A Randle man arrested for murder of bride-to-be

A Randle man has been arrested by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly beating and strangling his fiancée to death last week.

Corey R. Morgan, 32, was arrested and booked Friday on a charge of second-degree murder after his wife-to-be, Brenda L. Bail, 48, of Chehalis, was killed the day before in what Morgan originally said was a traffic collision.

Deputies were originally contacted early Friday morning when a reporting party called to advise Morgan had come to their home on the 5900 block of SR 508 stating Bail was not breathing after having been in a vehicle collision on Forest Service Road 73.

When speaking with detectives, Morgan went on to explain he and Bail had been “jumped” by three men who severely beat Bail but were driven off by Morgan, who “knew tae-kwon-do,” according to reports.

Morgan said he and Bail then drove quickly from the scene but, in doing so, struck an embankment, causing Bail to strike her head on the dashboard, causing her to lose consciousness and eventually die.

Reports said detectives were “suspicious of Morgan’s detailed story” and an autopsy later revealed Bail died of “manual strangulation, with contributing factors of blunt force trauma to the face” and no injuries consistent with a traffic collision.

Morgan, whom reports noted has a history of domestic violence with Bail, was arrested and booked Friday afternoon and is currently being held on $250,000 bail.

During his initial statement to detectives, Morgan accused Roger Etter, 39, of Kelso, as one of the men involved in Bail’s beating, and Etter later turned himself in to authorities after learning they were looking for him. He has since been cleared of all involvement in the attack and it is unknown why Morgan implicated Etter in the first place.