Episode Transcript
Amanda: Hey there, all you true crime fans. I'm Amanda.
Kori: And I'm Corey.
Amanda: And welcome back to Colorado Crime. You know the drill. We're just two best friends who want to chat about all things true crime. This week's case is another one from our home state of Colorado. So without further ado, let's jump into this week's joke.
Kori: This joke was sent into us by Annie. Thanks, Annie, for all the great jokes and for sending them in. We appreciate you. What is a tree's favorite drink?
Amanda: I don't know. What?
Kori: Root beer.
Amanda: Oh, **** it. That's a good one. We all know now that Annie is the funny sister. Thanks, Annie.
Kori: She has a calendar.
Amanda: I see what you're saying. She's not really funny.
Kori: I mean, she's funny. Don't get me wrong. She's hilarious.
Amanda: I think she's pretty funny, too.
Kori: She might be a guest on our podcast at the end of the month. If anybody is interested in listening to that, that should be exciting.
Amanda: You guys will enjoy her. She is very funny. Well, before we jump into this week's episode, we just wanted to take a quick second to say thank you to you guys for all of your support. We have now released 25 episodes, which is just insane to me. And we couldn't keep doing this without you guys. So we just wanted to let you guys know that we love you and we love doing this podcast every week and thank you for your continued support.
Kori: We also really appreciate all the questions and the comments and the reviews. The reviews really help us and we're just really glad that we get to talk to you guys like people through it. And you don't get to see us, so whatever.
Amanda: That is kind of nice. So you guys don't have to look at us, right?
Kori: I'm still in my pajamas because I don't have a job and I moved far, far away.
Amanda: I'm not in my pajamas, but sometimes I just look homeless.
Kori: Yeah, because we have a handyman here this week. So I actually did put on not pajamas, but I mean, it's sweatpants, so it's just like a leg up from pajamas. If I was camping, I would wear these as pajamas.
Amanda: I mean, I'm wearing leggings, but I feel like that's my daily uniform. We should set a uniform. Like we have to wear I expect you to wear leggings, bro.
Kori: I'm going to wear sweatpants and an.
Amanda: Oversized t shirt to record. If not, you're fired.
Kori: And then I'm going to think about when was the last time I took a shower.
Amanda: Oh, God. I washed my hair not yesterday, but like, the night before. And it was insane. It was like so fluffy and there were so many flyways. And it just decided yesterday that it was done. It was moving on. It was no longer going to be hair and it was just going to be a drown rat.
Kori: Yeah, I washed my hair on Monday, too.
Amanda: Yeah, it was roughly. Sure. What are you doing? Hair. Glad nobody had to see me.
Kori: My handyman's been here all week. He's like the dad I never knew I needed.
Amanda: Oh, thanks, TV dad.
Kori: Yeah, he taught me how to fix my own dishwasher.
Amanda: Wow.
Kori: I know. I fixed the plumbing all by myself. And then today he came up and ate lunch with me and talked about how he makes tacos and he has some goats. And he showed me a picture of a hawk that he did have a baby goat. He showed me a picture of a hawk he had sitting on his fence post.
Amanda: He's the best.
Kori: Yeah, he's fixing all the drywall cracks in my drywall downstairs. And then he's painting.
Amanda: Glad he came upstairs and had lunch with you. I think that's really cool.
Kori: Yeah, he's cool.
Amanda: I'm also glad he has a coffee this morning.
Kori: Yeah, I'm just like the hostess with the mostist to the guy I'm paying to fix my house.
Amanda: Your new friend.
Kori: Whatever.
Amanda: Hang out with you.
Kori: Exactly.
Amanda: Pretty much what happens when you move away and you don't know anybody.
Kori: The only people I've made friends with are the people coming to fix my stuff.
Amanda: For me. You're going to have to befriend one of your delivery guys.
Kori: My Amazon delivery guy. He's probably tired of ******* coming here.
Amanda: He's like, god **** it. Another popcorn machine? Really?
Kori: Oh, I did get one of those for Candace. It came yesterday. That popcorn is ******* good.
Amanda: It's so fun. I made it last night and the kids had some. They were like, good job, mom. It's really good popcorn. They were like, can we have cake now? And I was like, what? You don't want my delicious popcorn? Fine.
Kori: Did you put butter on it? Yeah, I put a little bit of butter on it too.
Amanda: It made my popcorn soggy, though. So I got to figure that out.
