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Season Seven: Inside the Cold Case Investigation into the Unsolved Murder of Catrina Mowrey Part II
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In this episode, Catrina Marshall takes us inside the investigation into Catherine Mowrey’s unsolved murder case from a unique perspective as she prods the Texas authorities to help her solve her aunt’s death.
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Transcript
Introduction and Content Warning
00:00:00
Speaker
The content you're about to hear may be graphic in nature. Listener discretion is advised.
Recap of Timeline and Investigation Progress
00:00:25
Speaker
This is True Crime
00:01:01
Speaker
So using your timeline where we left off when we were last talking about this is in June of 2023. So that's a lot more recent and I'm sure, i think you and I both use the word tedious at the same time to describe some of how this is going.
00:01:22
Speaker
But to a degree, you get some movement out of this. It feels like it first, right? ah Yeah, I mean, it's all steady movement. it just sometimes you've got to go back to go forward.
00:01:35
Speaker
Right.
New Evidence and Records Requests
00:01:37
Speaker
So the literal place we left off, new evidence has been sent out to a forensic testing lab at, is it Southwestern Forensic? sense is institute for sort yet Yeah, yeah, yeah,
00:01:55
Speaker
Institute of Forensic Science, because you use a lot of abbreviations. Just throwing that there. No, you're fine. um But at the same time, you start submitting other police records requests, including some requests for one of the suspects at first who had been charged with murder in 1986. Mm-hmm.
00:02:19
Speaker
Now, you're going to get an update on that later, but do you ever really get conclusion on what happened with that other murder?
00:02:28
Speaker
um Yes and no. All
00:02:34
Speaker
right, going to have to explain that one. I believe believe it was no billed by the grand jury um on that charge. So it was something they followed through on, but then it just doesn't it doesn't end up being adjudicated.
00:02:47
Speaker
Yes, that's that's a good term to use You're good at those terms, yes. that's a Yes, that's exactly right. And i'd I'd say in terms of your timeline and in terms of the investigation you're doing yourself, this is where the responses that you get to your police records requests start to get really...
Challenges in Obtaining Police Records
00:03:10
Speaker
Either long-winded or nonsensical. I don't know which way you want to look at it. um I'm going to read a couple of them that i highlighted in here because I think people need to understand that like it's not a wall unless you let it be a wall, but I don't know how you make this a door.
00:03:25
Speaker
um This one says, and this is a response that you get in September of 2023 related to that murder charge. um It says the requester consents to the redaction of information that is subject to the mandatory exceptions, provided such redactions are clearly labeled on the information you receive.
00:03:45
Speaker
you are not required to agree to redaction of any information since you agreed to redactions in this request and the city is redacting mandatory exceptions based on consent, then you may request the redacted information in a future new request.
00:04:00
Speaker
And they kind of stack a second request piece of legalese on there and they say the requester consents to the redactions of information that is subject to discretionary exceptions.
00:04:13
Speaker
This is all just vomit. This is legal vomit right here. This is how they say it. Oh my gosh. Yes. And it's, and the rest of that's the same, but they remove the word mandatory and they replace it with discretionary. And they basically say that you can request that redacted information in a future new request.
00:04:34
Speaker
But who would know that? Any normal person would never know that like, from that, you know, passage. Right.
00:04:46
Speaker
I mean, it's it's it's basically a polite blow-off to explain why you get pages full of black ink. Right. And like also kind of makes people be like, okay, nevermind. Screw this. I'm, I don't know what they just said, but I am over it. Like, you know, just a hoop.
00:05:06
Speaker
Right. To jump through.
Suspect Mapping and Email Incident
00:05:08
Speaker
So that same summer in June 2023, you take the time to put forward a police records request because we have this suspect number three,
00:05:23
Speaker
Where you discover that he was charged for breaking down the door of your aunt's apartment and attacking her just two weeks before she's eventually murdered.
00:05:38
Speaker
Yep. How did you get that information to know that that existed, the this suspect? but Well, when I had spoken with the DA's office, they had told me there were...
