BONUS: Twisted Betrayal (An Unexpected Killer)
We are bringing you a special bonus episode featuring a case from Oxygen's hit series, “An Unexpected Killer,” airing on Oxygen on Fridays at 8/7c. Watch full episodes of An Unexpected Killer live or OnDemand for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/hCZygmrckqb
When a devoted mother with a bright future in show business is ruthlessly gunned down, a number of suspects emerge, but just as detectives think they have the killer in their sights, the investigation takes a jaw dropping turn.
Season 2, Episode 1
Originally aired: January 15, 2021
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Transcript
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Hi, Snapped listeners.
We're bringing you a special bonus episode today from Oxygen's hit series, An Unexpected Killer, airing on Oxygen on Fridays at 8-7 Central.
You can also watch full episodes live or on demand on the free Oxygen app by clicking the link in our description.
Enjoy.
A devoted mother with a bright future in show business.
She was very much a rising star.
She was loved by a lot of people.
Is viciously attacked in her own home.
She had put up a fight.
She struggled very hard to try to live.
I was beyond shocked that this could happen to such an amazing human.
I mean,
why?
Police single out several suspects.
The boyfriend began to wash his hands before police arrived on the scene.
A better divorce, custody battles, money.
These are all motives for murder.
We appreciate you coming and talking to us, man, but we got some problems.
What's the truth?
What happened?
Just when detectives think they have the killer in sight.
Why need to start complaining while you're cell phone and her cell phone tape.
I don't know, right?
The investigation takes a jaw-dropping turn.
It was a murder from a Hollywood movie.
It was definitely bizarre.
It was just unexpected.
Only a twisted person could pull something like this off.
Nashville, Tennessee is the vibrant heart and soul of country music.
In complete contrast, just a few miles away is the suburban calm of Hermitage.
Hermitage is about 20, 30 minutes outside of town, and it was a quiet place.
It doesn't have the hustle and bustle of downtown Nashville.
It's an upscale, nice area to live in.
It didn't really have that much crop.
That all changes one quiet Sunday afternoon.
I was working that afternoon when the call came in.
The victim's boyfriend found her deceased and called 911.
When I'd walked inside the residence, I found the victim dead inside the living room area.
There was blood next to her and it appeared she had several gunshot wounds.
When I looked at the victim's body, I noticed multiple bullet holes, multiple projectile strikes.
I also noticed powder burns on one of her hands.
There was gunshot residue on her hands, which would indicate she attempted to grab a gun.
The curtains had been pulled down and
some chairs had been moved around, like a struggle had started.
It appeared she had put up a fight with the suspect.
We began looking for a murder weapon.
We could not find one.
We realized that the assailant picked up shell casings casings
and removed them from the scene to make it harder on investigators to determine what happened.
We were lucky.
We found one shell casing that rolled to the edge of the wall and it was sort of hidden so the suspect wasn't able to find that one.
It had a green sheen and I thought it was an old brass shell casing that was corroded.
We turned it over for the test.
We knew upon locating that shell casing that we were now going to have a clue that we could follow up on.
We noticed there was money on the counter and there was other valuables, jewelries, a ring.
So it didn't appear that robbery was a motive.
Investigators follow a trail of evidence from outside the house.
The victim's vehicle was parked in the garage.
The vehicle's door was open.
and it appeared that items from her purse were strewn across the floor of the garage.
It appeared that she was targeted, followed to her residence, and the suspect took the most opportune time to gain entry once the garage was opened, and she pulled in.
Detectives want more information from the victim's boyfriend.
He tells police his girlfriend is 39-year-old Veronica Boza.
They had plans to go out that day.
He stated when he arrived at the residence, the back garage was up.
He noticed the victim's vehicle was parked.
The door was open.
Upon entering the residence, he found the victim deceased.
Obviously, he's a suspect for us.
He was the one that found the victim.
and the red flags are up for us as detectives.
