The Murder of Jennifer Corbin, Part 1 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

guys July 25th the paperback of the butcher in the Wren is coming at you and this is
a huge deal because paperbacks rule first of all and second of all paperbacks are awesome
they're easy around you can shove them in your bag and you can bring them everywhere she's motioning back I am I
don't know why but that you know I think it's it's pretty small so like you can put it in your bag I think you know you
got a big back pocket shove it right in there uh you put it wherever you want I don't care just read it uh but read it
first preferably but do what you want because I support all of you but the cool thing about this one besides being
able to put it wherever you want is there's a sneak of the sea equal whoa the second book the second butcher
in the ren book there is a sneak peek chapter in the paperback edition which comes out July 25th so go get it and
then you can read a sneak peek chapter of the second one and you could be like I read that chapter none of you did and
then everybody who else who got the paperback can be like I did too and then you guys can talk about it but everyone
else will be like I don't know what that chapter is and you'll be cooler and right now I'm one of the only people
that can say I read that chapter and nobody else did and now you can too get on my level get on Ash's level July 25th
the paperback book edition of The Butcher and the rent go get it everywhere I love you guys
books and literacy hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] yay did you almost forget to say who you
were uh yep I've done that before too I was just saying like Okay keep going hey
what's up everybody hey what's up hello hi hey what's going on everybody I was really
hoping you would just continue saying hi I got stressed out the whole episode could just be hey yeah hi I think that
would be great people would definitely not hate that no I think they'd love it 100 we know you guys it's morbid in the
morning it is morbid in the morning put that on a show I was just gonna say why the [ __ ] haven't we put that on a
shirt I know you know with like a like a little Morning Show yeah like a like a a
gothy Morning Show we could do like I mean we're just like thinking out loud here but we could do like a cute little
bundle where you got like a shirt and a coffee mug morbid in the morning merch idea
yes hell yeah write it down write it down Mikey someone write it down someone write that
down imagine if that's the kind of environment that we created imagine imagine just a festering [ __ ] in here that
we just yell at everybody and I say something no [Laughter] well this is gonna be a very quiet
episode just kidding um [ __ ] I forgot what I was oh I love the word Fester it's such a yucky disgusting
word but like when you use it properly festering like it feels like a swear word it has a nice like to it because
you're like you're a festering [ __ ] Uncle Fester like festering feels real filthy filthy filthy as well so close I
know there's too many apps you know but here we are here we are and I don't know I don't know when this is
coming out this is coming out like way later from now yeah.com but I don't know what's happened that we can
referenced I mean the guy that carved his name or his initials into the Coliseum just got arrested today good
man don't carve your [ __ ] name in The Coliseum yeah that's so rude that's the rudest so rude yeah real ignorant so
glad that was taken care of we learned yesterday this is not a fun fact but I think we all should be aware because I
think it's gonna like it's gonna like change how we live our daily life oh the sun thing Elena yesterday we're just on
the phone with my grandma by the way as this happened we're just like shooting the [ __ ] with calf and Elena holds up a
tick tock to me like without the sound and it said the sun could explode and we wouldn't know for eight minutes yeah
so like the sun may have just exploded knock on wood that it didn't God forbid and all that jazz yeah like
we are always eight minutes away from the Sun just ending it all like so think about so don't that sometimes don't and
like living so [ __ ] it live your life accordingly I didn't even have anything to say after don't I was like just don't
just don't don't do it just don't because the sun could explode if if somebody invites you for plans and
you're not sure about them you don't have to do it [ __ ] you I gotta stay home tonight the sun could explode because
what if the sun explodes and I'm at these plans that I didn't even want to do like oh waste oh if the sun explodes
and I'm I I love you guys but if the sun explodes and I'm at work and I don't know for eight minutes I'll be so bummed
yeah I'd like it wherever I go next yeah it's true I think the only place that I
would want to be is with Drew Drew with Drew Drew yeah and like and like you guys and the girls absolutely
existential thinking it's a it's a concept that's for sure but hopefully it makes you just think twice about like
being a day you know being an [ __ ] or doing things that don't bring you Joy yeah and if being an [ __ ] brings you
Joy then like go talk to someone because that's a problem that's the problem that's a bigger
problem or maybe you're just a Capricorn I'm sorry I really saw the opportunity there and I couldn't let it go I
couldn't let it go I loved you with softball and you had to hit it I love you so much you know but you know here
we are we're here hopefully we have more than eight minutes um so I did want to uh before we get
into today to into today's case I just wanted to give like a trigger warning um there is one I mean the whole a big
theme in this case is domestic violence but there's one spot in this and I'll give you a trigger warning like before I
get into it when we do start telling the story but at the top of the show there is uh like a section where kids are
involved oh No Just quickly and I brush I like brush over it pretty quickly because you know that's not something we
like to get too far into yeah um but just know that that's like a quick part of it okay no children die
okay that's good yeah but we're gonna get into it okay all right and uh so yeah trigger warning for domestic
violence and like Family Violence okay so we're gonna start on a happier note and we're going to be talking about uh
Jennifer Corbin Jennifer Monique Barber before she was Jennifer Corbin her maiden name was Barbara she was born on
January 25th 1971 in Kentucky to Max and Narda Barber she was the second of their
three children and not too long after she was born the family all up and moved to Lawrenceville Georgia it's like a
suburb about 30 miles outside of Atlanta okay and when asked about her family Jennifer's sister have Jennifer's sister
Heather said our family was just so incredibly close oh like a really tight-knit family
so when she was younger Jennifer they always said was like the most grounded of the three Barber girls her sister
Heather said she was just one of those people that made you feel good she always told you she always told you what
you needed to hear but somehow in a gentle way oh I love that like I love that a lot everybody needs someone like
that because she's like honest but gentle yeah she's never gonna lie to you but she's not gonna be like mean about
it exactly and friends and family remembered Jennifer as being this like really adventurous friendly kid she
loved to be outside and she was super Fearless when it came to risk taking She Was Not Afraid of Anything now by the
time she reached high school she had made like a ton of friends she had a really big Social Circle she was really
popular her friend Matthew Jenkins remembered her from school and said she was one of
a kind a very caring person that always had a kind word and a shoulder to lean on oh she just sounded like the kind of
person that you would want in yourself now outside of school she had a job at a place called Calico Jacks which was a
local restaurant she worked there for years and everyone there customers and co-workers are like
they all loved her so after she graduated from Central Gwinnett High School Jennifer decided
that she wanted to move to Savannah and her goal was going to be studying photography at Savannah's College of Art
