Cory Voss murder: How NCIS investigators unraveled a Navy officer's homicide
Produced by Alec Sirken
NCIS agents go inside the mysterious case of Cory Allen Voss, a young Navy communications officer murdered after using an ATM in Virginia. The investigation -- a collaboration with the Newport News Police Department -- would lead the agents on a trail of twisted relationships, lies and secret, double lives.
Special Agent Dana Shutt | NCIS: In 2007, Cory Voss … was a Naval officer. …Cory was an outstanding sailor, had multiple accolades throughout his career … and had been assigned to the USS Elrod.
Maureen Evans | NCIS Special Agent Supervisor: Cory was a shining star and he was a rising star in the Navy. And he would've done great things.
Det. Larry Rilee | Newport News Police Dept., Retired: not one person had anything negative say about him.
Barbara Wilson: And he took to the Navy just like a duck to water.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: He had returned from a deployment and he was at home with his wife Caterina Voss, also known as Cat. And they had had a romantic dinner.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow | NCIS: Once they finish their dinner, Cat tells Cory that she needs some money for the children's lunches the next day at school. So, she asks him to go to the ATM which is just about two or three miles from their house … This is about 11:30 at night, just a routine errand up to the ATM.
Maureen Evans: Cory was at the ATM machine trying to withdraw some money … an individual dressed in all black entered the passenger side of his vehicle … and pointed a weapon at Cory.
Maureen Evans: Cat wasn't able to locate Cory at all.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: So, Cat had called the ship looking for him to see if anyone had seen him. And she also called the local hospitals to determine if anyone had come in matching his description.
Maureen Evans: So, the following morning … she called the police department once again to report that he had still not returned home.
911 OPERATOR: Newport News police and fire, Anista.
CAT VOSS: Hi I'm calling to see if my husband had gotten into an accident or something in Newport News.
911 OPERATOR: We haven't had one.
CAT VOSS: No, OK.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: And what we now know -- he went to an adjacent parking lot.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: Newport News police arrive at the parking lot and find Cory Voss deceased in his vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds.
Det. Larry Rilee: From there, my sergeant and I responded to talk with Mrs. Cat Voss and … she just became hysterical, screaming … almost out of control.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: This appeared to be a robbery gone bad.
Det. Larry Rilee: But then we started looking more. … Usually, a robber wants to come in, commit the robbery -- not shoot at all if he doesn't have to, but if he does, it's one maybe two shots and he's gone. And this just seemed like it was overkill.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: Throughout the investigation, leads … led us to multiple individuals involved with the murder of Cory Voss.
Det. Larry Rilee: We developed one suspect … then a second suspect … and ultimately a third suspect … we just had to figure out how to tie all of them together
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: It took a lot of twists and turns as the investigation progressed.
Gregory Ford, Executive Assistant Director, NCIS Criminal Investigations: I can't fathom what the mindset is of someone that commits heinous acts such as this.
Barbara Wilson | Cory Voss' mother: it still doesn't make sense to me.
Maureen Evans: I've never come across a triangle of three individuals … with no connection initially … that ended up in a cold-blooded murder of somebody who was totally innocent.
Cory and Cat
U.S. Navy Ensign Cory Voss was on a fast track to a promising naval career until his murder at the hands of a mysterious stranger in April 2007. The only clues investigators had were grainy surveillance photos at the ATM.
Det. Larry Rilee: This is the Langley Federal Credit Union where Cory drove up to that night. And That's the ATM.
Det. Larry Rilee: We just couldn't tell clearly who had gotten in that truck. … it was blocked by a part of a visor. So, we couldn't make a definitive identification of that individual. And there was even speculation as to the race of the individual.
Barbara Wilson: it just breaks your heart.
Cory's mother Barbara Wilson was devastated.
Barbara Wilson: It's hard, not having all of your children.
She recalls her son's wife Cat being overwhelmed with grief at his funeral.
Barbara Wilson: She was just a complete mess. I was more concerned with her than I was for myself.
NCIS agents and Newport News Police in Virginia felt enormous pressure to quickly solve this case, so they pooled resources.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: We work a great deal with local law enforcement … We worked seamlessly together.
Det. Larry Rilee: As investigators, we began a victimology soon after the crime takes place.
