The Continuing Mystery of Cory Barron’s Death at a Country Concert

22-year-old Cory Barron was a senior at Bowling Green State University in Ohio when he decided to attend a Jason Aldean concert at Progressive Field in Cleveland on July 18th, 2014. Also playing at the show were Florida Georgia Line, Miranda Lambert, and Tyler Farr. Barron attended the concert with numerous friends, everyone was reportedly having a great time, and at about 9:30 pm, Cory decided to leave his ticketed seat to visit another group of friends in a different section of the ballpark. He never returned.
As the concert ended, the friends of Cory Barron couldn’t find him. They searched the entire ballpark, hung around to see if he would show up, called friends to confirm he didn’t leave with someone else, with no clue of where he’d disappeared to. By Saturday morning, a missing persons report was filed. The situation was so unusual, law enforcement immediately began conducting a search, and the FBI got involved.
Every inch of the ballpark was searched three times just to make sure the young man wasn’t still there. Surveillance camera footage was poured over, and found nothing suspicious. A search was conducted by air and watercraft to see if Cory Barron could be found. Nothing turned up.
Then four days later, on July 22nd, 2014, The Lorain County Sheriff’s Department received a call from a local landfill. They had found a man’s body in a dumpster that had been transported from Progressive Field. It didn’t take them long to determine that it was the missing young man from Fremont, OH. Cory Barron still had his ID on him, and his ticket stub from the Jason Aldean show.
Over eight years later, and after lengthy investigations from multiple law enforcement entities and private investigators hired by the family, there is still no explanation as to what happened to Cory Barron. But after eight years of the family insisting foul play must have been involved, the manner of Barron’s death has finally been changed from undetermined to a homicide by local authorities.
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Cory Barron’s death came during a very tumultuous year in country music. The culture war had cut a rift right down the center of the genre. The “Bro-Country” style of music indicative of artists like Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line was at its commercial peak, importing scores of fans from outside of country music into the ranks of country fans, while the rise of Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell from the independent side of country was challenging the mainstream’s monopoly on the genre.
In the summer of 2014 specifically, it was the behavior of country music concertgoers that was creating national news. 55 People Were Arrested, and 22 Hospitalized in what local authorities characterized as a “mass casualty” event at a Keith Urban concert in Massachusetts. A Luke Bryan concert in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field resulted in huge amounts of trash, as well as many arrests and hospitalizations. Three people were stabbed at We Fest in Minnesota, a woman was gang raped at Michigan’s Faster Horses Festival, and a drunk driver ran over a police officer at a Jason Aldean concert in Hartford, CT.
These incidents and multiple others compounded into many asking, What is going on with country music concerts this summer? like The Washington Post did. Rolling Stone interviewed Eric Church and Jason Aldean about what the magazine called Country’s Corrupted Concert Season. Jason Aldean responded,
“You want people to come out to your show to enjoy it and everybody to wake up the next day and talk about what a great time they had. You don’t want somebody to come to the show and never make it home. Unfortunately that kind of stuff is out of our hands. People are adults and are responsible for their own actions. You come to a show and plan on drinking, get a driver. Call a cab. That’s things that adults should just know. We can’t make people do that stuff.”
Jason Aldean had said previously about the disappearance and death of Cory Barron at the July 18th concert, “My sincere condolences go out to Cory Barron’s family and friends. My heart is heavy for you all and you are in my thoughts and prayers.”
But still, there were no specific answers as to what happened to Cory Barron. Though there had been rumors that at some point when the 22-year-old left his assigned seat to find his other friends, an argument or altercation might have ensued with some other concertgoers that could have ultimately led to his death, nothing had been confirmed at that point.
Police investigators were unable to find any suspect or motive, but they were able to retrace how Cory Barron ended up in a dumpster, just not why. The investigation determined that Barron had fallen down a trash chute from an upper level of Progressive Field. It was a five-story fall, and caused multiple blunt force injuries on his way down, and death on impact. An autopsy revealed that Barron did have alcohol in his system, which wouldn’t have been unusual for a concert setting. No drugs were detected.