okay now at first it was like really fun and she could see herself making a career of Photography but after two
years her love of It kind of dwindled a bit yeah and it wasn't necessarily something that she saw as the right path
anymore okay so she was like you know what I'm gonna move back home and kind of figure things out so she headed back
to Lawrenceville at that point she wasn't really sure what she wanted to do so in the meantime she got a job as a
server at Barnacles and Oyster club or an oyster bar in Duluth Georgia an oyster Club I know Oyster Club a club
for oysters oh I used to love oysters so much but then I found out that then vibrio and vibrio thing yeah but this
will come as no surprise to you at this point in no time everybody at Barnacles loved Jennifer look at her she just
seemed to be that kind of person like I can think of so many like people that I've worked with over the years like you
can always pick out that one person from a job that you're like ah she was awesome like he was great it's so true
now so the couple that owned the restaurant actually Bob and Suzanne Corbin they liked her so much that they
were discussing between the two of them what a great match she would be for their son Bart ah and Bob specifically
the father of Bart was really insistent about introducing the two of them and he
was like let me tell you like a little bit about bart he's a little older than you there was a seven year age
difference okay and he's a dentist so he's got this great job he's this handsome guy he's my son so I love him I
think you'll love him good teeth good teeth you know you'll have good teeth yeah everybody will have good teeth free
braces there you go let's go so they introduced the two of them the parents introduced Jennifer and Bart and
apparently when they met they did hit it off because before long they were officially an item they were dating
now in the summer of 1996 just a few months into their relationship they decided to have a little romantic
getaway and uh Bart took Jennifer on a trip to Italy damn which like that's a romantic getaway to Italy so that I know
it's real for real now it must have been wildly romantic because a couple weeks after they got home Jennifer found out
that she was pregnant oh now damn even though they weren't necessarily prepared to be parents at that point in time the
surprise of the pregnancy wasn't unwelcome it was like a happy surprise it was a happy surprise and Bart's
parents weren't old-fashioned in the way that they were going to put pressure on
him to marry Jennifer now that she was pregnant but they made it clear to him that he needed to support her and the
baby yeah like he they weren't going to let him just walk away good for them and
actually on his own Bart decided that marrying Jennifer and you know kind of uniting as a family
would be the right thing to do and that's what he wanted to do okay so he proposed to Jennifer
now his sister-in-law so like literally not even his sister Edwina she didn't necessarily agree with the decision to
make the proposal which like not your [ __ ] business I was just gonna say and why is it your business yeah and she
told the author of The Doctor's Wife great reference on this case uh the author is John GLA and Edwina told him
Bart wouldn't have married her if she hadn't been pregnant she was probably just a bit young or immature to consider
wife material like okay Edwina number one you know what if you don't have anything nice to
say don't say anything at all so I'm gonna set my lip on that one especially after somebody has been murdered you say
that [ __ ] about them and also like that's cute the term wife material like grosses me out honestly I hate that I'm
not a material I'm a [ __ ] human thank you and it's it's it makes it like a weird job yeah like I like I have to it
like aspired like you're not gonna get this and it's like no like we're Partners yeah like if you put a ring on
it I'm wife yeah yeah and I'm white I am white I am why fear me roar I mean pretty much so probably not knowing that
her sister-in-law was a huge jerk uh Jennifer did accept the proposal there you go and they got married on September
1st 1996. Jennifer's dad Mac said that Bart quote came into the family very quickly and that kind of was because
everybody liked him from the second they met him like he was a very Charming person they said he was funny he was
smart he was really personable like easy to have a conversation with the Jennifer's father Max said Bart's a very
funny person he's got a very quick wit and people are drawn to that huh so so far in their marriage so good right yeah
now in March of 1997 uh Jennifer and Bart had their son their first son together named Dalton
and from the outside it seemed like they were thriving they were putting on the picture of like happy newlyweds they've
got this new healthy baby Bart's business is doing really well and they were always off doing something together
they like to volunteer they rode their mountain bikes together they traveled it was all ideal and Jennifer was a really
really good mom everybody said that her sister said she was born to be a mom and
when she became a mom she did a hundred and ten she became Miss PTA the SUV driving baseball toting Super Mom oh I
love that goals and I love that her sister was like she was a [ __ ] fantastic oh that's and that means she
was an amazing sister exactly I know but unfortunately the view that the outside
world was getting of Jennifer and Bart and their marriage was mostly a facade and in reality there were some serious
red flags being waved in the air for one thing Bart had a very very explosive temper that could be triggered in an
instant uh Jennifer's father told NBC he had a temper that could snap in a second
and it seemed to be getting worse oh and then you mix that with kids that's that's not that's the thing because kids
are going to press your butt of course and there's going to be situations where you're [ __ ] exhausted and you need to
have a [ __ ] handle on your [ __ ] emotions like a grown-ass adult and interesting that you say that like when
you bring kids into it changes things yep not long after Dalton was born their friends and family started to notice
that Bart had a tendency to lose it and start yelling at Jennifer over really trivial things like if he felt that she
had done something wrong he wouldn't let it go and he'd keep poking keep poking keep poking in like in front of people
like embarrass her yeah and if somebody's doing that in front of people yeah yeah
not okay in the early years of the marriage Jennifer never complained about it to any of her friends she just kind
of like you know took the treatment and tried to focus on the good it seems so they all just kind of thought that he
was a dick but yeah they there was not a lot that they could do there and they were just trying to support their friend
and their family member now just one year after Dalton was born Jennifer became pregnant again and in
January of 1999 she gave birth to their second baby Dylan Dalton and Dylan oh so
cute and at that point they had really outgrown their house so they started looking for a new one and they ended up
finding it in Beaufort Atlanta it's like a ritzy suburb okay uh they moved into that new house just days after Jennifer
had given birth wow I feel like that tells you a little bit of what you need to know like
I don't know why she didn't wasn't allowed time to rest yeah now for the most part in the years that followed
Dylan's birth their second kid Jennifer and Bart they tried to keep up with that
role of the happy family they spent weekends and Summers on their boat at Lake Lanier oh gasp eek I know right and
they were known to host big parties for friends and family at their like their main home in Buford and it was all
really nice for a while but eventually the excitement of the new home the new baby faded and the cracks and really
what we should refer to as Bart's facade started to show again now Dalton was five at this point and he
was going to a private school and at this point Bart started really put like pushing both of his sons to be more
physically active Dalton is the oldest and he's five I was just gonna say yeah the two of them at four and five played
