NORFOLK, Va. — The police chief who oversaw the investigation of the reported disappearance of Codi Bigsby in Hampton two years ago weighed in on the murder conviction of the child's father.
Norfolk Police Chief Mark Talbot held a news conference Thursday afternoon, two days after a Hampton jury found Cory Bigsby guilty of second-degree murder and concealing the body of his son on Tuesday.
Talbot served in the same position with the Hampton Police Division when Bigsby reported his son missing in January 2022.
During a week-long trial, Hampton prosecutors argued that Bigsby killed his son roughly seven months before filing the missing person report to Hampton Police Division. The boy’s body has never been found. Bigsby is also facing more than 30 child neglect charges in Hampton not related to Codi's disappearance.
The police chief said investigators knew "very early on" that Bigsby was involved in his son's death.
"He's an incredibly poor liar," Tabot said of Bigsby during the news conference. "There was very little that he had to say that seemed to map onto the truth. He was aggressive with his lies, which makes it especially egregious. So, it wasn't real tough to figure out."
Talbot expressed that while Bigsby's conviction doesn't bring the child back, he is "happy the criminal justice system worked the way that it's supposed to," but "it was a reminder of how incredibly sad the circumstance was and is."
"If we're lucky, he will never get out of jail," Talbot said.
When asked about a key piece of evidence in the case, Talbot said it came down to Bigsby's story and the way he told it.
"I have kids, I know what I would have been like if my child had disappeared in the middle of the night," Talbot said. "I'm pretty attached to the likelihood that any of my kids had gotten out at 4 [a.m.], and they wouldn't even go into a dark bathroom at four, let alone walk around the neighborhood. So, the story was fairly absurd and his demeanor while he was delivering an absurd story also was not consistent with somebody who was sick over their 4-year-old disappearing."
Talbot expressed his belief that during the 2022 911 call reporting Codi missing, Bigsby faked being out of breath.
"There was no reason for him to be out of breath," Talbot said. "He wasn't chasing around anything, so the fact that he seemed to be out of breath never made any sense. His way of interacting was inconsistent with any parent I've ever encountered who lost their child, and I've been in contact with a lot of them."
Talbot went on to say that Bigsby put on an act with investigators, which he believes could have taken months to come up with.
"I'm not sure what he did over those months, but he did a perfectly terrible job acting his way through interviews," Talbot said.
13News Now also asked Talbot about his reaction to our jailhouse interview with Bigsby, the police chief quoted Shakespeare: “A tale told by an idiot, [full of] sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
During the 13News Now interview, Bigsby argued that Hampton police set him up during their investigation of the case.
"What I remember from his interview is that he said we used his statements against him," Talbot said. "Well, of course we did. What does he think: We were his friends? We were investigating his allegations and we were trying to find his son."
When asked if investigators felt behind in the Bigsby case — considering that investigators believe Codi's death happened months before he was reported missing — Talbot said no investigation is perfect.
"There's always some fact or detail or circumstance that adversely impacts your ability to figure out what's happening," Talbot said. "There's a special challenge when the crime actually occurred several months prior to coming in contact with the offender, but you don't spend much time dwelling on it, to be candid. You simply accept the circumstances you have and use what's at your disposal to investigate the case."
Talbot expressed his hope that Codi's family will get some peace out of the criminal justice system working.
"Having interacted with Cory Bigsby, I am not hopeful that we will ever find out what happened to Codi," Talbot said. "I'm not at all hopeful."