- 2 days ago
Trina always had a tough childhood, but it becomes a nightmare when her mother brings home her new boyfriend, Robert. He is not only controlling, but also cruel and violent. While she knew he was evil, years later she discovers that he is a killer.
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00:00Hmm.
00:04Yeah, this is the monster I know.
00:06This is who I grew up with.
00:11This is what he looked like, just a little bit shorter hair.
00:17And no life in his eyes.
00:22You can tell there's nothing behind his eyes.
00:25There's no soul.
00:29Not a care, only for a self.
00:32I dealt with mental, physical, psychological.
00:36Every abuse that an adult can put on a child,
00:40I dealt with from him, him alone.
00:44And it's almost like I can see the proudness, kind of.
00:51He's proud of what he did, almost.
00:53I can almost see that look in his eyes
00:57he used to get when he would come into my room.
01:04It's just disgusting.
01:07Just trash, garbage of the earth.
01:10What was your reaction when I reached out to you?
01:24My reaction when you reached out was,
01:30why didn't this happen sooner?
01:33You know, maybe three people would have been saved.
01:38I believe that everybody that came in contact with him
01:42knew that he was about control.
01:44He's just the evil person.
01:50He's the devil.
01:52He's the devil.
02:00Goodbye.
02:11I'm sorry.
02:41I have so many mixed feelings about this picture.
02:44This was the building we lived in.
02:49My life before Robert, I would say, was a regular textbook family.
02:55All three of us, me and my mom and my sister, were always super close.
03:00I was old enough to understand that my dad, who was in the Air Force, was out of the country.
03:05And he had been gone for a while, and she was lonely.
03:10I'm sure she was lonely until Robert came in the picture, and things took a big, big turn.
03:17This is a picture of my mom and Robert soon after they started dating.
03:42My mom met him.
03:46She went out with one of our neighbors to the local officer's club, the NCO club on base.
03:52When I found this picture, even my mom doesn't look happy in this picture.
04:02I feel during the time my dad was gone, my mom really didn't know what to do.
04:10This was her first time with two little kids on her own.
04:14And I think that she just thought it'd be easier if she had somebody else to help her with everything.
04:20The first time I met Robert, I was seven, getting ready to have my eighth birthday.
04:45It was kind of exciting at first.
04:55This was the Robert that we had in his off time.
04:58When he wasn't thinking he was playing G.I. Joe Rambo in the Air Force.
05:04He worked in the military police.
05:06He was a big guy.
05:08He always seemed so big to me.
05:11And he always had his camis on and his camouflage hat with a beer and a koozie.
05:17That was his outside-of-work uniform.
05:21Always.
05:22We initially thought it was a cool idea if he would have really been that way, you know?
05:28I'd say that that wore off within the first six months.
05:37I would say their relationship moved rather quickly.
05:44He would just come on the weekends or, you know, a couple days.
05:50But when he started being there all the time, it just, it was so overwhelming for me, so overwhelming.
06:02He had set up a target in our basement.
06:07And he would shoot our Barbies that we no longer played with or dolls we didn't play with anymore.
06:19He had a blast doing that, which I thought was very, very weird in our basement.
06:27He had a seat on the couch that was just where he sat.
06:31He had a coffee table that all his guns and all his cleaning products to clean them were always right there.
06:39He didn't need to have guns.
06:41And I think that that was his backbone.
06:45It was more of him showing the power behind them and what he had, honestly.
06:53I had never been around that, so it was kind of scary to me.
07:01One day, I come in, open the door, drop my stuff, and run to the bathroom.
07:13And right before I could pull my pants down, the shower curtain flies open.
07:22And he's standing there with a gas mask and a machete.
07:26He thought it was the funniest thing that I peed my pants.
07:38I felt like I was on eggshells all the time.
07:44I didn't know what was going to happen.
07:46He just kind of took over and my mom let him.
07:49Like, I guess the man's supposed to control the house.