basketball took swimming lessons martial arts lessons and Dalton added playing basketball uh baseball first outside of
school and then on the school's Little League team into the mix of all of that and it's like this is what like you like
you always you want your kids to try stuff but like if you're forcing that kind of
thing on a fight like five years old this young to be doing like that many things right you're supposed to be
trying like like one or two things at a time you know yeah you just kind of like
start trying things that's the whole point of it is like figuring out what your areas of passion are but you don't
throw them into everything you know and the kids enjoyed their sports but Bart always took it to the next level well I
was gonna say and if they do enjoy all these it's like then it you can't treat it like this hard yeah
it's supposed to be fun exactly that's the thing and there's and when they're that young they're like at an age where
they're learning how to be a teammate and how to like the rules of each game exactly like the basic stuff yeah but
again Bart always took it to a place it didn't need to go to and because they were involved in so many sports I think
he kind of saw this as an opportunity to be more involved in those Sports and in
2002 he decided that he was going to uh coach Dalton's Little League team okay now at that point Dalton was six or
seven and of course was on a team with fellow six and seven-year-olds of course but Bart had ridiculously high standards
and would lose it on Dalton and the other kids anytime one of them failed to live up to those expectations I can't
imagine being that kind of adult no me either and this is kind of where we're going to get into like a little bit of
the yucky stuff so just so you know okay it's so mean and it makes me like really
sad but in front of like their teammates he would call them loser crybaby whiner
anytime they like struck out or fumble to play you know can you imagine being a grown ass man
being like you're a loser you're a crybaby like and not only like see a child like I can't imagine that in
general but your baby yeah seek help like I get upset when I have to say no to the girls I couldn't imagine sitting
there being like you're a loser because you didn't do well in this sport [ __ ] off and a whiner like that's gross in my
opinion it's my it's my opinion a former friend and neighbor said he didn't have
any patience for the kids at all he just gave them hell and it didn't matter who
was around then he should never be a coach and to be honest like he had no business being a parent no if you don't
have pain if you can't learn to have patience or have any control over your emotions as an adult you have no
business being around kids no and the thing that got me about like that neighbor saying he gave them hell and it
didn't matter who was around if you're comfortable doing what you're doing in front of people what are you doing
behind doors exactly so if you can imagine if that's what was going on in front of people that's awful it was
worse but that's a closed doors and again getting into a yuckier part here I don't want to get super far into it and
if you want to learn like more about this specific instance or the case overall I do recommend the book that I
mentioned earlier the Doctor's Wife by John Glatt but Bart was worse at home Jennifer's sisters witnessed him not
only name calling Jennifer but the kids as well and it was a well-known fact that his kids were afraid of him that's
awful one of them the older one I think I believe it was told his grandfather uh
Jennifer's father that after a game where he struck out his father lost it on him in public and then hit him after
the game what a piece of [ __ ] for strut like striking out in a little league game you're a piece of [ __ ] there's
never in my opinion at least an excuse to hit your child yeah that's how I feel but but over a [ __ ] baseball game you
got your kid like astonishing Behavior like truly astonishing Behavior I can't imagine being that pathetic of an adult
and I really can't don't ever want my kids to be afraid of me some people think like oh you you know like like I
think we mentioned it in one of the episodes yeah like uh being fearful and respect go hand in hand I don't think
that's it at all oh my God that's just out that's just not how I do it that's not how I would that's not how I do it
you're welcome to parent however you feel is you know fine for you right I don't get the fear-based parenting it
doesn't make a lot of sense to me no I just I don't want that kind of environment in my house no I think you
know respect breeds respect and if I you respect them as human beings they respect me as human beings and we
maintain that together like I grew up hearing like I don't respect you you respect me and that's [ __ ] up and
because of that I had no respect for the person to me I was like okay you don't respect me go [ __ ] yourself I have zero
respect for people who do not respect me same here zero since I was a little kid so why would a
little kid have to have respect for someone who openly is treating you with no respect and also telling you you have
no respect and if I'm afraid of you I don't respect you I'm scared of you exactly a few different feelings that
like I don't understand that it's really sad to me that like he went to his grandpa and was like like I'm afraid of
dad and this is what happened that's awful that well that's my my whole thing with kids and having kids and again this
is just my thing you can do whatever you can do it I was gonna say that's a Housewives thing by the way just in case
you wonder where that's it is it's a Tamara judge uh but in just in case you wonder why we scream it all the time but
like that's this is again just my my thought process it's like your kids should feel safe with you I shouldn't
feel fearful of you that you should be the thing that they go to to feel completely and utterly safe yes that's
at least how I see it in my household I don't really understand I never want them to not think this is a safe place
and that I am not a safe person because I might lose my [ __ ] on them yeah well
like and they're not going to come to you with things that you would want them to come to you with if they don't see
you as a safe person yeah and it's like everybody loses their like loses their temper or loses their cool once in a
while and kids will absolutely be the thing to push you though but the whole point is when you lose control of your
emotions a little bit you should apologize in my opinion because that not only teaches them that when they lose
their cool the right thing to do is to apologize yeah and it teaches them that you're a human being and that you can
admit when you are wrong and that like that I don't hold myself to a different standard than I I hold you to if you
lose your [ __ ] you need to apologize for it and we need to talk through it and
vice versa I'm not holding myself to some holier than thou standard just because I'm your mom like we're on the
same playing field here if I [ __ ] up I apologize if you [ __ ] up apologize like
we gotta be on the same thing here yeah I feel like the old kind of school parenting is like do as I say not as I
do and the new parenting is like let me lead by example yeah like let's be let's
be like you know Partners here through this whole process of raising you like yeah you need to be a part of it and you
should feel like you are part of the process and that you can talk to me right and sadly I don't think these kids
felt that way with their father that always makes me so sad now Jennifer on the other hand she didn't outwardly
challenge or oppose spart's preferred methods of discipline I guess you could call them but she did very much try to
balance it out by being super super loving and super supportive of the boys I'm glad they had that like championing
that them you know yeah no it must have been very very difficult to have your home life be like that and then have to
put on the facade of like where this big happy family in public you know like we
are prim and proper yeah and it sounds like despite how things appeared to those on the outsides on the outside
