Snapped on Oxygen: Was Corey Story abusive towards Cynthia Coates?

The murder of Corey Story in 2014 led investigators to believe that the murder was an act of revenge by Cynthia Coates. The sources close to the family revealed during the investigation, that Coates and Story allegedly had a romantic relationship for almost two years.However, Coates' family mentioned that the relationship was abusive, per Oxygen.

Cynthia Coates entered a plea deal during the trial for voluntary manslaughter and is currently serving 20 years in prison. The Snapped: Women Who Kill episode showcases the shooting death of Corey Story as it re-airs on July 9, 2024, at 11 p.m. EST on Oxygen. The official synopsis reads,

"When a man returns home from a party and finds his caregiver shot to death, detectives must sift through a complicated network of animosity and resentment to find their killer."

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Was Corey Story abusive towards Cynthia Coates?

A Kokomo resident, Tommie Hammock Jr, had been to a birthday party on October 25, 2014. He returned home around 4:50 p.m. local time, to find one of his three caregivers, Corey Story, shot to death in the master bedroom of his 1000 block of Quail Run Drive home. He was shot twice with one of Tommie's. 38 caliber snubnose handguns.

According to Oxygen, the initial investigations in the murder case revealed that Corey had been in a romantic relationship with one of Tommie's family friends, Cynthia Coates, since 2012. Corey helped Cynthia take care of her wheelchair-bound husband, Louis and had moved in with them as well.

Cynthia Coates and Corey Story allegedly shared a relationship (Image via Unsplash)

However, a friend of Corey Story revealed that he moved out in 2014, as he was not comfortable with the idea of living with a married woman. He was found dead two weeks later. Moreover, when interrogated about the affair, Coates mentioned that her husband was aware of the affair and was not offended by it. Teresa Galloway, the Kokomo Police Captain said,

"Cause he was paraplegic, he was okay with her being involved with someone else."

There were discrepancies in Cynthia Coates' statement leading to suspicion building up on her. She denied leaving her husband's birthday party till the other witnesses collectively claimed so. On the day of the murder, when the police had called Cynthia around 6:45 p.m. local time, she was in a casino in Anderson. When the police officers arrived at her residence, they found her in her socks with no shoes on.

Coates and Story reportedly shared an abusive relationship (Image via Unsplash)

Corey Story was one of the thirteen siblings in his family who was kind and loved helping people. The manager at Tolin K&K Model Railroad, Tony Ricks, shared,

“He always had a smile on his face. We just knew little bits and pieces (about him).”

While Corey's family fondly remembered him as a hard worker, Cynthia's family claimed that Corey abused her. Oxygen reported Kokomo Police Detective Chad Rogers sharing,

"With Corey, there’s, there’s two different pictures painted. His friends, family, talked about how kind he was, and a great guy. However, if you speak to Cynthia’s family they talk about him being angry, being abusive."

The anonymous tip that led the investigators to Cynthia's daughter, Angel Benson, and her mother's confession to her, also revealed the motive behind the murder. Angel had reportedly revealed that Cynthia Coates was driven off the edge.

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Catch all the details of Corey Story's murder as Snapped re-airs on Oxygen on Tuesday.