Episode Transcript
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0:00
Hey, neighbor. This is Merrill Hodge. S
0:02
and T Bank is a community bank that truly
0:04
cares about people. Whether you're a brand new
0:06
customer or your family has been with S
0:08
and T Bank since it's stark in nineteen o two,
0:10
the team is ready to exceed your banking expectations.
0:13
S and T Bank was ranked number one in customer
0:15
satisfaction with retail banking and Pennsylvania
0:18
by JD Power. Or j d power twenty
0:20
twenty two award information is at j
0:22
d power dot com. Learn how S and T
0:24
Bank supports its neighbors at s t bank
0:26
dot com. Today. Member FDIC.
0:33
Hi, everyone. I'm doctor John White,
0:35
WebMD's chief medical officer
0:37
and host of the spotlight on series
0:40
from WebMD's Health Discovery
0:42
podcast. For this special two
0:44
part episode, you'll hear up
0:46
close and personal journeys about
0:49
being diagnosed with a rare
0:51
type of
0:51
cancer. Multiple myeloma.
0:56
I started in myeloma nearly twenty five
0:58
years ago, and at that time, did
1:00
average expectation of life and someone
1:02
with myeloma was maybe one to two years.
1:05
But even just in this last ten to
1:07
twelve years, we have doubled if not tripled
1:09
the average survival of patients. I saw a new patient
1:11
this week and we had this conversation that based
1:13
on what we've done over the last decade,
1:16
my expectations that patients gonna live more
1:18
than ten years. Listen
1:21
to Health Discovery on the iHeartRadio app
1:24
or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:32
The gone cold podcast may contain violent
1:34
or graphic subject matter. Listener
1:36
discretion is advised.
1:40
When twenty eight year old Aaron Sheerhorn
1:42
approached the doorman at Houston's
1:44
Club Blurring. At about eleven forty
1:46
five PM on December tenth
1:49
two thousand ten. He was frantic
1:51
and panicking. He'd
1:53
been stabbed. Aaron excitedly
1:56
screamed as he opened his shirt, exposing
1:58
the wound. But the
2:00
doorman wouldn't let him in. Allowing
2:03
Aaron's attacker to catch up.
2:06
The large man stabbed him again, and
2:08
Aaron ran this time into
2:10
a parking lot next to the club. There,
2:14
Aaron was stabbed by the man several
2:16
more times. Wounds he'd
2:18
later die from at an area hospital.
2:22
About eight folks witnessed this
2:24
horrific and brutal crime,
2:26
one of whom later called crime stoppers
2:29
of Houston, to report he'd
2:31
seen Aaron's attacker and had taken
2:33
down the VIN number of the vehicle he
2:35
was in. That
2:37
car belonged to thirty three year old Lydell
2:39
Grant who was later arrested
2:41
on a warrant during a routine traffic
2:44
stop and charged with Erin Sheerhorn's
2:46
slaying. Although
2:48
Lydell's friend an alibi
2:51
that strongly showed the man could not
2:53
have committed the crime. And
2:55
no determination could be made
2:57
regarding the DNA evidence taken
2:59
from skin cells found underneath fingernails.
3:03
Several witnesses positively identified
3:06
him as the killer. A
3:08
jury convicted Lydell grant
3:10
of the first degree murder of Aaron Sherehorn
3:13
on December sixth two thousand
3:15
twelve. He was
3:17
sentenced to life behind bars.
3:21
The innocence of Texas
3:23
picked up the case after conviction
3:25
was upheld upon an appeal in
3:27
two thousand fourteen. After
3:31
testing of DNA evidence, it
3:33
was conclusively determined that
3:35
Lydell did not commit this
3:37
crime. The DNA
3:39
under Aaron Sheerhorn's fingernails, in
3:42
belonged to another man named
3:44
Germerico Carter. Thankfully,
3:47
as is not always the case in
3:50
this state, Lidell Grant was
3:52
released on bond with the cooperation
3:54
of Harris County prosecutors and
3:56
eventually exonerated. He'd
3:59
spent ten years in prison for a
4:01
crime he did not commit. Eye
4:04
witnesses were sure, Lydell
4:06
killed Aaron, and he was convicted
4:08
on little more than that. Germereco
4:12
Carter later confessed to detectives
4:14
who traveled to a Bullock County Georgia
4:17
jail house to interview him.
