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WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Heads up, this show contains descriptions of violence and strong language. Previously on Beyond All Repair. What the hell are we going to do now? You know, she just got away with murder. This is a story that was concocted by Karaya to save himself from the charge of murder in the first year. Sean is dad's kid, like 100%. They made him out to be.
This weak, sweet, boy scout, and I was Satan's sister. He's somebody that's manipulative, a pathological liar, somebody that is abusive, somebody that doesn't take no for an answer. I've always looked up to my sister, and I've never seen something like this out of her in my life. My sister was
It's July of 2005, and Sean Correa is giving an interview to KPTV, a Fox affiliate. Sean had been deported to Guyana two years earlier after testifying against Sofia in her first trial. He was born in Guyana, he'd never gotten U.S. citizenship, and even with the deal he got, he was still technically a convicted felon in the States.
But the Clark County Sheriff's Office has now brought him back to the U.S. to testify against Sophia again, in a new trial with a new judge and jury. I've never not wanted to talk about it. I've never ran from the issue. But a month or so after this interview, Sean did run from the issue. He wasn't happy with how things were going with the prosecution this time.
For one, he was basically under house arrest in Clark County, and he had to check in with detectives by phone every day. Some life to live, huh? This is what it means to be a free man, I guess. This went on for months as the attorneys prepared for Sophia's second trial. So Sean starts thinking, wait a minute, what am I getting out of this? Nothing, really.
Unlike Sophia's first trial, when Sean was given a deal, just a year in jail in exchange for his testimony, there was no legal incentive this time around, despite Sean's hope that he'd be able to stay in the U.S. after the trial. I know at the end of this, I'm going to be sent away. And I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life in a place that's totally alien to me. And they don't care. Sean was there to talk, but not freely, he said.
The prosecutor told him to basically just stick to the script. What they gave me here are bits and pieces of the truth put together the way they want it. But Sean had new information, he claimed. Information that the detectives were ignoring. With this being the case, Sean wrote in a letter to the prosecutor's office, quote, I refuse to take part in this charade anymore.
The key witness vanished just weeks before Clark County prosecutors planned to retry Coria's sister, accused murderer Sophia Johnson. By the time Sean wrote that letter to the prosecutor, he was already on the run. P.S., he concluded, go suck your mother. Thank you for your time. That was the last Clark County officials would hear from Sean Coria. Or anyone, really. He doesn't go by Sean Coria anymore.
And he's not the cooperative, seemingly scared 19-year-old the prosecution struck a deal with decades ago. Sean has built himself a new life under a new name, Anthony Snow. And Anthony wanted me to hear what he says the detectives wouldn't. I'm Anne-Marie Sievertson from WBUR and ZSP Media. This is Beyond All Repair. Chapter 8, Anthony Snow.
We're rolling, Paul. Thank you so much. I'm in the studio with Paul Vycus, our production manager at The Helm. And? So I think we can just flow. Shannon Dooling, an investigative reporter and former colleague at WBUR, whom I've been talking with about this story since pretty much the beginning. She's been looking into Sean Correa, a.k.a. Anthony Snow, who he is and what he's been up to since getting deported. First up...
In 2004, we see some coverage in the news when he was charged with passport fraud in Guyana. A year after testifying in Sophia's first trial, Sean was apparently caught trying to buy a car in Guyana with a fake Canadian passport. News reports of the arrest refer to him by his middle name, Anthony, not Sean. A couple years later, when Sophia herself was deported after being acquitted of the murder—
She says Guyanese authorities asked her upon arrival if she knew someone named Anthony Snow. I thought, you've got to be kidding me. Yeah, I know who that is. Her mom had told her about her brother's new name. Then, in 2011... This is the first time we see Sean again.
on paper, sort of transform into Anthony Snow. Anthony Snow had his big debut. He forms a political party in Guyana that, in his words, was supposed to sort of give Guyana back to the Guyanese people and sort of fight against corruption and sort of pro-reform. It's called the Fundamental Structure Group, which was a political party set out to contest the 2011 general elections. And he had...
himself as the presidential candidate. President Snow of Guyana? Nope, he didn't win. Didn't even run, technically. He claimed there was corruption within the Guyana Elections Commission. Two months after he, like, pulled his name from the presidential ballot, he's arrested.
