Where is Erin? | "48: NCIS" | "48 Hours" Podcast (Episode 1) | Forensic Files

our whole life being turned totally upside down began on June 29th 2014 on a beautiful summer Sunday
morning Laura heavin was in her home in Tennessee with her husband bill they were getting ready to go to church when
they received an awful call my son-in-law called probably around 11:00 11:30 on Sunday morning morning and told
us that Aaron was missing and I'm like what do you mean Aaron's missing Bill and L hadn't seen their
daughter Aaron in a few months Aaron recently moved out of the Hein family home to start a new life in California
with her high school sweetheart and now husband John Corwin they moved to a small city called
29 Palms a blip in the middle of the Mojave what brought the Corwin there was the
Marine base John was a marine Corporal Corwin officially and Aaron was a Marine's wife
they lived on the base in a small apartment their first home together Bill and lur hadn't seen the
new place yet when John called lur had been planning a trip out west to visit Aaron later that week Aaron was 19 years
old almost 20 I was going to go out for for her 20th birthday but then no one knew where
Aaron was on the phone Aaron's husband John Corwin told lore that the last place he
knew Aaron had gone was Joshua Tree National Park and he told me that she had gone
out to Joshua Tree National Park the day before to look for um places for her and
I to go to take pictures and stuff when I came to visit in a few days my first immediate thought was
Aaron got lost Aaron is very directionally challenged Bill Aaron's father worried
that Aaron wouldn't find her way out I mean Joshua tree is just a desert there's nothing there there's no water
it's not like you're going to find anything there's no shelter of any type so you're just exposed to the
elements in addition to her lack of hiking experience Aaron was not particularly prepared for the
Outdoors she was a very petite 19-year-old um 52 maybe 115 lbs she um was very shy extremely
naive Bill and La knew their daughter this didn't sound like her she wouldn't go on an overnight hike
spontaneously she probably wouldn't go on an overnight hike at all Aaron was a homebody she stayed inside her comfort
zone the heavin thought through what might have happened and quickly discounted some
possibilities no I never thought that Aaron had run away I didn't think that was even a remotely a possibility I mean
she just was not a risk taker worried lur pressed Aaron's husband John for more details the last time John said he saw
Aaron was early the morning before before he said she kissed him goodbye around 7:00 a.m. and he watched her
drive off in their car he went back to sleep a while later he got up and spent the day playing video games by Nightfall
Aaron still hadn't come home she was supposed to be back in time for dinner but John went to
bed the next morning according to John it had been 24 hours since Aaron had driven out of sight
John alerted the authorities then he called Lore he sounded concerned there wasn't a
lot of emotion in his voice but that's typical John it's hard to read him to know what his thoughts
are I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales this is 48 Hours NCIS where we take you inside a case NCIS agents say
they will will never forget episode 1 where is Aaron while his 19-year-old wife was
missing John spent most of the day at home he started wondering where is aarin and tried to get in touch with her but
could not by phone he knows there is not good service in the desert so he didn't
worri too much but then by Nightfall he was worried Paula Rosa is a producer for
CBS News in 48 hours he reported on Aaron Corwin's disappearance LaRosa had a lot of experience telling true crime
stories he knew that generally when someone goes missing the first person investigators turn to when they need
answers is the spouse in this case that was John Corwin but he didn't do anything he
didn't call police he didn't really tell anybody on his base so to the author authorities it was initially suspicious
that John waited to report Aaron missing the sheriff's deputies and Sheriff's Office had a lot of questions for him
they were like Tell Us Where She Went you know how what did she have with her why did you wait 24 hours to report her
missing his version of the story is that I thought from watching television shows
that you have to wait 24 hours before you can report an adult missing but that makes you uh seem suspicious in the eyes
of of the investigators also he had no alibi per se I he was in his apartment playing video games and he's an
unemotional guy I mean he's not the kind of guy say my wife is missing you know he's like unemotional and very flat
affect once John finally did alert the authorities the local sheriff's department in San Bernardino immediately
opened up an investigation but they needed help for this specific case the sheriff's
department can't just go there and start talking to people they have to go through protocol right they have to
alert the military and when they do the NCIS gets involved NCIS the naval criminal investigative service most of
us may recognize this name from television NCIS never heard of it that's embarrassing the television
show NCIS follows a cast of characters including NCIS special agents field agents forensic Specialists and more
through 21 seasons of scripted Prime Time television drama but the NCIS is a real life
