, the sheriff's office obtained search warrants for Chris Lee's Jeep and the Lee's in Corwin's apartments. They didn't find anything in John and Aaron's place that suggested foul play, but they did discover a sticky note on Aaron's laptop with the name

of an apartment complex on it that an investigator later determined was located in Anchorage, Alaska. They also found a love note in her jewelry box, which John confirmed wasn't from him, which implied someone else had held deep feelings for Aaron, and detective suspected that someone else was Chris Lee. Inside his and Nicole's apartment, investigators found a scope for a 22 caliber Winchester rifle, but the gun was nowhere to be found. They also knew Chris owned a

the seizures of Chris's Jeep, he agreed to speak with investigators at the sheriff's apartment.

“And it was that conversation, combined with what they'd already learned from speaking with Aaron's”

family and friends, that gave investigators a much fuller picture of who the Corwin's and Lee's were, and what the heck was really going on. John and Aaron had grown up in Tennessee and known one another since they were kids. In their teens, they reconnected and began dating. John was a little more than when you're older than Aaron, and after graduating high school, he didn't list it in the Marines. Despite doing long distance while he was in basic training,

their relationship blossomed and moved quickly. About two weeks before Aaron's 18th birthday, they got engaged. A few months after that, in early November 2012, they eloped in Las Vegas after attending a Marine Corps ball there together. For most of their engagement and the start of their marriage, they'd lived long distance with him either overseas or in California and her in Tennessee. However, in late September 2013, they'd managed to secure base housing, and so Aaron officially moved

“into her apartment in 29 pawns. At that time, John was deployed but later joined his wife”

by the end of 2013. Shannon Hogan explained in her book that it wasn't uncommon for young couples like the Corwin's who were living on base to quickly find community with other Marine families. John and Aaron started hanging out with the Lee's who lived in the unit directly next to them, and their friend group only got bigger from there. It included another couple with young kids who lived one floor below them. All of the husbands were Marines and grew close and the wives

bonded as well. They regularly leaned on one another for child care and handling bouts of loneliness whenever their husbands were working. A few months into their new life, though, things in the Corwin's marriage had begun to show signs of cracking. The couple burned through money quickly, and as a result, they built up significant credit card debt. So to help supplement their income, Aaron had gotten a job at a tractor-supply store near 29 pawns. But that gig didn't last

“long because she didn't like the 45-minute commute, and some health issues had prevented her”

from working as many shifts as she hoped to. As an alternative source of income, she began baby sitting for women on base who needed child care, and among those families were the Lee's. By early February 2014, Aaron and John's marriage was in a bad spot. They'd experienced a heart-breaking pregnancy loss and continued to bicker over their finances. Each of them handled Aaron's miscarriage differently, with John bottling up his emotions and Aaron confiding another people.

Her mom, Lord, told me that during her conversations with Aaron throughout this time,

she never sensed that anything was wrong. She believes Aaron felt like she needed to be strong

and not allowed too many people to see her in pain. Also unbeknownst to Lord, after Aaron experienced a miscarriage, she began hanging out more and more one-on-one with Chris Lee. In what began as a harmless friendship, quickly turned into a full-blown extra-marital affair on both their parts. People in their lives eventually picked up on signs that something seemed to be going on between the two of them. They were just getting a little too close, stealing

quiet moments alone, or cock kissing when they thought no one was watching, those sorts of things. All the while, neither Aaron's husband, John nor Chris' wife Nicole knew what was up. Chris and Nicole were originally from Alaska, but had been living in 29 poms for several years before the Corwin showed up. While dating in high school, they'd found out they were pregnant with their daughter, and a few months after she was born, Chris had enlisted in the Marines.

Thanks to a deferral program, he didn't actually have to go to boot camp though until six months later, in early 2009. Chris was considered well-suited for military service.

He was the second eldest of four siblings and had grown up with a love of the outdoors.

He'd learned from a young age how to proficiently hunt fish in camp, and over the years he'd developed an interest in sharp weapons, including knives, throwing stars, and swords. And this hobby didn't go unnoticed by people in the Lee's and Corwin's friend group. A downstairs neighbor who would regularly watch Chris and Nicole's daughter, told author Shana Hogan that Chris had an unusual obsession with weapons and death.