07:52That's how she felt about it.
07:54I just wanted to not worry and not be anxious all the time and just be a kid.
08:01I just did not trust him.
08:06You know, I was always waiting for something to happen.
08:10And I guess now we really have to follow his rules.
08:15Whenever we asked for something, he would have us drop and do push-ups for whatever we wanted.
08:20You want to go roller skating?
08:21You know, you want to go roller skating?
08:2230 push-ups.
08:23You know, it started being whatever we asked, we had to do push-ups.
08:27So, yeah, I quit asking for anything.
08:30I mean, because there would be any time he would just be like, give me 20 push-ups or, you know, just sitting there.
08:45And he'd tell us to come up with something.
08:47You know, he would have us drop and do push-ups for whatever we wanted.
08:50You want to go roller skating?
08:5230 push-ups.
08:53You know, it started being whatever we asked, we had to do push-ups.
08:58And he'd tell us to count them off.
09:03It was all him establishing dominance over me.
09:10He was taking control and seeing what he could get away with.
09:22Robert, along with many other things, implemented that I wash dishes.
09:27No.
09:28I was eight years old.
09:29Couldn't even reach in the sink yet.
09:34And there was a time where I had did the dishes the night before.
09:39And Robert came and woke me up from bed.
09:43It wasn't time to get up for school yet.
09:46He pointed out a plate that still had crusty stuff on it and told me that I was to hold the plate to the wall with my nose until he told me I was done.
10:01He told me if I dropped that plate I would pay for it.
10:08The whole time I'm just sitting there thinking like, what's next?
10:13And just try not to cry because there was nothing I could do about it.
10:18Absolutely nothing.
10:21I just, it was my life.
10:25I'm just thinking like, what is the point of this?
10:28You know, the anxiety and the fear and everything that I was already feeling, I felt was enough punishment.
10:36I must have been standing there 30, 45 minutes.
10:48And he finally said I could move.
10:51That's enough.
10:52This is a picture of my sister and I with my puppy Buster that I had received on my birthday.
11:14And when I got Buster, he was mine and nobody could take him from me.
11:19Not even Robert.
11:21My mom gave him to me and he was mine, you know.
11:25But when Robert came home and found Buster, he was mad.
11:29He voices his anger and he wasn't going to do anything for him.
11:36It was me and my mom's job to take care of him.
11:39And, um, and we did.
11:49I was running all over the house looking for him.
11:57Buster.
11:59Like, where's Buster?
12:02Buster.
12:04I already had all these things in my mind.
12:07Like, did Robert do something to him?
12:10He didn't like him from the beginning.
12:11So what's stopping him from doing it?
12:16And Robert's just on the couch.
12:19He just blatant, like he was so proud of himself.
12:24Was like, if you really want to know what I did to Buster, I broke his neck and threw him in the garbage.
12:29And I just, I just ran up to my room.
12:36I just, I cried the whole night.
12:42I was so, so messed up at that time.
12:47I just didn't even know what to do.
12:49I didn't, I didn't know who to talk to.
12:51I'm like, this, this, this, this is not good.
12:55And that was always in my head.
12:57Always in my head.
12:59If somebody could kill a dog, they could definitely kill a person.
13:04And I, I didn't know if that was going to be me.
13:17This was our baby Rocky.
13:21Right before he went and got Rocky is when he told me what he did to Buster.
13:26It was just like a couple months before that.
13:29And I thought, well, maybe he's trying to make it right.
13:32He was such a good dog though.
13:34But just like everything else, Robert had to tear it away from us because he couldn't control him.
13:39I remember the day that he broke his four by four run.
13:50Robert ran over there and took him by his chain that he was dragging and flung him around like a helicopter in the air.
14:00It was terrifying to hear the noises coming out of Rocky and to see a human being doing that.
14:11And he had to shoot him five times because he just wouldn't die.
14:16I want to know why he ever kept getting dogs.