Maureen Evans: Because we need to learn about the victim in a case so that we can learn more about … how that person could have potentially died.
Barbara Wilson: He was a great kid. … He was a handful.
Barbara Wilson says Cory's teenage years were rocky.
Barbara Wilson: But it was mostly just from hanging around kids who were getting in trouble. … I used to say, "when he turns 18, he's going to be just fine if he should live that long" [laughs] because he just -- you know one thing after another.
What turned his life around was when Cory joined the Navy.
Barbara Wilson: He just kind of grew up. … military will do that to you.
Barbara Wilson: He looks so good in that uniform
Maureen Evans: He was a great ship handler. He was a great supervisor. Everyone loved him
Det. Larry Rilee: After interviewing all the people about Cory -- friends, family, Cat's friends. Not one person had anything negative to say about him. I mean, he was, like, the perfect guy.
Maureen Evans: I spoke to Cory's executive officer on the USS Elrod. He told me that in the 14 years that he had been supervising young officers in the Navy that Cory was one of the top three
He was a navigation specialist on a five-year training program to run his own ship. Professionally he was on the rise, and his personal life blossomed in 1999 when he met Cat in a bar in Newport News.
Barbara Wilson: He brought her to meet the family and she was very nice.
She seemed exotic. Cat always spoke to Cory's mother in a Russian accent.
Det. Larry Rilee: Cat Voss told Cory 's mother that she was born and raised in the Ukraine by a Ukrainian father and an American mother.
Barbara Wilson: She said she came over from the Ukraine when she was in seventh- or eighth-grade, so she went to high school in the States.
Barbara Wilson: She had -- a wild side. And, so, I kind of gathered that she was now wanting to settle down.
The couple had only been dating three months when they learned they'd be having a baby.
Barbara Wilson: it wasn't like, you know, "Well, she's pregnant so we have to get married." … He was in love with her. They were going to be a family.
What Cory didn't know is that Cat was keeping a secret: she was already married to Steve Larson, a high school classmate in Newport News. They eloped after she got pregnant at 17. Their daughter lived with Cat's mother.
Steve Larson | Cat's ex-husband: The marriage was always a struggle. … Money was always the argument. You know, we never had enough.
Larson was a military man and was often away from home. After one long deployment, he came back to a little surprise.
Steve Larson: She told me she was pregnant with somebody else's kid. … Six months pregnant
The father was Cory, but Larson still wanted to save their marriage.
Steve Larson: But she didn't want to do it. … she was definitely done with me. … she knew what she wanted … and she drove for it every time and worked towards getting what she wanted every time.
Inevitably, they divorced.
Cory and Cat married in 2000 after the birth of their daughter Casey; Cory Jr. followed a year later.
Barbara Wilson: Cat and I talked all the time on the phone. So, she would call and she'd say, you know, "we're fixing up the apartment" … She would ask advice and how you do this and how you would do that … I mean, I really thought she was just the best daughter-in-law … good mother.
While Wilson believed Cat was a good wife and mother, Cat was not so impressed with her husband as a good provider.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: She wanted to maintain a certain lifestyle, drove a BMW … she wanted to buy the clothes and buy the jewelry. And so, she would spend all this money and had an exorbitant amount of debt. … there were so many bills that were not being paid because of this lifestyle that she wanted to have.
Carol Wiggins | Cat Voss' aunt: Cathleen was fairly manic about money.
Carol Wiggins is Cat's aunt. She knew all about her niece's spendthrift ways but was very fond of her.
Carol Wiggins: She was fun, charming, witty, charismatic.
Wiggins remembers when Cat was 16, a great aunt left her $25,000 of inheritance. And Wiggins and Cat went shopping.
Carol Wiggins: And Cathleen would go through that store. And get a look on her eye -- it reminded me of a rat in a cheese factory.
Carol Wiggins: She spent a lot of money. And graciously spent it on my children and bought me a couple of things. And in three weeks she was broke
As investigators kept probing Cat and Cory's relationship for clues to his murder, an anonymous caller to a police hotline focused their investigation on Cat, the grieving widow.
Ashley Doyle | Friend of Cat Voss: A voice just told me, you know, she did it. … You have to stand up and say something.