In general, his personality was what she described as immature. She said he would frequently talk about killing people, or he cracked jokes referring to killing people. Authorities later learned from speaking with personnel on-base that Chris had been disciplined for carelessly using some of the military's rocket launchers and guns. Folks who knew him had also mentioned that he often went to the desert and acted recklessly,

which included blowing things up, shooting guns, going off-roading, and having bonfires. Publicly, though, or at least in his military service record, Chris was viewed as an upstanding Marine. He'd been deployed to Afghanistan for a period of time between 2012 and 2013 and served honorably. He'd even been given several service awards,

Privately, similar to what had been happening with the Corwin's, his marriage with Nicole was less

“than ideal. According to Shana Hogan's book, the couple often butted heads over their finances”

and keeping their house in order. Friends often notice that their place was unkempt and they didn't seem to have much regard for tightness or cleanliness. The leaves had also experienced a pregnancy loss while living on-base, which only made their relationship more strained. To help deal with the aftermath of that loss, Nicole had found comfort involuntary at a horse rescue near 29 palms. And though Chris volunteered at that same place sometimes, he hadn't found as many meaningful

outlets to tend to his mental health struggles. After he'd returned from deployment and experience the pregnancy loss with his wife, he'd become withdrawn, apathetic, and wasn't performing as well at work. He'd also developed a short temper, and then only made tensions worse between him and his wife. According to what Chris told investigators, his affair with Aaron was his escape from reality. Author Shana Hogan wrote in her book that Aaron had apparently been experiencing something similar.

“She regularly texted a good friend of hers in Tennessee that she'd become completely”

infatuated with Chris. To the point where she was even researching Alaska online because she genuinely thought she might move there with him. So that probably explains the sticky note authorities eventually found on her laptop with the name of that Anchorage Alaska apartment complex on it. On Chris's side of the equation, though, unbeknownst to Aaron, he'd resolved himself to keep his nuclear family meaning Nicole and their daughter, together. Divorce wasn't something he wanted,

and the possibility of losing regular access to his daughter was completely out of the question for him. But that nearly happened because it only took a few weeks before his wife got suspicious of him, and eventually got into his phone's sim card, and read all of his many texts with Aaron. It was clear at that moment that the jig was up. The fallout of the affair resulted in Chris and Nicole having a huge blow-up argument, and later during a get-together with friends,

Nicole revealed to John that Aaron had been cheating on him with Chris. Bad interaction had led to a confrontation between Nicole and Aaron, which ultimately ended with John and Aaron returning to their apartment with a neighbor and discussing the whole thing in private. John told producers with date line that discovering his wife's infidelity broke his heart, but he was committed to making their marriage work.

To try and repair the damage in his family, Chris Lee claimed to his wife that

he and Aaron had never actually had sex, they'd only kissed a few times.

He told his wife that his relationship with Aaron meant nothing to him, and it was just something he'd done to help him cope with his depression after returning from the poignant. He assured Nicole that the affair would end, and he begged her for a second chance of keeping their family whole. And that seemed to be that. However, on June 22, one week before Aaron disappeared, she and John had found out that she was pregnant again.

According to doctors at the hospital they went to, she was about three weeks along when they discovered she was expecting. The news was a bit of a surprise to the couple, considering the fact that they'd been through so much after the whole affair drama, and hadn't found much time to be intimate. But because it seemed that all of that was in the past by the time June came along, John was actually kind of excited to learn that he and his wife were

going to be parents. Aaron, on the other hand, was much more reserved in her excitement.

Unlike the first time they'd found out they were going to have a baby, she didn't post about

her pregnancy online or tell many people, not even her own mother, Laura. The only person Aaron confided in about the pregnancy was her friend Jesse and Tennessee, and that's because, secretly, Aaron suspected the baby wasn't John's. Maybe some of you listening are like me, your parent or guardian to a child, and when you think about how they're going to excel in their studies, you want something that adapts to their level, pace, and learning needs. And that's

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If you like your true crime, like you like your coffee, red-handed is the podcast for you.

“It's dark, intense, and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hanna. I'm SuriTi.”

