Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Love, Lies, and Murder A Valentine’s Day That Ended in Death
Transcript
- 0:15Speaker 1: Did you have anything to do with the death of
- 0:18Speaker 1: your wife, cort I did not.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Two minutes.
- 0:24Speaker 3: I'm with the CBS affiliate in Quincy, so we've been
- 0:26Speaker 3: covering this from day one.
- 0:29Speaker 4: I was a journalist in Quincy for twenty five years,
- 0:32Speaker 4: and I'm now writing a book on the cast. Curtis
- 0:43Speaker 4: Lovelace was a center on the Quincy High football team.
- 0:45Speaker 2: The offensive line.
- 0:46Speaker 4: Kurt Lovelace went to the University of Illinois and became
- 0:50Speaker 4: an All Big Ten center.
- 0:51Speaker 5: We were just underway. I think we all understand the
- 0:54Speaker 5: concept of the play more than the past.
- 0:58Speaker 4: He was hired in the Adams County State's Attorney's office
- 1:02Speaker 4: as an assistant State's Attorney.
- 1:04Speaker 1: She was a.
- 1:04Speaker 3: Beautiful, blonde haired, blue eyed woman, thin, perfect face. Essentially
- 1:10Speaker 3: what it was, it's you have like the star football
- 1:12Speaker 3: player dating the cheerleader.
- 1:14Speaker 1: But that's what Corey and Curtis were, and then they
- 1:17Speaker 1: get married and they have these kids.
- 1:18Speaker 5: Everybody thinking he had it all.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Do you have good memories of any of the time together.
- 1:25Speaker 5: I do. There were good times and bad I mean,
- 1:27Speaker 5: it wasn't a perfect marriage.
- 1:35Speaker 4: On Valentine's Day two thousand and six, Curtis Loveless found
- 1:40Speaker 4: his wife Corey dead in the bedroom of their home
- 1:42Speaker 4: on Kentucky Street in Quincy.
- 1:44Speaker 1: What was your reaction?
- 1:46Speaker 5: Just utter shock, just not knowing what to do.
- 1:51Speaker 1: At what point does it change from being this blissful,
- 1:54Speaker 1: you know, storybook relationship to death on Valentine's Day?
- 1:59Speaker 4: Think the latility, you know, sort of built over time.
- 2:02Speaker 4: It did escalate to a point where there was a
- 2:05Speaker 4: lot of gossip in the community about him. The case
- 2:07Speaker 4: was quickly closed, there was no determination for a cause
- 2:10Speaker 4: of death, and Curtis went on with his life.
- 2:15Speaker 3: That's when the Quincy gossip mill got started going.
- 2:18Speaker 1: People wanted to know what happened to her.
- 2:23Speaker 4: I was sitting in my newsroom and got the call
- 2:26Speaker 4: and they said, it sounds like Curtis Loves has been arrested.
- 2:31Speaker 2: Curtis Publis was erupted as after my making Loveless accused
- 2:34Speaker 2: of suffocating his formal white poor Loveless into valley.
- 2:38Speaker 1: We begin tonight with the start of the Curtis Loveless
- 2:40Speaker 1: murder trial.
- 2:42Speaker 5: To not only be called our murderer, but to say
- 2:45Speaker 5: that I murdered the mother of my children, it's horrible.
- 2:48Speaker 5: This is a prosecution that should have never been brought.
- 2:51Speaker 5: There never should have been an indictment, breaking new she.
- 3:00Speaker 3: Was to your inside the Adams County Courthouse. Judge Hardwick
- 3:03Speaker 3: did just now declare a mistrial.
- 3:05Speaker 2: Except for retrial, and we planned to retry it.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Here we are again the beginning of another loveless trial,
- 3:15Speaker 1: the retrial. We're a year after the first one, depending
- 3:21Speaker 1: this first.
- 3:21Speaker 2: Life forty loveless.
- 3:24Speaker 6: What's suthing with that w We are medical elements.
- 3:31Speaker 2: The agers supposing to faith news. This is a faith
- 3:33Speaker 2: case and there are faith witnesses, no events of any HIGs.
- 3:38Speaker 1: Jenny, what do you see is the big difference this
- 3:40Speaker 1: time around Lovelace's second wife, Eric of Gomez.
- 3:42Speaker 3: As we know, she was banned from this first trial.
- 3:45Speaker 3: She's the biggest difference in this case. A lot of
- 3:47Speaker 3: people saying that she was the missing puzzle piece to
- 3:49Speaker 3: why we're even here to begin with, Come.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Up here to be sworn.
- 3:54Speaker 7: May twenty twelve is the first time that he attacked me.
- 3:59Speaker 7: He ripped my shirt and he tried to grab me again,
- 4:02Speaker 7: and I kept on trying to fight him.
- 4:04Speaker 8: All the children were called down to stop me of
- 4:08Speaker 8: calling the police.
- 4:12Speaker 5: They were lies. I told him multiple times that I
- 4:16Speaker 5: had nothing to do with Cory's death.
- 4:19Speaker 1: So how do you find yourself in this position?
- 4:21Speaker 5: It's a good question, is a question that we've been
- 4:24Speaker 5: asking for the last two and a half years.
- 4:47Speaker 9: Forty eight hours death on Valentine's Day continues in ninety seconds.
- 5:04Speaker 6: The way I describe circumstantial evidences as.
- 5:07Speaker 2: Follows, I like to look at it as capitalism in.
- 5:11Speaker 6: Mosaic, and you're gonna step away from that mosaic, and
- 5:15Speaker 6: you know what it's.
- 5:16Speaker 2: Gonna say, murder. The open statements are allowed, what the
- 5:25Speaker 2: evidence is going to show?
- 5:27Speaker 6: The statement had an opportunity to explain to you what
- 5:31Speaker 6: evidence they have that Kurt loved. This murdered is white
- 5:34Speaker 6: court loves and they didn't present him because.
- 5:39Speaker 10: It is not.
