Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Murder of Maria Santos Corona by Jose Fernando Corona

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The Murder of Maria Santos Corona by Jose Fernando Corona · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, I feel it's necessary to provide a sort
0:05
Speaker 1: of supplement to our usual discretionary warning. While we will
0:10
Speaker 1: not handle Maria Corona's case in a gratuitous manner, the
0:14
Speaker 1: details themselves are particularly horrific and at the same time
0:18
Speaker 1: impossible to get around. This episode is graphic. If you
0:24
Speaker 1: are sensitive to explicit descriptions of extreme violence, please continue
0:29
Speaker 1: this episode with caution. However, I will give an additional
0:33
Speaker 1: trigger warning when the time comes, and if you're a
0:37
Speaker 1: Patreon supporter, please stay tuned to the end for a
0:40
Speaker 1: special thanks. Now onto the episode.
0:44
Speaker 2: The Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:48
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
0:52
Speaker 1: In late April twenty ten, a nine to one one
0:56
Speaker 1: operator in Louisville, Texas received a shocking.
0:59
Speaker 3: Cause It's on one unis emergency.
1:04
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm in front of ten twenty fourth settle Wood.
1:06
Speaker 4: I'm a US Postal Service city carrier and it seems
1:09
Speaker 4: to be a body in the street. It looks like
1:12
Speaker 4: a body. It is a body and it's in the street.
1:15
Speaker 4: The bodies in the street is bleeding.
1:18
Speaker 1: A body in the middle of a Louisville street, of course,
1:22
Speaker 1: was highly unusual, and the emergency operator struggled with what
1:26
Speaker 1: she was hearing throughout the four minute call, which grew
1:29
Speaker 1: increasingly appalling and unbelievable with every detail. Mail carrier Jerome
1:35
Speaker 1: Gonzalez added Lewisville was safer than many North Texas cities,
1:41
Speaker 1: but violent crime certainly was not unheard of. Something like this, however,
1:47
Speaker 1: something so unimaginable in reality that only a horror film
1:51
Speaker 1: from the mind of the most unrestrained creator compared, did
1:55
Speaker 1: not happen there. Located in just northwest of Dallas, Lewisville
2:03
Speaker 1: largely serves the big city as a suburban outlier, although
2:07
Speaker 1: its routes were those of a small farming community. The
2:11
Speaker 1: area's first big boom came when in eighteen sixty seven,
2:15
Speaker 1: Lewisville became home to Denton County's first cotton gin. The
2:20
Speaker 1: small town grew significantly with the addition of Dallas Wichital
2:24
Speaker 1: railroads and a depot, which led to another inevitable first
2:29
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh nine, the county's very first bank robbery
2:33
Speaker 1: at First National Bank of Lewisville. Irony of that set aside,
2:38
Speaker 1: Lewisville's recorded history from there on out isn't much different
2:42
Speaker 1: than most Texas towns, the small city mostly thrived and
2:48
Speaker 1: being nestled just under a picturesque body of water absolete
2:52
Speaker 1: named Lewisville Lake, many folks were attracted to the area.
2:57
Speaker 1: As Dallas grew, Lewisville began growing faster and faster as
3:02
Speaker 1: big city workers sought respite from the hustle and bustle.
3:07
Speaker 1: Lewisville became largely populated by residents who commuted to Dallas
3:11
Speaker 1: every day for work, and suburban neighborhoods were built to
3:15
Speaker 1: suit those needs. In twenty ten, with a population of
3:19
Speaker 1: around ninety five thousand, Louisville was a place where parents
3:24
Speaker 1: could safely raise their children in an environment much smaller
3:28
Speaker 1: and a little slower than Dallas. The pocket of the city,
3:33
Speaker 1: located just southwest of Interstate thirty five, about two miles
3:37
Speaker 1: from downtown, was an area that expected just that. It
3:42
Speaker 1: was not a place where anyone dreamed someone could meet
3:46
Speaker 1: a fate such as the one Maria Corona endured. Forty
4:15
Speaker 1: four year old Maria Santos Corona and her husband, forty
4:19
Speaker 1: nine year old Jose Fernando Corona, lived on the one
4:23
Speaker 1: thousand block of shadow Wood Lane in Louisville with their
4:26
Speaker 1: daughter Bibiana, their daughter Carla, her husband Freddie, their little girl,
4:32
Speaker 1: and Jose and Maria's other children. The neighborhood of single
4:36
Speaker 1: story brick houses, most built in the nineteen sixties, is
4:41
Speaker 1: shaded by large established live oaks and other tall trees,
4:45
Speaker 1: a typical North Texas working class suburb where many of
4:49
Speaker 1: the homes are multi generational. On April twenty sixth, twenty ten,
4:55
Speaker 1: Carla and Freddy left the house to pick up their
4:58
Speaker 1: daughter from school as Marie. Marie was speaking with a
5:01
Speaker 1: friend of hers over the phone. While specifics of this
5:05
Speaker 1: call are unknown to us, as a proud mother of six,
5:08
Speaker 1: it's likely at least one of her kids came up
5:11
Speaker 1: in the conversation. Also no secret among Maria's group of
5:16
Speaker 1: friends was the fact that she and Jose were having
5:19
Speaker 1: problems with their marriage, something that also very likely came up.
