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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com slash forensic tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Two healthy and fortunate Minnesota sisters planned a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. An African tour complete with a private villa in a secluded paradise.
The sisters enjoyed every moment. They traveled together, ate together, laughed together, and then died together. This is Forensic Tales, episode number 118, The Mysterious Deaths of Anne and Robin Corky. ♪
Thank you.
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
Sharing true crime stories isn't just about the story themselves. It's about getting justice for the victims and their families.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new exciting cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, produce and edit this weekly show. And for supporting the show, you'll get early ad-free access to weekly episodes, exclusive merchandise not available anywhere else, bonus content, shout-outs and episodes, and priority on case suggestions.
Before we get into this week's episode, I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to this week's newest supporter, Corrine C. To learn more about supporting Forensic Tales, consider visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales, or by simply clicking the support link in the show notes. You can also help support the show by leaving a positive rating with a review. Now, let's jump right into this week's story.
On September 1st, 2014, two sisters from Minnesota set out on a trip of a lifetime. 37-year-old Ann Corky, who went by Annie, and 42-year-old Robin Corky left the States and boarded a flight to Africa. The sisters anxiously spent months saving money and planning every detail of the trip. They knew this might be their only opportunity to travel to Africa, so they wanted to make the most out of every minute.
Annie, Robin, and their brothers, Chris and Mike Corky, were raised in an all-American family household. They were a close-knit family who looked after each other. Annie, Robin, Chris, and Mike all attended high school at Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota. After high school graduation, the sisters went separate ways. They had goals of starting their own careers and their own relationships. But no matter the physical distance between them, the family stayed close.
Annie worked for JPMorgan Chase as a senior administrative assistant in Denver, Colorado. She helped support the company's 72 branches and over 900 employees throughout the Denver community. When she wasn't working, she was at the ice rink. Her sister, Robin, moved from Minnesota to Chicago, Illinois, where she got a job working as a financial trader.
The sisters grew up to become incredibly successful adults who made their parents and brothers proud. They started their vacation on September 1st, 2014. Their first stop in Africa was Kenya, an East African country. After that, they traveled about 650 miles south down to Tanzania. Then they took a ferry from Tanzania out to Zanzibar.
Finally, a little over two weeks into their trip, they arrived on the famous island of Ma, an island in the Indian Ocean more than 900 miles off Africa's eastern coast. Once they arrived on the island on September 16th, they checked into their private villa at the Maya Luxury Resort. The Maya Luxury Resort is a five-star hotel on the island that offers its guests a choice to stay in one of its 30 secluded private villas.
The villas provide a 180 view of the ocean, round-the-clock exclusive butlers, and an all-you-can-eat-and-drink at the finest dining options. To get a better idea of the type of place where Annie and Robin stayed in, I recommend you Google the Maya Luxury Resort. I'll also post a few photos to our website because I want you to see how luxurious and how fancy this place is.
If you ever have an opportunity to stay at a place like this, it would be without a doubt a once in a lifetime opportunity. Okay, so I'm talking this place up. What does a place like this run? Well, Annie and Robin's villa cost around $2,000 a night. Not $2,000 for the total trip, $2,000 a night for one of these private secluda villas on this island.
So after Robin and Annie arrived at the resort on September 16th, they spent the next six days having the time of their lives. They were woken up in the morning by their butlers escorting them down to breakfast at one of the resort's restaurants. After breakfast, they went back to their villa to change and head down to the pool or the beach. Then, after spending the day in the sun, they usually went to the bar for a few drinks and then on to dinner.
The sisters were having such a great time on the island, they decided to extend their stay for another two days. The original plan was to stay there from September 16th through the 22nd, but they decided to stay another couple of days and check out on September 24th.
In a Facebook post published on September 20th, Annie posted, quote, Wish you were here. All in caps, seriously, best trip ever, end quote. The sisters appeared happy and healthy throughout the week in countless photographs posted on social media during their stay. September 21st was like all the previous days had been so far.
Other hotel guests saw them at the pool. Other guests saw the sisters drinking at bars throughout the hotel. Annie and Robyn Corky were having a great time. According to statements made by the hotel staff, the last time the sisters were seen were around 7.45 p.m. At this time, they were seen drinking alcohol at one of the hotel's bars.