4:21
Mistaken identity cases aren't
4:23
all that uncommon in Texas
4:25
true crime, but it's not
4:27
only due to false identification by
4:30
eyewitnesses or police.
4:33
Some victims are also thought to
4:35
have been mistakenly identified by
4:38
their killers. This
4:40
occurs most often perhaps as
4:42
the result of gang violence, but
4:45
not always. The
4:47
death of a North Richland Hills woman
4:49
by all indications is an
4:51
example. On the
4:53
evening of Sunday, December nine,
4:55
two thousand seven, retired couple,
4:58
Don and Maryann Wilkinson, sat
5:01
relaxing in their home. In
5:03
the quiet upper middle
5:04
class, housing development, Forest
5:06
Glen North. They
5:08
were not expecting company, so
5:11
when their doorbell rang at about eight
5:13
PM, It was perhaps
5:14
odd. But nevertheless, Mary
5:17
Anne got up and answered. When
5:19
she
5:19
opened the door, the sixty seven
5:22
year old was sprayed with gunfire.
5:24
The killing stomped at the
5:26
North Richland Hills police. This
5:29
elderly couple had no enemies.
5:32
They'd lived a quiet and completely
5:34
normal life. The
5:36
day after the senseless killing,
5:38
a woman came to police with a
5:40
possible explanation. The
5:43
bullets she thought were meant
5:45
for her. She and
5:47
her husband were going through a hostile
5:49
divorce. And he'd made a
5:51
throat cutting gesture with his finger,
5:53
among many other threats she
5:56
told detectives. It
5:58
seemed even more plausible when
6:00
police found out that not only did the
6:02
woman live on a cul de sac,
6:04
parallel to the Wilkinsons, the
6:06
houses of similar style and
6:08
brick, but also the
6:10
number of her house was the exact
6:13
number of Marianne and Don's.
6:16
Though Mary Anne Wilkinson's case
6:18
remains unsolved at the time of this
6:20
recording, the possibility that
6:22
she was shot to death as the result
6:25
of a murder for hire gone wrong.
6:27
A case of mistaken identity is
6:30
perhaps the most compelling and
6:32
sensible theory. When
6:35
two women in Harris County, Texas,
6:37
were killed within days of each other
6:39
in October of two thousand, a
6:41
connection or a possible
6:43
murder due to mistaken identity
6:46
might have never been theorized had
6:48
they not shared the same name.
6:51
Mary Morris. Mary
7:17
Lou Muncie was born in Houston,
7:19
Texas. On August sixteenth
7:22
nineteen fifty two to parents
7:24
John and Mabel. She became
7:27
Mary Lou Henderson when she married
7:29
her first husband. With whom she
7:31
had two children. In
7:33
nineteen eighty seven, however, the
7:35
couple divorced after seventeen years
7:38
of marriage. Mary
7:40
Lou met another divorcee, Jay
7:42
Morris, through a personal ad.
7:45
The two had much in common,
7:48
and hit it off pretty quick.
7:51
Eventually, in nineteen ninety
7:53
five, Mary Lou and Jay tied
7:55
the knot, a second to marriage
7:57
for both. Though
7:59
the crime rate was on a slow decline
8:01
in Houston in the mid and late nineteen
8:03
nineties, the city still had a
8:05
major problem. Jay
8:08
and Mary Lou Morris wanted
8:10
out. In nineteen
8:12
ninety eight, they moved to Baytown,
8:14
a considerably smaller city
8:16
to the east of Houston with
8:19
considerably less crime. The
8:22
following year, Mary Lou and Jay
8:24
moved into a home they had built on
8:26
a large property, often
8:28
referred to as a ranch, off
8:30
Bernat Bay on Baytown's north
8:32
side. Mary
8:34
Lou and Jay Morris were an active
8:37
couple, her particularly. According
8:40
to her daughter, in fact, her
8:43
mother acted like she was twenty years
8:45
old, always going
8:47
somewhere, always doing something.
