On the afternoon of October 12, 2000, an ATV rider came upon a smoldering car in a remote section of Harris County, Texas, just outside of Houston. Inside the Chevrolet Lumina was the body of a female. Four days later, in another remote area approximately twenty-five miles away on the other side of the county, a wrecker driver found the body of another murdered woman. She too had been killed in her car, a Dodge Intrepid, which had also been burned.

Both of the slain women had similar physical statures and features, and both drove similar vehicles. Both women had been killed in their charred cars near isolated areas.

The two women also shared one more thing in common: both were named Mary Morris.

                                            Mary Lou Morris    Mary Teresa Morris

The first body found was that of forty-eight-year-old Mary Lou Morris, a loan officer with Chase Bank. She left for work from her home in the Baytown section of Houston, approximately three miles from where her body was found, at 6:00 a.m. on October 12 but never arrived at the bank.

The fire used to burn Mary’s car had been set with massive amounts of accelerants, melting her car’s wheels and her jewelry. The only one of her gems that was taken was her wedding ring.

Mary Lou Morris

Thirty-nine-year-old Mary Teresa Morris, found four days later, was a nurse practitioner for Union Carbide and an actress in local theater productions.

Her car’s passenger door was found open, splattered with blood. The car’s keys lay on the ground. Investigators believe her killer tried to make her murder look like a suicide, but her torn clothing and bruise marks on her wrist were clear indications that she has fought with her assailant. She may also have been gagged.

Mary Teresa Morris

Mary Teresa Morris had been beaten and shot in the head. Mary Lou Morris had been burned so badly that it could not be determined how she had been killed.  Robbery was ruled out as a motive in both women’s murders.

The two Marry Morrises lived and worked near Houston but did not know one another or have any mutual friends.

The Mary Morrises Had Never Met

Jay Morris, Mary Lou’s husband of five years, was cleared of any involvement in her murder, as was her first husband, Jim Henderson.

Authorities could find no one who had a motive to kill her.

Mary Lou and Jay Morris

A coworker emerged as a person of interest in the murder of Mary Teresa Morris. She was wary of Duane Young, a male nurse who had recently been hired on a temporary basis at the Union Carbide Clinic. He apparently had taken a disliking to her as he had degraded her to several patients and colleagues. She was so unnerved by him that she began carrying a gun, registered to her husband, Mike. It was this gun that had been used to murder her.

In the week before her murder, Mary had stopped at her office after hours and found her desk in disarray. On Duane’s nearby desk, she found the words “death to her” written on a tablet. Mary believed she was the “her.”

A few weeks later, on October15, 2000, Mary, using her cell phone, called her friend, Laurie Gemmell, saying someone had been following her while she was in Houston’s Eckerd Drugstore.  Laurie says Mary told her she did not think it was Duane but someone she had met at work through him.

At 5:47 p.m., twelve minutes after ending the phone call, Mary called 911. Police have not released the recording of the call, describing it as “bloodchilling.”

Duane Young became the primary person of interest in the murder of Mary Teresa Morris.

Problems with a Coworker

After several people, however, told police of marital problems between Mary and her out-of-work husband Mike, he also became a suspect in his wife’s murder. Mary had told friends that Mike believed she was having an affair and that he did not believe her when she told him she was being faithful.

Mike and Mary had been married for seventeen years, having moved to Houston from West Virginia two years earlier. Mike says he had heard rumors of a dalliance between Mary and a family friend and that he confronted each of them. After doing so, Mike says he was satisfied there was no extramarital relationship.

Friends, however, noticed the increasing tensions between the couple and believed Mike was still suspicious of his wife.

Mike and Mary T. Morris

Mike Morris had an alibi for the time of Mary’s 911 call; he was at the movies with the couple’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Katie.  Nevertheless, investigators’ suspicions were further raised by his refusal to be questioned by police without an attorney present. Mike says he was following the advice of his friends to have someone with him who was familiar with the procedures. He also declined to take a polygraph test, saying he was on anti-depressants at the time and believed they would skew the results.

In researching the case, I did not find any articles stating Mike and Mary had any other children, so I believe the girl in the photo is a young Katy.

Mike Morris and Young Katy (I think)

What was of particular interest to authorities was a four-minute phone call Mike made to Mary’s cell phone one-and-a-half hours after she had called 911. Mike said he was on the line for four minutes before hanging up without receiving an answer. The call, however, appeared on both Mike and Mary’s telephone records, which it is only supposed to do if it is received.

Mike says the call was not picked up and he did not hear the recording “the party you are trying to reach is unavailable.” The telephone company insists the call was “completed,” meaning it was answered.

Is Mike Being Truthful?

Detectives believe the person who answered the phone call may have been Mary Teresa Morris’ killer and that Mike had called to inquire if the hit had been completed. Despite what Mike told them, police believe he was convinced his wife was having an affair, which, along with her $700,000 life insurance policy of which he was the beneficiary, may have been the motivations for her murder. Nothing concrete, however, links Mike Morris to his wife’s murder. He moved back to West Virginia within a couple of years of the crime.

Duane Young, the Union Carbide Clinic employee with whom Mary had had trouble, was fired shortly after her murder. Detectives say they have evidence potentially linking him to the crime and consider him a suspect.

Did Mike Have Mary Murdered?

It was originally reported in newspapers that Mary Teresa Morris’ wedding ring, like that of Mary Lou Morris, was taken by her killer. Later ABC News articles, however, report that a friend dining with Mike and Katy several months after Mary’s murder noticed that Katy was wearing her mother’s wedding ring.

The articles say Mike claimed he found it sometime after the murder and that Mary was not actually wearing it when she was murdered. Mike seemingly implied that he had forgotten to inform police that he had found the wedding ring.

Conflicting Accounts of Mary’s Wedding Ring

Shortly after the murders of the two women, the Houston Chronicle received an anonymous phone call from a man saying “they killed the wrong Mary Morris.”

Detectives say the locations where both of the women were found, as well as the efforts to destroy the vehicles, are consistent with contract killings. However, they found nothing definitively supporting the mistaken hit theory and concluded the same names of the two murder victims was a coincidence.

Most investigators believe the murders of Mary Lou Morris and Mary Teresa Morris are not related and were committed by different perpetrators.

A Mistaken Hit?

A Mistaken Hit?

Mary Lou Morris’ purse was never found, but no charges were ever made on her credit cards.

In April 2001, six months after her murder, however, Jay Morris received a $2,000 bill for his late wife’s phone card. Detectives traced the card to a sixteen-year-old girl from Galveston, fifty miles southeast of Houston. She told them she found a purse containing the card and other belongings a month earlier in a Galveston convenience store parking lot. Neither Jay nor any of Mary Lou’s family recognized the purse as belonging to her. The girl was cleared on any involvement in Mary’s slaying.

Around the same time, a woman called Jay’s unlisted home telephone number, asking for Mary. The calls were found to have been made from a Baytown apartment, but the woman’s identity was never determined.

Who Called Jay Morris?

Duane Young and Mike Morris are still suspects in the murder of Mary Teresa Morris (nee McGinnis.) No suspects have been named in the murder of Mary Lou Morris.

If you have any information on the murders of Mary Lou Morris or Mary Teresa Morris, please contact the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff’s Department homicide division at 713-967-5810 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

The Mary Morris Murders

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58283261/mary-lou-morris

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7636606/mary-teresa-morris

SOURCES:

• ABC News
• America’s Most Wanted
• Houston Chronicle
• Unsolved Mysteries