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She was a Montana woman raised on the gospel and the great outdoors. She'd read her Bible, she'd help with Sunday school. He had a need for speed and a heart of gold. He was really into cars and racing and making them go fast. He knew she was the one. But the events of one summer night changed everything for the newlyweds. There was a lot of different search parties looking for him.
- People started getting suspicious. Now this is 48 hours, he's gone. - Someone is saying that they know that he's dead. Go ahead and tell the police to call off the search. - Authorities become entangled in an investigation more dangerous than they could have ever anticipated, where the vow, "Till death do us part," takes on a whole new meaning. - If you make one slight mistake, you're going down 200 feet to the bottom of that canyon.
There were so many pieces of this. Lie after lie after lie after lie. A normal person would be excited about their wedding night, and she seemed terrified. It's not the happy fairytale ending that everybody hoped for.
July 2013, Kalispell, Montana. Summertime is peak tourist season in the city known as the Western Gateway to Glacier National Park. We're a tourist community. In the summer we have a lot of tourism, a lot of traffic, a lot of outdoor activity. It's very easy going. People are nice, friendly. It's real low key. There's not a lot of rush, not a lot of bust. Somewhere you want to raise your kids.
But on Monday, July 8th, 2013,
It's not a lost hiker or a run-in with wildlife that's caught the attention of local law enforcement. It's a report from 27-year-old Cameron Fredrickson. Cameron tells police he's concerned about the whereabouts of 25-year-old Cody Johnson. Cameron Fredrickson was Cody's boss, but in addition to being his boss, he was a good friend. We learned that Cody didn't show up for work that morning.
He usually got up early and was at work by 6 o'clock. Cameron says he was so concerned, he went looking for Cody. He had gone to Cody's house, broken in, looked around to try and see if there were signs of a struggle, looked in the crawl space. Cody's phone had been left in the garage. Cameron told me that
Cody never went anywhere without his phone. So for Mr. Fredrickson, that was a huge red flag. Why would Cody go anywhere without the phone?
Cameron says when attempts to locate Cody at his residence failed, he began calling Cody's family and friends and learned that no one had seen him since the previous evening. The last time that anyone was able to say they had actually seen him was at about 8, 8:30. He was in a church group and the whole group of them had gone to Dairy Queen here in town to have dinner.
Cameron told me about the things that he's done to try and figure out where Cody went. I'm watching his emotion and his behavior was consistent with someone who was genuinely scared something had happened to his friend. Cody Lee Johnson was born on April 8th, 1988 in San Jose, California. His mom's divorced and it was just him and his mom and there was a tight bond there, a close relationship.
Sherry was a very loving mother. There were concerns about California becoming too rough, and she definitely wanted to raise Cody in a safe environment.
In 2002, Sherry and Cody moved to a quieter, more conservative town, Kalispell, Montana. Though the transition would be tough for any teen, Cody found an instant love for his surroundings. He was really into outdoor activities, shooting guns and four-wheeling and all that kind of stuff. He did that with a lot of the friends and family.
Cody also developed an interest in cars and wasn't afraid to get a little grease on his hands. He was really into racing and souping up cars and making them go fast. The first time we talked, he takes us outside and he opens the hood of the car and all you see is chromed out.
Cody easily made friends with local car enthusiasts, but his social circle soon spread beyond that because of his unique charisma. He was over the top funny and personality wise, you know, he was a clown. Everybody just loved being around him. After high school, Cody got a job building custom commercial vehicles.
By his early 20s, Cody naturally began thinking about his future. He wanted to settle in Kalispell and stay in Montana. That was his goal, to get married there and have his family. The one thing missing from Cody's vision was a partner to share his life with. Though it wasn't long before he laid eyes on the woman who would change that, Jordan Graham.
Born in August of 1991, Jordan Lynn Graham was a homegrown Montana girl through and through. I would describe Jordan as an introvert, quite shy, but when she wanted to, she could have fun and be silly and, you know, just be herself. She was a lot of fun to be around.
Jordan was active outdoors. I mean, it's kind of hard not to when you live in Montana. It's a very beautiful place. She was very active in church as well. She grew up in the church. Jordan was part of the church when she was a very little girl.
