Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Boating Accident or HOMICIDE? The Curious Case of Graham McCormick

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Boating Accident or HOMICIDE? The Curious Case of Graham McCormick · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greace.
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Speaker 2: What happened to Graham McCormick, handsome, young, full of energy,
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Speaker 2: his life before him. How does he end up dead
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Speaker 2: with head injuries, floating in the water.
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Speaker 3: How did that happen? We want justice? How did it happen?
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Speaker 3: I think I know?
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Speaker 2: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:41
Speaker 2: being with us here at sirius XM one eleven. Graham McCormick,
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Speaker 2: if you could look at his photo, you just see
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Speaker 2: life just brimming with them and vigor young, good looking,
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Speaker 2: col j educated, It's got the world by the tail?
1:03
Speaker 2: How did this happen? First of all, take a listen
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Speaker 2: to our friends at w t v R.
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Speaker 4: They've never expressed any remore, so said they were sorry
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Speaker 4: or anything.
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Speaker 5: It's just a social sense of betrayal that my family feels.
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Speaker 6: The revelation came after Lancaster detectives discovered a Boston Whaler
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Speaker 6: boat at the Hooper home with a large amount of
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Speaker 6: damage that matched damage on the bulkhead where they found
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Speaker 6: Graham's body. Stop right when police charged rand and.
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Speaker 3: I want to start with where they found Graham's body.
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Speaker 6: Connection with Graham's death, That was only the beginning in
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Speaker 6: the McCormick family's four and a half year fight for justice.
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Speaker 7: So I've known Graham my whole life.
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Speaker 6: For more than four years.
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Speaker 8: Mackie Peebles has wondered what exactly happened the day his
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Speaker 8: friend Graham McCormick died in the Rappahannock River.
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Speaker 9: Everybody wants to know what really happened.
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Speaker 2: I want to know what really happened, But first of all,
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Speaker 2: who is Graham? Listen to our friends at crimeonline dot com.
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Speaker 10: Graham McCormick grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He was a
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Speaker 10: proud member of the Boy Scouts and became an Eagle
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Speaker 10: Scout before graduating from Douglas south All Freeman High School.
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Speaker 10: At Hampton Sydney College, McCormick continued to distinguish himself as
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Speaker 10: a member of Kappasigma fraternity with his two brothers. He
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Speaker 10: was also a past president of Cappisigma Fraternity and the
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Speaker 10: Enter Fraternity Council. As a loving son and big brother
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Speaker 10: who always put his family first, McCormick became especially close
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Speaker 10: to his younger brother Will when Will was diagnosed with
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Speaker 10: brain cancer and as hospice care was called to help
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Speaker 10: Graham McCormick became even more devoted to his terminal brother.
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Speaker 2: Everything that I've learned about Graham McCormick makes me wish
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Speaker 2: I had known him in life, and that I didn't
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Speaker 2: get to know him after his death.
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Speaker 3: Listen.
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Speaker 10: After college, Graham McCormick pursued his career in finance and
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Speaker 10: moved to Atlanta as a corporate finance analyst with SunTrust Bank.
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Speaker 10: Even though he lived did Atlanta, McCormick returned to the
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Speaker 10: Richmond area often to visit family and friends. It was
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Speaker 10: during one of his visits that Graham McCormick was hanging
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Speaker 10: out with his old friend Rand Hooper on the dock
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Speaker 10: of Hooper's parents river house on the Rappahannock River in
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Speaker 10: Lancaster County, Virginia. They relaxed on the dock and played
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Speaker 10: cards into the night, when, according to Rand Hooper, they
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Speaker 10: decided to call it a night with.
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Speaker 2: Me an all star panel to makes sense of what
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Speaker 2: we know right now. But first I want to go
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Speaker 2: to Burke McCormick. This is Graham's father joining us. Mister McCormick,
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Speaker 2: thank you so much for being with us here at
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Speaker 2: Crime Stories. Tell me about your son.
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Speaker 5: He was absolutely a wonderful son, as honest as the
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Speaker 5: day is long, devoted to our family, well respected by
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Speaker 5: his friends. His friend's nickname for him was Grandpa gr
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Speaker 5: h a MPa because he was kind of a kind
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Speaker 5: of a father figure to a lot of his friends
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Speaker 5: and was a leader, and he was just the kindest,
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Speaker 5: most considerate, best older brother and son that anybody could
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Speaker 5: wish for.
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Speaker 2: Did I hear correctly that he was an Eagle Scout?
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Speaker 5: Yes, he was, along with his SCOO brothers.
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Speaker 7: Who also worked.
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Speaker 2: Can I tell you something if you're not in the
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Speaker 2: scouting world. I grew up in four h in a
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Speaker 2: very rural area, but now I'm a scout because both
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Speaker 2: my son and my daughter, they're twins, are working on Eagle.
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Speaker 2: Can I tell you how many years they've been working
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Speaker 2: on Eagle. They started working a long time in the
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Speaker 2: sixth grade. They're in the tenth grade now and they've
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Speaker 2: just finished their all the merit badges and all the
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Speaker 2: camping nights. It's years and year's process culminating in a
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Speaker 2: giant project that you do to help other people.
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Speaker 3: My son.
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Speaker 2: Is planning, mister McCormick, a water filtration system and he's
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Speaker 2: saving money now to go to Kenya with him and
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Speaker 2: his sister to implement the water purification system.
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Speaker 3: That's his project.
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Speaker 2: Person about animals, which is equally as impressive. And I'm
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Speaker 2: telling you, when you tell me that your son was
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Speaker 2: an eagle scout, that says a lot.
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Speaker 3: It really does.
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Speaker 2: I can't tell you how impressed I am that you
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Speaker 2: have raised a family like this, and it just I've
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Speaker 2: asked this questions so many times.
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Speaker 3: I'm going to throw this to.
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Speaker 2: Del Carson joining me, high profile lawyer out of the
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Speaker 2: Jacksonville jurisdiction.
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Speaker 3: Now what I like about him?
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Speaker 2: He's a former FED with the FBI, author of arrest
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Speaker 2: Proof yourself at del Carsonlaw dot com. Dale, you know,
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Speaker 2: I've talked about this so many times. I've prosecuted a
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Speaker 2: lot of cases. You've investigated a lot of cases as
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Speaker 2: an FBI agent. Why is it the very best people
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Speaker 2: on this earth they're the ones that become crime victims
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Speaker 2: get murdered, get mistreated.
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Speaker 3: Why is that? Why can't some I don't want it.
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Speaker 2: Happen to anybody, but why can't this happen to a
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Speaker 2: dope dealer standing outside in an elementary school?
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Speaker 3: Why? Why are there all these registered sex offenders. When good, decent,
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Speaker 3: wonderful people become victims.
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Speaker 7: It's because Graham is an individual who loved people, and
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Speaker 7: they draw to themselves people who are not worthy often
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Speaker 7: and certainly that was the case here. Although that took
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Speaker 7: a minute to figure that out.
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Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you why it's getting me so upset
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Speaker 2: right now because something about him, not necessarily his looks.
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Speaker 3: But did your son have blue eyes?
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Speaker 2: Birk, Yes, that's what it was the first time I
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Speaker 2: looked at him in the It reminds me of my fiance, Keith.
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Speaker 3: It was murderred.
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Speaker 2: And when you think of somebody just hitting their stride,
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Speaker 2: getting out of high school, getting out of college, launching
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Speaker 2: an incredible career, but comes home and stays at home
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Speaker 2: to take care of his terminally ill brother, I mean
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Speaker 2: it's also with me. In addition to Burke and Dale
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Speaker 2: is Catherine McCormick. This is Graham's sister, Catherine. Thank you
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Speaker 2: for being with us. And I know I hate talking
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Speaker 2: about Keith's martyr, but I do it when I have
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Speaker 2: to tell me about your brother.
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Speaker 11: Kriam was like a second father figure to me. He
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Speaker 11: is seven years older than me, and he taught me
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Speaker 11: how to drive, taught me how to save money. He
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Speaker 11: really allowed me to grow into the person who I
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Speaker 11: am today. He pursued me to follow my dreams and
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Speaker 11: obtain my dream by the time I was twenty three,
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Speaker 11: and I really owe a lot of my accomplishments to him.
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Speaker 2: You know, you've got so much love in your voice,
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Speaker 2: Katherine McCormick. Gordon McCormick is with me. This is Graham's brother.
