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and conditions apply. See website for details. Dark

1:01

Cast Network, the light shines brightest on

1:04

our indie podcasts. Four-year-old

1:09

Cody Bixby was reported missing on January 31st,

1:11

2022, when

1:14

his father, Corey Bixby, said he woke up

1:16

and found his son's bed empty. A

1:19

search immediately ensued and police took Cody's father,

1:21

Corey, down to the station for questioning. This

1:25

interview turned into a brutal interrogation

1:27

that spanned days and led to

1:29

Corey being arrested on multiple charges

1:31

of child neglect. Corey

1:34

has remained in jail since then and

1:36

questions have been raised regarding his mental

1:38

competency. After several hearings, a grand

1:40

jury was convened and on June 5th, 2023, Corey

1:44

Bixby was indicted for the murder of

1:46

his son, Cody. This

1:48

week, we're updating you on the efforts to find

1:50

Cody and taking a look inside of this

1:53

heartbreaking case. When

1:55

a person goes missing, there's a special kind of pain

1:57

in the not knowing. I want to tell you about

1:59

this story. the stories of those who never came home.

2:02

Today, I want to tell you the story

2:04

of Cody Bixby. I'm Kony Gallagher.

2:06

And I'm Ethan Flick. And this is,

2:09

And Then They Were Gone. Welcome

2:48

back everyone. Welcome back. Ethan

2:50

and I are on vacation with our

2:53

family as you are hearing this. And

2:55

as we're recording it, we are literally hours

2:57

from getting on a plane and I just

2:59

brought them down to the basement to do

3:02

this. Classic timing. Classic. Great. Yeah.

3:04

So we will be taking a

3:06

little bit of a break after this episode with

3:08

our normal content, but we do have some fun

3:10

things coming to you from our

3:12

dark cast friends, which will be in your feed. But

3:15

before that, you know, before we left

3:17

town, before we did everything, I just

3:19

want to talk again about Cody Bixby,

3:22

the missing Hampton, Virginia boy who

3:24

we covered earlier in this season.

3:27

There's been a lot going on with his

3:29

father, Corey. And as I mentioned in the

3:32

intro, we do have an indictment in this

3:34

case. And as soon

3:36

as I read about it, I went

3:38

right back to the case of Orin

3:40

and Orson West because there are some

3:43

incredibly sad parallels here. Cody

3:45

Bixby was born on January 12th,

3:47

2018 to Corey Bixby. Corey's mother's

3:49

name has not been made public.

3:52

He has seven siblings in total, but at the

3:54

time of his disappearance, he lived with Corey and

3:56

his three brothers, a five year old and a

3:59

two year old. two-year-old twins

4:01

at Buckrow Point Town Homes in

4:04

Hampton, Virginia. So all of these

4:06

four siblings had the same mother,

4:08

but Cory had custody of all

4:10

of them. And then he has

4:12

three other children, I believe two

4:14

or three other children from a previous

4:16

marriage and they're older. Got

4:18

it. Cory Bigsby was in the army from 1997 to

4:21

2017 and worked as a cargo specialist, achieving the

4:25

rank of sergeant. He completed

4:27

two deployments to Afghanistan and two

4:29

to Iraq before retiring on disability.

4:32

Cory is also said to have PTSD from his

4:34

time in the army, which we will mention a

4:36

little bit more later. He

4:39

also has a history of violence. On

4:42

July 23, 2018, Cory was arrested for

4:45

assault and battery on a family member. The

4:47

complainant was his partner who was pregnant with

4:50

Cody at the time. But

4:52

the case was dropped in December of

4:54

that year because she refused to continue

4:56

to cooperate with the prosecution. Then

4:59

on February 9, 2019, just a few months later,

5:02

Cory was arrested for the same

5:04

offense, but I'm not sure if

5:06

it involved Cody's mother or not.

5:09

This case was also dropped the next month.