Federal agency NCIS is sort of like an in-house FBI for the Navy there are only about a thousand
special agents based all over the world in Japan Singapore barin Italy and yes at the Marine base in 29 Palms
California they are stationed at the base and they get involved holding the sheriff's
department hand to let them know how the military operates NCIS special agent Clifton Randolph Jr was alerted by the
sheriff's department that a Marine's wife was missing the initial story we received was Aaron had gone to Joshua
Tree National Park to look for a nice hiking routes for her and her mother who was coming out later on that week that
was the last time that corpal Corin had seen her driving in their blue Corolla away from the uh
installation the Marine base what special agent Randolph called the installation was the largest Marine
Corps Base in the world in addition to housing in NCIS office there were about 900 families who lived on base by
2013 that included the Corwin however the base was not exactly busy 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa remembered the
first time he ever drove by the base if you're driving through 29 palms and you make a left somewhere and you just drive
for about 30 minutes or less you'll come to the Marine base which is huge but there's a big gate there's a big gate at
the base because there's a lot of security and we we were not allowed out there if you were a resident of the base
like Aaron Corwin was every time you came home you pass through a large gated entrance with a security checkpoint from
there a sort of Main Street led to a small downtown area of buildings including offices a mess hall a library
a small hospital and even a bowling alley housing for the military families branched off this main area into
secluded Suburban plots and culde acts from where ncis's office is located on the installation is not far from where
Aaron Corwin lived with Corporal Corwin uh practically a mile maybe two the rest
of the base's immense acreage almost 71,000 acres in total was taken up by vast military training areas including
airfields and shooting ranges you know they fire artillery shells there all the time and they have you know people out
in the desert and doing all sorts of things in the early 2000s the majority of units in the Marine Corps deploying
to a rock trained here not too far from the bases residential area there was a Sandy stretch protected by mountains
named mini Baghdad but when Aaron moved to the base her entire world shrunk to those few
miles right inside the Gated entrance in such Close Quarters special agent Randolph said he got to know his
neighbors well there could could have been a chance that you run into her at the grocery store or you pass her at the
gym I might have come across her and not even know it but there's that person that needs your help and you need to do
everything you can to help in his office special agent Randolph got to work his first step was
to take what the sheriff's department knew and ask him self what don't we know there was an immediate concern for what
could have happened to Aaron that she did not return uh as soon as he thought she was going
to special agent Randolph had questions what if Aaron didn't go where she said she was headed what if she just got on
the highway and drove but what if she actually was at Joshua Tree National Park the park is larger than the state
of Rhode Island how could they ever comb through nearly a million acres of land special agent Randolph thought
through all the possibilities with one main focus where where is Aaron you want to find where Aaron is from the moment
someone is reported missing and the last person to see that person being a corpal
COR one Aaron's husband you're racing the clock because you don't know the circumstances that are involved in this
person's disappearance there was one big problem working against the NCIS agents
and Aaron time you got to get on it quick because that person might need you sooner than later and time is not on
your side so special agent Randolph dispatched a team of NCIS experts I provided analytical support to Cliff
Randol in the Aaron cor investigation analyst Ashley deelen was sent to the 9 Palms Marine basee from
another NCIS office on the Camp Pendleton Marine base only a few hours away when she arrived in 29 Palms she
met her colleagues got up to speed on the investigation and do right into work I do database checks regularly review
social media open source information so whatever's in the news and outlets and looking for information she scrubbed
through Aaron's social media it was 2014 and face Facebook was all the rage what
was the last thing Aaron posted on her profile when was she last active online basically going onto the internet and
searching for all potential information that could be of interest in your investigation like special agent
Randolph analyst delfen understood what was at risk if she missed any detail that could prove vital I absolutely felt
the pressure and the stress surrounding Aaron's disappearance because is as Cliff mentioned we had limited time and
we wanted to find her as soon as possible so I got to work right away in order to find Aaron the agents
needed to learn who Aaron was they needed to understand her her personality her temperament what she liked and
disliked and they needed to understand her relationships her marriage and her family so they picked up from California
