Pregnant wife of marine murdered to hide dark secret

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
A word of warning. This podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong language. It therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find it disturbing.

**Melissa McCarty** (0:12)
A Young Wife Vanishes from a Remote Military-Based Town A young wife vanishes from a remote military-based town. Her last text, a hidden pregnancy, a crime buried 140 feet down in the desert, and the Tell-All Interrogation Video.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:31)
There's no reason to lie to me right now.

**Melissa McCarty** (0:34)
Hello everyone, I'm Melissa McCarty. This is a new series from the team at True Crime News. For this first case, I want you to think about the one friend from childhood, the friend who knew you before life got complicated, the one you planned your futures with, made little promises to, and thought would always be a part of your life, no matter where you both ended up. And now imagine that friend taking a leap, a risk for love at 19
She follows her heart clear across the country, leaving her small Tennessee town for a new start in Southern California. You stay close, texting whenever you can, checking in and making sure the thread of that childhood connection is alive. And then one day, she sends you a message that feels different. She texts, seriously, I don't know why he would drag me to a very special place for a big dumb surprise. You respond, in all caps, is he going to pop the question? She responds by texting one word, maybe.
That text becomes the last message you ever get from her.
Losing a friend at a young age is life altering. I know the feeling because when I was actually 19 years old, I lost two friends one year apart and both of them, they were murdered. And I can tell you that it changed the way I saw people, the way I looked at life, everything. It's hard to recover from. And so when I heard about this story, I could relate because I know the feeling when you're expecting that friend to call to text, but they don't, they're just gone. And when it comes to this case, after two long months, nobody knows where the 19 year old is. Her friends, family, all left to sit with fear and endless questions. And when she is finally found, it is nowhere anyone should ever be. Her body was discovered at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft in the middle of the California desert, 140 feet down into Earth's darkness. This is a story that I'll never forget because I went to the exact spot where Erin was found and just feet from the mineshaft, sits a stone bench. It's edged with the words Erin's garden. It's actually quite beautiful. Her parents built a memorial there, leaving a note asking anyone who stumbled onto the site, friends, hikers, anyone wandering by, to sit, learn about their daughter, read, and maybe leave something behind.
It was triple digit heat the day I visited the desert location. The registry pages were curled, sun bleached, the ink was fading. I read every message and then I added my own. And what I learned about Erin, the daughter, the friend, the young woman that she was, showed me this case is nothing like what it first appeared to be. So let's start off with who this young woman was from Oak Ridge, Tennessee and how she ended up at the bottom of a mineshaft. Erin Corwin came from a small, tight-knit town where kids grow up around front porch conversations, the same friends you've known since elementary school, a place where most families they know each other and were a shy, gentle girl like Erin could spend her childhood feeling safe and feeling seen. But during this time, Erin had that one person who was always lingering in her orbit. It was a boy named John. She met him back when she was in grade school, so John's sister had a horse at the same stable and that's how they all met. He quickly became someone familiar and steady in her life. Their connection followed them into the teen years, evolving in the way young love does sometimes, naturally, as if everyone around them expected it. Now John fell really hard for Erin. He knew she was the one, but he also knew what he wanted to be. And as soon as he turned 18 years old, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, which meant he would have to leave Tennessee. He proposed to Erin, and the two got married in a small, intimate ceremony, young love conquering life together. Erin wanted to support him the best way she knew how. That meant giving up her life in Oak Ridge, leaving the horse farm that she loved, and moving all the way to Southern California, where Marines are stationed at the Marine Corps Combat Center in 29 Palms. So it's a remote military base near Joshua Tree National Park.