Secrets and lies
Barbara Wilson: The Ukrainian accent did not throw me at all. You know, I was happy that my son had found somebody that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Just days into the investigation, NCIS agents and police learned Cat wasn't who she appeared to be. That accent she used with Cory's mom? That was all an act.
Det. Larry Rilee: Yes, Cory's mom believed it up until the day we told her, during this investigation, that it wasn't true.
Cat had, in fact, grown up in Newport News.
Barbara Wilson: Pure fantasy. … I don't know why she would go and make up this story.
Maureen Evans: it's like she wants to be the center of attention. She wants to be exciting … instead of just being the, boring person that really doesn't have anything exciting in their background.
Ashley Doyle: She always would do a Russian accent, but it was only when we were out drinking, and we all thought it was a way for her to be funny- for her to entertain us.
Cat's friend, Ashley Doyle, would become a key part of the investigation.
Ashley Doyle: I met Cory not long after meeting Caterina, he was just a very good husband … to Caterina and a very good dad to the kids. Just always, taking care of them. Caterina wanted to go somewhere, do something, Cory would be there for the kids.
Ashley Doyle: Often, with Caterina, we were out, you know, drinking, partying … She was a lot of fun to be at a bar with because you felt like you were the center of attention, too, because she was.
Cory spent months at sea. And when he was away, Cat was at play … often with other men.
Ashley Doyle: So sometimes Caterina would give the children, Kacey and Cory, Benadryl to get them to sleep so that she could basically do what she wanted in the evenings and she could bring home whoever she wanted, and they would be sleeping.
NCIS agents would learn Cat had found a new boyfriend, Michael Draven, whom she'd met on the website MySpace.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: We needed to focus our efforts on Cat for the murder of Cory, specifically that Cat had a relationship with an individual named Michael Draven.
Ashley Doyle: She said he was a photographer … and he was very -- he came off as being very artistic and kind of had that Goth look … appearance to him … But she was just completely enamored with him from the get-go and was telling me all about him.
Det. Larry Rilee: Well, we learn about Michael Draven that he claims to be a successful filmmaker and photographer, and that he had opened his own business that he was making hundreds of thousand dollars per year, doing really well.
But, in reality …
Det. Larry Rilee: What we found out is he's living in a mobile home with his mother and delivering newspapers, part-time, when she can wake him up in the middle of the night.
Ashley Doyle: I was immediately like, "Caterina, you're not going to continue talking to this guy? He lied to you." …She's like, well, "He was, you know, he was just embarrassed about his situation" -- and just immediately she was making excuses for him. … And then, once he took hold of her, she was a different person.
Like Cat, Draven created his own reality; Michael Draven wasn't even his real name.
Det. Larry Rilee: We learned that he had actually, in Baltimore, Maryland, submitted a document to the court system, changing his name from Anthony Neff to Michael Anthony Eric Draven. … Eric Draven was the name of an actor in a movie called "The Crow" … he said that it was a more intriguing name.
Det. Larry Rilee: Michael Draven was a fanatic, in that everything that he did seemed to be a little bit bizarre.
Draven also had a bizarre side job to make extra money.
Maureen Evans: Draven would go to this hospital in Baltimore and be a human test subject.
Det. Larry Rilee: … where he'd go up and, based on the study that he would do … he would be paid for taking pills or a procedure may be done or what have you. He was a lab rat. He was a human lab rat.
He and Cat were so brazen in their relationship that Draven had photos of her children on his MySpace page.
Det. Larry Rilee: And he had captioned "my daughter Casey." And you know we just thought that that was bizarre that he had made basically claims of them being his children before Cory was ever murdered.
Det. Larry Rilee: I think what Michael Draven wanted was to be Cory.
Ashley Doyle: She was talking to me about divorcing Cory and I explained to her, "Caterina, what are you going to do?" She's never worked. She was a stay at home mom, I knew it was going to be a big change for her … as far as financially – and … that she would actually have to support herself as well … And I think that she started realizing that she needed to do something else to maintain her lifestyle.
A month after that conversation …
Ashley Doyle: I woke up one morning, getting ready for work, turned on the news … and I happen to hear something that caught my attention. And I turned and looked at the TV screen and I saw Cory's truck … and they were saying that he was found dead in his truck. Immediately my mind started spinning and I thought, "Oh, my God … she's done it."