8:49
At forty eight years old in
8:51
two thousand, Mary Lou Morris had
8:54
been working for fifteen years
8:56
as a loan officer Chase
8:58
Bank in Spring Valley Village,
9:00
a small suburban city
9:02
located on Interstate ten
9:04
to Houston's West. The
9:07
commute to work from home was
9:09
thirty two miles, about an hour
9:11
drive directly through downtown
9:13
Houston during rush hour. When
9:15
its traffic was unavoidable and
9:17
insufferable. But the
9:19
drive was, for the most part, a
9:21
straight shot. Mary
9:24
Lou, it said, never missed a day
9:26
of work, but she was even
9:28
more devoted to her family than
9:30
she was her job.
9:31
She loved her children and
9:34
grandchildren. Mary Lou
9:36
was kind. Her daughter said,
9:38
one of the nicest folks you could
9:40
ever know.
9:42
On Thursday, October twelve
9:45
two thousand, Mary Lou
9:47
had some extra work to do at
9:49
the office. So to get ahead of
9:51
it, she decided she'd leave home a
9:53
little early. Between
9:55
five fifty and six AM that
9:57
morning, Jay walked Mary Lou to
9:59
the car as usual. The
10:02
couple said their goodbyes for the
10:04
day, and Jay watched as Mary
10:06
Lou turned from their home.
10:08
She was headed in the direction
10:10
of the Speedway Gas Station and
10:12
Convenience Store at Interstate
10:14
ten and Thomas Road.
10:16
Where she often filled up the tank
10:18
before heading into work. It
10:21
was her go to gas station because
10:23
the prices were generally the best around
10:25
there. Because it was a
10:27
part of her regular routine,
10:29
Jay assumed Mary Lou was
10:31
going to stop for gas before
10:33
hitting the highway. Nothing
10:36
at all that morning seemed amiss.
10:38
But as the hours passed,
10:41
things took a turn toward
10:43
the unusual. Hey,
10:55
neighbor. This is Merrill Hodge. S and T
10:57
Bank is a community bank that truly cares
10:59
about people. Whether you're a brand new
11:01
customer, or your family has been with S and
11:03
T Bank since its start in nineteen o
11:05
two, the team is ready to exceed your
11:07
banking expectations. S and T Bank was
11:09
ranked number one in customer satisfaction
11:11
with retail banking and Pennsylvania by
11:13
JD Power. Or JD Power twenty twenty
11:15
two award information is at JD
11:17
Power dot com. Learn how S and T Bank
11:19
supports its neighbors at s t bank dot
11:21
com. Today, member FDIC.
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The voice in the preceding commercial was not the actual voice
13:03
of a winner. Jay Morris
13:06
almost always called and spoke with
13:08
his wife several times a day.
13:11
But Thursday, October twelfth
13:13
two thousand was different.
13:15
At twelve PM that
13:17
day, he began a series of
13:19
calls trying to get in touch with
13:21
Mary Lou. All of which went to voicemail.
13:25
None of the calls were returned. Perhaps
13:29
j thought His wife was
13:31
simply too busy to call back.