The location of the trash chute was in the same general vicinity as Cory Barron’s ticketed seat at the concert, but it was located in a back room in the ballpark behind two double doors, meaning in an area not easily accessible by the public. And to enter the trash chute, someone would have to crawl into it. It’s not something someone would just accidentally fall into thinking they were entering a bathroom, for example.


Still, with no specific evidence that an altercation had occurred, Lorain County Coroner Dr. Steven Evans ruled that there was no foul play involved, and the death appeared to be an accident. “I’m less than happy,” said the corner himself about the findings. “We’ll never know the circumstances of how he wound up in the trash chute. I wish I had that for the family.”
But the family was not satisfied with this conclusion, especially with the rumors that at some point, Cory Barron may have been involved in an altercation with others. So in 2019, desperate for answers, the family of Cory Barron hired private detective Dick Wrenn, set up a hotline for anyone to provide information ((440)-333-6602), purchased billboards in the area, and offered up a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of those involved in the young man’s death.
“We believe that somebody hit him in the head, kicked him in the ribs, picked him up and dropped him down that chute,” said Dick Wrenn.
But local officials and the Lorain County Coroner’s Office remained less convinced, until earlier this month. On November 14th, the Corner’s Office released a statement, saying “Since the death of Cory Barron in 2014, additional investigation has been conducted by private investigators and the Cleveland Division of Police. The Lorain County Coroner has been provided with information by the Cleveland Police that Cory Barron was involved in an altercation at Progressive Field prior to his disappearance and death. In light of the additional information, his death was due to the actions or failure to act of another person or persons. The manner of death for Cory Barron has been changed from undetermined to homicide.“
The corner goes on to say that the manner of death is unchanged, that multiple blunt impacts from the fall through the trash chute and ultimately landing in the dumpster is how Cory Barron died, but that someone must have forced him into the chute as opposed to accidentally ending up there. Potentially, injuries inflicted before Barron ended up in the trash chute could also be possible, and be potentially indistinguishable from the other injuries incurred during the fall.
“Cory was not a fighter,” explains private investigator Dick Wren. “He had no history of being a fighter. He’s a good sized young many. There are too many people around in that location for someone not to have seen something. There’s just no reason to believe that was a deliberate or accidental act.”
Whether the summer of 2014 in country music was truly one of unprecedented out-of-control behavior, violence, fights, rapes, arrests, injuries, and even deaths due to the depravity of Bro-Country culture, if it’s attributable to something else entirely, or if it simply became an topic of interest in the media (including here at Saving Country Music) is open to interpretation.
All of the media coverage and high-profile incidents seemed to portend a shift in the country genre that would come the next year, with Chris Stapleton winning major accolades at the 2015 CMA Awards, and country music slowly turning its back on the Bro-Country era, and artists like Florida Georgia Line who played the Progressive Field concert with Jason Aldean.
But for the family of Cory Barron, the matter remains unresolved. Nothing will bring Cory back, but not knowing if his killer or killers are potentially still at large denies them closure surrounding the loss of their son.
The Lorain County Coroner’s Office changing the manner of death to a homicide is a significant development, and helps validate the family’s suspicions. But somewhere out there may still be a country music fan who saw something that night that could be the missing piece to solving what increasingly seems to be the murder of Cory Barron at Jason Aldean’s July 18th, 2014 concert at Progressive Field.

November 27, 2022 @ 10:21 am
A very sad tragic situation. Obviously there are people who know more than what they have said to this point. Something like that doesn’t happen in a vacuum at a concert. Someone should do the right thing and come forward. I don’t expect the person or people who did it to but other people know. But anymore, a lot of people don’t do the right things when time calls for it but they justify themselves when they look in the mirror.
November 27, 2022 @ 1:43 pm
“The corner goes on to say that the manner of death is unchanged….but that someone must have forced him into the chute as opposed to accidentally ending up there.”
Only thing is, the coroner DOES NOT go on to say that.