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Speaker 2: And think about it, all three of these family members
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Speaker 2: are here today with me on crime stories because they
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Speaker 2: want the truth, they want justice, and they love Graham. Gordon,
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Speaker 2: tell me about your brother.
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Speaker 9: Oh well, he was too good for this world. I
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Speaker 9: think I think you all pretty pretty well encapsulated it
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Speaker 9: when you said that, very very pure soul, and they
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Speaker 9: too often do, I think, attract the wrong type. But no,
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Speaker 9: for anyone who's familiar with the show Game of Thrones,
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Speaker 9: I mean, he was like the net Stark of people
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Speaker 9: on there. Just his character integrity was above approach and
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Speaker 9: he was the person that everybody could look to with
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Speaker 9: reverence to resolve mediate disagreements. And that's why he was
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Speaker 9: always kind of respected by everybody. I've never met a
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Speaker 9: single person who said who had one bad thing to
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Speaker 9: say about him, I'm going to tell you something more
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Speaker 9: than I can say for myself.
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Speaker 3: Michael Wise, me too.
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Speaker 2: You know, Burke McCormick a very well respected lawyer in
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Speaker 2: that jurisdiction there in Lancaster County, Virginia. I always thought
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Speaker 2: I knew it all about suffering and grieving when Keith,
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Speaker 2: my fiance, was killed shortly for our wedding. But when
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Speaker 2: I had the twins, that changed everything. Because there is.
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Speaker 3: No love like the love you have for your children.
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Speaker 3: There's just nothing. There's nothing like it.
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Speaker 2: Do you ever wake up in the morning and it
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Speaker 2: seems like maybe it was a bad dream, and then
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Speaker 2: all of a sudden you remember it's real.
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Speaker 5: Yes, I mean we had just lost Will eighteen months earlier,
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Speaker 5: and when we lost Graham, it was it was unbelievable.
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Speaker 5: And Will, you know, suffered for a long time and
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Speaker 5: we at least had a chance to say goodbye to him,
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Speaker 5: but Graham there was no saying goodbye, and it was
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Speaker 5: it was. It was just such a shock and a
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Speaker 5: terrible blow to lose not just one, but two two
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Speaker 5: children over the span of eighteen months. It's been very
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Speaker 5: hard in our family, but we've had the love and
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Speaker 5: support of the community and friends, and and that has
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Speaker 5: at least sustained me and I guess the others.
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Speaker 1: Prime stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: So we left off with Graham coming back home to visit.
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Speaker 2: He's with his friend there, hanging out on the dock
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Speaker 2: and playing cards into the When after they ate and
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Speaker 2: had a good time, according to the best friend Ran,
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Speaker 2: they decided to call it a night, but then everything
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Speaker 2: takes a bizarre twist. Listen to our friends at crime Online.
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Speaker 12: The next day, Sally Graham gets a text from Hooper
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Speaker 12: asking if she's heard from her son. If not, then
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Speaker 12: he is missing. Gram says her son was known for
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Speaker 12: his responsibility, as signified by his fraternity nickname Grandpa, a
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Speaker 12: reference to maturity. Graham asks about a search to find McCormick,
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Speaker 12: searching the water, checking with neighbors, checking in town, and more.
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Speaker 12: The answers he's not.
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Speaker 2: There, Okay, So they were just out on the dock
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Speaker 2: having they ate supper. They're sitting around I guess, playing cards,
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Speaker 2: having a good old time until he gets dark and
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Speaker 2: then they wake up.
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Speaker 3: And he's just gone. He mysteriously disappears. Take a listen
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Speaker 3: to Melissa Hippoleott wt v R.
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Speaker 6: Rand told that he, Graham and another man played cards
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Speaker 6: and drank on the dock of his parents river house,
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Speaker 6: and then they all went to bed. When Rand woke up,
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Speaker 6: Graham was nowhere to be found, and Rand speculated he
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Speaker 6: had gone out on the dock to call his girlfriend
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Speaker 6: and fallen into the water, or perhaps he had a
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Speaker 6: panic attack and went to the emergency room. He even
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Speaker 6: watched as Graham's mother used an oar to search the
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Speaker 6: water by the dock for her son.
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Speaker 3: Joining me right now is Melissa Hippolett.
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Speaker 2: You were just hearing her investigative reporter WTVR CBS. Melissa,
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Speaker 2: thank you for being with us shed some light on
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Speaker 2: this for me. Could you explain to me what John
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Speaker 2: Randolph rand Hopper said. What about a panic attack or
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Speaker 2: that possibly Graham went out on the dock to make
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Speaker 2: a phone call. Why would you go out on a
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Speaker 2: dock and the dead of night to make a phone call.
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Speaker 13: Yeah, your guess is as good as mine, Nancy, But
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Speaker 13: thanks for having me. He just, you know, shared a
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Speaker 13: variety of different stories, speculative stories with people about what
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Speaker 13: may have happened to Graham. You know, suggesting that I
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Speaker 13: guess he'd had maybe panic attacks in the past, and
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Speaker 13: he thought he may have had another one and gotten
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Speaker 13: himself to the emergency room, or that he had maybe
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Speaker 13: gone back outside to call his girlfriend and did that
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Speaker 13: on the dock, and perhaps he fell in the water
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Speaker 13: well out there at that time.
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Speaker 3: Okay, let me find out about these panic attacks. First
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Speaker 3: of all, what is a panic attack?
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Speaker 2: Doctor Jory Crawlson with me, very well known psychologist, former
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Speaker 2: law enforcement faculty, Saint Leo University, consultant and author of
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Speaker 2: Operation SOS.
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Speaker 3: Doctor Jory, what is a panic attack? Exactly?
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Speaker 14: Physically?
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Speaker 15: Speaking of panic attack is just like a heart attack. Okay,
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Speaker 15: it comes out of the paris sympathetics system. I've had
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Speaker 15: a heart attack and a panic attack and they're both
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Speaker 15: the same. Okay, so you're going to have that physiological response.
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Speaker 14: It's the panic.
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Speaker 3: You're of a panic attack, are you?
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Speaker 14: No? No, no no. But the panic attack comes out
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Speaker 14: of the parasympathetic that survival fight or flight syndrome, and
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Speaker 14: you have this sense of fear apprehension and.
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Speaker 15: You really don't understand why it is, but it's physically
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Speaker 15: affecting the respiratory system, your cardiovascular system, your mental process
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Speaker 15: of thinking. Okay, so panic attacks are you know, part
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Speaker 15: of the anxiety spectrum.
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Speaker 3: Well, if you can't think, how could you drive yourself
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Speaker 3: to a hospital?
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Speaker 2: How could you If you can't think, how could you think, Wow,
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Speaker 2: I'm having a panic attack.
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Speaker 3: I need to get in the car and drive myself
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Speaker 3: to the hospital.
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Speaker 14: People that have panic attacks, you know, they they know
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Speaker 14: they can sense them coming on, and they have you know,
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Speaker 14: like say, coping areas or coping skills. They've learned to
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Speaker 14: deal with it, like you know, it could be through breathing,
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Speaker 14: deep breathing, different things that they they learn over time.
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Speaker 14: There are medications that work real quick with that, like
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Speaker 14: the diazepan based you know, xanax. They placed that under the.
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Speaker 15: Tongue and within the five to six minutes that calms
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Speaker 15: that parasympathetic system physiologically and kind of gives them stability.
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Speaker 3: Let's get to the bottom of it.
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Speaker 2: You're hearing doctor Jory Crawls and Burt McCormick. Is Graham's dad.
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Speaker 2: Did Graham have panic attacks?
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Speaker 5: He had won the year before in Atlanta, So.
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Speaker 2: Let me understand he had had one panic attack one
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Speaker 2: year before. Okay, also with us as like Injuced earlier
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Speaker 2: Melissa Hippoleott.
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Speaker 3: So out of the blue, he goes missing.
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Speaker 2: Graham goes missing, last saying on the dot the night before,
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Speaker 2: and best friend says, maybe he had another panic attack
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Speaker 2: and drove himself to the hospital. But there was not
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Speaker 2: a car there for him to drive, and all the
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Speaker 2: cars that have been there we're still there.
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Speaker 3: So that doesn't make sense.
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Speaker 5: None of it made sense.