Although raised in a strict Christian household, religion was something Jordan valued on a personal level. She was an active member of Faith Baptist Church in Kalispell. She was serious about going to church. She would read her Bible. She would help with Sunday school. I know she did a lot of daycare. She was really, really good with the kids.
And they were really drawn to her. They liked her. After graduating high school in 2009, Jordan turned her affection for children from a side hustle into a steady day job. As Jordan nannied and babysat for families from church, she began to dream of having kids of her own. That's what she wanted to do was just be a wife and a mom.
And though she wasn't actively on the hunt for a man, a couple of months after Jordan turned 20, Cody Johnson found her. He just noticed her and started talking to her. He would use the word, man, she's beautiful. She's beautiful. Cody had a crush on her. He would light up when she was around. She was real reserved and real quiet. But you could tell she liked him, too.
Because Jordan had a shy side, it took a while for her to give in to Cody's pursuits. She also wanted a man who was as serious about his faith as she was. In Cody, she found a willing partner. Jordan drew him closer to the Lord and then eventually gave his life to the Lord and wanted to live right and do things right because he could see that that was important to her.
The two officially started dating in November 2011 and their relationship swiftly progressed. He knew she was the one. He loved her. He like talked about her. He couldn't stop smiling when she was around. It was like a real love. And I don't think it scared him. We started kind of giving them a hard time. Like, hey, you guys, what's the next step in this relationship? You know, getting married.
After only a year together, Cody took that leap in December of 2012 and popped the question. Jordan said yes. He was super stoked about getting married. He would always talk about that. Like, man, I can't wait for the wedding day.
As wedding arrangements were made, Cody and Jordan also began planning for life beyond their big day. They actually rented a house. When they got the house, they were really excited. Jordan, she was living at home, so this would have been her very first house to decorate and all that. Despite the excitement of their impending future together, the couple intended to keep a virtuous promise between themselves and God.
If you're raised in the type of church that we were raised in, it's something that's taught at a very young age that you wait until marriage to have sex. You know, for her and for Cody both, it makes it a little bit more special to wait for that person.
On June 29th, 2013, Jordan and Cody tied the knot at an outdoor ceremony surrounded by friends and family. Cody was just beaming. He was just absolutely thrilled. He was just so in love with her. I remember seeing her with her bridesmaids, taking pictures, laughing, smiling, having fun. She was happy.
But just over a week after exchanging vows, Jordan and Cody's new commitment to each other would be put to the ultimate test. On July 8th, 2013, a search for Cody commences after his boss reports him missing. However, Kalispell Police Sergeant Chad Zimmerman
Finds the origin of this report to be odd. Without trying to read anything into it, one of the things that's really bugging me is why is his best friend in here making this mis-in-person complaint? Why isn't his newlywed wife in here? Coming up.
As more details emerge, the circumstances surrounding Cody's disappearance incite speculation. She arrived just in time to see a dark sedan taking off. That started me thinking, you know, maybe there is some drug stuff here.
July 2013. With the summer tourist season in full swing, police in Kalispell, Montana are focused on the disappearance of a 25-year-old local named Cody Lee Johnson. On Tuesday, July 9th, Jordan Graham, Cody's wife of just over a week, sits down with Sergeant Chad Zimmerman to provide some insight into her husband's whereabouts.
Jordan begins with the events of Sunday, July 7th. I asked Jordan to tell me what her day had been with Cody the day of his disappearance. Jordan told me that they went to church, they spent some time at the lake, and then at about 5.30 in the afternoon, they went back to church. After church, they went to Dairy Queen. They had dinner, and then after dinner, they went home.
She relayed that he had received a phone call when they had left Dairy Queen and were headed back to their house. She said the phone call went on for about 30 minutes and that when he was done with the phone call, he was very upset. Jordan tells police she isn't sure who Cody was talking to, but it was very apparent that he was agitated by the conversation.
Jordan says that as Cody was cooling off, she realized her phone was dying and she'd left her charger at work. She goes and gets her cell phone charger and says, while I'm gone, Cody sends me a text and says he's leaving with some friends to go for a ride. It was like 9.30, 10 o'clock at night. Jordan says when she comes back home, she sees this dark car leaving.