and headed to Aaron's Hometown oakd Tennessee where Aaron's life began Aaron was born on July 15th
1994 when she was 2 weeks old her birthmother placed her in foster care but very soon Aaron found her home Aaron
came to the house when she was 17 days old she was an incredible sweet baby we were blessed to be chosen to her
[Music] parents by the time Aaron turned three the heavin family officially adopted her
she joined a house full of siblings we fostered several children we adopted five of them and Aaron was the fourth
adopted child Bill and lore also had two biological children they all lived together in a nice house in a small city
of Oakridge about 25 Mi west of Knoxville Tennessee it's a hidden city tucked along the black Oakridge mountains and
for much of its history it was kept a secret one of its nicknames is the city behind a
fence Oakridge Tennessee if you don't know anything about it was an atomic city um oakd
Tennessee did not exist before World War II and the military built oakd Tennessee
for people to developed the atomic bomb Paul Rosa visited Aaron's Hometown and he noticed a through line from Aaron's
childhood in Oakridge to her future on the Marine base in California you couldn't just leave oakd
Tennessee and go for a drive out into the country everything there was a gate everything was controlled it was sort of
a sheltered closed town and Aaron herself was very sheltered she was homeschooled so much of her life took
place in the family home on Sundays the family went to the local church it was the family and it was the church and it
was the the horse ranch and that's it now the horse ranch the East Tennessee Riding Club was Aaron's
favorite place in the world as a child according to lore it was like her second home Aaron spent all her time at the
Stables you know in Tennessee I mean you know her mother famously said she would
sleep there if she could Aaron's mother lore said she was a quiet and shy girl and sometimes she seemed to be more
comfortable around animals than people Aaron loved the animals horses cats dogs rabbits guinea pigs but they
all loved her too she was like a calming force and they knew they could trust her
and they knew that she was the one to respect and listen to good boy Shake Aaron could even train cats this
was her leading her cat through tricks and lay down one more time good boy Aaron was an animal Whisperer she
could get them to do things that the average person would not be able to so when Aaron discovered the East Tennessee
Riding Club and began to experience working with horses she excelled when she first started I assured her we would
never get a horse and we ended up with two um we spent many many many many hours here another local family the
Corwin were also frequent visitors Aaron and John um met at the barn they met when Aaron was in fifth
grade she was 10 John was just a year older John's younger sister had a horse there also and Aaron went to their house
a couple different times in a small city with a sheltered life Aaron found the Corwin Family House
exciting she would go and play but she was always especially shy around John JN seemed shy around Aaron too John Corin
was a very quiet young man they grew up together slowly and patiently at first and then once she turned
I think she was 15 and they kind of reconnected and you know did a lot of texting and messaging on Facebook and
that kind of stuff and they started dating on her 16th birthday and John actually asked me if it was okay if he
took her out on a date John was a serious and stoic teenager his aspirations were always
clear to him when they first started dating he already knew he was going to be a
marine at 7 John began the process to join the Marine Corps he took tests for aptitude
and strength and he planned to go to basic training in boot camp the summer after he graduated high school and
meanwhile despite their young age Aaron and John became serious fast they started talking about marriage Aaron
full of excitement told her mom we knew how young and naive she was and we had hoped that they would wait a couple
years so that she could get a little bit of more maturity under her belt the couple went to John's senior
prompt together Aaron was barely 18 when he proposed this may sound a bit early for
marriage but it isn't that uncommon for a military couple Young Marines who choose to enlist right after high school
will move to whatever location the military assigns them and for many young marines the
ahead includes marriage married couples get preference when it comes to securing
housing on base the reason why they wanted to get married was to get on the base housing list um and you had to be
married and they knew John was getting ready to be deployed so John like many marines
before him wanted to start this journey with his high school sweetheart but lore wasn't sure Aaron
understood the reality of marrying a Marine we had quite a few conversations on what
life as a military wife would be um I tried my hardest to prepare her mentally emotionally for what was in her
future at 18 years old John chose the Marines and Aaron chose John she went to Las Vegas for the Marine ball and they
got married well they were in Vegas on a beautiful fall afternoon in 2013 Aaron was stuck inside unpacking boxes
the treelined view from her childhood bedroom in Tennessee was replaced with the Sandy expanses and cacti of 29 Palms