What the coroner in fact goes on to say is “In light of the additional information, his death was due to the actions or failure to act of another person or persons.”
Maybe the coroner is suggesting is that someone might have instigated a fight with Cory Barron and that the person “failed to act” when he saw Barron heading toward the chute. Who knows? The coroner’s statement is deliberately cryptic.
Drunken people have been known to dive down trash chutes.,
I recall that some years ago, a freakin’ woman lawyer did that in her Manhattan apartment building because she had locked herself out of her apartment. I think she lost her arm as a result.
I was able to find it on Google.
Drunk lawyer crushes her arm trying to get into her Chelsea …https://nypost.com › 2012/10/28 › drunk-lawyer-crushe…
Oct 28, 2012 — DON’T TRY THIS: Maggie Baumer (inset) was severely injured when she went down this trash chute, which was taped shut yesterday.
Barron looks like a heavy guy in the photos. If I had to bet, I’d take the position that he jumped or fell in.
November 27, 2022 @ 2:23 pm
The coroner changed the manner of death from undetermined to homicide based off of accounts of an altercation collected by local law enforcement and private investigators that was then presented to the Corner’s office. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Cory Barron stumbled into the back room and accidentally fell down the garbage chute. This is basically what was determined preliminarily. But if the coroner is changing their ruling, it speaks to the strength of the argument that some sort of foul play was involved.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:39 pm
I’m not buying. In the article it said as the chute was a person had to crawl into it, that it wasn’t like those you could just accidentally fall into it in a dark room.
November 27, 2022 @ 1:51 pm
Bro country kills people.
November 27, 2022 @ 3:45 pm
In all seriousness, given the completely insane levels of alcohol consumption at those summertime bro-fests, it’s entirely possible that anyone who did or witnessed something at that show had no recollection of it the next morning. During that era, the bulk of those fans were attending those shows for the wildly debauched tailgating scene, not the concerts themselves. Anything can happen in that kind of atmosphere.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:05 pm
If you play a number of bro country records backwards you can hear them saying to drink too much Bud light, beat your wife, and grow a mullet
November 28, 2022 @ 11:50 am
You never went to a punk or metal show in the 80s/90s did you. Insane levels of alcohol consumption are nothing new…
November 29, 2022 @ 3:40 pm
Hundreds. The drinking at those bro-downs dwarfed them all. There have been scenes that were far more violent, but none where alcohol was the main, specific draw. I know multiple, battle-hardened concert goers who were taken aback by it. I always wondered how someone like FGL was drawing stadiums full of people, and the answer is that half the crowd was there specifically to get hammered.
November 29, 2022 @ 5:51 pm
Daaaaaaamn. I thought I saw the zenith of drunk and destructive with my frequent attendance of Slayer and Motley Crue shows. I was a music reporter at the time and remember being in San Antonio where clearly underage Crue fans were being sold beers literally the size of large movie popcorn tubs. Also Slayer fans in a balcony removing and throwing all the acoustic tile from the ceiling and bending the structural metal. Also someone getting stabbed in the mosh pit of a harccore punk festival.
So yikes, glad I didn’t get into country music till 2016 and missed bro country …..
November 27, 2022 @ 5:53 pm
“There’s just no reason to believe that was a deliberate or accidental act.” ??? Surely it must be one or the other? I don’t understand that quote at all.
November 27, 2022 @ 6:10 pm
I think the investigator means that there is no reason to believe that Cory Barron either deliberately climbed into the garbage chute, or fell down it accidentally, and so thus, there must have been foul play involved. Maybe it was deliberate by someone else, but not Cory.
