The Mattress - Talina Zar E4

Summary

Summary of "What Happened to Talina Zar" - Episode: The Mattress (E4)

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Introduction

In Episode 4, titled "The Mattress," of the What Happened to Talina Zar series by iHeartPodcasts, host Melissa Jeltson delves deeper into the mysterious disappearance of Talina Zar during the COVID-19 lockdown. This episode focuses on the events surrounding Talina's roommate, Corey Bommily, the subsequent suspicions raised by friends and online sleuths, and the unraveling of Corey’s dubious actions that have cast a shadow over Talina's vanishing.

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Background: Talina Zar and Corey Bommily

The episode begins with testimonies from individuals close to Talina Zar, highlighting her deep love for animals and her welcoming nature toward Corey's pets after her own separation.

Greg Thompson, a local handyman who assisted Corey, shares insights into the household dynamics:

"Corey butchered that thing. And I'm like, what? She said, yeah, she kept that horse up in tiny little pieces..." ([02:58])

This unsettling revelation about Corey's handling of Talina's old horse raises early red flags about her character and the circumstances surrounding Talina's disappearance.

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Suspicious Activities and Community Concerns

Approximately a week after Talina's disappearance, Talina's friend Eris visits Corey's house to drop off pre-paid sausage meat orders and to collect a promised mattress for Talina's son. However, Corey exhibits strange behavior by refusing to invite Eris inside, citing COVID-19 fears. Upon discovering that the mattress intended for Talina's son has been burned in the backyard, Eris senses an extreme reaction from Corey:

"Burning Talina's bed in the backyard strikes Eris as an extreme reaction to Covid." ([08:16])

Corey's nonchalant attitude toward these disturbing actions further deepens the community's suspicions.

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Corey's Strange Behavior and Community Investigation

Friends and neighbors, including Greg Thompson and Rachel, notice Corey's evasive behavior and begin questioning her authenticity. The online community, galvanized by local friends like Jess and Eris, starts scrutinizing Corey's background, uncovering a felony from six years prior for credit card misuse in Wisconsin:

"Her criminal records will pop up online and it said she had used credit cards at different places." ([21:31])

Despite this discovery, online sleuths recognize that a non-violent felony doesn't directly implicate Corey in Talina's disappearance. They continue to build a profile, uncovering Corey's use of multiple aliases and her extensive travel history across four states.

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eBay Findings and Evidence Collection

A breakthrough occurs when Nicole, a friend in Tennessee, observes Corey selling Talina's personal belongings on eBay, including deeply personal items like Talina's wedding ring and her deceased husband's military medals. This leads to a strategic intervention:

"Armed with this evidence, Nicole contacts the cops." ([25:24])

Nicole orchestrates a plan where her cousin bids on these items, resulting in Corey shipping Talina's possessions to her. This direct evidence significantly strengthens the case against Corey, prompting both Nicole and Jess to report their findings to law enforcement.

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Police Involvement and Corey’s Interrogation

Detective Joel Weber investigates Corey's property, noting peculiar items like a map marking missing persons in national forests. During an intensive two-hour interview, Corey appears defensive and evasive, admitting to her past felony as a misunderstanding but dismissing the significance of selling Talina's items. She offers to cooperate fully, including taking a polygraph test:

"Rachel: So let's whatever we have to do to get to that point." ([42:25])

Detective Weber expresses frustration over Corey’s uncooperative demeanor and the relentless speculation from online communities, emphasizing the need for concrete evidence over rampant theories:

"Rachel: So I said, prove me wrong. Have your crime junkies find her. Prove me wrong." ([40:12])

Despite Corey's assurances, her inconsistent explanations and the coincidental sale of Talina’s belongings keep suspicions alive.

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Impact on the Community and Next Steps

The ongoing investigation takes an emotional toll on the amateur investigators. Jess confesses the strain of lying to friends and feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of the case:

"Jess: I lied to a lot of people. A lot. Friends of Talina's, friends of Marty's. Sometimes I felt like I was in over my head." ([42:43])

As the community grapples with conflicting information and Corey's seemingly hidden motives, the mystery of Talina Zar's disappearance remains unresolved. The episode concludes with hints that new evidence has emerged, challenging the established timeline and suggesting deeper layers to the case.