Kori: Yeah, I think you got to just use a little bit. Just enough to kind of and then toss it in there a little bit. But that's like really delicate popcorn. I think it was really delicate, but it's delicious.
Amanda: Felt like we had to use more seasoning than I originally thought. I told Christmas, wow, this is a lot of seasoning. And he's like, no, I thought you're going to have to use that whole container. And I was like, really? He's like, yeah, I thought it would take a lot of seasoning. I'm like, oh, I thought it would be like a sprinkle sprinkle. He was like, no, because it's like, dry.
Kori: But it did say you could use, like, a butter spray on it. I know that Emerson is allergic to soy, but if you found one that was like a soy free, like, butter spray, I bet that would work.
Amanda: I bet you could get one of those little butter. Like you put your own butter in it.
Kori: Oh, yeah. And then spray it on there that.
Amanda: Would probably and it would be cheaper because I looked it up last night. It's like $20 for one of those stupid popcorn butter spray can things.
Kori: Oh, I know.
Amanda: That's what I thought. I was like, wow, that's pricey.
Kori: I told Candace that very same thing. I'm like, you go look up butter sprayer on Amazon. God forbid we buy anything that's not from Amazon.
Amanda: God same.
Kori: I got my curtains from Amazon. They're real nice.
Amanda: Speaking of Amazon, so I am going to redo my laundry room. I'm going to tile the back of the wall, and I'm going to take out a cabinet. And I ordered like I don't even know what you would call them, like a closet bar holder, metal things for your bar to sit on. And so I got him yesterday, and Chris came home and he's like, what are these? I said, they're for our bar. And he was like, you don't even know what you're doing. And I was like, the unwatched video. Do you know how many of these stupid projects I've done? And you have never had a problem with any of them. You pipe down.
Kori: TikTok showed me how.
Amanda: Oh, I was mad.
Kori: I was going to try and do because for some reason, none of these closets have rods in them. So I was going to do that whole Target closet hack. But then I decided I'm just going to buy like a closet insert package and put that in there. Thank you. Target TikTok closet hack people. I really enjoy that. But I don't want to put together a ******* bookcase or two of them. You know how they're putting those bookcases together and putting their racks inside there? I don't want to do that.
Amanda: Didn't know that. But that sounds like a genius plan. And I would love to do that.
Kori: It's really cool. You build this bookcase, like a Target bookcase or those bookcases I had in my office. So you build those and then you hang the closet rack inside there. And you can hang your clothes, and it fits right inside your closet, which is genius. But I hate putting together those effing bookcases.
Amanda: My best friend Kendra, they got new furniture, and they built one of their dressers, and they had one more. And it was sitting in the living room. And I was there the other day helping paint, and I said, hey, do you want me to build that? And she was like, no, Mike's going to build it. And I was like, are you sure? I got a snapchat yesterday, I think. Or maybe it was Monday. And it was like he's got all these little pieces around him. And she's kind of giggling. I'm like, I bet he wishes I would have put that together. I love that stuff. I do not Legos for adults.
Kori: No, I do not. I do not love it. Coffee bar. Because my new kitchen is smaller than my old kitchen, and I don't really have any place to put my coffee, and my island doesn't have a plug on it, so it's really useful.
Amanda: You could probably ask your new best friend, the handyman, to install one for you.
Kori: I could, but I'm not going to because it's kind of like a floating island. It can be moved, so I'd have to.
Amanda: Okay.
Kori: Yeah, we didn't know that until the floor guys were like, hey, you can move this. And then they moved it, and we were like, hey, you could just put it back. Yeah. So it doesn't have electric on it, which okay, great. It's a nice counter space for parties and stuff, but you can't plug anything into it.
Amanda: Got you.
Kori: Yeah. So I bought this little coffee bar because there are plugs in the area that it's in. So I bought this little coffee bar cabinet and it came and Candace was at work, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to be genius. I'm going to put this together. Well, right out the gate, the drawer part, the flat part that you build the drawer around the bottom was broken, so I did some fancy dancy gluing to put that back together. Luckily, it just holds tea boxes, so it's not like holding rocks.
Amanda: I do store my rocks in my pantry or in my kitchen.
Kori: So I put it together, and then I was like, oh, ****. I put it together in the living room. And I was like, how am I? And then I was like, well, it's not heavy with the doors not on it. So I carried it back to where I wanted it and then put the doors on it in that little tiny space. And I was like, you know what? I am not buying any more ******* furniture I have to put together. What is this? I'm an adult human.