But Brian's too too overwhelmed to say much more.
We can't rule him out because we don't know the history and don't know what happened.
We knew we were going to have to conduct an interview with the boyfriend later on.
Veronica was originally from Milan, Italy.
Veronica was very religious.
She was Catholic.
I think her faith is what led her
to
be so sweet and kind and help others.
She was just a beam of light, happy, happy, happy.
Veronica had a lot of energy and of course she was from Italy
so she had this accent and everybody from here was like wow
where are you from?
At 23 Veronica moved to the US to pursue her dream of working in the entertainment industry as a TV producer.
When I first met Veronica, she was entry-level in the production industry.
She took to it really well.
Veronica was very much a rising star.
You just wanted to work with her.
She would boss you around and you'd like it.
She'd tell you what to do and you'd be like, okay, you know.
But work wasn't the center of Veronica's life.
Her loved ones were.
Veronica had a lot of friends.
She was loved by a lot of people and respected.
In 1994, Veronica got married and seven years later, she welcomed a son.
I think Veronica was very happy.
She wanted her family, her son, her husband.
It was the whole thing.
Veronica's son was the end-all for her.
Like, she would walk through fire for him.
After 15 years of marriage, Veronica and her husband Tim separated, but they were successfully co-parenting their eight-year-old son.
Officers confirmed the boy was with his father during the time of the murder.
As news of Veronica's death sinks in, her loved ones struggle with the loss.
I was beyond shocked that this could happen to
such an amazing human.
I mean,
why?
Why?
That's really
what I sit with.
Why?
To hear this news was like
a punch in the gut.
I was stunned.
At the crime scene, investigators make a startling discovery.
Veronica was a victim of a random mugging and robbery just months before her murder.
We noticed a letter from the state saying the subject that was arrested for robbing her was going to be released on parole.
The person was armed and took property from her and ultimately the suspect was arrested in the robbery and Veronica prosecuted.
Was the attacker out of jail the day Veronica was murdered?
This was definitely an angle we had to look into and to see his whereabouts and if he had ever made any statements toward Veronica after he had been arrested.
This definitely was a motive that could be related to the homicide.
Coming up, an old friend with a troubling past draws suspicion.
We found out that he had a large number of physical assaults against women.
Then investigators uncover a web of deceit.
This was significant because it showed that he was lying about where he was.
That leads to a killer hiding in plain sight.
We then noticed that his phone was in the general area of the crime crime scene.
She admitted that she stole her ex-husband's handgun.
It's like, what?
After finding TV producer and loving mother, Veronica Boza, gunned down in her living room, detectives are trying to establish if a criminal from her past has taken his revenge.
We definitely had to look into seeing if he was about to harm Veronica.
We started to do a background investigation of
he was a dangerous person.
But when investigators dig deeper, they are forced to reassess.
We were able to find records showing he was in jail during the day of the murder.
With a key suspect eliminated, detectives now focus on reconstructing their victim's final hours.
We found out that Veronica attended St.
Edward's Church, and that's where she dropped her son off with his father after church service that Sunday before she was murdered.
Poor boyfriend.
Brian had spoken to Veronica right after she had left church.
She also spoke to a coworker during her drive.
We were able to learn when her last call was made and then from Brian's when the 911's call was made.
From this information, detectives pieced together a timeline.
Veronica was alive at 12.08 and dead by 12.20.
So there was a 12-minute span that we were able to narrow down of when this murder took place.
Due to the very limited time frame that the homicide could have occurred, the suspect would have been definitely rushed for time to perpetrate the act.
With Brian arriving just moments after Veronica's death, police questioned how he could have missed spotting her assailant.
So we needed to speak with her boyfriend.
We had to interview him and exclude him as a suspect, if possible, or keep him as a suspect.
Brian agrees to go down to the station for further questioning.
We could visibly see he was upset.
Detectives begin by asking about Brian and Veronica's relationship.