13:33
After all, she'd left for work
13:35
early to get a jump on some of the
13:37
extra work she had. In
13:39
between his many calls, sometime
13:41
just after two PM, a
13:43
woman called and asked for Mary
13:46
Lou. Jay told
13:48
them she was at home and thought little
13:50
about it, at least for a
13:52
while. Between
13:54
three and four PM, Jay
13:56
Morris called Mary Lou's Place of
13:58
Employment, Chase Bank in
14:00
Spring Valley Village. He
14:02
spoke with a branch manager
14:04
and immediately A sense of dread
14:06
overcame him when she told the
14:08
man, Mary Lou had never made it
14:10
in that day. In
14:12
fact, this supervisor was the woman who'd
14:14
called the house looking for
14:16
her about an hour earlier. Something
14:20
was not right. Not
14:22
only did the dependable Mary
14:24
Lou set out for work that morning,
14:26
Jay knew damn well his wife had
14:28
never missed a day of work without
14:30
good reason. And this
14:32
day, there wasn't one. Alongside
14:35
his stepdaughter Marilyn,
14:37
Jay began retracing the
14:39
steps and route Mary Lou would have
14:41
taken. She'd forgotten her
14:43
cell phone and charger at the house,
14:46
the two discovered so they
14:48
worried Mary Lou's car broke down
14:50
or
14:50
worse. She'd been in an accident.
14:53
They couldn't find the missing woman
14:55
anywhere. Because
14:57
their neighbor was an investigator for the
14:59
Harris County Sheriff's Office,
15:01
Jay Morris was able to give a missing
15:03
persons report that
15:05
afternoon. But it was too
15:07
late. At approximately
15:11
five PM on October twelfth
15:13
two thousand, A man off roading on a four
15:15
wheeler in a tall grass pasture,
15:17
off west Lynchburg cedar
15:19
Bayou road in Baytown, made
15:21
a grizzly discovery. When
15:25
inspecting a smoldering car he'd
15:27
come upon, the joyrider
15:29
saw inside a charred
15:31
body so badly
15:31
burnt. No distinguishing features
15:35
remained. He
15:36
immediately called police.
15:39
Not long after first responders arrived
15:42
at the scene. Detectives and
15:44
crime scene investigators from the Harris
15:46
County Sheriff's Office showed
15:48
up. From the front
15:50
grill to the trunk latch, the vehicle
15:52
was burned evenly. All
15:54
plastic within the engine,
15:56
the wiring, the interior,
15:59
the tires and even some
16:01
glass was melted. Inside
16:04
across the back seat, laid
16:06
human remains that were unidentified.
16:08
At the scene,
16:11
investigators could not determine whether
16:13
the body was male or female.
16:16
When they got word, a burned car had
16:18
been found. Mary Lou's
16:20
husband Jay and daughter Marilyn
16:22
rushed to the scene. But were
16:24
met by Sheriff's deputies well
16:26
before arriving at the site of
16:28
the smoldering remnants. Deputies
16:31
told them they could not be there.
16:34
And asked that they return home
16:36
and wait for news should there be
16:38
any. Later, the
16:40
burned out vehicle would be identified
16:42
as Mary Lou Morris' Gray Chevy
16:45
Lumina. Harris
16:47
County Sheriff's Office Detective W.
16:49
D. Lanier commented that they were
16:51
lucky to find a part of a jaw
16:53
with intact teeth as
16:55
any other possible identifiers had
16:58
turned to bone fragment or
17:00
ash. Though
17:01
it took three days, the charred body
17:03
was finally confirmed to be the
17:06
vehicle's
17:06
owner. It
17:08
was impossible, of course,
17:10
to determine Mary Lou's cause
17:13
of death.
17:14
Where Mary Lou's car and body were
17:17
found is in the opposite
17:19
direction of the one she would have
17:21
taken to go to work. It was
17:23
about three and a half miles from her
17:25
home near Burnett Bay,
17:27
a spot ironically secluded
17:29
within the combines
17:31
of the many surrounding residences
17:33
and accessible only by using a well
17:36
traveled thoroughfare. Whoever
17:38
drove Mary Lou's car there, traveled down
17:41
West Lynchburg Cedar Bayou
17:43
Road, which would have been
17:45
busy. And turned just past
17:47
John Martin Road where the
17:49
traffic turning on and off would
17:51
also have been significant.
