Voss

Man turns his life around, then it ends

After difficult times, Cory Voss was raising family, serving country

Friday, May 4, 2007

By TOM LOEWY

The Register-Mail

And he struggled after tragedy touched off some troubled teen years. But Voss put his life back together, joined the United States Navy, married a girl named Cat and was raising two children.

Voss was an example why we should never give up on ourselves. Yet tragedy touched him again.

The 30-year-old was found dead Monday in Newport News, Va., slumped over the steering wheel of his pick-up truck. According to police, he was shot in the chest and may have been the target of a robbery.

The police aren't sure why Voss was killed. They know he left his house at 11 p.m. Sunday to retrieve money from an ATM. He never came home.

"I was so proud of Cory and what he had accomplished," Dennis Appell said. "Cory went through some tough times. He struggled with hanging out with some of the wrong people and with authority. But he'd worked so hard and put those things behind him.

"He was raising a family and serving his country."

Voss was 3 years old when Appell married his mother in 1980.

"Cory was a quiet and intelligent kid," Laura Appell, his step-grandmother, said. "He was a sweet kid. An inquisitive kid. When he came to visit with my son, I always gave Cory logic puzzles. He liked to do those when he was a little boy."

Voss dropped out of Galesburg High School after the 1993-1994 school year. Appell explained his step-son's choice.

"Something happened in Cory's life that really had an impact on him," Appell said. "On New Year's Eve night in 1993, a friend of Cory's was staying with another friend in the McKnight Street projects.

"Anyway, I think the guy who lived in the apartment owed some drug dealers some money or something. Cory's friend was asleep on the couch and some people busted in and shot Cory's friend."

The friend's name was Montel McClendon. Appell said his step-son wasn't the same "for some time."

"Cory lost it," Appell said. "The murder of his friend had a tremendous impact on his life. He started to think school was worthless and he was having problems with authority."

Appell said it didn't take Voss "too long to see the writing on the wall."

"Cory started to realize he was heading down a dead end," Appell said. "He went and got his GED and then he signed up for the Navy."

According to The Navy Times, Voss enlisted in the Navy on New Year's Eve in 1996. It was the third anniversary of McClendon's murder.

In the Navy, Voss found his life.

He started serving aboard the guided missile frigate Elrod in Norfolk, Va., a month after being commissioned. Voss also served aboard the frigate Halyburton and destroyer Thorn, with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 2 at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base and with the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk.

The Navy told The Virginian-Pilot that Voss spent about nine years as an enlisted sailor when he was picked in 2003 for the "seaman to admiral" program initiated by then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Boorda.

With prior college courses, Voss completed the three-year program and was commissioned an ensign in just two years, Cmdr. Jared Keys told The Virginian-Pilot.

"When Cory was in high school he got into a lot of trouble," a friend who requested anonymity said. "But, man, he turned his life around pretty quick. He got it together and got going.

"The last time I saw him was about three years ago. He was doing well. His family was doing well. Cory was a really good friend. He always made me laugh. He was like a brother. It's just hard to talk about this."

The Virginian-Pilot provided some of the details of his death.

Voss apparently left his Newport News home at about 11 p.m. Sunday to go to the Langley Federal Credit Union's ATM machine. His body was found about 6:30 a.m. inside his gray Ford Ranger pick-up in a parking lot not far from the ATM machine.