After that, Annie and Robin were helped to their room by hotel personnel at around 8.15. It's unclear exactly why they were escorted to their villa by hotel staff. The only information I could find was that they appeared highly intoxicated, and the resort staff felt like the sisters needed a little extra help getting back to their room safely.
But this didn't really raise any alarm bells with the hotel. This is a five-star, all-inclusive, $2,000 a night kind of place. So of course, there's going to be some people that have a good time and maybe some of them have a little too much of a good time. They're going to be enjoying themselves. And for some of these people, that might mean they're having one too many cocktails.
So it also wasn't uncommon for resort staff to escort guests to their rooms simply because of its size. Each private villa is a relatively good distance from one another. The entire resort itself is spread across 12 acres. This aspect of the resort is one of its selling points. It offers secluded private villas so people feel like they have complete privacy during their stay.
Around 8.15 p.m. on September 21st, hotel staff escorted the sisters to their shared villa and said their goodnights. The following morning, September 22nd, the sisters' private butler arrived at their villa but found that the sliding glass door was locked. Initially, the butler thought they might still be asleep.
So he decided he didn't want to wake them up, and instead, he would wait a few more hours and then come back. A few hours went by, and the butler once again went to Annie and Robin's villa. And just like earlier, it was still locked. By this point, the butler is concerned. The two sisters had stayed at the resort for over a week, so he knew their typical routines. He knew when they would wake up in the morning.
He kept an eye on the villa throughout the day, but he still didn't see any movement. By late afternoon, he knew something was wrong. So he grabbed his key to the locked villa and opened the door. Inside the room, the two sisters were lying on one of the beds. They almost looked like they were still asleep, but when he tried to wake them, they didn't respond.
After several more attempts to wake the sisters, he ran out of the villa and told his supervisor, who immediately contacted the police. When the police arrived at the resort, they found the sisters unresponsive on one of the beds. They were lying on their backs, side by side, on the same bed.
They called a doctor to the resort from a nearby medical clinic who pronounced 37-year-old Annie Corky and her sister, 42-year-old Robin Corky, dead. Everything appeared to be utterly normal inside the sisters' villa, making their sudden deaths more shocking. The room was relatively neat. There were no signs of a struggle like overturned furniture or anything like that. The villa didn't appear to be ransacked either,
And there were no visible or obvious marks or injuries on their bodies. No blood, no weapons, nothing. The only thing inside the sister's room the police removed as part of their investigation was, quote, undisclosed medications. Now, I couldn't find a single thing about what specific kind of medication was removed from the room.
All that was reported was that medications were found inside of the villa. However, I want to note that according to an article by the Daily Mail, the medication was described as prescription medication, not any illegal substances. News about Annie and Robin's deaths came as a shock to their parents and brothers.
In an interview with a local Minnesota TV station, KMSP, Chris Corky told reporters, quote, the family is in shock. Everyone is trying to understand and come to terms with what happened, end quote.
Nothing about the sisters' deaths made any sense. Both women were physically active. In fact, they were both in great physical shape. In addition, both were experienced travelers who went to many foreign places together over the years. So how could two healthy adult females end up dead inside a $2,000 a night African villa?
Within hours of Annie and Robin's family discovering their sister's death, their mother Susan and two brothers, Mike and Chris, got on a flight and traveled to the island. With financial assistance from U.S. Embassy officials, they made the over 20-hour and 9,000-mile journey. Authorities told them once they got there that they didn't suspect foul play in the deaths. They didn't find any signs of a break-in, and there weren't any obvious injuries to their bodies.
Sachet's tourism minister, Alan St. Onge, told NBC News, While the family waited and demanded answers about their sudden deaths, a forensic pathologist at a nearby island performed their autopsy at the Victoria Hospital.
When someone dies suddenly, and in this case, when two people die suddenly, the autopsy is supposed to provide people with answers. It's supposed to explain how and why someone died. We do them for medical reasons to help us better understand the human body, but we also do them for the families to provide them with a sense of peace and closure.
But with the case of Anne and Robin Corky, their autopsies posed far more questions than they did answers. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip.
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That's betterhelp.com. The autopsies on Annie and Robin's bodies revealed that the two sisters had the same exact cause of death. Robin died from acute pulmonary edema, and her younger sister Annie died from acute pulmonary and cerebral edema.