November 27, 2022 @ 7:17 pm
“Whether the summer of 2014 in country music was truly one of unprecedented out-of-control behavior, violence, fights, rapes, arrests, injuries, and even deaths due to the depravity of Bro-Country culture”. I don’t think it was unprecedented look at the Hells Angels incident at the Chris Stapleton concert. One dead and off duty cop assaulted.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:51 pm
The amount of incidents in the summer of 2014 at country music concerts was absolutely unprecedented, full stop. One incident at a Chris Stapleton concert pales in comparison to what was happening weekend after weekend in the summer 2014. I could have buried this article in links of not just reporting on the incidents themselves, but the reams of articles asking, “What’s happening in country music?” that were flooding out in 2014, but I didn’t want to bury the lede. I can tell you though, I lived through it, and there had never been a summer like it before, and there hasn’t been a summer like it since. It was crazy.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:01 pm
Not only is the potential killer(s) running free but he could also be listening to Dirt Road Anthem while doing so. It wasn’t enough for Aldean to let 59 of his fans die under his watch in Las Vegas he had to up the number one more. #CancelAldean
November 27, 2022 @ 8:16 pm
Thanks for reminding me of this. I did a presentation in college about that summer and how many people were injured dead or just making asses of themselves at bro country concerts. And I remember talking about this guy. More questions than answers, I’m afraid.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:16 pm
Is this article some sort of joke? Were you drunk when writing this?
“Whether the summer of 2014 in country music was truly one of unprecedented out-of-control behavior, violence, fights, rapes, arrests, injuries, and even deaths due to the depravity of Bro-Country culture, if it’s attributable to something else entirely, or if it simply became an topic of interest in the media (including here at Saving Country Music) is open to interpretation.”
Was there some sinister combination of the words “beer” “fishin” “painted on blue jeans” “nameless girl in jacked up truck” that is directly responsible for this fan behavior? And are you claiming that the people who committed these crimes only listened to bro-country and no other music? Can you provide proof that “country girl shake it for me” and catfiish swimmin deep in the creek” is more likely to make an individual seek out sex non-consenually?
At least in the middle of the satanic panic in the 80’s pearl-clutching housewives quoted the “problematic” lyrics from metal bands that they blamed for murders and suicides and whatnot.
If this was just satire about how some busy-body moralistic crusading journalists can stir the pot for self gain, then nevermind my comment.
November 27, 2022 @ 8:45 pm
For some reason, folks only seem to be ingesting the first part of the quote that you quoted from me, and not the second part where I questioned whether Bro-Country was truly the cause of all the violence and issues at country concerts in 2014, or if it was just coincidence, or even a hyper focus by the media that outpaced the importance of the incidents. Nonetheless, as I tried to illustrate by providing numerous links, there was most definitely a dramatic spike in rapes, deaths, injuries, fights, arrests, and overdoses/medical issues at country music concerts in 2014, and there was also a major focus on these things throughout the media. By the end of the summer, pretty much every major media outlet had run a story about how country music concerts were out-of-control, and surmising what was causing it, including blaming Bro-Country specifically. Another commenter (Fuzzy TwoShirts) just said he did a college project on it. I had journalists from major periodicals reaching out to interview me about it at the time. It was a big discussion point.
All I was trying to do here was explain the environment in which Cory Barron disappeared and ultimately ended up dead. I’m not blaming Bro-Country. I’m even saying there’s a possibility the media overhyped the situation in 2014, and implicated myself in that criticism. But the frequency of these incidents is the reason “Rolling Stone” decided to interview Jason Aldean about them, and why there was so much focus on fan behavior at country concerts at that time. I was trying to set the table for what the environment was like in 2014 when this incident happened.
I reported specifically on this incident three separate times over that summer, so when I saw there was an update to this cold case, I was immediately familiar with it, and felt it was important to spread the word that authorities now believe this was a homicide, and folks should help spread the word and hopefully get some information from the public so the family can find closure, and any potential perpetrators can be brought to justice.
November 28, 2022 @ 5:54 am
Is taking down bro-country the main reason for this site’s existence? Seems like you are drawing false equivalencies to inspire civil suits. (because criminal suits would 100% fail) Unless there was direct incitement for those illegal actions by the artists they are innocent. They are no more legally liable than Anheuser-Busch.