Amanda: I pre built stuff. I'm American.
Kori: All our bedroom furniture came already put together.
Amanda: Perfect.
Kori: I was like, we're real adults.
Amanda: I like that. That's how you judge if you're an adult or not.
Kori: If your furniture doesn't have to be put together, it's already pre put together, right? It doesn't look like it came out of a box at Walmart.
Amanda: It's not Ikea. Whatever. I love Ikea.
Kori: I love Ikea, too, but their directions are so ******* complicated. Also, I apologize for my language. I'm home by myself, so you get a lot of F words. My apologies to the chef. I can't help it. I don't have any friends here.
Amanda: Oh, God, that's funny.
Kori: You all are my friends. Online chat room.
Amanda: Man. The crime story is based on those.
Kori: Oh, yeah. Craigslist killer. That wasn't AOL similar.
Amanda: It wasn't.
Kori: So we're going to throw in our Shameless plug for our Serial Killer Tuesday. However, Serial Killer Tuesday did not post on Spotify, just in case anybody was wondering. It did post on other platforms. Apple, Google, Amazon. So if you missed it, you can listen there and hopefully it'll be back up on spotify. We do have our it. Department working on that currently, so she'll let us know when it's back up.
Amanda: Well, just know it's not back up yet.
Kori: That was our it. Department chiming in this month. We discussed Dean Coral, aka the candy man. We finished him up on what was it? Tuesday?
Amanda: Yes.
Kori: And we're moving on to David Berkowitz, who is the son of Sam. So that's interesting. That's an interesting case. So tune in every Tuesday at our special upload time, which is 02:00 p.m., to find out what makes some of the most prolific serial killers tick.
Amanda: All right, friends. Well, before we jump into the rest of this case, we just wanted to take a second to acknowledge the recent school shooting in Nashville that took the lives of six people, three of which were just nine years old. So our thoughts are with the families and the friends of the victims. And really, Nashville as a community, I don't know what the answer is, and I wish that I did, but I know that this has to stop. Children should not be afraid to go to school, and parents shouldn't be afraid to send them. Teachers shouldn't have to worry if they'll come home from their job, an underpaid one at that. My heart hurts and it breaks for these families. This is a situation that needs to stop. So I love all of our listeners. You guys are the best. Please don't turn this into a political thing. I don't care what your opinions are on gun control. That is not at all what this podcast is for. We can all agree that innocent children dying at school due to someone's blind rage or hatred or whatever it is, has got to stop, period. So with that said, here at Colorado crime, we stand with Nashville, and they are in our thoughts. Corey, do you have any updates?
Kori: I do. This isn't going to be a crime story because I'm too mad about all the things that are happening in the world right now. I'm kind of ****** off and annoyed. So I'm going to talk about customs in Virginia Fair. They confiscated more than 700,000 designer brown counterfeits, including clothing, purses and shoes, all in a single shipment. These goods were seized on March 16 of 2023. Customs officers originally had examined the shipment on February 3. The shipment came from Seoul, South Korea, and was being sent to an address in Chesapeake, Virginia. The shipment had 68 things with designer brand trademarks on them, including Burberry chanel chanel, including Burberry Chanel, Christian Dior, gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and St lorraine. The custom officers suspected that the goods were counterfeit and submitted documentation of the items to the customs trade experts. The experts confirmed that the goods were fake and infringing on trademarks and copyrights. If the goods would have been real, they would have been worth over $700,000. $708,097 for all you people who wanted to know that. And during fiscal year 2022, border protection officers and homeland security investigations special agents have seized more than 20,812 shipments containing nearly 25 million counterfeit goods, according to the release. Had they been authentic, the total value of the fake goods would have been more than $2.98 billion. Homeland security investigation special agents arrested 255 individuals in 2022 and obtained 192 indictments and received 95 convictions related to these intellectual property crimes. That's a lot of fake stuff.
Amanda: I'm not going to lie. I guess I didn't realize that it was such a crime.
Kori: I didn't know, because when you're on the Vegas strip, they're selling those cheap *** coach purses for, like, $20.