She arrived just in time to see a dark sedan taking off from their driveway. And she thought that it had Washington plates,
This information from Jordan raises a red flag for detectives. - A lot of the drugs in this valley come from Washington and drugs are the number one driver of crime. Out of town friends come and you go for a drive and you're gone for hours. That started me thinking, you know, well maybe there is some drug stuff here.
But Jordan has another explanation. She said he was in a car club and him and his car friends go and do this kind of thing all the time. Cody had a lot of friends that would show up in the dark of night, take off on these joy rides. They'd like to drive on really curvy, dangerous roads and see who could drive the fastest. Had Cody's need for speed placed him in the path of danger?
Before the interview ends, detectives have one more question for Jordan. Having not seen or heard from Cody for 36 hours now, why hadn't she ever reported him missing? She goes, "I didn't want to report him as missing in case he took off and he came home and then he'd be mad at me." After Sergeant Zimmerman wraps up his interview with Jordan, Cody's mom, Sherry Johnson, arrives at the station.
Sherry Johnson was very concerned about where her son was and conveyed she felt too that something had happened to him. Cody's mom has also brought along some important information for investigators. Sherry was able to provide me with a printout that they'd gotten from Verizon of information on the phone.
Based on what Jordan told Sergeant Zimmerman about Cody's upsetting phone conversation, police look through his call history for a source. One phone call that was somewhat consistent was a call from a Washington number. The only reason that it kind of struck a chord with me is she had said he left in a vehicle in Washington Place.
Investigators trace the phone correspondence to a man named Jose. I made a phone call to Jose. I asked him, "What was the conversation that you had with Cody?" And he said, "It was about a torque wrench that I had borrowed from Cody." It was basically, "I found your tools," and the reply was good. This doesn't sound like the upsetting phone call Jordan told police about. Is Jose downplaying the nature of this conversation?
Police look into Jose's whereabouts during the time Cody went missing. He was at the hospital with his wife giving birth and he was very forthcoming. Police clear Jose of suspicion and join Cody's friends and family in a canvas of town. There was a lot of different search parties looking for him, physically getting out of their cars, looking in fields, looking in abandoned barns, looking all over the place for him.
scared, not knowing this is not like him at all. As the search continues into Wednesday, concern across the community increases. We start asking questions. What's going on? What's happening? You know, he hasn't called his mom yet. I said, this is weird, man.
On Wednesday, July 10th, a new lead seems to fall directly into Jordan Graham's lap. Wednesday afternoon, she's back into the Kalispell Police Department with her mother. What Jordan had for me was an email that was giving an account of what had supposedly happened to Cody. She had an email from Carman Tony. The email from this Carman Tony said basically, "Hello, Jordan. My name is Tony.
There's no need to look for Cody anymore. He went off with some friends. They went for a drive. At some point, they got out of the car and went for a hike, and he fell off a cliff. Jordan, I'm sorry, he's gone. Go ahead and tell the police to call off the search. Tony S.
Investigators are now focused on figuring out who Carman Tony is and what is really behind this ominous email. Detective Corey Clark starts by asking Jordan if Cody has any friends
named Tony S. - She stated that he did have a friend who he worked part-time with and his name was Tony and the last name of this gentleman started with an S as well. - Jordan passes along the contact of Cody's friend, Tony and detectives waste no time investigating the lead. - His name was Tony Stahlcup. One of our detectives made contact with him and he agreed to come in for an interview.
He confirmed he did work with Cody. They did in fact drive together, but he hadn't seen him for some amount of time and that he did not or had never had an email on Carman Tony. He gave us full permission to check any of his records. I mean, he made himself a blank slate for us. He was just believable.
Even though Tony Stahlkopp is cleared of suspicion, there's still the issue of the email's origin. Our curiosity is, okay, who sent this email? There's an IP address on there. This is a big clue in this investigation.
From that point, we begin the daunting process of making contact with Google. They have a legal process for subpoenaing records from them and what you need to get from that is an IP address that goes along with Carmen Tony. Detectives also subpoena Cody and Jordan's cell phone records.
