# 266: Codi Bigsby

An episode of [Morbidology](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1463979546), 22 Jul 2024, 47 min.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/s.gum.fm/s-610c47a4222ada0024acb2d8/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/tracking.swap.fm/track/2IMk17EdnEqyRhJTIpIU/claritaspod.com/measure/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/60578141/morbidology_266_codi_bigsby.mp3

It was close to 9AM on the 31st of January, 2022, when the dispatch centre in Hampton, Virginia, received a phone call. It was a from a man who reported that he had awoken to find his four-year-old son missing from the apartment… SPONSORS - ZocDoc: Zocdoc is the only free app that lets you find and book doctors who are patient reviewed, take your insurance & are available when you need them. To find a & book a top rated doctor today. Visit: https://zocdoc.com/morbidology Kalm with Kava: This is the ultimate relaxation drink crafted from the finest kava root. Enter code “MORBID10” at checkout for a special discount on your first order at: https://kalmwithkava.com/podcast SHOW NOTES - https://morbidology.com/morbidology-the-podcast-266-codi-bigsby PATREON - https://www.patreon.com/morbidology YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/morbidology Audio Credit: Epidemic Sound Evening of Chaos - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Empty Reflections - ErikMMusic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgq4SPKHlyI A Mothers Sacrifice - OurMusicBox - https://ourmusicbox.com/ Dark Tranquility - Anno Domini Beats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6mBav72Ak Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/morbidology--3527306/support.

## Transcript

[0:34] After I faced breakfast, I came up here. I fed the twins,
[0:38] and I went downstairs to get dressed so I can start loading things into the
[0:41] truck. And when I came up here to get my coat, I noticed
[0:45] that my son wasn't in the room. The city of Hampden in Virginia holds
[0:53] a rich history that's deeply intertwined with the story of the United States. It
[0:59] was established by English colonists led by Captain Christopher Newport in sixteen ten and is
[1:03] one of the oldest continuously inhabited English speaking settlements in the country. During the
[1:10] colonial era, it grew into a significant trading hub due to its location on
[1:15] the southern end of the Virginia Peninsula. During the American Revolution, the British
[1:19] rated and partially burned down the town in seventeen seventy five. Following the Civil
[1:26] War, the town underwent significant changes during the reconstruction period. Institutions like Hampton
[1:33] University originally the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, were established to provide education and
[1:41] vocational training to newly freed African Americans. Hampton continued to evolve throughout the twentieth
[1:47] century, experiencing growth in industry, particularly the establishment of Langley Air Force Base
[1:53] and NASA's Langley Research Center. Today it's a thriving city with a diverse population
[2:00] and a strong military presence. It was close to nine am on the thirty
[2:04] first of January twenty twenty two when the despatch center in the city received a
[2:08] phone call and the nine one one way it's there emergency. Oh yeah,
[2:14] I saw him. I think my son is missing. What's your addressed?
[2:20] Ran out that drive? You said, you think your son is missing?
[2:23] Yes, yes, Why do you think that? He explained further, I
[2:29] just went out. I just I got up and got dressed beause we're supposed
[2:31] to be moving today. Right after I heard the babies, I went and
[2:36] got dressed. And when in a room where he was supposed to be at,
[2:38] I went in there to get my coat and he wasn't in there,
[2:42] So I ran outside, looked everywhere try to find him. I don't know
[2:46] where he's at. And how old is he? Sex? Three? No?
[2:50] Four? Each four? The call was from a mine named Corey big
[2:53] spy. And do you know what he was wagging? And one was the
[2:54] last time you saw him? Yes, last night I saw him. He
[3:00] tapped me asking me can he go outside? And sometimes he usually creased outside
[3:05] that night. Okay, what's he fine? What's his cold? Cody?
[3:09] Cody His four year old son, Cody advantished from his buck Row Point department
[3:15] in the one hundred block of Ronald At Drive. Okay, how tall is
[3:20] he? Approximately? Don't I don't know. I don't know. He was
[3:24] he wearing last night? Hear man, I want to I want to say,
[3:27] like he's like three five. No, he wasn't wearing for jamas.
[3:30] He was wearing black sweatpants. He was wearing black fox and he had on
[3:35] a black shirt. How do you checked the entire house? See if maybe
[3:39] it's how you anywhere? I have chat the entire house, the closets and
[3:44] everything he had on Spider Man. I think he had on a Spider Man
[3:49] flip flops because they're not here and his black jacket is missing. Cody Bigsby
[4:11] was born to parents Corey Bigsby and Dina Kareem. The couple had four children
[4:15] together, and four year old Cody was the middle child. He had a
[4:19] five year old brother along with two year old twin brothers. Cody was said
[4:25] to be extremely intelligent, sweet, and curious for a four year old.