00:05:52
Speaker
a couple of official suspects, um and this individual was one of them. and they had mentioned in our conversation that this person had been in trouble for I can't remember what they said exactly. This was a few years back. But they said something about him, ah so like, not assaulting her, but at her house or something. I can't remember how they worded it.
00:06:20
Speaker
But I just kind of made a mental note of it and started digging some more because they gave me his name. And so that's enough. i That's all I need before I can, you know, open up a whole freaking universe into someone's life, you know, despite um like, and so, you know, i started, you know, request, then that's, that's really a big trick in all of this is I'm always simultaneously and continuously, even now, like, ongoing, I'm always requesting records in the background of all of this, like nonstop.
00:07:01
Speaker
for any and everything i'm I can think of. I'm trying to build a timeline and a map that maps each suspect somewhere on a map in Dallas around this timeframe, just to kind of visualize it and see, you know, who's by who, who's interacting with who, what crowd they're in what's going on in their lives during this time period for me to get a better understanding of the bigger picture.
00:07:32
Speaker
Because ideally, you want to basically paint the suspects either into or out of the picture of your aunt's murder. Exactly. And I want to i want to know like if they were incarcerated at the time of her death. That would obviously you know probably not be an option or something. you know like and That kind of thing. You've essentially turned yourself into a police detective at this point.
00:08:01
Speaker
I am well aware. And speaking of police detectives, so you get good news in June that there's a detective on the case, there's this evidence that's found, but then everything doesn't go perfectly with this new detective.
00:08:20
Speaker
And by mid-June, he accidentally emails you instead of emailing the district attorney's office liaison that he was speaking with. and That email includes a paragraph complaining about your behavior.
00:08:36
Speaker
By name. By name. um The quote that you put in the timeline says, sorry to cause you trouble. Katrina is being very difficult and saying you told her things that I don't believe to be true.
00:08:48
Speaker
She's also stating you have documents we do not. And I want to make sure that's not the case. I spoke with someone in the office who stated that was not the case, but I'm following up with you just in case.
00:09:00
Speaker
Clearly, that alone shows that they obviously believe what I'm saying. Otherwise, they wouldn't be questioning it to make sure of clarification outside of what I'm saying, for one.
00:09:13
Speaker
and for two, I mean... i I did tell them, I was like, I do not think you guys have the same records as the other departments do because you guys both tell me different things and you know nothing about this and vice versa. And you guys, there's no way you guys have the same records.
00:09:34
Speaker
And that's what he was referring to is that, um I was telling him there's no way they have the same records because they don't tell me the same things about the same thing.
00:09:46
Speaker
Like it doesn't, and they it's just not the same. And I wasn't even saying it rude. i was I was saying like, you guys don't have the same information. Maybe you should like get together and like compare notes or something. Make sure you're all on the same page here.
Detective's Apology and New Details
00:10:06
Speaker
Were you polite about it or were you frustrated? Well, I mean, I was frustrated, but I can still be polite while I'm frustrated. Well, once I got that email, though, that's a different story.
00:10:18
Speaker
right i would be very angry if someone someone copied me on that email or sent that email to me instead of the other person they were trying to send it to. Well, I responded to it to make sure it got to the right people. um You know, like CC'd them on it so that it went to the correct individuals.
00:10:35
Speaker
in the rest of the department too, but just to make sure it got there to the right people. Um, and what's the overall response there? Oh, I got a voicemail.
00:10:49
Speaker
I got a phone call not long after that. And, um, it was an apology, and ah um a big apology.
00:11:01
Speaker
And that he did not he did not mean any disrespect for that. but Yes, absolutely it is
00:11:09
Speaker
Well, I mean, at first, the first time I read it, I was kind of like, okay, maybe he's like bothering them. Because like he could have just blown it off. And and honestly, I think that would have been more disrespectful than what he did say.
00:11:23
Speaker
Um, but I am glad that he at least expressed it because to some degree expressing something like that is a better response than ignoring you. Does that sense? I, and I'm not even like mad at that one. Like I'm, and you know, it's crazy. I've never heard his name ever mentioned again around DPD.