- 5:41Speaker 1: For Curtis Lovelace and his family, February fourteenth, two thousand
- 5:45Speaker 1: and six might seem like a long time ago, but
- 5:49Speaker 1: for the second time in two years, the husband and
- 5:52Speaker 1: children of Corey Loveless are about to relive those difficult
- 5:56Speaker 1: days after she died with yet another murdered. This time
- 6:01Speaker 1: it's in a different courthouse in a different city. But
- 6:05Speaker 1: first you need to know how this all started. It's
- 6:25Speaker 1: Friday night, in Quincy, Illinois, and hundreds have come out
- 6:31Speaker 1: for the home team. Local journalist Bob Goff swamps his
- 6:38Speaker 1: keyboard for a microphone and moonlights as an announcer.
- 6:43Speaker 2: You're not nine door.
- 6:46Speaker 4: If you're a local sports star, people are always wanting
- 6:49Speaker 4: to know about you.
- 6:50Speaker 1: And at Quincy High in the eighties, there was no
- 6:53Speaker 1: bigger star than Blue Devil's Hall of Famer Curtis Lovelace.
- 6:59Speaker 1: Both in the field and in the classroom.
- 7:02Speaker 4: Curtis Lovelass was a very hard working kid, smart kid
- 7:05Speaker 4: the Fight in the Line Eye.
- 7:07Speaker 1: The University of Illinois gave Loveless number fifty four, a
- 7:11Speaker 1: scholarship to play football, But he wasn't just any player. Loveless,
- 7:16Speaker 1: a business administration major, was considered one of the top
- 7:20Speaker 1: offensive linemen in the Big Ten, a team captain who
- 7:24Speaker 1: led the Fighting a Line Eye to the conference championship
- 7:28Speaker 1: his senior year.
- 7:29Speaker 4: He even got a look in free agent camp in
- 7:31Speaker 4: the NFL with the Patriots. Had a bad knee injury,
- 7:34Speaker 4: which I'm not sure if he would have made it
- 7:36Speaker 4: or not, but that certainly didn't help the situation. But
- 7:39Speaker 4: being a smart kid, you know, Curtis Lovelass already had
- 7:42Speaker 4: other goals in mind.
- 7:44Speaker 1: While still in college, Curtis started a long distance relationship
- 7:48Speaker 1: with high school classmate Corey Didrickson, who was studying communications
- 7:53Speaker 1: at the University of Iowa. She just had a perfect smile,
- 7:57Speaker 1: Marty Didrickson. Corey's mother spoke to r CBS affiliate KHQA.
- 8:03Speaker 11: And she just smiled at everybody, and she just did stuff.
- 8:08Speaker 12: Corey was vibrant, dynamic, a little bit of stubbornness, and
- 8:13Speaker 12: she was a pistol and I loved her for that.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Steve Pelko, Beth Dobriski, and Brett Schrader grew up with
- 8:19Speaker 1: Corey and Curtis in Quincy.
- 8:22Speaker 12: Kurt was easygoing. He was a gentleman, fun loving, intelligent,
- 8:27Speaker 12: a gentleman.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Did you think they were well matched? I did?
- 8:31Speaker 7: I did they well?
- 8:32Speaker 1: They looked great together.
- 8:33Speaker 3: They had a lot of similarities and they seemed to
- 8:36Speaker 3: have fun together.
- 8:38Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, just one year after graduation, they
- 8:42Speaker 1: were married. Steve was Kurt's best man and Beth was
- 8:46Speaker 1: Corey's bridesmaid.
- 8:47Speaker 12: It was one of the best days, you know, in
- 8:50Speaker 12: our lives.
- 8:50Speaker 1: They were very happy.
- 8:52Speaker 13: The pictures that you could see on their faces, it
- 8:56Speaker 13: was a magical night.
- 9:00Speaker 1: With Corey by his side, Loveless had grand plans. He
- 9:04Speaker 1: attended law school and eventually became an assistant state's attorney
- 9:08Speaker 1: in the city. They both loved Quincy. What did Corey
- 9:12Speaker 1: want to do with her life? What were her dreams?
- 9:14Speaker 1: Corey was all about family.
- 9:17Speaker 14: She wanted the big family, the happy marriage, being involved
- 9:22Speaker 14: in Quincy.
- 9:23Speaker 1: Corey's dream came true in nineteen ninety three when their
- 9:27Speaker 1: first child, Lindsay was born. Lindy, that's an ugly dog.
- 9:31Speaker 1: You got there and continued with the addition of three sons.
- 9:36Speaker 12: Logan, Logan, say something, he claming, Lincoln Hey, Lincoln Smile,
- 9:42Speaker 12: and Larsen.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Lindsay is now in her twenties.
- 9:47Speaker 14: She was a loving person. She was involved headroom mother,
- 9:51Speaker 14: Pta always there at her games, dance recitals, everything, our
- 9:57Speaker 14: number one cheerleader.
- 9:58Speaker 1: Do you have a fondest memory of her?
- 10:01Speaker 14: I always say, dancing to Abba in the kitchen. She
- 10:05Speaker 14: always played Abba and we always sing along and trailing
- 10:08Speaker 14: around and it was just special. And I still listen
- 10:13Speaker 14: because it's everything to me.
- 10:16Speaker 1: And Curtis continued to chase his dreams as well. In
- 10:20Speaker 1: two thousand and five, while still at the State's Attorney's office.
- 10:23Speaker 1: He started his own law firm, and as if he
- 10:27Speaker 1: wasn't busy enough, Lovelace was elected president of the school board,
- 10:32Speaker 1: became a captain in the Illinois National Guard and an
- 10:35Speaker 1: adjunct professor at Quincy University.
- 10:39Speaker 4: Big Man on campus. And he always kind of had
- 10:41Speaker 4: that air about him.
- 10:42Speaker 1: Was he arrogant?