5:25
Speaker 1: Maria Jose believed was cheating on him. During their call,
5:30
Speaker 1: her friend heard loud noises in the background on Maria's
5:33
Speaker 1: end at around eleven am and asked what all the
5:36
Speaker 1: commotion was about. Maria remembered the night before, at around midnight,
5:42
Speaker 1: when the couple's son heard Jose starting chainsaws outside their home.
5:47
Speaker 1: Groggy from waking, he wondered why the hell his father
5:50
Speaker 1: was firing up chainsaws so late at night, but rolled
5:54
Speaker 1: over and went back to sleep without thinking much more
5:57
Speaker 1: of it. It must be her husband out in the
6:00
Speaker 1: front yard using some sort of lawn equipment, Maria told
6:03
Speaker 1: her friend. In response, can I call you back? She asked,
6:08
Speaker 1: after which she made her way to the home's oval
6:10
Speaker 1: windowed white metal front door to go outside and see
6:14
Speaker 1: what Jose was up to. For years, Jose had been
6:19
Speaker 1: sober at the kinsignia of he and Maria's daughter, Bibiana.
6:24
Speaker 1: His alcohol abuse came to a culmination when he accused
6:27
Speaker 1: his wife and a family friend of having an affair.
6:31
Speaker 1: Jose was wasted and made a huge scene before shoving Maria.
6:37
Speaker 1: His jealousy knew no bounds, but following a grand apology
6:41
Speaker 1: to Bibiana, he agreed to stop drinking for good. If
6:46
Speaker 1: he ever even had a sip of beer, his daughter
6:49
Speaker 1: told him she'd never speak with him again. For the
6:53
Speaker 1: next four years, Jose seemed to have at least a
6:56
Speaker 1: loose grip on his jealous suspicions, but sometime in two
7:01
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, the demons came back full force. He
7:05
Speaker 1: began having mental breakdowns. It's unclear if Jose rehashed his
7:11
Speaker 1: accusations that Maria was having an affair before he started
7:15
Speaker 1: seeing Akurandera, because it's unclear exactly when he began seeing her.
7:21
Speaker 1: The Curandera translates from Spanish to English as the healer.
7:26
Speaker 1: The folk healers are Hispanic women with healing abilities derived
7:31
Speaker 1: from a keen knowledge of herbs, remedies, faith, and, according
7:36
Speaker 1: to some, her spiritual powers. The roots of the practice
7:40
Speaker 1: trace back to the Aztec people, though modern Curandurismo is
7:45
Speaker 1: steeped in Roman Catholic sacred prayer and spirituality, and is
7:50
Speaker 1: as strongly polarizing within that faith as nearly anything ever
7:54
Speaker 1: has been. Jose's son in law, Freddie Anyway, later told
8:00
Speaker 1: Lewisville police detectives that La Courandera told Jose that Maria
8:04
Speaker 1: was unfaithful. Once more, Jose would not relent on accusing
8:09
Speaker 1: Maria of screwing around. It is important to note that
8:14
Speaker 1: there is absolutely no evidence that suggests Maria was indeed
8:18
Speaker 1: seeing someone else. Even arrest and search warrant Affidaephts offered
8:23
Speaker 1: none and at least one report confidently states that law
8:27
Speaker 1: enforcement never found any Perhaps it didn't matter. Jose Fernando
8:33
Speaker 1: Corona had already made up his mind that she had.