Snow was sentenced to two years in prison in 2014 for causing grievous bodily harm to a customer at his Baguette Stone restaurant. It was a patron at this restaurant that apparently, because apparently he's a restaurateur as well, a chef. Introducing Papa Snow's Gourmet Deli. Tasty dishes to fulfill your cravings from the very first bite. There was a patron who, you know, I guess had a little too much to drink, didn't want to pay his bill or was, you know, fighting paying his bill.
And Anthony Snow's sort of reaction to that was to beat the crap out of him, basically. This guy was handcuffed, had abrasions all over his face, his chest. One of the police superintendents who actually prosecuted this crime told me that she believes the guy's jaw was fractured. She said, you know, one of the things I remember, I think that that guy, Anthony Snow, was breeding pit bulls at the time. And supposedly, like,
locked the guy up in the kennel. Like, I don't know what he was planning on doing with him in the kennel. Just going to leave him there? I don't know. Some people called the police. Anthony Snow is charged. He's convicted. He serves two years in prison in Guyana. Two years in prison. Wow, that is more, that is twice how long he served for any involvement in the murder in Washington State. Yeah, it is. Just to put it in perspective. Right.
So there's Anthony Snow, the presidential hopeful. Anthony Snow, the chef and dog breeder who attacked a customer and put him in a dog kennel. But there's also Anthony Snow, the entrepreneur. One of his companies is called Job Fair Worldwide. Job Fair Worldwide. Be your own boss.
What do they actually do? I'm not really sure. Okay. I'm pretty, from the descriptions and how he sort of presents it, it's sort of like a recruitment agency where they help people get jobs. How would you like to work from home with one of Guyana's top businesses? Do you want a job that pays 25 to 100 U.S. dollars? We also offer free online training to enhance your skills. There's been some really serious allegations about how this company works.
And one of them got a pretty significant amount of media attention that then sort of like spread to some Facebook posts and some blogs and some online posts that said, hey, don't do business with this guy.
But there's more than one way to do business with Anthony Snow. Another opportunity? This thing called West Amazon Housing Scheme. Which has drawn accusations of land fraud. Are you tired of paying rent? Consider buying a property? Contact the West Amazon Housing Scheme. We currently have house lots available.
Enjoy living in a clean and safe private community with your family. Anthony Snow is like selling a dream. He's selling a vision. He's selling a story. And he's selling himself. He's selling himself. He's asking people to trust him, to buy into him and his vision. Don't miss out on this opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
So...
I was starting to get a pretty good picture of Anthony Snow's life in Guyana, but I wanted to know more about his actual reputation down there. So I reached out to a journalist who interviewed him in 2019 for Guyana Headline News. Her name is Esther Sobers. The businessman who has had question of a business venture and was incarcerated maintains that he was never involved in fraud. I've never been involved in any type of fraudulent act.
Esther and I put a day and time to talk on the books. She rescheduled. She rescheduled again. And again. I finally got her on the phone.
Anthony asked you? No, no, no, no, no, no. My husband, because he knows of Anthony.
Okay. Okay. Well, um, is there...
Esther and her husband know how it is with Anthony, she says. She doesn't want to get involved in this controversy, she says. And that's all she was willing to say on the record, despite me pressing. But if I had to guess, how it is might have something to do with how Anthony Snow is online. Or maybe I should say, Papa Snow.
Papa Snow here coming to you live out of Guyana. Hey, Papa Snow coming to you live out of the Gourmet Deli. Papa Snow here again. This is Papa Snow coming to you live and direct out of Guyana with an episode of Tell It As It Is or Shut Up.
Anthony "Papa" Snow takes to YouTube and Facebook and TikTok all the time to talk about all the things to a devoted audience. Happy International Women's Day, okay?
learn how to work together, learn how to put differences aside and unite. I tend to look at the genetics of a woman and her family prior to going and hooking up with that woman. And I know I don't want to be with a fat person. Of course guys, our lasagna is already in the oven, okay? The righteous shall fall seven times. But this is a video a lot of people don't want you to see.
Pull your money out the system. Crash the system. Let me ask all you women out there who are watching this show, do you really want a man who is truly honest to you? Because I can prove to you today that that is a lie. The hours of my life I will not get back from going down the Papa Snow YouTube rabbit hole.
But truly, I couldn't look away. Because the person you see online today is just such a far cry from the soft-spoken, wafery, 19-year-old in an ill-fitting suit that I saw on VHS tapes from 20 years ago. The man the prosecution portrayed as not a man, but a kid, still figuring things out, under the influence of his older sister, and scared as hell. She told me just to stay quiet and not say anything and
You know, I was crying. I didn't know what else to do.