And every week on red-handed, we break down a different fascinating case. From the most recent US trials, everyone is obsessing over like Brendan Banfield, Karen Reed, and Ellen Greenberg to the most unbelievable stories from around the world. There's nothing we love more than digging into every detail of the cases we cover. Getting beyond a basic analysis and cutting to the heart of the story. Red-handed has over 400 episodes, ready to binge, right now. Plus, be sure to check

our weekly sister show, short-hand, where we unpack everything, from the Black Death to Area 51. If you're looking for smart, detailed true crime with personality, check out Red-handed wherever you get your podcasts. Unfortunately, in March 2014, when Chris and Erin had been caught cheating and promised to their spouses that they'd stop seeing one another, that was a lie. Though they'd initially ended things for a while, the pair had renewed their affair in April. In late June of that year,

“when Erin learned she was pregnant, she told her friend Jesse and Tennessee that she believed the”

baby was Chris's. Not long after finding out she was expecting, Erin had revealed the news to Chris, who had immediately been excited about it, but voiced that he was worried about how his wife Nicole would react if she found out. So, for the time being, the couple kept the news to themselves, and Chris reportedly directed Erin to wait about a week or so before telling anyone so that he could figure out how to deal with things on his home front. Like I mentioned earlier,

prior to Erin vanishing, her mother and many people looking at the Corwin's life from the outside had no idea anything was wrong and Erin and John's marriage. However, Laura told me during our interview that there were a few things she'd noticed in the first few months of 2014 that in hindsight, signaled something was definitely up. For example, Laura said that at one point

Erin had mentioned her and John may move off the military base, but she never got a clear explanation

“of why they were considering that option. There was another instance when Laura learned Erin had”

gotten a new phone number, which Laura thought was odd, but she didn't question why. So, with all of this information about the affair and all of the drama around it coming out in various interviews, including the interview Chris gave to the sheriff's detectives on July 1st, it was time for the authorities to hone in. But Chris denied ever having sex with Erin and doubled down that he was not the father of her unborn baby. He admitted to being an unfaithful husband

and knew that having an extra marital affair was wrong, but he maintained that he hadn't seen or heard from Erin on the day she vanished. He claimed that he'd gone hunting by himself in the National Park on Saturday and returned home in the late afternoon. He said that during that trip he'd encountered a strange man who'd pointed a gun at him and fired several shots and that prompted him to hide tailed out of the park and head home. Chris also explained that on June 22nd,

less than a week before Erin's disappearance, he'd driven his Jeep to the desert with a friend to shoot rattlesnakes and coyotes. During that trip the two guys had hiked around an area where several abandoned gold mines were. Chris's friend took a few photos on his cell phone while they were there and in one of the photos Chris posed with his 22 rifle, which was the same gun that authorities had yet to find. After returning from that trip Chris had expressed the owner of

the horse ranch that he and his wife volunteered at that he located, quote, "A mine shaft so remote that no one would ever find it." Cell phone data and interviews with other people prove that on the day Erin disappeared, Chris had tried twice to get two different buddies to join him in the park, but neither guy had immediately taken him up on the offer. However, one of those guys did bump into Chris on the morning of the 28th, and while chatting, had noticed a propane tank in Chris's trunk.

When that guy asked Chris what he planned to do with the propane tank, Chris remarked that he was going to quote, "Use it to blow up a mine shaft," end quote. That same buddy later texted Chris around 815 a.m. that his plans had changed and he was available to join him in the park. Chris replied to that message with a location on where to meet up as well as a text that said, quote, "Tell Nicole I put my phone in airplane mode," end quote.

Chris told investigators that after that, he powered down his device and he didn't turn it back on until 330 p.m. later that afternoon. When he got reception, he saw that he had a bunch of

miss calls and texts from his wife, as well as the buddy he'd invited to join him, who had never

been able to find him and decided to go home. When the detective questioned Chris, pressed him about why he turned his cell phone off on June 28th, Chris said he'd powered the device down to conserve its battery, but the investigator had his doubts about Chris's story.

while hunting, Chris replied at one point saying, "No, I couldn't. I literally lacked the ability

to because of the area we were in," end quote. And it was his use of the word "we," that really stuck out to the detective. Chris had been claiming this whole time that he'd been alone in the desert, yet he'd used the word "we." It seemed significant to the detective. It was a parent Chris was not telling the whole truth. And things got even worse for him when detective searched the horse ranch he and his wife volunteered at and found his missing 22 rifle stash in a closet

of the owner's home. Authorities had also gotten in touch with Aaron's good friend Jesse who lived in Tennessee. She revealed that three days before Aaron vanished, Aaron had mentioned that Chris was planning a surprise trip for the two of them to go to Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday

“the 28th. The trip was meant to discuss something super important. What exactly that important”

subject was, though, Jesse didn't know because Aaron didn't even know. Jesse said that the last time she'd spoken with Aaron was shortly after 7 a.m. on the day she vanished, and before hanging

up, she'd told Aaron to call her when she got home, but Aaron never did. Unfortunately, even though

that information seemed pretty incriminating for Chris, without Aaron investigators were stuck. Their case was circumstantial at best because they didn't have any hard evidence that proved he or anyone else for that matter had done something to her. Detectives couldn't even say for sure that anything criminal had happened to Aaron. But the whole situation wreaked of foul play because checks on Aaron's social media profiles, cell phone records, and bank accounts showed no activity

after she disappeared. And it was investigators believe at that time that she wasn't just missing,

“she was likely dead. So on July 4th, an move that may have been a bit unconventional,”

authorities ended up arresting Chris for a crime unrelated to Aaron's case. They napped him for being in possession of a destructive device, which, in his case, was a potato launcher gun. Turns out that was illegal to have in California. A search warrant aphidavit that became public at that time explained that authorities weren't outright naming Chris as a suspect in Aaron's case, but they did confirm he'd been interviewed as part of the investigation. However, the charges against Chris

for having the potato launcher weren't severe enough to keep him behind bars for long. So in mid July after being discharged from the Marines, he and his family had left California and moved back to Alaska. The searches for Aaron continued on during that time, though, and the harsh conditions of the desert did not make things easy for investigators. Also, her disappearance had ignited a firestorm of media coverage. And for weeks, the story remained a top headline in local and national

outlets. During that time, John and Aaron's parents had flown to California to be with him and stay close to the investigation. After a few weeks, though, the families had to return to Tennessee and wait for updates from investigators. John spent a lot of that time alone in California trying to deal with public speculation as best he could. But it was difficult. Author Shayna Hogan wrote in her book that despite having been cleared as a suspect,

some people still side eyed John as possibly being involved. He said that people started to look at him differently, and eventually the Marines demoted him from certain cast he'd been doing. But Laura told me that not once did she ever suspect that John had done something to Aaron. To try and quiet rampant speculation online, claiming he was somehow involved, John's mother told the press in part, quote, "He internalizes a lot of emotions.

It's apparent he's torn up inside over Aaron being missing and wants his wife back, and he's still hoping and praying that that's going to happen." He can't speak out. His command has asked him to be quiet. He feels helpless because he can't help with the search and quote. Between late July and mid-August, few updates in the case came out. But then, on Saturday, August 16th, nearly two months after Aaron vanished. Investigators and

“searchers who'd refuse to give up looking for her came across an abandoned mine shaft that held a secret.”

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Redhandard is the podcast for you. It's dark, intense, and might just keep you up all night. I'm Hannah. I'm SuriTi. And every week on Redhandard we break down a different fascinating case.

From the most recent US trials, everyone is obsessing over like Brendan Banfield,

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Find Dark Down East now wherever you listen to podcasts. According to the source material, professional searchers with the San Bernardino County Cave and Technical Rescue team who'd been checking out dozens of abandoned mineshafts in and around Joshua Tree National Park were just about to wind down their efforts. When they chose to check out one more location, the opening of a 10 by 10,

140 foot pit they were interested in was emitting a horrible smell, which naturally made them that much more curious about it. Personnel at the scene who spoke with author Shana Hogan described the odor coming from the shaft as a mix of gasoline and something putrid. The area was one of about a hundred shafts that a local cave expert had told authorities was capable of concealing a body. After attempting to send a camera down the mind by itself,

the team of caveers realized that the angle of the shaft was going to require a person to physically go down to navigate the camera. That way they could see what was at the bottom. When a brave volunteer went inside and lowered the camera some 140 feet down the shaft, it revealed that at the bottom there was a lot of trash and old tire, a propane tank, and what appeared to be a body. A closer view exposed what I'm sure everyone had hoped

wouldn't be the case. It was Aaron. She was still clothed in gene shorts and a pink shirt, but was in an advanced state of decomposition. The following afternoon the Sheriff's Office removed her remains from the mind and her formal identification happened a few hours later using dental records. In addition to getting her out, authorities also photographed the mind and retrieved items of evidence that they strongly suspected were connected to her death. For example,

