Never forgotten: Wife recounts memories of fallen Sgt. Cory Wride five years later
Nannette Wride-Zeeman, right, the widow of Sgt. Cory Wride, hugs Sgt. Wayne Keith, left, of the Utah County Sheriff's Office, at the luncheon for the family members of Wride, who was shot and killed in 2014, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork. Keith took the oath of office for the Sheriff's Office alongside Cory Wride.
Nannette Wride-Zeeman reads the inscription on the back of a necklace, which is in the shape of a law enforcement badge, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork. The inscription reads "I'm so proud of you," with a heart shape at the bottom.
Kathy Wride, Cory Wride's mother, right, hugs Nannette Wride-Zeeman, left, at the luncheon held for the family of Cory Wride at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork. The luncheon was held on the fifth anniversary of Sgt. Cory Wrides death.
Blake Wride, Cory Wride's father, hugs Nannette Wride-Zeeman at the luncheon held for the family of Cory Wride at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork.
Blake Wride, Cory Wride's father, speaks with attendees of the luncheon held for the family of Cory Wride at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork.
Nannette Wride-Zeeman speaks with Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, right, and undersheriff Shaun Bufton, left, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork.
Sgt. Spencer Cannon, of the Utah County Sheriff's Office, hugs Nannette Wride-Zeeman at a luncheon for Sgt. Cory Wride's family in the Utah County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, in Spanish Fork.
Waking up on Wednesday morning was an act of bravery for Nannette Wride-Zeeman.
She was fighting back tears before she got out of bed, knowing exactly five years ago, her husband, Utah County sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride, was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Eagle Mountain.
“I honestly thought with it being five years out that it would be a lot easier to handle. It’s not,” she said. “I literally miss him with every breath I take every single day.”
She planned to meet with family members and deputies with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office later that day for lunch. Then the family would head home to spend time making her late husband’s favorite foods.
“Cory and I loved to cook,” Wride-Zeeman explained. “It was our thing we would do together.”
Cory Wride cooked amazing meat with his own homemade sauces, she remembered. The problem was he never wrote down any of the recipes he created.
“I’m still mad at him about that,” Wride-Zeeman said, laughing.
Her husband could make delicious crepes or biscuits and gravy “to die for” or special “cowboy burritos.” She also found one of her husband’s favorite treats by his bed: a glass of dry Jello mix. He also loved eating peanut butter bars and kept a stash in his police cruiser.
“They were actually on the seat next to him when he was killed,” Wride-Zeeman said.
On Jan. 30, 2014, Sgt. Cory Wride stopped to help a small pickup parked on the side of State Route 73 with its flashers on. As he sat in his Sheriff’s Office vehicle, the passenger in the pickup opened the rear window and shot Wride twice.
The truck then led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through Utah and Juab counties. The passenger, Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, was shot and killed in a shootout with deputies near Nephi.
Three days before the shooting, Wride-Zeeman said her husband seemed to know something was about to happen.
“His soul knew something was wrong. He just sobbed,” she said. “I can’t even tell you the endless tender mercies that Cory and I had before he was killed.”
In the days before the tragedy, she said her husband made her promise to fall in love and live a happy life when he died.
“He didn’t say ‘if.’ He said ‘when,'” Wride-Zeeman said, her voice breaking.
Cory Wride married her on Dec. 23, 1995, and raised five children on a family farm in Benjamin, according to his obituary.
He grew up in American Fork as an avid outdoorsman and loved fishing, camping, horseback riding and hunting.
He served in the Utah National Guard for 12 years before accepting a law enforcement job as a guard at the Utah State Prison. He later transferred to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office in 1994 and served as in various divisions like patrol, K-9 team, SWAT and internal affairs.
After the shooting, Sgt. Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said he attended the court hearings and sentencing for the driver of the truck.
He also watched the video footage and played the scenario over and over in his mind.
“Cory didn’t really do anything wrong that day,” Cannon said. “There are some situations that we get into that almost nothing you do can prevent that kind of outcome. That’s kind of a scary thought to think of. You can be doing everything right and still have this kind of an outcome.”
He knew Cory Wride and his family before working at the Sheriff’s Office together and informed Wride’s parents what happened the day he was killed.
“We try to move forward in a way that’s going to honor his life and his death,” he said.
During the week of the anniversary, Eagle Mountain city officials set up flags throughout the city and strung blue lights along City Hall and at Wride Memorial Park.
“Our friend Sgt. Cory Wride lost his life while serving our community,” officials wrote on social media. “Love to his family, friends, and brothers & sisters in uniform.”
Thousands attended the funeral in February 2014 and the burial at the Spanish Fork Cemetery.
In the wake of the tragedy, Wride-Zeeman said she draws strength from her faith as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“We’re healing, and I try to always look for all of the love and the blessing and the balance that Heavenly Father has sent us in light of the tragedy that happened to our family and losing Cory,” she said.
Her family often feels buoyed up by the heartfelt prayers offered for them, Wride-Zeeman said. She and her children believe Cory Wride continues to live and support them in the afterlife.
“I am grateful, but in the same breath I wish this didn’t have to happen because he didn’t deserve this,” she said.
In December 2017, she also kept her promise to him and married Brad Zeeman, a Utah Highway Patrol officer from Spanish Fork. They started chatting on Facebook and dated for nearly three years.
“He’s been through the deepest, darkest places with me and helped raise me out of those,” Wride-Zeeman said.
She also founded two programs, the Blue Haven Foundation and the Utah Code 4 Foundation, to help surviving spouses of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.
“My heart is really full today with emotions and gratitude and so much love,” she said. “I hope that I honor him in everything that I do.”
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