Warren Was Here

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In March twenty twenty one, Terry
Coohe was in her son's room putting away

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clothes and cleaning up when she found
an unfamiliar container at the bottom of his

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wardrobe. She was curious and opened
up the container to see what was inside.

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Terry pulled out a heavy plastic bag, but when she lifted it up,

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she realized it was covered in maggots, and against her better judgment,

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she opened it. There was a
second plastic bag inside, but Terry couldn't

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bring herself to open it. Instead, she called her son's father, telling

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him, you need to come over
right now. The two of them called

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the police, telling the nine one
one operator that they believed their son,

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nineteen year old Brian Cohey Junior,
had killed somebody. The plastic bags that

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Terry had opened contained a human decomposing
head and a pair of dismembered human hands.

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On that nine one one call,
Terry acknowledged that for Brian's entire life,

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he'd been only interested in death and
murder. Quote, he has always

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had a little bit of fascination with
the morbid, she said. He was

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channeling it. I thought into becoming
a crime scene investigator, but not so

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much law enforcement rushed to the Kohee
family home, where they began to question

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Brian. One of the officers calmly
explained the situation to him, saying,

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your parents have raised concerns about some
items they may have found in your bedroom.

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Can you elaborate? Brian didn't seem
surprised or alarmed, and he didn't

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try to prove his innocence either.
Instead, he matched the officer's tone,

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saying, yes, I believe so. A human head and hands from that

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man who went missing. I killed
him with a knife. The victim that

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Brian was talking about was Warren Barnes, a sixty nine year old homeless man

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who was well known in the area. Warren had gone missing in late February,

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and there had been no sign of
him in his usual haunts. Since

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Brian had no connection with Warren.
In fact, Brian didn't even know the

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victim's name. When investigators grilled him
why he had murdered a complete stranger,

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Brian simply responded, I wondered what
it would feel like to commit murder.

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In all of his police interviews,
Brian didn't show any remorse about the crime.

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Instead, he appeared to be excited
to finally talk about what he'd done,

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and he was eager to share as
many details as possible. He explained

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that before he had killed Warren,
he spent at least six months planning out

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how he would commit the perfect murder. To avoid raising suspicion, he had

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decided he would target a victim whom
he believed would not be missed, such

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as a sex worker or a homeless
person. He began to describe the night

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that the crime had taken place,
the twenty seventh of February. It had

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been a full moon, so while
Brian had been driving around the streets looking

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for a victim, he had been
able to easily spot the shape of a

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homeless man in the distance. Warren
Barnes hadn't bothered Brian at all. In

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fact, he'd been sleeping and unaware
when Brian approached him intent on killing him.

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My knife, Brian said, and
I put on three layers of gloves

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because plastic gloves can betray their users
because they're so thin. That I took

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the knife, pulled back the canvas, and stabbed his neck. Brian provided

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a detailed account of the crime,
saying that while he had been stabbing Warren,

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he had been making animalistic noises and
growling. Warren had not fought back,

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he had been terrified, repeatedly asking
Brian why he was doing this.

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Brian did not answer. He just
kept inflicting more and more wounds until Warren

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finally fell silent. Once he was
sure Warren was dead, he inflicted several

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post mortem wounds, including stabbing his
eyes and making incisions in the corners of

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his mouth to create the appearance of
a joker like smile. Then he used

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the same kitchen knife to dismember the
body, making it easier to dispose of.

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When he explained the process to investigators, Brian laughed, saying sorry,

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that's morbid, and he decided to
keep a few of the dismembered body parts,

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Warren's head and both of his hands, but wanted to get rid of

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the rest. He loaded the rest
of Warren's body into the trunk of his

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car and then tried to dispose of
it in the Colorado River at a nearby

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boat ramp, but ended up getting
his vehicle stuck. The car was towed

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to Brian's father's house with Warren's blood
still in the trunk. Brian made up

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a story about how the car got
damaged, and at the time nobody had

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any suspicions that he was lying.
Shortly after the killing, however, Brian

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had gotten a little paranoid about whether
or not he'd actually gotten away with the

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crime. He made a couple of
incriminating Google searches, asking does a river

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wash evidence away? And how long
does it take before a dead body smells.