Ashley Doyle: And at the end of the news report, they had said, if you have any information, you can call the crime line.
Det. Larry Rilee: She didn't initially want to provide her name or meet with us. But after talking with her for a few minutes, she did agree to do that.
But was Cat really involved in Cory's death? Detectives needed something incriminating so they asked Ashley to wear a wire and record Cat with a small camera inside her purse.
Ashley Doyle: It was just hard for me to do.
Ashley Doyle: And I was just terrified. I thought she was going to know for sure that I was wearing a wire or that I had a camera.
Ashley Doyle: And then we walked into the kitchen and we were talking more about things … and she put down a Pepsi bottle right in front of my purse that I had laid in front of her to try and get her talking to me. And I thought, "Oh, God, she knows. She knows about the camera."
It was a false alarm -- Cat had no clue about the camera.
Det. Larry Rilee: Well, obviously [we] didn't get a bombshell of a confession or anything like that.
Doyle says Cat had two distinctly different reactions to Cory's death. On one hand, she was dismissive.
Ashley Doyle: Cory's mom called and she let the answering machine pick up the call. And she said, "Oh, God, it's Cory's mom again." And she acted just totally uncaring about the whole situation.
But in contrast, at his funeral, Doyle says Cat's behavior was over-the-top.
Ashley Doyle: I went with a friend of mine and we just could not believe the show that Caterina put on … just very dramatic, crying … laying over the casket. It was really bad acting. It was ridiculous. It was a joke.
For investigators, there were more red flags.
Maureen Evans: When a military member in the Navy is killed, there's an immediate $100,000 death benefit that is provided to the spouse or to the family -- the next of kin. And in this case, that $100,000 went to Cat.
Maureen Evans: We had people researching how Cat spent money.
Det. Larry Rilee: She's spending … almost $10,000 in the Outer Banks on a vacation with her boyfriend, his brother and girlfriend, and the kids. And we're only less than three weeks removed from Cory 's murder.
She splurged on jewelry, hotels, restaurants -- and even paid the rent of her boyfriend Draven's new apartment.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: And within three months, she had spent all but approximately $900 of it.
Det. Larry Rilee: That's telling us that she has no remorse for her husband being murdered.
Months passed, but investigators only had a circumstantial case -- they needed a lot more.
Det. Larry Rilee: At that point in time, we didn't have anything more than mere suspicion and some connections to Michael Draven -- but certainly, nothing to link her directly to participating in the murder.
So, they resorted to another investigative technique -- wiretaps:
SURVEILLANCE AUDIO:
MICHAEL DRAVEN: Yeah, yeah, they want to talk to him.
CAT VOSS: What about?
MICHAEL DRAVEN: I don't freaking know.
Det. Larry Rilee: The phones were Cat's and Draven's … homes and cell phones.
And those weeks of overheard conversations led investigators down another long twisty trail to pay dirt.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: It was a game-changer.
Tickling the wires
Barbara Wilson | Cory Voss' mother: If he were overseas, then, you know, that's when I would worry about him. … the idea that he would come home and then be killed. … You know, it just didn't seem to make sense. It didn't seem real.
As the months had passed, Cory Voss's murder was still unsolved. NCIS and police were taking a hard look at Cat and her lover Michael Draven, now their prime suspects.
Det. Larry Rilee: No, we didn't at that point know … who had gotten in the truck. But we certainly didn't discount the fact that we thought it could have been Draven.
Investigators hoped the phone taps might lead to conversations revealing who actually killed Cory:
SURVEILLANCE AUDIO:
MICHAEL DRAVEN: You need to get the hell here now.
CAT VOSS: Why? What happened?
MICHAEL DRAVEN: Just get here.
They needed to get Cat and Draven talking about the murder.
Det. Larry Rilee: We went first to interview Cat's mother. … And we knew that she would call Cat and tell her that we just interviewed her and what we asked. … immediately, we flew that afternoon to Michigan, and we interviewed Cory 's sister … And we even asked them to call and see how she was doing. So that created conversation.
Those conversations were part of the carefully orchestrated wiretap plan.
Det. Larry Rilee: "Tickling the wires." It's a law enforcement phrase that -- it's used to elicit or initiate conversation between other parties.
