(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
- The initial impression is,
This is a woman who is reading over divorce papers,
She's drinking, and she decides to end her life.
- If she didn't fire that weapon, who did?
(dramatic music)
- He said, "you need to look at the death of dolly hearn."
You could have taken jennifer's crime scene
And put it on top of dolly's,
The similarities were too great to ignore.
- This would vindicate whoever had doubted us,
And understand that what we had said was true.
- We have two women in their prime,
And they both end up dead.
Within days, we were able to get a wiretap.
(dramatic music)
- In a love triangle,
You never know what emotions are involved.
- All along,
I knew the key to this case was gonna be the gun.
(dramatic music)
- You've got passion and plans.
And those types of emotions can erupt into hatred,
And even murder.
(dramatic music) (gavel bangs on wood)
(contemplative music)
(police sirens)
(hip music)
- [narrator] approximately 35 miles northeast
Of atlanta lies the charming town of buford, georgia,
On the shores of lake lanier.
It's a bucolic bedroom community,
Tethering the appeal of lakeside living
To the enticements of the big city.
- Lots of professionals live in the area
Who often commute into atlanta,
But they're far enough away to feel like
They live in a resort.
- Lake lanier serves as a staple for the buford area,
For people to go boating and fishing,
Hiking and doing all those outdoor activities.
- Primarily because they have an excellent school system,
It's become a bustling suburb with many high-end houses.
- [edward] it's a tight-knit community,
Everybody knew each other.
It's an affluent town, very family oriented.
Kids, sports, pta, all those different things.
- [narrator] but that sense of warmth and security would
Be upended on a cool December morning in 2004.
(ominous music)
- At 07:30 in the morning,
Gwinnett county 911 received a call from a woman.
She said that she and her husband were awakened
By a tap on the door, and that her neighbor,
Jennifer corbin's seven-year-old son dalton,
Came and said that his mother was hurt at home.
- So she ran across the street to get his little brother
And to check on jennifer corbin,
Who was the resident of the house.
(suspenseful music) (woman groans)
- [narrator] dispatch advises the neighbor
To keep the children in her custody
While they send officers to assess the scene.
- For the officers that are initially responding,
We wanna make sure that it's safe,
It's not an active shooter.
The house was very big, so the officers,
They had to break up in either teams or solo
And get through the house as quickly as possible.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] officers quickly clear the home
And find no signs of a threat inside.
(dramatic music)
They then locate the victim,
Identified by the neighbor as 33-year-old jennifer corbin,
In the master bedroom.
- She was found laying in the bed in her night clothes,
And the emts went and tried to administer aid to jennifer.
But it was far beyond that, she was deceased.
(ominous music)
- We could see where the gunshot wound entered
Towards the back of her head.
- She was laying on her left side,
And then there was also a 38 revolver was laying sort
Of beside the body.
- It was a smith & wesson older model revolver.
- It was basically the kind of gun
That was issued in the 1950s.
So that was a little unusual in itself,
That that kind of older gun was there.
(ominous music)
- [narrator] the revolver appears
To have been recently shot,
And is collected for further analysis.
Meanwhile, the medical examiner has been called in
To examine the body.
- In this case, it was the medical examiner,
She made the decision in terms of time of death was
Sometime between midnight and 3:00 am.
- There were not any signs of defensive wounds to the body,
Or evidence of a struggle.
- [narrator] then a piece
Of revealing evidence helps offer context
To the tragic scene.
- There was a bottle of wine on the nightstand
Beside the bed, and then there was a set of divorce papers
Right there in front of her.
- Her husband, bart corbin, had filed recently,
And it asked for him to receive the home,
Custody of the boys, and child support.
(dramatic music)
- The initial impression is,
This is a woman who is reading over divorce papers,
She's drinking, and she decides to end her life
- To receive a divorce petition that is asking for custody
Of the boys and the home and child support,
That could have been pretty devastating.
- People who can be suffering with depression
Often turn to alcohol.
The divorce papers there, all those things obviously show
That one could get into a very depressive state
Very quickly that
Ultimately could've have led to her suicide.
But a lot of women don't use handguns to commit suicide.
Those are rare, right?
And there was no note, so we felt that was odd.
- [narrator] the medical examiner will determine
Whether jennifer corbin's death was a suicide
Or homicide at autopsy.