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Brian's trial took place in early twenty
twenty three. He attempted to get

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out of the charge by pleading not
guilty, claiming that his mental health removed

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his responsibility for the crime. However, the jury were not convinced that Brian

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was not guilty by reason of insanity. He might have had a history of

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diagnosed mental illness, but he also
clearly carefully planned out the crime. For

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half a year. He romanticized the
idea of committing a murder, going as

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far as trying to pick a victim
who would not be missed. When he

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approached a sleeping Warren Barnes, he
had already been wearing his gloves and holding

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a knife. More than ten of
Warren's loved ones decided to speak at the

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trial, talking to the jury about
the impact that Warren had on their lives

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and how much they would miss him. One of the speakers was Warren's sister,

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Geraldine. Her birthday was the twenty
sixth of February, the day before

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Warren was killed, and she had
spoken to him on the phone. Since

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the murder, Geraldine has been devastated
that she would never receive another phone call

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from Warren. Terry Coheed took the
stand, retelling the story of how she

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found Warren's head in Brian's closet.
She was interviewed by the prosecution for several

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hours and was so distressed that she
required an emotional support dog during her testimony.

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Meanwhile, her son appeared to be
completely unfazed. Terry told the jury

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about how Brian struggled with anxiety and
was diagnosed with ADHD and autism, and

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also shared that several months before Warren's
murder, she had discovered that Brian was

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carrying around a backpack that contained duct
tape, a hammer, and several zip

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ties. The prosecution described the backpack
as a kill kit that Brian hadn't had

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the chance to use yet. Finally, the jury reached their decision. Brian

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was found guilty of all of the
charges against him first degree murder, as

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well as tampering with evidence in an
investigation and two counts of tampering with the

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dead body. When the trial's verdict
was read to the courtroom, several of

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the attendees burst into tears or began
to celebrate, but Brian, who was

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now twenty one years old, showed
no reaction. Brian Coheed Junior had been

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wrong about one thing. He had
decided to target to a homeless victim because

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he believed that if a homeless person
went missing, no one would notice or

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care. However, from the moments
he disappeared, Warren Barnes was deeply missed.

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He had become a familiar, friendly
face to locals in Grand Junction,

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Colorado, who appreciated him for his
extroverted personality. Warren was often seen with

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his nose stuck in a book,
and his love for reading was so well

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known that several Grand Junction businesses would
set out a chair for him to sit

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and read his latest book. Passers
by would stop to chat about what he

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was reading, said an article printed
in the Colorado Sun, and if they

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bid Warren have a good day,
he invariably responded, and you also not

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everybody in the area knew Warren's name, but if you mentioned the reading Man,

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they knew exactly who you were talking
about. In late twenty twenty one,

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artist and metal worker Tim Nevin erected
a memorial dedicated to Warren. It

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was installed in Grand Junction, close
to Main Street. The metal sculpture took

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Tim almost three hundred hours to create. It consists of a curved metal chair,

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a recreation of the same chair that
Warren would sit and read in,

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with a pile of metal books sitting
on the seat. The spine of one

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of the books was engraved with the
title and you also the same thing that

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Warren would always say to strangers when
they wished him a good day. Warren

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Barnes memorial says one simple phrase,
Warren was here. That's this ten minute

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Murder for today brief and bingeable true
crime. I'm Joe. I'm the host,

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and thank you so much for taking
the time to listen to ten Minute

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Murder. If you'd like to get
in touch with me, you can do

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that via email Joe at ten minute
Murder dot com. Now I also see

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and respond to and read dms as
I get the chance to. But if

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you'd like to get in touch with
me more quickly where I'll for sure see

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it as soon as possible. Joe
at ten Minute Murder dot com is my

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email address, and here's one of
those emails. I know that you must

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get so many emails that it's hard
to read them all, but if you

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get this one, it would be
great if you'd let me know that you

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read it. I'm Darcy and I
live in LA. True crime has never

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been an interest for me until my
friend told me she was listening to Ten

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Minute Murder one day. That was
about a year ago, and I've been

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listening ever since. I've told a
couple of my other friends about your podcast

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and they now listen to And one
day we were talking about it and decided

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it would be cool for you to
do an episode on John Wayne Gacy.

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I know you did one before,
but a longer one. We think a

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short ten minute version would be neat
to hear your take on. Anyway,

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Sorry, this is a long email, Darcy. Darcy, thank you so

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much for your email. It wasn't
long at all. Got through it quick.

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I knew all the words and you're
in La, which automatically I'm going

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to assume that's Los Angeles, but
it could be Louisiana right or Lower Alabama.

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We don't know, but I'm going
to assume it's Los Angeles. And

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Darcy absolutely yes, I will be
doing an episode, a short one on

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John Wayne Gacy that's already in the
works, like that's already beginning the process

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of happening, So look for that
coming very soon. So if you'd like

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to send me an email Joe at
ten minute murder dot com. If you're

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a new listener to this podcast,
hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now and

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go to social media. Follow ten
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That's going to do it. That's
your episode for today. Thank you

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so much for listening to ten Minute
Murder.