Amanda: Well, let's move on to today's case, then. All right, so this week we're discussing the strange murder of Natalie Bollinger. Natalie was 19 years old and about to graduate high school. She'd received a scholarship to study as a registered nurse, and life seemed to be going pretty well for Natalie. But then, three days after Christmas, on December 28, 2017, natalie disappeared. Everyone close to her was looked at, but her disappearance wasn't so cut and dry. So Natalie was an avid Facebook user and updated it like it was her diary. She'd posted about her life in Colorado since leaving Virginia, and she especially posted about a man that she was afraid of and eventually filed a restraining order against. In an age where technology is always at our fingertips, the fair amount of followers Natalie had amassed immediately pointed to the most likely of suspects sean Schwartz. Schwartz had actually stalked Natalie for several years, and she updated her Facebook friends a few weeks prior to her disappearance.
Kori: Here is what the post said. Hey, y'all. I have a public announcement. There is a man, Sean Schwartz. I met this man when I was young. I ran into him about two years ago. Long story short, I became friends with him. I helped him out with rides and stuff. I moved to Virginia. He drove across the country to see me, sleeping behind my work for weeks. When I told him I didn't want to see him anymore, he sent me hundreds of texts and calls. He parked his car in front of my house, blocking military highway for hours, laying on his horn. He was arrested. Since then, I've asked him to leave me alone, and he won't. He sent emails over a year close to every day, harassing me, making numerous accounts until I block him again, threatening my family, telling me he killed himself in front of me, and sending my friends and family harassing messages as well. I'm sharing this because he's posting slander about me all over Facebook. So if you receive a message, I'm sincerely sorry, please ignore him. It only encourages him when he gets a response. Much like a child, he's mentally ill, and I am trying to fix this. That's scary.
Amanda: Yes.
Kori: That's a scary stalking.
Amanda: Well, you'll have to look him up on Facebook, because he still has one.
Kori: Of course he does.
Amanda: Yeah. Immediately after her disappearance made mainstream news, people flocked to Schwartz's Facebook page and accused him of kidnapping and harming Natalie. None of these accusations were without reason or unjust. His Facebook was, and still is, littered with political rants, hatred, and complete and total instability. He immediately became a person of interest and was brought in for questioning. Schwartz maintained his innocence even after being berated by the media.
Kori: On December 29, 2017, natalie's body was discovered in a field at a dairy farm in Adams County, just off of Riverdale Road. For those of you who aren't familiar, riverdale is famous for being haunted. Is it really? I did not know that.
Amanda: Really? Yeah. They say, like, if you're driving down the road and you hear baby cry, don't stop. You'll see, like, a woman in a dress. You're putting me on the spot here. And I don't know any of the Riverdale Road folklore.
Kori: I always wonder that when you're driving down the road, does the baby cry, like, in your car, or do you just hear it as you're driving? Because when I'm driving down the road, I don't hear ****. I'm not going to hear a baby crying outside.
Amanda: Yeah, I don't know, because when I'm.
Kori: In my car, I'm gangster.
Amanda: I'm usually listening to a true crime podcast or Taylor Swift.
Kori: Not me. I'm like an 80s rap star. Oh, I do love rap. Yeah.
Amanda: All right, well, for a little background, for those of you who aren't familiar with Riverdale, it's an eleven mile road. I mean, this thing has been like the talk of hauntings forever.
Kori: Is it really dark?
Amanda: It's really dark and it's kind of windy, and there's been a lot of car accidents. According to Nine News, they did an expose on Riverdale, and it says that Riverdale Road has a history of alleged hauntings and urban legends, from the existence of the literal gates of hell to the story of a man who lost his mind and burned his entire mansion while his family slept inside. The road is also home to so called Joggers Hill, where the ghost of a murdered Jogger is rumored to follow cars and tap on their sides. Other urban legends involve a phantom camaro and the vision of bodies hanging from the trees during the full moon. It is scary. I actually won't drive on it at night, but it says of course, there's no real historical evidence of this anywhere outside of multiple blogs and videos of it on YouTube. Nevertheless, former Thornton Police Department spokesman Matt Barnes said he'd received media inquiries about Riverdale Road once every few years, particularly around Halloween.
Kori: Interesting. I did not know that. Thank you for that information.
Amanda: Yeah, so if you guys are like, big ghost hunters, you'll have to go check out Riverdale Road and let me know. Yeah, but don't show me pictures because ghosts not my jam. I don't like ghost stories anyway.
Kori: Her cause of death was a single gunshot wound to her head during her autopsy, which was released in January of 2018. It was also discovered that Natalie had a nearly lethal dose of heroin in her system. Police had to connect Schwartz to the murder and immediately went to work. A thorough and time consuming search of Natalie's phone and social media was done. It was discovered that she placed an ad on Craigslist under the Woman Seeking Man category. Text messages showed that Natalie had been communicating with an unknown male just before her death. A suspect was arrested on February 8 of 2018. Craigslist is not a place to meet people. No, it's not.
