Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal by Ann Rule

IVE
    DECEMBER 5, 2004
    D R . C AROL A. T ERRY rose early the next morning, even though it was Sunday. She was scheduled to perform a postmortem examination of the body of Jennifer Corbin. As far as the public knew, this young woman had taken her own life. But neither the Gwinnett County police investigators nor District Attorney Danny Porter and members of his staff were satisfied with that assumption. Before anyone could be officially declared a suicide, there were always tests and an extremely thorough autopsy to be done. There were also “psychological autopsies” of the deceased to be explored. From what little was known of Jennifer Corbin’s life, she seemed a most unlikely candidate for suicide.
    The manner of her death was odd. Even if fatally depressed, few females kill themselves with a gunshot to the head. They want to look attractive when their bodies are discovered, whereas males don’t seem to care. Women tend to take their own lives with sleeping pills or by cutting their wrists. Many even put on makeup and wear their prettiest outfit or nightgown.
    But Jennifer had worn an old sleeveless green satin shortie nightgown. Both its straps were torn off in the back, and she had them secured with safety pins. It was the sort of quick patching job that women do on clothes that no one is going to see. Underneath, she wore pink panties. Dr. Terry noted that they were in place with no sign that anyone had tried to remove them.
    The clothing and possessions worn by the dead are somehow more “alive” than the body shell left behind, and tell their own small stories. The jewelry on Jenn Corbin’s body seemed intact: clear, square diamond earrings; a “brownish-red” teardrop-shaped pendant on a thin gold chain encircling her neck, with a ring that matched it on her right hand; a gold nugget bracelet on her right wrist; a gold wedding ring and an engagement ring with a rectangular diamond; an Aquatech watch with a digital display reading 6:42:21. The watch display did not change as real time passed—the battery had apparently failed a few hours after she died. On her right wrist, Jenn wore a white and pink beaded bracelet with the beads spelling out “Kylie.” The childish bracelet was in support of a friend’s child who was fighting cancer. The “brownish-red” stones in Jenn’s necklace and in one of her rings were garnets, her favorite semiprecious stone, which she had worn constantly for many years after her late grandmother, “Nana,” gave them to her.
    Jennifer Corbin had a small tattoo on her right ankle—the familiar mask of tragedy and comedy. She had been a true fan of the group Mötley Crüe, and the masks were from the cover of one of their top albums.
    Forensic Technician Zubedah Mutawassim, Assistant DA Tom Davis, and DA’s Investigator Kevin Vincent joined Ray Rawlins and Marcus Head to observe the postmortem exam. Perhaps Dr. Terry would find something that would end this death investigation once and for all. More likely, there would be small things that didn’t mesh with suicide.
    Jenn Corbin was a good-sized woman, but not at all overweight. She lacked perhaps a half-inch of being six feet tall, and she weighed just over 170. Jenn would have been capable of putting up a good fight had she had any warning at all of danger. But the investigators at the death site hadn’t noted anything that suggested a struggle—no overturned lamps or chairs, nothing broken. When the brown paper bags that covered her hands were removed, Dr. Terry found not even a minuscule cut or scratch. If Jenn had been murdered, she would have to have been taken by surprise or she might even have been asleep.
    If she was murdered. That was the biggest if. All the suspicions in the world wouldn’t help in a courtroom unless the Gwinnett County detectives and prosecutors could prove their theories to a jury.
    The woman before them was wearing a little makeup: pale pink lipstick. She had three piercings in each ear,