Brian was also a TV producer and they worked on a show together and then that's how they met.
They had just started dating two to three months earlier and they were getting ready to go on a weekend trip.
I've never been loved the way that she loves me.
Never
felt so strongly about a relationship.
We moved very quickly and hadn't fought our hearts on it.
Though Brian appears to be the grieving boyfriend, they still do not have evidence to eliminate him as a suspect.
Did you see it all her at all today?
No.
So, uh, the last time you saw him.
Sundays are really usually when we reunite.
He stated that he talked to Veronica after she dropped off her son near the church and they were talking about a short trip they were going to take.
He left a friend's house and he was heading to Veronica's house.
Along the way, he stopped and purchased a cold drink at a market and then spoke with Veronica on the phone and then he pulled up to the residence.
Walk in,
looked to the right,
saw her on the ground.
I
screamed for her name,
and then went over
to her.
I saw the state she was in.
I believe she was still alive up until
a few moments before I walked in the door.
When police ask how Brian knew Veronica was dead, his answer is troubling.
At first, the boyfriend didn't check the victim to see if she was breathing or if she was now deceased.
When Brian called 911, the 911 operator asked him, is she breathing?
Only then did Brian check for a pulse, then he didn't find a pulse.
And then he began to wash his hands before police arrived on the scene.
He didn't perform any type of medical assistance to Veronica.
It would seem odd.
Did you hurt Veronica today?
No.
And she's beloved of my life.
We'll finish the rest of our life together.
Brian insists he had nothing to do with Veronica's death.
He's then very quick to offer up another suspect.
Has she had any disagreements with anybody that you know of?
Tim Bose.
As we were interviewing Brian, he brought up the soon-to-be ex-husband as a person that we might want to look at, as being involved in the homicide.
Brian had stated that Veronica and Tim were going through a rough divorce.
He said the divorce was contentious between Tim and Veronica.
and he knew there was issues relating to the custody of their son.
Brian tells the detectives that he and Veronica were worried that Tim was capable of terrible things.
I've been very cautious.
For the past six months, I've been keeping an eye out.
There was anybody there.
I always felt like maybe he was the kind of guy that was going to have somebody there, like surveillance or something like that.
That raised red flags and piqued our interest.
A bitter divorce, custody battles, money, these are all motives for murder.
We wanted to interview him.
Obviously, Tim, he was a suspect to us at this time due to his relationship with Veronica.
Police investigating the homicide of TV producer Veronica Boza are interrogating her boyfriend, Brian Robinson.
He He points the finger at Veronica's soon-to-be ex-husband, Tim Boza.
We found out that the divorce was within a few weeks to a month of being finalized and that the divorce was going to be favorable to Veronica.
Brian tells police Tim isn't happy about the settlement or the custody arrangement.
When Veronica refused to submit to him, to there just being a split,
He then attempted to tarnish her as a mother.
With nothing to tie him to the murder, Brian is released.
Officers are dispatched to check his alibi while detectives look in to Tim Boza.
We found out that he was a home remodeler and worked for himself, basically.
Investigators learned that Tim and Veronica's marriage became strained in the last year and a half.
We found that Tim had hit a rough patch in his work.
Some of his houses weren't selling.
He was starting to have money issues.
Her life was taking off and going a really good direction.
And Mr.
Bose's life was doing the exact opposite.
12 months before the murder, Veronica filed for divorce.
The reason they had...
started the divorce was the financial situation Tim had put the family in with this business.
His business was basically going down the tubes.
He fought with Veronica over money.
There was sort of an issue between Veronica and Tim as far as custody and Tim was worried Veronica was going to take their son out of the country.
Would Tim kill his wife to keep from losing his son?
We went to Tim's house to notify him of Veronica's death.
He didn't seem very upset, didn't seem very shaken.
Tim did start to show emotion when he started talking about how to make notification to his son that his mother had passed.
Tim told us his son went to his sister's house.
Tim called his sister.