[4:30] His father, Corey, was an Army veteran who had held the rank of
[4:32] sergeant first class at the end of his service in September of two thousand and
[4:36] seventeen. Unfortunately, Corey and Dana eventually drifted apart, and in twenty nineteen
[4:43] they called it quits on their relationship. They hadn't been married, but there
[4:48] had been some talks about an engagement, although that never materialized. Dina moved
[4:55] over to Washington, d c. And there was some debate over custody.
[5:00] She had wanted to coperent their four children, but after she was hospitalized in
[5:03] twenty twenty, she decided to leave them in Corey's care. However, despite
[5:10] Dana's attempts to maintain communication and involvement in her children's lives, Corey gradually withdrew.
[5:16] Dane's messages went unanswered, and her attempts to make arrangements to see her
[5:20] children were met with silence. After Corey called nine ninety nine to report Cody
[5:30] missing, detectives arrived at the apartment. They took a statement from Corey,
[5:34] and he told them the same thing he had told the operator. He said
[5:40] that Cody woke him up in the middle of the night and asked if he
[5:42] could play outside. Corey told his son no, and he then went back
[5:46] to sleep. But in the morning, he said, he awoke to find
[5:50] Cody missing. He described the moment he found his son missing. The next
[5:57] morning at that faced breakfast came up here, I fared the twins, and
[6:01] I went downstairs to get dressed so I can start loading things into the truck.
[6:05] And when I came up here to get my coat, I noticed that
[6:08] my son wasn't in the room. Detectives began in their search for Cody immediately.
[6:13] The apartment complex where they lived was in a quiet, dead end straight
[6:16] with a wooded area backing onto it. It was only a small wooded area,
[6:21] and it separated to housing developments. Detectives first searched around the neighborhood,
[6:29] calling out to Cody and checking in any places where a child could be hiding.
[6:33] They opened up bins and checked in drains, but it soon became apparent
[6:38] that Cody wasn't in the neighborhood. The detectives then found out further afield,
[6:43] scarring through the wooded area behind the apartment complexes. Didn't take them long to
[6:47] search the entire vicinity, but there was still no sign of Cody. Detectives
[6:54] called in additional resources to expand their efforts, and by noon they had announced
[7:00] Coody's disappearance to the public. They had already made contact with Dina Courdy's mother
[7:04] and other relatives, but none of them had seen or heard from him.
[7:10] Police Chief Mark Talbot announced that they didn't believe that Cody was with other family
[7:14] members and that he may have just walked out of the front door. A
[7:17] photograph of Cody was released to the public, along with the description. He
[7:23] was black with dark hair and stood at a round three feet tall. His
[7:28] father said that when he last saw him the night beforehand, he was wearing
[7:30] all black clothing along with spider man flip flops. As darkness began to descend
[7:36] on the area and with Cody still missing, the FBI were called. They
[7:42] helped to expand the search in a grid pattern, while the Virginia Department of
[7:46] Emergency Management offered their assistance. Some in the community questioned why an amber alert
[7:53] hadn't been released, but the police chief said that Coody's disappearance didn't meet the
[7:58] guidelines for an AMBER alert to be issued. There needs to be reasonable belief
[8:03] that an abduction had taken place. Detectives also had to believe that the child
[8:09] was in danger of serious bodily injury or death. The lack of an UMBER
[8:16] alert didn't stop the community from coming together to help search for Cody. Some
[8:22] of them formed search groups and searched in the neighborhoods that surrounded Cody's neighborhood.
[8:28] One local named Richard said to ten on your Side, I have grandkids at
[8:33] the house. One of them happens to be four years old, and if
[8:37] it was him, I'd be out there searching for him as well. So
[8:41] I mean, somebody's got to be out there to find these kids. To
[8:45] share Cody's disappearance farm wide, a group of women set up a Facebook page
[8:50] where they shared information about Cody and his disappearance. As the search efforts intensified,
[8:56] detectives urged community members with surveillance systems or the ring cameras to review their
[9:01] footage, hopeful for any clues. Police Chief Talbot held a press conference.
[9:09] We in particular, are interested in even more help from the public than we've
[9:15] already received. We would like anyone in this area or who has been close
[9:22] to this area recently to look at any surveillance video that they may have.