However, this information will take a while to return results. And without any solid leads beyond the cryptic email, things are looking grim. I was thinking by this point, there wasn't going to be a happy ending. I mean, someone is obviously saying that they know that he's dead, whether that be true or not. Investigators aren't the only ones at a dead end.
One day we walk into church and we're all sitting there and people are sad, man. We're crying. Like, where is he? Now this is 48 hours. He's gone. He hasn't reached out to anybody. Jordan and a few close friends and family members hang missing person flyers around town. Since the email from Car Man Tony claimed Cody had fallen from a cliff, the search party makes its way into Glacier National Park.
Jordan was leading the charge as to where they were going. They're in the park, stopping at different places, and they end up on Going to the Sun Road, which is like 30 miles long, very narrow, winding, that type of road. And they get to the top, and Jordan stops the car
in the parking area. Across from the parking lot is the Loop Trail. That was a place where the two of them had spent time, and it was an important place for the two of them to get together. Off of the Loop Trail, there was a retaining wall, and then there were significant rocks or steps down. Jordan went over that wall. She proceeded down those steps, down towards the edge of a cliff area, through a rock, then kind of looked over
She's really leaning out there, and she's like, oh my God, I think I see something. Coming up, after an alarming discovery, investigators converge at one of America's national treasures. I get a call from my boss who says, get your stuff, we're going to the park. And emotions spike as this missing persons case evolves into a tragedy. We just burst into tears, couldn't really control it.
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quince.com slash snapped. Summertime in Glacier National Park is the pinnacle of natural beauty. But on July 11th, 2013, the search for 25-year-old Cody Johnson has peaked with a reminder that such spectacular vistas could come at a cost.
After looking over the edge of a sheer cliff, Cody's wife Jordan alerts her fellow searchers to something below. Michael, her brother, went down there and all of a sudden he starts wailing that they see a body and they think that it's Cody. Though Jordan and her brother think they've spied a body below, there's no way for them to get any closer to confirm.
I'm familiar with the loop road and it's treacherous. I mean, you go beyond the barriers and barricades, you're going into area where you don't even have to do something wrong and you could lose your life. Jordan and her brother back away from the edge of the cliff and head for help. From that point, part of the party went back to the base 20 miles below to call park rangers. And I think a couple of them stayed up there.
Jordan is part of the group that alerts rangers at Lake McDonald Lodge. After collecting her statement, rangers reach out to local and federal investigative entities for assistance. I get a call from the chief of detectives, my boss, who says, "Get your stuff. We're going to the park." However, the setting sun delays their recovery effort.
That area is extremely rugged, extremely treacherous. And with the body being reported, obviously no one was going to go searching that night. Otherwise, you'd probably have more fatalities. So at that point, what we elected to do was to let the witnesses and Jordan go home. And then we had to gather our resources. They do have a ranger who is at the top of the cliff, who's essentially securing the scene as best he can. And we begin the long wait until morning at that point.
July 12th, 2013, 8:00 AM. As the sun casts the heat of summer over Glacier National Park, investigators brace themselves for what might be illuminated at the base of a treacherous canyon. From the top, we were glassing the area with binoculars. The sun was coming up and it hit this flat rock just right. We could see a blue sneaker.
come to rest on that rock and ask the Kalispell Police Department what was Cody wearing when he was reported missing. And he was supposed to have a pair of blue sneakers on.
The blue tennis shoe suggests that Cody went over the edge, but investigators need visual confirmation of a body before risking their lives to go down into the canyon. They actually tied a rope around my waist and I grabbed onto a sapling, talked about having faith, and had to lean out over the rock edge to look down.
There's a 20-foot pool at the bottom of this cliff where the waterfowl comes into it. And the body was floating face down. With eyes on a body, investigators prepare for their descent. It catches your attention because there's loose rock, the footing's unsure. And make no mistake about it, you are in an area that you want to be very careful because if you make one slight mistake, you're going down 200 feet to the bottom of that canyon.