14:32And you know you're just going to take them away from us.
14:36Why even do that?
14:38Why?
14:39Was that fulfilling your need of killing something?
14:43The day he did that, I just, I wouldn't even look at Robert.
14:50I just kept staring at my mom.
14:52Just like, are you going to open your mouth?
14:56Why is this okay?
14:57Hello, lady?
14:58You know, do you see what's happening here?
15:03And I just kept looking at her like, and just no response, nothing.
15:10She just, and I just think she was afraid if she would have said something.
15:19He controlled all of us.
15:20He did it because he wanted to, and he got a thrill from it.
15:29And after Rocky was killed, I definitely had the thought in my head that nobody's safe.
15:50He wore the belt to work every day.
15:58That seemed to be his go-to, you know?
16:02Well, you can always get the belt.
16:05You know?
16:08The one time I got the belt, that was the first time.
16:12I didn't make it home before the street lights came on.
16:15I was actually like 30 minutes late.
16:20I had marks for days, thick leather marks for days.
16:32And that was just for coming home late.
16:36He had no problem whooping me.
16:39And that's when the paddle, my cutting board, came into play.
16:44I was like so excited because I made her a cutting board.
16:57Because I cut it out myself and I had sanded it for weeks and put the finish on it.
17:03And I was so excited to give it to her.
17:05And I came home and handed it to her and Robert grabbed it.
17:09And he said, you know, this would be perfect for a paddle.
17:15And like my heart dropped.
17:19I was so disappointed.
17:24Because I knew he was going to do what he was saying, you know?
17:28And he went and cut the sides off.
17:31I was crying.
17:33I was also crying because I seen what he made with it.
17:42And I knew that was not going to be anything nice.
17:48So it always became a choice between the paddle that he made out of my cutting board
17:54or his military belt, which was like thick leather.
18:01And I had already felt that.
18:03So I thought maybe the paddle would be better.
18:07I always chose the paddle.
18:09I don't know why, but I did.
18:15It was a big deal to me because then he took what I made and used it against me.
18:19And that's when he started the weapons.
18:30It was a part of the grooming.
18:32I believe he was trying to see what he could do.
18:36What he could just push the limit far enough.
18:40My mom won't say anything.
18:41He could get away with it.
18:43And it was just always just a little bit more each time.
18:49He would ask me to rub his back.
18:55So, you know, I'd have to go around on the couch and rub his back, which was fine,
19:02because my mom was right there and we were on the couch.
19:07But then it started escalating to he lay in the bed.
19:13And he would just have a towel over his butt.
19:16We'd get up to get ready for school and he would just say,
19:22Hey, I need my back massaged.
19:24And normally it would be after my mom already left for work.
19:27So she wouldn't really know until she got home and she's like,
19:31Why aren't you at school?
19:33But even then, I don't think she questioned him.
19:34I don't understand why my mom thinks this is normal, you know.
19:40But nobody wanted to anger the bear.
19:44Nobody wanted to see what would happen if they said no.
19:47When I was sleeping, all of a sudden I would just be woke up to him up my shirt or down my pants.
20:06And just the smell of beer.
20:14But he would come in there every, it was a lot.
20:18I would try and make myself, I started layering.
20:21I would wear like four tank tops and then a shirt.
20:26You know what I'm like, if he can't get through all the layers, he can't touch me.
20:33It was my thinking then.
20:36But I'd also normally cry myself to sleep.
20:41Because I couldn't believe I was having to go through that.
20:45I finally was able to tell my mom about it.
20:47She said she talked to him.
20:49And it stopped for a minute.
20:51And I, you know, I'm like, wow, thanks for talking to him, Mom.
20:54But, um, then it started back up again.
20:58And there was one opportunity where I told her, well, he's doing it again.
21:05And she's like, what?
21:07And I said, what do you want me to do?
21:12Like, I would really like to just be a kid.
21:17And she's like, well, why don't we just pick up a lock?
