Member-only story
Who Murdered Corine Christensen?
A high-end call girl is murdered in her own home, but is a well-known psychologist or her drug-dealing ex-boyfriend responsible for her death?
Santa Cruz, California, is a beautiful seaside community. It’s known for its boardwalk right on the beach that is full of fun and excitement. It’s a town people go to for a vacation and enjoy their time off, but that doesn’t mean Santa Cruz doesn’t have a seedy underside.
Corine Christensen
Corine Christensen, age 34, was a bookkeeper for a well-known psychologist named Richard Bandler. She was also a high-priced call girl for hire. While she got to know multiple prominent people in her line of work, she also chose to spend her free time with people who would bring her down.
She dated a man named James Marino, who was known to deal drugs, specifically cocaine. Marino was Corine’s connection to Bandler. Bandler started using cocaine, and Marino was his drug dealer. The three of them developed a friendship and started spending more time together, but it wouldn’t end well for Corine.
Corine’s Murder
On November 3, 1986, Corine was in her rented townhouse in a working-class neighborhood of Santa Cruz when Marino and Bandler arrived for a visit. While no one knows what happened next, it is believed an argument ensued between Corine and at least one of the two men.
One of the men pulled out a gun and shot Corine at point-blank range in the face. The bullet entered her left nostril and traveled into her brain. Corine did not die immediately and suffered for several minutes. She spit blood onto the dining room table and supposedly onto Bandler before falling to the ground and slowly dying.
Marino and Bandler
Bandler claims after the murder, he left the scene with Marino and drove around the city while they figured out what to do. Bandler eventually went to the home of one of his two girlfriends, Paula McFarland, to put some distance between himself and Marino.
Bandler told his girlfriend that Marino was the one who murdered Corine, and he needed to get away from him. Bandler and…