00:11:43
Speaker
Interestingly enough after that. Um, but he was very like polite on the phone and I would talk to him and everything. It just seems like, To me, it seemed like he was a new ah new guy who was just put on you know, that department. and he was kind of, you know, unbiased and didn't have all the information about the case. And then something changed in there and he was convinced otherwise. i don't know.
00:12:18
Speaker
I'm just speculating here at this point. since no one talks to me or tells me things
00:12:26
Speaker
or tells me things. Right. So by June 29th 2023, you do get a case update.
Complications in Cause of Death
00:12:32
Speaker
And that case update that you put in your timeline says that it appears there's some type of ligature or tie on the top of the sheet that she has wrapped around the neck.
00:12:41
Speaker
There is also some type of very loose cloth ligature or binding on the neck directly on the skin autopsy reports that there is a white cloth belt loosely around the neck due to the state katherine was found and there being no hyoid fracture or external injury it is unknown whether or not strangulation was what caused her death and that's important for a number of reasons even though it doesn't get you closer to the cause of death that's good information for sure
00:13:13
Speaker
And it's something that you had pictured at one point. oh yeah Well, i didn't know there were, it's funny how this escalates because the autopsy is specifically stating there's one belt.
00:13:25
Speaker
Now there's two, like now it's just changed to two belts, one ah on the skin directly and one around her neck over the sheet, which is interesting Right.
00:13:39
Speaker
Because one seems to be binding to keep the sheet on her body, but the other has the potential to be some version of the murder weapon. Right.
00:13:50
Speaker
Or something, yes. or maybe even a distraction from what it could be, considering the hyoid bone isn't broken. However, obviously, it's not always broken in strangulation deaths, to be fair, either. Correct. Correct.
00:14:08
Speaker
But as for the fall of 2023, the next really interesting entry that you have, you say that Sergeant Jerry Girdler responds to, i think, your inquiry about DNA testing results, right? Yep.
00:14:24
Speaker
Okay, he says, we received the report from our lab. The lower excerpts from the report results in conclusions, and it's got a little space under this results in conclusions.
00:14:36
Speaker
It says the DNA obtained from sample 1.1.1.1, which is a sample from her sweater. It consisted of the X chromosome gender marker only.
00:14:47
Speaker
There were no conclusions or comparisons that will be made with regard to that sample. And then that's frustrating because i feel like to me at first i read that as it that was a woman's DNA. so we're not even considering it as a possible profile for a suspect.
00:15:09
Speaker
Right. Cause it's only got, it's got the X chromosome. So there's no XY going on there. Right. But it still could be, I don't, I don't understand why we're ruling that out.
00:15:19
Speaker
You never know. At least to test it against Katrina's familial DNA. Right. So mine. um Yes. Right. So you that that that was that's where I was headed with that. Like basically you could provide exclusionary.
00:15:39
Speaker
i have. Yes. And then it references a CODIS entry. It says there's no CODIS eligible DNA profile that has been obtained from the tested samples. And he points out that Detective Clark submitted the hair sample to a different lab, which is better equipped to conduct a requested test.
00:15:57
Speaker
And then he says, we're still waiting on the results from that examination. Which never came.
Suspect Discussions and Communication Issues
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah. So that's how 2023 kind of ended. But that after the CODIS entry, that's basically it for 2023. And you do like continue to ask for information, but you're not going to see much more information until early 2024,
00:16:19
Speaker
Yes. So one of the things that happens is right there in January, um over a month after a request that you put in that more interesting suspect who had been accused of breaking in the door and attacking your aunt two weeks before she dies, you get some responses related to the arrest. Right.
00:16:46
Speaker
first of First off, I want to say that this individual kicked her door down and attacked her with a loaded firearm. It like at least like five or nine, I think they said, live loaded rounds ready to go in the chamber of that gun, for one. Which says some interesting things to me because she wasn't shot that far.
00:17:12
Speaker
wasn't what she died from. I don't know if they took the gun or if they had another one at all or anything like that. But like, to me, that doesn't ah automatically make me go straight to him and only him still. Right.
00:17:29
Speaker
Kind of a thing. So are you ever able to rule him in or out from this information or is he still a really good shot? Despite the fact that like, We'll just say strangulation and shooting are very different things.