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Conclusion and Teaser for Next Episode

Melissa Jeltson wraps up the episode by noting the increasing pressure on both the community and law enforcement as more details surface, promising listeners further revelations in the subsequent episode:

"Next episode on What Happened to Talina Zar? The amateur investigators' investigation starts to take its toll on Jess." ([42:43])

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Notable Quotes

• Greg Thompson ([02:58]):

  "Corey butchered that thing. And I'm like, what?"

• Eris ([07:16]):

  "Talena had already prepaid for these items, and I didn't want to keep that, even though she was missing at this point."

• Rachel ([25:24]):

  "Nicole's cousin wins the bid. Corey packs up the wedding ring and some of Tom's military medals and ships it off."

• Rachel ([42:43]):

  "I lied to a lot of people. A lot. Friends of Talina's, friends of Marty's."

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Key Takeaways

• Corey's suspicious actions, including the handling and sale of Talina's personal belongings, have raised significant doubts about her role in Talina's disappearance.

• The collective efforts of Talina's friends and online sleuths have unearthed critical evidence, pushing law enforcement to scrutinize Corey's behavior more closely.

• Personal testimonies reveal the emotional and psychological strains placed on the community battling to uncover the truth behind Talina's mysterious vanishing.

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Looking Forward

As the investigation unfolds, listeners can anticipate uncovering more about the discrepancies in the timeline of Talina's disappearance and the deepening complexities surrounding Corey Bommily's involvement in the next episode.

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Credits

What Happened to Talina Zar is brought to you by iHeartPodcasts, with writing and reporting by Melissa Jeltson, story editing by Lauren Hanson, and executive production by Ryan Murdoch. Special thanks to contributors and voice actors who bring this chilling mystery to life.

Transcript

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[Greg Thompson]

Corey. She had a place out west of Muscogee and she had some animals and dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, all kinds of stuff over there.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This is Greg Thompson, the local handyman who did small jobs for Talena. When Corey moved into Talena's house fresh off a separation from her husband, she came with a menagerie of animals, both Big and small.

[Greg Thompson]

She had to do something with all the animals and all the corrals and everything that went with them. And here's old Greg, that's me. I volunteered to help Cory, and we moved all of her stuff over to Talina's house.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Talena was a huge animal lover, and she welcomed Corey's cats and dogs into her home. The larger animals that couldn't fit replaced with her neighbor and house cleaner named Billy Shields.

[Greg Thompson]

Billy had a pretty good sized yard. We fenced it in. She put the donkeys in there. They were little miniature donkeys, and she liked them. They were cute. And they had this horse. It was like 13 or 14 years old, super old. And it was like a horse made out of toothpicks and paper. I mean, it was so skinny. I was like, cory, what's up with that horse? And she goes, well, I've had people report me to the law and everything else about that horse, but I have a vet that says that it's sick. And, you know, we're just trying to let it live its. Live its life out. I don't want to put it down. You know, we're letting it live. And it eats, it drinks, it did everything a horse should have done. It just looked awful. A couple of months go by and the old horse finally passes away. And Corey calls me like nine or ten o' clock at night and asks me if I had access to a backhoe. And I'm like, no, I don't. I have a tractor, but it doesn't dig holes like that. Is she okay? Well, maybe I can get some help from a neighbor over here. Okay. So a couple of days go by, I end up over at Billy's. I said, what happened to the horse? Where'd they end up burying it? She goes, well, we didn't end up burying it. And I'm like, well, what happened to it? It's not here. And she goes, well, Corey butchered that thing. And I'm like, what? She said, yeah, she kept that horse up in tiny little pieces and put it in black trash bags and put it in the back of the Pontiac 6000 and hauled it out to Muskokee and dumped it out for the coyote. And I'm like, what? Who does that? And so I ran into Corey and we got to talking about it. I said, how did you. And she said, it took me a long time I was able to do it, and said, I just thought it was fitting to take it back out there where it had lived all its life and kind of return it back to nature. And like, okay, that's. That's freaking weird, but, okay, whatever. And I'm like, who even knows how to do something like that?