Okay, before we get any further into this, what exactly is acute pulmonary and cerebral edema? According to the Mayo Clinic, pulmonary edema is caused by too much fluid in the lungs. The excess fluid then makes it difficult for the person to breathe.
Acute pulmonary edema happens when the fluid builds up quickly in the lungs, and if the person doesn't receive emergency medical attention right away, it can sometimes lead to death relatively quickly. Most of the time, if this condition is caught early enough, treatment may simply include supplemental oxygen or medication.
When someone suffers from acute pulmonary edema, they have difficulty breathing, but they may also experience cold, clammy skin, a cough that may or may not produce blood, anxiety, blue lips, a rapid or irregular heartbeat. So the person will likely know that something is wrong and should seek out medical attention.
On top of pulmonary edema, Annie also died from cerebral edema. According to the Mayo Clinic, cerebral edema is when fluid builds up in the brain. Someone experiencing cerebral edema might have headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. They might also have memory problems or trouble speaking. Now, these are just a few symptoms. There are a few more.
So what can cause acute pulmonary edema and cerebral edema? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, heart problems can often cause pulmonary edema in most cases. But fluid can build up in the lungs for other reasons like pneumonia, exposure to certain medications or toxins, chest trauma, and even traveling to or exercising in high elevations.
Then what about cerebral edemas? They're a little bit different. The Mayo Clinic says that there can be lots of causes for this condition, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, brain tumors, infections, brain hemorrhages, or even high altitude.
The autopsies on the sisters also confirmed the police's initial assessment that their bodies were free of physical injuries and that besides the two conditions of cerebral and pulmonary edema, the sisters were in good overall health.
Following the autopsies, the story caught international media attention. Everyone, especially the Corky family, needed to understand how they could have gotten so much fluid in their lungs and brains.
These were relatively two young sisters. They were both in good health. They were seasoned world travelers. This was not their first trip to a foreign country together. And they were upstanding people. They did not have a history of drug use. They both held down good jobs. So by all accounts, they checked the boxes. They lived a stand-up life.
Then, well, then there were the circumstances surrounding their deaths, starting with the night before their deaths. After the butler escorted Annie and Robin to their villa, nobody knows what happened behind that locked door. Did they ingest something? Drugs, maybe?
According to island officials, probably not since no illegal drugs were found in the villa. The only thing they found was an unnamed prescription medication. So what happened once they returned to their villa that night? Next is the location of the bodies. When the police arrived at the resort, Annie and Robin were lying side to side in the same bed.
Police reports suggested that they were lying in almost identical positions. Why were they lying on the same bed when they had this huge private villa? They didn't share the same bed the entire trip. Each sister had her own bed. So why were they next to each other in very similar positions?
Finally, the most disturbing question, how could two sisters die of the same exact cause? On the same day, in the same hotel room, how could these two women develop fluid in their lungs and brains?
The answer to that question would take months. Many forensic pathologists consider pulmonary edema to be a nonspecific finding. In other words, this particular finding doesn't point to any specific diagnosis. We don't know what caused this fluid buildup in their lungs. So to get a better idea of what could have caused it, the forensic pathologist ordered a full toxicology report.
This report would help explain if there were any chemicals or toxins that could have built up in their systems. Unfortunately, complete toxicology reports can take months to produce any solid results. And the reason why they take so long can, well, it can depend. Sometimes it's because there's a long backlog of other cases, or sometimes it's because there are a lot of specimens that need to be tested, which means longer testing times.
Whatever the case, the full toxicology report of Annie and Robin would take months.
A private ceremony for the sisters was held on the same day the police revealed the autopsy results. The ceremony was held on the island where they stayed, and only their mom and two brothers attended. Now, I can't even begin to imagine what that was like for them. To not only lose one sister, but to lose two on the same day by the same cause of death.
a cause of death that made zero sense. After the remains were turned over to the Corkies, the family returned home to Minnesota. They knew that it would be weeks, possibly months, before they had any solid answers. And during this time, the internet went into a frenzy about this case.
Websites ran stories like mysterious death of two sisters in a luxury hotel and sisters found dead lying side by side in beach resort. And without the results of the toxicology report, everyone was left wondering how this could happen.