- 10:43Speaker 12: He became arrogant more and more. Yes, there was a
- 10:46Speaker 12: little bit of a holier than now. Maybe you're entitled
- 10:50Speaker 12: to this living. I think he lost friends over time
- 10:53Speaker 12: because of.
- 10:53Speaker 1: That, and the situation at home was changing as well.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Curtis is working long hours away from Corey and the
- 11:01Speaker 1: kids was taking a toll on their personal life.
- 11:06Speaker 14: They fought as at a young age, I thought it
- 11:09Speaker 14: was normal, But then growing up later on after she
- 11:12Speaker 14: was gone, I realized that it wasn't normal.
- 11:15Speaker 1: Neighbors around the Loveless house here on Kentucky Street say
- 11:19Speaker 1: that in the months leading up to her death they
- 11:22Speaker 1: had heard loud and contentious arguments between Corey and Curtis.
- 11:27Speaker 1: By many accounts, both were heavy drinkers, and in this
- 11:31Speaker 1: small community it was known that at times there was
- 11:34Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of turmoil in their home.
- 11:38Speaker 5: I knew that she wasn't taking care of herself.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Corey's family acknowledges she was suffering with an eating disorder bulimia.
- 11:47Speaker 5: I was aware of the Bolima avenging and the purging
- 11:51Speaker 5: late in the day. Corey was an alcoholic, and unfortunately,
- 11:55Speaker 5: so much of alcoholism, all of alcoholism is not it's
- 11:59Speaker 5: not it's ugly, and it brings out, oftentimes the worst
- 12:04Speaker 5: in people. And it was something that she struggled with.
- 12:09Speaker 1: You said you drink, would you describe yourself as an alcoholic?
- 12:12Speaker 5: I do describe myself as an alcoholic, and I stopped drinking.
- 12:16Speaker 1: Was Corey's death the result of her alcohol abuse? Or
- 12:20Speaker 1: was it murder? It was a question that would go
- 12:24Speaker 1: unanswered for almost eight years until a rookie detective would
- 12:29Speaker 1: take a new look at this old case.
- 12:33Speaker 13: That's when I went to the chief and asked him
- 12:35Speaker 13: if I could take a look at her A.
- 12:36Speaker 1: Given and when you saw the pictures, what was your
- 12:39Speaker 1: first reaction?
- 12:42Speaker 13: It did not appear to me that that could have
- 12:45Speaker 13: been a natural death. I was at the office just
- 13:07Speaker 13: reading old case files, and the loveless case popped into
- 13:11Speaker 13: my head.
- 13:12Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, Adam Gibson, as a newly promoted detective,
- 13:17Speaker 1: decided to take a look at a file of a
- 13:19Speaker 1: case he'd always been curious about the death of Corey
- 13:23Speaker 1: Lovelace eight years earlier, a death ruled as undetermined.
- 13:28Speaker 13: After seeing the photos, that's when I went to the
- 13:32Speaker 13: chief and asked him if I could take a look
- 13:34Speaker 13: at it again.
- 13:36Speaker 1: The photos of Corey's body show her arms slightly elevated
- 13:40Speaker 1: above her chest.
- 13:41Speaker 13: It didn't really make sense, and there was no real
- 13:44Speaker 13: explanation for him.
- 13:45Speaker 1: In reopening the case. Gibson first consulted Adams County Coroner
- 13:50Speaker 1: James Keller, who was the deputy coroner in two thousand
- 13:54Speaker 1: and six when he was called to the Loveless house
- 13:57Speaker 1: the morning of February fourteenth.
- 13:59Speaker 15: Upon entering the bedroom, I noticed the female lying on
- 14:03Speaker 15: the bed on her back, with her hands kind in
- 14:07Speaker 15: an upright position. A body always tells a story the
- 14:11Speaker 15: way you find them.
- 14:12Speaker 1: What is the story that Corey's body was telling you?
- 14:17Speaker 15: That she had passed earlier that prior evening or day.
- 14:22Speaker 1: Gibson contacted doctor Jane Turner, an assistant medical examiner in
- 14:27Speaker 1: Saint Louis, who agreed with Keller's assessment that Corey's body
- 14:32Speaker 1: had stiffened, a condition called rigor mortis, which only happens
- 14:37Speaker 1: over an extended period of time.
- 14:40Speaker 16: In my report, I stated ten to twelve hours. Rigor
- 14:43Speaker 16: mortis develops maximally at twelve hours.
- 14:46Speaker 1: And it was the position of Corey's arms that led
- 14:50Speaker 1: doctor Turner to the theory that Corey had been suffocated.
- 14:54Speaker 1: What did you determine would have caused the suffocation?
- 14:58Speaker 16: Well, with the position of the hands, it suggests that
- 15:02Speaker 16: there was an object between her hands and her body,
- 15:06Speaker 16: and it appears that there's a pillow missing, So I
- 15:10Speaker 16: suppose that a pillow was used to suffocate her.
- 15:14Speaker 1: Turner theorized that the pillow had not been removed until
- 15:17Speaker 1: much later her hands, after Corey's arms had frozen around it,
- 15:22Speaker 1: that her dead body had laid in bed all night.
- 15:27Speaker 1: Gibson and Turner's theory of murder was a very different
- 15:30Speaker 1: account than the one Curtis Lovelace gave police. Curtis says
- 15:35Speaker 1: it all started the weekend before Valentine's Day.
- 15:39Speaker 5: She had become ill. She appeared to have the flu.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Curtis insists Corey was very much alive that morning.
- 15:50Speaker 5: The vivid memory is her coming down on. One of
- 15:54Speaker 5: the kids needed a pair of pants. She wasn't feeling
- 15:59Speaker 5: any better, and we made the decision that I would
- 16:02Speaker 5: take the kids to school.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Four year old Larson stayed home while Curtis dropped off
- 16:07Speaker 1: the other kids. Larson would later tell police that on
- 16:12Speaker 1: that morning, he couldn't wake Mommy up. Frightened, he waited
- 16:16Speaker 1: at the top of the stairs for his dad. By
- 16:19Speaker 1: nine am, Curtis returned and that's when he found Corey
- 16:24Speaker 1: dead in their bed. What was your reaction?