5:11

So Cory actually doesn't

5:13

really have a criminal record. He

5:16

has, you know, speeding tickets and things like that because

5:19

these two charges never ended up

5:21

going to trial. Right. Yeah. On

5:23

Monday, January 31, 2022, Cory says that he checked in

5:26

on Cody around 2 a.m. and the little

5:30

boy was asleep in his bed. When

5:32

he woke up around 8 30, Cody was gone. He searched for

5:36

his son, but when he couldn't locate him,

5:38

he called 911 at approximately 9 0 6

5:40

a.m. Local

5:43

police joined by the FBI and the

5:45

Virginia Department of Emergency Management performed a

5:48

grid search of the area. Hampton Fire

5:50

also assisted and helicopters and drones were

5:52

deployed. Though law enforcement performed

5:55

a thorough search of the area, they were

5:57

criticized for not issuing an Amber Alert for

5:59

Cody. And we talk

6:01

about this all the time because Amber

6:04

Alert requirements vary from state

6:06

to state and that can be very frustrating.

6:09

And Virginia is one of the states

6:11

that requires a belief by law enforcement

6:13

that the child is an imminent danger

6:15

of serious bodily injury or death and

6:18

that there is descriptive information about the

6:20

child and the abduction. In

6:23

this case police didn't believe that they

6:25

had enough evidence to show that an

6:27

abduction had occurred so the alert was

6:29

not issued. I'm sure that we talked

6:31

about this in the original one but isn't there

6:33

like some other level of alerts that they could

6:35

have issued? I don't

6:37

I'm not 100% familiar with Virginia's

6:39

alert system. Yeah and we do go

6:41

over all of that in detail in

6:43

the last episode I believe. It is

6:46

one of those things where like it

6:48

was a very quick and thorough search

6:50

but anytime an Amber Alert

6:52

isn't issued in the case of a missing

6:55

child like there's always public outcry even if

6:57

other alerts are made and we

6:59

saw that with Michael Vaughn too because Michael Vaughn they

7:02

did this like statewide alert but

7:04

he didn't get an Amber Alert.

7:06

But yeah they really just didn't

7:09

have any evidence of an abduction

7:11

and you know one of the

7:13

reasons for that is because police were looking

7:15

pretty hard at Corey Bixby from

7:17

the very beginning. It's interesting when you

7:19

look at the cases and how law enforcement like

7:22

kind of plays it you know

7:24

plays their hand in similar cases. So

7:27

going back to Orrin

7:29

and Orson West, Trisell

7:31

West gave this story about how his kids

7:33

wandered out of their backyard while he was

7:35

gathering wood and like nothing about it made

7:37

sense from the beginning. But

7:40

the Cal City

7:42

Police Chief kind of like played

7:44

it very cool very like you

7:46

know they're being cooperative like the

7:48

parents are helping

7:50

us out and oh yeah we took their other

7:52

kids into you know into cut into CPS custody

7:55

but like that's normal that's just what you do

7:57

in these cases you know like he was playing

7:59

it very like, no,

8:01

it's fine. But Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot

8:03

did not do that in this case. Like

8:06

he kind of went the opposite way. And

8:09

at a press conference on February 1,

8:11

so the day after Cody was reported

8:13

missing, he told reporters who asked if

8:15

they had a person of interest, quote,

8:18

there is a person of interest, we

8:20

are most interested in Cody's parents. But

8:23

then the next day, he did clarify that they

8:25

weren't actually looking at Cody's parents, just

8:28

Cody's father. Chief Talbot

8:30

told reporters, quote, I'm going to provide

8:32

some clarification on the person of interest

8:34

in this case. The person

8:36

of interest in this case is Cody's

8:38

father. His name is Corey Bigsby. He

8:40

is a 43 year old Hampton man,

8:42

end quote. So like

8:44

he came right out with it. I mean,

8:46

he said that two days after Cody

8:49

was reported missing and it, you know,

8:51

and in the West case, it was

8:53

like months before anybody in law enforcement

8:56

publicly stated that they suspected the West's

8:58

of anything. Yeah. Well, you also have to

9:01

think about the two different stories,

9:03

right? I mean, in the West

9:05

case, I feel like

9:08

it's slightly more believable that

9:10

they could have wandered off through

9:13

like a back gate, right? Right. So

9:15

in this case, he was,

9:18

you know, asleep in

9:20

his room in a secured house and

9:23

there's three other children, three other children, right?

9:25

And there's presumably no evidence

9:27

of break in or anything like that.