Amanda: No. I don't even like selling anything on there. If Chris ever wants to get rid of anything, I'm like, that's your prerogative. I'm fine just throwing it away. I use Facebook, donate it, whatever.
Kori: I haven't had any bad luck with that.
Amanda: I did with Candace's uncle.
Kori: What?
Amanda: Yeah. He was like, hey, are you selling a table? And I was like, no. And he's like, It says you're selling a table. And I was like, I'm not selling a table.
Kori: That's weird.
Amanda: Yeah, it was really weird. I was like, I'm really sorry, but I don't have a yellow table that I'm selling. I would not sell a yellow table. I think that would be pretty cool.
Kori: I made a yellow.
Amanda: I would like a red one with black spots, like a little ladybug. Okay. I know.
Kori: This podcast is so random today.
Amanda: I know I'll have to edit a lot of this out. People will be like, what?
Kori: I think people listen for that.
Amanda: I don't know. I feel like sometimes they're like, what the **** are you talking about? How are you talking about murder and ladybugs?
Kori: We're multifaceted.
Amanda: This is what comes in my brain. Imagine being me. All this is flown around. Joseph Lopez, who was just 22, was found amongst Natalie's social media contacts. The two had recently become acquaintances, and Joseph had no previous criminal history. Lopez was brought in for questioning, along with anyone else that may have known something about Natalie's disappearance. On February 14, 2018, Joseph Lopez was officially charged with the shooting death of 19 year old Natalie Bollinger. Adams County Sheriff Michael Macintosh was slow to release information connecting Lopez and Bollinger and made it very clear that while a weapon had been found, connecting it to Lopez would be the District Attorney's responsibility. Lopez was held at the Adams County Jail without bond until a preliminary hearing on April 27, 2018. As the investigation continued on, more and more details were released. Lopez had originally denied seeing Natalie die, but would go on like many do to change his story multiple times. He then said that Natalie was the one to take her own life, and he was just present. His final story was a little far fetched and hard to believe.
Kori: Lopez told police that he met Natalie after responding to a Craigslist ad in the Woman Seeking Man section of the website. The post was, I want to put a hit on myself. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, lopez claimed that December 28, 2017, the same day that Natalie was reported missing, was the first time the two met. Lopez explained to investigators that Natalie told him that she wanted to be shot execution style, from behind. But his intent was to convince Natalie that suicide was not the way to go yet. Okay. Initially, he told police that Natalie couldn't find a suitable place to commit suicide, so he took her home. After investigators searched his phone, it showed that Lopez was at the same location on Riverdale where Natalie's body was found. And that's when he first changed his story. His story changed to the two of them driving, and Natalie asked him to pull over. So he did. Natalie exited the car, walked over to a wooden area, and then shot herself. As Lopez pleaded with her not to, lopez said he panicked, took the gun in Natalie's purse, and fled. Investigators explained that Natalie had not shot herself and that someone else had been responsible for pulling the trigger. Like they can tell that on autopsies and stuff. It's not really right.
Amanda: Lopez's next story was that Natalie pleaded and pleaded with Lopez until he finally caved. The two pulled over, walked to the wooded area together. She knelt down. The two said a prayer together, and then Lopez shot her in the head. He said that he was unable to look at her as he pulled the trigger, and her death had been, quote, eating away at him. End quote. He assured investigators that the two had no sexual contact, nor had they used any illicit drugs prior to the shooting. You'll remember, though, that Natalie's autopsy revealed that she had heroin in her system. And we just have to mention that Natalie had previously struggled with drug use, specifically methamphetamine and heroin. It was also discovered that fresh needle marks were found on one of her arms. This doesn't make her a bad person. It doesn't mean that she deserved what happened to her. It's just a fact of the case. So we wanted to mention it because as far as everyone around her knew, she was sober.
Kori: According to Natalie's friends and family, she didn't have a reason to commit suicide. Life seemed to be going in Natalie's favor. She was close to graduation. She had received a scholarship for a nursing program, and she had been sober for some time. They were all completely shocked when Lopez painted this narrative. It was agreed upon that Lopez would keep the nine millimeter used to kill Natalie after she was dead. The gun actually belonged to her boyfriend, though I find it super odd that the gun used to kill Natalie was a gun she brought with her to me. I would imagine the text messages and email exchanges before her death would clear up any misunderstandings regarding her requests. Not that it makes it okay to kill a person, but it would point to the fact that she was having some mental health issues and that she had really planned to end her life by any means. Either way, a gun is not a worthy payment for ending someone's life. Lopez admitted to investigators that he kept a journal in high school full of fictional stories of kidnapping, torturing, and executing people.
