The Newlywed Murder - Cody Lee Johnson
Single listeners - do you ever dream of what your wedding day will be like? We imagine every single little detail and sometimes the only thing missing is the smallest detail - who is the groom? Then those of you who are married - maybe you look back on that day as one of the best days of your life - or maybe even - the worst decision you had ever made. We’ve all heard of the phrase, “The Honeymoon Phase,” right? Can you imagine if what was supposed to be one of the best moments of your entire life - was actually when the countdown started to your death?
On July 7, 2013, Cody Lee Johnson went for a hike with Jordan Linn Graham, his wife of eight days. They went to Glacier National Park together, though she left alone. If the idea of killing your husband of only eight days doesn’t seem shocking enough, the rest of this story only gets better then...or worse - more shocking to say the least.
Cody and Jordan met at a church lunch and hit it off right away. She was twenty-two and he was twenty-five when they said their vows just about two years later. According to Cody’s best friend, Jeremiah, Cody was someone who lived to make others happy, was very social, loved shooting guns, and really loved cars as well. Jordan on the other hand was described as very shy, reserved, and quiet. She was very committed to her Christian faith and therefore, didn’t believe in sex before marriage. She and Cody abstained. Even more shocking - they didn’t have sex the night of their marriage.
A friend and groomsmen of Cody’s, Cameron, is quoted by the Missoulian saying, “Their interaction with each other, it didn't seem like a happy, loving relationship that you would normally see. It was just very awkward, I guess. She was just very distant and reserved.” Others spoke of how they were never holding hands or touching each other at all, and didn’t really seem all that happy. The marriage was protested by more than one of Cody’s friends. Even her maid of honor speaks about how she believed that Jordan didn’t truly want to be married, but really wanted to have a wedding. It’s safe to say that there’s a huge difference between being a wife and being a bride. I have to think too, that to finally give yourself physically to someone after being so against it for twenty-two years, has to be overwhelming, or at least it maybe was for her?
Her maid of honor, Kimberly, shares in an interview with Crime Watch that the actual idea of the wedding itself would frustrate her and irritate her to talk about, but that she really enjoyed planning it. It sounds to me like Jordan was enjoying, “playing house,” but wasn’t ready to have the real life experience she had signed up for. Even watching the footage of their wedding, and I’ll post it in the show notes of course, but even watching that footage, she *clearly* avoids looking at Cody. Ooof. She looks at the minister, at the ground, up at the sky and her MOH even brings up how Jordan was bawling her eyes out while she walked down the aisle and while she stood there during the ceremony.
The next day after the wedding, Jordan texts Kimberly telling her she thinks she made a wrong decision and basically that she shouldn’t be married. She says that “so much happened” after the wedding and that she would rather talk about it in person. Yikes. When pressed for more, Jordan tells Kimberly she’d rather talk about in person, but when they see each other next, Jordan just lays on the couch crying. I truly think she’s freaking out over having to have sex with him. I believe she was scared of that commitment and of what it would be like and I truly feel that her mental health didn’t have her in a place where she could logically sort through that.
Eight days after the wedding, Cody didn’t show up for work. I almost get the feeling that she had a sort of immature thought process. To me, she’s not seeing her marriage and her decisions through the eyes of an adult, but rather a child who is afraid of what she’s done and the consequences - the consequences being having to have sex with her husband. I can’t speak to what her religious upbringing was, but I almost wonder if sex was something that was demonized in her home or in her church? I think that having to have intercourse was what was driving her into an emotional spinout and pushing her over the edge so-to-speak.
When police interview Jordan, she tells them that she got a message saying he was leaving with some friends and when she returned home she saw a black car pulling out of the driveway and heading down the road. The sentence that had chills running down my spine was her saying, “He always told me this one thing is when his friends came to visit he would take them to Glacier Park.” Her stories even started to conflict each other when she would tell the police and Cody they weren’t arguing, but earlier had told Kimberly that Cody had held her down in an argument the night before.
Jordan wouldn’t help her friends, Cody’s friends, or family find clues as to where Cody was. According to Crime Watch, Jordan even threw her wedding ring out of frustration when everyone was in her home searching for him. Friends and family were both suspicious.
Magically a few days later, Jordan produces an email from someone named, “Tony,” whom she had never met or heard of, but was claiming to have been with Cody when Cody fell to his death in Glacier Park and the email told them to stop looking for Cody’s body.
What? That seems totally reasonable. Please hear the sarcasm oozing in my voice. Jordan, Jordan, Jordan.
Now that police as well as friends of Jordans have made it abundantly clear that they’re suspicious of her and that her behavior is totally abnormal, Jordan goes out on a search with some friends and family up to Glacier Park. Her behavior is still not only suspicious, but infuriating, as she is described as dancing, singing, and driving Cody’s car like nothing at all is wrong. Kimberly returned with Jordan a second day to go search the park again and in her Crime Watch interview describes Jordan as “a guided missile” knowing exactly the place she was looking for, passing by numerous roads and paths that they could have been looking for Cody, but Jordan was intent on getting to an area called, “The Loop,” proceeds to hop the safety wall and climbs down a bit to the top of a ravine and points Cody out immediately - 300 feet below them.