In an interview with the Denver Post, Dr. Patrick Lank, a Northwestern Medicine Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine in Chicago, speculated that a drug overdose could cause fluid buildup. He told reporters, quote, emergency rooms commonly see it in drug overdoses, end quote. But drug overdoses aren't the only cause.
He went on to tell the Denver Post that the fluid could also come from viral infections. Dr. Lank said, quote, End quote.
We know that Annie and Robin visited several African countries before they got to the resort based on travel records. They went to Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar. And at these locations, they did things like go on safari rides. They went on hikes. They immersed themselves in the culture.
According to ABC Travel Clinic, an organization specializing in travel medicine, your risk of contracting an infection while traveling to Africa nearly doubles or even triples if you intend to do outdoor activities like safaris. Types of infections can include hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rabies, typhoid fever, and even yellow fever.
Now, the best thing you can do to prevent yourself from getting any type of these infections is to make sure you travel with current and up-to-date vaccinations. But even being current on vaccinations might not be enough.
So while the family waited for the toxicology reports, rumors swirled that Annie and Robin may have contracted some sort of deadly infection while traveling and that that would explain their deaths and fluid buildup. Or maybe they were exposed to something else at the resort.
Immediately following this incident, the resort was temporarily shut down so that authorities could thoroughly inspect the property and make sure that no one else became infected. But the inspection of the resort didn't turn up anything significant. The authorities didn't find any chemicals or toxins around the resort. And besides Annie and Robin, no other guests reported any medical issues.
So once the inspection was complete, the resort was reopened and guests were allowed to come back. Three months after their deaths, a conclusive toxicology report was finally made public in December 2016. The test found that the sisters had a lethal combination of three chemicals in their system at the time of their death. Codeine, morphine, and alcohol. Let's start with codeine.
Codeine is a common opioid pain reliever found in many different types of medications, including cough medicine. It simply works by changing the way the body senses pain and by cooling the body. Most of the time, people will take medication with codeine in it for mild to moderate pain or discomfort. It isn't really the type of medication used to treat severe pain.
Morphine is another commonly used pain medication, although most people would probably argue that morphine is much stronger than codeine and is typically used to treat moderate to severe pain. Morphine is typically prescribed to someone when non-opioid medications don't provide enough pain relief.
Then finally alcohol was found. Both Annie and Robin had a substantial amount of alcohol in their system. This discovery isn't too surprising since resort staff said that they saw the sisters drinking throughout the day at several of the bars and the butler who escorted them back to the room that night before said that both sisters were very intoxicated and that they needed help getting back to their villa.
So we know the sisters were likely very intoxicated at the time. Now, what makes this combination of alcohol, codeine, and morphine lethal? Well, mixing alcohol with any medication is never a good idea. But some combinations can actually become lethal, particularly mixing morphine and opioid with large amounts of alcohol.
Can this combination lead to what killed Annie and Robin? Pulmonary edema. The short answer is yes. Opioid overdose itself can induce pulmonary edema by increasing the fluid found in the lungs. It can also increase fluid in the brain. And it's not just opioids. Over-the-counter drugs like aspirin can also cause pulmonary edema in some extreme cases.
It's hard to say why both sisters had codeine, morphine, and alcohol in their systems. Yes, I think we know about the alcohol consumption, but we don't know much about codeine or morphine. We know that a prescription bottle was found inside their villa, but I couldn't find any information about what exactly was in the bottle. But there's other possible explanations for finding both codeine and morphine in their systems.
According to an article published by the National Library of Medicine, most people who take codeine will have a significant amount of morphine in their system. Codeine is metabolized to morphine. What's also interesting is that according to this same article, the presence of codeine in the system doesn't always indicate that the person took any prescription containing codeine.
The best example of this is poppy seeds. A small amount of codeine is found in poppy seeds. So besides morphine, traces of codeine may appear in someone's urine after eating a lot of poppy seeds. So let's say that Annie and Robin spend the day drinking alcohol. They went back to their villa and took some kind of pain medication that contained codeine. Maybe they took something because they had a headache from drinking too much.
Then the codeine is metabolized to morphine. And that's why there's codeine, morphine, and alcohol showing up on the sister's toxicology reports. But again, that's just a theory. In the case of Annie and Robin, it's not exactly clear which drug led to the fluid buildup. Maybe it was only one, or maybe it was a combination of all three.