00:17:43
Speaker
ah Yeah. they're I don't think that's his style. But obviously, I'd never rule anything out without absolute certainty. um so but And he's also the only suspect that's deceased.
00:18:00
Speaker
Interesting. Yes. And in your background work, were you able to find out how he became deceased? I was not. um But he was quite older. Um, and he was married at the time as well, which is interesting. I'm not sure why' talking about X chromosomes. I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, a couple of these suspects were married actually at this time, um, which again, the female DNA, I do not think should ever be ruled out in this instance but for that reason alone.
00:18:36
Speaker
um you just i mean you never know right 2024 starts to annoy you a little bit um there's quite a few i would call them roadblocks i think that you look at them as steps to take further down that hallway that has endless doors and you get sort of a new liaison you Challenges. There you go. ah You get sort of a new liaison with Dallas Police Department.
00:19:08
Speaker
um And it takes you a couple of months, but like you get to the point. like You start um basically laying out ah some of the information about this suspect where you are trying to piece together all of these i don't i don't know how to describe them exactly. It's like you have the puzzle pieces. I just got to put them together.
00:19:38
Speaker
Right. You're trying to figure out like what's missing from the box. like You can see the picture. You've got all the pieces. But like you don't know how to make the pieces look like the picture.
00:19:49
Speaker
Exactly. That's a good way to word it. Yes. Yes. You start getting very frustrated. i noticed that one of your emails ended with, I'm going to attach the police report from this incident for you. And hopefully someone, capital letters, anyone will read it.
00:20:05
Speaker
And you leave your phone number with the not sarcastic all comment in case your phone starts working. Yeah, their phone. um Apparently ah a homicide detective doesn't have a working desk phone.
00:20:24
Speaker
I know. It's wild. And for six months, too, at least. and you reach out to him and again in August, basically asking what the progress is and why you haven't heard from him. um At this point in time, you're still getting coverage on the case, but you're doing it all yourself.
00:20:41
Speaker
Different podcasts and YouTubers have now covered at this point. You've got a decent following going on, but no... no sway with the police in terms of just answering what I'm, some of them are more complicated questions, but a lot of what you're asking for is pretty simple. Exactly. And I, I started making sure that, you know, I kind of had that internship in my back pocket a little bit for contacts, of course.
00:21:10
Speaker
And so that was kind of my, I don't want to say worst case option, but like, it was kind of what I was going to have to do if nothing else worked. um So I started, you know, including some of these other individuals with the email chain on them Like, like, can somebody do something? Like, I guess I'm just not getting any response from anyone. So so can anyone within this entire law enforcement organization, like,
00:21:46
Speaker
acknowledge receipt of this or what's going on? You know, and so they, they kind of start to message back a little bit. They do.
00:21:57
Speaker
And by the end of the year, they're starting to respond more specifically saying we have no control over the the labs, essentially.
Speculations on Police Avoidance
00:22:08
Speaker
When that happens, do you still feel like you're being taken seriously with the,
00:22:15
Speaker
conversations that you're having with the Dallas police department? It feels like they're almost taking it too serious in the sense of they seem like, in my opinion, I'm pretty good at reading people in these situations. And it seems to me like maybe they're just afraid of legal action at this point. And they want to avoid it at all costs by avoiding me at all costs.
00:22:39
Speaker
um But I could be wrong. Hopefully I'm wrong.
00:22:45
Speaker
Well, okay. I don't think you're wrong. um and i I don't actually, like, having seen your messages that you've sent, like, because you having you've been including those as the years go along, and it gets a little more confusing to figure out what they're doing, which I'm sure must be infuriating.
00:23:04
Speaker
is. yeah You know, while you are asking some complicated stuff, you kind of turn the corner from 2024 into 2025, asking very simple questions.
00:23:15
Speaker
um And I did notice that you emailed one of your contacts from the DA's office in early 2025. And they They're like, these are simple questions. I'm not sure what is going on.