[Melissa Jeltson]

From iHeart podcasts, I'm Melissa Jeltson, and this is what happened to Talina Czar.

[Howie Mandel]

Just because they're missing doesn't mean anything was nefarious.

[Jess]

All of us wear masks, right?

[Melissa Jeltson]

How well did I adapt to being property? Well, that depends on whether you ask me or master. Lol.

[Jess]

He would talk and talk and talk. So he'd give us information, he'd give us names, he would give us phone numbers.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The first thing I would say was.

[Eris]

How'S your roommate doing?

[Greg Thompson]

And she always answered the best I've ever had.

[Rachel]

There's still part of me thinking that maybe someone will just call and say she's sick somewhere. Most of me is saying that when I get that phone call, it's gonna be because someone found her. I'm supposed to identify her.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Episode 4 the Mattress we had some.

[Eris]

Meat from a fundraiser that our kids were doing at the school. It was like sausage meat. I don't know if you've ever heard of blue and gold, but it's kind of a big deal down here in the Oklahoma, Texas area. It's really good stuff. Talena had already prepaid for these items, and I didn't want to keep that, even though she was missing at this point.

[Melissa Jeltson]

About a week after Talina disappears, her friend Eris stops by her house and meets with her roommate, Corey. The purpose of Eris's visit is twofold. She's dropping off some meat that Talina had ordered and also picking up a mattress of Talina's, which had been promised to her son. She's just moved into a new house, and Talina had been instrumental in helping to furnish it.

[Eris]

So we get there, we see Corey, we ask, you know, hey, how you holding up, Maddie? Heard anything? They're like, no, they hadn't heard anything from Talina.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey meets Eris at the door, but doesn't invite her in. She's worried that the virus could still be lingering inside and doesn't want Eris to get sick.

[Eris]

She said that to reduce the possibility of exposure, that we should stay outside.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Standing on the front porch, Eris asks about the mattress and learns that it's gone.

[Eris]

The bed that we were going to be given was burned in the backyard. Corey burned it because the CDC told her to, because Taleta believed she had Covid.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Burning Talina's bed in the backyard strikes Eris as an Extreme reaction to Covid. But then again, so is the decision to shut down businesses and schools. I mean, people were spraying their groceries with Lysol before touching them. It was a weird time. Luckily, Corey says there's another mattress she can take instead. And so Eris and her husband load it up. Before they leave, Eris brings Corey the sausage meat.

[Eris]

When I take the sausage out of my car, I go to hand it to her, and I say, hey, this is the stuff that Talia paid for. You know, even though she might not be here right now, I would rather it go to the house to pay for it. She looked at me and said, you guys should go ahead and take it. Our freezer is stuffed full of meat.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Not long after, Greg bumped into Corey in town.

[Greg Thompson]

She was filing a missing persons report for Kalena. She had this big mask on, like you would use for, like, painting or something, you know, to keep the fumes up. We had talked for a minute, and I expressed my concern about Talina missing and was asking her, do you know where she could possibly have gone?

[Melissa Jeltson]

The two compare notes and theories for a few minutes. And then Corey asks Greg for some help at the house.

[Greg Thompson]

She asked me to come over and pick up some scrap metal in their yard that they've accumulated or haul off trash or something like that.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Later that day, Greg drives over to Talina and Corey's.

[Greg Thompson]

So I get over there to pick up Corey's scrap metal. And it was Talina's headboard from her bed. And what was left of the mattress that I had just put on there, it had been burnt, and all that was left was a metal wire frame that's inside the mattress. You know, we're loading this stuff up on there, and I'm like, is this Talina's bed? And she goes, oh, yeah, this is the sick bed. This is where Talena was so sick. And, you know, to get rid of the germs and this and that, I just earned it all.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Greg loads his trailer with the metal bed frame and heads towards the recycling center.