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Speaker 13: Yeah, and you know, just envision this time period. So
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Speaker 13: Graham's missing words starts spreading to Graham's family members, many
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Speaker 13: of whom we are on this call that he's missing.
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Speaker 13: Many of them are rushing to the river to try
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Speaker 13: to locate him. His mother shows up there, and I
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Speaker 13: believe in the testimony we heard it was actually Rand
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Speaker 13: himself who handed Sally McCormick the ore and suggested, maybe
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Speaker 13: you could search around the dock here for his body.
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Speaker 2: Oh my stars, handing a mother the ore to a
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Speaker 2: boat is saying, hey, why don't you dig around with
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Speaker 2: the ore and see if you can find your son's body.
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Speaker 3: That's exactly what happens. Listen.
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Speaker 12: Grand McCormick's disappearance isn't reported to police until around ten
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Speaker 12: thirty in the morning. When is this told police that
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Speaker 12: they were to their rooms. Just after midnight. Cormick's mother, father,
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Speaker 12: and brother drove from their home to the Hoopers home
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Speaker 12: as soon as they learned McCormick was missing. Graham checked
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Speaker 12: by the dock, using an ore to poke and prod
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Speaker 12: at the water. From there, Graham knocked on neighbors doors,
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Speaker 12: then returned to the Hoops. A few minutes later, the
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Speaker 12: neighbor told Graham a body had been found. McCormick's body
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Speaker 12: was found floating in Carter Creek off the Rappahannock River
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Speaker 12: in about an hour after the missing persons report was made.
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Speaker 12: The state Medical Examiner ruled that McCormick died from drowning.
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Speaker 12: Blunt forest trauma was a contributing factor in the death.
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Speaker 2: I go straight out to mart McCormick, who was there
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Speaker 2: trying to find his son, the family, using an ore
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Speaker 2: to feel down in the water around the dot to
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Speaker 2: find his body.
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Speaker 5: Burke what happened well, Gordon and I did not arrive
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Speaker 5: until after Graham's body had been found. Sally was there first,
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Speaker 5: and she was the one who was looking for Graham
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Speaker 5: and hoping against all hope that nothing had happened. Gordon
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Speaker 5: and I arrived just as the police rolled up and
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Speaker 5: notified everyone that they had found Graham.
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Speaker 7: Uh.
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Speaker 5: And we were of course devastated. UH And it was awful.
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Speaker 2: Joining me right now is Captain Tim self, captain at
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Speaker 2: the Lancaster Sheriff's Office there in Virginia, who worked this case.
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Speaker 2: Captain self, Thank you for being with us. When did
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Speaker 2: you first get involved in the case.
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Speaker 5: I got to involved on that Monday morning at fourteenth
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Speaker 5: August the fourteenth.
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Speaker 3: What did you do?
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Speaker 5: Well, I'm was the chief investigator at the time, and
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Speaker 5: I review all reports that come into the office and
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Speaker 5: I signed them, signed the cases out to my detectives.
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Speaker 3: What what, if anything did you learn?
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Speaker 7: Yeah?
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Speaker 5: When I reviewed this report and found out that the
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Speaker 5: body was recovered one point I believe, nine miles from
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Speaker 5: exactly where they said that he fell off the dock,
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Speaker 5: it's impossible. I found that was impossible for the way
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Speaker 5: the up and Cautis Creek for a body to float
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Speaker 5: that far in and out of several different inlets to
19:24
Speaker 5: get to the rock jetty. It was impossible for a
19:28
Speaker 5: body to land up there that quick.
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Speaker 2: Why do you say it was impossible for his body
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Speaker 2: to land there that quickly.
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Speaker 5: Because within of time the body was reported located and
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Speaker 5: the time to report, and with the time period that
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Speaker 5: ran said he fell overboard, possibly fell overboard because he
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Speaker 5: was on the phone, it didn't match. There's no way
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Speaker 5: a body can float that far if if it falls
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Speaker 5: off that dock, and we videoed to creaked to prove
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Speaker 5: that he would have got hung up in shorelines or
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Speaker 5: a shallow water the way it's curved, the curve of
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Speaker 5: the creek to get to where the body was.
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Speaker 2: Did you describe the water for me? Was it marshy?
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Speaker 2: You're saying endless? Would the body have had to take
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Speaker 2: twists and turns? And yes, absolutely, yeah, no way that happened.
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Speaker 2: Graham going missing was not reported until ten thirty the
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Speaker 2: following morning. The family race to the scene, start dipping
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Speaker 2: down into the water with oars to find their beloved son,
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Speaker 2: their brother, running door to door, knocking on doors, and
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Speaker 2: then they learn Graham's body. As how far away, Melissa
20:48
Speaker 2: Hippolett two miles here?
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Speaker 16: I think there was one point nine miles correct, that's correct,
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Speaker 16: one point nine miles away.
21:13
Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Two, doctor Jan Gorniac joining us now, she's a renowned
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Speaker 2: pathologist and former medical examiner for Clark County.
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Speaker 3: If you don't know, that's Vegas, and.
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Speaker 2: There's certainly never a lack of business for the medical
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Speaker 2: examiners there. Doctor Gorniac, what do you make of Graham's injuries?
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Speaker 3: How did he die from a blow to the head.
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Speaker 3: Shouldn't it have been drowning if he fell off the dog?
21:47
Speaker 3: What do you make of it?
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Speaker 17: From what I've read and what i've you know from
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Speaker 17: the medical examiner's report that it's obviously he didn't go
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Speaker 17: straight into the water. He has contusions which your bruises
21:57
Speaker 17: and abrasion scrape about his head, but he didn't have
22:02
Speaker 17: enough head injury to have caused his death. So the
22:06
Speaker 17: head injuries could have been a contributing factor, as in
22:11
Speaker 17: he might have had a concussion, the head trauma might
22:13
Speaker 17: have he might have been passed out, so therefore he's
22:16
Speaker 17: unresponsive in the water. So ultimately he dies of drowning
22:21
Speaker 17: because he couldn't rescue himself out of the water.
22:24
Speaker 3: So the cod was drowning, correct, That.
22:28
Speaker 17: Is correct with other conditioned the head trauma. So when
22:33
Speaker 17: you have on a death certificate, the main cold or
22:36
Speaker 17: cause of death is drowning, but other conditions stands for
22:41
Speaker 17: conditions that contribute it to the death but are not
22:44
Speaker 17: the cause. So the head trauma contributed to his death
22:48
Speaker 17: because obviously he couldn't self rescue himself out of the water.
22:52
Speaker 17: I'm not sure if he was a good swimmer or not,
22:55
Speaker 17: but it seemed like it was late at night or
22:57
Speaker 17: early morning, and then it's starks. You get this orient it.
23:00
Speaker 17: So even if he didn't pass out from the head trauma,
23:04
Speaker 17: he would have been you know, you get your bell
23:06
Speaker 17: rung so to say.
23:07
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you this much, Dodger Gorniac, I
23:09
Speaker 2: take it you are not an eagle scout because you
23:14
Speaker 2: have to I know this by heart. You have to
23:16
Speaker 2: pass a swimming merit Madge and I stood there and
23:20
Speaker 2: watched both of my twins swim. I forgot how far
23:24
Speaker 2: they had to swim.
23:25
Speaker 3: A really long way.
23:27
Speaker 2: I couldn't have made it, but they did it. So
23:30
Speaker 2: I can guarantee you this guy knew how to swim.
23:33
Speaker 17: He knew how to swim sock away.
23:36
Speaker 18: Why didn't he save himself because of the blood of
23:39
Speaker 18: the head, Like I said, so, the blow of the
23:42
Speaker 18: head could have guiden him like knocked out, you know
23:45
Speaker 18: a little bit, or just meet him disoriented.
23:47
Speaker 17: Yeah, I don't know. If you ever pitch your head
23:49
Speaker 17: or fall down the stairs, you're like, where the heck
23:51
Speaker 17: am I? You know what I mean? So you get confused.
23:54
Speaker 17: He's disoriented, it's dark. And I've been taught, you know,
23:58
Speaker 17: in drowning, because you know, people can drown in shallow
24:01
Speaker 17: water because they say that your instinct is to use
24:07
Speaker 17: your arms. So there could have been a point that
24:09
Speaker 17: he was trying to rescue himself and he got exhausted
24:12
Speaker 17: so and he just couldn't self rescue. Unfortunately, there's many
24:16
Speaker 17: factors in drowning. Once, like you said, he has head trauma.