And in the meantime, the team continues to search the scene.
- There was not any signs of forced entry.
Nothing was turned over, nothing shattered.
None of that was present.
- Detectives also dust for fingerprints.
They take photographs.
(ominous music)
- We also collect as much dna evidence as we can.
- So the standard procedure in any homicide investigation
Is to do a canvass,
Where detectives just go out and knock on doors
Of the surrounding houses that may or may not have heard
Or seen anything.
- But no one saw anything.
And because you're looking at 2004,
Surveillance cameras just weren't there.
(ominous music)
- [narrator] it's now several hours into the investigation,
And crime scene techs have finished processing the scene.
And with the canvass yielding no results,
Detectives turn their attention to jennifer's 7-year-old son
Who discovered her that morning.
- We had special victims
That conducted an interview with the child.
- But he had slept through the gunshot
Before he arrived in her room that morning
And found her dead in her bed.
- Unfortunately, the child did not know what happened.
- [narrator] they also speak with the neighbor
Who called 911.
- She said she answered her door and jennifer's son said,
"we can't wake my mom up."
So she ran across the street to check on jennifer corbin.
And when she got into the house,
She realized jennifer wasn't conscious,
And went back and called 911.
(ominous music)
- [narrator] as police wrap up both interviews,
They're then approached by a woman who introduces
Herself as jennifer's sister, heather.
She says she lives in the area,
And has heard from a neighbor
That something terrible has happened.
- I could tell you, after approaching my 27th year,
There's really never an easy way to tell a family member
That their loved one has passed.
(somber music)
- And she's devastated as any sister would be.
And she collapses on the floor,
And she says she cannot believe this has taken place.
(dramatic music)
So police tell heather that at this point,
Jennifer's death could be a suicide,
But heather is adamant that that could not be the case.
She says that her sister was happy and she loved her boys.
She would absolutely not leave them in a position
To find her dead in her bed.
- [narrator] heather tells investigators that she has tried
To contact jennifer's husband, bart corbin,
But hasn't been able to get in touch with him yet.
However, detectives press heather for more information
About jennifer and her husband bart.
- Bart corbin was a successful dentist,
And she worked part-time at a preschool.
Jennifer and bart had kind of a fairytale life in buford.
He was an idyllic father.
He coached his son's baseball team,
And he also went to the school to talk to the kids
About becoming a dentist.
(uplifting music)
Jennifer also loved her boys more than anything.
She was a great mom, she was a great wife,
And a good listener.
- [narrator] but heather says that jennifer had confided
In her by revealing
That she and bart were having marital troubles.
- They argued a lot, fighting, and yelling,
And all these different things.
Until they were essentially living an estranged life.
They weren't sleeping in the same bedrooms.
There were a lot of questions we need answered from him,
But we were having trouble getting a hold of him
Until jennifer's sister placed a call to his brother bobby.
(dramatic music)
Bobby basically said that his brother was
With him last night at his house.
- Bobby confirmed that he was at the house,
And gave the phone to bart.
They notified him that jennifer was deceased,
And he basically dropped the phone,
And then they could hear the sound of vomiting
In the background.
And bobby picked the phone up and said,
"he's too upset to talk."
- Bart's brother did say that bart would be available
At another time to talk to us.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] with that,
Police wrap up their investigation of the scene,
While jennifer's sister, heather,
Takes custody of her two children.
The following day,
Detectives get word that the medical examiner has finished
Jennifer corbin's autopsy,
And they've made some alarming discoveries.
(dramatic music)
- From the autopsy,
We were all convinced that it was a homicide.
(dramatic music)
What we found out is that jennifer started playing
This role playing game online.
- Jennifer had been talking with a man named chris.
(dramatic music)
- They began to talk about how they were falling in love.
(dramatic music)
- When you get on the world wide web,
You just never quite know what's on the other side.
(dramatic music)
(contemplative music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detectives in the affluent
Atlanta suburb of buford,
Known for its picturesque setting
Against the backdrop of lake lanier,
Are investigating the mysterious death
Of 33-year-old mother of two, jennifer corbin.
(camera clicks) (ominous music)
Police discovered jennifer in her bed
With a single gunshot wound to the head.
But the medical examiner has just provided detectives
With some alarming finds.
(suspenseful music)
- So the autopsy determined that jennifer did not have
Any alcohol in her system.