[Greg Thompson]

I pulled up on the scale, and the lady's behind the windows. You know, she's looking at all my stuff and telling me to pull up. And she walks out there, and she goes, what size headboard is that? I told her, I think it's a queen or a king, whatever. And she goes, do you mind if I have it? And I'm like, I don't care. She goes, my daughter is looking for a headboard, and I think that one would be perfect. I gave it to her. And so I went ahead and got rid of all my scrap, went on about my day.

[Melissa Jeltson]

That evening, Greg finds himself recounting this story to a friend.

[Greg Thompson]

I'm telling you, my buddy this as we're sitting in the garage and he, he said, do you not think that you just got rid of evidence of a possible crime? And I was like, I don't. I don't know. I mean, it was just really, really weird things were happening.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This is Rachel, another Wagner friend of Telena's.

[Greg Thompson]

Everybody's, you know, reaching out to each other, and it's like, has anybody seen Talina? Has anybody here heard from Talina? And there was nothing. And people reached out to Corey. Have you heard from her? And Corey was just like blowing it off and stuff. No, she's sick. She's up in the woods and whatnot. And the whole situation was just weird. But Covid was starting to ramp up and people were starting to get sick and stuff right around that time. And, you know, we all tried for several weeks to reach out to Corey and Talina and stuff and just heard anything.

[Melissa Jeltson]

There's a pretty big group of people in Wagner looking for Talina now. Rachel Eris Greg and his wife Marty, AKA Wolfie and his wife Laurie, as well as other neighbors, even Talina's hairdresser, Kim, they put up flyers and organize a vigil.

[Greg Thompson]

Wolfie had this little get together at our local fire department. It was to bring awareness to Palina's disappearance. I didn't go to it, but my wife just popped in and talked to Wolfie and his wife and some other people that were there, and she noticed that Corey wasn't there.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The thing about Corey is she's a recent transplant. She's been living with Talina for less than a year. And the Wagner friends, they start to have the same nagging feeling. How well did any of them really know her?

[Greg Thompson]

My wife went over to the house and Corey met her at the. You know, answered the front door, but just barely cracked it and then come out. She wouldn't let her in the house. And Billy Shield, the lady that was cleaning their house, she went over there and Corey wouldn't let her in.

[Melissa Jeltson]

There was really only one person in town who, who had a long standing relationship with Corey. That was Marty Wolfie. They'd met more than a decade earlier at Gorefest.

[Eris]

Wolfie had called me and asked probably a week or two afterwards if I had noticed anything about Corey, and I said no. Everything seemed to be business as usual. I mean, she seemed probably a little Too nonchalant when more than one person started asking me if I'd noticed anything is when I started to really start to question every interaction we had.

[Melissa Jeltson]

With suspicions raised, Eris looks back over her text messages with Talina before she disappeared and she starts to think, some of these messages don't sound like Talina. Talina had reached out to Eris on March 28 and asked her to swing by for the mattress. But at the last minute, Talina canceled.

[Eris]

We were supposed to go over that morning and we got a message that said, I have a migraine. I'm gonna stay in, you know, abort mission, whatever.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Abort mission. I've got a terrible migraine. I've been staying in bed today.

[Eris]

Like, okay, not uncommon. But I had noticed she had typed it differently. She normally has a pattern of how she typed uppercase properly punctuated, grammatically correct. That wasn't it initially. I just wrote it off as, oh, she must have a migraine. She clearly has a migraine. So, you know, not keeping up with the grammar.

[Melissa Jeltson]

A number of Talena's friends are also questioning the legitimacy of Talina's final Facebook post. Like Rachel, who was skeptical about it from the moment she read it.

[Greg Thompson]

I'd literally just talked to her a couple of days before in messenger and she was fine.

[Melissa Jeltson]

I'm on day nine of this virus and I am pretty sure it has reached my lungs.

[Greg Thompson]

We had talked about COVID She didn't seem particularly worried about it. She didn't seem to be like the sky is falling kind of thing, which is what this post sounded like.

[Rachel]

I made the decision at the onset.

[Melissa Jeltson]

That if it got bad enough I would not go to the hospital.

[Greg Thompson]

And at the time when I read it I'm like, that just sounds weird. That doesn't sound like Talena.