Amanda: Due to a plea deal he made, lopez would only face the maximum 48 years in prison for second degree murder versus the possible life sentence that a first degree murder charge would carry. On December 3, 2018, joseph Michael Lopez was sentenced to 48 years in prison with five years parole. He is currently serving his sentence at Fremont Correctional Facility. He is eligible for parole on July 19, 2052. He will be 56 at his first parole hearing with a mandatory release date of July 19, 2064, at which time he will be 68 years old. He will get to live a life outside of prison. He could still go on and get married, have children, attend Christmas dinners with his family, all the things that Natalie will never do because he took that from her. Corey, what are your thoughts? Do you feel his punishment was justified?
Kori: I don't know. It's a hard one, because we don't have all the text messages and emails. Where did those go? I don't understand how I don't know. It's funny that we're doing this case because I was watching the first 48 on an E last week, and there was actually a case similar to this. It was a young girl. She was also, like, 19 or 20, and she had graduated high school, was going to college. And it came out that she needed money because her parents were like, hey, you need to start paying for your own car insurance. If you want to drive this car, you need to pay for your car insurance on it. So she decided to steal her mom's gun and then sell it to her best friend. Well, he told everybody that she wanted to commit suicide, and he just went out there. He was trying to convince her not to. And she was found, like, in her pajamas in a park or whatever. But it came out at the end that she was going to sell him the gun because he needed to buy a gun, because all her Google searches were about how to make money quickly, and all his Google searches were how to buy a gun. She had a gun. He needed to buy a gun. He had money. She needed money. So they went to the park to mess around with his gun, and it accidentally went off and shot her, like, two times. But he was remorseful enough about it. That he laid her out, but he made all these claims that she tried to commit suicide, so I don't know. And I think he ended up getting second degree murder as well. I don't know. I wish we had more of the text messages and the emails and all that stuff, because, I mean, maybe she was trying to kill herself, and maybe he just went along with it, and maybe he needed a gun. I don't know. I think second degree murder is a good I think it's a good punishment for it, if that's what it was. If he just straight up murdered her. No, then no, it's not. And he'll probably get out at 56.
Amanda: Oh, probably.
Kori: And he'll get to do things and stuff, and she won't she doesn't get to live her life at all. So that part's sad.
Amanda: I guess that's where I feel like it's not fair, is that if you really were worried about her at all and you wanted to stop this, then you would have reported it.
Kori: Right.
Amanda: That, to me, says you didn't care enough about her life, or it doesn't even matter about it doesn't even have to be Natalie specifically. He didn't know her, but just human life in general. And then you have that weird journal, and I don't know.
Kori: Yeah, it's weird.
Amanda: It is. It's sad to me. And I feel like she was headed down the right path, and she was going to go to school, and she had been sober, and he could have saved her, and he didn't, and he didn't choose to. And I guess that's where I think, like, well, you kind of so it.
Kori: Didn'T even save her Craigslist profile or anything like that. They have nothing. How did they even convict him?
Amanda: I don't know. I don't know if it's all sealed.
Kori: Oh, okay. That makes sense. I guess that's a little bit weird, but okay.
Amanda: Yeah. All right, guys. Well, that is where we're going to end Natalie Bollinger, so let's move on. We do have some questions, so lay them out for us. Corey.
Kori: Okay, so these are some questions we got on our Instagram poll. Thank you for sending in your we want to know about us questions. So the first one is, what is your favorite drink when you are podcasting? Amanda, what's your favorite drink when you're podcasting?
Amanda: Mine's coffee. I don't care if it's iced coffee, hot coffee. Right now I'm drinking an iced coffee with chocolate sauce on the cup and peppermint mocha coffee cream, because it's the only coffee cream.
Kori: I drink it at her house.
Amanda: I did come a barista.
Kori: She's a home barista.
Amanda: Yeah, they're fancy.
Kori: COVID taught us a lot of things. I like to drink water because I'm always thirsty. Today I'm drinking water in a Diet Pepsi because sometimes I drink coffee milk, which I get from my milk company out here, which is fantastic. I could probably make that, but I'm not going to.