California by all accounts she was still a newlywed she and John had not yet celebrated a year marriage despite a
condo full of boxes Aaron was alone and she moved out there got their apartment all set up before John got home from his
deployment John's deployment in okanawa Japan continued on for another few months and Aaron's New Life as a
19-year-old Marine's wife began if she ever felt isolated in Oakridge life on the Marine Bay
challenged her even more Aaron went from living in a house full of siblings to An
Empty Apartment all she could do was wait for John to come home I think Aaron was enjoying some
aspects of being a marine wife and other aspects I think it was harder than what
she anticipated Aaron tried to develop a routine she went to the commissary a few
times a week to pick up groceries otherwise wi she spent her time watching TV and scrolling Facebook she texted her
friends back in Tennessee often after a few months JN came home but not much changed for
Aaron John was not deployed again after she moved out there but being in artillery he went out in the field every
month for at least 5 days sometimes more and so she would be home alone during those times that he was out in
the field she was lonely but one day according to her mother lore things started to improve
when Aaron made her first friend on base Aaron was busy unloading her saddle out
of her car when she bumped into her nextd door neighbor Nicole and Aaron clicked because of the horses Nicole Lee
lived right next door to Aaron and John she was a fellow Marine's wife and when Nicole saw Aaron carrying a saddle she
invited Aaron to come by the ranch where she kept her horse the White Rock horse
rescue it was just a 40-minute drive from the Marine base and with Nicole's invitation Aaron was immediately
reminded of her favorite place on Earth the Riding Club in Tennessee she probably felt a Pang of homesickness and
excitement Aaron first came here with Nicole to look at horses introduced me and said I want to find a horse I need a
horse I rode when I was back home she had a horse and she had to leave it and so now she was homesick and so she
decided that uh getting a horse riding it would give her some pleasure some happiness Isabelle megley is the founder
and CEO of this Desert Rescue Ranch but she was never tucked away in an office somewhere Isabelle preferred to be
outside with the horses and the people who volunteered to take care of them are rehabilitate rescued horses
that have been abused and then I also take in horses that aren't abused and find them homes and then I always invite
any individual who would like to come and volunteer at the ranch to help me cuz we have no paid
employees 48 Hours producer Paul Arosa met Isabelle while he was covering Aaron's story he reached out to her for
an interview but she never got back to him he figured they'd visit the horse ranch anyway way so we go there and the
horses are everywhere right off the public road and the ranch itself is absolutely not fancy I mean it's very
rugged it's you know in a desert community it's out in the open and you know you just see horses running back
and forth there's a few structures that look like they're down in their luck while Arosa was videotaping the sites on
the ranch he noticed a small group of people approaching him it's sort of a rag tag bunch of young children and
young young people and this older woman um and I said are you Isabelle megley I said we're from CBS News blah blah blah
I sent you an email I called you and she said oh yeah I meant to call you back I
just never got around to it and I said well we're here now and we want to talk to you so once we were face to face she
was happy to talk to us Isabelle is a very weathered uh person I mean she's been outside a lot
during her life you can tell Isabelle was exactly the sort of person Aaron knew well a fellow animal Whisperer with
a managerie of pets following her around the land and when Nicole introduced the
two of them Aaron knew exactly how Isabelle could help her and so when she found her horse Aaron was with uh Cassie
it was like her partner it was decided Aon would volunteer on the ranch she would pay to adopt a horse and take care
of it and then she'd be able to ride many military families from the 29 Palms base enjoyed the ranch for Nicole
it was a family affair she'd spend the day at the ranch with her Marine husband Christopher Lee now that included Aaron
so it was like a threesome so when they would come they would all take their horses and play with them and then they
would leave together they and they would have a good time the the three of them it was very rarely the
four so where was John Aaron was not supported by John for this activity cuz he was not interested in it he uh would
come here with his motorcycles or his things for play in the dirt and that's what he would do why she would ride and
she'd say please come over and watch me ride my horse he said I'm not interested
so they they were never cozy together I kept waiting but he was he was very difficult to interact with Isabelle felt
she came to know their relationship well Aaron was always fighting with John over
what John told her to do and so she would come here and say at least I'm free and she was a different person the
only one he couldn't control was her relationship with the horse Aaron would Pile in with the Lee family for the ride