And this was puzzling to police
Because there was this half drunk bottle of wine
On the nightstand
Which kind of suggested that she may have been distraught
And committed suicide.
They determined that jennifer had been shot
In the back of the head,
And it was inconsistent with a person
Who was committing suicide,
Who would typically shoot themselves in the chin
Or in the temple.
(suspenseful music)
- And looking at the trajectory of the gunshot wound
To the back of her head,
It was extremely difficult to fire that weapon
The way that it did, to enter the way that it did.
- [narrator] but the angle of the gunshot
Isn't the only evidence
That indicates the wound wasn't self-inflicted.
- Her fingerprints were not found on the gun,
And there was no gunshot residue on her hand.
And this was an old beat up revolver.
So if she had shot herself,
Her whole right arm should have been covered.
There should have been gunshot residue
Everywhere on her neck,
And there was no gunshot residue found on her.
(suspenseful music)
- They showed the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted.
So originally we thought we're dealing with a suicide,
And once we got that,
We knew we were now knee deep in a homicide investigation.
(suspenseful music)
- And so now police have to determine who actually shot her.
'cause if she didn't fire that weapon, who did?
- And when we discovered that things were staged,
You're able to paint a picture of how the person
That was responsible for her death would have tried
To throw the police off
In thinking it was a suicide and not a murder.
- [narrator] with jennifer corbin's death
Officially ruled a homicide,
Detectives now need to determine who would have the means
And motive to kill her and cover it up.
Investigators then get word that jennifer's husband,
Bart corbin, has just arrived at the station accompanied
By his lawyer.
- When somebody shows up with a lawyer,
It's natural to believe that there's something suspicious
About that.
But as a lawyer myself, I sort of put that out of my mind
Because everybody has the right to counsel.
Everybody has the right to bring an attorney if they want.
(suspenseful music)
- So in speaking to bart, he kind of reiterated
What was relayed through bobby on the phone.
- [narrator] detectives also asked bart where he was
Between midnight and 3:00 am.
- Barton's attorney allowed him to give a brief statement,
And he told the police that he had gone out
With some friends for dinner at the wild wings cafe.
They had drinks there.
- And then headed out somewhere in the vicinity
About 01:30 in the morning.
- So he drove to bobby's house,
Which is about 15 miles away from the corbin house.
(suspenseful music)
- Even though bart said very little, other than his alibi,
He did cooperate with police
So far as allowing them to check his clothing.
- He relinquished those items to us willingly.
And so we put that under black lights
And look for any type of blood evidence or anything,
Or body fluids and things of that nature.
And those were absent.
(suspenseful music)
- They check his hands for gunshot residue,
See if he had fired a gun.
But detectives determined that there was not any.
So bart's alibi was pretty solid,
And there was no physical evidence
To tie him to jennifer's death.
- We wanted to get more information,
But obviously his counsel felt
That it was not in his best interest to be very forthcoming
With a lot of information.
- And at the point that we had completed the interview,
Well we let him go home.
- [narrator] now more than 24 hours into the investigation,
The team reaches out to jennifer's family
To determine who she was in close contact with
In the days leading up to her murder.
- She had talked about her marriage disintegrating,
And was more or less looking for something to occupy herself
'cause she was at home most days.
What we found out is that jennifer started playing
This role playing game online.
She was always on the computer,
That she was always playing this game.
And these games,
Most of them have a way to communicate between players,
Almost like sending messages back and forth.
- [narrator] police get a warrant to search
Jennifer's computer,
And bring it to the station for analysis.
- And what detectives found
Is that jennifer had been talking with a man named chris.
(dramatic music)
- It was pretty provocative
What they were saying to each other.
And what was happening was,
They began to talk about how they were falling in love.
- [narrator] detectives then make a curious discovery.
Two months into their online affair,
Chris drops a bombshell.
- It turns out that chris told jennifer
That chris was actually not a man,
He was a woman named anita, who was married with kids.
(dramatic music)
- When you get on the world wide web,
You just never quite know what's on the other side, right?
And in this instance,
It was clear that jennifer had gotten catfished.
(dramatic music)
- It caused a big blow up in the relationship,
But not very long.