00:23:29
Speaker
You put a quote in here. that I wanted to ask you about, and I'm not going to dime out these people, but you said at one point that you had a concern that one of the people at Dallas police had told reporters inquiring about the case that this was quote, simply, this was simply an overdose.
Frustrations with True Crime Culture
00:23:47
Speaker
I have a lot more cold cases to work on. That would be more entertaining than this one.
00:23:52
Speaker
Yes. That, that, that, that, Yes, that. Continue. um i'm Well, i look, when you when you have to deal with police who think things are or are not entertaining, meaning they're becoming a part of the true crime problem that we have this country, yeah um that has to be like infuriating. Because the way I've always understood what you're doing, and it's one of the reasons I like talking to you and I like
00:24:29
Speaker
entertaining questions where you text me on a Sunday afternoon and want to know about 40-some-year-old murder in a shopping center or a motel that has nothing to do on the surface with what I was thinking about your case, it drags me in too.
00:24:46
Speaker
Now, while that is wildly entertaining, is there any part of you that's ever gone, you know, I really just want to be famous because of my aunt's murder? No.
00:24:56
Speaker
but Why would I want to be famous? That could make me a target. Right. I'm not going to die. Either, you know, like, I mean, and that's the problem here is that it it kind of you know, it is a risk.
00:25:13
Speaker
but I mean, it is a w risk. but And I really had to consider that before I ever even got into this. It was a huge, huge decision that I had to make very early on.
00:25:26
Speaker
And it was to proceed proceed and go all in, like just all or nothing. There was no one in between for me. And then I had to, you know, consider those those instances, whether, you know, it would possibly put me in danger or, you know, my family or you know, make me a target and, you know, what it would take away from me at the end of each day or energy or you know, parenting responsibilities, my career, whatever the case is.
00:25:58
Speaker
But then I kind the more I thought about it, you know, it kind of already does anyway. Right. Right. in ah In a less formal way, even if you do nothing, it is still going to be eating up your emotional and intellectual resources. Yes. And there's just no way to not think or put it out of your mind at this point. Right.
00:26:24
Speaker
And besides, i'm I'm pretty stubborn sometimes, most times. And so I'm just not going to let someone willingly and knowingly get over on me like that. Like I just, it's an insult to my intelligence at this point.
Emotional Impact and Case Communication
00:26:40
Speaker
And I would say that you're in a unique situation from the perspective of having lost two aunts to violence and then having lost your mom much later because of the violence to your aunts.
00:26:53
Speaker
Right. And the lack of action with it. Right. It feels like you're sort of carrying the torch in a very macabre way here Because if you don't.
00:27:06
Speaker
No one will. No one will find this case entertaining enough to solve it. I don't care if people find it entertaining. If that's what they need. Well, yeah. But if that's what it takes.
00:27:19
Speaker
then do it and let's get on with it you know like whatever the case is i just want some answers And that's what you're asking for.
00:27:32
Speaker
And I have to say it this way, all of 2025, you are constantly putting in very specific records requests, mind you. um You're not lobbying softballs in the dark. You're asking for specific pieces of paper. You're asking for specific notes, reports, incident reports, arrest records um of the Dallas police.
00:27:59
Speaker
And you do, again, complain to the DOJ in the middle of all this, which I don't blame you at all. um And they they do look at it, but they basically say we're not doing anything about this as far as the federal Department of Justice.
00:28:15
Speaker
Right. But they won't ever be able to say that you know the reason why nothing was done is because I didn't submit it.
00:28:24
Speaker
That's true. Do you end up getting in 2025 anything that you look at and go, this is noteworthy from the perspective of like what I need in order to move forward with my investigation?
00:28:41
Speaker
Well, not from them, course. um I just don't understand how the first DNA test item was done so quickly after they submitted it.
00:28:56
Speaker
And the rest of them are just no idea, like timeline, estimate, nothing, just nothing, even though they were submitted together. Have you ever seen like the case limitations on like DNA dna testing? is I think you probably would have seen it in the Prosecutor's Academy where you have to choose so many items. Yeah.
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah, and we didn't choose too many, i don't think. I don't think they kept the right items to be begin with, but I can't be picky at this point. um What we have is what we got. and But I think it's interesting that it's also at two de separate labs, two totally separate labs, and neither of them happen to have anything.