[Nicole]

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[Melissa Jeltson]

Bleach Use as directed Talina's friends in Wagner are growing distrustful of Corey and so are the online sleuths. We all had reservations about Corey. Like nothing she said or did made sense. Why was she being like so sketchy about everything?

[Jess]

Really the biggest, the biggest one was.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Trying to figure out who Corey was.

[Jess]

And her history and you know, where did she come from? After we found out about the Gorians, we started deep diving Corey. So we googled Corey bommily and found out she had a criminal history.

[Melissa Jeltson]

A felony according to the documents they can access. Six years earlier Corey was arrested and charged in Madison, Wisconsin for using someone else's credit card.

[Jess]

Her criminal records will pop up online and it said she had used credit cards at different places.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This discovery is interesting, but the online sleuths know enough from their true crime shows that a past charge for a non violent crime doesn't prove to anything.

[Jess]

A lot of us said, well just because she's a thief does not mean she's a murderer. That doesn't. It's not the same thing.

[Melissa Jeltson]

So they keep digging, developing a basic profile for Corey. They learn that she grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin with her mother, father and one brother and since she left home it seems as though she's traveled a fair bit. They find addresses for her in at least four states.

[Jess]

We found out she had like 13 different aliases. And I was like, who in the hell needs 13 aliases? And then I look myself up and I see I have two different, you know, my name is two different times because I had been married and then my maidename. And I was like, that makes sense to have one or two. But then 13. So we start googling like her life and we download this app where you can get background checks on people. We see who she was married to and then we start reaching out to people she was married to.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Not afraid to cold call strangers. Jess identifies two ex husbands and reaches out. First up, David Sachs, who Corey married in the 1980s. His father owned a casino in mob era Las Vegas. Jess has a few conversations with him and he offers some color about Corey, like the fact she'd once worked in a coroner's office, but he hasn't seen her in decades. Her second husband is more helpful. Alexander Adams is a Celtic musician who Corey met in Oregon when she was an event coordinator. They spent 14 years together, traveling the country for gigs and releasing music online. Alexander Adams, or Alec, as he goes by, is receptive to Jess questioning he's in Wisconsin. But he's heard about Talina's disappearance and wants to help however he can. He tells Jess some of their backstory, filling in gaps in her research. Alec is in the Renaissance Festival circuit. In fact, he'd met Marty Wolfie at the annual Oklahoma Renaissance Festival some years back. Alec tells Jess that Marty loved his music and asked him to come to his private event, Gorefest. Corey went too.

[Jess]

He invited Alec back to Gore Fest to perform at the festival. And he invited them back like, hey, come perform for us. You know, it's going to be great. And they went.

[Melissa Jeltson]

It's here at Gorefest in the early 2000s where Talina first meets Corey. The online sleuths are developing a better picture of of who Corey is from their conversations with Marty, Corey's ex husbands, and the research into her past. And then they find something huge.

[Jess]

She used ebay to make a living. She'd sell stuff on ebay and that's how she'd make money. And that gave us the idea to look on ebay to see what she's been selling. We'd all take turns kind of creeping on it every day, checking to see if anything was up. That was weird.

[Melissa Jeltson]

One day, Nicole, Talena's friend in Tennessee, notices that Corey is selling things that had been in Talena's house, looking at old pictures of her house, and you would See that she was selling things off little by little. You could see a clock in the background of a picture. And then it was there.

[Jess]

On her ebay, we had seen her selling Talena's stuff, some clothes, these metal, like lawn flowers that she had gotten. I guess Nicole had said Talina was very excited about these lawn flowers. They're like metal. She had bought them at a flea market or something and she had loved them. And we just, we were all like, what is going on here? Why is she selling this stuff?

[Melissa Jeltson]

Aside from just some trinkets and collectibles, they saw some of Talina's most treasured belongings for sale. Her wedding ring to Tom was on there. And she would never, ever, ever sell that wedding ring. And when I saw that and I saw his medals that he was awarded in the army, I knew that there was no way that she would have sold those things. Nicole comes up with a plan to get the items back. Without Corey catching on, I contacted my cousin and I asked her just to buy them, that I would pay her for them. She lived in another state in Louisiana, and so I thought that she would not know it was me. Nicole's cousin wins the bid. Corey packs up the wedding ring and some of Tom's military medals and ships it off. Nicole's cousin then forwards the package to her. Armed with this evidence, Nicole contacts the cops. So does Jess. But the response they get is not as enthusiastic as they hoped.