8:37
Speaker 1: He had tried herbs he'd learned about from both the
8:40
Speaker 1: Kurandera and a book he owned on the subject. As
8:44
Speaker 1: a devout Catholic, he almost certainly prayed no matter what
8:50
Speaker 1: Jose did. Apparently he couldn't shake the feeling Maria Santos Corona,
8:55
Speaker 1: his wife was being unfaithful and in his eyes, wasn't
9:00
Speaker 1: getting solved. His ultimate solution was unjustifiable, unforgivable, and simply monstrous.
9:20
Speaker 1: As mail carrier Jerome Gonzales made his way onto the
9:23
Speaker 1: one thousand block of Shadowood Lane just after eleven am
9:28
Speaker 1: on Monday, April twenty sixth, twenty ten. The day was
9:32
Speaker 1: just like any other. The sky was mostly clear and
9:36
Speaker 1: brilliantly blue, the temperature and ideal seventy degrees. When he
9:42
Speaker 1: reached several houses down Shadowood Lane, the postal worker couldn't
9:46
Speaker 1: believe what he was seeing, but somehow remained calm when
9:50
Speaker 1: he called nine to one one trigger warning for the
9:55
Speaker 1: next few minutes, that emergency call will play mister Gonzales
9:59
Speaker 1: Is dis description of the scene are accurate but explicit,
10:03
Speaker 1: so if you're sensitive to that, please skip ahead four
10:07
Speaker 1: minutes and twenty three seconds from this point.
10:10
Speaker 2: Monday, four twenty six, two thousand and ten, at eleven
10:17
Speaker 2: twelve am.
10:21
Speaker 3: It's on our one undersurergency.
10:23
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm in front of ten twenty fourth shadow Wood.
10:25
Speaker 4: I'm a US Postal Service city carrier. And it seems
10:28
Speaker 4: to be a body in the street cut up. It
10:31
Speaker 4: looks like a body that had coming off. It is
10:34
Speaker 4: a body, okay, it's a ten twenty fourth shadow Wood,
10:38
Speaker 4: ten twenty fourth shadow Wood blade.
10:40
Speaker 3: Okay, leuis Ville, and it's in the street.
10:43
Speaker 4: The bodies in the street is bleeding, is decapitated. They're
10:49
Speaker 4: just laying right in the street.
10:52
Speaker 3: This is a person on an animal right, No, this
10:54
Speaker 3: is a person. Okay. It looks like it's been like somebody.
11:04
Speaker 3: It's stabbed.
11:06
Speaker 4: His body is mutilated. It has a blue sheet wrapped
11:10
Speaker 4: around the bottom. It looks like it's a female because
11:13
Speaker 4: it still has a braw on it. Their heads to
11:15
Speaker 4: the side. The head's completely off the body.
11:18
Speaker 3: So it's coverted by it.
11:20
Speaker 4: The bottom, the bottom part of the body is covered
11:23
Speaker 4: with a blue sheet. You can see the feet, you
11:25
Speaker 4: can see the body, and you can see the head.
11:27
Speaker 4: The head is to the side. There's blood splatted in
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Speaker 4: the street.
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Speaker 3: Okay, and essentially for a shadow wed Lane, Cruck.
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Speaker 4: Ten twenty four, shadow Wood Lane. Yes, ma'am, okay, and
11:38
Speaker 4: your n answer. My name is Jeremia Gonzales. I work
11:41
Speaker 4: for the USPS in Louisville. I'll stay here until the
11:44
Speaker 4: until the police get here. If they're gonna get here soon.
11:46
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they're on their way. And you don't You
11:48
Speaker 3: didn't see anybody leave in the area.
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Speaker 4: Oh, right right and right now right in front of it.
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Speaker 4: I'm actually I didn't see the body myself. When I
11:54
Speaker 4: hit ten twenty four. I walked through the lawn and
11:57
Speaker 4: I hit ten twenty and in front of the building
12:00
Speaker 4: right here in ten twenty there's there's actually the doors
12:03
Speaker 4: open to the address. There's blood in front with hair
12:06
Speaker 4: and there's uh the uh there's a vacuum. There's a
12:12
Speaker 4: like a person cutting that was gonna cut the tree down.