He told her what happened to Veronica.
And he again became upset at the thought of having to tell his son what happened to his mother.
Police asked Tim to come down to the station for an interview where they questioned him about his wife's personal life.
Tell me about this boyfriend hers.
You do win the show, you put in 14, 16, 20 hours a day.
You start hanging out.
She just started acting weird.
And then I started paying attention more.
She fessed up.
I said, okay.
Tried therapy for a little while.
It didn't work.
I moved out to M6.
Tim stated that he was upset that they were going through the divorce and that it wasn't what he wanted.
Had Veronica's relationship with another man driven Tim to kill?
Has your relationship with your wife ever been volatile?
No.
Was there ever any problems in the divorce?
Our thing was good.
Do you have any insurance that you're going to claim from this accident happening?
I don't know.
I mean, I have no idea.
If I'm the beneficiary, then sure.
The life insurance policy on Veronica was approximately $550,000.
Tim admitted that once they were divorced, Tim would be taken off the life insurance as a beneficiary.
So he was two to three weeks out from losing, being on the life insurance policy.
Detective Crumby cuts to the chase.
Did you have anything to do with your wife's murder?
I'll share.
When asked if he had done it, Tim reacted calm, cool.
Part of my technique in interviewing people, I like to make accusations and statements to try to throw them off.
I'm sitting there calling you a murderer.
I mean, I I think you are.
I mean, I don't know how to respond to that man.
Didn't do it.
He came back at me and was adamant that he didn't.
Tim says the last time he saw Veronica was in the church parking lot at the custody exchange.
He gave us the exact route that he followed after he picked up his son and the different stops that he made.
Tim had said that he had gone to hardware store and a grocery store near his residence.
He provided receipts.
We had other detectives follow up, actually go to to the store, pull surveillance tapes.
When police get a hold of the security footage, they're stunned.
The receipts that Tim had given us match up the times on the surveillance video.
And we had already had a time frame of when the homicide happened, so we were able to narrow it down to where he was.
Tim was not there at the residence when it happened.
Tim is cleared as a suspect.
And officers have also looked into the boyfriend Brian's alibi.
Brian went to a local store for a cold drink before he came to Veronica's house.
Surveillance tapes showed him at the store at the time he stayed, so we knew where he was during the time we suspect the homicide happened.
Investigators are back at square one.
We don't have a known suspect.
I started getting frustrated.
You know, anytime you have a homicide of this magnitude, community members, neighbors, friends are obviously worried.
Everybody was just really shocked and tried to comfort each other and try to understand what happened.
Why the hell did this happen?
How did this happen?
Who did it?
I wanted justice for her.
You know, I mean, no matter who did it, no matter what it was, I wanted, I wanted answers.
Officers canvassed Veronica's neighbors, asking if they saw or heard anything unusual around the time of the murder.
A neighbor stated they saw a light-colored white or silver SUV or van in the alley right before the homicide.
They didn't know if it was involved or not.
They stated that it was gone before the police arrived.
Did the driver have something to do with Veronica's murder?
Is this the lead police have been hoping for?
We started to have some pieces to the puzzle, but at this point, we didn't have the puzzle and we didn't even have the border.
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Candice Rivera has it all.
In just three years, she went from stay-at-home mum to traveling the world, saving lives and making millions.
Anyone would think Candice's charm life is about as real as Unicorn's.
But sometimes the truth is even harder to believe than the lies.
Not true.
There are so many things not true.
You got got to break me.
I'm Charlie Webster, and this is Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast produced by Seven Hills.
Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
Two days after Veronica Boza's murder, police still don't have a solid suspect.
Their only lead is a light-colored SUV that was seen in the alley by Veronica's house right before she was attacked.
We were trying to narrow down whose vehicle that possibly could have been.
We were told that maybe a handyman that comes around.
So we followed up and determined that he had a tart truck.
With few leads, investigators looked to Veronica's autopsy results for insight.