One thing I didn’t mention was that at their wedding, they danced to a song that Jordan had recorded herself, singing about no matter how high you climb, when you fall you’re still mine… WELL if that’s not ominous enough, she told detectives that she knew Cody was there in that spot for two reasons: 1. The Holy Spirit lead her there and 2. Cody had wanted to see that spot before he died. Stoppit right now. Jordan! The detective describes Cody’s body as being in a place so remote, it was doubtful humans had ever been there.
Police say that it would have appeared that Cody fell head first on his way down. There is speculation that he could have been blindfolded prior to her pushing him off (yea she totally did it, if you hadn’t already known),
When Jordan attends the funeral, she is seen texting on her phone, dancing around, acting not only without remorse, but with flat out disrespect toward Cody and his friends and family. Not only did police have the fake email from “Tony” tied to a computer at her step-father’s house, but they also had surveillance footage of her entering the park with Cody the day that he disappeared, though she said she wasn’t with him, and her cell phone had been pinging off of towers in the area. The day that Cody went missing, Jordan had texted Kim saying, “If you don’t hear from me, something definitely happened.” I feel there are a few layers to this. I believe she thought Cody was a monster, but not in a justifiable way. Cody wanted to be physical with his new wife. She saw this as a threat. She knew she was going to kill him that day, but wasn’t positive that she would come out of it unscathed, as her plan could have resulted in her falling or tumbling down the side of a cliff as well.
She claims that she was arguing with him at the park, and that they were arguing before they went to the park (I can’t imagine why - they were 8 days into their marriage and Cody still wasn’t consummating his marriage after waiting 2 years with her to do so and his new wife was miserable) Well she tells police that Cody said he could, “walk that park with a blindfold on,” and a black rag was found near his body that *could have* been a blindfold. What do I think? I feel that she was trying to come off as if she were taking him to a really cool location and surprising him with whatever surprise she had promised him earlier, that according to his friends, he was really excited for and finally a little happy about what was to come - but that truly, she was blindfolding him to get him to the perfect spot and then when she told him to “just wait a second,” so she could “position him just right,” she shoved him as hard as he could. He had no idea how close to that wall he was and because he couldn’t see around him, he couldn’t get his bearings and down the side he went. I see his hand instinctively coming up as if it’s pulling that rag off of his eyes before he started tumbling down the side, or mid tumble. I can see her standing up there watching for a good few minutes too. She honestly only had any emotion for herself and her “woe is me,” attitude toward the predicament she thought she had gotten herself into.
I also feel that every time she spoke of how awful Cody was to her during arguments or pinning her down, she was grossly exaggerating all of it. I can see him grabbing her wrist, but not in a threatening way, more of like trying to get her to stay and talk, like to reach out as if he would hold her hand kind of gentleness, not in a forceful “Stay here and talk to me” way. Obviously whoever could do something like this and have no reaction isn’t of sound mind, but I truly believe she was suffering from some sort of mental illness. I think that her “christian roots,” were beyond just what was taught at church and that she was made to believe that sex was bad and/or painful, or whatever she was told, she was deeply afraid of having sex with Cody. One detective says that it was speculated that Cody thought he was going to receive some sort of sexual surprise up in Glacier Park. I don’t think that she lead him to believe that she was going to have sex with him up there, but I feel that may have been his desperate interpretation.
Jordan ultimately fooled him and guided him straight to his death. I feel that in her mind, which sounds to me like she was experiencing some sort failing mental health (I don’t want to speculate on any sort of diagnosis here, but she even says in one of her police interviews, that she had never felt such powerful emotions before. In her mind, she had no other choice. I’m not saying that’s accurate or right by her at all, obviously she had a lot of choices, but she ultimately made the worst of the wrong ones. In my initial dive into the energy of this case, I did write down “bi-polar” with a question mark. Her highs were super high - like skipping around the parking lot at work with an ice cream cone after you new husband can’t be found - and her lows were really low, like crying endlessly on the couch because you just can’t put to words why you are so immensely miserable when you should be flying so high. She even says she wasn’t on cloud 9 and felt she should have been.
How did she get him up there? I feel that she got him up there under the guise that she was making amends with him, making it up to him for how the last week had gone and apologizing for being so, “difficult,” that she was ready to show up as his wife and be there for him in all of the ways she should be. I feel she knew this was one of his favorite places and that this was her way of kicking off her turning over a new leaf. She 100% manipulated him and got him right where she needed him to be - without a doubt in my mind.
In December 2013, Jordan plead guilty to second-degree murder and is sentenced to thirty-years in prison.
What does Cody have to say? At that point, I felt he knew she was crazy, but he was still going to try to make it work. He figured she would come around, and that’s what he thought she was doing in planning that hike for them. Interestingly before doing my research,when I connected with him, Cody gave me the impression that he knew he put more into the relationship, but that it made him happy to take care of her and that she needed that from him - she was working through some stuff, but he loved her. Hindsight? He didn’t really notice just how aloof and disconnected she was - he attributed it all to the stress of planning a wedding.
My single friends - if you don’t feel like you should get married to the person you’re marrying - it’s never too late to call it off. Also, never go hiking in a remote area with a significant other who is pissed at you. Just sayin’.
Alright lovers, thank you again for listening, and if you feel so called to do so, please leave a review, and give a follow or subscribe to get this podcast into the ears of more true crime fans across the world. Stay safe and don’t turn your back on your hiking partner!