excuse me Jennifer and Bart's marriage had been steadily disintegrating for a while I don't know why I said
disintegrating but I did emphasis on different syllables you know and by the Fall I don't know I was trying to put a
different emphasis on the ball of 2003. Bart was spending more and more time at work not working though as I'm
sure you can imagine I was just gonna say he and his office manager legit named Jennifer Garner whoa actually
named Jennifer Garner oh [ __ ] also like wow they were carrying on what she described as an office Affair so he was
having an affair on his wife Jennifer with his secretary Jennifer there's many reasons why this man needs
to seek help and I think we're seeing layers of it Compound on top of layers of it truly and and also girl
he's married with two kids she knew like don't but both of you are real shitty for that exactly she said after the last
patient of the day they would make love in his office and then go their separate
ways precious truly I'm like what did that really did it so romantic but anyway with Bart spending more time out
of the house and the kids being a bit older and not needing like constant attention you know Jennifer found new
ways to entertain herself and in early 2004 she bought a PlayStation and she found herself really quickly absorbed in
this game called EverQuest have you heard of that no I haven't either it's an MMO game
um like one of the ones where there's like a ton of other people playing okay I don't know what that is I didn't
either Dave put a little key in there for me thank goodness for Dave I love him uh shout out to Dave shout out to
Dave but um it's so it's like a like a World of Warcraft or like a Call of Duty yeah
where you're all talking to each other and like from my understanding right okay you can you can talk to people from
all over the world it's like that's scary I think it's it was like a multi I don't know multi
no I thought I had it but no yeah massive multiplayer online game shout out to Mikey Mikey you rock oh
it's like a fantasy yeah kind of thing yeah so so she got really really quickly immersed in that and I can see why
because it's a fantasy game like oh hell yeah you know you're kind of like creating this this separate world that
is so different from the world that you're living in right now yeah so while the kids were off at school or at one of
their various activities or you know Bart was at work being a cheating [ __ ] Jennifer would spend hours at
home playing EverQuest okay and over time she kind of started getting more and more withdrawn from real life Edwina
on the scene to read again said there really was a marked difference Jen had lost a lot of weight was dressing more
sloppily than before and was not looking after the house like she used to it's like you're really just [ __ ] on
her over and over and over again I think what you meant to say Edwina was there was a marked difference we were
concerned about her yeah she wasn't herself yeah like she wasn't taking care of not like like go [ __ ] yourself Sorry
God but before long Jennifer she started skipping out on family functions and Gatherings and people were starting to
notice and yeah that becomes they were getting concerned yeah and if that wasn't a strong enough indicator that
the things in the marriage weren't going very well then her own words would make
things explicitly clear early that summer Jennifer confronted Bart for the first time and told him she was
considering leaving him and that she wanted to take the boys with her and she said like this is something I've been
thinking about for a while now so of course completely furious with that and needing to keep control on his side yeah
Bart suggested that they go to counseling together okay which I'm like you're actively cheating on her right
now and you want to go to counseling like yeah and then do counseling like that'll be
great but it was too late at that point for Jennifer and in the months that followed
she became more and more intentional about distancing herself from Bart she started sleeping in a different bedroom
in the house and quote began separating her in Bart's possessions apparently preparing to move out and this is so
unfortunate because like on one hand I'm like yeah Jennifer like good for you but
I'm like this is scary because it's the most scariest time dangerous time and I hate that that is a reality and it's
like it's one of the biggest realities if you want to Champion people getting the [ __ ] out of these situations but
taking their power back but it's so scary and so treacherous treacherous of a road
to walk it really is it sucks and like it really does and it takes a lot to get to that point too which is like really
sad that and then you have to fight through the the thicket to get out of it you know it's like you you don't you get
to just walk this clear path out of the out of this awful place you have to you know I'm making a lot of weird symbolism
here but I don't know I'm just seeing it in my head it's like walking through like these crazy you know brambles that
are ripping you apart as you go through yeah you just try to make it to the other side are you like an author or
something I don't know why I was doing that I've been writing a lot so maybe I'm
like thinking about a lot of medicine no I mean it was beautiful I welcome it I just feel bad but yeah for anybody who
has to deal with this part of it yeah now according to Jennifer's friend and neighbor Kelly Jennifer had told her
husband that she wanted to separate and find a new place for her and her boys like I just said
no at first again like I just said Bart was mad but eventually he kind of seemed
to accept the fact that this marriage was over okay but he had no intention of supporting Jennifer financially if that
was the case [ __ ] you and because of that in the fall of 2004 she ended up getting a job as a preschool teacher at
the Sugar Hill Methodist Church where both of her boys had also gone to preschool okay now she had something to
occupy her time during the day which was great I was probably better for her at first but then she fell into like this
nighttime routine of spending all night playing the Everquest game yeah that's not great exactly now eventually while
she was doing that she met another player online named Christopher and they started off just talking to each other
but you know the online flirtation kind of escalated a bit and now they were having a full-blown online Affair wow
which I I can see how she got pushed to that point absolutely you know well he was cheating on her she was they were
both out of this marriage ready to divorce it's sad that they couldn't just divorce and both move on and truly you
know I don't know if anything would ever make Bart happy but Jennifer could have
had a happy she was obviously looking for like some kind of emotional you know fulfillment and support you
know so throughout most of that fall Jennifer you know pursued the online relationship
with this Christopher and she really really wanted to meet in real life but Christopher seemed reluctant to take
things into the real world which we all know as the beginning of a MTV TV show exactly now this was confusing for
Jennifer because with in just a couple months of meeting online they had exchanged almost a thousand emails wow
and she was fully convinced that this Christopher was the love of her life wow so by November 2004 the online affair
with Chris completely consumed Jennifer's thoughts and on November 12th that would come to a screeching halt
because Chris confided and Jennifer that he felt like their relationship had gotten out of control and he told her
that he needed to admit something to her Chris was not a tall handsome man like she'd been told and there actually was
no Chris I'm sure we kind of all saw this coming the person that Jennifer had been messaging was really a woman named
Anita from Missouri Anita was super super apologetic and she explained that she was in a really
shitty unsatisfying marriage her home life was kind of similar to Jennifer's in the sense that she wasn't so sad it's
really sad in every way and she was using the Chris profile to explore her interest in women okay you know not the