Obviously going straight down isn't an option for all of us, so we have to take an extremely circuitous route to get there. I ended up taking a backpack with me with as many evidence collection supplies as we could. As we got closer and closer, the river became too deep and the sides were sheer, so then we were basically edging along a cliff edge until we came into the opening where the pool was.
The body is in the pool, face down. It's not like a bloody mess. It's just very pristine, beautiful scene that's just ruined with a body in the middle of it. The coroner ends up able to identify the body and does so on scene. They found his wallet and verify that it's Cody. Authorities then prepare to extract Cody from the pool.
Cody becomes a piece of evidence. The trick is to get Cody into that bag to preserve that evidence best we can. You want to minimize handling that evidence so you don't lose something or contaminate something.
We end up, all of us together, lifting him out of the pool and getting him on the sort of cliff edge. A helicopter came in with a 200-foot line, dropped the line down into the canyon, and we hooked the body bag to the line. As we watch, you can see the body bag rise up into your view finally as the helicopter ascends through the park into a staging area where they met members of the sheriff's office team.
Authorities notify Cody's family of the tragic development. News of the young man's fate soon reaches his friends. We just burst into tears. It was one of those things we couldn't really control. Just crying and crying and crying. My heart broke for his mom. His only son. And I just remember sobbing uncontrollably because I thought about his mom.
As friends and family process the devastating news, detectives are desperate for information on one of their most crucial pieces of evidence: the email from Carman Tony. We need to get an IP address that goes along with Carman Tony. The body had been found and we were moving along in the direction we needed to go while still waiting for that information.
When investigators resume their interviews with Cody's friends and family, what they learn has them asking, why was Cody on a dangerous trail like that in the first place? I remember he was trying to put up a light for his mom at his house, and he was scared of heights to get on a ladder. If you have an aversion to heights, trust me, where that cliff is, you would be extremely uncomfortable standing there. It appeared that there was some sort of foul play.
How do you take a man who's scared of heights to the cliff? I've asked myself this a thousand times, like, you have to blindfold him. Detectives get some answers when a woman named Kimberly Martinez walks into the Kalispell Police Department. She identifies herself as Jordan's maid of honor, and what she has to say will send a jolt through the investigation.
Coming up, insider information reveals cracks in a fairytale facade. A normal person would be excited about their wedding night, and she seemed terrified. And new evidence confirms suspicions of foul play. I was like, man, this is significant. There's something really, really not right here.
In the heat of July 2013, when the body of 25-year-old Cody Lee Johnson was found at the base of a cliff nearly two weeks after his wedding day, local and federal investigators joined forces to solve the mystery. Police hope that their conversation with Kimberly Martinez, the best friend of Cody's wife, Jordan Graham, will spark new movement in the case.
Jordan's maid of honor came into the police department and disclosed that after Jordan was married, she didn't know she made the right move. She was very unhappy.
Kim says Jordan's unhappiness seemed to stem from an apprehension over a big step in her relationship with Cody. Jordan came from a very conservative, very religious church and family. She was very uncomfortable with the idea of having sex with her husband. A normal person would be excited about that, about their wedding night, and she seemed terrified.
Kim tells detectives that she'd encouraged Jordan to have a conversation with Cody about how she felt. Jordan's like a pot on a stove with the lid on. The pressure's building up inside her. She's got to release this pressure. She's got to talk with Cody on Sunday. It was July 7th, and it was after they were leaving Dairy Queen, she texted her friend Kim to tell her that she was going to have this conversation with Cody about some of the concerns that she had.
According to Kim, later that night, Jordan showed up at her house and expressed that the conversation with Cody didn't go too well. Jordan is under some severe stress and she says, "I had a discussion with Cody. He got mad." And Jordan ends up going home and spending the evening with her brother. She's telling different people different stories.
And when investigators from the multi-agency task force compare notes, another detail about Jordan's behavior raises more red flags. When she was having her conversation with the ranger out at Glacier National Park, that emotion wasn't there. Everybody else was crying. People do react differently to death, but it was odd how she was just limited on her emotion regarding the totality of the situation.