(dramatic music)
Within a couple of days, it was right back up to the flirty,
Graphic messages back and forth.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] police continue to dig
Through the hundreds of messages,
And just as they are nearing the end
Of the couple's correspondence,
They discover something unsettling.
- Anita was the last person that jennifer talked to.
They were actually speaking online minutes
Before police believe she was murdered.
- [narrator] the last email was sent at 1:42 am,
Which piques investigators' interest,
Since the medical examiner determined jennifer was killed
Between midnight and three in the morning.
- Detectives realized they need to talk with anita,
Because we've got passion
And plans that they were making with one another,
And those types of emotions can erupt into hatred,
And even murder.
(dramatic music)
(contemplative music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detectives investigating
The murder of jennifer corbin,
A mother of two in the upscale atlanta suburb of buford,
Have discovered she was having an online affair
With a woman named anita.
After digging through hundreds of illicit messages,
The team has just learned
That anita was in touch with jennifer
In the minutes leading up to her death.
- So in discovering this, one of the biggest things is,
We wanted to make contact
With the person that was on the other side of that keyboard
Because maybe they had something to do with the murder.
- But when detectives were finally able
To get in touch with anita,
They determined that she was hundreds of miles away.
- She was in missouri,
And she could pretty well account for her time.
- We really didn't see where she had the motivation
To see something bad happen,
Because in the emails it was all really loving.
- And she was absolutely devastated
That jennifer had been murdered.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] police cross anita off the suspect list,
And are now back to square one.
However, four days into the investigation,
Local news stations have begun covering
Jennifer's chilling murder,
Which has completely rocked the quiet buford community.
- So the city of buford is an affluent town
Just outside of atlanta,
And you don't typically have murders taking place
In that town.
So it made the local news,
And it sent shock waves
Throughout the greater atlanta area.
This led to tips that came in.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] police get calls
From all over the atlanta area,
But one tipster offers an unusual lead
That involves a suspicious death 14 years earlier.
- Eventually a dentist here in atlanta
Who had gone to dental school with barton corbin said,
"you need to look at the death of dolly hearn."
So we pulled the file so that we could look at it.
- He says, "dolly hearn was a young dental student
Who used to date bart corbin in dental school
And died in a similar manner as jennifer corbin."
(suspenseful music)
- It was a suicide as well.
There was a gun involved.
It was kind of eerily similar
To what we were dealing with here.
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] detectives immediately dig
Into dolly hearn's file,
And learn that her case was handled
By the richmond county sheriff's office in augusta, georgia.
- What we learned was that on June 6th of 1990,
Richmond county sheriff's office responded
To a suicide involving dolly hearn.
- [narrator] reports say that dolly was found
By her roommate, who had walked into their apartment
And found dolly seated on the couch, dead,
With a revolver beside her.
- She was shot with a 38 caliber revolver.
It was the same kind of gun
That was used in jennifer's case.
And she was shot in almost the same location,
In the back of the head.
You could've taken jennifer's crime scene
And put it on top of dolly's,
And it would've looked almost the same.
The similarities were too great to ignore.
(somber music)
- [narrator] wanting to gain more information
About dolly and how she died,
Police reach out to her family.
- Dolly was full of life and was very people oriented.
She was a cheerleader, and everybody around her liked her,
Had a good time.
(screen glitches)
Her father was a dentist,
And I think that's why dolly decided to go to dental school.
- [narrator] dolly's family tells detectives
That in dental school she began a tumultuous relationship
With classmate bart corbin.
- Initially, bart and dolly had a great relationship.
They were two thriving dental students,
But that began to turn sour after bart proposed to dolly
And she turned him down.
(somber music)
But he couldn't handle the fact
That dolly wanted to break up with him,
So he had been harassing her
Probably for a couple of months.
He keyed her car,
He put hairspray in her her contact solution.
Dolly was psychologically stressed
Because of the things that bart was doing to her.
- Dolly filed a police report against bart
Because she felt that he was behind these incidents
That were very strange.
(dramatic music)
- But her family said that she would never think
To kill herself.
They was adamant she had a promising life ahead of her,
She was not depressed, and had no,
There was no indicators whatsoever
That she would want to harm herself.
- [narrator] for detectives investigating
Jennifer corbin's murder,
Which was staged to look like a suicide,
The parallels are striking.
- The hairs on the back of the necks
Of gwinnett county detectives are standing up
When they take a look at the similarities
Between jennifer corbin's murder
And the death investigation of dolly hearn.