Based on these findings, the police wrapped up their investigation by announcing that the sisters died from this lethal combination of painkillers and alcohol. The excess fluid in the lungs and brain were due to acute combined drug intoxication. They believe their deaths were accidental and don't believe they intended to overdose. For some, the toxicology report provided closure about Annie and Robin's tragic and sudden deaths.
But for others, it raised more suspicions. Their deaths have officially been closed and labeled as an accident. But not everyone out there agrees. One theory is that Annie and Robin intentionally overdosed and that their deaths might be a suicide. Those who support this theory point to several details. First, how they were found lying side by side to each other in the same bed.
Second is the resort itself. Annie and Robin spent a lot of money on this vacation, particularly at this resort. They stayed there for over a week at a place that runs $2,000 a night. So those that think maybe this could have been a double suicide say that they knew they were going to do this. So why not spend all this money on a fancy resort?
Finally, those who believe a suicide theory point to the fact that they both died from an accidental overdose.
Now, two or more people dying from an overdose simultaneously isn't entirely uncommon. Unfortunately, we hear about it in the news ever so often where teenagers or young people doing drugs together and a few of them end up overdosing. So we know this can happen. We know two people can be found dead together from drug overdoses, but
But it just seems a little strange that two sisters accidentally overdose on the same night, lying side by side while on vacation together. Questions have also been raised about why they suddenly decided to extend their vacation for two additional days. It seems likely that almost every aspect of this trip was pre-planned from the beginning when they arrived in Africa,
So why did they suddenly decide to stay another two days, especially again when the room is running them two grand a night? Second theory tossed around the internet with this one is that foul play was involved. Some people speculate whether someone slipped something into one of their drinks at the resort bar, maybe a hotel staff member or possibly another person staying at the resort.
This theory could also explain why codeine and morphine were in their systems. It's possible whoever did this didn't intend to kill the sisters, or maybe they did. This theory could also explain why Annie and Robin died simultaneously.
it seems like they ingested the substance at around the same time. If they didn't, then one of the sisters would have been able to call for help when she noticed the other sister was in trouble. However, since neither one of them called for help, the most likely scenario was that they ingested the substance at the same time and then therefore died at the same time.
But if you believe foul play was involved, you've got to ask yourself, why? Why would someone put something in their drinks? Well, unfortunately, that aspect happens all the time. If you're a female listening right now, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
As women, we are practically taught to keep an eye on our drinks when we're out just to make sure that someone doesn't slip anything into it. So it's not uncommon for this to happen. Maybe someone did put something in their drinks then when they went to their villa to do whatever it was that they were going to do to the sisters. But then when they got there, the sisters were dead.
One of the stranger theories around on the internet is that scuba diving could have caused their deaths. IPE, or swimming-induced pulmonary edema, is a condition that is seen in a tiny number of scuba divers, snorkelers, triathletes, and military swimmers.
This type of edema can happen when a person is submerged in cold water and is participating in intense physical activity. There's also a genetic aspect to this condition. Certain risk factors are associated with someone being more likely to experience IPE than others.
Because both sisters died from pulmonary edema, some people argue that the sisters had the same genetic disposition to suffer from IPE. But there's one major problem with this particular theory. That's because there's no record that the sisters went scuba diving anytime during their trip.
Annie and Robin Corky will always be remembered for their desire to experience life to the fullest. An article published by People magazine described the sisters as close, outgoing, and adventurous. In fall 2016, they set out on what was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime.
we can have a small piece of solace knowing that the sisters died together, loving life and enjoying time with each other. We may never understand how two physically active and experienced travelers died even after a complete autopsy and full toxicology report at the same time from the same cause of death. The forensics tell us the time of death
Witnesses tell us the logistics of their deaths. The forensic evidence can even tell us they died from excess fluids in the lungs. But unfortunately, for the family and many others, the forensics will never tell us why. To share your thoughts on the deaths of Annie and Robin Corky, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. What do you think caused the sisters' deaths? Do you think it was an accidental overdose?
Or do you think something far more sinister happened? To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. You'll want to listen to this one because I'm going to tell you what I think happened to Annie and Robin.
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Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
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I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