[9:30] Look and see if there are any photos that they may have captured in this
[9:35] area that may have something that we would be interested in. If there is
[9:41] anybody who has any knowledge of the last time Cody was out and about in
[9:50] the city of Hampton or elsewhere, we want to know perhaps a camera captured
[9:56] Cody walking away from the apartment late at night, or worse yet, somebody
[10:01] abducting him. Throughout the night, the search for Cody persisted and the gravity
[10:13] of the situation intensified. With temperatures plummeting into the thirties, the chilling realization
[10:20] dawned that if Cody had indeed ventured out alone, he now braved the elements
[10:24] in nothing but pajamas and flip flops. As dawn broke, the search escalated.
[10:31] The rhythmic thumb of the FBI helicopter could be heard overhead, along with
[10:35] planes canvassing the skies and drones buzzing. In a display of solidarity, hundreds
[10:41] of volunteers mobilized, each lending their determination to the search effort. One of
[10:48] them, Landed Jones, commented in the media, I couldn't sleep last night
[10:54] thinking about Cody, so I had to come out here and at least try
[10:58] to help the search for him. Meanwhile, the keen senses of canine sniffer
[11:03] units combed the terrain, their noses a tuned to any trace of Cody's presence.
[11:09] While the search for Cody persisted, Corey agreed to go to the police
[11:11] station to provide them with as much information as possible, But while detectives were
[11:18] speaking with him, the investigation uncovered some disturbing information. Nobody had actually seen
[11:26] Cody for almost six months. When detectives spoke with Cody's mother, Dana,
[11:37] she said that she hadn't spoken to her son since around April of twenty twenty
[11:41] one. Around the same time, she had received an e mail from Corey
[11:46] which read, in part, Cody still doing the same stuff. He needs
[11:50] to come back to you. I do not want to seriously hurt him to
[11:54] protect my babies. According to Corey, he had caught Cody fondling his younger
[12:01] brothers, who at that point were a year and a half old. When
[12:05] Dina read the email, she didn't think that Corey's description of Cody correlated with
[12:11] the little boy that she knew Cody was polite, friendly, and even shy,
[12:16] and he had never acted inappropriately with his siblings before. But Cody was
[12:22] never sent to live with his mother, and the contact Dena had with Corey
[12:26] became more infrequent. The last email she had sent him was in January of
[12:31] twenty twenty two, and she asked, where are my kids? Are they
[12:35] alive? By this point in the search for Cody, detectives were already suspicious
[12:41] of Corey's account. While he said that Cody had slept in his bed the
[12:46] night before, When he handed detectives his son's pillow, the canine sniffer dogs
[12:52] couldn't pick up a cent from it. While the search for Cody continued outside,
[12:58] detectives decided they would search the fly's home. They called in a cadaver
[13:03] doog that was trained to pick up the scent of human decomposition or remains.
[13:07] As soon as he entered one of the bedrooms, he alerted to the scent.
[13:13] Corey was taken to the police station to be interviewed. I believe something
[13:18] happened to Cody. He just slipped down the stairs. He hurt himself.
[13:20] He fill out that window. One of the kids you know that you said
[13:24] they fight. I don't know if it got taken too far. That's what
[13:28] I think happened. I think something happened, and I think you are trying
[13:30] to be a good dad and help your kid. But Corey stuck to the
[13:33] same story that he awoke to find his son gone from the apartment. Just
[13:39] two days after Cody was reported missing by his father, police Chief Talbot announced
[13:43] that he was a person of interest in the case. He stated, I
[13:48] think that's self explanatory. The evidence doesn't match what we've been told, so
[13:54] we need to investigate further. On the third of February, Corey was arrested
[14:03] on seven counts of felony child neglect. These charges had come after Corey admitted
[14:09] to detectives during his interview that he often left Cody and the other children home
[14:13] alone. The oldest thought of the children was only five years old, but
[14:18] despite this, Corey often left them alone for long periods. On one occasion,
[14:26] he had even left them home alone for over three hours when he went
[14:28] to purchase a vehicle in Norfolk. He told the detectives that the children were
[14:35] too much of a burden to take along with him whenever he left the home,
[14:39] so he preferred to just leave them home with no means of contact.