- 16:30Speaker 5: Just utter shock. In fact, I'm not even sure how
- 16:35Speaker 5: I reacted. I know what I did.
- 16:37Speaker 1: Oddly, Curtis did not react by calling nine to one one.
- 16:42Speaker 5: What I saw was someone who didn't need help. I
- 16:47Speaker 5: just saw my wife who had passed away.
- 16:50Speaker 1: Loveless says at that moment, his main concern was to
- 16:54Speaker 1: get his youngest child, Larsen, out of the house. At trial,
- 16:59Speaker 1: Corey's their Marty testifies that Curtis brought him over to
- 17:03Speaker 1: her house, which was just around the.
- 17:05Speaker 11: Corner sometime after nine Curtis's knots on the door and
- 17:11Speaker 11: he asked if I would watch Larson. So I take
- 17:15Speaker 11: Larson and he turns and he said, oh, and by
- 17:19Speaker 11: the way, Corey's did. Then he turned to leave, and
- 17:29Speaker 11: I'm trying to think. I think, I think I remember
- 17:32Speaker 11: the fact that on the way, I said I want
- 17:34Speaker 11: to go, and he said, everything's been taking care of
- 17:36Speaker 11: and he left.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Did you stay there?
- 17:39Speaker 16: And did no?
- 17:42Speaker 10: No?
- 17:43Speaker 1: Did you have anything to do with the death of
- 17:45Speaker 1: your wife Cory? I did not, But Detective Gibson wasn't
- 17:50Speaker 1: buying it. His investigation would lead to an indictment. Curtis
- 17:54Speaker 1: love arrest and Curtis Loveless his first trial ten years
- 18:00Speaker 1: after his wife's death.
- 18:01Speaker 3: Calling breaking news outside of the Adams County Courthouse where
- 18:04Speaker 3: a mistrial has been declared.
- 18:06Speaker 1: The jury deadlocked, unable to decide if Corey was murdered.
- 18:11Speaker 10: How does it feel to be released?
- 18:13Speaker 1: Finally, Curtis Lovelass was out of jail, but for how long?
- 18:19Speaker 1: One year later, a new trial.
- 18:21Speaker 3: Very dramatic day today hear in the segment County, a.
- 18:23Speaker 1: New jury, but the same question, did Corey die from
- 18:28Speaker 1: alcohol abuse or something more sinister?
- 18:32Speaker 7: Right to see?
- 18:36Speaker 1: The second trial would be the culmination of events that
- 18:39Speaker 1: began eleven years ago. That Valentine's Day morning, she was
- 18:44Speaker 1: laying in the bed and her arms were drawn up
- 18:47Speaker 1: by her chest. The grim details of that morning would
- 18:52Speaker 1: be embedded in the minds of those who were there. EMT.
- 18:56Speaker 1: Cole Miller was among the first on the scene.
- 19:00Speaker 5: In there to check for signs of life and checked
- 19:03Speaker 5: her corrotid pulse in her neck and then checked her
- 19:06Speaker 5: wrist and saw that it was cold and stiff.
- 19:09Speaker 17: I'm Jeff Baird.
- 19:10Speaker 1: Baird was the lead detective in the case in two
- 19:13Speaker 1: thousand and six.
- 19:15Speaker 2: AM you determined that.
- 19:16Speaker 17: This investigation should be closed because there was no one
- 19:18Speaker 17: things impossible. That is what we determined.
- 19:21Speaker 1: Defense attorney John Lovey asks him to describe the scene.
- 19:26Speaker 2: Did you find anything less out on the scene consistent
- 19:28Speaker 2: with any kind of struggle?
- 19:31Speaker 18: No?
- 19:31Speaker 2: How did you find any evidence that I have that.
- 19:34Speaker 1: No, no signs of homicide because the cause of death
- 19:39Speaker 1: was ruled undetermined.
- 19:41Speaker 2: Are you surprised I should be there undetermined?
- 19:44Speaker 17: I think it was unexpected. I was expecting to see
- 19:48Speaker 17: a death from natural causes related to a health condition.
- 19:54Speaker 1: Baird also didn't expect to see on the day he
- 19:57Speaker 1: discovered Corey the condition of her hand, us and arms.
- 20:01Speaker 17: Her arms were up in an unnatural position. Her hands
- 20:05Speaker 17: and arms from the elbow to the hands were leaning
- 20:10Speaker 17: or resting against her abdomen and appear to be up.
- 20:14Speaker 1: It is this strange position of Corey's arms that would
- 20:18Speaker 1: become a critical and controversial piece of this case.
- 20:22Speaker 17: There was mild rigor in one of her arms and
- 20:26Speaker 17: moderate rigor in the other. Rigor was also forming in
- 20:31Speaker 17: her legs.
- 20:32Speaker 2: Let's see real clear. Were our arms still pliable attended?
- 20:37Speaker 17: Yes, calible, We could move them.
- 20:41Speaker 1: The defense argues. If Corey's arms were pliable, it would
- 20:46Speaker 1: indicate she could have died that morning, and that is
- 20:49Speaker 1: in direct contrast to James Keller's testimony.
- 20:53Speaker 15: The body was in a full state of rigor morris.
- 20:57Speaker 1: However long Corey Lovelace had been dead. To Keller, it
- 21:01Speaker 1: certainly appeared that medical rigor mortis had set in.
- 21:05Speaker 15: The state of rigormortis to get in that position. Generally,
- 21:09Speaker 15: the rualiss of anywhere from eight to twelve hours.
- 21:12Speaker 1: Did it make any sense to you that they were
- 21:15Speaker 1: saying it was that morning?
- 21:18Speaker 15: It did not. It just didn't seem to add up.
- 21:20Speaker 1: Two days after Corey's death, her body was cremated and
- 21:25Speaker 1: the case was closed. A thirty eight year old woman
- 21:29Speaker 1: was suddenly dead for seemingly no apparent reason.