9:30

So I mean, you can you can

9:32

roll out his story pretty quickly, you

9:34

know? Yeah. I mean, I don't think

9:36

either story made any sense whatsoever. But yeah,

9:38

I mean, I get what you're saying for

9:41

sure. So Corey Bigsby

9:43

on January 31st went down to the

9:45

police station voluntarily to answer questions, which

9:48

is typically what does happen in these

9:50

cases. But he ended up

9:52

being kept there for days on

9:54

February 3rd. His lawyer tried to get

9:56

in to see him, but he wasn't

9:58

permitted. Police told the. lawyer that

10:00

Corey was still there voluntarily and

10:03

had not requested an attorney. Now

10:06

after our original episode, Arid, I caught some

10:09

flack around this whole thing from some listeners

10:11

who thought that like I was defending Corey.

10:14

And to be clear, I was not. However,

10:17

I do believe that everyone deserves to

10:19

have their civil rights. And

10:23

it did appear to me who's

10:25

just, you know, some person recording

10:27

a podcast that Corey Bixby's civil

10:29

rights had potentially been violated. You

10:32

know, while it seemed very likely that

10:35

Corey was responsible for Cody's disappearance, a

10:37

multiple day interrogation in which it is

10:39

later revealed that the suspect did in

10:42

fact ask for a lawyer several times

10:44

and was denied, like that just doesn't

10:46

sit right with me. No,

10:49

nor should it. And you know, and

10:51

just from a practical standpoint, like they

10:53

could have fucked up the whole case. They

10:56

may still have. Yeah. I

10:58

mean, it doesn't seem as though they have just because. So

11:01

basically what ended up happening after

11:03

the interrogation footage was reviewed and

11:06

it was shown that he

11:08

asked for a lawyer multiple times

11:10

is everything after he asked for

11:13

the lawyer was

11:15

deemed inadmissible. Right.

11:17

Because it's fruit of the poisonous tree. Exactly.

11:21

He admitted to leaving his

11:23

kids home alone prior

11:25

to asking for a lawyer, which is how

11:27

he was still able to be

11:30

charged for abuse and neglect. So

11:33

they've got that. And none of this

11:36

was related directly to

11:38

Cody's disappearance. So

11:40

anything in that interrogation, they

11:42

didn't need for any future

11:44

case about Cody's actual disappearance.

11:46

This is only related

11:49

to the neglect charges. But

11:52

again, I'm glad that they got caught

11:54

because if that's like the

11:56

type of shit they were pulling, like I

11:58

would have hated to have had. them, you

12:00

know, interrogate him later down the road

12:02

and, you know, pull the same things

12:05

and then get more important things tossed

12:07

out of court. That same

12:09

day, February 3rd of 2022, Corey was arrested on seven counts

12:11

of felony child neglect.

12:16

According to the arrest warrant, and again, this was

12:18

before he asked for a lawyer, quote, Bigsby confessed

12:20

to leaving the children alone for over three hours

12:22

on December 13th, 2021, so

12:25

he could buy a vehicle in Norfolk. The

12:28

three youngest children were left home alone

12:30

during this transaction. The children

12:33

were left without a means or

12:35

ability to communicate emergency services, end

12:37

quote. And

12:39

Cody allegedly told detectives that he did this because

12:42

the four children were too much of a burden

12:44

to take with him when he left the home.

12:47

And a similar situation allegedly occurred

12:49

on January 25th, just under a

12:51

week before Cody was reported missing.

12:54

And on July 6th of 2022, the seven

12:56

charges Corey was facing increased to 30. A

13:02

source told WTKR that the new

13:04

charges, quote, include 15 charges

13:07

of child neglect for leaving the children home

13:09

alone, four more charges of

13:11

alleged child abuse and two additional child

13:14

neglect charges in connection to those child

13:16

abuse charges. Although

13:18

two misdemeanor charges were added for failure

13:20

to secure medical attention for an injured

13:22

child, end quote. Instead

13:25

of the two instances of leaving his young

13:27

children home alone with which he was initially

13:29

charged, the new indictment cited

13:31

seven separate occasions and said that they were

13:33

left home long enough for it to

13:35

be considered, quote, a reckless disregard for

13:37

human life, end quote. As

13:40

2022 were on, Corey fired his attorney

13:42

and had six bond hearings in which

13:44

he was denied bond in each. As

13:48

the months were on, concerns grew around

13:50

his mental status. His

13:52

trial was originally supposed to start in

13:55

November of 2022, but because of all

14:00

of this stuff with his mental status and all

14:02

of these bond hearings and other hearings that

14:05

quickly got pushed back. On

14:08

December 9th of 2022, a judge

14:10

ordered a medical examination in order

14:12

to determine Bigsby's quote,

14:15

competency and sanity, end

14:17

quote. On January 27th, 2023,

14:21

a hearing was held to discuss those findings.