[14:45] While announcing the charges, detectives said they were still searching for Cody. They
[14:50] were now trying to figure out exactly when he was lasting alive and well by
[14:54] anybody. They strongly believed that Cody had dis heard long before that phone call
[15:01] came in. On the sixth of February, the community came together for a
[15:05] candlelight vigil to raise awareness to Cody's disappearance. With candles in hand, the
[15:13] community prayed for his safe return. The community had also galvanized to create a
[15:18] memorial for Cody, something to serve as a beacon of hope that he was
[15:22] coming home. It started at the fence behind Hampton Soccer Park and had since
[15:28] grown with candles, balloons, and stuffed animals. A large sign with his
[15:33] name hung on the gate, while other signs showed pictures of him. One
[15:39] woman, Tonya Johnson, commented that her children had wanted to drop off a
[15:43] Teddy bear. She stated they felt like he's alone and he needed something to
[15:48] kind of make him feel comfortable because they think he's here. But by the
[15:54] twelfth of February, the search for Cody had been scaled down. The detectives
[15:58] firmly believed that Cody had been killed, and they were now trying to figure
[16:02] out what had happened. Sergeant R. C. Williams commented, our search
[16:07] efforts will now be more isolated and intelligence focused based on information gleaned from the
[16:14] investigation. Of course, detectives were still searching for Cody, but they were
[16:18] really nowse searching for a body and needed to investigate Cody in an effort to
[16:23] figure out what he had done. But while the investigation was ramped up,
[16:29] a piece of evidence was discovered just a stone throw away from the family's apartment.
[16:40] One of the family's neighbors was in a field behind the apartment complex when
[16:44] they spotted something in the mud. Once they got closer, they could see
[16:48] that it was a little boy's jacket. But it wasn't just any boy's little
[16:52] jacket. It belonged to Cody. Detectives and canine units arrived at the field
[16:59] and they the jacket up as evidence. Detectives theorized it was the jacket that
[17:04] Corey claimed was missing from his son's bedroom. When he called nine one one,
[17:10] he mentioned that the jacket was missing, possibly trying to suggest that Cody
[17:14] had put on the jacket in the middle of the night to go outside and
[17:17] play. After the discovery, Hampton Police admitted to the public they were guilty
[17:22] of misconduct in the case. In the midst of this follow up interview,
[17:27] there was a heated exchange between mister Bigsby and the lead detective in this case.
[17:34] The heated exchange came about when there was a discussion about the results of
[17:38] that polygraph exam. I won't discuss the result. I'll just say there was
[17:45] a heated back and forth. In the midst of this heated exchange, mister
[17:52] Bigsby made a statement that I believe was mishandled by the Hampton Police Division.
[18:00] He made a statement that indicated that he wanted to have legal counsel there with
[18:07] him. My assessment of his statement in that moment and a statement that he
[18:15] made several minutes later that was similar expressing a desire for legal counsel, My
[18:25] assessment is that his desires should have been honored. They weren't. The lead
[18:33] detective in the case was placed stone paid leave. Police Chief Talbot commented,
[18:41] I'm disappointed that we have done anything that may have salute us on in our
[18:44] quest to bring justice to this child. That will be handled appropriately. Anybody
[18:49] that didn't live up to the standards that are important to us will be held
[18:52] accountable. The investigation pressed on despite the controversy, but there was no new
[19:00] detective heading the case. It had now been almost a month since Cody had
[19:04] disappeared, and detectives were still no closer to figuring out what had happened.
[19:11] They still weren't really sure when exactly Cody had vanished, but they believed it
[19:15] was long before his father called nine one one, possibly up to nine months
[19:19] before. They released an updated photograph of Cody dressed in a striped T shirt,
[19:26] black shorts, and black sneakers, but no new tips came in and
[19:30] nobody could offer any further inside into when Cody was last seen. The weeks
[19:36] continued to trickle past, and in May, billboards with Cody's face emblazoned on
[19:41] them were put up along Hampton Roads. Over the next handful of months,
[19:45] Corey requested bond so that he could be released from jail where he was being
[19:51] held on child neglect charges. Each time, however, his bond was turned
[19:56] on by the judge. Then Inly, a grand jury determined that there was
[20:00] enough evidence against him to stand trial for more than thirty charges, all related
[20:07] to child neglect. If convicted, he would be looking at up to one
[20:11] hundred and sixty two years in prison. The charges were unrelated to the disappearance
[20:17] of Cody, but the search for the little boy pressed. On the same
[20:22] month, the remainder of his family announced a twenty five thousand dollars reward for
[20:26] any information that could lead to his whereabouts. Corey's aunt, Jeannette Hennett,
[20:32] said that she still believed he was alive somewhere. During the press conference,
[20:37] the family also said that Corey was innocent in his son's disappearance. Corey's defense
[20:42] attorney, A. Mean Willard, stated when they couldn't get him to falsely
[20:47] confess to a crime, they started denying him right to counsel. In January
[21:00] two thousand and twenty three, the one year anniversary of Cody's disappearance, ruled
[21:03] round. The community gathered for a candlelight vigil, which begun where the search
[21:10] for Cody began. They prayed for his safe return, but the fact that
[21:15] it had been a year since he was reported missing weighed heavily on their minds.