A medical examiner said she was shot four times.
She had a defensive wound to her arm.
The last time was a shot to her head to make sure that she was dead.
So she was basically executed.
Well, is this a stalker?
Is this a hitman?
What is it?
And so everybody was on alert.
While the murder weapon wasn't found at the scene, police do get one piece of good news.
Technicians ran ballistic tests on the shell casings, and that gave us a type of gun we were looking for
that was fired from a high point nine millimeter.
Investigators decide to track Veronica's phone for further clues.
When we have a homicide, we like to collect electronic evidence.
We knew from family and friends that she had an iPhone.
So we had our tech investigator follow up on cell phone records and GPS records.
We were able to see that she'd gone to church and then came back home and then now that phone is missing.
Police believe Veronica's attacker took her phone.
The location of the cell phone was being recorded, leaving the scene of the homicide, traveling down the roads, down the interstate.
Was the signal leading police straight to Veronica's killer?
That was one key piece that really opened our eyes.
It was almost as if Veronica was helping us in our investigation.
But then the signal goes dead.
So we thought that the phone had been destroyed, powered off, or just the battery died.
We requested records for her current boyfriend, Brian.
We determined that he was telling us the truth about where he had been, what he had been doing.
We looked at the cell phone records and the GPS locations for Tim in relation to the homicide.
His cell phone was hitting on towers along the path that he stated he took.
But something else about Tim's phone records jumps out to detectives.
We noticed multiple calls to one number during before and after the custody exchange.
Police learn the number belongs to Corey Cotham.
Corey Cotham was a friend of Tim's.
They worked together, they hung out together, and they were very close.
He was friends with Veronica and at some point actually stayed with Tim and Veronica.
Were the calls just routine conversations between two friends or something more sinister?
Tim had told us that he spoke with his friend Corey, but he just just made it seem like it was just a matter of the fact.
Not a long conversation, but this was definitely a red flag to...
But when police look closer at Corey, they find Tim and Veronica's good friend has a dark and troubling past.
We found out that he had a large number of assaults, physical assaults against women.
Corey Cotham preyed on women.
He was always playing women and trying to get money.
He had such a high opinion of himself, he called himself Big Fan.
It's a major revelation.
Was it possible Corey had something to do with Veronica's death?
Maybe there was a personal reason between him and Veronica that we didn't know about that could have been related to the homicide.
We were just unsure at this point.
We then got a warrant issued for Corey's cell phone data to show what Corey had been up to that day.
The results raise immediate suspicions.
Corey's phone and Veronica's phone were both hitting in the same general area as each other.
We noticed that the day of the homicide he was in the general area of St.
Edward Catholic Church, which is where Veronica went to Mass at that morning.
We then noticed that his phone was in the general area of the crime scene later that morning.
When detectives track his phone's movement after the killing, they make a stunning discovery.
We noticed that Corey Cotham's device was in the area of the crime scene, then heads back out toward Interstate 40.
The route is suspiciously similar to the path Veronica's cell phone took.
We would conclude that the two devices are in close proximity to each other and that there's a good probability that the phone was taken by the suspect at that point.
Upon learning that information, we now started looking at Corey Cotham as a suspect in the murder of Veronica Boza.
Investigators come up with a plan to lure Corey into talking.
I was very nonchalant with him.
Tried to play it as we needed his help to clear his buddy Tim.
Corey agrees to meet with detectives.
He didn't think our radar was up in regards to him.
Corey confirms he spoke with Tim the morning of the murder.
It was a couple times.
I know I called,
but wait, I know I called him on the way back into Nashville.
He stated he was coming back from Kentucky from seeing one of his girls and that at the time he spoke with Tim, he was passing the Portland area on the interstate.
Where were you when you talked to him at 1220?
I was already back in town.
I went over my one of my girls' house and just chilled with her, you know.
He went to a girlfriend's house in Nashville, which was on the other side of town from where the homicide occurred.