But now he's Anthony Snow, a built guy in his early 40s who positions himself as an influential Renaissance man who has it all figured out. Business, politics, cooking, relationships, religion. He's a slick talker who slides in and out of a smooth, sing-songy, Guyanese accent like a true man of the people. Don't ask people that never do the work, what's going on there? Because they don't know. They never did it.
Don't ask people that are not where you want to be in life, is that the right way? No, because they're probably not going to tell you. They're probably not even where they want to be in life. You need to ask. I do also wonder, though, if Esther Sobers, the Guyanese journalist's concern around talking to me...
comes from the knowledge of the darker chapter of Anthony's, really, Sean's life. Yes, I was incarcerated. Which he referenced during her interview with him. Because of how the case is, I don't want to talk too many details about the case. It was a very serious, serious issue. Anthony doesn't want to talk details, but the very little he did share was tantalizing. When I was 19, I paid a visit to a family member who inadvertently was involved in something.
Inadvertently? As in, he's saying the family member he visited to get help with his divorce paperwork, Sophia, was unintentionally involved in the murder? She was the one roped into something? I was dying to hear more of what Anthony Snow had to say about this. And pretty soon, I would inadvertently get a preview. ♪
More in a minute. It's Madeline Barron from In the Dark. I've spent the past four years investigating a crime. When you're driving down this road, I plan on killing somebody. A robber. A robber.
A four-year investigation, hundreds of interviews, thousands of documents, all in an effort to see what the U.S. military has kept from the public for years. Did you think that a war crime had been committed? I don't have any opinion on that. Season three of In the Dark is available now, wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Meghna Chakrabarty, host of On Point. At a time when the world is more complex than ever, On Point's daily deep dive conversation takes the time to make the world more intelligible. From the state of democracy to how artificial intelligence is transforming the way we live and work to the wonders of the natural world. One topic each day, one rich and nuanced exploration. That's On Point from WBUR. Be sure to follow us right here in your podcast feed. ♪
It's January of 2023. My phone rings late at night. It's Sophia, who I've been talking to for almost two years at this point, but I've never heard her quite like this. She sounds like she's shaking. Sean just called me, she says. Sophia never thought she'd talk to him again.
Is this Sophia? Of course it's me. You know it's me because you got my number from who? Dad, right? Actually, Sean had apparently gotten Sophia's number from their dad's current girlfriend. When I bullied her into giving me your number. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay, well, you could imagine my surprise.
to hear you calling, because I can't remember the last time I spoke to you. The last time this brother and sister had spoken was 2006, in Guyana, Sophia says. That was the last time they'd seen each other, too. Well, let me see the face of my sister. Let my sister see my face. It's been a long time since I've seen her. That beeping is Sean trying to turn their voice call into a video one. Okay, are you there?
The reason Sean is calling now, it turns out, is me. In an abstract sense. Sean had heard that Sophia was talking to some reporter about Marlene's murder, and he wanted to know more.
Sophia explains to Sean that she wants to sue the state of Washington for wrongful conviction. I did not kill her. I had nothing to do with her death. And I don't think it's fair that it continues to fall at my feet. The Johnsons absolutely believe that I killed her based on your testimony. Well, I didn't kill her. So the problem that...
I see is that I had nothing to do with it. And I had completely pulled myself away from them. Once they don't got nothing to do with me, I have no problem with nothing. I understand that the court wrongfully convicted you and you had your mistrial and whatnot. So you're well within your legal grounds to sue the state of Washington. And if I was you, I would probably do the same thing.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, what's said here is remarkable. But even more remarkable is what's not said here. Sophia reminds Sean that his testimony did her in. Sean, instead of explaining his reason for testifying with something like, I said you killed Marlene because you did kill her, Sophia, he says, well, I didn't kill her.
And Sophia, who's told me time and again she wants justice for Marlene, in this moment, instead of screaming like I was to myself, well, then who did, Sean? Who did kill her? Sophia just moves on from Sean's declaration.
And Sean, the guy who said on the stand that he saw his sister strike Marlene with fireplace tongs, he's now telling that same sister that she's well within her legal grounds to sue the state of Washington for wrongful conviction, that he'd do the same thing in her position. Truly, what the fuck is going on in this conversation? Since we're talking about this, I cannot even believe it. I'm shaking a little bit because...
