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NBC's Dateline Season 25, Episode 9, The Last Day, aired on December 2, 2016.
The episode dealt with the 2014 case of the mysterious disappearance and death of a 19-year-old Mariner wife, Erin Heavilin Corwin. As per reports, she went missing from the Joshua Tree National Park on June 28, and after two months in August 2014, her body was found in one of the mines in the park.
The police had two primary suspects- one was Erin's husband, Jonathan Corwin (Jon), and another was the couple's neighbor and Erin's alleged lover, Christopher Brandon Lee, or Chris. Even though Jon was ruled out after the initial investigation, Chris was held back, as not only did he have the motive, but he was also caught lying to the police about his whereabouts.
An unplanned pregnancy? An extramarital affair? A planned murder? What initially seemed to the investigators to be a missing person case was soon unraveled in a tragic tale of lies, infidelity, and a pre-planned murder.
Dateline: 5 Harrowing details about Erin Corwin's murder
Here are the 5 harrowing details of the tragic murder of the 19-year-old Erin Corwin in 2014.
1) Meet Erin Corwin, who was murdered in Joshua Tree National Park in 2014: Dateline
Erin Corwin was adopted by the Heavilin couple, who lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She was a dedicated animal lover and an excellent horse tamer. Erin met Jon Corwin, her future husband, at her school during fifth grade. The two gradually fell in love during their late teens and started dating. Jon, after finishing school, joined the Marines, and the childhood sweethearts got married in November 2012.
After their marriage, due to Jon's posting, the couple moved to Twentynine Palms, California, in September 2013. The Corwins were welcomed by their neighbors, a couple, Conor and Aishling Malakie, and their son, Brian, and the Lee family- Chris, Nicole, and their daughter, Liberty. However, as rosy as it seemed, as days passed by, the neighbors, especially Chris, revealed his true motives.
2) An infidelity that led to Erin Corwin's death: Dateline
Like any other young couple, the Corwins had misunderstandings and conflicts. Their marriage hit a roadblock when Erin was shattered after her miscarriage. Chris took advantage of Erin's vulnerable situation and began approaching her. Soon, the two started dating, but when Chris' wife, Nicole, found some suspicious texts on her husband's phone, she reached out to Jon about the extramarital affair.
Chris and Erin initially broke off their affair after being discovered by their respective partners.
On June 22, 2014, Erin discovered that she was pregnant again, but this time, she kept it a secret. The next week, on June 28, Chris planned a trip to the Joshua Tree National Park, but he canceled at the last moment. Then he planned to hunt down coyotes with a 0.22 calibre gun and had other ammunition, including a propane tank and gasoline to set ablaze a mine shaft.
Chris asked Erin to join him on his quest to the Joshua Tree National Park. As per the plan, Erin left her home in the morning after she lied to her husband Jon about scouting a hiking trail for her mother. When she did not return that night, Jon contacted the police.
3) Erin Corwin was strangled and thrown into a mine shaft: Dateline
As the investigation began, the investigators faced several hurdles, including a rampant search in Joshua Tree National Park. The search took six enforcement teams and numerous volunteers, and after a tiresome investigation of over two months, Erin Corwin's body was found in one of the mines on August 16, 2014.
As per the reports, Erin had been strangled and choked to death and was thrown into a 140-foot deep mine shaft. Apart from that, the police also discovered a propane tank near her body, the ultimate weapon to burn her to death if by any chance she survived the strangulation and the cliff drop.
4) Chris Lee was arrested for killing Erin Corwin: Dateline
As per the Desert Sun, Chris Lee was arrested in August 2014 for the first-degree murder of Erin Corwin. The investigators were suspicious of Chris Lee as he left the Marine Corps during the time Erin went missing and moved to Alaska with Nicole and their daughter, Liberty. Meanwhile, the investigators also found out that Erin was pregnant with Chris's child.
During his trial, he revealed how he planned a fake romantic night to lure Erin to Joshua Tree National Park. As per his premeditated plan, he strangled Erin for five minutes with a garrote made of cord, and then he threw her body and a propane tank into a mine shaft.
5) The trial of Chris Lee: Dateline
In 2016, Chris Lee was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Erin Corwin. Superior Court Judge J. David Mazurek sentenced Christopher Brandon Lee to life imprisonment with no parole.
As per ABC 24/7 News, on November 4, 2016, Chris Lee testified in court, after initially pleading not guilty to killing Erin Corwin. During the trial, when the Deputy asked whether he strangled Erin, Chris replied, "Yes." As per Chris's statement, he revealed that he did not kill Erin because she was pregnant. He stated,
"I made the decision to kill her. I was controlled by the anger. The hate I felt that day. It was something I never want to experience again."
However, San Bernardino County Deputy DA Sean Daughtery tagged Chris's statement as nonsense and stated,
"It's what he does; he crafts lies around the facts of the case."
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Currently, the former Mariner, Christopher Lee, is serving his lifetime imprisonment sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino San Bernadino County.
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