24:20
Speaker 17: It's late at night, Like I said, he just could
24:24
Speaker 17: not rescue himself out of the water.
24:25
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I don't really know what happened, because I can
24:28
Speaker 2: tell you this much. I agree with Captain timself in
24:31
Speaker 2: the Sheriff's office that body did not end up two
24:34
Speaker 2: miles away with a story that he fell off the
24:39
Speaker 2: dock talking on the phone.
24:42
Speaker 7: Yes, Nancy, I've handled quite a number of autopsies as
24:46
Speaker 7: law enforcement's presence in the emmy, and I will simply
24:51
Speaker 7: tell you when I live in an area like the
24:53
Speaker 7: captain does, but there's a lot of water, so I
24:56
Speaker 7: have seen a number of deaths over the decades. The
25:00
Speaker 7: fact is that not only did the body probably end
25:05
Speaker 7: up close to where it fell into the water, but
25:07
Speaker 7: also the fact that there as I've read in part
25:10
Speaker 7: of the news reporting that there was foam in his mouth.
25:14
Speaker 7: The fact that he's floating so quickly after falling in
25:17
Speaker 7: the water tells me his long full of water and
25:20
Speaker 7: that he was alive for a period of time after
25:24
Speaker 7: he saw the war.
25:25
Speaker 2: But then a bizarre twist, stories began to change.
25:30
Speaker 3: Listen.
25:31
Speaker 12: Three days after the initial visit to the home, Lancaster
25:34
Speaker 12: Sheriff's detectives bought a damage to the boat. The Virginia
25:37
Speaker 12: Department of Game and Inland Fisheries reconstructed a crash and
25:41
Speaker 12: determined the boat had been involved in an accident. John
25:44
Speaker 12: Hooper told investigators that he remembers getting the boat off
25:47
Speaker 12: the bulkhead after it crashed. He says he had no
25:50
Speaker 12: memory of who was driving. Hooper is initially charged with
25:53
Speaker 12: the misdemeanor count of failing to make a timely report
25:56
Speaker 12: of the boat accident.
25:58
Speaker 2: What now, I got so many things colliding in my
26:02
Speaker 2: head number one, misdemeanor with the dead body. Okay, that's wrong,
26:06
Speaker 2: that's wrong. But what about his story? This is the
26:09
Speaker 2: best friend John Randolph rand Hopper. What about the story
26:13
Speaker 2: that I was asleep?
26:14
Speaker 3: I don't know what happened. He probably talked on the
26:17
Speaker 3: phone on the dock in the middle of that I
26:19
Speaker 3: and fell off.
26:20
Speaker 2: Then this beautiful son and brother's body is found two
26:26
Speaker 2: miles away with blows to the head. Yeah, none of
26:30
Speaker 2: that fits together. Now he changes his story only after
26:34
Speaker 2: sheriffs find damage to the boat.
26:38
Speaker 3: Okay, Melissa Hippott.
26:39
Speaker 2: Sounds like he changes his story after the damage is
26:44
Speaker 2: found to the boat.
26:46
Speaker 13: Yeah, And I just wanted to reiterate the fact that
26:50
Speaker 13: Captain Self and his colleagues found the damage to the
26:54
Speaker 13: boat three days after the body was found. But then
26:57
Speaker 13: it wasn't until twenty five days later that rand Hooper
27:02
Speaker 13: comes into the department and shares a new story. Isn't
27:06
Speaker 13: that correct, Captain Self?
27:07
Speaker 5: That is correct? And listen took him.
27:09
Speaker 2: Twenty five more days to come in. Okay, Melissa Hippolott,
27:14
Speaker 2: thank you. I didn't know a twenty five day period
27:17
Speaker 2: passed while Graham's parents twisted the wind, wondering what happened.
27:22
Speaker 2: Captain timm self joining us from Lancaster Sheriffs in Virginia.
27:26
Speaker 2: Tell me about you guys finding the damage to the boat.
27:32
Speaker 2: And this boat is the boat of the friend rand Hopper.
27:36
Speaker 5: That's correct. What happened on that fourteenth when I reviewed
27:41
Speaker 5: a report, when I saw that the body was recover
27:45
Speaker 5: one point nine miles away, and me knowing I've been
27:48
Speaker 5: raised on that creek all but since I was a boy,
27:51
Speaker 5: I knew that was impossible. So I when the report
27:55
Speaker 5: came through, had written up as a drowning accidental, and
28:00
Speaker 5: I grabbed my crew. I said, no, we're going to
28:02
Speaker 5: the house.
28:03
Speaker 2: What made you It must have been just all the
28:05
Speaker 2: years you've been in LA law enforcement.
28:08
Speaker 3: What makes you say no, We're not going to the scene.
28:10
Speaker 3: We're not going to the river. We're going to the house.
28:12
Speaker 5: I figured since that Monday that they would still be
28:15
Speaker 5: at the house. And when I loaded the crew, I mean,
28:20
Speaker 5: we went there and there was a cleaning company cleaning windows,
28:24
Speaker 5: cleaning the house and all that, which throwed a red
28:27
Speaker 5: flag up for me then, which probably didn't protein.
28:29
Speaker 3: Why did that.
28:30
Speaker 2: Throw up a red flag that they were having the
28:32
Speaker 2: house professionally cleaned.
28:33
Speaker 5: Well, you know, you treat every case as a homicide,
28:38
Speaker 5: not a missing person or unattended to death. We treat
28:41
Speaker 5: every case as a homicide, as everyone should, because you
28:44
Speaker 5: never know the circumstances. It's behind it.
28:46
Speaker 3: So you go to the house and what happens.
28:48
Speaker 5: Go to the house cleaning crews there the cleaning the house,
28:51
Speaker 5: and we knock on the door and Gary Hooper approached
28:57
Speaker 5: us to the front yard, and I was understanding that
29:01
Speaker 5: you were that he was, you know, out of the
29:04
Speaker 5: country in Africa, and that another flag went up on
29:07
Speaker 5: how quick you could get a flight to get home
29:09
Speaker 5: in a day. That was baffling to me.
29:12
Speaker 2: Now, who is this? Is this the friend John Randolph
29:16
Speaker 2: Randhopper's dad. Yes, okay, so he suddenly flies home from Africa.
29:21
Speaker 5: Okay, flies home for Africa within I believe Melissa would
29:25
Speaker 5: know that also that I think he got a flight
29:28
Speaker 5: home and he was home within a day and a half.
29:30
Speaker 5: When I rode up, we got to the host and
29:32
Speaker 5: stuff and explained to him that, you know, could we
29:35
Speaker 5: see you know, the dock area where it possibly fell
29:38
Speaker 5: off the dock. He was very cooperative, he said absolutely
29:43
Speaker 5: before we went in and I looked and I could
29:44
Speaker 5: see that he had outside cameras. The cameras were on
29:48
Speaker 5: the house. Also on the garage there was a camera
29:51
Speaker 5: that was pointing down to the dock. So I asked
29:54
Speaker 5: him about the camera system and he said that he
29:56
Speaker 5: had a camera system and it all was worked off
29:58
Speaker 5: of his phone through an apse. So I said, great,
30:02
Speaker 5: I says, anyway we can get that. He says, I
30:04
Speaker 5: can get all the cameras except for the one on
30:06
Speaker 5: the garage. And fortunately the one on the garage is pointing.
30:09
Speaker 7: At the dock.
30:10
Speaker 5: So what we Yeah, what a coincidence? Yeah, So then
30:14
Speaker 5: we go in. He carries us in the house. So
30:17
Speaker 5: we go down to where where Graham was staying in
30:19
Speaker 5: the room and saw as you know, where the room
30:23
Speaker 5: he was at in the door. And then as we're
30:25
Speaker 5: going down to the dock, I could see that there
30:28
Speaker 5: was a couple of lights that were knocked over, as
30:32
Speaker 5: you know, somebody had bumped them or hit them or whatever,
30:34
Speaker 5: which we found out what that was from. So we
30:37
Speaker 5: go down, walk down to the dock and we get
30:40
Speaker 5: on the dock and start looking and we were told
30:44
Speaker 5: the first day that Friday that the boat used was
30:47
Speaker 5: the little I believe sixteen foot or fifteen foot Boston
30:51
Speaker 5: Whaler that was on the left side of the dock.