So he put himself way away from the homicide location.
This was significant because it showed that he was lying about where he was.
Then investigators decide to set a trap.
One thing we had to do was put Corey's phone on his person and in his hand 100% of the time.
Is that the best way to get a hold of you by your phone?
You always have it on you?
Always.
If you're like me, man, 24-7, yeah, I got the phone.
I got the car charge of the whole deal.
We were able to get Corey to admit that he always had his cell phone with him and that nobody else had the phone that day.
And that's almost as good as putting a weapon in Corey's hand.
All right, man.
We appreciate you coming and talking to us, man, but we got some problems.
What's up?
We've already pulled cell phone records, all right?
And what you told us is totally not what your cell phone records show.
He got fired up.
He was pretty upset.
Pretty mad.
After Veronica Boza is found shot to death, police have caught her old friend Corey Cawtham in a lie.
What if you need to start complaining while your cell phone and
I don't even know, right?
I'm telling you, man, I ain't got nothing to do with this.
I ain't have anything to do with that.
I knew Veronica before I knew Tim.
I ain't got nothing to do with that.
That's what's crazy.
Dude, I came because I'm trying to bail my boy out from getting some mess.
He started to get angry,
started getting frustrated.
You wanted a lawyer before you talked to us, or you want to talk to him?
There's nothing I can tell y'all.
I haven't done anything.
At that point, we needed his vehicle and his cell phone in relation to the investigation, and we went and obtained a search warrant for them.
When police seized Corey's vehicle, they noticed striking details.
Corey had a champagne-colored Cadillac Escalade from a neighbor, saw a light-colored vehicle in the alley that day of the homicide.
We found a collapsible lunchbox.
We found gloves.
and clothing, shoes, and other items that we didn't really know how they related to the scene.
If Corey is Veronica's killer, what's his motive?
Corey is definitely a dangerous person.
You don't know what he's capable of.
He was a sociopath.
But with no hard evidence against him, police have to let Corey go.
Releasing him at that point was frustrating.
Obviously, Corey was a top suspect at the time, but we needed to do further investigation.
One of the things that we did with Corey's records is we looked at everybody he talked to the day of the homicide.
One of the numbers that stuck out was around 1228 in the afternoon.
So I called the number and the person on the other end of the phone stated he used to live across from Corey.
He had stated that he had cleaned a gun for Corey a couple weeks prior.
It was a 5.9 millimeter.
Corey came to him and pulled it out of a red collapsible lunch pail
and we found a red collapsible lunch pail in the truck of Corey's escalade.
So it started to come together at that point.
Investigators need to find the gun and connect it to Corey, but they still have a long way to go.
With phone records placing him near Veronica's house at the time of her murder, police confront Corey's only alibi, his girlfriend, Jenny.
During that interview, Jenny had told us that Corey had been with her that day from 12 to 12.30 because she fixes him lunch at that time.
It's the same time Veronica was murdered.
I showed her Corey's phone records and told her we knew she was lying.
Detective Cromie and myself fully explained to Jenny that lying during a murder investigation, she could go to jail.
At that point, she backed off.
She actually walked away from us and she called her attorney.
I didn't know her motive for lying.
I didn't know if she was scared of Corey.
I didn't know if she was involved in the homicide and complicit.
So we had a lot of other investigation to do and a lot more digging
detectives still need a witness to place corey at the scene of the murder
we showed multiple neighbors an array of photographs of different vehicles and one was an escalade they couldn't make a positive identification on what type of vehicle it was so ultimately we couldn't use it it's another roadblock for police and more frustration for veronica's family and friends it makes you mad that somebody would do something like that to somebody like her.
It felt twisted.
It was like we couldn't get answers.
We were getting all these rumors.
What's the truth?
What is the truth?
What happened?
Investigators need a break, and they finally get one.
Jenny, Corey's girlfriend, was starting to contact the police department multiple times and wanting to speak with detectives in relation to the case.