17:53
This person, presumably
17:56
Mary's killer, then had to
17:58
get out of the vehicle, open a
18:00
gate that led into property owned
18:02
by the Harris County drainage
18:04
district and drive through
18:06
grass for about one hundred and fifty
18:08
yards where they parked the Chevy
18:10
Lumina and an isolated pipeline
18:12
did. Not visible from
18:14
the Drainage District Road.
18:16
Since it seemed disposing
18:18
of the body and evidence by
18:21
fire at this location could not
18:23
have been a random decision.
18:25
And because the spot where Mary Lou's
18:27
car was set ablaze and
18:30
burned, likely for hours could not
18:32
be seen from the many homes
18:34
surrounding it. Police
18:36
theorized her killer was quite
18:38
familiar with the area. The
18:40
fact that no area residents reported seeing
18:43
smoke in that area was
18:45
surprising. Though burning
18:47
domestic waste send other debris
18:49
there was legal under certain
18:51
circumstances, meaning
18:53
that there were likely folks who witnessed
18:56
the smoke But since rural
18:58
residential burning wasn't necessarily
19:00
uncommon, they might not have given it a
19:03
second
19:03
thought. It was later
19:06
discovered that a fire truck crew
19:08
had indeed seen and reported
19:10
the smoke to their superiors
19:12
at about ten twenty AM that
19:14
morning. They were told
19:16
not to worry about it. It was
19:18
simply someone burning leaves or
19:21
trash. The determination
19:22
by the firefighters' superiors
19:25
perhaps reflected the attitude of
19:27
the folks living nearby.
19:29
Though evidence might have been
19:31
saved had they been told to
19:34
investigate the smoke, certainly 1 mistake
19:37
in hindsight. This discovery wasn't
19:39
all wasted since the Harris County
19:41
Sheriff's
19:41
Office, at least, had another mark on
19:44
the
19:44
timeline. Immediately
19:47
upon their arrival, a
19:49
crime scene investigation unit
19:51
began closely inspecting Mary
19:53
Lou's Chevy Lumina, what was
19:55
left of it, and the area surrounding
19:58
the vehicle. Fire
20:00
investigators determined quickly that
20:02
the car was set ablaze intentionally using
20:05
what they called massive amounts
20:07
of accelerant. In the
20:10
area around where the fire had chaotically
20:12
and unremor affordably burned.
20:15
Trees were singed from trunk
20:17
to crown. Inside
20:19
the vehicle, nothing of evidentiary
20:22
value survived the ravaging
20:24
flames. There were no
20:27
fingerprints, no bullets, bullet
20:30
casings, or any other sign of the
20:32
weapon that might have been used to
20:34
murder forty eight year old Mary
20:36
Lou
20:36
Morris. And no way to know if
20:38
she was still alive as the car
20:40
went up in flames. As
20:43
is the normal course of action in
20:46
any murder investigation. The
20:48
Harris County Sheriff's Office ran an
20:50
extensive background check
20:52
on the victim. And interviewed those who knew her
20:55
best, including friends,
20:57
coworkers, and close
20:59
relatives. No
21:01
motive for Mary Lou's murder could
21:03
be found. All her
21:05
life, detective W. D.
21:08
Lanier said she was a law abiding
21:10
woman who had no enemies.
21:12
Not a single person interviewed had
21:14
a neutral word to say about
21:16
Mary Lou Morris, alone a negative
21:19
one. They all loved
21:21
her. There were absolutely
21:23
no signs that she'd been having an
21:25
affair using drugs was
21:27
gambling and got behind on a debt or
21:29
anything else that would suggest a high
21:31
risk lifestyle, a motive
21:34
to pursue. She
21:36
was kind to everyone and certainly not
21:39
living any kind of secret life on
21:41
the side. Mary
21:43
Lou was incredibly stable and happy in
21:45
her life, and it even continued
21:47
to maintain good terms with her
21:49
ex husband, Jim. With
21:52
whom she'd had two children.