[Jess]

At first it was like, okay, thank you. We're getting a lot of tips, you know, thank you, we appreciate it. And we were really hyped up about the ebay thing. I was like, hey, this is huge.

[Nicole]

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[Narrator]

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[Howie Mandel]

OCD is debilitating, but it's also highly.

[Narrator]

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[Greg Thompson]

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[Narrator]

That's nocd. Hi, it's Jenny Garth. We all know the importance of taking care of our physical and mental health, but what about our sexual health? I've been there feeling totally stuck when it comes to my libido. That's why I started taking Addi and let me tell you, I have seen firsthand what a difference it can make in how you feel. ADDI is the only FDA approved pill clinically proven to help certain premenopausal women have more interest in sexual have more satisfying sex and lower the stress from low libido. ADDI has helped hundreds of thousands of women get their drive back, including me. Talk to your doctor or visit a d d y I.com to learn more about Addie the Little Pink Pill. Individual results may vary.

[Chelsea Handler]

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[Melissa Jeltson]

All right, that could go on for a while.

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[Melissa Jeltson]

Use as Directed it's been 22 days since Talina's cryptic Facebook post. From the perspective of the online sleuth, the cops aren't doing anything.

[Jess]

I was mad. I think all of us were mad. We were like, what the hell? It's plain as day what she's doing.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The Jess and the others aren't privy to what's going on behind the scenes. On April 29, Detective Joel Weber and a colleague go to Talina's property, a brown rustic lake house set back from the road. Corey invites them in and gives them a tour. It's the first, first time law enforcement has gone inside the house. She shows them around the living areas and the bedrooms where she and Talina slept. Here's how Detective Weber later described his visit.

[Howie Mandel]

In that initial kind of walkthrough of the house, there was several things that kind of, I guess stood out a little bit. One of the things was in the office room. There was a map on the wall that had a lot of arrows on it. They weren't drawn on the map. It came like from the distributor or whoever with those arrows on it. And it said like the missing 411 on it or something like that. And I asked Corey what that was or what it was for, and Corey said it was just all of the arrows indicated people that had gone missing in national forests around the United States. I thought that was significant. I made a mental note. There was a map of missing people on the wall and I'm there looking for a missing person. It seemed unusual. I think I went into. I think I went into every room and then also in the yard Corey.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Shows Weber around the yard, the garage, and then he leaves. Meanwhile, the sheriff's office is being inundated with tips from friends, locals, psychics, and the online sleuths. And a large number of them point at Corey. About a week later, Detective Weber asks Corey to come back into the station to address some of the rumors that have been circulating. Here's a recreation of parts of their conversation.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay, good. I forgot a pen, so. All right. Just had some follow up cues from what we talked about before.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Howie Mandel]

You probably already know that people on the Internet are already talking and saying lots of things.

[Rachel]

And there's one gal online that you know between some misinformation and some fabrication. It's unfortunate, right?

[Howie Mandel]

Everyone wants to be a detective.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Melissa Jeltson]

It seems that Corey knows about Jess and the Find Talina Czar Facebook group. She's been lurking online.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay, so I'm getting told a lot of random stuff and a lot of. And I'll be completely honest with you, a lot of people are pointing suspicion at you.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Detective Webber starts asking Corey about some of the tips his office has received, beginning with questions about Corey's criminal record.

[Howie Mandel]

All right. Somebody brought up at some point that you were charged with something, and I don't remember what state.

[Rachel]

Oh, okay. Wisconsin or in Wisconsin.

[Howie Mandel]

Wisconsin.

[Rachel]

Yes. So what happened? In a nutshell, my husband.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey explains that a number of years ago, she and her then husband, Alexander Adams, the Celtic musician, moved to Middleton, Wisconsin, where her mom lives.

