The investigation into the death of a 38-year-old female led to the charges after officers talked to those present at the residence.

Deputy Shawn Hellums requested assistance from Investigator Tyler Webb and due to circumstances surrounding the death, Izard County Investigators Blake Cruz and Cody Lee were also notified.

Jeremy Corlis, Denice Carpenter, and Mary Corlis (all of whom were at the residence at the time law enforcement arrived on scene) advised that Victim 1 had been at the residence for a few days and had begun to behave strangely and that Victim 1 became very sick.

These individuals advised that Victim 1’s condition progressively worsened over the course of approximately 48 hours. For the 24 hours prior to her death, Victim 1 was reportedly incoherent, unable to stand or walk on her own, and unable to talk.

Jeremy Corlis, Denise Carpenter, and Mary Corlis advised that they were “taking care” of Victim 1 by leaving her alone in rooms of the house to “rest”, despite her condition getting worse.

During the course of death investigation, information was obtained indicating that Victim 1 had possibly been sexually assaulted prior to her death.

On August 29, 2022 in a post-Miranda interview with Inv. Webb and Inv. Cruz, Mary Corlis advised that at approximately 5:30 p.m. on August 28 she witnessed Jeremy Corlis enter the bedroom in which Victim 1 was lying on the floor, and remain in the bedroom, alone, for approximately 20-30 minutes with the door shut.

Mary Corlis advised that during this time, she heard noises in which she described as sounding like someone was “having good sex.”

Mary Corlis advised that Victim 1 was incoherent at this point.

Investigators conducted a post-Miranda interview with Jeremy Corlis on August 29, 2022.

During this interview, Corlis confessed to having sexual contact with Victim 1 and described these acts as “foreplay” and “fooling around”.

According to Corlis, this occurred at between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on August 28. He described Victim 1’s mental and physical state at the time of the sexual assault as incoherent, and that before and during the assault he believed Victim 1 was attempting to speak, but the noises were inaudible. When asked if he knew if Victim 1 was saying “yes” or “no”, Corlis replied he was unable to understand what Victim 1 was saying.

According to Corlis, Victim 1 lost her ability to audibly speak or communicate in any way approximately twenty-four hours prior to the assault.

On September 2, 2022 Corlis was interviewed again in reference to this investigation.

During his interview on September 2, Corlis also confessed to sexually assaulting Victim 1 three other times in addition to the two incidents in which he had previously confessed.

Jeremy Corlis stated that he did not think Victim 1 knew what was taking place during the assaults.

Corlis has been charged with five counts of rape, which are class Y felonies.

He is currently incarcerated in the Izard County Detention Center.

The victim’s body was sent to the state crime lab for an official cause of death. A preliminary report shows no trauma to the body that points to foul play.