333. The Desert Trap: The Murder of Erin Corwin

Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, abc7.com, abc30.com, newyorkpost.com, bakersfieldnow.com, cnn.com, desertsun.com, alaskasource.com, marinecorpstimes.com, allthatsinteresting.com, CBS News, New York Post, fox13seattle.com, and ktla.com. Usually, a solid friendship makes the perfect foundation for a beautiful romance.

We've heard this time and time again, like, friends first, lovers second.

Falling in love with your best friend makes things easy.

You get to skip the awkward first date, the getting to know you phase, the uncomfortable small talk.

You already feel safe with that person, so dating just kinda feels like this organic transition.

But there are cases where dating your close friend is not the best idea.

Like maybe when you're already in a committed relationship.

It's a risk that usually outweighs the reward, the possibility of ruining several important relationships all at once because you're dating someone but then fall in love with your best friend.

I don't know.

Some people will do it.

They'll, they'll take the chance.

They'll roll the dice, "I love who I love," and others just get themselves in too deep and then end up trying to do whatever it takes to pull themselves back out.

So we are kicking today's case off in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a young girl named Erin Heavlin is growing up.

Now, Erin was adopted when she was just 17 days old by the Heavlin family in Tennessee, and all of her other siblings were adopted as well, though Erin was easily the most quiet, shy, reserved of all of her adopted siblings.

She was cautious.

She was obsessed with animals.

She loved horses, and that was actually where Erin ended up finding a lot of her confidence growing up.

She got a lot of her experience with horses at the East Tennessee Riding Club, which her mom, Laur, that's her name, Laur, described as Erin's second home as a kid.

And as much as Laur and her husband pushed back on getting Erin a horse of her own, they couldn't deny that joy from her forever.

So they eventually gave in, and they gave her not one but two horses.

But it was there at the barn that Erin gained another love.

When she was just in fifth grade, she's a horse girl, she meets a boy named John Corwin

CorwinFifth grade

Fifth grade.

Okay

Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, abc7.com, abc30.com, newyorkpost.com, bakersfieldnow.com, cnn.com, desertsun.com, alaskasource.com, marinecorpstimes.com, allthatsinteresting.com, CBS News, New York Post, fox13seattle.com, and ktla.com. Usually, a solid friendship makes the perfect foundation for a beautiful romance.

We've heard this time and time again, like, friends first, lovers second.

Falling in love with your best friend makes things easy.

You get to skip the awkward first date, the getting to know you phase, the uncomfortable small talk.

You already feel safe with that person, so dating just kinda feels like this organic transition.

But there are cases where dating your close friend is not the best idea.

Like maybe when you're already in a committed relationship.

It's a risk that usually outweighs the reward, the possibility of ruining several important relationships all at once because you're dating someone but then fall in love with your best friend.

I don't know.

Some people will do it.

They'll, they'll take the chance.

They'll roll the dice, "I love who I love," and others just get themselves in too deep and then end up trying to do whatever it takes to pull themselves back out.

So we are kicking today's case off in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a young girl named Erin Heavlin is growing up.

Now, Erin was adopted when she was just 17 days old by the Heavlin family in Tennessee, and all of her other siblings were adopted as well, though Erin was easily the most quiet, shy, reserved of all of her adopted siblings.

She was cautious.

She was obsessed with animals.

She loved horses, and that was actually where Erin ended up finding a lot of her confidence growing up.

She got a lot of her experience with horses at the East Tennessee Riding Club, which her mom, Laur, that's her name, Laur, described as Erin's second home as a kid.

And as much as Laur and her husband pushed back on getting Erin a horse of her own, they couldn't deny that joy from her forever.

So they eventually gave in, and they gave her not one but two horses.

But it was there at the barn that Erin gained another love.

When she was just in fifth grade, she's a horse girl, she meets a boy named John Corwin

CorwinFifth grade

Fifth grade.

Okay