14:24

In it, two doctors told two different

14:26

tales. The court approved doctors

14:28

said that Corey was competent to stand

14:30

trial. In these findings,

14:32

it's mentioned that mental health staff

14:34

at the Hampton jail said that

14:37

Bigsby has reported hearing voices, had

14:39

made references to seeing children tapping on

14:42

the windows of the jail and

14:44

said there is a machine in his

14:46

head telling him to do crazy things.

14:49

That does not sound like

14:51

somebody who's competent to stand trial. Yeah.

14:54

So this had all come from like mental

14:56

health staff at the jail. So

14:59

when Corey was interviewed by

15:01

a psychologist in January of

15:03

this year, he said that

15:05

none of that was

15:07

true and that he had

15:10

never needed psychiatric treatment saying, quote, there's

15:12

nothing wrong with me. I don't need

15:14

those services, end quote. All

15:16

right. There seems to be a

15:18

lot of back and forth like that. He'll

15:21

say or, you know, do

15:23

something that seems questionable,

15:25

but then he'll be like, oh, wait, no, that

15:27

didn't happen or I'm fine or I did it

15:29

because of this or whatever. Now

15:31

for this hearing, the defense also

15:34

hired its own doctor and

15:36

the defense's doctor said that Corey

15:38

was not competent to

15:40

stand trial. However,

15:43

this doctor wasn't on the court's list

15:45

of approved doctors. So the judge did

15:47

not allow this assessment to be used. He

15:50

did, however, order a second examination due

15:52

to the conflicting findings. And another hearing

15:54

was set for March 31st of 2023.

16:01

court-appointed doctor said, oh yeah, he told

16:03

me he's fine, he seems fine. But

16:06

even though the judge said that

16:08

he wasn't going to take the

16:10

defense's doctor's findings into consideration, I

16:13

guess the fact that there was this conflict was

16:15

still enough to say, you

16:17

know, maybe we should circle back to this. Well

16:20

yeah, I mean the judge is probably doing

16:22

a little CYA for the appeal. Yeah,

16:26

exactly, right? Yeah. It's

16:28

not abnormal at all

16:30

when there's a question of competency

16:33

for there to be multiple competency

16:35

hearings and multiple examinations. Like I

16:37

think a lot of times it's

16:39

not decided one way or

16:41

the other after just one. So

16:43

this seems to be in line with that. But

16:46

this March 31st hearing seemed pretty

16:48

wild. In it, the

16:50

defense filed a motion to have the

16:52

charges against Bixby dismissed saying

16:55

that the Commonwealth uncovered new evidence

16:57

in August of 2022 that wasn't

16:59

turned over to the defense for

17:01

months. Like I don't think they

17:03

got it until November of 2022.

17:05

The evidence in question

17:08

is a letter that Corey wrote

17:10

in jail. The

17:12

contents of this letter have

17:14

not been released, but the

17:16

defense contends that it shows

17:19

clear evidence of Bixby's mental

17:21

deterioration. Bixby's

17:23

attorney Amina Maffany Willard was asked

17:26

if the letter was a confession

17:28

or a suicide note. She

17:30

initially said that it wasn't

17:32

either, but then she changed

17:34

her statement to, quote, because

17:36

the statement is verifiably untrue,

17:38

nonsensical, and bizarre, I do

17:40

not consider it either one,

17:42

end quote. Say

17:44

that again? Okay,

17:47

so reporters asked her, they're like, hey, what's

17:49

in this letter that you don't

17:51

want to reveal? Was it a confession? Was it a

17:53

suicide note? And she's like, no, it wasn't either of

17:55

those. But then like the next

17:57

day she went back and she said, quote, because

18:00

the statement, meaning the letter, is

18:03

a verifiably untrue, nonsensical, and

18:05

bizarre, I do not consider

18:08

it either one," end quote.