[21:19] Two months later, a judge ordered that Cory be sent to a psychiatric
[21:22] hospital in Williamsburg for mental health services. This came after a psychological evaluation by
[21:30] doctor weir seymur found that he was incompetent of assisting in his own defense in
[21:34] his upcoming child neglect trial. In his report, he wrote, Bixby possessed
[21:41] his factual understanding of the judicial processes, but lacks rational appreciation of his legal
[21:48] circumstance, where the ability to co operate with counsel in his defense. Corey
[21:52] had said to the psychologist that he didn't recognize the names of his children listed
[21:57] in the indictment. By now, Corey's mental state had been examined a number
[22:03] of times. The first examination found that he was competent to stand trial,
[22:08] but a later one found that he wasn't. Corey's defense attorney commented in the
[22:14] media, first he lost his child, now he's losing his mind. On
[22:26] the eighth of June, Corey was charged with the murder of Cody and the
[22:30] concealment of his body. The search for Cody had pressed on, but detectives
[22:36] now said they were searching for a body even if they didn't find one,
[22:41] Corey would still be facing trial in what's known as a new body trial.
[22:45] They're not common trials, but there had been ten known such cases in the
[22:48] state of Virginia. These kind of cases are much harder for prosecutors, who
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[25:36] first cam with Kava purchase. The detectives working on the case believed that Cody
[25:44] had been killed on or about the eighteenth of June twenty twenty one, six
[25:48] months before he was reported missing by his father. In announcing the charges,
[25:53] police Chief Talbot stated, a lot of us, even given the fact that
[25:59] many of us have never met Cody Bigsby, have been emotionally attached to him
[26:03] since the day this whole thing broke. The fact of the charges themselves aren't
[26:07] much of a surprise. Having had an inside view of the evidence for so
[26:11] long. By now, Corey had left the psychiatric facility. After he was
[26:17] restored to competency. He had been given antipsychotic and anti anxiety medications and had
[26:22] met four times with the restoration councilor. In the end, doctor William McKenna
[26:29] concluded that he was competent and that he showed good factual knowledge of basic legal
[26:33] issues. After the murder charge was filed, Corey's family stood by his side.
[26:40] According to his aunt, Cody couldn't have been killed in June because he
[26:45] had attended a family gathering at her home in September of twenty twenty one.
[26:49] When did you say him? Dates are going to be important here. I
[26:53] want to say September he was at my house and no, for a fact,
[26:57] in December a relative was at his house and Cody was very well alive.
[27:04] Two weeks later, Corey was granted an eighty thousand dollars bond with restrictions,
[27:10] and by that afternoon he had left jail. After a year behind bars.
[27:15] He was ordered to be on an electronic monitoring system and was ordered to
[27:18] live with his oldest daughter in Norfolk. He was additionally ordered to have no
[27:23] contact with his other children. The bond came as a surprise to prosecutors as
[27:30] well as people living in the community. It was clear detectives thought that Coody
[27:34] was dead, but his body hadn't yet been found. Some feared that with
[27:40] Cody free from jail, he could be free to hide any incriminating evidence,
[27:45] but the community would soon come to learn that detectives already had enough evidence against
[27:49] him without a body. It was close to one thirty a m. On
[27:57] the third of Augustan in twenty two and Jamal Massey, a guard at Hampton
[28:03] Roads Regional Jail, was on duty. This was almost a year before Corey
[28:07] was released from jail. As the guard walked past Corey's cell, he called
[28:12] out, hey, see you, I need you to write this down.
[28:18] Jamal got a pen and paper and wrote down what Corey told him. It
[28:22] read I found my son on responsive. Tried to give c p R but
[28:26] could not revive him. Tried several times. I begged God to save him.
[28:33] I decided to walk outside and spoke with God. Back to house,
[28:37] check on my son to see if he was breathing, and tried a long
[28:41] time to realize he was not coming back. I put him in a trash
[28:45] bag, put him in my car, which sat for three days. The
[28:48] letter also included a location where Corey had buried Cody in Maryland, behind a
[28:53] building on Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard in Prince George's County. Corey then signed
[29:00] the confession and Jamal sat down and prayed with him. He later recollected,
[29:07] I'm a praying man, and I began to pray with him. Speaking about
[29:11] the confession, Jamal recalled, I had to leave the building to gather myself.
[29:17] You think you've seen it all after twenty years in the military, This
[29:21] moved me to a different mental state. Jamal then called his supervisor, Lieutenant
[29:26] Katrina Evans. She made her way to Corey's jail cell. The authorer I
[29:33] was dressed up here. You had and write something down. What was that?
[29:37] It was a copersion. I'm just starving as patman him and voices.