- 21:34Speaker 5: We assumed that her eating disorder, that her alcoholism somehow
- 21:42Speaker 5: caused her death, and whether it was checked, undetermined or
- 21:47Speaker 5: natural death really wasn't something that we were concerned about.
- 21:52Speaker 1: Life went on. Six months later, Loveless started dating Erica Gomez,
- 21:58Speaker 1: who he later married. Gomez would become an explosive figure
- 22:03Speaker 1: in his second trial.
- 22:05Speaker 18: His parents knew that he was abusive, That's why they
- 22:08Speaker 18: came and got him. His parents probably knew that he
- 22:11Speaker 18: killed his first wife.
- 22:23Speaker 12: On next week's Whistleblower double feature, people will.
- 22:26Speaker 4: Getting wrong tests, wrong results, and wrong medication.
- 22:30Speaker 8: Someone is going to die.
- 22:34Speaker 9: They were going to order a scat, but nobody ever did.
- 22:36Speaker 1: Somebody screwed up Bad.
- 22:38Speaker 5: And Boulevard Vest.
- 22:39Speaker 4: Similarly, I thought this is the only company I'd ever
- 22:41Speaker 4: want to work for.
- 22:43Speaker 5: The US were degrading.
- 22:44Speaker 4: Sooner than nature of that bullet was getting through, a
- 22:47Speaker 4: police officer was killed.
- 22:48Speaker 5: It's confirmed by worst nightmares.
- 22:49Speaker 9: Would you blow the whistle? They did whistle Blower Friday.
- 23:04Speaker 1: After his wife Cory, mysteriously passed away in two thousand
- 23:08Speaker 1: and six. It took Curtis Loveless less than six months
- 23:13Speaker 1: to find love again, this time with one of his
- 23:16Speaker 1: students at Quincy University, Erica Gomez.
- 23:20Speaker 14: I remember my dad coming up to me and saying, Hey,
- 23:25Speaker 14: just so you know, I've been seeing this woman.
- 23:28Speaker 1: And what was your reaction.
- 23:30Speaker 14: I was shocked but couldn't process it at the same time,
- 23:33Speaker 14: because what twelve year old is going to process apparent dating,
- 23:38Speaker 14: especially so quickly after the loss, and looking.
- 23:40Speaker 5: Back, it was I think properly characterized as a rebound relationship.
- 23:46Speaker 5: I regret starting the relationship.
- 23:48Speaker 1: Were you lonely?
- 23:49Speaker 5: Absolutely?
- 23:50Speaker 1: Two years later, Loveless and Gomez were married. What was
- 23:54Speaker 1: your relationship like with Erica? Not good at all?
- 24:00Speaker 14: Some reason, there was some hatred towards my mom, like
- 24:02Speaker 14: she was public enemy number one. So I would tell her,
- 24:07Speaker 14: who stop, Like it's not fair, and then I would
- 24:10Speaker 14: get punished for that by whom by Erica. And what
- 24:14Speaker 14: scared me more was that my dad would sit there
- 24:17Speaker 14: and watch it.
- 24:18Speaker 1: It didn't take long for things to go from bad
- 24:22Speaker 1: to much worse.
- 24:23Speaker 14: It was Christus Eve and my mom's side of the
- 24:26Speaker 14: family invited all of us to come for family dinner.
- 24:31Speaker 14: Chriss was my mom's favorite holiday, and I was crying
- 24:37Speaker 14: because I missed her and I wanted her there, and
- 24:39Speaker 14: all of a sudden, Erica walks in and says, we're
- 24:41Speaker 14: leaving now. So I get three to five minutes to
- 24:46Speaker 14: calm down, get ready to go to walk out the door.
- 24:49Speaker 14: Find out that my dad, Erica, the boys had left.
- 24:56Speaker 14: My family was not happy with them leaving me, and
- 24:58Speaker 14: that set off a bomb.
- 25:02Speaker 1: A bomb that blew her family apart.
- 25:05Speaker 5: It blew up to the point where when I would
- 25:08Speaker 5: return home that evening, Miss Gomez was throwing Lindsay's stuff
- 25:13Speaker 5: out of the house.
- 25:14Speaker 1: I closed around the street.
- 25:16Speaker 14: My room is completely trashed. I knew my life was
- 25:19Speaker 14: never going to be normal ever again.
- 25:21Speaker 1: And that's when you moved in with your mom's mom. Yeah,
- 25:24Speaker 1: Loveless and Gomez divorced into twenty thirteen.
- 25:29Speaker 5: I decided that I'd made a poor decision and tried
- 25:34Speaker 5: to end that relationship as peacefully and as amicably as possible. Unfortunately,
- 25:40Speaker 5: it just didn't didn't end as peacefully and amicably as
- 25:46Speaker 5: it should have.
- 25:47Speaker 1: On the stand in front of the jury, Erica gave
- 25:50Speaker 1: the courtroom a sample of her explosive personality.
- 25:55Speaker 7: He's written to me, he controlled me, He's physically abusive,
- 25:59Speaker 7: to me he.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Had hurling a variety of accusations against Loveless.
- 26:04Speaker 7: I've watched him get rid of evidence and watched him
- 26:07Speaker 7: use his children to get rid of evidence. He used
- 26:10Speaker 7: myself to security number just try and steal money out
- 26:13Speaker 7: of my account.
- 26:15Speaker 2: All he said, he supted.
- 26:18Speaker 1: Did you have any concern that they would buy into
- 26:22Speaker 1: what she was saying?
- 26:24Speaker 5: I didn't have that concern because I knew when they
- 26:26Speaker 5: were alive.
- 26:27Speaker 2: He was poisoning.
- 26:29Speaker 7: There was my hair was falling out in the white
- 26:32Speaker 7: line on my fingers.
- 26:34Speaker 2: I was extremely sick. I had to you were aware
- 26:39Speaker 2: of this so many that you were not supposed to actually,
- 26:41Speaker 2: because there was no idea that.