18:10

So she's like, he may say

18:13

some things that may sound like a confession

18:15

or sound like a suicide note, but the

18:17

whole thing is like a product of mental

18:19

illness, so I wouldn't pay attention to it.

18:23

It's a nonsensical note, but are

18:25

there elements of a confession in

18:28

there? Are there elements of suicidal

18:30

thoughts in there? You know what I mean? Yeah,

18:33

it seems like there may be. She

18:36

also said that the contents of this letter

18:38

changed the trajectory of Corey's trial and

18:41

told the court, quote, he lost his

18:43

son and then he lost his mind,

18:45

end quote. Now, what

18:47

the hell does that mean? I think

18:50

they're trying to say basically that his

18:52

mental health is deteriorating to the point

18:54

where he shouldn't be expected to

18:57

stand trial for any of these charges, and

18:59

the reason it's getting so

19:02

bad is because he's an

19:04

innocent victim of this system,

19:06

that his son went missing, he had nothing to

19:09

do with it, and he's been persecuted for it,

19:11

and it's just making him lose his mind. And

19:14

this is the defense saying this? Yeah, basically, mm-hmm.

19:16

I mean, okay,

19:18

cool, like prove it. Right,

19:21

well, that's what they're trying

19:23

to do. Documents from

19:25

this hearing show that a second

19:27

court-approved doctor said Bixby failed to

19:29

understand the circumstances of his charges.

19:32

In addition, Corey claims he has no

19:35

recognition of the names of the children

19:37

listed in the indictment that he had

19:39

been parenting. So yeah, the indictment

19:41

lists his four kids who lived with them, he's like,

19:43

I don't know them. Hmm,

19:45

okay, well, that's all

19:47

well and good, but at

19:49

the time that these crimes occurred,

19:53

he was legally in charge

19:55

of the children. So charges still stand.

20:00

Yeah, yeah exactly right and

20:02

you know Corey's family has

20:04

been Talking

20:06

publicly a little bit apparently as they and an uncle

20:08

are the ones who are like paying for his defense

20:12

And they agree with the he lost a shot and

20:14

then he lost his mind kind of thing that the

20:16

lawyer said saying that His mental decline is due to

20:18

the fact that he's been held in jail while his

20:20

son is missing Okay,

20:23

like I can believe that sure but

20:25

the charges against him are from before

20:27

his someone missing, right? So

20:29

cool. Let's believe that Doesn't

20:33

change the fact that he committed these crimes Previous

20:36

to losing his son. Oh The

20:39

judge did not dismiss the charges because

20:41

this letter, you know wasn't immediately delivered

20:44

to the defense But

20:46

he did order a quarry Big-speed

20:48

to undergo restoration services at Eastern

20:50

State Hospital Now

20:53

restoration services are given to defendants who

20:55

may not currently be competent to stand

20:57

trial But could potentially be

20:59

with additional mental health care So

21:02

the recent case of mommy doomsday Laurie

21:04

valo is an example of this. She

21:07

was Additionally

21:10

judged not competent to stand trial, but

21:12

then after some more mental health work

21:14

she was Corey

21:16

was due back in court

21:18

in June and that's when

21:20

prosecutors dropped a bombshell So

21:34

Everybody was expecting another status hearing

21:36

and you know seeing if he's

21:38

competent yet and things like that

21:40

but on June 8th 2023

21:43

it was revealed that Not

21:46

only was Corey found competent to stand

21:48

trial for the abuse and neglect charges

21:51

But he had also been indicted for

21:53

murder in the case of Cody Bigsby.

21:55

Oh Okay, now

21:58

the indictment documented self-explanation bare

22:00

bones. So it doesn't give any insight

22:02

into like the theory of the case

22:05

or evidence or anything like that. But

22:08

it does state that they believe

22:10

the murder occurred on or about

22:12

June 18th, 2021, nearly

22:17

seven months before Cody was reported

22:19

missing. That's interesting. I

22:22

mean, that's huge. I don't think, you know, like I said,

22:25

in the previous episode, police

22:27

had started asking people if they

22:30

had seen Cody back in December

22:32

of 2021. And so it did seem as

22:35

though they didn't think that Cody

22:37

had actually disappeared on January 31st,

22:39

like his father claimed. But I

22:42

mean, we're talking several months prior

22:44

to even that. Now,

22:47

we don't know where this June

22:49

18th date came from. But it

22:52

could be related to that letter I mentioned

22:55

earlier. So in more recent

22:57

news articles like from this week,

23:00

the letter is now being referred to

23:02

as a statement that was given to

23:04

a correctional officer. Like I

23:07

said, this letter was contentious because the

23:09

defense claimed that the prosecutors slow walked

23:11

it and should have delivered it sooner.