[29:45] Corey said that he was hearing voices, and Lieutenant Evans haunted him a piece
[29:49] of paper and pen and asked him to write his confession down. In the
[29:55] confession, Corey wrote, I Corey J. Bigsby, Senior, I'm confessing
[30:00] that on January thirtieth, twenty twenty two, I stepped outside my apartment to
[30:04] get some items out of my car to wash clothes, and when I returned,
[30:07] I found my son Kuldi Josiah Bigsby, laying at the bottom of the
[30:12] steps unresponsive. He must have fallen. I then tried to revive him by
[30:18] administering CPR several times over and over until I couldn't any more. Then I
[30:23] prayed. I stepped outside for a few minutes and talked to God. As
[30:27] I prayed, I asked God to allow my son a second chance. Then
[30:33] I administered CPR again but got no response, so I panicked and prayed.
[30:40] After that, I placed him into a trash bag and I placed him into
[30:42] the back of my truck. On the twenty first of January, around three
[30:48] thirty a m. I took him to garret A Morgan Boulevard and placed him
[30:52] in a ReSpectacle bend. After I realized it was a trash can, took
[30:57] him out and put him into a hole. I dug beside a tree inside
[31:00] the tree line. He has tape around his ankles and wrist, a cowboy
[31:07] rug under him, beats headphones in his ears. I then ate and placed
[31:11] his bike and some trash after I ate at the scene. After the confession,
[31:18] detectives descended on the area where Corey said he had buried Cody, but
[31:22] no trace of him was ever found. Then, in December of two thousand
[31:26] and twenty two, prison guard Ivana Coora was doing a security round when Cody
[31:32] handed her a letter. In the letter, Corey had written that he had
[31:37] found Cody unconscious and tried to revive him. He wrote that he was confessing
[31:41] again in part because the police is conducting these crimes and I can't take it
[31:47] any more. Corey was put on suicide watch and was then moved to a
[31:52] new cell. Ivana was sent to do an inventory of his belongings and she
[31:57] came across a notebook. Inside was a letter which painted a very different picture
[32:02] of Cody's death. Corey had written that on the eighteenth of June two thousand
[32:08] and twenty one, he had beaten Cody with his fist until he went into
[32:13] cardiac arrest. He said that he grabbed Cody, dragged him into the kitchen,
[32:19] and then beat him. After Cody went into cardiac arrest, Corey wrote
[32:23] that he had tried to perform CPR and then put some water on him in
[32:28] the bath tub. When he didn't respond, he began to pray, but
[32:31] it soon became clear that Cody was dead. The letter read him part I
[32:37] held him and prayed to God that he'd bring my baby back. Then I
[32:42] took him into the room and laid him on the bed. Corey wrote that
[32:45] he drove to the gas station and purchased some snacks before he wiped faces on
[32:51] Cody, put him in a bag, and then put him in the fridge.
[32:55] He continued, writing that he then put Cody in the car and drove
[33:00] him to building five five one one and dug a hole by a tree and
[33:04] buried him. The next day, Corey said he went back to burn Cody
[33:08] and to cover up scores on his body from the beatings. He signed off
[33:13] with, please accept my confession, Sincerely, Cody Bigsby. After this information
[33:20] was made public, Cory's defense attorney tried to get it thrown out of evidence.
[33:25] She argued that the confessions were made under duress and were therefore false.
[33:30] However, the judge thrilled that the prosecution could use the statements in the upcoming
[33:35] murder trial as the prosecution and defense were building their case for both the child
[33:45] neglect trial and the murder trial. Cody's disappearance was making its mark. A
[33:51] new proposal was made to make sure that Cody's story was not repeated. Hampton
[33:55] Delegate ac Cordoza introduced a bill called Virginia Critical Operation for Disappeared Child Initiative Alert
[34:04] Program, also known as the Cody Program. If passed, the bill would
[34:08] create an emergency alert system aimed at helping individuals under the age of eighteen whose
[34:14] whereabouts are unknown and their disappearances under suspicious circumstances. It would differ from the
[34:21] Amber Alert in that the criteria wouldn't be so strict. Then, in January
[34:25] of two thousand twenty four, the memorial that was set up to honor Cody
[34:30] was removed. Then the following month of Virginia General Assembly passed the bill that
[34:36] would establish the Cody Alert Program for Missing Children. By the sixth of March
[34:43] two thousand twenty four, a jury consisting of ten women and four men,
[34:46] were selected, including two alternatives. Gory's defense attorney, Curtis Braun, had
[34:53] argued before the judge to get more black jurors on the panel. When he
[34:59] was asked just why, he responded, black folks are more sympathetic. Out
[35:06] of the fourteen jurors now were white, four were black, and one was
[35:09] Hispanic. During the opening statements, prosecutor Dylan Arnold called Corey Bigsby a predator.