21:28And we bought one of them slide chain locks.
21:33I couldn't wait to go to bed and lock the door.
21:37Because I was going to sleep that night.
21:39You know, I was excited.
21:42I'm not going to be bothered.
21:44I get to sleep.
21:45My mom did something.
21:49And I woke up immediately as soon as I heard that door knob.
21:59He tried it.
22:01And he couldn't get in.
22:03And then I could hear him with my mom, like, what did you do?
22:10What did you do?
22:12I'm just laying there just thinking, like, is that the conversation we're having right now?
22:20I guess, you know?
22:21Don't touch me!
22:23Don't touch me!
22:25But I'm safe.
22:26He didn't get in here tonight.
22:28I believe at the time when my mom put the lock on the door, she was brave enough to finally tell him to get out.
22:41Was finally stepping up for herself.
22:45Sometimes I just wonder if she even had a clue what to do.
22:50One day, I just noticed, like, a really, it was a big gash in her back.
23:05And then, like, a mark over it, and it was big, you know?
23:12And I'm like, what happened to your back?
23:15And she's like, oh, I fell into the bedside table.
23:21Even at that age, I was telling her, there's no excuse for him to put his hands on you.
23:26You know, it's bad enough, like, the mind control and everything, and now he's touching, putting his hands on you.
23:34No.
23:35I feel it just, it goes back to the grooming, the predatory behavior, seeking out people that you can manipulate and control.
23:51And I think that most narcissists, they go for people.
23:57They see people, they notice people that they can influence and engage in and control.
24:03They pick up on that so easily, and I think he probably picked up on that.
24:09My mom was so small and petite compared to him, and I think he took advantage of that.
24:16He knew that he can control her.
24:21I would ask her, why can't we just leave?
24:24Because she was always afraid of him.
24:27So, if you can't make him leave, why can't we leave?
24:30I know that there had to be brainwashing, and she was just, it was just fear.
24:36But then, I did start thinking about what he might be doing to her.
24:41We were sitting watching TV one day after school, and he was cleaning his guns like he normally did.
24:47My mom was cooking dinner, so she really was oblivious to anything that was happening, and he pulled the gun on me.
24:52He said, I could just shoot you right now.
24:53And what would you do?
24:54Hey.
24:55And I just kind of stared at him.
24:56I was stunned.
24:57I was stunned, and I didn't do anything.
24:58I was stunned.
24:59I didn't do anything.
25:00And they were sitting watching TV one day after school, and he was cleaning his guns like he normally did.
25:03My mom was cooking dinner, so she really was oblivious to anything that was happening.
25:09And he pulled the gun on me.
25:10He said, I could just shoot you right now.
25:15And what would you do?
25:17and I just kind of stared him.
25:25I was stunned, and I didn't really know how to respond.
25:29I just, I'm sure my face probably said it all,
25:33and I think that gave him the gratification he wanted.
25:40And he just started going back into cleaning it again,
25:46like nothing just happened.
25:47And that was the first time that it happened
25:54where he actually pointed the gun at me.
26:07We were at my cousin's house visiting.
26:11We were in Robert's parents' conversion van,
26:15and my mom had to run up to the corner store.
26:18I'll be right back, okay?
26:19And then he turns around and started arguing with me with something that
26:26I don't remember what we were arguing about, but he was like, you know, I could just kill you.
26:33And just pulled his gun out from under the seat and just held it to my head.
26:40I always remember expression.
26:43I always remember his face.
26:45He was very straight-faced and very serious, and I knew it, but I just didn't care anymore.
26:54And then, like, I see my mom in the rearview mirror walking up, and I thought I'd probably be better off if he just pulled it.
27:04Then I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.
27:06None of the bull, none of it, not worrying about what's going to happen to me, what he's going to do, or, you know,
27:16that maybe he'll get in trouble.
27:19I was like, just do it.
27:21Just do it.
27:22You'll have a lot to explain to my mom.