21:55
He had nothing negative whatsoever
21:57
to say about her. And helped search
21:59
for her before the family knew
22:01
her body had been found. The
22:05
fact that Mary Lou's jewelry remained
22:07
on her body Though melted it was virtually
22:10
unrecognizable, suggested
22:12
that the motive was not
22:14
robbery. One
22:16
piece of jewelry, however,
22:18
was missing. Mary Lou's
22:21
wedding ring. Following
22:24
Mary Lou Morris' funeral,
22:26
the investigation into her murder took
22:28
a strange and convoluted turn.
22:31
When a striking similarity or several
22:34
similarities between hers
22:36
and the death of another woman was
22:39
discovered. Hey,
22:50
neighbor. This is Merrill Hodge. S and
22:52
T Bank is a community bank that truly
22:54
cares about people. Whether you're a brand new
22:56
customer or your family has been with S and T
22:58
Bank since it start in nineteen o
23:01
two, the team is ready to exceed your banking
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today. Member, FDIC. Hey,
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this is Steve Vernell, a host of the meat
23:23
eater podcast where we
23:25
cover hunting mission wild foods, wildlife conservation,
23:27
and all things outdoors with
23:29
a lot of humor and style.
23:32
Check out this clip from our
23:32
show. Brought to you by Chevy
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Silverado. Make your story a strong
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one. 1 I
23:39
like a band to duck more in the next guy, but I would not shoot
23:41
a band a big game, man. Right. With a collar because
23:43
it would feel like touch. Mhmm.
23:46
It wouldn't feel it would feel like it had already been
23:49
it was,
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like, less magical in wild. So
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if you First called in a big six
23:54
point bowl
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and and stand there, broadside. Wouldn't
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you have any etiquette if you had a
24:00
collar? Come
24:00
on. Big
24:04
bullseye. Big bullseye. Big bull. Okay.
24:06
Thanks. Thanks. Okay. Sure.
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Yeah.
24:12
Yeah. Unless I called in three
24:15
of them. Nearly him. And
24:17
one 1
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come. Be sure to check out the meat
24:20
eater podcast on Monday. An Apple
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Podcasts or wherever you listen
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to yours.
24:29
Mary redeemed a fifty thousand
24:32
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casino this year. He's
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details. The voice in the preceding commercial was not the actual
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voice of a
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winner. The funeral
25:02
and burial for Mary Lou Morris took
25:04
place on Monday, October sixteenth two
25:07
thousand. After her
25:09
daughter, Marilyn, phoned Beres
25:11
County medical examiner's office.
25:14
She told them her mother's name,
25:16
Mary Morris, and asked when she could
25:18
pick up the jewelry her mother had
25:21
been wearing. The medical examiner's
25:23
office told Marilyn that she
25:25
could retrieve her mother's belongings after
25:28
the funeral home picks up
25:30
the body. Her mother was
25:32
just buried. Marilyn told
25:34
them, but they replied that the body
25:36
of Mary Morris was still in the
25:38
medical examiner's possession. Maryland
25:41
and her family had just
25:43
placed nineteen pounds of ash and
25:45
bone fragment in a grave to be marked
25:47
with her mother's name, she
25:50
And the young woman began to
25:53
panic. Had they undergone
25:55
funeral services for and
25:57
buried remains that did not
25:59
belong to her mother? It
26:01
seemed like an impossible
26:04
mistake. One that would be just as
26:06
impossible to rectify. Finally,
26:09
someone in the medical examiner's
26:11
office was able to get to the bottom
26:13
of the mix
26:13
up. They had been given the
26:16
correct remains.
26:17
The body that's still laid in the
26:20
morgue was someone 1. A
26:22
woman who was found dead the very
26:24
morning before, Mary Lou Morris was
26:26
laid to rest A woman
26:29
named Mary Teresa Morris.