[35:17] He told the jury that throughout the trial they would hear that he had
[35:21] woven a web of lies. He revealed to the courtroom for the very first
[35:25] time that Cody's older brother would be testifying against his father. He said that
[35:32] after Corey had realized he had beaten his son to death, he put his
[35:37] body in his older brother's bed. The prosecutor appeared confident as he stated evidence
[35:45] shows Cody was dead for months before being reported missing. The prosecutor also said
[35:51] that the evidence would show that Cody had been systematically abused by his father before
[35:55] he was ultimately killed. Defense attorney Kenneth Singleton sedering his opening statements that Corey
[36:02] didn't kill his son. Instead, he said that Cody woke up in the
[36:07] middle of the night and wanted to go outside and play in the snow.
[36:10] He said that Corey told his son to go back to bed. The next
[36:15] morning, Corey awoke to find his son missing and frantically called now one one.
[36:21] He said that Corey's written confessions work worst and that Corey had no clue
[36:25] what had happened to his son. He stated evidence will come out that Cody
[36:31] was alive in June twenty and twenty one, the fall of twenty and twenty
[36:36] one, and into January twenty and twenty two. He said that finding Corey
[36:40] not guilty wasn't going to be popular, but it would be the jury's only
[36:45] option. The proceedings got underway with the first witness Cody's mother, Dana.
[36:51] She testified about the breakup and Corey getting custody of the children while he mostly
[36:57] ghosted. Ardina said that Corey had shared concerns about Cody's behavior around his siblings.
[37:02] She read aloud the email he had sent her in April of two thousand
[37:06] and twenty one, in which he said he didn't want to severely hurt Cody
[37:09] to protect his other children. He ended the email with he needs to see
[37:15] a psychiatrist. He needs to come with you. Dina further told the courtroom
[37:21] that the last photograph she had seen of her son was from June of twenty
[37:24] and twenty one. It was of Cody standing in a pair of swimming shorts
[37:30] and a white tank top. She said that in the photograph he looked sad
[37:35] and frightened. She commented, I'm used to seeing him joyful, smiling.
[37:43] According to the prosecution, this photograph was taken about a week before Cody was
[37:46] killed. When she was cross examined by Corey's defense, she was questioned on
[37:52] how good of a mother she was for staying away from her children for so
[37:57] long. She responded by saying that Corey never gave her their dress, so
[38:01] she couldn't just show up. Defense attorney Curtis Brown suggested that Dana was a
[38:07] bob mother and asked whether she had sent any money or clothing for the children
[38:12] over the course of the fourteen months she didn't speak to them. She said
[38:16] that she had sent one hundred and fifty dollars that Corey had requested, but
[38:21] that was it. The defense attorney then asked her why she hadn't reached out
[38:24] to any of Corey's relatives to find out where he or the children were.
[38:30] She replied and said that she didn't have their contact information, but said that
[38:34] even if she did, they weren't cordial. Cody's older brother, who was
[38:38] now seven years old, testified from another room in the court building. He
[38:45] described Cody as his best friend and said that he had nicknamed him Ko Ko.
[38:50] The brother appeared to be emotional, crying and frequently rubbing his eyes as
[38:53] he testified about how their father seemingly singled Cody out. He said that quite
[39:00] frequently he couldn't play with his brother because he was on punishment. He said
[39:06] that their father often spanked Cody, but it was only ever Cody that was
[39:09] spanked. He testified that one day, about two years earlier, he went
[39:15] upstairs to wake and play with his three brothers. He said he came across
[39:22] Cody's lifeless body in his bed. He said that he couldn't wake him up.
[39:28] He recalled shaking him, but he never responded. He could see that
[39:32] Cody's face was red and bruised, and that his eyes were open. The
[39:37] brother said that he woke up his two younger brothers before they went downstairs to
[39:42] tell their father. Corey responded, nothing is wrong with Cody. The prosecutor
[39:50] asked the brother whether he believed his father. He responded no, because Cody
[39:57] looked dead. His son testified Corey, and the jury watched from a webcam
[40:02] in the courtroom. He was visibly shaking and appeared to be emotional as his
[40:07] son testified against him. The jail guards then testified about Corey's confessions, but
[40:15] its defense team suggested he wasn't mentally stable while in jail. Lieutenant Kate Evans
[40:21] testified about some strange behaviors that he had exhibited while in jail. He once
[40:27] asked her who was torturing him and said that there was something hooked up to
[40:30] his head. Then the topic of when exactly Cody had died arose. It
[40:38] was revealed that when Corey's cellphone was examined, no photographs of Cody appeared.