23:14

But prosecutors said that actually they really

23:16

didn't need to deliver it sooner because

23:18

it had nothing to do with the

23:21

abuse and neglect case and

23:23

was related to the Cody Bigsby

23:26

investigation, which again, is

23:28

two separate legal issues. Right.

23:31

So they're like, yeah, we gave it to you. But

23:33

like, it wasn't related to this

23:35

case. So we actually didn't even need to.

23:38

I wonder if the June 18th

23:42

date was somehow related

23:44

to school. How old? Oh,

23:47

well, he know, because he would have been three

23:49

at that point. Or

23:51

maybe daycare. I don't know. Yeah, I

23:53

don't know. I'm just wondering if like

23:55

maybe that was the last known

23:59

confirmed sighting of Well, so

24:01

that's interesting because that's something that,

24:03

you know, there, everybody's obviously trying

24:05

to figure out. Now,

24:07

we can get some sort of

24:10

insight into what was in the

24:12

letter because around the time the

24:14

correctional officer received it, a search

24:16

was performed in Maryland near Washington,

24:18

D.C. Interestingly, I

24:20

think that's the area where Cody's mom

24:23

lives, and I don't know specifically where

24:25

the search was versus where she specifically

24:27

lives, but geographically, it is definitely closer

24:30

to Cody's mother than where

24:32

Cody lived with his father. However,

24:36

nothing came at this search. There was no

24:38

trace of Cody, you know, nothing related to him. But

24:41

it does seem as though that search was

24:43

directly related to the contents of the letter,

24:47

and you know, this letter is

24:49

really what pushed this

24:51

indictment forward. In

24:54

addition to murder, Corey

24:56

was also indicted for altering or concealing a

24:58

body to prevent it from being found. That's

25:01

interesting that they're charging him with that, you

25:03

know, without having an actual body. Yeah,

25:06

and but that's, they did the same thing,

25:09

if I'm not mistaken, in, with

25:12

Paul Flores in

25:14

the Kristen Smart case, because even though they don't have

25:16

her body, because their whole thing is, yeah, we don't

25:18

have her body because you hit her. And

25:21

that's basically what they're saying here. And

25:24

I think they actually did that with the West as well.

25:27

Now, back to the subject of,

25:29

you know, the last time anybody saw

25:31

or heard from Cody, according

25:34

to one of Cody's aunts, she spoke with

25:36

a little boy around Thanksgiving or Christmas of

25:38

2020. And to

25:40

her knowledge, that's the last time anyone in

25:43

the family besides Corey spoke with him. So

25:46

now we're talking six months prior

25:48

to this date

25:51

of the supposed murder, as the last

25:53

time anybody else in the family had seen

25:55

him. So that's like

25:57

a full year before he was reported missing. Yeah.

