The Dacula Dracula Dentist with Suicidal Lovers

The Dracula Dacula Dentist from Georgia.

It’s required much reading, studying and watching Greta, but I have a tentative timeline on the nefarious activities of Georgia dentist, Dr. Barton Corbin. Who, sadly, seems to have a real problem with women in his life committing suicide just as Corbin is about to break up with them.

Not to mention another “friend” of Corbin’s found at the bottom of a lake, her hands duct-taped, not your normal manner of driving.

It’s an interesting case, most because of the monster who would fix our teeth has, I’d argue, killed a few woman over the past fifteen years. It’s also intriguing how the arrest came down, the dentist being charged with the first suicide of a “significant other” of Corbin, even though Corbin’s wife had just committed suicide only two weeks prior to Corbin’s arrest.

Start at the beginning. The body of Dorothy "Dolly" Hearn, 27, was found by her roommate in their Augusta apartment on June 6, 1990. She was a Medical School of Georgia classmate of Corbin's who had dated him for about a year. It appeared that Hearn had committed suicide by administering a gunshot to her head.

Over the years there was much suspicion about the alleged suicide but time passed and the case became cold.

In 1996, Harriet Grey, a dental hygienist who worked in the same office as Corbin, disappeared. Almost a year later her body was found in her car, beneath a lake with her hands duct-taped. She’d left her house with half her groceries unpacked, most still sitting on the counter. It appeared that she’d left suddenly given this scenario.

In December of 2004, Dr. Corbin’s wife, Jennifer, also committed suicide.

On December 23, 2004, Dr. Barton Corbin was arrested and charged with the murder of his former girlfriend, Dolly Hearn.

Strange. All very strange.

The Dracula Dentist 

I must emphasize that any link between the murder of Harriet Grey and Corbin is all merely speculation at this time. In addition, at this time Corbin is also only consider a suspect in the death of his wife. Corbin has been indicted for the murder of Dolly Hearn.

Harriet Grey was a dental hygienist and did work at the same dental office as Corbin. Though Grey worked there in 1991 and Corbin in 1996. I got this little bit of information from the Greta show on 1/7/05. Greta asserted there’s investigation into this unusual “link” between the murder victim and the alleged murderer of one women and suspect in another. Also, Grey did not “commit suicide” in that she appeared to have been abducted and placed behind the wheel of her car. The duct tape pretty much eliminates any suspicion that her jaunt under the lake was an attempt at suicide.

The authorities are being close-lipped on this case and there is a gag order. According to Greta, Grey’s brother-in-law “hinted” that there had been a “relationship” between Corbin and Grey. Whatever “hinted” and “relationship” mean in this context.

Here’s what I think happened. Basic speculation and rumination going on here.

Corbin shot his wife in the head and arranged the scene to look like suicide in his most practiced manner. According to reports, Corbin was at a local bar the entire evening his wife supposedly killed herself. A place called the Wild Wing café and said to be a sports bar. He was with some friends, they all drank some beer, the bar owner says his employees verify Corbin’s presence.

Along with checking out Corbin’s alibi, the law guys were checking out Corbin’s past. It likely didn’t take long for the investigators to discover that Corbin had another female lover who committed suicide. They were probably suspicious as hell and who wouldn’t be? How many people have two significant others kill themselves in a lifetime? I mean legitimately kill themselves?

Sgt. Peebles was the lead investigator in the Hearn investigation from 1991. Why was it his people that arrested Corbin? A grand jury was convened and they handed down an indictment on Corbin for the murder of Dolly Hearn. Based, so Peebles’ hinted and Greta speculated, on information from a “new informant”.

I think what we have here is a case of turf war amongst the law enforcement types. Just as soon as the Hearn’s investigators heard about Corbin’s wife they acted.

Now it could be that some friend of Corbin’s heard about his wife’s suicide and decided to reveal some information about Corbin, perhaps something Corbin shared many years ago after the Hearn “suicide”.

Maybe a school chum of Corbin’s, perhaps someone with whom Corbin shared a tidbit about how Dolly Hearn really died. When that school chum heard about Corbin’s wife also committing suicide he decided to come forward and tell about Corbin’s revelation about Dolly Hearn. The Augusta people got on it and based on the new info from the chum, got an indictment for Dr. Corbin.

It’s a convoluted scenario and not at all how I think it came down.

The only “new” information the Hearn’s investigators had about Barton Corbin was that his wife committed suicide some 14 plus years after their victim. The hasty indictment came down as soon as they could make it happen and before the Jennifer Corbin investigators could get the “big prize”.

I do believe there was a change in information made available to investigators and it came from the only source that it could have. Whoever was drinking and yukking it up with Barton Corbin the night his wife committed suicide, one of that gang admitted that there was a long period of time when Corbin was missing from the sports bar. For if the man shot his wife, he had to take a break from the festivities, get out of there, go home and do the deed, then come back for a beer as if nothing ever happened.

SOMEBODY had to notice this. Maybe one of his friends, one who assured Corbin that they would tell police that he was with the gang all night. One who remembers that pee break that Corbin took, when he came back after being gone so long for a pee and explained how he was outside talking with an old dental school chum. THIS is the new information the Corbin investigators got. Maybe Corbin’s chum didn’t think anything of his half hour disappearance that night when his wife’s death appeared to be a suicide. When it was a question of murder, I think Corbin’s chums began comparing notes.

Of course I think Corbin murdered Dolly Hearn and his wife Jennifer Corbin. When Corbin was arrested he was a passenger in his secretary’s car. They had both just left the dental office together. I know co-workers go out to lunch all the time but a dentist and his secretary? Both of them out of the office in the middle of a busy day? The secretary might well have been the reason Jennifer Corbin had to be eliminated.

As for Harriet Grey, not a suicide but dead nonetheless and yet another dead woman known to have been an acquaintance of Dr. Barton Corbin, well yes I’m thinking he killed her too. Grey’s death came after he’d apparently gotten off for killing Dolly Hearn. The guy’s a sociopath at the least. Greta and her cohorts kept emphasizing that Grey’s death was different than the rest, that she hadn’t shot herself in the head like Hearn and Jennifer Corbin. Well I don’t care. That shooting in the head thing is simply convenient, not Corbin’s modus operandi. This guy thinks he can kill anyone who gets in his way with impunity. Maybe Harriet Grey didn’t have a gun handy for a convenient quick suicide. Maybe Corbin intended to drive her car off the road, make it look like an intentional suicide by car. Or an accident. Except Harriet kept fighting with her hands and Corbin had to tape them up.

At any rate, let’s hope those Augusta prosecutors got a rock solid case because this appears to be a case of turf protection to me. I’m thinking we’ll hear snippets and tidbits to that effect in the months to come.

This WILL be an interesting court case.

And I hope investigators are checking into the whereabouts of any other ladies with whom Corbin might have been involved in the past.

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