[Rachel]

My husband and I spent every penny we had to move to Wisconsin, and we went through a tough time where we didn't have much money.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey tells Detective Weber that she became good friends with a man who lived next door. And one day, this neighbor gave Corey his wife's credit card to use so she could get some groceries and gas. He said Corey could pay him back later.

[Rachel]

Well, the wife was jealous of him and I for no reason. And she had a canary, and she pressed charges.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey says at first she was booked for a misdemeanor, but the wife was making a lot of fuss, and so they elevated the charges to a felony. Ultimately, she says it never went to trial. She got two years probation. It was all a big misunderstanding.

[Howie Mandel]

No probation violations during the two years?

[Rachel]

None. No.

[Melissa Jeltson]

They move on.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay, well, one other thing came up, and that was the allegedly somebody thinks you're selling things on ebay that belong to Tom.

[Rachel]

Uh huh.

[Howie Mandel]

That belong to Talina, that were her deceased husband stuff.

[Rachel]

And that is very possible. But there are things that Talina has been giving me of Tom's for the past two years.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay.

[Rachel]

To sell online. So there's nothing sold that shouldn't be sold. And quite frankly, as her executor, she told me, when I'm gone, do whatever you want with everything. And I haven't. I mean, there's. Most stuff is still there.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey reminds Webber that legally she's in charge of Talina's estate in the event of Talina's death. Webber responds that it's really too early for her to be taking on that role.

[Howie Mandel]

Well, and I don't. Maybe it's not even my place to say anything, but I. I don't want you. What can make you look worse or look bad to some people is that she's not. That she's not been found. She's not. She's not dead, as far as we know. So doing things as an executor before we know she's dead is presumptuous.

[Melissa Jeltson]

I like to imagine that. Webber takes a dramatic pause here, looks Corey in the eye, has a little staring contest, then looks down at his notes. Weber switches gears, brings up something his deputies mentioned.

[Howie Mandel]

They said there was some sort of travel trailer or a trailer of some sort in the driveway.

[Rachel]

Oh, a white cargo trailer.

[Howie Mandel]

Yeah, I think it was a white.

[Rachel]

It sold.

[Howie Mandel]

It sold.

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Howie Mandel]

And so the reason I ask is because someone brought that up, and I said I didn't see a trailer when I was in the driveway.

[Rachel]

No, we sold that.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay, When. When did that sell?

[Rachel]

Oh, I think it was either mid March, late March. March, a couple months ago. I don't know.

[Howie Mandel]

Well, at some point, the deputy saw this trailer, is my understanding.

[Rachel]

Okay, maybe it's sold in early April.

[Howie Mandel]

Would you.

[Rachel]

Do you know when he saw it?

[Howie Mandel]

I'd have to.

[Rachel]

I'd have to go back and check.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay.

[Melissa Jeltson]

On the date, Corey says she sold it to a friend of a friend for $1,000. Weber asks if she has some sort of receipt, and Corey says she's sure she signed something, but he gave her cash. And actually, trailers don't have to be registered in Oklahoma, so there's no official paper trail.

[Rachel]

What's a trailer got to do with. It was mine, it wasn't Talina's, so.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay, well, the only reason it has to do with anything is just because my understanding, it was there one day and now it's not. And so I'm just trying to. Yeah, I'm looking at anything that's, you know, seems unusual. Yeah, it doesn't mean it's anything. It just means I'm answering questions. Ahead of people asking them.

[Rachel]

What I'm getting from all these questions is that people online have already made up their mind because they can't find resolutions somewhere else.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Corey seems frustrated by the line of questioning. Why is Weber kowtowing to these nosy Internet hacks with nothing better to do?

[Howie Mandel]

I'm asking questions because they're throwing suspicion on me, and it would be dumb of me not to ask because I need to. I need to be able to honestly say I've done everything we can do.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Howie Mandel]

We've checked everywhere we can check.

[Rachel]

Yes.

[Howie Mandel]

And if I don't ask these questions, someone's gonna go, why didn't you ask that?

[Rachel]

I want that too.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Detective Weber adds, if the online sleuths start hassling her, she should reach out to the sheriff's department for help. He too, seems a little fed up by their persistence.