00:29:40
Speaker
So finally, October 2025, you do get a response from the medical examiner. it It's basically, hey, send us your money. course. and you send in another complaint by the end of December.
00:30:00
Speaker
So when you're doing that, do you end up getting something from the medical examiner for that last little bit, say, October 2025? Do you get anything back from that that you look at it and you go, all right, well, I can add this to what's going on?
00:30:17
Speaker
Well, kind of. That's still actually in the works. um and well, for one they they do a lot of old school ways, like paper checks, like writing a check. Nobody has checks.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah. and Or money orders are not all that easy to go get randomly, you know, like the gas station. um And so just kind of another couple of hoops to jump through. And so who was it? it was I was talking with someone one day and they mentioned it was someone who works in forensic in the medical examiner's office in another state, basically. And they were like, that's not the whole report.
00:31:08
Speaker
And they they just kept telling me that. They're like, that's not the whole report. I promise you that's not the whole report. You need to go ask for all of it. And I'm like, seriously? Like, why would they just not send the whole report? Because I didn't know what an autopsy looked like.
00:31:23
Speaker
Right. You know? And so, sure enough, I call them up one day an ass and they do have more
00:31:36
Speaker
Apparently, like quite a bit more. But you haven' you haven't seen it. Not yet.
00:31:43
Speaker
And so you close out the timeline doing something that I'm just going to highlight it. I'm not going to go over specifically what you did ah in terms of like numbers that you're calling.
00:31:54
Speaker
But you've kept a log, an ongoing log of how you've like attempted to contact the Dallas police. a what made you start was, was the lack of answers? Like the reason that you start keeping that log.
00:32:12
Speaker
um yeah. I mean, among other things, I just don't understand how a police department doesn't answer a phone. Like how is that possible that a huge police department like that just doesn't answer the phone? And and I'm not, so I'm not just calling one number.
00:32:32
Speaker
Like it's a lot of them route back to the same switchboard number anyway. But i know like one time the receptionist lady gave me the cell phone number of one of the detectives.
00:32:46
Speaker
And so I called it. And then the number that their voicemail has on there isn't even the same number you called, which gives that away like immediately. So then I write down that number on the voicemail Because it's like they're having it forwarded to their cell phone or something on a work number or a work, like, VOIP or whatever, you know, line or something of that sort.
00:33:15
Speaker
But then, like, didn't think about the fact that their voicemail has their actual number on there. It's the little stuff like that that I'm just like, oh, you guys. Come on.
00:33:28
Speaker
So it's like, I've called like, these are just like all within the Dallas police department, homicide, special investigations, cold case within that whole department, like on all of those call logs.
00:33:45
Speaker
Right. Right. But it's not like you're calling the same number over and over. You're just taking different avenues to attempt to get some answers to inquiries that you've submitted. formally and updates that like should be happening at some point, you're not even like just my opinion you're not even rising to the level that it would be annoying because like you're spacing your calls. like Some of them start at the end of June, some of them are the first of August, some of the first of September, first of October, first of November. You're simply like trying to get on the radar.
00:34:21
Speaker
It looks like almost in 30-day increments. Yeah. i mean, the way most followup would work for like any job on the planet that didn't have a tight deadline.
00:34:33
Speaker
Well, yeah. And plus, you know, I do have actually like a full time job that I have to keep and the family during yeah and during the week and stuff. And so I don't really have that much free time in like during business hours that I can actually like if I didn't work, sure. would probably be very annoying. I'm sure.
00:34:55
Speaker
to them. Um, it's probably a good thing. I don't live in Dallas really. They would see your smiling face quite bit. Exactly. Exactly. And it's not even just like, it's just, I just need like somebody to like answer the phone and tell me there's nothing rather than just ignore it, you know?
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah. So a couple of like things I wanted to bring up, You put them in the timeline without a date. You talk about the fact that she had moved around with one of the people that ended up on the suspect list, even to Houston for a short period of time.