- 26:43Speaker 1: Well Gomez was a witness for the prosecution. Ultimately her
- 26:47Speaker 1: testimony may have done more for the defense.
- 26:52Speaker 10: I had a hard time believing that the prosecution actually
- 26:55Speaker 10: wanted to put her on the stand.
- 26:56Speaker 1: Also in the courtroom, Curtis loveless is third wife, Christine, who,
- 27:02Speaker 1: like Corey, Curtis knew from Quincy High. They were married
- 27:06Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, just months after his divorce from Gomez.
- 27:12Speaker 10: The behavior was so outlandish, the accusations were so outlandish,
- 27:17Speaker 10: the fake tears.
- 27:20Speaker 1: Stop so you felt that the jury would have zero
- 27:27Speaker 1: credibility with him absolutely on the stand. For the prosecution,
- 27:31Speaker 1: Detective Adam Gibson would have to defend his credibility and
- 27:36Speaker 1: explain just how we found an expert to support his
- 27:39Speaker 1: belief that Corey was murdered.
- 27:42Speaker 17: If they implied that he did happy, yes, do you
- 27:48Speaker 17: think that's what he did?
- 27:49Speaker 1: Absolutely not remember. Doctor Jane Turner sided with Detective Gibson.
- 27:55Speaker 1: After studying the evidence, Turner believed that Corey had died
- 27:59Speaker 1: the night before police arrived.
- 28:02Speaker 16: Given the circumstances of the state in which her body
- 28:05Speaker 16: was found in the altered scene, that it appears that
- 28:08Speaker 16: she did.
- 28:09Speaker 2: Die at the home side from our suffocation.
- 28:12Speaker 1: A logical conclusion, except for the fact that, when questioned
- 28:16Speaker 1: by Quincy police, the Loveless children except Larsen, said they
- 28:21Speaker 1: saw their mother alive on the stairs before going off
- 28:24Speaker 1: to school the morning. Gibson believed Corey was already dead.
- 28:29Speaker 1: When Adam Gibson came to speak to you and he
- 28:32Speaker 1: asked you do you remember. You told him that you did.
- 28:35Speaker 1: You remembered seeing her that morning.
- 28:37Speaker 2: And you came to believe that Unjiln were wrong, right.
- 28:41Speaker 2: I didn't say they were wrong.
- 28:43Speaker 1: I don't know what they saw, and maybe neither did they.
- 28:48Speaker 14: I had had a story in my head of I
- 28:51Speaker 14: saw her sitting on the stairs waving to us goodbye,
- 28:56Speaker 14: I love you left and I always said, oh, it
- 28:58Speaker 14: was great.
- 28:58Speaker 1: I got to say I love you. Do you remember
- 29:00Speaker 1: seeing your mother that Valentine's Day morning? It's a black hole.
- 29:04Speaker 1: You don't know. How certain are you now that Curtis
- 29:09Speaker 1: Lovelace murdered his wife, Corey.
- 29:11Speaker 13: I'm one hundred percent certain.
- 29:13Speaker 1: But defense attorney John Lovey was about to challenge everything
- 29:17Speaker 1: Detective Adam Gibson believed about the death of Corey Loveless.
- 29:23Speaker 5: Adam Gibson decided to create a crime where one didn't exist.
- 29:28Speaker 2: You knew that the case had been closed because nobody
- 29:31Speaker 2: about PHYSI having in direct.
- 29:34Speaker 13: All right read it was closed.
- 29:36Speaker 9: With to hear more from Lindsey about the complicated family dynamic,
- 29:44Speaker 9: join us on Facebook at forty eight hours. Tonight's forty
- 29:54Speaker 9: eight hours will continue.
- 30:09Speaker 1: Prosecutor ed Parkinson brings in three forensic pathologists to prove
- 30:14Speaker 1: Detective Gibson's theory that Corey was murdered from world renowned
- 30:19Speaker 1: doctor Werner Spitz.
- 30:21Speaker 5: Mis Lovelace died in my view of suffocation.
- 30:25Speaker 1: To doctor Scott Denton, the pathologist first consulted when the
- 30:29Speaker 1: case was reopened.
- 30:31Speaker 5: I would determine her cause of death to be suffocation.
- 30:34Speaker 1: And finally to doctor Jane Turner, the out of state
- 30:37Speaker 1: expert who also believes Corey was suffocated. Defense attorney Loby
- 30:43Speaker 1: tries to discredit Turner, saying she never saw Corey's body
- 30:47Speaker 1: and her opinion that Corey's body was in fulbrigor mortis
- 30:51Speaker 1: conflicts with the first responders on the scene.
- 30:55Speaker 16: For you to a.
- 30:56Speaker 2: Jets you wrong, out of serect unrect. For you to
- 31:02Speaker 2: do at a paramedic battle tends to be wrong upon
- 31:04Speaker 2: his assessment that the arder are still.
- 31:05Speaker 1: Cling to correctly, Yes, if Corey Lovelace's body was pliable,
- 31:11Speaker 1: as the defense claims, full riga mortis had not set
- 31:15Speaker 1: in and she did not die the night before.
- 31:19Speaker 2: Prostitution.
- 31:20Speaker 1: When corner Keller is cross examined, Loby belittles his role
- 31:25Speaker 1: in the case.
- 31:26Speaker 2: You're at the scene accorded death for all of five minutes.
- 31:29Speaker 1: Director, Probably yes, Sir, Loby comes down hardest on Detective Gibson.
- 31:37Speaker 6: You've continued to pursue mister Lovelace, because you had already
- 31:41Speaker 6: decided that this man must be guilty.
- 31:43Speaker 1: Nope, He grills Gibson about rigor mortis.
- 31:46Speaker 2: At what point did you learn that you were wrong,
- 31:49Speaker 2: that the body is in full rider?
- 31:51Speaker 13: It's I don't know to this day that I'm wrong.