27:28Just pull it.
27:29He intended to shoot me that day.
27:37Something just happened, and I was done, and I wasn't going to let him do his dumb
27:41he had been doing to me for all them years, and I was going to talk back and fight back.
27:53And he slid it back under the seat.
27:55And I think about that all the time.
28:00Like, what if he would have did it?
28:02A cyclist charged in fatal I-270 crash.
28:26A clumbest man is charged with drunken driving after a passenger on his motorcycle died as a result of injuries he sustained in an accident.
28:35The driver over the motorcycle, Robert Cordell, 32, was driving at a high rate of speed and lost control of the motorcycle.
28:42Both men had been drinking at the time, and the investigation continues.
28:47This was an accident that my mom had actually been waiting to happen, because he told her he had planned this.
29:02Their marriage was dissolving.
29:04So, things started, you know, taking different turns, meeting different people he wanted to bring around.
29:18Robert started having an affair with his friend's wife.
29:23He would brag to my mom that he was going to take care of him, get him out of the picture, and did exactly like he told her.
29:31He was going to get him as drunk as he could.
29:34He was going to put him on the back of his bike, and he was going to drive as fast as he could until he flew off.
29:39And that's exactly what he did.
29:41When we seen it on the news and in the paper, she just, her jaw dropped when we seen it, and that he actually did it.
29:52I don't know why she would ever think he wouldn't.
29:56I mean, he was pretty good with following through with threats.
29:59It was heartbreaking that his family did not know how evil Robert was, and actually fought for him not to do jail time.
30:11They won.
30:12He did no jail time for this.
30:14I believe that he murdered his best friend.
30:21It's just the lowest of the low.
30:29I'm sure there was fear and despair.
30:38My mom just really couldn't handle it, and she was over it, and I think she needed that.
30:46She just was fed up, and she gained her footing.
30:59My mom finally had the courage to leave.
31:08I was happy that she was divorcing him, just making him go, and she made him go.
31:15We didn't leave.
31:15She made him go.
31:17At least when he wasn't there, I could breathe.
31:22I felt like I could breathe.
31:24I could fully expand my lungs, and I could breathe.
31:28But the day she went to court, I told her, come pick me up from school early, and we went out and celebrated.
31:36But she was scared.
31:38She was still scared then.
31:39And I think she was afraid of him stalking, which he did.
31:47Robert kept calling over and over again and leaving messages on the answer machine that he was on his way over there to kill her.
32:00And he was going to do to her like he did to his friend.
32:04And we all know how that turned out is what he said.
32:07It was just constant.
32:10He was calling back to back to back to back and just kept leaving messages.
32:15I believe he was very capable of following through with every threat.
32:23Probably wouldn't have a second thought about killing me or my mom.
32:26Wouldn't even bother them.
32:27When he was gone, I would still feel the anxiousness.
32:50I think that I won't truly feel, like, calm in my heart until he's dead, until I know he's gone.
33:02Around 2002, we had just moved.
33:07My mom was in a new place.
33:08And, you know, we're settling and the phone rings and it's a lawyer.
33:14And she asked what it's referring to.
33:17And they said Robert Cordell.
33:23And I'm like, what do they, what?
33:26And I guess he was explaining to her what happened.
33:30Prosecutors say Cordell shot and killed his neighbor, former Reading Mayor Frank Carnevelli,
33:35his ex-wife, Rita Bushman, and Cordell's former sister-in-law, Kathy Cordell.
33:39Yesterday afternoon, police say he had blood on his boots and eventually admitted killing his neighbors
33:45and then told police his sister-in-law was also dead inside the home.
33:51None of us were surprised.
33:54I mean, it blew our mind that he did that.
33:58But we weren't surprised.
34:01He's 100% a monster and a predator.
34:03And a killer.
34:17Victim's family was also in court to face the man they say turned on friends.
34:22Just came over and killed my brother and his wife for no reason.