there was a sprite bottle, one of Aaron's favorite sodas, two water jugs, the propane tank, which had blood on it, zipped eyes, black electrical tape, climbing rope attached to the propane tank, a makeshift torch made from a t-shirt and pieces of black plastic. The smell of accelerant on many of those items as well as inside the mind itself, not to mention the presence of the propane tank. Suggested to investigators that whoever had put the stuff down there,

intended for it to burn. But it hadn't, because the depth of the mind had restricted the presence of oxygen. When the chief medical examiner assessed Aaron's remains, a piece of rated nylon cord fashioned to two pieces of rebar was found around her neck. The disturbing device was described by investigators as being a homemade grunt. The corner who conducted her autopsy determined her manner of death was homicide, and her cause of death was strangulation as well as

possible blunt force trauma to the left side of her head. Unfortunately, because her remains were so decomposed, it was impossible for the medical examiner to take DNA samples from her uterus.

Even without formal confirmation, though, people assumed the child belonged to Chris Lee.

“So, within 24 hours after her body was found, Sheriff's officials coordinated with Alaskan authorities”

and took Chris into custody and charged him with her murder. In early April 2015, after being extradited back to California, Chris had a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors questioned nearly a dozen witnesses which included law enforcement officers who'd work the case. John, the core ones, and Lee's downstairs neighbors, and Aaron's friend Jesse. At the end of the hearing, the presiding judge determined there was enough probable cause to move

forward to trial. A few weeks after that, Chris was formally arranged and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Almost right away, the lead prosecutor for this date notified the

court that his office would not be seeking capital punishment in the case, which was a decision

law and the rest of Aaron's family supported. Law told me that as a family, they did not want Chris to be eligible for the death penalty. One reason being, they weren't sure if he would

“ever actually be executed in California, and too. They knew that if he was sentenced to death,”

it would legally allow him more opportunities to appeal his conviction, which they did not want. By the time his trial began in early October 2016, when had previously been a mostly circumstantial case against Chris, was now backed by several pieces of strong physical evidence. Shanna Hogan wrote in her book that at some point in 2015, forensic testing results had come in and confirmed that both Aaron and Chris's DNA were on the sprite bottle found in the mine.

Additional touch DNA and fingerprint analysis had also proved that the love note that had been discovered in Aaron's jewelry box had come from Chris. And to top it all off, the climbing rope that had been tethered to the propane tank in the mine, as well as some twine that was wound around the makeshift torch discovered with Aaron's body. Where the same color and composition as twine and rope that had been seized from Chris's vehicle at the time of his arrest. Oh, and

Chris's DNA was also on the shirt that had been used to fashion the makeshift torch. So yeah, pretty damning stuff. There was also data from Chris and Aaron's cell phone providers, which proved that their devices had been traveling in the same direction at the same time on the morning of June 28. Aaron's had been powered down at 804 AM, followed by his 18 minutes later at 822 AM. The prosecutions case was simple. Chris had lowered Aaron to the desert with the promise of a

“special day together and then killed her to keep their ongoing affair and her pregnancy a secret”

forever. The district attorney argued that all of the evidence pointed to Chris. Plus, he traveled to the remote area of the park where Aaron's body was dumped, less than one week before the crime. Aaron's mother lore attended every day of Chris's trial despite how difficult it was to see her daughter's alleged killer in person and hear all the horrific details of what he was accused of doing to Aaron. Another woman who was there was Nicole Lee, Chris's wife.

Prior to Chris going to trial, she blew her up and had been advised not to testify, but against the counsel of her attorney, she'd shown up after being subpoenaed by both the defense and prosecution. However, in the end, neither side wanted to call her as a witness because her testimony and general demeanor was determined to be too risky for either side to let into court.

So, she was dismissed, and never spoke in court about what she knew or didn't know in regards

to Chris's actions on the day of Aaron's murder. When it was the defenses turned to present witnesses, they only called one person to the stand. Chris Lee. He told the court that he needed to tell the truth, and if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. His responses to his attorney's questions explored a lot of what investigators already determined. He and Aaron had an affair, they stopped, and then started up again. Chris saw their relationship as an escape

from his depressive thoughts after coming home from deployment, blah, blah, blah, blah. However, in front of jurors, he finally admitted that the relationship between he and Aaron was sexual, and he'd previously lied to authorities when he claimed it wasn't. He stated that initially the trip to Joshua Tree was supposed to be him, Aaron, and two buddies, but when the guy's bailed, it ended up just being him and Aaron. He admitted to bringing supplies with him to blow up

a mind, but said that when they were in route to the remote shaft he wanted to set things on fire in, Aaron's attitude about being in the desert changed. He said she had no interest in what he wanted to do there because she wanted to talk about their relationship. Eventually, they got into an argument about her wanting to move to Alaska with him, and Chris claimed that he then accused Aaron of molesting his daughter, to which Aaron, according to Chris, didn't respond. Chris said he took

