Katharina Buczek
Corey knew that detail was only known by law enforcement, though. And even though Dan claimed to have overheard an off-duty police officer discussing that detail at a bar, Corey did not believe it for a second.
So, he continued working the case as a civilian and was actually ultimately proven wrong when another man, Gary Leon Ridgeway, finally pled guilty to forty-eight counts of murder as the Green River Killer.
Still, Corey’s efforts were not lost– because all of his research eventually helped him make an important discovery in Misty’s disappearance.
One day, while Corey was organizing all of his homicide and missing persons cases chronologically, two Puyallup cases stood out to him. One was a fifteen-year-old girl named Kim Delange, who was murdered in 1988. The other was a fourteen-year-old girl named Anna Chebetnoy, who was murdered in 1990.
Both of the girl’s remains had been discovered on Highway 410, and Corey believed he had unearthed a pattern. Not only were their remains found in the same place, but their murders were two years and one month apart.
So, by the time Misty went missing in September of 1992, her disappearance was two years and one month after the last murder.
This finding led Corey to immediately contact the police, but the authorities were getting tired of the civilian constantly involving himself in police matters. So, Corey was forced to take his knowledge to Misty’s mother, Diane.
And together, they and twenty-five volunteers searched Highway 401 on November 28, 1992. To Corey’s shock, though, no traces of Misty were ever found.
It was following that search that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department altered Misty’s case status from runaway to missing under suspicious circumstances. Diane also felt a sense of relief that her daughter’s remains were not where Corey had suspected.
He was still fervently attached to his theory, though, and began to reassess his case research. Then, after contacting the King County Medical Examiner’s office again to confirm where the prior two victims had been found, Corey realized he had led the search party to the wrong place.
The two girls had been discovered on the southern side of the highway– not the north one, where he and Diane had searched.