[40:43] After June of two thousand and twenty one, FBI analyst Starre and Spencer testified
[40:51] there were no original pictures of Cody. After that, the prosecution rested and
[40:57] the defense began presenting their case. Among the witnesses was Cory's sister, who
[41:02] refuted the prosecution's claim that Cody was killed in June. Tandalia Butler said that
[41:07] her brother and nephews visited her in Washington, d c. In September of
[41:12] two thousand and twenty one. She reiterated several times that Cody was there.
[41:19] However, the prosecution then played multiple news interviews with Tandalia. She gave different
[41:24] responses to questions posed about the last time she had seen Cody. It was
[41:30] only in the third and final interview she said that she saw him in September
[41:34] of two thousand and twenty one. The defense then called on a man who
[41:37] lived in Buckrobe Beach. He said that he recalled passing a boy who looked
[41:43] like Cody twice in a local grocery store after he was reported missing. The
[41:47] man said that he called police to report this sighting. The prosecution then showed
[41:53] the man a photograph of a little boy in court. The man said it
[41:59] sure looks like him. However, the photograph that they had shown was a
[42:02] photograph of Cody's brother as opposed to Cody. After a week of testimony,
[42:08] the trial due to a close. During closing arguments, prosecutor and Tom Bell
[42:15] said that all evidence pointed towards Corey's guilt. He focused on the testimony of
[42:21] Cody's brother, who said that he couldn't wake his brother up. He stated,
[42:27] this case is about a predator who pread upon a three year old.
[42:30] This is not about a protective, caring parent. Defense attorney Curtis Brown,
[42:37] on the other hand, said that none of the evidence pointed towards Corey being
[42:40] guilty or even proved that a murder had taken place. He stated, you
[42:46] have a case based on sympathy, not evidence. The jury would then send
[42:52] off to deliberate, and they returned just two hours later they found Corey Bigsby
[42:58] guilty of second murder and concealment of a body. Outside of court, Anton
[43:05] Bell called it a day of victory and justice for Cody and his mother,
[43:08] but said the closure would never really happen, at least as long as Cody's
[43:14] body remained missing. He commented that he knew Corey was guilty as soon as
[43:19] the cadaverdog picked up the scent of human decomposition in the family's home. His
[43:23] conscience was dictating why he was writing those letters, writing those confessions, saying
[43:30] those things, because that child was innocent, and the last image that that
[43:34] child had was his father beating him to death. Police Chief Talbot then added,
[43:40] having interacted with Corey Bigsby, I'm not hopeful that we will ever find
[43:45] out what happened to Cody. I'm not at all hopeful. Maybe at some
[43:50] point he can see fit to let us all know what he did to his
[43:52] son. Gory's lead defense attorney had some comments for the reporters that had gathered,
[44:00] telling them y'all presented the case as if he was already guilty. So
[44:05] I hope y'all are happy. After Corey was sam backed to jail tore Wit
[44:08] sentencing, he permitted an interview with thirteen News. NOI, my son says
[44:14] something totally different in the first two interviews that he was given in the beginning,
[44:16] which was two years ago. Then all of a sudden, my son
[44:20] come and say some stuff that was coerced. Noing, my son never seen
[44:23] his brother land anywhere, lifeless, none of that. So you're saying you
[44:30] never got a chance to view the Commonwealth's evidence. I never got a chance
[44:34] to view any of that. Is it because your attorneys didn't show you or
[44:37] that your attorneys never got it either. My attorneys didn't get it because I
[44:43] know they asked for it in preliminaries. They didn't get it or they didn't
[44:46] show it to me. He said that he had been wrongfully convicted and that
[44:51] the confessions were coerced. Corey returned to court for the sentencing phase of his
[44:58] trial on the eighteenth June twenty twenty four. He took us place alongside his
[45:04] defense attorneys, who were seeking a more lenient sentence. The prosecution, on
[45:09] the other hand, wanted him sentenced to the maximum, which was forty five
[45:15] years in prison. In the courtroom, Dani Spook about the impact her son's
[45:20] death had on her and her other children. She said that they were all
[45:23] in counseling and that the murder and trial had brought back horrific memories of Corey
[45:29] psychologically abusing her. She said that Corey never deserved to see the light of
[45:34] day, before adding I pray Cody haunts him for eternity. The judge ultimately
[45:44] agreed with the prosecution and sentenced Corey Bigsby to forty five years in prison.
[46:08] Well, Bestie's that's it for this episode of Morbidology. It's always thank you
[46:14] so much for listening, and I'd like to say a massive thank you to
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[46:59] some true Grime article. Until next time, take care of yourselves, stay
[47:02] safe, and have an amazing week.

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