Det. Larry Rilee: We didn't get a confession, but what we did get was an enormous amount of evidence of them creating alibis and what they needed and what they wanted the friends to tell the police if they were to come to them.
Cat herself was eager to see the investigation wrapped up.
Det. Larry Rilee: She was telling all of her friends that we weren't investigating. The police department isn't doing what they need to do. They haven't found anybody. She needed to be cleared.
Cleared, so she could get all of Cory's military benefits.
Maureen Evans | NCIS special agent supervisor: She also … found out that there was a $400,000 life insurance policy that she was also gonna to get. … Additionally … money for Social Security for the kids, which was about $300 a month for each kid. And she also got a widow's benefit as well, which was … probably $500 to $700-a-month for the rest of her life.
Maureen Evans: But in order to get that money, she had to be excluded as being involved in any way, shape or form with Cory's death.
Det. Larry Rilee: As a matter of fact, Caterina Voss had made several complaints that we weren't doing enough, and that was because I'd put a hold on her insurance money.
Maureen Evans: And she actually claimed in one of the last emails that she sent to the life insurance policy folks that she was psychologically and emotionally damaged because she couldn't pay any bills.
Det. Larry Rilee: She even made formal complaints to a local U.S. congresswoman … She failed to tell the congresswoman, however, that she had already gotten $100,000 and blown through it in six weeks.
Investigators were thoroughly convinced of Cat's motive: money. But they still needed to figure out if she was the mastermind behind Cory's murder.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: During the course of the investigation there was a big break in the case.
Det. Larry Rilee: We learned that Michael Draven had been arrested in March of 2007.
That was a month before the murder.
Det. Larry Rilee: … and it was an arrest for an outstanding warrant in Baltimore, Maryland.
Maureen Evans: He apparently got into some sort of altercation with his ex-girlfriend
Det. Larry Rilee: And Michael Draven had been in jail for some six days and had made hundreds of phone calls, 99% of them to Cat Voss.
And all phone calls in jail are recorded.
Det. Larry Rilee: So, we chose to just take a chance and recover the phone records.
CAT VOSS | JAIL CALL AUDIO: Well, there's one little factor that'll be taken care of very soon, just to let you know. Don't say it on here because it's recorded.
Det. Larry Rilee: There was a question by Draven to Cat, "Did you talk to David?"
JAIL CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL DRAVEN: You said that you and David was talking?
CAT VOSS: Uh-huh.
Det. Larry Rilee: And she said in a vague response, "Yeah. Yeah, like last week, like two hours."
JAIL CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL DRAVEN: You told him what's going on?
CAT VOSS: Yes, I did.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: OK.
CAT VOSS: He said, "oh, my f-----g god. … I'm just letting you know, I will take care of it from here on.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: OK, just don't get yourself in trouble, OK?
CAT VOSS: I won't. Trust me.
Det. Larry Rilee: There was a conversation about money and how much David wanted. And he wanted $500 up front.
JAIL CALL AUDIO:
CAT VOSS: He wants more money.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: More money?
CAT VOSS: Um, up front, and he wanted – he wanted -- I don't have $500 now.
Those recordings were a game changer. Agents reviewed Cat's phone records to find the mysterious David.
Det. Larry Rilee: That phone was registered to a guy named David Runyon. And it went back to a Morgantown, West Virginia, address. And that was where we truly believed that we had identified the third party that was involved in this this murder.
And now it was time for NCIS agents to track him down
Det. Larry Rilee: It's not often that you get the smoking gun, and in this case, a smoking map.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: I thought, how dumb could this guy be?
Following the trail
Maureen Evans: We're not going to let a crime go unpunished.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: Of course, there's a personal connection to each one of our cases and a desire to solve that case.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: Who is David Runyon?
To make their case, investigators needed to connect Cat and Draven, and now, David Runyon, to the murder of Cory Voss.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: Michael Draven was getting paid to have medical experiments conducted on him.
Maureen Evans: We find out that David Runyon is also one of those individuals that goes to the to the hospital in Baltimore and volunteers to have drugs ingested in him to actually be a human test subject as well. So that is where they met and had developed some sort of relationship.
The focus of the investigation shifted to Morgantown, West Virginia, where Runyon lived.