[Howie Mandel]

You're not gonna solve it online. Nobody's gonna find her on Facebook, but by God, there's plenty of theories. So.

[Rachel]

And I told Nicole last time I talked to her, and I haven't talked to her in probably a week. But I said, these crime junkies with their misinformation and their little bits of information that aren't enough to make an intelligent, you know, jump from point A to point B, you're probably going to do more damage than good because you're going to divert focus from maybe where it needs to be.

[Howie Mandel]

Uh huh.

[Rachel]

So I said, prove me wrong. Have your crime junkies find her. Prove me wrong.

[Melissa Jeltson]

During the interview, which lasts more than two hours, Corey agrees to do anything to help clear her name, including allowing the sheriffs into the house to test for bloodstains.

[Howie Mandel]

So there's this. There's a fear going around that. And just being completely honest with you.

[Rachel]

Yes, please.

[Howie Mandel]

People think you killed her in the house. And so. And that's. And again, nobody has any reason to think that. It's just. They feel something.

[Rachel]

Uh huh.

[Howie Mandel]

And so my thought was we have a. We have a chemical. I don't know if you know what luminol is, but it's something similar to that where luminol is just sort of a mist we can squirt on the floor or something.

[Rachel]

Uh huh.

[Howie Mandel]

And it will illuminate blood and that kind of thing.

[Rachel]

Uh huh.

[Howie Mandel]

And so my thought was we can come. We could spray the floors and, you know, that would help us, I guess.

[Rachel]

You know, if that's what you have to do.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And without prompting, she also offers to take a polygraph to rule her out as a suspect.

[Rachel]

So let's whatever we have to do to get to that point.

[Howie Mandel]

Okay.

[Rachel]

I mean, I'll take a lie detector test. You guys can bring the canines. I don't care what you have to do.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Next episode on what Happened to Talina Zar? The amateur investigators investigation starts to take its toll on Jess.

[Jess]

I lied to a lot of people. A lot. Friends of Talina's, friends of Marty's. Sometimes I felt like I was in over my head.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And the police obtain evidence that throws the timeline of Talina's disappearance into question.

[Howie Mandel]

This final post appears suspicious and unlikely to have come from Talina or or her cellular phone.

[Melissa Jeltson]

What Happened to Talina Zar is a production of iHeart podcasts. It's written, reported and hosted by me, Melissa Jeltson with writing and story editing by Lauren Hanson. Our executive producer is ryan Murdoch. For iHeart podcasts, executive producers are Jason English and Carl Cadle. Fact checking by Savannah Hughley. Zoe Denkla is our associate producer. Jeremy Thall is our editor. Original music by Aaron Kaufman with additional music by Jeremy Thal and Gideon Crevice. Additional sound design by Marie Tasbe. Episodes are mixed and mastered by Carl Caidel. Voice acting by Lizzie Gore, Chris Ferry, Stephanie Frame, Pete Monica and Molly Maslin. Our logo is designed, signed by Ido Moore. Thanks so much for listening.

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And feels like hmm.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Alright, that could go on for a while.

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[Melissa Jeltson]

Use as directed.

[Trey Farrow]

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[Narrator]

Is Jenny Garth from 9021 OMG. Aging is a natural process as we all know and we at the deep dive we embrace it. But I will tell you one thing about aging that I don't care for. It's the symptoms that stem from changing hormones, especially as you get closer to perimenopause and menopause. That's why listeners, I want to tell you about Happy Mammoth's Hormone Harmony. It's all over social media. Happy Mammoth, the company that created Hormone Harmony, uses science backed ingredients that have been proven to work for women. Hormone Harmony is perfect for those menopause symptoms that put a woman's life on hold. Hot flashes, night sweats, racing thoughts, low moods, poor sleep gas, no desire to be in bed next to someone. If you know what I mean. Yeah, Hormone Harmony can help with all of these things. I've noticed a little extra pep in my step since I started taking the Hormone Harmony supplement and I love feeling more energetic. For a limited time. You can get 15% off on your entire first order@happy mammoth.com just use the code Garth at checkout. You're listening to an I Heart podcast.