After months of speculation about the circumstances of 19-year-old Erin Corwin's mysterious disappearance, her body was found over the weekend, police in San Bernardino County said. Her former neighbor has been arrested in connection with the death.
Corwin, three months pregnant, had gone missing since June 28 after she told her Marine husband based in California that she was going to Joshua Tree National Park to scout trails, CNN reported. On Saturday, searchers found her body about 140 feet down a mine shaft but weren't able to recover and identify it until the next day, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.
An autopsy determined Corwin had been killed, the sheriff's department said, without elaborating how she died. Dental records were used to make a positive identification.
Christopher Brandon Lee, 24, was arrested at 9 p.m. Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska at a traffic stop on a warrant out of California. He was later charged in the murder of Erin, who police say had been having an affair with her, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said Monday.
"Corwin didn't go to Joshua Tree National Park on the day she disappeared, police said in a statement of probable cause written in July. Instead her car was found a few miles from where she lived next door to Lee and his wife, Nicole," according to CNN. "Detectives found footprints next to Corwin's abandoned car that led to tire tracks. Investigators said those tire tracks were the same width and same width apart as the tires on Lee's Jeep."
"According to the court document, several people, including a friend of Erin Corwin's in Tennessee, told investigators that Corwin and Lee were having an affair. He admitted to kissing her but told detectives the two had never had sexual intercourse."
Official charges against Lee will be determined within the next 48 hours, San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said.
According to local media reports, Jonathan Corwin told investigators that his wife wanted to scout out Joshua Tree National Park in advance of a planned family visit. He hasn't spoken publicly about the case.