So when we interviewed Jenny the second time,
she decided to tell us what really happened.
Not sure what Corey was at my house.
He was at my house that day.
I can't be certain of the time.
Now she couldn't provide an alibi for Corey.
She did state she saw him that morning, but she was half asleep.
When she awoke up later in the afternoon, Corey was now at her house after the time of when the murder happened.
You didn't go with him.
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
No.
I did not.
I did not leave my house.
Jenny does make one startling admission that's very valuable to police.
She admitted that she stole her ex-husband's handgun and put it inside a red collapsible lunchbox and hid it in her vehicle.
Whenever I thought I could get arrested for it, I was going to try to sneak it back.
Whenever I went to go sneak it down back, it was missing.
And the only person who knew it was the word.
It's a major discovery.
Not only is Corey's alibi shattered, police now have a lead on the possible murder weapon.
We showed Jenny a picture of the red collapsible lunchbox that we found in Corey's vehicle, and she identified that as being the one that she put her handgun in after she stole it from her ex-husband.
She agreed at that point to work with us to prove that she wasn't involved in the homicide.
When detectives get the results from the analysis on Corey's phone, they sense they're on the right track.
They were able to recover a picture of a high point nine millimeter handgun.
It's the same type of gun that was used to kill Veronica.
The one shell casing we were able to locate on the scene had a greenish tint to it.
After looking at Corey's phone, the ammunition in the picture, it also had a greenish tint to it.
This was possibly the gun that was used in the homicide.
We didn't know if Jenny gave it to Corey.
Corey stole it.
We didn't know.
So we dug through the police reports relating to her and her ex-husband.
And it just says that a handgun was stolen.
When police contact Jenny's ex, he confirms that the gun in the photo is his.
He stated it was the 5.9 millimeter that was stolen.
Was this the actual gun used in Veronica's murder?
Our main motive was to find ballistics that affirmatively tie the handgun that was stolen as the handgun used in the homicide to kill Veronica.
Jenny's ex also tells police he used to shoot his gun on his property.
We searched everywhere trying to find evidence of any shell casings that could have matched.
As we were about to wrap up our search, our ID tech actually found one shell casing and he dug a couple more.
I knew it could be very critical turning point in the investigation if it did match.
Three hours later, detectives received the ballistics report.
It's a match.
Definitely was fired from the same handgun.
It was the best thing we could have done and could have to tie the handgun to the scene without actually having the the handgun.
But where is the gun that was used to kill Veronica?
Before investigators can lay any charges against Corey, they get an urgent call from Jenny.
She told police Corey to plan a trip to Barbados.
He was going to leave the country.
Police now believe Corey Cotham murdered Veronica Boza.
But Corey's girlfriend, Jenny, has told detectives he's about to flee the country.
They need to act fast before he slips through their fingers.
We contacted Jenny again and asked her to come in and do a controlled phone call.
I asked Jenny to wear a wire to see if Corey would talk about what had happened and also to try to get him to come back to Tennessee where we could arrest him.
Jenny is nervous but agrees to help police.
Hey, hey, what's happening?
Hey, they're coming to arrest me, Corey.
What do I do?
She stated that the police were coming after her, that we had a warrant for her.
They got some sort of bullet, and it matches the same thing,
exact match as one that they found at the crime scene.
She stated that the detectives were able to tie the handgun that she had from her ex-husband to him
or to the homicide.
She said, Corey,
they know, they know.
They're saying it's a 9-0 million.
They can use 9-0 million push anyway.
That don't matter.
That was an aha moment moment because we never released to him or anybody else the caliber of weapon that was used.
So we were very confident in all the evidence from Cotham, which was just overwhelming that he was the killer.
But it's what Corey says next that blows investigators away.
Be in touch with Tim.
Let him know what's going on.
Mr.
Cotham did make a statement you need to check with Tim and get with Tim.