30:53
Speaker 5: That that's what they used to go creek riding and all.
30:57
Speaker 5: That was the only boat that they used. And then
31:00
Speaker 5: go down to the end of the dock and I
31:01
Speaker 5: see wine glasses that's broken under the bench that's at
31:04
Speaker 5: the end of the dock. So when I've been down
31:06
Speaker 5: to pick the glass up, and I questioned Garrett, but
31:09
Speaker 5: he said, I guess they were drinking out heady drink
31:11
Speaker 5: all the time. They leave a glass as they fall
31:13
Speaker 5: over and they break. So as I turned and I said, i'
31:15
Speaker 5: about this boat, and he says, that's that's that's my boat.
31:19
Speaker 5: And I looked and I could see damage to the
31:22
Speaker 5: lower unit, and so I questioned the lower unit damage
31:27
Speaker 5: and he said, oh, no, that happens. We pull up
31:30
Speaker 5: to a beach and it gets damaged. And I looked
31:32
Speaker 5: at that damage and I said, no, this is fresh damage.
31:36
Speaker 3: Wait, how did you know that, captain experience?
31:38
Speaker 5: But I've on a boat too again for thirty years,
31:42
Speaker 5: and I know what it's like if you hit something.
31:45
Speaker 5: And I pulled my boat up on a beach like
31:47
Speaker 5: every other sunday in the Caratomen and I don't get
31:50
Speaker 5: any damage to my lower unit. And then when I
31:54
Speaker 5: bent over to look at the lower unit, I seen
31:57
Speaker 5: on the stiring of the boat on the right side,
31:59
Speaker 5: just in front of the trim pat.
32:01
Speaker 3: I want to analyze what you just said. When you
32:03
Speaker 3: pulled up on a beach, you don't get damaged to
32:06
Speaker 3: your boat. People pull up on beaches all the time.
32:09
Speaker 2: It's sand, it's she that's not going to damage your
32:14
Speaker 2: boat unless you pull up on rocks.
32:16
Speaker 5: Well, and I think he was saying it was a
32:18
Speaker 5: rocky spot there to where he pulls up, but the
32:22
Speaker 5: rocket spot in order for that lower unit in the back,
32:26
Speaker 5: that boat would have bottomed dope before it hit the beach.
32:29
Speaker 5: So it shouldn't have you know, he wouldn't have tored
32:32
Speaker 5: the motor the lower unit up like that. It was
32:34
Speaker 5: actually bent and the prop was was damaged heavily.
32:38
Speaker 2: And so this is the father talking to you, the
32:41
Speaker 2: father of the friend rand.
32:43
Speaker 5: Hopper, right, Yes, the father.
32:46
Speaker 2: And he said he caused that damage to the boat
32:48
Speaker 2: pulling up on a beach.
32:50
Speaker 5: He said that the damage that he's had damage when
32:53
Speaker 5: he hit up on a beach before prior to with
32:55
Speaker 5: the frop and I told him not that much damage.
32:58
Speaker 5: And when I bend over and I looked under the
33:01
Speaker 5: bay of the boat and there was fresh fiberglass peeled
33:05
Speaker 5: off the staning bottom of that boat. And he been
33:10
Speaker 5: down looked and I said, that didn't happen at the
33:12
Speaker 5: beach and he says, no, you're right, And that was
33:16
Speaker 5: pretty much into the conversation. And then while I'm looking
33:20
Speaker 5: at the at the stand of the boat, Detective so
33:23
Speaker 5: Andson is a standing at the bow of the boat.
33:26
Speaker 5: It's on the lift on a two motor lifts that's
33:29
Speaker 5: raised up above the dock and he looks he said, Lieutenant,
33:33
Speaker 5: you might want to come up here. So I climbed
33:35
Speaker 5: on the lift, got down and then there was holes
33:38
Speaker 5: in the fiberglass on the bow of the boat. So
33:41
Speaker 5: that's when at that time I photographed it. And then
33:49
Speaker 5: I asked Gary if we could have the boat and
33:51
Speaker 5: he said absolutely. He said, but I gotta get a
33:54
Speaker 5: trailer straight because my trailer needs repair before you can
33:57
Speaker 5: pull it pull it up. And I said okay. He said,
34:01
Speaker 5: if you give me tell lamarrow, I'll get this done well.
34:05
Speaker 5: So we photographed that and looked around there, and then
34:08
Speaker 5: we left. And then the next day I got to
34:13
Speaker 5: call that if I wanted the boat. He's not released
34:17
Speaker 5: a boat, per his attorney. So then that's what well wall.
34:20
Speaker 2: Wait, So first of all, they say you can have
34:22
Speaker 2: the boat, and that's without a search. Want you see it,
34:26
Speaker 2: And of course that's perfectly legal because any person walking
34:29
Speaker 2: by can see it, so a cop can see it too,
34:32
Speaker 2: a sheriff like you can see it. But then to
34:34
Speaker 2: take the boat somewhere and examine it forensically, you know,
34:38
Speaker 2: looking for our particles of rock or even blood. You'd
34:43
Speaker 2: want to warrant for that unless they handed it over.
34:45
Speaker 2: So he says, yeah, you can take it, but then
34:47
Speaker 2: the next day you can't take it.
34:49
Speaker 5: Yes, I was. I was informed by the attorney advised
34:53
Speaker 5: that they're not releasing the boat. So that's when we
34:55
Speaker 5: obtained the search one.
34:56
Speaker 3: Okay, well I don't get it.
34:58
Speaker 2: Bert McCormick, this is M's dad who was also and
35:01
Speaker 2: a lawyer. You're gonna they're gonna get the boat, whether
35:04
Speaker 2: it's with a warrant or with permission. And that is
35:08
Speaker 2: a huge red flag when they wouldn't hand over the boat.
35:11
Speaker 5: Absolutely right, Yeah, we knew it was going to happen,
35:17
Speaker 5: And I'd like to go back to one thing, if
35:18
Speaker 5: you don't mind about the cell phone the cell service
35:22
Speaker 5: that he were saying that he went down to the
35:25
Speaker 5: dock because there's no cell service there. Right, Only a
35:28
Speaker 5: few people know that because there He's exactly right, there
35:32
Speaker 5: is no cell phone service there at that location. All
35:34
Speaker 5: that was, in my opinion, was another red flag because
35:38
Speaker 5: he knew that it was no cell phone service. So
35:41
Speaker 5: it's a good store. Hey, he left out of the
35:43
Speaker 5: house to go down to the end of the dock
35:45
Speaker 5: to get cell phone service so it could cover the
35:48
Speaker 5: store that they went. They went on the boat because
35:51
Speaker 5: he there was no cell service there.
35:53
Speaker 3: Okay, Then what happened Captain?
35:54
Speaker 5: So then I wanted we wanted to I wanted to
35:57
Speaker 5: go to where the body was located.
35:59
Speaker 2: So we I mean, with the boat, you get a warrant,
36:02
Speaker 2: you get the boat anyway, and where do you take it?
36:06
Speaker 5: Well, we brought it to the Sheriff's office, and then
36:09
Speaker 5: we took it to Jack's Marine and Burgess so that
36:14
Speaker 5: he could put it over that overhead lift so that
36:16
Speaker 5: the forensic examination could be done.
36:19
Speaker 2: Okay, and did the forensic exam take place. Yes it did,
36:22
Speaker 2: and what if anything did they learn?
36:24
Speaker 5: They learned that the boat had large damage to the undercarriage,
36:29
Speaker 5: the bow under and the motor.
36:32
Speaker 2: You did not get that from pulling up on a
36:34
Speaker 2: sandy beach. Okay, then what did you do now?
36:37
Speaker 5: So then we I wanted to go to to where
36:40
Speaker 5: the body was found. And when we went over there
36:44
Speaker 5: to that point, we started looking around and I walked
36:46
Speaker 5: up to the boat bulkhead, and the bulkhead it's it's
36:51
Speaker 5: top layered with salt treated trim like a two by
36:54
Speaker 5: twelve or two by ten, and then it's a fiberglass
36:58
Speaker 5: bulk wall that was all damaged, so and perfect to
37:03
Speaker 5: look at where that had been damaged to it. It
37:07
Speaker 5: was right there. If the boat come off the bulkhead
37:11
Speaker 5: and went around and hit those jetties, the body was
37:14
Speaker 5: laying right there. And then you could see fiberglass where
37:17
Speaker 5: it jumped the jetty. And there was an old piling
37:21
Speaker 5: that was over on the opposite left side of the
37:24
Speaker 5: jetty where the boat had to jump the jetty to
37:27
Speaker 5: get back into the channel where the body was located,
37:32
Speaker 5: and there was fiberglass on a piling which was recovered
37:36
Speaker 5: and that was also centative for forensic lab, for analysts.