00:35:36
Speaker
That is the strongest suspect to me. Okay. um You point out that, and I think it's another suspect is married as well. There's several of these guys are married, right? Mm-hmm.
00:35:50
Speaker
But I didn't know that, of course, when all this started. I found that out when I built off their family trees on ancestry and started triangulating their DNA. Which which is which is just another one of those doors.
00:36:06
Speaker
Right. like In public records, like if you sync them all together, they'll start they'll work for themselves in the background and like really start building out like information for you. like It's one of the most useful resources that A lot of people have no idea it's out there and works the way that it does. It's wild. It's wild.
00:36:27
Speaker
ah You also point out that Katrina had been interested in real estate.
Personal Context and Investigation Strategy
00:36:32
Speaker
And she had become a licensed realtor for Kansas. Like her state boards in Kansas were done.
00:36:38
Speaker
She moves to Dallas. But from what you've been able to find, she never pursues that career once she's in Texas. Right. And she actually passed all those exams in like half the time as well, which was interesting.
00:36:53
Speaker
I think one of the most fascinating things you included in here is how Catherine, your aunt, became Katrina. And that was that she had been working at a country club and in the Dallas area.
00:37:06
Speaker
And there were Hispanic ladies, Latina, Latinx ladies, whatever the appropriate term is, that were working there. And they started calling her Katrina and it stuck.
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah. And also my grandmother, so my aunt's mom was also Catherine. I'm not sure why them older generations like named everyone in the generational, like to follow after themselves exactly.
00:37:35
Speaker
But that was kind of frustrating. Um, when you're building out family trees, especially, but, um, she I think she just wanted it to be different from everyone else. So then my mom responds by naming me after her, of course, but that's a different story.
00:37:51
Speaker
with but but that's the reason I brought it up here is because that simple thing of wanting to stand out and then getting a nickname that she that did stand out became your whole life.
00:38:04
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Well, and everyone you know in the family didn't really want to talk about it. It wasn't up for discussion. And my mom was not about it. she ah That was the way she had made it so no one could forget her was by naming me after her.
00:38:21
Speaker
they have to say her name all the time. um i was going to say, so you end up like, it's sort of a double-edged sword because it's in honor of her. But at the same time, it's a constant reminder of everyone's worst memory of their life. Yeah.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah. And then you close out your timeline, having done a tremendous amount of research into a couple of the different suspects where you've been tracking them in terms of their addresses and where they lived when and their cars.
00:38:51
Speaker
Where does all of this stand right now for you? Well, well I'm always quite a few steps ahead of, where I say I am, to be fair.
00:39:06
Speaker
um
00:39:09
Speaker
I guess at this point, I'm more in the monitoring um and kind of observing, in a sense, phase or stage. In the sense of where sometimes you have to kind of step back in order to see a bigger picture or have it come to you naturally like that. You can't force some things, I've noticed.
00:39:33
Speaker
And a lot of these ideas come to me when I least expect it or when I'm not trying. And it's frustrating as well sometimes because it'll be in the middle of something completely unrelated that I have to focus on.
00:39:46
Speaker
um It's like my brain's always in overdrive here, but... I can only imagine the post-it notes. Yeah. You should see the files I have. I've got a whole, like just entire room of like cabinets full of documents and they're all electronically too. I've kept, I've made the point of keeping them all electronically as well as a physical copy.
00:40:17
Speaker
So even if you are able to put together from like pending lab tests or pending medical examiners requests, like a specific person, a specific time and to essentially put a name to the person who's so violent to Katrina that she died. That's not really the end of all of this for you, is it?
Family Reputation and Justice
00:40:44
Speaker
Um, it depends to me, in my opinion. Um, I just, and I don't want to leave it open-ended the end of my life.
00:40:55
Speaker
I don't think that the entire generation of my mom and both of her only sisters, all three women, i don't want them to die and you know with this kind of a reputation when it's not. It's unwarranted, and it's inaccurate, and it's really just...
00:41:17
Speaker
condescending and it's just not right. Like I'm not judging anyone either. You know, it is what it is, but it's not right. This isn't what it is. That wasn't what it was. Right. There's an element where
00:41:34
Speaker
if we had a time machine and we could go back, uh, it should have never been in the newspaper. That's where it all started. That's what stopped the investigation before it ever had a chance to start. Them blowing it off in the newspaper.