right thing to do but just sad sad like sad that these women were in such awful like home life so you know I mean like
that people have to turn to these things it just makes me sad and like have to turn to these like Virtual Worlds where
they can't really experience the joy that you do in like real life and where it's like like that it's not just this
hobby that makes you happy every once in a while you know what I mean that's like
that's nice like you want to have that like that's that's awesome like you play The Sims or something yeah you sit there
and make a house for four hours and you're like holy [ __ ] but like you know but it's like when it becomes your
reality and like when it becomes the only thing that's consuming outside of playing it that's when it's a problem
and that's usually when everything around you is so unsatisfying exactly and that's what's really sad about it
because anything that becomes that much of an escape is not necessarily healthy exactly you know but Anita did say that
she really truly had fallen in love with Jennifer and she actually hoped to continue their relationship
so over the course of a couple months like of of Jennifer knowing Chris she had invested a lot into the relationship
and the vision in her head that she had was her escaping this marriage and starting over with her boys and someone
she loved yes Chris person so when she got the news that it was actually Anita and that in real life Anita identified
as a woman Jennifer was confused and honestly pretty devastated of course which you know she wasn't she didn't
necessarily identify as a lesbian at that time so yeah and you and you were just you were deceived you were deceived
like no matter what even with the intention behind it was not malicious and when this person is still this
person you were deceived and that just sucks it does so she emailed Anita and said I just can't take this I even fell
in love with the name Chris I just don't know how you could do this to me I trusted you with everything in me which
is really sad but after a few days the feelings of you know shock and betrayal they kind of subsided and Jennifer
seemed to have forgiven Anita she wrote in another email I'm not sure I would have continued to talk to you for very
long if you hadn't come back to me telling me that you had lied and were still Chris but who knows I do know that
I've fallen deeper in love with you as each day passed I'm glad you didn't wait to tell me until you'd met me wow yeah
like a really big person in my opinion yeah so from there the relationship actually kind of got back on track wow
yeah emails got you know increasingly explicit again and now there were real discussions about meeting in person soon
it is very interesting to see they just connected as humans like even though this is like virtual and all that like
they didn't and she fell in love with this person yeah regardless of whether this was a woman or a man
she just fell in love with this person like that's just a very interesting like you know I think I think we all just
fall in love with people I think a lot can be said about stripping away a lot of it's just interesting yeah it's like
and it's like a it's like a nice thing too it's refreshing that they just were like you know what I just like you as a
person because honestly that's how I feel like I know that like people identify like as the L the G the b-e-tq
and all of that I kind of just am like a person that loves people yeah like I feel that exactly you know yeah but and
it kind of seems like Jennifer realized that she might have been like a person that just loved people exactly at least
in the case of Anita I weirdly am like like so happy about it but I'm like I love how it started I
know that's the thing it's like it started pretty pretty rough and like it's got a lot of bumps along the way
like there's like these weird loopholes where you're like yeah and you're like you're happy just to see that they both
moved past it and that they decided to continue whatever they were doing before exactly
so yeah um so Jennifer's online relationship you know maybe got back on track but in the
meantime her real world and her relationship with Bart was worse than it had ever been before as the family
um this is a serious warning for the domestic violence right here trigger warning as the family was driving home
from Jennifer's parents house after Thanksgiving dinner Jennifer had to make a stop at a grocery store
and Bart had completely caught on to the fact that Jennifer was having an affair
like something in him probably the fact that he was also carrying out an affair that'll do that like game c game I guess
exactly so he he had this like sinking feeling and he used the opportunity to search through the car for evidence of
this affair he knew that she was having and he did end up finding something he found a poem that Anita had written to
Jennifer that was you know kind of like sexually explicit she'd printed it out and just kept it with her in her purse
and he found it there oh wow so when she got back in the car he confronted her with the poem and started screaming in
her face like a [ __ ] hypocrite yeah I was gonna say like you have nothing like you can't get mad about
this this should be one of those things where you just both go see we're not we're not meant to be together yeah so
he started screaming in her face and she started crying and begging him not to be
so aggressive because the kids were in the back seat oh my God and they were cowering and suddenly he punched her in
the face while she in front of those children while she was driving in front of both kids she almost lost control of
the car but luckily managed to get home without getting in a serious accident but as soon as they did get home Bart
jumped into his own car and just took off I believe they would never come back by unfortunately he does yeah he left
Jennifer just having been beaten essentially in front of her children and now she has to calm her traumatized
children while trying to calm herself as well right so not sure what to do she called her dad and was like I don't know
what to do right now like this is the situation and he was like you need to pack those kids up and bring them to my
house right now like let's go you gotta get out of there yeah but the only problem with that was that Jennifer was
worried Bart would know that she'd gone to her parents house and he would show up there and she didn't want that
happening so instead she took the boys to her sister's house now just moments after she made the arrangements for her
sister with her sister and like explained everything that was happening Heather the sister her cell phone
started to ring and it was Bart calling and she answered the phone and heard the
Frantic sound of him making excuses he told her whatever she says it's a lie I didn't hit her and she can't prove
anything oh like actually she can she has two eyewitnesses exactly and probably a
black eye so I don't know what you mean she can't promote anything piece of [ __ ]
this guy is just like a true piece of [ __ ] if you can hit a woman you're [ __ ] disgusting yeah you're a piece
if you can call your kid a a baby cry baby loser wonder you're a piece of [ __ ]
there's no upside to this [ __ ] no so the thing was he realized that he had [ __ ] up of course I don't think he
cared on an emotional level he just didn't want to get in trouble he cared in the way that he didn't want to get in
trouble and cared in the way that he had a business that he didn't want to be affected by all of this of course don't
hit people in the face then yeah that's the answer to that so now he knew the divorce was completely inevitable he
accepted that the marriage was over but he was very very worried about his reputation and of course as a man used
to having full control over every [ __ ] aspect of his life he was determined to do whatever he could to
protect himself and prevent Jennifer from going to the police whatever he could so on the morning of December 4th 2004
uh that neighbor Kelly that I mentioned earlier she was at home you know just getting ready for her day and her
doorbell started ringing frantically so she ran to the door and opened it and she found her seven-year-old neighbor
Dalton crying and telling her my daddy shot my mommy oh God horrifying are you [ __ ] kidding me what I will say is