37:39
Speaker 2: You know what, to the McCormick family, you better hope
37:43
Speaker 2: this captain gets re elected again, because if he had
37:47
Speaker 2: not gone out and they found that fiberglass evidence at
37:53
Speaker 2: the scene of the crash, you may never have gotten justice.
37:58
Speaker 3: Did you know that.
37:58
Speaker 5: Burt McCormick absolutely did, Nancy, And we feel so lucky
38:02
Speaker 5: because if kept himself and his team hadn't pursued this doggedly,
38:10
Speaker 5: this would have been swept under the rug. If Graham's
38:12
Speaker 5: body had not been found, he might have floated out
38:14
Speaker 5: into Chesapeake Bay been found.
38:18
Speaker 2: You just actually, you just gave me chills all up
38:21
Speaker 2: and down my arms. Thinking people that have children out there,
38:24
Speaker 2: thinking of your child floating around never found out in
38:28
Speaker 2: the Chesapeake Bay is not something you want to think about.
38:31
Speaker 2: And it was no coincidence that Captain self found. That
38:35
Speaker 2: is because he went out there and he searched and
38:38
Speaker 2: he knew what to look for, and he saved you
38:42
Speaker 2: and your family, you and Gordon and Catherine, Graham's mother
38:49
Speaker 2: from the pain. I've never knowing what happened, but I
38:54
Speaker 2: want you to hear more of what Melissa Hippolott has
38:59
Speaker 2: to say in our cut, I thought.
39:00
Speaker 5: Rand Hooper was a close family friend.
39:02
Speaker 6: But twenty five days after detectives recovered Graham's body, his
39:07
Speaker 6: family received some shocking news. Rand had just told detectives
39:11
Speaker 6: in the Lancaster County Sheriff's office that he and Graham
39:15
Speaker 6: took a boat ride in the early morning hours of
39:18
Speaker 6: August eleventh in twenty seventeen. Hooper said he could not
39:21
Speaker 6: remember who was driving the boat, but he remembered the
39:24
Speaker 6: boat hitting something hard, turning the boat's engine off, calling
39:29
Speaker 6: out for Graham, and when he didn't see or hear him,
39:32
Speaker 6: he figured his friend was a good swimmer and could
39:34
Speaker 6: make it to sure, got his bearing straight to the
39:37
Speaker 6: tides in and then remembered nothing after that.
39:40
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't think that's the whole story, Burt McCormick,
39:45
Speaker 2: because he stood by and let the mom frantically search
39:52
Speaker 2: with an oar off the dock, he knew all along
39:56
Speaker 2: what had happened.
39:58
Speaker 5: Of course he did, Nancy. He came that night, went
40:01
Speaker 5: to bed, got up the next morning and made tea
40:04
Speaker 5: times for everybody, pretended that he didn't know where Graham was,
40:09
Speaker 5: and when there was a report that a body had
40:12
Speaker 5: been found floating in the creek. People who are there
40:16
Speaker 5: set His eyes got as big as saucers, so he
40:19
Speaker 5: knew he had been found out. He had hoped that
40:21
Speaker 5: we'd never find Graham and that he would just act
40:25
Speaker 5: like nothing had happened. And his you know, it just
40:29
Speaker 5: was tostickable.
40:30
Speaker 2: I've got to hear that again. Hold on, hold on
40:33
Speaker 2: the level deception. I mean, when I try to tell
40:38
Speaker 2: a lie, I feel hot all over. I can't look
40:40
Speaker 2: anybody in the face. And then I think about it
40:43
Speaker 2: afterwards and it actually makes my stomach hurt, and I'm
40:47
Speaker 2: sure I'm going to get caught, and I always do
40:49
Speaker 2: get caught. Melissa Hiplett, what happened? How did the friend?
40:55
Speaker 2: How did he act? Rand Hopper?
40:58
Speaker 13: The next day, He'll recall he was, you know, setting
41:02
Speaker 13: up tea times. He was sharing stories of what he
41:06
Speaker 13: believed to go out.
41:08
Speaker 3: And play golf. He was on the phones. Okay again.
41:12
Speaker 5: He made a tea time the next morning at the
41:14
Speaker 5: Indian Creek Country Club for Graham and he and others
41:17
Speaker 5: to play.
41:18
Speaker 3: Including Graham. Yes, okay, I need a shrink and I
41:21
Speaker 3: need one fast. Doctor Jory crawsing, you wake up.
41:24
Speaker 2: The next morning, you have coffee and you start making
41:28
Speaker 2: tea times for golf at some country club when the
41:31
Speaker 2: night before you know d a r and well that
41:35
Speaker 2: your friend in best case scenario got hit in the
41:39
Speaker 2: head and fell in the water and drowned, and you're
41:42
Speaker 2: covering it up and you're planning to go play golf
41:45
Speaker 2: and pretending he's gonna join.
41:47
Speaker 5: What is that it was all part of the cover up.
41:50
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's I'm for a loss of words as a psychologist,
41:55
Speaker 14: but to try to decipher what he was thinking is
42:01
Speaker 14: like next impossible.
42:02
Speaker 15: I mean I could see, you know, disassociating all that stuff.
42:05
Speaker 15: But this is his best friend. I mean, you know,
42:09
Speaker 15: they know, best friends are like closer than family, you know,
42:14
Speaker 15: And to do this, yeah, I mean I'm really at
42:18
Speaker 15: a loss of words for it. It's pure evil. I mean, see,
42:22
Speaker 15: isn't it true?
42:22
Speaker 2: Catherine McCormick, This is Graham's sister that rand Hopper actually
42:28
Speaker 2: spoke at your brother's funeral.
42:31
Speaker 11: Yes, so Graham was actually buried before his funeral service,
42:37
Speaker 11: My brother Gordon and I lowered his remains into the
42:40
Speaker 11: ground and a very emotional, intimate setting with close friends
42:46
Speaker 11: and family and as our family was leaving the burial
42:50
Speaker 11: site to go up to the parish hall to get
42:54
Speaker 11: ready to recess into the church. The first person who
42:58
Speaker 11: met me at the top of the step was Rand
43:01
Speaker 11: and his girlfriend Willis. Rand held me, he hugged me,
43:06
Speaker 11: and he whispered in my ear and said everything is
43:08
Speaker 11: going to be okay. Just moments before I delivered a
43:14
Speaker 11: very tearful eulogy in front of hundreds and hundreds of people.
43:21
Speaker 11: He was the only reader who read at the funeral
43:24
Speaker 11: that was not a close family member.
43:27
Speaker 3: Gordon McCormick. This is Graham's brother. Is that how you
43:29
Speaker 3: remember it?
43:30
Speaker 9: Yes, Yes, that is how I remember it. And I
43:35
Speaker 9: also got reports from other friends who were acting as
43:37
Speaker 9: ushers that he was very kiddish and kind of like
43:41
Speaker 9: pale white and sweaty, and seemed very nervous before the
43:46
Speaker 9: service began. And I wanted to point out one other thing.
43:49
Speaker 9: Captain Self, correct me if I'm wrong. But when the
43:52
Speaker 9: police first showed up and took their initial report, didn't
43:56
Speaker 9: Rand tell tell you tell your guys that Graham was
44:00
Speaker 9: a drug addict.
44:01
Speaker 5: I believe it.
44:02
Speaker 9: I believe it is that sent my mother into, uh,
44:05
Speaker 9: basically a fit of rage. Where she had to fight
44:07
Speaker 9: the courts to try to get that removed from the
44:10
Speaker 9: from like, because I think that was included in his autopsy,
44:13
Speaker 9: and unfortunately the court was not able to remove it.
44:16
Speaker 9: I don't think from the from the report they could
44:19
Speaker 9: only add an asterisk saying according to the accused basically,
44:24
Speaker 9: but yeah, that that goes to show. Graham, of course,
44:26
Speaker 9: as you've already learned, was the opposite of a drug addict.