26:00

So like I said, the indictment came as

26:02

Corey was deemed competent to stand trial for

26:04

his initial charges. After

26:07

undergoing restorative treatment, a psychologist who

26:09

examined him said, quote, during his

26:11

hospitalization, Big C thought process was

26:14

goal directed and did not contain

26:17

overt, delusional ideation, obsessions,

26:19

or phobias. He

26:21

also denied having any auditory or

26:24

visual hallucinations. A

26:26

doctor diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress

26:28

disorder and prescribed him medication, end

26:31

quote. It was also

26:33

mentioned that during a May

26:35

9th meeting with the restoration counselor,

26:38

Bigsby also discussed a

26:40

quote, hypothetical plea bargain. Though

26:43

it's not clear whether that would be

26:45

a plea bargain in the case

26:48

that he's currently going to be on trial

26:50

for or in the case of Cody's murder,

26:52

which he had not been charged with at

26:54

that point. Now

26:57

we don't have any more information about

26:59

potential evidence or even a trial date

27:01

for the murder or actually

27:03

even a new trial date for the

27:05

abuse and neglect charges. When

27:08

I learned that investigators believe that Cody

27:10

had already been dead for months, I

27:12

mean, like my heart

27:14

broke and I immediately

27:16

just went back to Orrin and

27:18

Orson West. The

27:20

similarities are striking, especially with the statement

27:23

from the ants saying that nobody had

27:25

seen Cody in months, which likely didn't

27:27

raise a lot of red flags because

27:29

of COVID. We saw

27:31

that with Triselle and Jacqueline, like that was

27:33

part of their actual trial

27:35

defense is that, yeah, nobody saw the

27:38

boys for months, but it was COVID,

27:40

so that was totally normal and not

27:42

suspicious. And the

27:44

other thing that I realized is

27:47

that if this June 18th date was

27:49

correct or if it was

27:52

around that time, it also means that

27:54

Cody never turned four.

27:57

He would have been three when he was killed. There

28:01

are still a lot of questions that obviously

28:03

need to be answered. If

28:05

you recall from our original episode

28:08

on this case, Corey purchased a

28:10

home on January 12, 2022. He

28:12

went under contract on that home in November of

28:14

2021. And

28:17

so, much like we saw in

28:19

the West case, the number of children the

28:21

realtor saw during the time that they worked

28:23

together over those months could be

28:26

a key part of either the defense or

28:28

the prosecution's case, depending on what they saw.

28:32

Because as a realtor myself, I

28:34

will say that you don't necessarily

28:37

see the kids every time you

28:39

meet with your clients. You don't

28:41

necessarily see them at all during

28:44

the process. I mean, I've

28:46

definitely have clients who never brought their kids to

28:48

any of the showings or anything. And

28:50

I've had clients who brought all of their kids

28:52

to every single one. But

28:55

typically, whether it's closing day

28:58

or at some

29:00

point in the transaction, if there are

29:02

children involved, you do see all of them.

29:06

So I think that, again, that realtor is

29:09

probably going to end up on this stand one

29:11

way or the other. I

29:14

would be curious as to what the

29:17

prosecutors have, what their thought process is. Yeah.

29:20

I mean, that's the biggest thing too, because

29:23

we just don't have a lot of information

29:25

at this point. Well, yeah. And

29:27

now they're not going to release anything else. For sure.

29:30

For sure. Because now it's a murder charge. Exactly. So

29:33

we're probably just going to have to wait for the

29:35

trial, which of course we will cover as we did

29:37

with the trial of Terzel and Jacqueline West. Just

29:40

like in that one, it seemed

29:42

fairly clear kind of

29:44

what happened from the beginning. It didn't

29:46

seem as though Cody was

29:49

safe somewhere. But

29:52

to see a murder indictment is

29:55

just so, so tough, you know,

29:57

because you can always

29:59

hope again. hope. And you know,

30:01

again, an indictment isn't a conviction.

30:03

Cody still hasn't been found. Yeah,

30:07

but this ending is absolutely devastating, you

30:09

know, though I am always thankful when

30:11

one of these cases that we cover

30:13

does move forward. So we'll

30:15

be sure to keep you updated as this

30:18

one progresses. Cody

30:38

Bixby was reported missing from Hampton, Virginia

30:41

on January 31, 2022. He has

30:44

a black male with brown hair and brown

30:46

eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he

30:49

was approximately three feet tall and 60 pounds.

30:52

He was four years old when he was reported missing.

30:55

If you know anything about

30:57

Cody or Corey Bixby's whereabouts,

30:59

please call the crime line

31:01

at 1-888-LOCK-YOU-UP. That's 1-888-562-5887 or

31:03

submit a tip online at p3tips.com. You

31:05

can see all the sources for

31:13

this episode along with photos and videos at

31:15

our website and thentheyweregone.com. And

31:17

be sure to follow us on social

31:19

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31:23

and Twitter. If you like what

31:26

we're doing, please subscribe and consider leaving a five-star

31:28

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31:30

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31:32

people that listen, the more chances we have of bringing

31:34

someone home. And we will see you

31:37

after our vacation with a brand new

31:39

episode. See you then. And

31:41

Then They Were Gone is hosted by Kona Gallagher

31:43

and Ethan Flick. Our research writing and editing is

31:46

done by Kona Gallagher. Theme music is

31:48

The Stork by Kessa. Additional music

31:50

is provided by Kai Angle and

31:53

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