luckily they didn't see it happen oh they knew it happened but they didn't see it when it happened oh that like
Breaks My Soul tiny tiny comfort and a very [ __ ] up situation oh God that's so awful it's horrifying so Kelly picked
up Dalton and started comforting him but at the same time rushed over to the house to check on her friend I mean this
was her friend so she stepped foot in the house just as the younger son was walking out of his parents bedroom
crying and Kelly looked in to see that Jennifer this is a horrifying scene she was laying on the bed dressed only in a
nightgown and there was a very large hole in the back of her head as a younger son had just walked out of
the room oh they didn't see everything they had seen everything except it happened when it happened
so Kelly carefully approached the bed and she reached out to touch Jennifer and she said she was ice cold she was
frozen she'd been there a long time there was nothing I could do for her so she scooped up both boys and ran back to
her house to call 9-1-1 no wow horror like also that neighbor what a [ __ ] that's a neighbor she
walked into that house not knowing what she was going to be dealing with oh I mean she just heard my daddy shot my mom
could have had a gun still yeah and to go get that other little boy like that's heroic she cared yeah that's a good
neighbor and actually her and her husband are a huge part of this case and like fantastic people oh I love that you
can tell absolutely I'm like covered in my Goosebumps right now it's just awful no Gwinnett County police officers
arrived at 801 a.m just a couple minutes after Kelly called and they made their way inside the Corbin house and you know
they found Jennifer just as Kelly had described to them when she met them at the front door Jennifer was lying on her
side there was that gunshot wound to the back of her head and the revolver was next to her body but it was slightly
covered by the sheet of the bed and Scattered across the bed in front of her were divorce papers that had been served
to her on or seemed to have been served to her on behalf of Bart Corbin so he was trying to make it look like very
clearly yeah the officer in the room they had never been trained to jump to conclusions obviously but the scene in
the bedroom told them a pretty simple story at that point of a wife who had become despondent at the thought of
being divorced by her husband and took her own life that's what that's a no that's what a glance told them but at
Kelly's house across the street Kelly's husband Steve remembered that Bart had planned to go away for that weekend and
he had left the night before but he didn't know the number to wherever Bart had gone and he couldn't remember like
exactly where he had said he was going so he had no way of reaching him okay so he called Bart's parents house and he
spoke to Bart's father Bob and he was like somebody needs to pick up the kids like I I don't know what to do here yeah
and he recalled the phone call later and said somebody was on the phone when I was talking to him they were breathing
really heavy I thought maybe it was Bart Corbin on the other line so like while he was talking to Bob the father he
could tell somebody else was on a different line creepy that's terrifying now despite how the scene appeared at a
glance investigators had more than one reason to be skeptical that Jennifer had taken her own life first there was
Dalton's statement to Kelly that his father had shot his mother yeah then there was also the fact that just a
couple days earlier on December 1st Jennifer called 9-1-1 to report that she and Bart had been in another fight and
he'd stolen her phone and a few other belongings and left the house like what what a man baby like a true
man baby and then finally there were reports from Jennifer's family to the police about
the domestic violence and the assault that occurred on Thanksgiving they did report that good Jennifer's father told
NBC I knew that she was dead and I knew that somebody did it he probably I like I can't imagine and
it's like they pre they probably were seeing this played out in real time and they were just dreading it's like your
worst nightmare has come yeah to free wish it's like you can see it all going in a really bad Direction and it's like
this is the worst possible outcome exactly so while the news of Jennifer's death started making its way around
stunned family members police and crime scene technicians were processing the scene as what it was a crime scene
luckily now among those people at the scene was senior assistant district attorney Tom Davis and he immediately
was like this place is suspicious as [ __ ] and all of this is a little too obvious yeah the divorce papers strewn
out in front of her like come on right there were things about the scene also that just didn't make sense Jennifer had
been shot in the back of it I was also going to say like just the logistics right so she'd been shot in the back of
the head but the gun was laying at her side tucked under a sheet yeah if she had shot herself that would have meant
that she would have had to slip the gun under that sheet before starting over after having shot herself in the back of
the head exactly yeah not possible no I didn't know if I had to throw that in there yeah just in case you were
wondering but then there were the divorce papers themselves I don't know if you caught what I said earlier they
seemed like they had been served to her this is [ __ ] wild as investigators were processing this scene a Gwinnett
Gwinnett sheriff's deputy unaware of what was going on at that point arrived at the house to serve Jennifer divorce
papers these were fake papers yup this [ __ ] idiot they hadn't even been served yet are you kidding me like
how did you what that's why I don't under I mean there's nobody should things about this
that you won't understand nobody should ever understand like why someone killed someone in the first place but he's
worried about his reputation in his career and the answer to that is I'm gonna murder my wife that'll help my
reputation yeah no you're just gonna go to jail like that doesn't help your reputation
either classic narcissists though they think I'm gonna murder my wife it was I'm gonna murder my wife and Stage it
like a suicide and I'm so smart so why would anybody ever question me it's like wow I'm glad they're so dumb in that
sense because it's like they always get caught and it's like thank goodness right [ __ ] so but then so the
investigators are sitting there and they're like well how would she be distraught over divorce papers that she
hadn't been served yet yeah like these are not real clearly that's the universe intervening right there right that was
when I got to that point I was like whoa yeah but a better question where the [ __ ] was Bart Corbin yeah nobody knew
where he was at this point and it took hours trying to locate him but detectives were finally able to get in
touch with his brother Bobby a little after 11 A.M okay now Bobby told detective Marcus head you can understand
my brother is pretty upset and anxious right now yeah uh-huh I could understand I could
understand that I could understand exactly why he might be anxious now the detective returned to Max Barber
Jennifer's father who had been been at the scene all morning tending to the kids and like realizing what had just
happened to his daughter I can't even imagine so the detective goes over to him and
explains you know I I talked to Bart's brother and they're on their way to pick up the kids which I don't know why that
was allowed like that why would Bart's family be able to like no I don't quite understand that that shouldn't have been
allowed like that alone must have been shocking to me like the whole thing was the kid came over and said my daddy shot
my mommy exactly whether you think that's the case or not that's what that kid said and you should treat it like
there's something wrong here like why would you send those kids give those kids to his family exactly well
so they told Max that Bart and Bobby would be there in about 15 to 20 minutes Max waited there for three hours and
Bart never showed and never called of course not three uh he didn't give a [ __ ] about his kids no he doesn't care