44:30
Speaker 9: He was the guy who would try to prevent somebody
44:33
Speaker 9: from from taking drugs.
44:34
Speaker 2: So you had to know right then that he was
44:37
Speaker 2: hiding something. That would be just like if somebody told me, Jackie,
44:41
Speaker 2: my my longtime friend and producer is a drug addict.
44:45
Speaker 2: No way, that's not true. And whoever says that is lying.
44:48
Speaker 2: So I got to figure out why are they lying?
44:50
Speaker 2: Oh I bet your mom did a backflip when she heard.
44:54
Speaker 3: Him say her Eagle Scout baby boy was a drug addict.
44:59
Speaker 3: They had to know, so he was lying then, right.
45:01
Speaker 5: We didn't know anything about Rand's dark past, Nancy, including
45:06
Speaker 5: the twenty eleven incident where he shot someone that Melissa
45:10
Speaker 5: has reported on, and I don't believe ram knew anything
45:14
Speaker 5: about this either. Rand was very good at concealing these dark,
45:18
Speaker 5: dark things, and as I say, it was just such
45:22
Speaker 5: a betrayal of my person we thought was a good
45:25
Speaker 5: family friend, Barton.
45:27
Speaker 3: Do you remember him reading at your son's funeral?
45:30
Speaker 5: Absolutely, we asked him because we thought he was Graham's
45:33
Speaker 5: friend and we thought he was grieving along with us.
45:37
Speaker 5: And my wife went up to him before the funeral
45:39
Speaker 5: and said, you can't blame yourself for what happened. And
45:42
Speaker 5: when she found out the truth about what happened, she
45:46
Speaker 5: was just livid because she felt like an idiot for
45:49
Speaker 5: saying something like that. And Rand's parents kept coming up
45:53
Speaker 5: to me at the funeral and hugging me, and three
45:56
Speaker 5: or four times.
45:57
Speaker 3: Oh, the same parents who wouldn't let you have the boat. Yeah,
46:00
Speaker 3: well they can get their hugs. Take a list to
46:02
Speaker 3: the prison crime online.
46:04
Speaker 12: It would be three years before Rand Hooper would face
46:07
Speaker 12: additional charges in grammccormick's death. Initially, Hooper was charged with
46:11
Speaker 12: a misdemeanor count of failing to make a timely report
46:14
Speaker 12: of the vote accident. Those charges were upgraded to involuntary
46:18
Speaker 12: manslaughter with a proposed deal of just one year in prison,
46:21
Speaker 12: but a special prosecutor determined that more charges were appropriate,
46:25
Speaker 12: as Hooper was accused of operating his vote while intoxicated,
46:29
Speaker 12: leading to a crash that killed McCormick. Hooper was arrested
46:33
Speaker 12: in charge with felony murder, involuntary manslaughter while under the influence,
46:37
Speaker 12: operating a watercraft, and failure to stop and assist with
46:41
Speaker 12: serious injury or death.
46:42
Speaker 2: Well, that's a Hippolott hold on just a moment, investigative
46:45
Speaker 2: reporter WTVR. They were going to let him have one year,
46:51
Speaker 2: which turns out to be maybe three months.
46:53
Speaker 3: Is what that really means on a misdemeanor.
46:57
Speaker 13: What Yeah, so initially and have himself can speak to
47:01
Speaker 13: this a little bit more. But there was the initial
47:02
Speaker 13: misdemeanor charge. I think they were gathering evidence, and you
47:06
Speaker 13: know then they were finally able to get the involuntary
47:08
Speaker 13: manslaughter charge.
47:09
Speaker 2: But why they have to bring in a special prosecutor?
47:12
Speaker 13: Okay, So there was the commonwealth attorney at the time,
47:15
Speaker 13: This is like the local district attorney who was responsible
47:18
Speaker 13: for representing gra McCormick's family, who said, you know what,
47:23
Speaker 13: we're going to broker a plea agreement with Rand Hooper
47:27
Speaker 13: and his lawyers. They met they've discussed this and in
47:31
Speaker 13: exchange for a guilty plea, he will serve one year
47:35
Speaker 13: behind bars.
47:36
Speaker 2: Burke McCormick one year, which, as we all know, you
47:39
Speaker 2: get one year in the county jail, probably out in
47:42
Speaker 2: two or three months.
47:43
Speaker 3: One year.
47:44
Speaker 5: What this commonwealth's attorney was incompetent? He's now been, He
47:51
Speaker 5: lost reelection and is no longer a member of the
47:54
Speaker 5: Virginia Bar. His license was suspended and over his conduct
48:00
Speaker 5: in this case. Wow, we were not getting justice. And
48:04
Speaker 5: this is a whole other story about us not getting justice.
48:07
Speaker 5: This prosecutor would not have he wouldn't have done anything
48:11
Speaker 5: if we didn't push him constantly.
48:13
Speaker 2: He was not going to do anything a rcal prosecutor.
48:17
Speaker 5: He wouldn't bring one in. We begged him to bring
48:20
Speaker 5: a help him, to help him prosecute, and he refused
48:23
Speaker 5: because he thought it would look bad for his reelection.
48:26
Speaker 5: Oh right about that.
48:28
Speaker 3: That reelection didn't work out very well for him. Take
48:30
Speaker 3: a listener cut six TV and.
48:32
Speaker 9: A half years ago. When things went.
48:34
Speaker 4: Sideways, I felt alone, I felt abandoned. I felt like
48:40
Speaker 4: my family was well kind of left out in the cold,
48:46
Speaker 4: and I prayed and asked for I asked God for warriors.
48:51
Speaker 5: This case has had more twists and turns than a
48:53
Speaker 5: Bob sled run.
48:54
Speaker 6: From twenty seventeen until now, the mccormicks endured a plea
48:58
Speaker 6: deal thrown out by a judge, much a prosecutor who
49:01
Speaker 6: had his law license suspended, another prosecutor who was removed
49:05
Speaker 6: from the case, knew more serious charges and COVID delays.
49:10
Speaker 12: I've spent the majority of my twenties waiting for justice.
49:14
Speaker 3: For my brother, and finally, I believe God did intervene
49:20
Speaker 3: on behalf of Graham McCormick's family. Listen.
49:24
Speaker 6: On Thursday, their long wait finally came to an end
49:27
Speaker 6: when in Norfolk jury found rand Hooper guilty of involuntary
49:32
Speaker 6: manslaughter and failure to stop and render assistance in a
49:35
Speaker 6: voting crash.
49:37
Speaker 3: The judge revoked his.
49:38
Speaker 4: Bot once I saw that the handcuffs go on, That's
49:41
Speaker 4: when it became real, and that's when I felt like
49:45
Speaker 4: it was.
49:46
Speaker 9: Time to turn the page and I got my life back.
49:48
Speaker 6: Next up in this case, the judge will determine rand
49:51
Speaker 6: Hooper's sentence now. During the prosecution of this case, they
49:55
Speaker 6: were not allowed to bring up rand Hooper's prior record
49:58
Speaker 6: of DUIs as well the time that he shot his
50:01
Speaker 6: friend while drunk in the fan district. But during the
50:04
Speaker 6: sentencing phase, the judge can consider those things.
50:08
Speaker 2: You're hearing, Melissa Hippott, you're hearing what the judge cans
50:12
Speaker 2: consider in sentencing. But first, can we just take a
50:14
Speaker 2: moment and say pt L. After all the family went
50:20
Speaker 2: through that there is a guilty verdict, but what about sentencing.
50:25
Speaker 3: Listen for the.
50:26
Speaker 8: First time we heard from Rand Hooper just before the
50:29
Speaker 8: judge gave him his sentence.
50:31
Speaker 3: He said that.
50:32
Speaker 6: Grand McCormick was one of the greatest people he had
50:35
Speaker 6: ever met, and he said.
50:36
Speaker 8: The safety of everyone at his parents' riverhouse that day
50:40
Speaker 8: was his responsibility and for that he was sorry.
50:43
Speaker 6: Gordon McCormick says he believes his brother's former friend, Rand Hooper,
50:48
Speaker 6: finally understands that actions have consequences.
50:52
Speaker 4: I can hear something in his voice that he should
50:55
Speaker 4: have said what he said five years ago.