Maureen Evans: Our job was to come up here and surveil him.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: We placed a GPS tracking device on his Chevy blazer. And we conducted weeks of electronic surveillance as well as constant visual surveillance.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: And we watched his daily activities. We were trying to establish a pattern of life … his associates, residence, prior residences, anything that may be of evidentiary value to the investigation.
Det. Larry Rilee: We did find out that he had been in the military, that he was a sharpshooter.
They followed him 24 hours a day.
Maureen Evans: from the time that, you know, he woke up to the time that he went to bed.
Maureen Evans: We were trying to find evidence to tie David Runyon further to Draven and Cat. And so, during their surveillance, we did see him going in the back of his vehicle numerous times. We thought there were gun boxes in there, but we were never close enough to actually see what was in there.
But they had enough evidence from the wiretaps to get a search warrant for his mobile home.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: And during that search, we located a box of 357 ammunition. And five … were missing. … That was significant because Cory Voss had been shot five times.
Then, another crucial clue.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: In his backpack, we found what we referred to as a shopping list. And it was a handwritten note with a shopping list that included items such as a knife, a tarp, a black hooded sweatshirt, boots.
Now, five months after Cory's murder, it was time to move in on Runyon.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: And so we made a telephone call to Morgantown Police Department and requested their assistance.
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: Morgantown police initiate the traffic stop. … And I remember David Runyon had no reaction whatsoever.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: When we were searching his truck, obviously we were hopeful that we would find something.
And what they found would make their case.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: And it was hidden down in the compartment underneath the compartment, in the center console.
It's what Rilee refers to as the "smoking map."
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: And on that map was handwritten, Langley Federal Credit Union … a very detailed description of Cory Voss' truck, as well as Cory's name written on there. Also, in the center console was a picture of Cat and Michael Draven.
Special Agent Dana Shutt: We all just sat there and looked at each other and thought, "My goodness. I can't even believe that this is in this vehicle."
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: I thought, how dumb could this guy be to still have in his possession something of such significance that unequivocally links him to Cory Voss, Cat, and Michael Draven, still riding around with it in his vehicle after seven months?
Special Agent Dana Shutt: How can someone still keep that? … Why would they not get rid of that evidence?
Special Agent Sandra Barrow: I think he just forgot about it.
They arrest Runyon and Detective Rilee sits him down for an interrogation:
DET. LARRY RILEE: They're gonna make you out to be a monster man, you're gonna be a hired killer.
Det. Larry Rilee: We ultimately showed him that map.
DET. LARRY RILEE: Let me show you a map that we found in your truck, David.
Det. Larry Rilee: We asked them was that his map, and he also acknowledged that it was. And he acknowledged that it was his handwriting on that map. And he also acknowledged that that was a photograph of Cat Voss and Michael Draven that we had recovered from his vehicle.
DET. LARRY RILEE: You have a picture of Michael Draven and Cat Voss …
Det. Larry Rilee: And it was very shortly after that that he decided to invoke his right to an attorney, and he didn't want to speak to us anymore.
DAVID RUNYON: It sounds like maybe I need to get a lawyer.
They headed back to Newport News to arrest Michael Draven. Investigators were still monitoring his calls on those wiretaps.
Det. Larry Rilee: So, it was well-known amongst the family and the friends of Cat and Michael that this arrest had taken place in Morgantown, and they felt that they were next. So, they became extremely worried … Michael Draven was heard walking around the city very depressed, talking with his mother and with Cat and saying, at some point, that he was just going to go to the James River Bridge and jump off into the river.
They made an all-out effort to find him before he could harm himself.
Det. Larry Rilee: It was raining outside. It was cold outside. … He was soaking wet. … He appeared so exhausted, mentally and physically. … I don't know that it wasn't a relief for him.
Two down, one to go. They needed to find Cat Voss – which led to, says Rilee, "absolute shock."
MAPPING THE MURDER
After picking up a soaking wet, suicidal Michael Draven, investigators sat him down.
DET. J.T. WILLIAMS [TO DRAVEN]: All we're asking Michael is the truth … you will feel a 110% better, believe me.
After hours of interrogation by Detective Rilee and his partner, Draven finally comes clean -- naming Cat as the mastermind behind her husband's murder.
DET. J.T. WILLIAMS: What did she ask you to do?