12:15
Speaker 3: Okay, so the four shut with that. The front door
12:19
Speaker 3: is open.
12:20
Speaker 4: No twenty okay, twenty at the front door is wide open.
12:25
Speaker 4: There's blood in the front lawn, his hair in the
12:27
Speaker 4: front lawn and in front of this address. There's also
12:30
Speaker 4: a company from Flower Mound that he's the one that
12:33
Speaker 4: when I passed it, he he actually pointed out, what's
12:35
Speaker 4: that over there? And then I walked over and I
12:37
Speaker 4: realized that it was a body.
12:45
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm trying to get him over there, okay, kind of,
12:54
Speaker 3: he said, the guy there's a neighbor that kind of
12:57
Speaker 3: shut it to you.
12:58
Speaker 4: He's the company. It's a yeah, oh, a company, Marinet
13:02
Speaker 4: Excavation from Texas. He's still he's still here.
13:07
Speaker 3: He's still there.
13:07
Speaker 4: Next. Yeah, he was still here, but he didn't he
13:10
Speaker 4: has his he has his chainsaw a run and he
13:12
Speaker 4: just walked to the side. I don't see if I
13:15
Speaker 4: see him. He was here, coach still here. I don't
13:20
Speaker 4: see him now.
13:21
Speaker 3: And he's a wet address. Again.
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Speaker 4: We're in fire ten twenty. He was in front of
13:25
Speaker 4: the building.
13:25
Speaker 3: I don't see him now, okay, but his car he was.
13:32
Speaker 4: He was next to the car. He was next to that.
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Speaker 4: The this vehicle over here has a chainsaw running. The
13:36
Speaker 4: chain saw is still run in the back of the vehicle.
13:38
Speaker 4: But I don't see him.
13:40
Speaker 2: Hm hmm.
13:42
Speaker 4: The chainsaw Actually, the chainsaw has blood on it.
13:49
Speaker 3: The chainshaw has blood on it.
13:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, the chain saw has blood on it. I don't
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Speaker 4: see him now, Okay, And so give me the company
13:57
Speaker 4: name again. It's it's uh baronets B A r N
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Speaker 4: ECC Excavation, Flower Mount, Texas.
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Speaker 3: Okay, and he was working.
14:12
Speaker 4: There's a wom I think the people who look here
14:17
Speaker 4: just got here.
14:18
Speaker 3: They just got there. Yeah, okay, Top and his ten twenty.
14:23
Speaker 4: Shadow rare core the officer, Yeah, okay, all right, okay.
14:32
Speaker 1: The deceased dismembered woman was forty four year old Maria
14:36
Speaker 1: Santos Corona. Responding to Lewisville police officers couldn't believe their eyes.
14:44
Speaker 1: Not a one had ever seen anything like it. Sitting
14:48
Speaker 1: on the open tailgate of a white Barnet excavating truck
14:52
Speaker 1: parked in the Corona driveway, Jose's work vehicle sat two chainsaws,
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Speaker 1: both covered in blood and t duct tape was wrapped
15:02
Speaker 1: around the throttle trigger of both, one still idled. The
15:07
Speaker 1: droning of the engine and the vibrations against the truck
15:10
Speaker 1: only exacerbated the terrifying surreality. So did the broad daylight.
15:17
Speaker 1: Maria's daughter Carla and her husband Freddy were in shock, disoriented,
15:22
Speaker 1: and grieving. The entire morning played out like several individual nightmares,
15:28
Speaker 1: but none compared to what Maria had suffered, nor to
15:31
Speaker 1: what her daughter Carla was forced to witness. Nearly every
15:36
Speaker 1: detail police learned added to the horror of the day.
15:40
Speaker 1: Carla and Freddy left the house not long before the
15:43
Speaker 1: murder to pick up their daughter at school. As they
15:47
Speaker 1: were leaving, Jose slipped Carla some cash and asked that
15:51
Speaker 1: they go get lunch after so he could have some
15:54
Speaker 1: privacy with Maria. The abhorrent act was undoubtedly premeditated. Freddie
16:01
Speaker 1: and Carla picked up their daughter, and as they were
16:03
Speaker 1: driving afterward, Freddie's cell phone rang. He told a police
16:07
Speaker 1: officer it was his father in law. Freddie answered, he'd
16:12
Speaker 1: done it. Jose told him he'd killed her. He was
16:16
Speaker 1: going to drag her body next door, indicating perhaps that
16:20
Speaker 1: Jose believed Maria was sleeping with their next door neighbor.