50:57
Speaker 6: Judge Charles Posting sentenced Hooper to six years behind bars
51:01
Speaker 6: for driving a boat well drunk, crashing it into a bulkhead,
51:04
Speaker 6: which threw Graham McCormick out of the boat, and then
51:07
Speaker 6: leaving without trying to find his friend who ended up dying.
51:11
Speaker 2: Well, I have to tell the McCormick family that I
51:13
Speaker 2: believe they were entirely wrong. I think he said what
51:17
Speaker 2: he felt he had to say to get a redeced
51:19
Speaker 2: sentence because guess what he is now appealing Listen.
51:25
Speaker 8: Rand Hooper's lawyer submitted a motion last week requesting a
51:29
Speaker 8: sentence reduction. A judge sentenced him to six years behind
51:33
Speaker 8: bars in May.
51:34
Speaker 3: Now, in his.
51:35
Speaker 8: Motion, Coolly says the boat involved in the crash that
51:38
Speaker 8: resulted in Graham McCormick's death was recently released from the
51:42
Speaker 8: sheriff's office. He claims the boat did not have nearly
51:45
Speaker 8: as much damage as the prosecution claimed it had during
51:49
Speaker 8: the trial. He argues the boat's damage shows no indication
51:52
Speaker 8: of who was driving the boat at the time of
51:54
Speaker 8: the crash, and rehighlighted his argument that he made during
51:58
Speaker 8: the trial that there was no oh evidence that rand
52:01
Speaker 8: Hooper was driving the boat at the time of the crash,
52:04
Speaker 8: therefore he could not be held responsible for Graham McCormick's death.
52:08
Speaker 2: Okay, does it never end with rand Hooper Burt McCormick.
52:14
Speaker 5: This canord about who was driving the boat has been
52:17
Speaker 5: repeated even up through the appeal and it's so ridiculous.
52:21
Speaker 5: The commonalist attorneys who prosecuted this case did a brilliant
52:25
Speaker 5: job of showing how the physics so that Graham was
52:28
Speaker 5: ejected from the boat while Rand held on. And it's
52:32
Speaker 5: been rejected by every judge in court that has heard
52:35
Speaker 5: they argument. But that's all they have to talk about
52:38
Speaker 5: is there's no proof that Rand was driving the boat,
52:40
Speaker 5: and that's absurd.
52:42
Speaker 3: Who else could have been driving the boat beside him?
52:45
Speaker 5: He claimed Graham was, And there's absolutely zero evidence to
52:49
Speaker 5: suggest that Graham did it. Graham wouldn't even drive a
52:52
Speaker 5: golf cart at somebody else's golf club. He would not
52:56
Speaker 5: have been driving a boat even during the day, and
52:58
Speaker 5: much less it might. And the Court of Appeals, in
53:01
Speaker 5: its opinion did a masterful job of showing how absurd
53:05
Speaker 5: that argument was.
53:06
Speaker 2: Well said, I got a question, how can we be
53:09
Speaker 2: sure that that is how Graham McCormick got the blows
53:14
Speaker 2: to the head. How do we know he got blows
53:17
Speaker 2: to the head from being ejected from the boat?
53:19
Speaker 13: The expert testimony that was given from the typical examiner
53:23
Speaker 13: that provides that information.
53:25
Speaker 2: So let me ask the McCormick family. The appeal has
53:29
Speaker 2: been denied, but you know, on a six year sentence,
53:33
Speaker 2: he will probably be out in two years.
53:37
Speaker 7: Maybe four years.
53:39
Speaker 5: The projected release date is January twenty twenty six.
53:42
Speaker 3: But that's what we think. But what do you make
53:45
Speaker 3: of that, Catherine?
53:46
Speaker 11: It does make me very uncomfortable. We had to live
53:50
Speaker 11: in Rishmond with him for five years before we even
53:53
Speaker 11: went to trial. I ran into him at the vet
53:59
Speaker 11: when I took my new puppy and to see for
54:02
Speaker 11: his first appointment. So thinking of him walking free makes
54:08
Speaker 11: me feel very unsafe. But I am glad that we
54:12
Speaker 11: were able to get justice.
54:15
Speaker 9: What about it, Gordon McCormick, Well, I think, uh, you know,
54:20
Speaker 9: we we did. We need what we needed to do.
54:23
Speaker 9: We we got. We got closure and justice in the
54:26
Speaker 9: form of a conviction. And as we uh said from
54:29
Speaker 9: the get go, we weren't really too concerned with the
54:32
Speaker 9: final outcome of the Senate and we really just wanted
54:34
Speaker 9: the truth. And you know, we're only covering half the
54:37
Speaker 9: story here. The other half courses my dad called the
54:39
Speaker 9: prosecutor and competent, But the truth is he was corrupt.
54:42
Speaker 9: He actually had I believe a criminal history before we
54:44
Speaker 9: took off was that's the story.
54:45
Speaker 7: For another time.
54:47
Speaker 9: But having to fight that that character, and I mean
54:51
Speaker 9: the stuff that he said in our private meetings to
54:53
Speaker 9: my mother I can't repeat here because they're so profane that,
54:56
Speaker 9: you know, defeating him, that was Catharsis in and of itself.
55:00
Speaker 2: I made any prosecutor speak to the victim's mother that way.
55:04
Speaker 5: Bert McCormick, the first prosecutor we had, was awful. He
55:08
Speaker 5: was so unprofessional and as an attorney, I was embarrassed
55:12
Speaker 5: for this legal system that my family had to see
55:16
Speaker 5: such an unprofessional and incompetent commonweal's attorney. But we were
55:20
Speaker 5: periless to do anything. Under Virginia law. Only the voters
55:24
Speaker 5: could remove him. The Attorney General had no power to intervene,
55:29
Speaker 5: and fortunately the voters in twenty nineteen did remove him.
55:33
Speaker 5: But it was just such an awful experience. So that's
55:39
Speaker 5: really the second track of the story was that justice
55:43
Speaker 5: was delayed, but eventually we did get justice. If back
55:47
Speaker 5: in the we would have been very happy to take
55:49
Speaker 5: a four year prison sentence here in the twenty nineteen
55:53
Speaker 5: pleat deal, but that wasn't even on the table. So
55:57
Speaker 5: although we would have liked to see him in jail
55:59
Speaker 5: for longer four years. We would have been very happy
56:03
Speaker 5: with that at the beginning.
56:04
Speaker 9: If I can jump back in here, the scene in
56:07
Speaker 9: back in Junior of twenty nineteen when we went into
56:10
Speaker 9: for that plea deal to be accepted was almost identical
56:13
Speaker 9: to the scene you had here a month or two
56:15
Speaker 9: back with a Hunter Biden when he went in for
56:17
Speaker 9: his plea deal. Exact same circumstances where there was an
56:21
Speaker 9: agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant. They thought it
56:24
Speaker 9: was a done deal, and then the judge said, hold
56:27
Speaker 9: on a minute, I don't think so. So that that
56:32
Speaker 9: was a very dramatic twist to the whole situation itself.
56:35
Speaker 9: And there's three different judges were involved at four different prosecutors.
56:38
Speaker 9: So this thing was a good cop, bad cop everything.
56:42
Speaker 9: I mean, I wouldn't call Joan sit the cop. He's
56:45
Speaker 9: just more of a con man, but you know, a
56:47
Speaker 9: politician type.
56:48
Speaker 5: But yeah, the second judge when he rejected the plea
56:52
Speaker 5: deal and he said that that rand had a cold
56:55
Speaker 5: and malignant heart. Jan Smith, the prosecutor, had already been
56:59
Speaker 5: defeated for real elections, because this was in December of
57:02
Speaker 5: twenty nineteen and the election was in November. He had
57:05
Speaker 5: twelve days left in office, and after the judge rejected
57:09
Speaker 5: the plea deal, John Smith, behind everyone's back, went back
57:12
Speaker 5: with the defense lawyers, knowing he had twelve days left
57:15
Speaker 5: in office, and he entered the exact same plea deal.
57:18
Speaker 5: So when the new prosecutor took office in January, he
57:22
Speaker 5: was stunned to find out about it, and he had
57:24
Speaker 5: to work to have the plea deal set aside.
57:26
Speaker 2: After years and years of waiting, finally the truth about
57:32
Speaker 2: the death of Graham McCormick.
57:35
Speaker 3: The guys