34:27I don't, it just don't make sense why, why somebody would hurt somebody that,
34:30that, that did so much for him.
34:33I learned that he strangled his sister-in-law.
34:45And I can't believe he, he was in the house with her for a day or two.
34:54And went next door and confronted the neighbor about wanting his, his vehicle back.
34:59And, um, proceeded to shoot him 12 times.
35:05And when his ex-wife came to check out what happened, he shot her.
35:10It wasn't unexpected.
35:12We, we 100% thought we'd, we'd see something else sooner than this.
35:17I just think about his sister-in-law.
35:25He had to stare her in the eyes while he was doing this.
35:30That's very personal to strangle somebody.
35:33Honestly, I, none of us would have been surprised if there was other victims.
35:44I, there's probably other victims.
35:47People that he took advantage of didn't have people.
35:52You know, the grooming mentality of trying to be around people that didn't have
35:57anybody to protect them, look out for them.
36:03And I, I think about that a lot, too.
36:05Because I, I think, you know,
36:07anytime he, he came in my room, he could have just decided to get rid of me, too.
36:14I knew too much.
36:16You know, I could get him in trouble.
36:17And then it just makes me think of the guns to my head.
36:24And he could have killed me two times then.
36:30He actually looks very small.
36:33He looks like he, he's defeated.
36:37And I like that.
36:38He needs to be defeated.
36:40He needs to be brought down to the level he belongs, which is under my feet.
36:47And that's the first, like, the first time he looks like that.
37:07I believe he should have been given the death penalty.
37:14And I would have loved to have seen that day.
37:17I, I don't think the taxpayers should pay for him to breathe.
37:26And to eat.
37:27And to live.
37:30He's a waste of, of space.
37:36I would actually, like, when he dies, can they send me a video of him being pushed into the oven?
37:41I am so serious.
37:45That would be the best closure for a lot of people.
37:52My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer in the summer of 2018.
37:58And, um, even though she, she went through treatment and, and was doing well, um, it still took her life in 2020 during COVID.
38:10If my mom was here for this, I, I believe that she would be very supportive and I think she'd probably be proud of me.
38:20It's kind of like a, a, a, the end of the chapter, closing the book.
38:24I wish she would have had the strength to, um, to leave earlier.
38:35I wish she would have known what to do.
38:37I think just at her age and, and, and the life she lived, she really didn't know her options.
38:45And didn't, she didn't have anybody to talk to about that either.
38:49And she just picked what she thought was the best route for her.
38:57And as much as I paid for her being with him, she paid.
39:04I've closed my book on all the trauma.
39:15I've worked through the trauma.
39:17It's just made me the person I am today.
39:19I don't deal with anybody's bull.
39:22I'm always the one to stand up.
39:26If I wouldn't have lived the life I lived with him, I, I probably would have been a different person.
39:34My experiences have made me who I am today.
39:37I'm not going to thank him for that.
39:39He should die for that.
39:40But I am the person I am.
39:42Everything has built me up to this.
39:46What would you say to Robert if you were sitting in the same room with him today?
39:53I would say, if I seen Robert today,
40:02you didn't get me.
40:04I won.
40:07I'm still here.
40:09I'm walking this earth.
40:11I'm breathing this air free.
40:14And, and I'm not only free to do it,
40:17I'm free from you to do it.
40:22And I'm good.
40:23And I made a life.
40:25And I didn't let anything you do take that from me.
40:30Anything you did, I, I still did everything.
40:34Just made me do it better.
40:36I could have went down his path and ended up crazy and let everything that affected me drive me crazy and do crazy things.
40:46But it's my mind.
40:49And so I chose that I, I was going to heal from it.
40:54And I, I wasn't going to let it break me like it did when I was that age.
41:00I've done pretty good.
41:02I make a comment, he angers like that.
41:17The next thing I know, he's got his hands around me, choking me.
41:24It was real then that he was a murderer and I had been living with him.
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