- We have two women in their prime,
No indication that they want to harm themselves.
They're happy, they're doing all these different things,
And they both end up dead.
(comtemplative music)
- Police decide to reach out
To the richmond county sheriff's office,
Who originally handled dolly's case for answers.
(suspenseful music)
- I received a phone call from an investigator
In gwinnett county, indicating that he was working a case
Where a woman had died here in augusta 14 years prior.
(contemplative music)
So I opened the file and the first name I saw was
The investigator on the case, ron peebles,
Who was my father, who had retired by that point.
I immediately called him,
Asked him if he remembered the case.
And he immediately said that he did,
And that he always thought
That bart corbin had committed that murder.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] however, detective peebles tells his son
That his problem was he could never actually prove it.
- The thing all along that was lacking in dolly's case was
The ability to conclusively prove that this was a murder.
- Also, when bart corbin was interviewed
In richmond county regarding dolly hearn's death,
He had an airtight alibi.
(ominous music)
- And there was no physical evidence at the scene,
Or as a result of the autopsy that directly linked
Barton corbin to her death, just like jennifer's case.
You gotta remember,
Peebles did what he could with what he had.
He didn't have the evidence to be able
To throw the net around barton corbin.
- [narrator] however, with so many similarities
To the corbin murder,
Gwinnett and richmond county detectives now believe
That bart corbin could be responsible for not one
But two homicides, and it's now up to them to prove it.
- We weren't gonna let him get away with either of 'em.
This guy beat the system once,
We can't let him beat the system again.
(ominous music)
(camera clicks)
- [linda] what happened to dolly hearn?
- At this point,
We now have to put eyes on barton and see what he's up to.
Was it just a friend, is there some romantic ties?
(camera clicks) (dramatic music)
- Did she have anything to do with jennifer corbin's murder?
In a love triangle,
You never know what emotions are involved.
- This might be the motivation for the murder.
(dramatic music)
(contemplative music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] police in gwinnett county investigating
The murder of jennifer corbin have just learned
That her case could be connected to the death
Of a young dental student named dolly hearn,
From 14 years earlier.
Investigators now realize that dolly's death,
Like jennifer corbin's, may have also been a murder
That was staged to look like a suicide.
(tense music)
- So at this point,
It was important for richmond county sheriff's authorities
To reopen that investigation.
And to actually determine what happened to dolly hearn,
Was it apparent suicide or was this a murder?
- [narrator] and as the two departments
Officially begin working together,
Jennifer corbin's case starts to heat up,
While dolly hearn's case is officially reopened.
- When dolly's case was reopened,
It did make us feel like there was some hope.
Because what we knew in our heart of hearts,
That dolly would not have committed suicide,
That this would kind of vindicate what we had thought.
And maybe whoever had doubted us about it would understand
That what we had said was true about dolly.
- And so detectives reached out to jennifer's family
And friends to see if they had been told
Anything about dolly hearn's death,
And they had not heard anything about that from jennifer.
- [narrator] almost a week into the investigation,
Detectives still don't have any solid evidence
To link bart corbin to either case,
But know that he could be the key
To cracking them both wide open.
- At this point, we now have to put eyes on barton
And see what he's up to.
(suspenseful music)
- Gwinnett county authorities decide
That they're gonna start tailing bart corbin,
And see where he's going and what his whereabouts are.
- Days later, we were also able to get a wiretap,
Where we're listening to bart corbin's phone calls
In real time.
(phone rings) (dramatic music)
- So in this instance,
Barton was talking with another woman.
Was it just a friend, is there some romantic ties?
- It turns out that bart corbin was also having
An affair with his dental hygienist, dara.
- What the wiretap showed us was
That he was cold and calculating.
He's only concerned about himself
And what makes him feel good.
- [narrator] with the discovery of bart's infidelity,
Police want to know who is dara,
And could she also be linked to jennifer's murder?
- We had to consider that the relationship with dara might
Be the motivation for the murder.
- In a love triangle,
You never know what emotions are involved.
And so it's very important for detectives
To speak to dara as well,
To determine if she had anything to do
With jennifer corbin's murder.
- [narrator] police immediately have dara brought
Into the station for questioning.
- But she has her own marriage that she has to contend with.