Aaron's silence as confirmation of the accusation, and so in an active rage at the thought of someone hurting his daughter, he lunged that Aaron and strangled her with his homemade grud. He testified

angry I was, nothing would have stopped me from doing what I was doing," end quote. Chris said

“after he realized Aaron was gone, that's when he put her down the mind shaft and attempted to”

cover up the crime. Shannon Hogan explained in her book that by Chris stating Aaron had caused him to snap, it opened the door for jurors to possibly find him guilty of second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder, thus lessening his potential sentence. But thankfully, that's not what happened. After deliberating for less than two hours, jurors found Chris guilty of first-degree

murder, and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was never

charged in relation to the murder of Aaron's unborn child, though prosecutors had considered doing so at one point. As far as the allegations that he made about Aaron allegedly molesting his and Nicole's daughter, those claims were never substantiated because the leaves never went to authorities or filed a police report about such an issue. It was only information that Chris brought up while testifying at his trial. For Aaron's mom lore, those allegations were,

and always will be, in her opinion, Chris's attempt to try and push blame off himself and onto his victim, either as a means to mitigate his own guilt or sell the Aaron's name or both. What I want to do with this episode is leave you with the true information about who Aaron was.

She was the second youngest of seven children and had come to the family from foster care at just

three weeks old. Eventually, her family legally adopted her and she lived a sheltered but fulfilling life. She had a passion for taking care of animals and loved writing horses. According to her mom, she rarely got upset or acted out, even as a teenager. To this day, lore still struggles to comprehend how her daughter ended up having an affair with Chris. She's convinced that he took advantage of Aaron's naivety and prayed on her during a vulnerable

time after her miscarriage. She emphasized that Chris Lee is the one to blame for Aaron's murder, period. A direct quote from lore's interview with me that I think everyone should hear is quote. Having an affair was not right, but it didn't deserve death, number one.

But having an affair involves two people. It always involves two people, and each person has the ability

“to say, "No, I'm not going to do this." And just remember that just because someone's”

made a wrong choice doesn't mean that they're an evil, horrible person. The ripple effect this case had shattered so many lives on both sides. I mean, think about it. lore lost her daughter, John lost his wife, and Chris's family lost him. There was no good outcome for anyone in this situation. Today, a small garden exists near Joshua Tree National Park a few miles away from the mine where

Aaron's body was found. The guy who established the garden was the expert caveer who helped investigators narrow down the location of the mine shaft Aaron was left in. Over the years, people have left mementos and several purple cacti have disappeared. Initially, everyone thought it was visitors who were stealing the plants, but turns out, native jackrabbits were making off with them as a source of food.

lore told me that if Aaron could know that, she'd be thrilled. Even now, more than a decade without her daughter, more is still able to smile or chuckle at things that would have made Aaron happy. She's confident her daughter is in a better place, and an enduring reminder of her legacy is the work that lore has found as a grief share facilitator to other families who've lost loved ones.

If you'd like to learn more about Aaron and see the beautiful person she was while she was alive, I encourage you to consider visiting the remembering Aaron Quarwin Facebook page, or joining the Justice for Aaron Facebook group. Links to both of those are in the show notes and blog posts for this episode. Park Predators is an audio check production. You can do a list of all the source material for this

episode on our website, parkpreditors.com, and you can also follow park predators on Instagram at

“Park Predators. I think Chuck would approve.”

Hey Park enthusiasts, it's Delia, and if you enjoy unraveling the haunting tales that we explore here on Park Predators, there's another podcast that dives deep into all things mysterious and bizarre that I think you'll enjoy. It's called "So Supernatural." Hosted by my friends, Rasha and Yvette, so supernatural explores some of the most puzzling and eerie cases. Once that often leave investigators and witnesses wondering if the truth lies beyond the realm

of the explainable. From mysterious disappearances to legends and lore steeped in history,

So after you're all cut up on episodes here, be sure to listen to so supernatural, wherever you listen to podcasts.