Readers Digest - Readers Digest Tales of Murder & Mayhem

A READERS DIGEST BOOK

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ISBN 978-1-62145-495-3 (eBook)

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E vil fascinates us. Criminal masterminds intrigue us. Crime fighters amaze us with their expertise, intelligence, and determination to figure out whodunit and why.

For these reasons, riveting true-crime stories have long been a staple in Readers Digest. Well before true-crime podcasts became the craze, we curated the best tales and exposed America to its darker side. Weve covered stalkers and scammers, burglars and kidnappers. Weve written about spouses who murder their partners and brilliant con men who are as charming as they are devious. And, of course, weve shared spellbinding stories about the most terrifying criminals of allserial killers.

To create this second volume of Readers Digest True Crime, we mined our vault for seventeen of the very best crime reads ever published, the ones that even todayin some cases decades after the case was resolvedbrilliantly entertain, shock, and even frighten us. For example, how did a terrorist cell start in a quiet North Carolina town, and what did illegal cigarette trafficking have to do with it? Then theres the alarming case of a sniper on the loose in a suburban town who is shooting people at random from his car. Could the mysterious killer be your regular-guy friend? Or consider the group of senior citizen ex-burglars who decide to have one last go at a London bank, despite arthritis, achy joints, diabetes, and other health problems. Even though theyre the bad guys, you might just find yourself rooting for their age-defying pluck. And finally, get ready for the roller-coaster ride of tracking down infamous serial killers, such as Ted Bundy.

Whatever the crime, whoever the criminal or victim, this carefully selected collection of the best crime stories makes for gripping reading, each story another strand of evidence uncovering our fascination with eviland its opposite.

by Ann Rule

from the book Too Late to Say Goodbye

J ennifer Corbin was one of those people almost everybody liked, probably because she liked everybody. Tall, blond and pretty, the 33-year-old mom thought of others before herself. She did everything she could to keep her small sons happy.

Married for nearly nine years, Jenn and Bart Corbin appeared to have everything: two healthy children, a lovely home in Buford, Georgia, a good marriage, admired professions (Bart was a dentist, while Jenn taught preschool part-time at a Methodist church). But tiny threadlike fissures had been creeping through the foundation of their marriage. By the fall of 2004, a divorce was in the works, and Bart was sleeping in a separate bedroom.

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 4, 2004, Steve and Kelly Comeau, who lived across the street, were startled to hear someone knocking at their front door. They were still in bed. When Steve answered, he looked down to see Dalton Corbin, age seven. His face was red, his cheeks streaked with tears.

My mom isnt breathing, Dalton said, standing there in his pajamas. My daddy shot my mommy. I need you to call 911.

Skeptical, Steve Comeau nevertheless called 911, while Kelly followed Dalton to check on her friend and neighbor. She doubted that Dalton had actually seen what he described.

The Corbins overhead garage door was open, so Kelly hurried inside. She found the door to the kitchen unlocked, and headed down the hall toward the master bedroom, with the two boys trailing her.

In the bedroom, she could see Jenn lying diagonally across the bed. It was an odd position. Feeling a shiver of alarm, Kelly reached out to touch Jenns right shoulder. Could she be sleeping? Kelly pressed harder. There was no reassuring thrum of blood coursing there. The flesh was cold.

Jenn wasnt breathing. Kelly saw a trickle of blood coming from her nose and a few bright red stains on the bedclothes. She glimpsed what looked like a pistol butt poking out from a coverlet. Feeling as if she were in the midst of a nightmare, Kelly backed away, careful not to touch anything.

She was way gone, Kelly later recalled to an investigator.

Jenn had been healthy and vibrant. There was no reason at all for her to have a handgun in her bed. As shocked as Kelly was by what she saw, her thoughts turned quickly to the two little boys. They were Jenns biggest concern, always. Now Dalton and Dillon had no mother. Kellys heart constricted.

She ran back to her house, taking the two boys with her, and soon heard the shriek of sirens. Only then did Kelly realize, as she tried to comfort the children, that she might have been in danger herself when she entered the Corbins house. She realized something else. There had been no sign of Bart.

One day well into her marriage, Jennifer Corbin had asked her sister and close confidante, Heather, Do you ever wonder what your husband did or who he knew before you met him?

Heather answered, No. I know what Dougs life was like.

I dont, said Jenn about her own husbands life.

She had met Bart in 1995, when he was 31 and she 24, but she knew virtually nothing about his personal or romantic life before then. Whenever she asked him about his past, he wouldnt meet her gaze.

It didnt seem to matter at first. Handsome and dark-haired, Bart was tallsix foot three to her six-foot framewhich she liked. He was a practicing dentist and seemed a most eligible bachelor. Theyd met at Barnacles oyster bar in Duluth, where she was working temporarily as a waitress and bartender while figuring out what to do with her college degree.

Like almost everyone else, Jenn was drawn to Barts wittiness. He could offer a quick and hilarious comment on almost anything. They began dating, and Jenn was in high spirits. When she introduced him to her parents, Max and Narda Barber, they were pleased, observing that he seemed to care a great deal for their daughter. Max found one thing off-putting: Barts conversation was full of profanity.

A few weeks after Jenn and Bart traveled to Italy for a romantic getaway, Jenn called her mother and asked if she was sitting down. As Narda remembered it, Jenn told her, Bart and I have made a decisionand Im pregnant. She added, Were going to get married and have the baby.

Narda expressed delight. Jenn said she wanted a big wedding. And somehow we did it in six weeksan outdoor wedding. Violins and all of that. The couple were married on September 1, 1996.