She didn't want her husband to know
That she was involved in an affair.
- She divulged some things during the interview.
When she found out about jennifer and dolly,
I think she started to see the writing on the wall,
And that he's not the individual that she thought he was.
And then over the course of the interview,
She provided an alibi.
We looked into it and it checked out.
- It became pretty evident that she wasn't involved.
(suspenseful music)
She didn't seem interested in ending her marriage.
- [narrator] police rule out dara as a suspect.
And while bart's affair is suspicious,
It still doesn't prove he had anything to do
With the deaths of jennifer or dolly.
However, time is running out to find out
How he is connected to the two murders.
- When you're conducting a homicide investigation,
There's a process.
And we were at the stage where we couldn't charge
Barton corbin at that point
'cause we didn't feel like we had enough evidence.
- He has a tight alibi for his whereabouts
During jennifer's murder.
- [narrator] bart originally told police that on the night
That jennifer was killed,
He went to a restaurant with friends,
And drove to his brother's house around 1:30 am.
Which if true,
Means that he was nearly 15 miles away from his own home
During the 12 to 3:00 am window that jennifer was murdered.
- So at this point, gwinnett county authorities know
That they needed to try to dismantle
Bart corbin's alibi completely.
(suspenseful music)
- We were able to subpoena all of his phone records
And start to do some cell phone analysis to determine
Whether or not he really was where he said he was.
- [narrator] now a week into the investigation,
Detectives examine the location data from bart's cell phone,
And locate exactly where he was when jennifer was killed,
- Cell tower information said that he was near his house
At 1:25 in the morning, not at his brother's house.
(dramatic music)
He was at his home. That means that his alibi was bull.
(dramatic music)
- That's a very damning piece of evidence
Against barton corbin.
(dramatic music)
That blew the whole alibi out of the water.
(dramatic music)
(contemplative music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] atlanta area detectives are investigating
The murders of jennifer corbin and dolly hearn,
Two women killed 14 years apart in nearly identical manners
With a single gunshot wound to the head
And staged to look like a suicide.
Jennifer and dolly both had romantic relationships
With dentist bart corbin.
And investigators have just discovered
That bart's cell phone places him at the scene
Of jennifer's killing the moment she was shot.
(suspenseful music)
- From the cell tower data,
We determined that on December the fourth, 2004,
At 1:25 or 1:35 in the morning,
Barton corbin was at his house,
Where his wife had been murdered at about that time.
(suspenseful music)
- And on December 22nd,
We had reached getting probable cause
And getting charges against barton corbin,
And obtained warrants for his arrest.
- [narrator] 18 days since jennifer was murdered,
Police quickly put together a takedown team
In order to help bring bart in
And decide to arrest him in a place
Where he would least expect it.
- At that time, he was at his dental practice.
And so they had the helicopter in the air.
- We had members of the swat team,
We had members of the drug unit.
And as he went to lunch, we did the arrest.
(dramatic music)
- He was stunned.
I don't think he ever thought that day was coming.
(dramatic music)
- And he was laid out in the street, searched,
And taken into jail.
(contemplative music)
- It's time for them to get to the bottom of this,
And bring bart corbin to justice
For jennifer corbin and also dolly hearn.
- I developed a relationship with jennifer's family,
And it really was one of those cases
Where you want to get justice for the victims
Because you have a close relationship with them.
So it was mutual on an emotional level.
It was a case that we really wanted to solve.
(dramatic music)
- [narrator] however, upon bart's arrest,
He declines to speak to police
And along with his high- powered team of lawyers,
Immediately starts building his defense.
- He had new attorneys at this time,
And one of the defenses was
You can't link him to the crime,
Because there's no physical evidence at the scene
That directly linked barton corbin to the murder.
So we had to find better evidence
To connect him to the crime.
- An investigation that
Proceeds on coincidence.
Proceeds on nothing
More than speculation.
It proceeds on nothing
More than suspicion.
(suspenseful music)
And it means nothing.
(screen glitches)
- There was also that question still lingering
Of where the gun came from that was used
In jennifer's murder.
- [narrator] neither bart nor jennifer have
An antique 38 caliber smith & wesson revolver registered
In their names.
So investigators revisit bart's phone records
To see if they can reveal a location
Where bart may have obtained it.