Park Rangers were also troubled by another detail of Jordan's story. How did Jordan even know where to look for Cody? One of the statements she made to the Rangers was it was a place he said he always wanted to see before he died.
There's all these little buzz statements that she puts out there that just catch your attention. As questions about Jordan's story mount, investigators circle back to the electronic footprint of Carman Tony. We need to hear back from Google on the IP address, and we need to chase down who owns the IP address. It takes some time, but they traced the email from Carman Tony, and the IP address definitely came from Flathead Valley.
The computer is traced to the home of Steven Rutledge, Jordan's stepfather. Also residing at the address are Jordan's mother and 16-year-old brother. That shows Jordan may have a little more involvement into this and is not telling law enforcement.
We know that people can share passwords so other people can use a computer as well. The next step is to do more investigation and pinpoint who is responsible for sending that email. Naturally, the mother was interviewed, the father was interviewed, the brother was interviewed. Police were investigating who wrote the email, and it appeared that it didn't come from anybody else in her family. Who's left holding it back? Jordan Graham.
The results of subpoenas on Jordan and Cody's phone records throw another wrench in Jordan's initial story to police about the night of July 7th. She said Cody went for a ride with some friends that night, but we determined that Cody's cell phone and Jordan's cell phone were in Glacier National Park that evening. Their phones ping on these towers as they depart Kalispell. They enter the park and then there's a dead area and at some point two cell phones come back down
Investigators examine the timestamps of the geographical pinpoints and are able to determine the exact moment the phones entered the park: 9:17 p.m.
Just as the spotlight on Jordan is heating up, a new piece of evidence comes into play. As you go into Glacier National Park, there's a camera at the photo booth that captures the cars coming in. It just so happens to get a sort of grainy photo where you can definitely make out that it's an Audi that fits the description of his car.
You can see Cody, you can see Jordan sitting in the passenger seat as they enter the park that Sunday evening. The surveillance footage is clear-cut visual evidence that Jordan was with Cody in Glacier on the night of his death. What she's told us has been a fabrication. She's been telling us lies about the sedan from Washington, him being gone, missing, his phone being on the car, all these various different things up until that time.
On July 16, 2013, a little more than two weeks after her wedding, investigators summoned Jordan to the station. When she came in, she was interviewed, and she started to give the same misleading stories. And it was like, hold on, let's put the brakes on. Slid forward the picture of the car with her and Cody going into Glacier National Park. She saw that and broke down and cried. It's like, OK, let's talk about what really happened.
- Confronted with this indisputable evidence, Jordan changes her story. - Her story is we left Dairy Queen, we went home and she started to disclose to Cody how she felt about the marriage and they started to argue. - According to Jordan, she and Cody eventually ended up in Glacier National Park. - When they went up to the Loop Road, they parked the car, Cody had to use the restroom and then they both went over to the retaining wall and they went to the spot
where she and Cody had this argument. She turns to leave. He somehow grabs her forearm, jerks her hand away. At this point, he now has his back to her, facing what would be the precipice of the cliff. And she rushes and pushes him with both hands in the back.
Jordan claims that her actions occurred in the heat of the moment, but investigators are skeptical. - She states it was unintentional, but again, apply the common sense factor. You're up there with your husband after eight days, you push him and he falls off a cliff. What would a common person do? What would be the next thing you would do? You would go summons help, correct?
I mean, there were so many pieces of this lie after lie after lie after lie. She was as fluid in lies as as the river she pushed him into. After her confession on July 16th, investigators released Jordan while they finalized their case against her. We have to make sure we have all our evidence and all our ducks in a row. We can't indict somebody and still have investigation to do.
Coming up, investigators gather evidence for an indictment. She was so afraid of her life changing and doing something that she was terrified of. It was much as what we had come to expect from her. And as the case heads to the courtroom, Jordan's future is on the chopping block. She could serve life with no chance of parole.
Nearly two months have passed since 22-year-old Jordan Graham admitted to pushing her husband, Cody Johnson, to his death in Glacier National Park.
In the weeks since Jordan's July 16th confession, investigators have been working to ensure their case is airtight. We have to sit down with the US attorneys that prosecuted this case, go over the case, make sure we have all our T's crossed. They're investigating whether or not the murder was actually premeditated because Jordan could be charged with first degree murder.