26:32
Born in Welch,
26:35
West Virginia, to parents Rose
26:37
and Hugh. On July seventh
26:39
nineteen sixty one, Mary
26:41
Teresa McGinnis became
26:43
Mary Teresa Morris when she
26:45
married Mike Morris in nineteen eighty
26:48
three. The following year,
26:50
the couple gave birth to their
26:52
only child, a daughter.
26:54
Mary Teresa's sister
26:57
Stephanie called her vivacious
26:59
and very outgoing, a
27:01
devoted mother with a positive and
27:04
enthusiastic outlook on
27:06
life. She lived life
27:08
to the fullest. Stephanie
27:10
said, an angel who not only
27:12
got along with and loved nearly everyone,
27:15
but who also worked to make sure
27:17
those around her were happy
27:20
and laughing. In
27:22
nineteen ninety eight, Mary Teresa took
27:24
a job as the medical director
27:27
for union carbide in
27:28
Houston, Leaving her
27:31
family and home in West Virginia
27:33
behind.
27:35
Union
27:35
carbide is one of the oldest and most
27:38
successful chemical companies in the
27:40
United States and produces
27:42
products that serve markets
27:44
ranging from household to oil
27:46
and
27:46
gas. And virtually everything
27:48
in between.
27:49
Mary Teresa was extremely
27:52
successful and this job,
27:54
which had her overseeing several
27:56
clinics in the industrial
27:58
plants as a head nurse practitioner
28:01
was a testament to her abilities
28:03
and professionalism.
28:05
In fact, her sister Stephanie
28:08
insisted that anything a doctor could
28:10
do, so could marry
28:11
Teresa, and she did.
28:14
She was a hard worker who didn't give
28:16
doubles and weekend shifts a second
28:19
thought. Outside of
28:21
work, she acting in local theater
28:24
productions. Still,
28:26
as near perfect as Mary
28:28
Teresa was thought of professionally,
28:31
she was certainly not immune from life's
28:33
less desirable situations
28:35
and circumstances. Even
28:38
before moving to Houston, Mary
28:40
Teresa's marriage to Mike Morris had its ups
28:42
and
28:42
downs, as all
28:45
marriages do.
28:47
Once they arrived in Texas' most populous
28:50
city, the marriage became
28:52
further strained. In large part, it
28:54
seems because was
28:56
unemployed for some time.
28:58
Of course, being out of work can
29:00
do a number on the socially
29:02
sculpted male ego sometimes leading
29:04
to feelings of inadequacy and
29:07
broken self confidence, which
29:09
is perhaps why Mike accused
29:12
Mary Teresa and a coworker of
29:14
hers of having an affair. Perhaps
29:17
they were and perhaps they were
29:19
not, but when he confronted them,
29:21
Mike Morris later commented. The
29:23
two denied it while looking him in the
29:25
eye, and he added he
29:27
chose to believe them.
29:29
This situation apparently
29:32
was the crescendo for the couple's
29:34
problems, the maker
29:36
brake point. Mike and Mary
29:38
Teresa decided to work through their
29:40
problems and by October
29:42
of two thousand were
29:44
back to being the very best of
29:45
friends, Mike said.
29:47
The marital problems as is
29:49
the case with almost every married
29:52
couple, or complicated. But
29:54
a difficult period that he and Mary
29:56
Teresa had overcome, according
29:59
to both
30:00
Mike, and years later, the couple's daughter.
30:03
Again,
30:04
Mary Teresa Morris was
30:07
a workhorse, So
30:10
naturally, she generally had a little time
30:12
off to take care of her errands and
30:14
chores. On October
30:16
fifteenth two thousand, planned to knock out
30:18
her to do list for the week as she
30:21
did every Sunday. Mary
30:24
Teresa met her good friend and
30:26
coworker at the union carbide
30:28
clinic to get a flu
30:29
shot. Workaholic she
30:32
was, Mary Teresa told Lori
30:34
she was gonna hang around there for a
30:36
couple hours before finishing up her
30:38
errands and returning
30:39
home. She went to the post
30:42
office then a grocery store.