no no I mean any normal parent I can I can imagine it's wildly hard to picture this like a parent not rushing to be
with their kids after such a traumatic event under normal circumstances but these were not normal circumstances and
Bart had other priorities yeah like [ __ ] his secretary or whatever the [ __ ] she is and this while he was
supposedly pulling himself together to go over to the house and pick the kids up he actually was in fact Consulting
with his divorce divorce lawyer Patricia O'Kelly asking her for lawyer recommended lawyer recommendations
excuse me on a criminal matter so she suggested that he contact Peters Roberts borsic and Reuben and that was a
a decouter sorry based Law Firm specializing in criminal law and by noon that day Bart had hired Doug Peters the
firm's leading criminal attorney it's really wild to me that not one person is being like hey
you should do the right thing and like go to your kids like not one person was like I'm gonna step out of line here and
I'm gonna tell you you should probably go take care of your I'm sure somebody probably someone say that but I but
honestly who knows it kind of sounds like Bart was just like he surrounded himself with a lot of yes people exactly
but so any belief that Jennifer had taken her own life quickly fell away once the crime scene technicians got to
work in the house this morning it turned out that Tom Davis's suspicions were pretty accurate given the position of
the body and the gun it would have been impossible that Jennifer shot herself doesn't make physical sense and the most
telling piece of evidence was actually the position of her nightgown it had slid at some point exposing one of her
breasts and the technicians believed that that couldn't have happened after she had as she had slumped over after a
gunshot like it didn't make sense and instead it was their belief that it happened when somebody pulled her body
in an upright like pulled her body upright into like a half off-sitting position on the bed oh that's when it
happened and to add to that which I was like Wow Bart you're a [ __ ] idiot one of the straps on her nightgown had
slid down past her shoulder it couldn't be in that position if she had just lifted her arms to shoot
herself yeah like it didn't make any sense nope and finally her body was discovered with her upper body slightly
Twisted in a way that couldn't have happened no after she had just shot herself I'm glad he's stupid yeah so they were
like okay clearly somebody repositioned her body here yeah like this as a homicide now that was all just what the
naked eye could see but further tests conducted at the scene also quickly disproved the suicide Theory there were
no fingerprints on the gun wow so whoever had used the gun had wiped it down afterwards which was obviously
Jennifer yeah totally clearly after life yes there was also no gunpowder or residue on either of her hands which was
noted as very difficult with that particular gun yeah and lastly the angle at which she would have had to handle
the gun in order for the bullet to enter as it had into her head made it physically impossible she couldn't have
gotten into that position to help to hold that gun in that way so while detect or Excuse me while
technicians dealt with all of that detective head and his team started talking to family members and neighbors
to find out more about their marriage and they started by talking to Dalton Corbin the oldest son
-year-old a seven-year-old now in his interview with Dalton detective head asked the boy or he was a little older
than seven at this point like a couple years had gone by but still young yeah in his interview with Dalton detective
head asked the boy why he told Kelly that his dad had shot his mom he's like why'd you say that like you know he's
got to start off kind of yeah you know and Dalton explained that he actually hadn't seen Bart shoot shoot Jennifer
which like thank whoever but the fact that that was his first thought but given his father's explosive temper and
frightening violent Behavior especially toward his mother lately Dalton said he immediately thought his father had done
it the fact that a child's like it was that simple on that and was like oh yeah he would exactly like like a child your
child is pinpointing you as the killer of his own mother mother yeah right off the bat like you're a failure you're a
failure [ __ ] failure absolutely so his uh Dalton's explanation to detect did two detective heads excuse me Echo
other family members claims that Bart had you know been very abusive and very violent in the very recent past but it
was actually Steve Kelly's husband his statement that actually confirmed investigators suspicions
now Kelly and Steve told detectives that Bart was supposed to have gone away to visit his brother the afternoon before
Jennifer had been found okay and he wasn't supposed to come home until the day after which gave him an alibi yeah
now Steve told those same detectives though that Steve himself had gotten home much
later than he usually did the night before Jennifer's Body had been found he got home sometime after 1 30 am and he
was awake and heard a truck pull into the Corbin's driveway around 2 A.M that was unusual so he poked his head out the
window and he saw the brake lights of Bart's truck illuminated in the driveway and he was like oh I guess like he
didn't you know he must have come back like that's crazy and about 15 minutes later the truck sped away from the
Corbin house quote in a great hurry hmm what what happened there I thought you were away
so having collected statements from the most important people at the scene the the only person investigators at this
point were really [ __ ] eager to talk to was Bart Corbin but I'm sure this is going to come as a
shock to all he was being very uncooperative oh what yeah detectives have been trying to reach him through
his brother Bobby but every attempt so far was unsuccessful Bobby just kept telling them that Bart wanted to talk
with his lawyer before he made a formal statement to the police so after he finished his interview with
Steve detective had tried one last time to reach Bart and did it by calling Bobby Corbin and Bobby told the
detective that Bart had retained a criminal defense lawyer and the lawyer had advised him against talking to
detectives so he would not be coming down to talk to them wow you're all pieces of [ __ ] so right now there wasn't
a ton that they could do because they didn't have necessarily anything pinning him to the crime but they were gonna
start looking because between the statements taken from friends and family and his continued refusal to speak to
investigators he was starting to look like a very strong suspect and suspicions only grew stronger when they
started digging into his background uh-oh which I will get to in part two I knew it I know I don't think I actually
told you at the beginning of this that it was going to be a tupata but it is this one's a oh this one is a doozy you
know and when you said you said December 4th 2004 and I was just thinking about it I was
like oh like what was I doing in 2004 and then I was like you just grabbed do you ever think about that like in these
kind of cases like on the day you're like what was I doing that day when this was happening and I had no idea that
this was happening somewhere in the country it's so weird that you said that because Drew and I had a conversation
like that recently about like something terrible that happened while we were at like Universal yeah and I was like all
of us here like everybody at Universal was just walking around walking around super happy like having probably like
one of the best times ever and then family horrible thing life was happening floating
it's just like really it's like woof yeah I think about Creepy yeah oh man this is a tough one I hope this
guy gets gets it I don't know that's all I'm saying you might get away or he might not I don't
know those are the two choices so I hope again we'll get to it in part two so we
hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it we it's weird but not to worry that you
don't go listen a part to you bye thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