On September 9th, 2013, the hard work pays off when prosecutors secure an indictment against Jordan for first and second degree murder and lying to authorities. Later that day, police initiate an arrest operation.
We wanted to do the arrest low key. The Kalispell Police Department officer called her up and said, hey, would you mind coming on in? I need to return some evidence to you. And when she showed up at the police department, we took her into custody and told her she was under arrest for the murder of Cody Johnson. To me, she acted like she thought she was going to get away with it. That's how she acted.
Jordan's reaction to being arrested heeds her established pattern of apathy. It was much as what we had come to expect from her. There was zero. It wasn't fear. It wasn't sadness. Nothing. You would think as significant as being arrested and charged with the murder of your husband, there'd be a lot more of that emotional component.
Jordan's arrest comes as an answered prayer to Cody's loved ones. I was relieved that it was, I felt like it was finally over. She was arrested because they had facts. I'm glad he found his murderer.
As her trial looms in the distance, word of the newlywed murder spreads beyond Kalispell. As the information came out, it made national news fairly quickly. One week after this beaming couple's wedding, a chilling scene. Prosecutor Say Graham pushed her husband off a cliff.
The national buzz culminates on December 9th, 2013, when the trial commences in a packed courtroom in Missoula, Montana. With Jordan's confession on the table, the key debate is over intent, which will have a huge impact on Jordan's future should she be found guilty of either murder charge. - With second degree murder,
There was an option for a limited sentence where she could serve a certain time and then get out. But first degree would have been incarceration for life with no chance of parole. The prosecution has its theory that Jordan Graham intentionally pushed Cody Johnson to his death, surrounding reasons where she didn't want to be married to Cody Johnson anymore.
- As more and more testimony comes out on the stand from Jordan and Cody's friends, it appears that Jordan had maybe thought about this before in some sort of depth. - I remember that day just like it was yesterday. You know, we had plans. We had plans to go golfing, man. I said, "Cody, are we gonna go hit golf balls?" He's like, "Man, I can't." "Jordan, that's a surprise you're making."
Jordan had told Cody that she was going to give him some sort of surprise, which prosecutors used during the trial to make a point that there was premeditation. However, the defense alleges that Jordan's actions were fueled by fear for her life in the heat of an argument. The defense's story was that they had gone up there and they were trying to reconcile their
any issues that they were having in their marriage and that it was a total accident. And the reason she had lied was that she didn't want it to seem like she had done it on purpose. On the afternoon of December 12th, as closing arguments are set to begin, the defense takes a surprising turn. As they came to the tail end of the trial, the defense was sitting there looking at it going, there is no way
that we're going to win this. And so they made a last minute plea deal. A surprising turn this morning in the case of a newlywed bride accused of pushing her husband off of a Montana cliff. 22-year-old Jordan Graham agreed to plead guilty to second degree murder Thursday. Jordan's plea deal comes with a sentence of 30 years in federal prison. My reaction was kind of disgust a little bit.
because I wanted full extent of the law to be able to get what she deserved. She ripped the heart out of close friends and family that will never get to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner with Cody again and hear him laugh. And for that reason, I don't think she should ever get out.
But the ultimate question on everyone's mind is why Jordan went to such an extreme to escape her marriage. Why don't you just say, "I don't want to be married to you anymore"? Why don't you just let him live his life? I think she was so afraid of her life changing and doing something that she was terrified of. I don't know why that she would result to murder, though. I don't know why you wouldn't just tell him, "I don't love you in that way. I can't be with you in that way."
I wish somebody would have said, don't marry her. He just wanted to wake up next to her for the rest of his life. That's all he wanted. Jordan Graham is currently incarcerated at Aliceville Federal Correctional Institution in Aliceville, Alabama. She is scheduled to be released in 2039. Was there a crime committed?
As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't. Guilty by Design dives into the wild story of Alexander and Frank, interior designers who in the 80s landed the jackpot of all clients. We went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up as one of the most wanted people in the United States. What are they guilty of? You can listen to Guilty by Design exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.