30:44
Before finally ending up at the Ecker Drug
30:46
Store at West Little York
30:48
Road and US Highway
30:50
two ninety in Northwest Houston.
30:53
While at record, Mary
30:56
Teresa called Lori. Someone
30:59
in the drugstore was giving her
31:01
the creeps, making her very
31:03
uncomfortable. Mary Teresa
31:05
told Lori Matter of Factually.
31:07
She didn't sound scared.
31:10
Lori later said, just
31:12
aware. Mary Teresa
31:14
told her friend she was going to run
31:16
back to the clinic at Union
31:19
Carbide sign out of her computer and head
31:21
home. Twelve minutes
31:23
after hanging up with Lori, Mary
31:25
Teresa made a frantic call
31:27
to nine 1.
31:29
The audio recording has never
31:31
been released to the press or public,
31:33
but Harris County Sheriff's Office
31:35
Detective Wayne Coleman called it blood
31:37
chilling and disturbing. The
31:39
phone call captured an
31:41
attack against the thirty nine year
31:44
old woman. That evening
31:46
after she failed to return
31:48
home, Mary Teresa's husband,
31:50
Mike Morris, reported her missing
31:52
to
31:52
family, friends. And
31:55
authorities. The
31:57
following morning, Monday,
32:00
October sixteenth two
32:02
thousand A record driver came
32:04
upon a two thousand Dodge Intrepid
32:07
just north of the eighty six hundred
32:09
block of West Little
32:11
York Road. In a desolate area
32:13
not far from the last known
32:15
location of Mary Teresa
32:17
Morris, an echo drugstore,
32:19
though in the opposite direction from where she
32:21
was thought to have been
32:22
heading, which was the clinic
32:24
where she worked.
32:26
The vehicle was her union carbide
32:29
company car and
32:31
inside was the bloody body of
32:33
Mary Teresa. The
32:35
woman had suffered a single
32:37
gunshot wound to her head.
32:41
As was the case in the murder of Mary
32:43
Lou Morris, three days earlier,
32:45
Mary Teresa Morris was not wearing
32:47
her wedding ring. Strange
32:52
theories developed about the potential connection
32:55
between the October twelve, two
32:57
thousand murder of Mary
32:59
Lou Morris. And the slang
33:01
of Mary Teresa Morris on October
33:03
fifteenth two thousand, if only
33:06
for a fleeting investigative moment.
33:10
The public and media, however,
33:12
seemed to have a much harder time,
33:14
letting go of the possibility
33:16
of a link The press
33:19
often manipulating readers
33:21
and viewers into thinking the
33:23
two crimes took place virtually
33:25
right next door to each other. When
33:27
in actuality, they happened on opposite
33:30
ends of Harris County, Mary
33:32
Teresa's and far northwest
33:34
Houston. And Mary Lou's in Baytown,
33:37
nearly thirty seven miles to the
33:39
east. Next time
33:41
on gone cold, the investigation
33:44
that ensued, the
33:46
theories, and the suspects. If
33:50
you have information about the murder of Mary
33:52
Lou Morris or Mary
33:55
Teresa Morris, please contact the
33:57
Harris County Sheriff's Office
33:59
at seven thirteen 2749100
34:04
or crimestoppers of Houston at
34:06
seven thirteen 222
34:08
tips. That's 7132228477
34:16
If you have not already, look for gone cold on
34:18
Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter by
34:20
searching gone cold and looking for
34:23
the Texas logo. If you'd
34:26
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a position, to help cold
34:42
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34:46
got just the thing. Leaving
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34:55
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35:00
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35:03
with what they know. Every
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support immensely however you
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choose to give
35:12
it. Sources for this episode can be found in the
35:14
episode's show notes. Thanks
35:17
for listening y'all.
35:20
Mary
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redeemed a fifty thousand dollar cash prize. Playing
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Chubbock Casino this year. He's only playing
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for fun,
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so winning this was a dream come
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