- 31:57Speaker 2: I'm gonna show you what may.
- 31:59Speaker 1: Then, on new twist, Lovie accuses Gibson withholding evidence emails
- 32:05Speaker 1: that never made it into the first trial.
- 32:08Speaker 2: You didularly all your emails in January one, fifteen.
- 32:12Speaker 1: No, yes, the defense was able to recover those emails.
- 32:16Speaker 1: Lovy reads one email from a pathologist who told Gibson
- 32:21Speaker 1: he could never make a good murder case since Corey's
- 32:24Speaker 1: death had originally been ruled undetermined. That is more than
- 32:28Speaker 1: reasonable that in these four versus mine be seen should
- 32:33Speaker 1: have been turned over like got a blue sol shit.
- 32:35Speaker 2: Yes, you didn't turn over not.
- 32:41Speaker 1: But Gibson testified that he never engaged in any intentional wrongdoing.
- 32:47Speaker 1: Have you ever.
- 32:48Speaker 2: Inventially deleted or modified emails to manimulating an investigation? No,
- 32:55Speaker 2: I have a sadly good by my mother.
- 32:57Speaker 1: Lovie calls to the stand his own noted pathologist, doctor
- 33:01Speaker 1: William Oliver, who was on the O. J. Simpson case.
- 33:05Speaker 1: Oliver had no doubt how Corey died.
- 33:08Speaker 11: It is my opinion that she died of the complication
- 33:11Speaker 11: of alcohol withdrawal known as a cute fatty.
- 33:14Speaker 1: Liver, after a battle of the experts.
- 33:20Speaker 10: Got her.
- 33:21Speaker 1: Design all the events, the defense gambles that the most
- 33:26Speaker 1: believable witness might be the accused killer himself.
- 33:32Speaker 5: As I approached the bed, I could I could see,
- 33:35Speaker 5: I could see her hands, I could see I could
- 33:39Speaker 5: see her eyes were open, and she was she was
- 33:43Speaker 5: very pale, and there was just there was nothing there.
- 33:48Speaker 5: Corey was dead. That's that's what I saw. That's what
- 33:55Speaker 5: I saw. I told him multiple times that I had
- 33:58Speaker 5: nothing to do with Cory's death. Are being accused of
- 34:02Speaker 5: a cold blood and murder of your wife that produces
- 34:05Speaker 5: your life?
- 34:05Speaker 7: Early fact?
- 34:06Speaker 5: Correct a little bit.
- 34:09Speaker 2: Do you feel like every.
- 34:10Speaker 6: Thing you said, every decision you made, is now being
- 34:14Speaker 6: picked over and twisted unfairly.
- 34:22Speaker 1: We've been doing this for two and a half years,
- 34:26Speaker 1: and it was remembering the time right after Corey died
- 34:30Speaker 1: that Curtis became most emotional.
- 34:33Speaker 5: One of our high school classmates who was a pastor.
- 34:36Speaker 5: He's the one that delivered the eulogy. I wrote it,
- 34:43Speaker 5: but I couldn't deliver it.
- 34:49Speaker 1: All three loveless boys continue to support their father. The
- 34:54Speaker 1: two oldest testified they saw their mother that Valentine's morning.
- 34:59Speaker 4: I remember you're getting ready for school, walking back and forth,
- 35:02Speaker 4: getting stuff done, sitting on the stairs with my mother
- 35:05Speaker 4: and heading out the door.
- 35:06Speaker 2: How are you, from your memory yourself that you saw her?
- 35:09Speaker 7: Line?
- 35:12Speaker 2: What was this the last time? Ear player?
- 35:13Speaker 15: Mother?
- 35:13Speaker 11: Line?
- 35:14Speaker 7: Yes.
- 35:15Speaker 1: Their sister Lindsey was not called to testify by either
- 35:19Speaker 1: side as the trial goes to final arguments.
- 35:25Speaker 6: A reasonable that, lady Johnna using the standard those words,
- 35:29Speaker 6: I'll have a dictionary definition. You're all gonna have to
- 35:31Speaker 6: apply your life experiences beyond a reasonable That I do
- 35:34Speaker 6: a mean probably.
- 35:35Speaker 2: As a being made beyond a reasonable. Now what's that meaning? Well,
- 35:42Speaker 2: because really what the case is about is that lady Cordy,
- 35:50Speaker 2: that's the case is about. She died at age thirty
- 35:53Speaker 2: eight because a six foot four inch former football player
- 35:57Speaker 2: standing over her muffled her its. Yeah, forgot to take
- 36:02Speaker 2: the pillar away.
- 36:06Speaker 1: The question is whether any jury can sort out what
- 36:10Speaker 1: exactly happened that Valentine's Day morning. Do you think we'll
- 36:14Speaker 1: ever know what happened with your mom.
- 36:18Speaker 14: No, if a verdict comes out this round, it comes out.
- 36:24Speaker 14: I don't think we'll ever fully know.
- 36:33Speaker 9: Here Curtis Lovelace testify on the shock of getting arrested
- 36:37Speaker 9: at forty eight hours dot Com.
- 36:51Speaker 1: All murder trials have their clashes between the prosecution and defense.
- 37:00Speaker 2: It acts like you're winning, to pretend like you're to
- 37:01Speaker 2: go out.
- 37:03Speaker 1: But the spats between Ed Parkinson and John Lovey RNY
- 37:08Speaker 1: were more contentious.
- 37:10Speaker 2: I have objective to his aunts. I pulled him to
- 37:14Speaker 2: shut up. I don't like him.
- 37:18Speaker 1: After seven days of testimony in Curtis Lovelace's second murder trial,
- 37:24Speaker 1: the jury continues hearing closing arguments.
- 37:29Speaker 11: So here we are, what is the.
- 37:31Speaker 2: Stake showing forty died from suffocation and he did it?
- 37:38Speaker 1: Prosecutor David Robinson, he had a motive.
