NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Norfolk Police Chief Mark Talbot said it’s unlikely we’ll ever know what happened to 3-year-old Codi Bigsby.
On Thursday afternoon, Talbot spoke with the media regarding the Cory Bigsby trial verdict. Watch the full recording from the Norfolk Police Headquarters in the video player below.
Cory Bigsby was found guilty of second-degree murder and hiding the body of his son, whose body has never been recovered.
“It doesn’t bring the child back,” Talbot said. “I’m happy that 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.”
Talbot, who was the former Hampton Police chief, played a large role in the Codi Bigsby case, previously stating that he believed his department “mishandled the case.”
WAVY has covered the case since Codi Bigsby was reported missing in January 2022.
Talbot said he knew very early on in the investigation that Cory was responsible.
“He’s an incredibly poor liar as you saw,” Talbot said. “There was very little that he had to say that seemed to map on to the truth.”
Talbot vented his disgust with the father convicted of beating his 3-year-old to death by his own admission.
“If we are lucky, he will never get out of jail,” he said of Bigsby, who faces up to 45 years in prison combined on the convictions of second-degree murder and concealing a body.
Talbot talked about the early days after Bigsby reported his son missing in the winter of 2022. When investigators looked at police bodycam video, they noticed his demeanor was not congruent with that of a parent who whose child had just disappeared.
“The fact that he seem to be out of breath never made any sense,” Talbot said. “His way of interacting was inconsistent with any parent I’ve ever encountered who lost their child.”
For Talbot, Bigsby’s claim that Codi wanted to go outside hours before and somehow disappeared was nothing but subterfuge.
“It wasn’t real,” Talbot said. “It was an act, and a bad one.”
The Hampton jury answered the question of Bigsby’s guilt or innocence, but Talbot says the single most important question remains unanswered.
“It was more satisfying than a not-guilty verdict, certainly,” Talbot said, “however, what did he do with his son?”
Defense attorneys subpoenaed Talbot to testify during the trial, and he was present in the courthouse on a couple days, but he ended up not taking the stand. When asked why he was part of their case, Talbot said, “I don’t know, and I don’t think they knew, and that’s why I didn’t testify.”