16:25
Speaker 1: Freddie quickly hung up and phoned Maria, but there was
16:28
Speaker 1: no answer. Crime scene investigators and detectives arrived at the
16:33
Speaker 1: scene shortly thereafter. It was a difficult crime scene to see,
16:39
Speaker 1: especially knowing three of the murdered women's family members had
16:42
Speaker 1: pulled up before they could cordon off the area. However,
16:47
Speaker 1: it was not difficult to surmise what had happened, and
16:50
Speaker 1: within days a theory proven by various witness accounts and
16:54
Speaker 1: the scene itself, was developed. After hanging up with their friend,
17:00
Speaker 1: Maria Santos Corona made her way to the front door
17:03
Speaker 1: of her home to check on her husband, Jose Fernando Corona.
17:07
Speaker 1: In the front yard, she could hear the humming of
17:10
Speaker 1: idling lawn equipment occasionally reved full throttle. Maria reached out
17:16
Speaker 1: and began twisting the doorknob, but turned around when she
17:20
Speaker 1: heard the noise behind her. Inside the house, there stood Jose.
17:26
Speaker 1: He held a chainsaw and charged Maria. She quickly flung
17:31
Speaker 1: open the door and ran from the house, but as
17:34
Speaker 1: she did, the chainsaw's blade made contact, leaving blood in
17:37
Speaker 1: the doorway. Injured in some way, Investigators couldn't say exactly
17:43
Speaker 1: how at that point with any certainty. Jose continued to
17:46
Speaker 1: attack through the yard and into the street, leaving an
17:50
Speaker 1: easily followable trail in the wake of his madness. On
17:54
Speaker 1: the street pavement of shadow Wood Lane, Jose Fernando Corona
17:59
Speaker 1: decapit his wife. Neighbors had heard the commotion of the
18:04
Speaker 1: two chainsaws echoing off the street and their houses, but
18:08
Speaker 1: none saw what happened. They simply thought someone was trimming
18:13
Speaker 1: dead tree limbs or cutting up a fallen branch. They'd
18:16
Speaker 1: all seen it a million times, and taking a peek
18:19
Speaker 1: was of little interest. One neighbor arrived home from a
18:24
Speaker 1: doctor's appointment to hear the anguished screams of Carla Corona
18:28
Speaker 1: as police officers held her back and tried to get
18:31
Speaker 1: her away from the sight of her mother's dismembered body.
18:35
Speaker 1: Other than that heartbreaking site, neighbors had seen nothing. When
18:41
Speaker 1: police spotted a camera outside the Corona home that should
18:45
Speaker 1: have captured much of the crime, they quickly attempted to
18:49
Speaker 1: gain access to the video, but it turned out the
18:52
Speaker 1: camera wasn't working at the time. Not much evidence was
18:56
Speaker 1: found inside the house either. Maria's day and son in
19:00
Speaker 1: law told Lewisville Police detective Robert Figans at the crime
19:05
Speaker 1: scene that Joe had been seeing a witch and that
19:08
Speaker 1: witchcraft paraphernalia was all over the house, including a folded
19:12
Speaker 1: piece of paper inside a red vial which was hidden
19:16
Speaker 1: under Jose's bathroom sink. The articles and news reports detailing
19:21
Speaker 1: this horrific crime are sensational, and the words black magic
19:25
Speaker 1: and witchcraft appear often. In fact, WFAA recently reported that
19:31
Speaker 1: police found black magic books and potions inside the Corona home,
19:36
Speaker 1: but according to the same police documents from which they
19:39
Speaker 1: got their information, that is patently untrue. The only books
19:45
Speaker 1: taken from the Corona home upon the execution of a
19:48
Speaker 1: search warrant were Libro Cadlico de Osiones, a Catholic prayer book,
19:55
Speaker 1: and Poto Rosas Recite's de Alta Maggia or Powerful High
20:00
Speaker 1: Magic Recipes for Health, Money, and Love. Neither of these
20:05
Speaker 1: books have anything at all to do with black magic
20:08
Speaker 1: or witchcraft. One herb compound police confiscated from the Corona
20:14