- Cell phone records and the tower hits placed him driving
From buford all the way to troy, alabama,
And immediately back a week before the murder.
It's just a turnaround trip.
- [narrator] the records
Not only place bart in troy,
But also reveal several calls he made
To a man there named richard wilson.
- I thought it was odd,
You have a affluent dentist living up in buford,
And then you've got some guy in alabama.
- So the investigators resolved to talk to richard wilson.
Richard tells us that he and bart corbin were friends,
And he lived in troy, alabama.
(suspenseful music)
- In talking to richard,
He began telling me that he was a gun collector
And he liked older-style guns.
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
- All along, I knew that for a trial,
The key to this case was gonna be the gun.
(dramatic music)
- We had to link that gun to barton corbin.
(richard clears his throat) (tense music)
(suspenseful music)
(dramatic music)
(contemplative music)
(suspenseful music)
- [narrator] in the quiet atlanta suburb of buford,
Dentist bart corbin has been arrested
For the brutal shooting death of his wife, jennifer corbin,
And former girlfriend, dolly hearn.
Detectives are searching
For the origin of the murder weapon.
And have just found a man in alabama
Who says that one week before the murder,
He gave bart a 38 caliber revolver.
The exact gun used in jennifer's killing.
(ominous music)
- And I thought, "we just put the gun in corbin's hand."
(dramatic music)
That turned my criminal case from a good case
Into a slam dunk.
I mean, that locked it.
(dramatic music)
- So at that point,
His lawyers felt that's the nail in the coffin
For bart corbin.
He's not gonna come back from that one.
- [narrator] with the strong evidence
From the gun uncovered,
District attorney porter then makes bart corbin an offer.
Plead guilty to both murders,
And they'll take the death penalty off the table.
- As part of the conditions of bart's plea deal,
He had to actually admit in open court
That he murdered his wife, jennifer corbin,
And also dolly hearn.
And this was to get some level of closure for the family.
- [narrator] now, 16 years since dolly hearn was killed,
Her family gets word that bart corbin will finally confess
To her murder.
- My sister called me the night before and said,
"you need to be in the courtroom tomorrow."
And she said, "I think there's something pretty important
Is going to happen."
- The risk to him was so high in going to trial
With the evidence of the gun
That he wasn't willing to take that risk,
And so he agreed to the plea deal.
(screen glitches)
- [judge] do you want to enter a plea of guilty
To the of offense of malice murder?
- Yes.
- [judge] is your decision to plead guilty made freely
And voluntarily?
- Yes.
- [judge] did you in fact commit the offense
Of malice murder to which you are now pleading guilty
As it is outlined in the indictment?
- Yes.
(screen glitches) (dramatic music)
- Jennifer's father, max, gave a victim impact statement.
You could see his fury in this whole thing.
And it basically was, "we brought you into our family.
We trusted you, we trusted you with our daughter,
And now you've done this."
(gavel bangs on wood)
- [narrator] bart corbin is officially sentenced
To two terms of life in prison
For the murders of jennifer corbin and dolly hearn.
- It was almost like a relief in a way to me,
Because he murdered two women
That were supposedly women that he loved,
One of whom was the mother of his two sons.
It's just very scary to think
What he could do to another woman
That he would become involved with.
(pensive music)
- [narrator] and with the investigation finally closed,
The small community of buford must try
To move on from this horrific event.
(pensive music)
- With buford being a tight community,
This left a lot of people feeling unsafe, unsecure,
(pensive music)
Until we got in and were able to resolve this,
And put them at ease.
And when it comes to jennifer,
I mean, she had lots of friends, lots of family,
So you never quite could replace that.
But it does get people in a better place as time goes on,
To find their new normal.
(pensive music)
- To us, dolly was a bright light.
(pensive music)
And so we constantly try to honor her, and remember her,
And we talk about her.
(pensive music)
I miss dolly, but it's been so many years.
(pensive music)
It's just hard to believe that we don't have dolly,
But we have her in our heart.
That's where she is, and she will always be there.
- In the corbin case,
You have two boys that don't have a mother,
Nor a father, who's now in prison.
There's a lot of people impacted anytime this happens.
But in this particular case, there's so many family members
That are impacted by what in the end was a selfish act
That was committed.
- So there are pieces that are left broken behind
That'll never be put back together completely.
(pensive music)
(bright music)