Man spent 24 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of his wife murder

Any woman should feel safe in her own bed, so the news of Christine Morton, who was brutally murdered while she slept, sent shockwaves through Austin, Texas. The devoted mum was asleep with her three-year-old son in the next room when she was attacked and bludgeoned to death.

Her distraught husband Michael insisted that Christine, 31, had been alive when he’d left early for work. But the police didn’t believe him. Michael was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife. While he languished behind bars, protesting his innocence, another mum a few miles away was murdered in her bed.

Coincidence? Or proof that there’d been a huge miscarriage of justice?

Savage attack
Christine, 31, and her husband Michael lived in Austin with their son Eric. Michael was the manager of a grocery store and Christine worked in insurance. They were an ordinary couple starting to build a family. Then, in the early hours of August 13, 1986, Christine was attacked. She was hit with an unknown object at least eight times and bled to death. There were defence wounds where she’d fought for her life.

When a neighbour saw Eric unattended, she went to investigate. She found Christine’s bloodied body still in her bed. It was a savage attack that her young son had partially witnessed. Only the family gun was missing. Was burglary the motive? The police weren’t so sure.

Grieving widower Michael, then 32, said that when he’d left for work at 5.30am, his wife was alive. But investigators were convinced Christine had been killed before that time.