Speaker 1: home was used to treat diabetes, and other herbs found
20:18
Speaker 1: tejocote or Mexican hawthorn, Eucalypto or eucalyptus, and marubio or whorehound,
20:26
Speaker 1: are used to heal, remove curses, bring fresh energy, and
20:31
Speaker 1: protect from evil spirits. Police also found two sets of
20:36
Speaker 1: tarot cards and vials with a red substance inside. One
20:41
Speaker 1: expert told WFAATV the red symbolized blood. One of the
20:46
Speaker 1: vials was hidden in a kitchen cabinet and the other
20:50
Speaker 1: in Jose and Maria's boy's room. No matter one's opinion
20:55
Speaker 1: about such beliefs, misrepresenting evidence for headlines is either or unethical,
21:02
Speaker 1: perhaps both. Even without embellishments or misinterpretations, media could have
21:07
Speaker 1: easily gotten their clicks. Authorities eventually spoke with this Kurandera anyway,
21:14
Speaker 1: and apparently gleaned no new information. Just because physical evidence
21:20
Speaker 1: collected at the scene did little to help police understand
21:23
Speaker 1: Jose Fernando Corona, however, did not mean there was a
21:27
Speaker 1: possibility he was innocent. He certainly killed Maria, his wife.
21:33
Speaker 1: Having fled in the way he did, also provided further
21:37
Speaker 1: evidence of premeditation. After brutally killing and dismembering Maria Santos Corona,
21:56
Speaker 1: Jose Fernando Corona left the scene driving a brown two
22:00
Speaker 1: thousand and five Toyota Sequoia, having left within minutes, perhaps
22:05
Speaker 1: seconds of the arrival of Louisville police. Getting an all
22:09
Speaker 1: points bulletin out on the vehicle was an urgent priority,
22:14
Speaker 1: but no law enforcement agency in Texas or around the
22:17
Speaker 1: state could find it. Two days later, the Toyota was
22:21
Speaker 1: discovered abandoned in the parking lot of a wal Mart
22:24
Speaker 1: superstore off Highway one twenty one in Bedford, a suburb
22:28
Speaker 1: city in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. The vehicle was
22:32
Speaker 1: impounded and after a search warrant was obtained. Combed over
22:37
Speaker 1: inch by inch documents, things like insurance and registration, a
22:42
Speaker 1: cell phone battery, and the contents of a white trash bag,
22:46
Speaker 1: along with the bag itself were seized for evidence. Inside
22:50
Speaker 1: the bag was a green long sleeved shirt and blue jeans,
22:54
Speaker 1: both with blood stains. Swabs of blood stains were taken
22:59
Speaker 1: from the driver's seat and driver door armrest. When detectives
23:04
Speaker 1: secured the Walmart's surveillance footage, they saw Jose buying clothes
23:09
Speaker 1: and other items. He then got cash from an ATM,
23:13
Speaker 1: left the store, and was picked up by someone driving
23:16
Speaker 1: a Toyota pickup truck. This person, who has still not
23:20
Speaker 1: been identified, took Jose to a nearby auto dealership, where
23:25
Speaker 1: he handed over his license to test drive a truck,
23:28
Speaker 1: a gold nineteen ninety one two door Ford Ranger. Jose
23:33
Speaker 1: was last seen going through a checkpoint at the Texas
23:36
Speaker 1: Mexico border in Laredo via surveillance driving the Ford Ranger
23:42
Speaker 1: the day of the murder. Besides family members all across
23:46
Speaker 1: Texas and into Oklahoma, Jose had relatives in Mexico and
23:51
Speaker 1: spoke fluent English and Spanish. When offering an explanation as
23:56
Speaker 1: to why they would hide this murderer, Bibliana told in
24:00
Speaker 1: America's Most Wanted that her father's family never liked her mother.
24:06
Speaker 1: Detectives quickly learned that the state held no identification on
24:10
Speaker 1: their suspect, such as fingerprints or a DNA profile. Since
24:16
Speaker 1: he'd left his license as collateral to test drive the
24:19
Speaker 1: vehicle in which he fled, it seems likely he disposed
24:23
Speaker 1: of anything that might identify him as Jose Fernando Corona.