We've never talked about this. Why would you even testify against me? Why would you go up there and say you saw me do it? Like, really, what is the motivation behind doing something so fucked up? Now, on top of that, I could have further assisted them.
I sealed things, but I refused to do it. You're my sister. Now, you're a free woman. You have the ability to sue them right now, and I hope to God you do. I was called into something without my knowledge, Sean says, which honestly sounds like the Sean who testified against Sophia, but also that he could have sealed things, but he refused to, which sounds like the Sean that fled from Clark County, Washington before the second trial, because he couldn't do that to his sister.
Which doesn't sound like any Sean we've met along the way. And he hopes she sues them? Why? For her own sake? Or just to stick it to the man? You understand suing them opens this case up again, right? If it opens up this case. It does open up this case. If it opens up this case. The most that could happen.
No, no, no, no, no. Sean hangs up. Or the call drops. Where was he going with that? Or where did he stop himself from going with that? I needed to know. Good morning. Is this Anthony Snow? Hi, my name's Anne-Marie Sievertson, and I work for WBUR. It's a public radio station in the United States. How are you?
I'm doing all right. He's doing all right. Maybe a little wary. Wouldn't blame him. What can I do for you today? Yeah, I'm working on a story that involves your sister. Can I talk to you? Can you just give me one moment? Of course. Because I do have a client here. Oh, of course. Don't hang up. I won't. I'm standing by. He has a client there, he says. Yeah.
A job fair worldwide client, I wondered? An investor in the West Amazon housing scheme? A restaurant patron paying their bill? Part of me was tempted to say, can you just put the client on for a minute? But Sean snapped me back to the real reason I'd called. You just made my whole day.
I made your whole day? The phone line is terrible. But he said he doesn't talk to his sister that much, that she created a lot of devastation in his family. And then he said this.
Oh, yeah? What did you hear? Do you have questions for me right off the bat, based on what you've heard? Okay. Okay.
I appreciate that. Yeah, you know. Well, yeah, I mean. Remember, I'm not really in the States anymore. I have to rebuild. My life after it was wrongfully destroyed. My children lost. My family lost. Sean is not really in the United States anymore, he says. I'm guessing because he's made Facebook posts even just within the last year or two claiming to be in New York briefly, visiting two of his kids who live there.
Sean is a father of six, across five marriages, only one of whom lives in Guyana. How often he's come into the U.S., where else he's gone, I don't know. He's very un... what? This phone line and all the notifications that keep interrupting it. ...hurt and destroyed by the way I was treated by the Clark County District Attorney's Office...
and by the police. But even in saying that, I'm an adult now compared to being a 19-year-old boy that was afflicted by all of those things, and I don't blame them for trying to find the truth behind something like that. And the person that's actually victimized me in this whole situation is my sister. She victimized me. She victimized my daughters, who had to grow up without me in their life, my wife, who had a nervous breakdown,
He's talking about Susie here, the woman he was dating when the murder happened, and the mother of two of his daughters. I've tried to reach Susie a number of times, but according to one of her sisters, Sean's right about Susie not being in a good place to talk about any of this.
As for Sophia, Sean says... Hello? Hello? Oh no, he was gone. But fortunately, not for long.
Yes, yes, speaking. Oh, this is great because this is much better. I can hear you so much more clearly now, too. I asked Sean to elaborate on what he meant when he said he was victimized by his sister. My sister betrayed my trust. She lured me to a place where she wanted to commit a crime.
When you say that she committed the crime, are you saying explicitly that Sophia committed murder? Sophia killed Marlene Johnson? Why did you agree to testify against your sister? Because my sister wasn't telling the truth.
The truth that she killed Marlene. She killed Marlene or she knew directly what the hell was going on, but I can only say what I saw. I can't really say anything else outside of that. It's not just me, right? I'm giving Sean the opportunity to just say it. Sophia killed Marlene. Just like Sophia gave him the opportunity to say that to her face. Why would you go up there and say you saw me do it?
But instead, he tells me either Sophia killed Marlene or she knew what was going on. He can only say what he saw. As if he hadn't said on the stand 21 years ago that he saw Sophia, with a stocking over her face, strike Marlene with fireplace tongs. It turned out to be my fist. Why was he hedging this now?