If one tries to make the correlation between rap music and inner-city crime and violence rap lyrics are much more damning. But that’s racist. (sarcasm)
November 28, 2022 @ 7:27 am
“Is taking down bro-country the main reason for this site’s existence”?
I hope it is one of the main reasons.
November 27, 2022 @ 9:25 pm
He never said the music was responsible. He didn’t really say that anyone was responsible. He did discuss the atmosphere surrounding those humongous bro-downs that grew popular during that time, and that atmosphere involved wild tailgate scenes featuring excessive drinking. This is indisputable. These gigs developed a reputation, and fans did their best to live up to those reputations. While it wasn’t deliberately endorsed, it wasn’t particularly discouraged, either.
November 28, 2022 @ 6:14 am
He made an emotional appeal to indirectly tie it to bro country artists. Read: “unprecedented out-of-control behavior, violence, fights, rapes, arrests, injuries, and even deaths due to the depravity of Bro-Country culture.”
I get the sense that because there isn’t legal culpability here for the artists that the writer is trying to create some emotional tie-in with the hopes of the same outcome from legal or civil suits – massive lawsuits.
It’s 2022, if you can’t clearly define where someone did something legally wrong you can find another way to excoriate them and get them “cancelled” or sued and then use those outcomes to justify the original accusation of wrong-doing. (I realize that this statement won’t make sense to some because not everyone can look at the law in a cold unemotional way)
November 28, 2022 @ 9:09 am
Cyrus,
The reason I cited and linked to articles in The Washington Post and Rolling Stone in this article was the illustrate how the behavior at major country concerts in the summer of 2014 was a big focus of the media, and specifically how the injection of Bro-Country could be a cause of it. This isn’t my opinion. This was a universally-recognized discussion that was happening throughout the media and the country industry at that time. As I said in this article, whether it truly was a cause or not, or just part of media hyperbole is up for interpretation. This is not an article about Bro-Country. All I was doing was setting the context in which the death of Cory Barron occurred. The bigger issue here is that his cause of death has been changed to homicide, and the potential killers are still on the loose.
November 28, 2022 @ 11:48 am
Unless ample evidence can be brought forth implicating Bro country artists in this the default verdict should be “not guilty.” You keep weaving in and out of defining bro-country artists culpability in this when pressed.
Also the Washington Post and Rolling Stone have released many inflammatory and sometimes flat-out false articles. Neither outlet’s output defines a “universal discussion.”
November 28, 2022 @ 12:30 pm
Cyrus,
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I am not say Bro-Country, or Bro-Country artists are culpable in this man’s death. Nobody is saying that, and if anyone asserted that Bro-Country artists should be indicted or charged with crimes for this, I would vehemently come out against that, though this idea is so outlandish, it would never happen. I was simply explaining the media and country music environment in which this man’s death occurred.
November 28, 2022 @ 5:53 am
Your name should be Mr. Fantastic, with all that stretching you just did
November 28, 2022 @ 1:41 pm
I think he’s one of the douchebags from FGL.
November 28, 2022 @ 6:58 am
The *inhumanity* of the *human race* is amazing.
March 22, 2023 @ 9:59 am
After reading these responses it’s hard not to believe that a human could be treated with the disrespect that Cory was treated with. What if this was your brother, friend, etc.? My nephew was a close friend of his. No matter how you feel about the article, which was well written due to the facts offered in this case and the point the writer was trying to make, a good, sweet, young man who had his whole life ahead of him, lost his life under suspicious circumstances. I hope they solve his case and the mf-ers who did this are jailed “for life”. Anyone who doesn’t report something that they know is just as guilty as the ones who did it. Humans not only need to find humanity, but they also need to find a backbone.
January 3, 2024 @ 8:59 am
I am pretty sure you need a key to get through those doors. I have a hard time believing the door is unlocked so a person is able to just walk through the doors to a trash shoot that goes down five stories (which is roughly 55-75 feet). Think about the liability if a child could open any trash shoot door…
I understand there aren’t many young children at a country music concert, however, that facility is used just for more than country concerts. It just doesn’t make sense that the door was open to the public…