For him to tell Jenny to call Tim, call Tim, that let us know right then and there that Tim was involved in the homicide.
It's a surprising twist.
Had Tim been involved in Veronica's death after all.
Surveillance was started on Tim that afternoon.
Mr.
Boza had a big motive.
He had custody issues in his marriage.
He had money problems.
Tim had financial gains from the death of Veronica Boza.
$550,000 in insurance, which would have turned his life around.
While Tim had motive to kill Veronica, he didn't pull the trigger.
But would he have recruited the couple's mutual friend to do his dirty work?
Police take Corey into custody.
Then they close in on Tim.
Officers were able to follow Tim around, and then once the warrants were obtained, Tim was arrested during a traffic stop.
Corey refuses to speak to police, but Tim is eager to talk.
He tells detectives a tale so twisted they can hardly believe it.
I'm sorry I lied to everybody here.
There was a movie years ago.
They both had terrible wives, mothers, or whatever and they said, what did this Chris Cross say?
And just in jest, I said, okay, you know, hey, I know she did the same thing.
It was a very crazy plan.
This homicide didn't make sense to me and how it played out.
It was just unexpected.
It was definitely bizarre when he told us what the plan was.
Corey was supposed to murder Veronica and Tim was supposed to murder one of Corey's girlfriend's ex-husband.
The two of them got this idea from a Hollywood movie with the same type of plot.
The crisscross killing theory was strange.
Of course, Boza claimed he thought they were joking, but I could see that Mr.
Cotham really talking it up and acting like Mr.
Big Man or Mr.
Hitman that they could pull us off.
The day
she's murdered, he called you and says it's done.
Yes, sir, he did.
What do you say?
He just said that he went in the house and she tried to run and
that he shot her.
When I talked to him, he said that Corey said it's done, which was obviously dynamite evidence for us.
Police learned Corey also had something more to gain from Veronica's death.
Tim promised to pay Corey $35,000 of a life insurance policy.
His wife was leaving him and
he just had anger and jealousy issues of the victim.
He was a desperate man, and he had the strongest motive of anybody.
Corey Cawtham and Tim Boza are tried separately for their roles in Veronica's murder.
In court, prosecutors put forward a theory of how the crime unfolded.
The morning of the homicide, Corey went down to St.
Edward Catholic Church.
The only person that could have told Corey Cawtham where she was going to be that day was Mr.
Boza.
While Tim runs errands to build his alibi, Corey follows Veronica home.
Veronica opens the garage door.
She pulls in to park.
Corey pulled right in behind her.
Got out of his vehicle.
He was wearing a mask and gloves, and Veronica was in her vehicle and saw this.
She runs into the house.
Corey's chasing after her.
I believe they fight in the kitchen area and in the living room area.
She fought for her life.
She obviously struggled very hard to try to live.
Corey and Tim are both found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder.
Mr.
Cotham got life without parole.
Mr.
Boza got a life sentence, which means he'll have to serve 51 years before he's eligible for parole.
Veronica was definitely an unexpected target.
I can't fathom Tim would ever do something like this.
He hired the hitman.
He's just evil.
Only a twisted person could pull something like this off.
He has no soul.
The truth behind what happened, it just makes you feel sick to your stomach.
In losing Veronica, we lost one of the most amazing human beings that ever walked this earth.
Miss her all the time.
It's painful.
The real tragedy in this case is all the families that were destroyed.
Veronica's son won't have a mother and father.
I remember as someone who was who you enjoyed working with and look forward to being around.
I think Veronica would want to be remembered as a loving soul, that simple.
She was just, she's just such a bright light, and she would want that for everybody.
Veronica's son was raised by his aunt in Nashville.
He is now in college.
How hard is it to kill a planet?
Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.
When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.
Are we really safe?
Is our water safe?
You destroyed our town.
And crimes like that, they don't just happen.
We call things accidents.
There is no accident.
This was 100%
preventable.
They're the result of choices by people.
Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.
These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.
Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.
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