to and from the horse ranch thanks to them she could see her horse whenever she wanted her relationship with the local
community grew while her marriage strained I'm a very good judge of animals and people go right along hand
inand with that Isabelle welcomed the Marine families onto her Ranch and she observed later she became a valuable
source for the NCIS agents work working to find Aaron [Music] Corwin on Monday June 30th 2014 Aaron
had been missing for 48 hours news spread across the Marine base quickly it was big news for such a small
area analyst Ashley deelin had her eye on Aaron's social media she made note of the people who seemed to be close to
Aaron who had recently tagged her in a post who had commented she searched through Aaron's Facebook friends and
looked through their friends to figure out how people knew each other there was a lot of useful information publicly
available Analyst at chelen just had to determine which leads were worth following what was real and what was
speculation in such a small commity commun this proved difficult early on everybody was talking about it everybody
was commenting on it on social media people were looking for her there was Buzz on base and at certain points it
even became like a bad game of telephone before long the news about Aaron reached Isabelle's horse rescue
the phone rings and Aaron corin's girlfriend called me said have you seen Aaron and I said no but she went missing
I said missing she said yeah and then the detectives started coming with that was an awareness of all
the things I had been watching that happened was a key part of the investigation with any missing person
you want to return that person to their family and their loved ones because they
care about that person and from working a case like this you develop a care for the livelihood of that person you don't
want to see anything bad happen but in the back of your mind it's a Race Against Time and you know that you're
running out of it for a concerned mother the waiting game was Misery we really had no clue
what happened it was almost like we were walking in a different world kind of numb after the 48h hour mark with no
sign of Aaron it was all hands- on deck for the NCIS agents as the days go by it's it's
becoming more and more likely that you're not going to find her alive NCIS paired up with San
Bernardino's search and rescue team they had three main objectives to determine a
safe plan of action to locate Aaron Corwin and to bring her to safety first they had to assess the
situation based on the story John told they needed to look for Clues special agent Randolph and his team
knocked on doors on base asking if anyone had any information about Aaron any other story to corroborate or
contradict her husband's was John Corwin telling the truth this season on 48 Hours NCIS the
search for a missing Marine's wife uncovers secrets that nobody expected she was so trusting and always
saw the good in people that she did not see the warning signs that I'm sure were
[Music] there from CBS News and CBS Studios this is 48 Hours NCIS original reporting by 48 Hours
producer Paul Arosa Anthony Batson is the senior producer for 48 hours Jamie Benson is the senior producer for
Paramount audio special thanks to 48 Hours executive producer Judy igard CBS studi senior vice president Rob luchow
and Paramount audio vice president Megan Marcus our podcast was written and produced by Jay venables Isabelle Kirby
mwan Cara shillan Max Johnston Megan adoli and Ian Enright additional reporting and recording by is Isabelle
Kirby mcgaan Jay venables and Megan adoli our executive producers are Megan adoli and Ian Enright theme and music by
epidemic sound original music from goat rodeo with additional music from Paramount Final Mix by Rebecca sell Ian
Enright is our fact Checker our production manager is Megan aduli I'm Natalie Morales if you're
enjoying the show be sure to give it a rating and review it helps more people find it and hear our reporting if you
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thanks for listening

Erin Corwin was a girl from a small town in Tennessee when she moved across the country to live with her husband, Corporal John Corwin, on a desert Marine base. They were high school sweethearts, young and in love. But less than a year later, Erin disappears. NCIS investigators leap into action, and the search for the missing Marine’s wife begins.

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Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the investigation into Aaron Corwin's disappearance and her life as a Marine's wife.

Key points

The Call That Changed Everything. On June 29, 2014, Laura Heavin receives a call that her daughter Aaron is missing.
A Mother's Instinct. Laura's immediate reaction to the news of Aaron's disappearance reveals her disbelief.
The Search Begins. As the investigation unfolds, the authorities question Aaron's husband John about her disappearance.
Isabelle's Connection to the Community. Isabelle becomes a vital part of the investigation, helping NCIS agents find Aaron.
The Search for Aaron Corwin. After Aaron goes missing, the community rallies to find her, but time is running out.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What do you mean Aaron's missing?

A shocking revelation about their daughter.

0:34WatchOct 29, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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