24:28
Speaker 1: At first, anyway, he'd only been identified by his children
24:32
Speaker 1: and by photograph, though the Lewisville Police obtained several of
24:36
Speaker 1: the man's personal items during the execution of the search
24:39
Speaker 1: warrant at the Corona home in order to lift a
24:42
Speaker 1: DNA profile they could later use for positive identification should
24:47
Speaker 1: they find him. Until an autopsy was performed at the
24:52
Speaker 1: Arrant County Medical Examiner's office. The police believed another weapon
24:57
Speaker 1: something like a knife was used to kill Maria before
25:00
Speaker 1: the mutilation. However, pathologists determined it was the decapitation that
25:06
Speaker 1: killed her. Though it hasn't been adjudicated, authorities who have
25:11
Speaker 1: worked the case, Louisville Police, Denton County Sheriff's Office, and
25:16
Speaker 1: Texas Rangers, to name a few, believe the case is solved,
25:21
Speaker 1: and rightfully so. A warrant was issued for Jose's arrest
25:25
Speaker 1: immediately following the murder. The man has no prior criminal record,
25:31
Speaker 1: and the Lewisville Police had never been to the Corona
25:33
Speaker 1: home to answer domestic abuse calls of any kind. Josea
25:38
Speaker 1: had made arrangements in preparation for the crime, suggesting it
25:43
Speaker 1: had been well planned for some time. In fact, he
25:47
Speaker 1: and Maria's daughter, Bibiana later said that in the year
25:50
Speaker 1: preceding her mother's slang, Josea had uttered subtle remarks about
25:55
Speaker 1: how he was going to take care of his little
25:57
Speaker 1: problem and it was only a matter of time. He'd
26:01
Speaker 1: never elaborate for Bibiana. Later, when he was assistant police
26:07
Speaker 1: chief at Louisville, Pde Bob Wauro told Rebecca Lopez of
26:12
Speaker 1: WFAATV in North Texas the truth is stranger than fiction.
26:17
Speaker 1: It's harder to believe. You wouldn't think someone would do
26:20
Speaker 1: something like this. In the fall of twenty ten, America's
26:25
Speaker 1: Most Wanted came to Lewisville to film an episode about Jose.
26:30
Speaker 1: The national coverage, which aired in both October and December
26:34
Speaker 1: of twenty ten, apparently led to no clues as to
26:38
Speaker 1: this man's whereabouts. Jose Fernando Corona remains a fugitive to
26:44
Speaker 1: this day. More than fourteen years later, law enforcement and
26:48
Speaker 1: particularly Maria's children and family, long for justice. Jose stands
26:54
Speaker 1: five feet five inches tall and when he was last
26:57
Speaker 1: seen waighed approximately one h hundred and seventy pounds. He
27:02
Speaker 1: is a Hispanic mail with gray hair and might have
27:05
Speaker 1: a mustache. At the time of this recording in August
27:09
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, Jose is sixty four years old.
27:14
Speaker 1: If you have any information about the brutal murder of
27:17
Speaker 1: Maria Santos Corona, or information pertaining to the possible whereabouts
27:22
Speaker 1: of Jose Fernando Corona, please contact the Lewisville Police Department
27:28
Speaker 1: tip line at nine seven two two one nine eight
27:32
Speaker 1: four seven seven, or Denton County Crime Stoppers at eight
27:36
Speaker 1: hundred three eight eight eight four seven seven. You can
27:40
Speaker 1: remain anonymous in this episode's show notes will also provide
27:45
Speaker 1: an email you can send tips to, as well as
27:48
Speaker 1: a number you can text your information to anonymously. We'd
27:53
Speaker 1: like to extend a sincere and warm thanks to all
27:56
Speaker 1: the folks who support us over at patreon dot com.
28:01
Speaker 1: Thanking y'all on the podcast itself is long overdue, and
28:04
Speaker 1: I apologize for that, but I also intend to make
28:07
Speaker 1: up for it. So for your support at the Clutch
28:11
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28:15
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Speaker 1: Pamela F, Renny M, Ruth Bubbles three like that one,
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Speaker 1: to those of you at the Bomb City Tier. Some
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Speaker 1: so stay tuned for those, and I beg your patience
28:55
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29:03
Speaker 1: perplexing mysteries. You can support the show and listen ad
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Speaker 1: you listen is much appreciated. Thanks for listening, y'all.