Episode 364

August 9, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In October 2019, a 65-year-old British widow named Sue Malden vanished from her home in Fleming Island, Florida. She was an avid gardener who needed help starting her lawnmower, a woman whose closest friends were the other expats in her weekly “British Club.” When she didn’t answer her phone for two days, a friend sent her husband for a welfare check. Inside, everything was in order—her gardening shorts laid out, her car in the driveway, her purse on the dresser. It was as if she had simply evaporated. The only thing the police initially found was a tiny pinprick of blood on the living room floor. When they brought in luminol, the house lit up: blood in the kitchen, on the lampshades, in the hallway. Someone had cleaned up a violent scene. The question was who, and where was Sue?

The Contractor and His Lies

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What you'll learn

1 (01:44) **The British Club and a Vanishing Widow** - Introduction of Sue Malden, a 65-year-old British expat who goes missing from Fleming Island, Florida in October 2019.
2 (03:27) **Detectives Interview the British Club** - Police learn Sue was a trusting, socially active woman with no close family, relying on friends for help with daily tasks.
3 (06:54) **The Rogue Contractor Emerges** - Friends reveal Sue had been scammed by a contractor named Cory Bender, who took $12,000 upfront and never finished her bathroom remodel.
4 (09:42) **Cory Bender: The Picture of a Family Man** - Police locate Cory, a 44-year-old husband and father of two, who seems cooperative and calm during the initial interview.
5 (12:49) **Blood Evidence Changes Everything** - Detectives return to Sue’s house and find a tiny pinprick of blood on the living room floor, leading to a massive cleanup discovery.
6 (16:21) **Cory’s Confidant: Leanne Lockleer** - Introduction of Leanne, a bartender and friend who worked for Cory and knew him intimately, revealing his double life.
7 (21:54) **The Day After Sue Vanished** - Leanne recalls the day after Sue went missing, when Cory picked her up for work acting distant, distracted, and with a freshly cleaned truck.

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Show Notes

The British Club was a close circle of English expats in Fleming Island, Florida. They were friends who looked out for one another like family. So when 65-year-old Sue Mauldin suddenly vanished, they knew something was wrong. What followed was a desperate race by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office to track down a man hiding in plain sight and uncover what really happened to Sue.

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