Amanda: Is it coffee flavored milk? What is coffee milk?
Kori: It's like cold brew with milk in it, I guess, and vanilla flavoring. I'm telling you. I could make it, but I'm not going to because it comes in this cool little glass jar, and I like drinking it, so I feel fancy, and I'm buying it from the milk company.
Amanda: Fair enough.
Kori: So there. I like it, but mostly water because I'm always thirsty.
Amanda: Mine is never water.
Kori: So this one was sent in by a listener as well. What conspiracy crime case intrigues you the most and why? To be honest, Amanda and I don't really have a lot of conspiracy crimes. We did look some up today because we were like, what? We found some interesting ones for sure. Like the Unabomber, the zodiac killer, and the Tylenol Murderer were all Ted kaczynski. I don't believe that one.
Amanda: I don't either.
Kori: We also saw Corey Love was responsible for the death of Kurt Cobain. I don't think that's also true, seeing how he committed suicide, but whatever. And Ted Bundy was encouraged to carry out his murders by a demon that had taken over his body. So those are just a few that I found on the Internet, because, like I said, we're not really into I mean, the soldered one was pretty interesting. Where the house that caught on fire in 1945 and five of the kids bodies weren't found?
Amanda: Yeah, that one's crazy.
Kori: Yeah, that one's crazy. And a little bit conspiracy theory, but as far as that goes, we're not.
Amanda: Really I mean, I could totally get down with some conspiracy theories, but I don't know that any of them are I would say are tied to true crime. Other than Katy Perry being John Bennett Ramsay. Would you never fell for that one.
Kori: John Bennett's dad was part of illuminati.
Amanda: Yes. The Illuminati. The illicit illuminati. Yeah. I do really enjoy the Mandela effect. Oh, yeah, that's one of my favorites. I don't know that you would call it a conspiracy theory. And the other one is that JFK was murdered by multiple people and had to do with, like, a lady in a red scarf.
Kori: What is the case that originally sparked your interest in true crime?
Amanda: You can go first.
Kori: I find the Black Dahlia very interesting. And the Zodiac killer, those two are my favorite.
Amanda: Okay.
Kori: Black Dahlia, because they never really figured out who did that, and she was found practically cut in half. It was a whole thing.
Amanda: Surgery.
Kori: Yeah, that was weird. In a parking lot of a surgery place. It's just a weird I don't know. It's so fascinating that, first of all, it happened before there was DNA and before all of that stuff, so I understand that. But it was in a time where the police weren't concerned about that. She was considered a prostitute. It was a whole thing. That one's really interesting. And the zodiac killer is also really interesting because they also didn't figure out who that guy was. And there's a whole documentary on that about a kid who thinks that his dad was actually the zodiac killer. It's on netflix if you guys want to watch it. It's pretty good.
Amanda: I think he wrote a book too, didn't he?
Kori: Yeah, he did. It's actually a really good documentary. It explains a lot of things. And he could be right. I don't know. So those are the two ones for me.
Amanda: I like both of those. I think I've talked about it before. Mine is John Bone Ramsay. He was like a year older than me, and I was living in westminster when it happened. And I remember just being so terrified for, like, probably I would say it was probably like a year. I slept with a lamp on in my bedroom because I was afraid that someone was going to come in and murder me. And then the other one would have been columbine.
Kori: Oh, yeah, that one.
Amanda: My mom was scary time either. Yeah, my mom was supposed to be there. She ended up having, like, pneumonia or bronchitis or something, so she didn't go. But those are probably my two. I was that weird kid who wanted to talk true crime at the age of eight, and everyone was like, no, girl, go play with your Barbies.
Kori: Our next question and final question is how did you two meet and how long have you been friends?
Amanda: Well, we've had old Emerson. I know, right? We've been friends since 2011. When I went to jail.
Kori: I had already been at jail.
Amanda: Prison, man.
Kori: It's not prison. It's county.
Amanda: I know we had like a whole funny hashtag, but I will refrain because I don't want anyone to be offended by my offensive jargon. Yeah, so we met at jail, people. I was in custody, but I was in jail when Emerson was born, and he raised her by himself. He thinks he's hilarious.
Kori: I mean, that is pretty funny.
Amanda: It is pretty funny. I started there, like, I think I started there in July. I think it was 711 because of slurpee day. And then like a month later, you got married and I came to your wedding.
Kori: Yeah, you did. Because we were best friends right off the bat.