00:41:53
Speaker
Them in the newspaper with the headlines of it being a drug overdose. It immediately cast in doubt. It immediately dismissed any speculation or question about any other possibility but that.
00:42:07
Speaker
and immediately like shut down any... question of anything else before it even had a chance to begin.
00:42:19
Speaker
and there's so many cases like this around the country. Yes. Yeah, did there are But even if it that, like, even if it was a drug overdose, I'd still want to want to know, like, either way, um regardless.
00:42:36
Speaker
But that should have been in the medical examiner reports if that's what it was. Right, and it wasn't. Right. And so that's the problem. Right, it is a problem. And I sit around waiting for toxicology results today in 2026. And if if something were to happen tonight and i I needed, like, from an event tonight, toxicology results, I would have preliminary results in three months and, like, a final report
Toxicology Report Delays and Media's Role
00:43:07
Speaker
in 18 months. Right.
00:43:11
Speaker
Yeah. um Yeah. Actually, I got my mom's results back from her autopsy and toxicology that they did. They did it pretty thoroughly, even during COVID, too.
00:43:25
Speaker
And that did not take that long. Did she pass away quickly? was she in a hospital? Nope. cheap um She passed away overnight. Right.
00:43:37
Speaker
like overnight right and our so Well, it's in her sleep, basically. Okay.
00:43:47
Speaker
i um Sometimes if I have someone who's gone through like, for whatever reason, has gone into a hospital and passes away in the hospital, I do get them quickly then.
00:43:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, she wasn't in the hospital. Okay. I mean, like, it was never, like, it was a situation where an ambulance didn't even come. It was, like, the coroner. Gotcha.
00:44:10
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:44:13
Speaker
Well, so I've asked you a lot of questions over the course of us doing this. Is there anything I haven't asked that you feel like people need to know?
00:44:26
Speaker
The media can be your best friend and your worst enemy. Don't misreport things that you don't know are accurate until you know they're accurate.
00:44:39
Speaker
Is that going back to the drug overdose headline? Absolutely it is. Yeah, that's one of the things about this case. and i And that was the reason I brought up the timelines that I deal with, is because sometimes, like getting a story out, the truth is kind of a secondary and very fungible asset in it all.
00:45:00
Speaker
Well, it's just interesting, and it would be different maybe, I feel like, if they had, like, come back but with an article and been like, never mind, it it wasn't actually that. Right.
00:45:12
Speaker
You know, like, anything like that, any correction or any, like, heads up maybe to the family would have been cool. Like, everyone in my entire family just, like, had no idea. They went to their graves thinking this was a drug overdose the whole time. No one ever knew it as anything else
00:45:37
Speaker
and i i bring this back up because there's a lot of families that are potentially in your position out there many you have any do you have any advice for them going through this situation don't give up if there's a will there's a way Um, just cause one door closes doesn't mean another one can't open in the
Encouragement to Seek Truth
00:45:59
Speaker
future. and it might be in the most unconventional ways and you might have to get creative and resourceful, but if you want it bad enough to find a way. You'll find an open door.
00:46:13
Speaker
in him
00:46:16
Speaker
Well, I appreciate you sharing your story with me and like, I am hoping that 2026 is a year that you get answers to at least three of the big questions in terms of what happened to your aunt.
00:46:34
Speaker
And hopefully some of that will come from the lab results. Hopefully. Yes. I wish there was a way to check directly. With the lab? Mm-hmm.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah. Having that buffer there is kind of a... A difficult thing when the buffer is non-communicative. Exactly. Exactly. Yep.
00:47:03
Speaker
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00:47:14
Speaker
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00:47:47
Speaker
want to go, but it's cause I'll disappoint ya. It's all I've ever dreamed of, something I cannot let go of.
00:47:58
Speaker
I hate the competition. This culture's like a Jimin. I lost the motivation to get fit in your expectations.
00:48:09
Speaker
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00:48:27
Speaker
Thank you for joining us.