When Gwinnett County sheriff’s officers responded to a call about a shooting at the home of Dr. Barton Corbin on the morning of December 4, 2004, they discovered the body of the doctor’s wife, Jennifer Corbin, dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Within a few days, however, investigators learned some things about Bart Corbin that led them to believe that the thirty-three-year-old mother of two may not have taken her own life.

Thank you so much to David White for research assistance :)

References:

Atlanta Journal Constitution. 2006. "Timeline of events in Barton Corbin's case." The Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 17.

Bentley, Rosalind. 2004. "Corbin arrest is 'hard'." The Atlanta Journal-Constituion , December 23.

Bentley, Rosalind, and Lateef Mungin. 2006. "Barton Corbin case: How they nailed him." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 17.

Bentley, Rosalind, Lateef Mungin, and Beth Warren. 2006. "Guilty guilty: Corbin pleads." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 16.

Bruner, Tasgola Karla. 2004. "The Corbin case: Med-school girlfriend was fearful." Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 16.

—. 2004. "Parallels revive case of Augusta tragedy." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 13.

—. 2004. "Similarities in 'suicides' are haunting ." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 16.

Bruner, Tasgola Karla, and John Ghirardini. 2004. "Dentist main 'focus'." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 13.

Glatt, John. 2007. The Doctor's Wife: A True Story of Marriage, Deception and Two Grusom Deaths. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.

Hansen, Jane. 2006. "Dolly's truth: To her family, her death in 1990 was never a mystery." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 15.

Mungin, Lateef. 2004. "Dacula man sought after wife's shooting." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 8.

—. 2004. "Death called homicide, not suicide." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 8.

—. 2004. "Dentist's kin to testify before grand jury today." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 15.

Rankin, Bill, and Bill Topry. 2005. "Corbin faces double danger." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 9.

Stafford, Rob. 2006. Death and the Dentist. October 18. Accessed June 25, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15253153

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

Jennifer Corbin's tragic story reveals domestic violence and her murder by Bart Corbin, highlighting the complexities of abusive relationships.

Key points

The Shocking Sun Fact. Did you know the sun could explode and we wouldn't know for eight minutes?
Jennifer Corbin's Background. Jennifer was born in Kentucky and had a close-knit family.
Bart's Explosive Temper. Bart's temper was a growing concern in his marriage with Jennifer.
The Dangers of Fear-Based Parenting. Discussing the negative impacts of fear in parenting and the importance of respect.
Jennifer's Online Affair. Jennifer finds solace in an online relationship after her marriage deteriorates.
The Shocking Truth. Jennifer discovers that the person she loved online was actually a woman named Anita.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Don't be an a**hole, live your life accordingly!

Encouraging listeners to prioritize joy in life.

4:50WatchAug 1, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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