Amanda: No.
Kori: So when Amanda first started working there, my sister still worked there. And she told me that if I was slutty, I could have been Amanda's mom because I'm about 14 years older than Amanda. I'm an old lady.
Amanda: I'm just a wee little baby.
Kori: And my sister was obsessed with that. So then for a long time, we went around deciding who could be Amanda's fake baby dad, which also hilarious.
Amanda: Oh, god. Hi, Cole. Hi, Miller.
Kori: We had some good times back in.
Amanda: The day, and it used to be fun. Gail used to be a good time.
Kori: It was pretty fun. We met lots of cool people there. Most of them were still friends with. Like, shout out to Robin. Stephanie. Megan.
Amanda: Lacey.
Kori: Jen. Amanda.
Amanda: Amanda. Not me. Amanda.
Kori: Different. Amanda.
Amanda: Mary.
Kori: Mary.
Amanda: Yeah.
Kori: There's a bunch of people that I can't remember. Everyone muffin.
Amanda: Oh, I do love Muffin. The old bat.
Kori: Dana.
Amanda: It was a good time. Dana and her little baby.
Kori: Yeah, we had a good time there. It was fun.
Amanda: It was a good time.
Kori: So, yeah, we met at jail. We've been friends for a heck of a long time. We like being friends. We're funny. I don't know why we get along so well. That's just how it worked out.
Amanda: I know, because I exited your loins.
Kori: Well, yeah, and we've stayed friends for real friends for the whole time. We didn't skip a beat. She's been to my house many times. I've been to her house. Her kids call me auntie. We're true friends.
Amanda: Yeah. If Chris and I die, Corey and Candace get all our money to raise our kids.
Kori: Yeah. So hopefully that doesn't happen.
Amanda: Because I thought you were going to say, hopefully that happens. I was like, whoa, whoa. It's not much. Okay.
Kori: Can you imagine how your kids are going to turn out after living here? I mean, probably fine because they adore me, so it's fine.
Amanda: I know. I think I'd be really jealous if they got to go live with my best friend.
Kori: Right, but you'd be dead, so no one would know.
Amanda: No, but like Dexter and I, he's my BFF.
Kori: Yeah, he is also the BFF of the handyman. No, franklin, too.
Amanda: Franklin? Don't tell me these things. No, I don't give a **** about Franklin and his stupid friendships because he is very stingy with them. Dexter is my BFF and he loves me. And we go way back. I've known Dexter as long as I've known you. I came to your wedding and I held the dog.
Kori: Yeah, with your dresses up over your face. I understand what was happening there.
Amanda: I don't get it.
Kori: It's funny that you guys had similar dresses. Not also funny.
Amanda: I know. And Lacey will be joining us, so that'll be fun. I'm super excited for that.
Kori: Is she actually joining or are we.
Amanda: Just yeah, no, she's going to be on the podcast with us.
Kori: Oh, nice.
Amanda: At least that's the plan now. Unless something changes, but cool. I hope so. I think that would be so cool.
Kori: Awesome. Yeah, that'll be nice.
Amanda: Excited for that. Our first guest, with many more to come, hopefully.
Kori: Yeah. Well, our second guest will be Annie.
Amanda: I know.
Kori: I don't know if we'll get Annie's ******* work done.
Amanda: Probably not.
Kori: Be prepared for that podcast to suck.
Amanda: I think she's going to be on our first Manson episode we're covering. Oh, that's Charles Manson at the end of April. And I'm pretty sure that's going to be her first episode, so that'll be cool. That'll be a good one.
Kori: I would like to throw a little prayer ding up for my mother in law. She has pneumonia right now if she listens to this podcast. I hope you're feeling better. Pam pneumonia and is going to be on antibiotics now, so I hope she feels better.
Amanda: I hope so too. Yeah, that's scary. That's not fun.
Kori: No, it's not fun at all.
Amanda: All right, crime fans. Well, until next time. Thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure that you send in your questions. If you haven't already, please subscribe so you can be notified every time we upload. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We love doing listener shoutouts, so make sure you leave a comment or review for us. Next week, we are going to discuss the murder of District Attorney Sean May. New episodes are released every Friday at 10:30, a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Please follow us on Instagram at colorado Crimepod or on Facebook at colorado Crime podcast. For information on next week's episode, as well as other true crime happenings, we hope you have a beautiful day wherever you are, and as always, stay safe.
Kori: Until next time, podcastians have the weekend you deserve.
