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Dentist Fatally Shot Girlfriend and Wife Years Apart, Staged Both Scenes to Look Like Suicide
Jennifer Corbin was found fatally shot in bed with a gun next to her, alongside divorce papers recently filed by her husband Bart Corbin. Then came a shocking tip about Bart's former girlfriend's death.
Buford, an upscale community in Gwinnett County, Georgia, is known for its resort-like vibe. But on December 4, 2004, the community’s bucolic bubble burst.
At 7:30 a.m. that day, a 911 dispatcher answered a frantic call from a resident reporting that her neighbor, 33-year-old Jennifer Corbin, had been shot. When first responders arrived, they found Jennifer in the master bedroom, lying in bed with a gun next to her.
“It was a Smith & Wesson older style revolver,” Mike Pearson, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent, said in the “Twice as Deadly” episode of The Real Murders of Atlanta, airing Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.
The time of death was estimated to be between midnight and 3 a.m. There was a bottle of wine on the nightstand beside the bed, alongside divorce papers. Her husband, Bart Corbin, had filed for divorce recently and was seeking to receive the home, along with custody of their two boys and child support, said Linda Looney, a former news anchor for WVEE radio station.
Evidence suggested the possibility of a suicide. “We could see where the gunshot wound entered towards the back of her head,” said Edward Restrepo, a former detective with the Gwinnett County Police Department.
“Women don’t use handguns to commit suicide and there was no note,” Restrepo added. “So we felt that was odd.”
Jennifer Corbin found dead by her 7-year-old son
Investigators canvassed the neighborhood and interviewed Jennifer’s then-7-year-old son, Dalton. “He had slept through the gunshot before he arrived in her room that morning and found her dead in her bed,” Looney said.
The boy ran to his neighbor’s house and expressed concern about his mom after discovering her. At that time, the neighbor checked on Jennifer and immediately called 911.
Jennifer’s sister, Heather, who lived in the area, arrived at the scene. She was adamant that her sister wouldn’t kill herself. “She said Jennifer was happy and she loved her boys,” Looney explained on The Real Murders of Atlanta.
Heather told officials that she’d tried unsuccessfully to contact her brother-in-law, Bart Corbin.
Who are Jennifer and Bart Corbin?
Investigators learned that Bart was a successful dentist who coached his son’s baseball team.
Jennifer worked part-time at a preschool. “She was a great mom. She was a great wife and a good listener,” said Looney. But she and Bart had marital troubles and were estranged.
Detectives finally made contact with Bart, who said that he'd spent the night with his brother, Bobby. “They notified him that Jennifer was deceased,” said former Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter. “He basically dropped the phone. They could hear the sound of vomiting in the background.”
Jennifer Corbin’s autopsy results
The medical examiner confirmed that Jennifer had been shot in the back of the head. The entry wound was inconsistent with a suicide.
The trajectory of the gunshot wasn’t the only evidence indicating Jennifer’s fatal wound wasn’t self-inflicted. “Her fingerprints were not found on the gun, and there was no gunshot residue on her hand,” said Porter.
Detectives knew they were dealing with a homicide and that the shooter had staged the scene to make them think Jennifer took her own life.
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Bart Corbin interviewed by police
Accompanied by his attorney, Bart came to the police station to be interviewed. Asked about his whereabouts at the time of the murder, Bart said he went to a restaurant with friends and drove to his brother's house at around 1:30 a.m.
Investigators detected no blood or bodily fluids on Bart’s clothing, which he readily handed over. They also saw that he had sustained no defensive wounds. A gunshot residue test was conducted on Bart’s hands, and it came back negative. Bart was allowed to go on his way.
Jennifer Corbin’s online relationship
Investigators learned that leading up to the murder, Jennifer had become involved in an online role-playing game. She was chatting regularly with an individual named "Chris." “They began to talk about how they were falling in love,” said Porter.
But two months into the online affair, "Chris" revealed that she was really a woman named Anita, who was married with kids. Despite the revelation, the online affair continued.
Investigators learned that Jennifer and Anita had exchanged messages moments before the murder. They also found out that Anita was in Missouri at the time of the shooting and not connected to the crime.
Dolly Hearn case emerges
Jennifer’s murder was all over the news. A tipster reached out to police and told them to look into the Richmond County investigation into the death of Dolly Hearn. She’d gone to dental school with Bart and dated him.
On June 6, 1990, Hearn was found dead in her Augusta, Georgia, apartment with a gun beside her. She was shot with a .38 caliber revolver, the same kind of gun as in Jennifer's case. “She was shot in almost the same location in the back of the head,” Porter said.
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Gwinnett County investigators learned that Bart and Hearn’s relationship soured after she rejected his marriage proposal. Detectives also found out that Bart was interviewed in Richmond County regarding Hearn’s death.
“The thing all along that was lacking in Hearn's case was the ability to conclusively prove that this was a murder,” said Scott Peebles, a former detective with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department. Bart had an airtight alibi, and there was no physical evidence that directly linked him to her death.
Investigators hone in on Bart Corbin
Detectives from Gwinnett and Richmond counties believed that Bart could be responsible for not one, but two homicides staged to look like suicides. Hearn’s case was reopened, and officials from both counties joined forces.
Detectives tapped Bart’s phone and discovered he was having an affair with his dental hygienist. Police ruled her out as a suspect. They focused on cracking Bart’s seemingly airtight alibi.
Bart had said that he went to a restaurant with friends and drove to his brother's house at around 1:30 a.m. on the morning that his wife was found dead. That would have put him about 15 miles away from his own home during the midnight to 3 a.m. window in which Jennifer was murdered.
But cell tower information said that he was near his house at 1:25 a.m., not at his brother's house. “That blew his alibi out of the water,” Restrepo said.
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Bart Corbin arrested
On December 22, 2004, Bart was arrested for Hearn’s murder. Investigators combed through his phone records for possible clues about the .38 caliber revolver used to kill his wife. That led investigators to the fact that Bart had driven to Troy, Alabama a week before Jennifer's murder.
They found out that Bart’s old friend, Richard Wilson, lived in Troy. A gun collector, Wilson told police he had given a .38 caliber firearm to Bart that matched the weapon that killed his wife Jennifer. “That was the nail in the coffin for Bart Corbin,” said Restrepo.
Bart was indicted for Jennifer's murder on January 5, 2005.
Porter offered Bart a plea deal. The district attorney would take the death penalty off the table if Bart admitted in open court that he murdered Jennifer and Hearn. Bart agreed to the deal and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, NBC News reported.
“He murdered two women that were supposedly women that he loved, one of whom was the mother of his two sons,” said Jane Henson, Hearn’s aunt. “It's just very scary to say what he could do to another woman.”
To learn more about the cases, watch the “Twice as Deadly” episode of The Real Murders of Atlanta, airing Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.