MICHAEL DRAVEN: She asked me to take him out.
DET. J.T. WILLIAMS: And what did that mean to you?
MICHAEL DRAVEN: Shoot him or strangle him or kill him.
DET. J.T. WILLIAMS: And you could not do that?
MICHAEL DRAVEN: No. God I can't kill a person …
Juanita Harper | Michael Draven's mother: I know my son, he couldn't even kill a bug.
Draven's mother Juanita Harper recalls a bizarre conversation she and her husband had with Cat.
Juanita Harper: She wasn't specific on naming Cory's name. But she was like – "there's something I want to get rid of without having it traced back to me."
Harper says they didn't take it seriously, and her son's only crime was not standing up to Cat.
Juanita Harper: He said he didn't speak up for fear that she was gonna to have something done to my husband and to me and my grandchildren.
Detectives lay out their case to Draven -- how they know for certain he connected Cat with Runyon.
DET. LARRY RILEE: We know through the cell phone records that you put her into contact with David Runyon.
Det. Larry Rilee: He had relayed to David Runyon that Cat Voss was in a bad relationship with her husband … he had been told by Cat that Cory had abused the children -- not sexually, but physically.
That was not true, but agents say Cat made it up to convince Draven and Runyon to go along with her murder plan.
Det. Larry Rilee: Ultimately Michael Draven said that … David Runyon agreed to commit that murder for $20,000 … But that he never got paid for it.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: She never gave him anything. I never gave him anything.
DET. J.T. WILLIAMS: It's hard for me to believe that a professional hit man or any hit man is gonna drive six hours, come down here and kill a man and drive back and not even get gas money.
Det. Larry Rilee: And the only amount of money that we were ever able to document being sent was a $275 Western Union money transfer to David Runyon.
During his interrogation, police ask Draven to call Cat as they record it:
PHONE CALL AUDIO:
MICHAEL DRAVEN: I want to know what we're going to do.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: Cat, I've done nothing but love you.
MICHAEL DRAVEN: Cops are all over the place. … I'm f-----g freaking out, OK.
CAT VOSS: I'm coming to get you right now.
Det. Larry Rilee: Knowing that she was coming, of course, we had detectives and officers staged outside to take her into custody.
Det. Larry Rilee [outside police station]: We staged detectives and officers in the area here in front of the station.
Det. Larry Rilee: I mean, she had no idea that anybody was out there waiting to arrest her.
Cat Voss was arrested and questioned.
Det. Larry Rilee: And then so she wanted to blame Michael.
CAT VOSS [crying]: I felt like he was pushing and pushing. Now I'm mad because I feel like I was used.
DET. LARRY RILEE: Y'all came up with an idea.
CAT VOSS [crying]: No. He came up with this idea.
Det. Larry Rilee: She wants to throw Michael under the bus.
DET. LARRY RILEE: What was the idea?
CAT VOSS [crying]: For him to find someone to take Cory out.
Then she blames Runyon:
CAT VOSS [crying]: He took my husband's life and it was my fault [cries] he did it and I hated him. …he wanted all his money and he kept going up and up and up with the money.
Larry Rilee: She acknowledged that she was involved. However, she said she didn't really want it to happen.
DET. LARRY RILEE: You know what? You're a very manipulative person.
CAT VOSS: No, I am not!
DET. LARRY RILEE: You manipulated everyone.
Det. Larry Rilee: The only remorse she showed was that she had been caught. I believe that to this day.
All three were charged with conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
Draven and Runyon went to trial. Draven got a life sentence.
Maureen Evans: And Runyon was found guilty as well. And he's actually on death row.
As for Cat …
Maureen Evans: the evidence was so overwhelming that she pled guilty in this case.
Cat also got life.
Barbara Wilson: She took my son away from me. That's unforgivable … She was evil.
In the end for all the investigators involved in this case, there is some satisfaction in bringing justice, but there is also anger at the killers.
Maureen Evans: What kind of individual does that? That's probably what baffles me the most about that … It's just cold blooded.
Gregory Ford | Executive Assistant Director, NCIS Criminal Investigations: Getting to the truth is what we owe to the Department of Navy, to the victims and to the public.
Barbara Wilson: I think about him all the time. …there's a void. … There's a piece missing.