- 37:42Speaker 2: She was an alcoholic. She yelled at him, she yelled
- 37:44Speaker 2: at his and that time you've had not the stake
- 37:50Speaker 2: ass in your mind. Curse Low is guilty of her pompers.
- 37:57Speaker 2: There is no evidence in this case that this long
- 38:00Speaker 2: as month, she died a natural death. They have no
- 38:03Speaker 2: murder weapon, they have no forensic defence, and then he
- 38:06Speaker 2: went out trying to prove a case where there was
- 38:09Speaker 2: no crime. This is Rebott.
- 38:14Speaker 16: I did for you.
- 38:15Speaker 2: Not going to pay long because he made it a
- 38:17Speaker 2: stupid shot.
- 38:19Speaker 1: This a smart, smart man here, and.
- 38:23Speaker 13: You can do your job now because the only thing
- 38:26Speaker 13: that makes sense here is if she was suffocated.
- 38:31Speaker 1: And with that, the jury began their deliberations.
- 38:35Speaker 2: This Jesus stated in these instructions and that you're duty
- 38:38Speaker 2: to follow over.
- 38:39Speaker 5: I believe in everything we did, every step that we took.
- 38:44Speaker 5: It was a search for the truth.
- 38:50Speaker 1: Then in little more than two hours, all parties were
- 38:54Speaker 1: called back to the courthouse. Unlike in the first trial,
- 38:59Speaker 1: this time the jury had reached a verdict.
- 39:05Speaker 5: We were prepared in our minds, in our heart for
- 39:10Speaker 5: whatever the verdict was.
- 39:12Speaker 1: So this time, at least you know there's going to
- 39:15Speaker 1: be an answer. We know there's going to be an answer.
- 39:17Speaker 10: But still knowing that twelve people have our fate and
- 39:23Speaker 10: our future and our children's future in their hands is scary.
- 39:31Speaker 16: Lead your aide, independant Curtis Tace not.
- 39:38Speaker 2: In the londer, thank you would anybody like.
- 39:49Speaker 17: Yeah.
- 39:51Speaker 1: More than ten years after Corey died and two trials
- 39:56Speaker 1: accusing him for the murder of his wife. Curtis Loveless,
- 40:00Speaker 1: surrounded by his three sons, walks out of the courtroom
- 40:04Speaker 1: a free man.
- 40:06Speaker 5: We put our trust in God, and we put our
- 40:10Speaker 5: trust in the legal system, and we weren't let down.
- 40:14Speaker 5: And so it's a great day for our family, a
- 40:19Speaker 5: great day for all of our friends, and we're just thankful.
- 40:24Speaker 6: Kurt had absolutely nothing to do with his wife's death
- 40:27Speaker 6: and the jury saw that.
- 40:29Speaker 1: Prosecutor Ed Parkinson is clearly upset by the quick decision, disappointed,
- 40:37Speaker 1: but the jury has spoken and saw that.
- 40:40Speaker 5: Stay end of it.
- 40:41Speaker 1: But just days after the verdict, Curtis Loveless told Forty
- 40:45Speaker 1: eight Hours that he and Christine still have a lot
- 40:49Speaker 1: of questions about Detective Adam Gibson's investigation.
- 40:54Speaker 5: Clearly, I don't appreciate what he's done to me and
- 40:58Speaker 5: my family, and whatever happens with Adam Gibson happens with
- 41:04Speaker 5: Adam Gibson. There's truth, and I believe the truth will
- 41:08Speaker 5: come out.
- 41:09Speaker 1: You intend to pursue how and why this all happened.
- 41:14Speaker 5: I think those are questions we want answered.
- 41:16Speaker 1: The family remains deeply divided by the legal saga now
- 41:21Speaker 1: behind them. Curtis, Christine, and the three boys have not
- 41:27Speaker 1: spoken to Lindsay since the day Curtis was arrested in
- 41:31Speaker 1: twenty fourteen.
- 41:34Speaker 10: I don't think by our choice, we were advised not
- 41:37Speaker 10: to engage in a relationship with people who were possibly
- 41:42Speaker 10: against kurt.
- 41:44Speaker 1: So do you see a day when we hope so
- 41:46Speaker 1: we talked about together. We talk about it often. Is
- 41:49Speaker 1: that on the docket of things to do?
- 41:52Speaker 15: You know?
- 41:53Speaker 5: I think we'd all like to see reconciliation. I'm just
- 41:56Speaker 5: not sure how that happens. I'm sure it's going to
- 42:01Speaker 5: be difficult.
- 42:03Speaker 7: For now.
- 42:04Speaker 1: Lindsay says she is working to move forward with her
- 42:08Speaker 1: own life, inspired by her mother's memory.
- 42:14Speaker 14: My mom was a beautiful person. She touched so many people.
- 42:20Speaker 1: She was passionate.
- 42:22Speaker 14: But that's the kind of person she was, and that's
- 42:25Speaker 14: the kind of person I try to be.
- 42:33Speaker 9: Christine Lovelace adopted Curtis's three sons. Lindsay was already eighteen
- 42:38Speaker 9: years old. Curtis Lovelace filed a federal civil rights lawsuit
- 42:44Speaker 9: against Quincy police and Adams County officials. He claims he
- 42:48Speaker 9: was denied due process and constitutional rights and was the
- 42:51Speaker 9: subject of malicious prosecution.
- 43:09Speaker 1: He calls nine one one and he's yelling into the phone,
- 43:11Speaker 1: help me, help me. He shot me. The shooter is
- 43:14Speaker 1: in the truck, shooting out at the window.
- 43:17Speaker 9: Who are these guys?
- 43:18Speaker 12: Imod's dream cross paths with Robert Dlstream is over money.
- 43:22Speaker 8: Eight hundred thousand dollars in a gym bag. This is
- 43:28Speaker 8: what eight hundred thousand dollars in cash looks like. Did
- 43:31Speaker 8: you ever imagine that this is how it was going
- 43:33Speaker 8: to end?
- 43:35Speaker 9: Forty eight hours Saturday,