I tried a different approach. I reminded Sean of the letter he'd written to the prosecutor's office, saying he refused to be part of their charade anymore, and the KPTV interview he'd done shortly before fleeing the country. What they gave me here are bits and pieces of the truth put together the way they want it. Do you remember what was kind of frustrating you about what they wanted you to say and what they didn't want you to say for the second trial? Yes, they wanted me to...
If there was somebody else with her that day,
Somebody other than him, I asked. Yeah, you got some sense. I saw something else move in the background, but it was further down a corridor, so I couldn't really see because the place was dark. But you could tell someone else was there. Oh, wow. But the only person who would be able to identify who else was there was my sister. I see. And my sister would not tell the truth. I don't remember hearing about a shadow in the background. That's because everybody wanted that shit omitted. They didn't want it there.
Because it just kind of complicated things. It was a less clear... Yeah, because they would complicate the case. Because now, they got to go and find whoever that person was. If you check my original statement to the police, I even told them I saw something else move in the shadows in that same place where that whole thing happened. I have the transcript of Sean's first interview with detectives. But there are a couple funny things about it.
The first is that lead detective Rick Buckner says on the record that they don't start recording until about an hour in to talking with Sean. Why? Why not capture everything? What did Sean say before they hit record? The second strange thing is that right where this detail in the story would have presumably come, about a shadow of another figure in the Johnsons' house with Sophia, the transcript reads...
The transcript reads that whatever Sean said was, quote, indiscernible.
Buckner. You go downstairs, you see Mrs. Johnson, you go out the door to the right. Is that right? Sean. Yes. Buckner. Okay, I'm not going to put words in your mouth. I mean, truly, that is exactly what he just did, but... Buckner. I'm not going to put words in your mouth. Just want to... Indiscernible, the transcript says again. Yes, Sean says, to whatever Detective Buckner just said. Buckner's response? Indiscernible.
And then a note. Remainder of proceeding unintelligible. So, did Sean mention someone else in the shadows to the detectives in this first interview? Either in the hour before they started recording, or in this key portion of the interview that just so happens to be gone from the record? Indiscernible. Well, I know your sister has, she's mentioned to me that she wants to sue the state of Washington for wrongful conviction.
But it sounds like from what you know, that that you think it may not have been a wrongful conviction that you think she that she killed Marlene. Is that right? It is my belief that if she didn't personally do it because I saw her standing over the body.
She didn't personally do it. Then she knows exactly who did it. And they were in that building with her that day. And that was the shadow that I saw. But nobody wants to address the damn shadow in the background. And the only person who could really address that could be the one person who knew everything. And that was Sophia.
Learning more about Sean, the brother who, by Sophia's account, invented a story to save his own ass, who, by his own social media accounts, has reinvented himself in Guyana as Anthony Snow, and then talking to him and hearing a new story about the day of Marlene's murder that was either also invented or ignored all along, I was confused.
More so than ever, about Sean, about Sophia, about what actually happened. Girl, the worst mistake of my life was listening to my sister that morning. And if there's one thing I could change in my life where I know I made the wrong choice, it was that. My whole life changed that day. That decision altered the course of my life. She's my sister. She's my sister.
Coming up, Sophia reacts to what Sean shared with me. And more twists surface.
One that shakes Sean. Wow, it just gets more interesting. Another that shakes me. All I've wanted is to know what fucking happened. And this makes me feel like I know what happened. That's next time.
Beyond All Repair is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR, and ZSP Media. It's written and reported by me, Amory Severson. It's produced by Sophie Codner. Additional reporting for this episode by Shannon Dooling. Mix, sound design, and original scoring by Matt Reed and production manager of WBUR podcasts, Paul Vycus. Theme and credits music by me,
Our managing producers are Sama Tajoshi for WBUR and Liz Stiles of ZSP Media. Our editors and executive producers are Ben Brock-Johnson of WBUR and Zach Stewart-Pontier of ZSP Media.
If you have questions about the case, I know you do. I have questions about the case, and I've been working on this for three damn years. Email us beyondallrepairpod at gmail.com. You can send us a voice memo. You can just write a good old-fashioned written message. You do you. beyondallrepairpod at gmail.com. You can also find pictures and a lot more information on Instagram by following WBUR Presents.
Do me a favor, will ya? Quit something you don't need in your life. Drink some water, consider a nap, listen to a good song, eat a treat, go for a little walk, tell someone you love them, and then tell them about this show. In that order. Thank you for listening. ♪
