Suspected of Murder, But Was He Guilty? | Finally Caught SR01 EP13 | True Lives

Añadido: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Austin, Texas, 1988. Newly separated mom of two Debbie Masters Baker is busy working as a realtor. Debbie graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in journalism, and she came by her love of writing naturally, but it helped that her mom, Gertrude, worked for many years in publishing.

[00:00:19]>> Debbie loves gadgets. She's proud of a massive car phone she's bought to chat with prospective home buyers. And she has a home computer. Everyone has a laptop and cell phone now, but these gadgets weren't commonly owned back in 1988.

[00:00:34]>> Debbie is very close to her two sisters, Lisa and Judy, and her mother, Gertrude.

[00:00:39]>> Lisa and Judy say Debbie's the ultimate big sister. Her family says she has an infectious laugh and boundless generosity.

[00:00:47]>> But first and foremost, Debbie is a caring mom who is devoted to her children. seven-year-old son Jesse and three-year-old daughter Caitlyn are her pride and joy.

[00:00:58]>> So, she was working as a realtor at the time and it consumed quite a bit of her time. She was juggling that with motherhood, you know, having Caitlyn Baker and the son in the house. The kids were very young at the time.

[00:01:14]>> Her family says Debbie is selfless and generous and loving. These are great qualities to have in a mom. She had her hands full, no doubt about it. Um, but she also had a lot of support too from her mother as well as from her sister.

[00:01:28]>> Debbie's marriage to Philip Baker ended in 1987.

[00:01:32]>> It was an amicle separation. Philip Baker actually uh came out revealed to Deborah Baker that he was homosexual.

[00:01:41]And so they were going through that that separation while their children were still young.

[00:01:49]Philip lives in a house just down the street, so the kids can easily move between the two houses. Having separated parents living in close proximity to one another shows that they have the interests of the children at heart. This type of cooperation can foster positive development in the young ones.

[00:02:04]>> Philip Baker works as a physician's assistant and is an avid gardener who enjoys a strong cup of coffee.

[00:02:12]>> Divorce is expensive and Debbie and Philip have had some financial difficulties along the way. Plus, they are maintaining their separate homes, each on a single income.

[00:02:22]>> On January 12th, 1988, Debbiey's mom and sister have her kids ready for a midweek handoff to Philip. The girls are going out for a party.

[00:02:33]>> They had an arrangement made where Deborah would have the children on specific weekends and uh Phil Baker would have them on other weekends. The kids are safely off to their dad's place, so Debbie is free to go with her mom and sister for a fun Tuesday night out.

[00:02:50]>> It's not always easy for a single mom to get away from the job of being a parent, but tonight Debbie can live it up a bit and not worry about anything.

[00:02:59]>> The women drive across town to South Austin, where they attend a baby shower for a friend. It's a fun party, and they're there together until late in the evening. By the time the women drop Debbie off at her home again, it's past midnight. Lisa sees Debbie to her door.

[00:03:15]>> Deborah Baker's sister was was at the residence that evening and she reported hearing some noises inside.

[00:03:23]>> Debbie felt secure in her home and didn't worry about anyone bothering her.

[00:03:27]So, Lisa says good night and Debbie goes off to bed. It's getting late and she has to work the next day.

[00:03:33]In the early morning of Wednesday, January 13th, 1988, Debbie Masters Baker is home alone, asleep in her bed. Later that Wednesday morning, Gertude gets a phone call from Debbie's work. The voice on the other end asking where Debbie is.

[00:03:48]She's expected at work, but hasn't come to the office yet.

[00:03:54]>> And that was very unlike her, cuz she was usually very prompt. that if she wasn't going to show up for work, she would have called or given him some type of advanced notice.

[00:04:05]>> Gertude tries Debbiey's number, then heads over to the house when she gets no answer.

[00:04:09]>> After knocks on the front door with no answer, Gertrude makes her way into the house.

[00:04:17]In the bedroom, Gertude discovers what no mother should ever see. And that's where she made the gruesome discovery of of finding Deborah Baker deceased in the bed with with obvious trauma to the body.

[00:04:37]>> Debbie is lying on her bed with a severe head wound. She's obviously gone.

[00:04:41]Gertrude manages to call 911.

[00:04:43]>> Austin police are in the middle of an apparent murder investigation this evening. The mother of a North Austin woman found her daughter dead early this afternoon.

[00:04:52]>> It's a horrible experience for a parent to lose their child under any circumstances. For a loving mother to find their daughter, by all accounts, a happy, kind, caring person herself, murdered in her bedroom, is devastating.

[00:05:07]>> It's extremely difficult for the family, especially through the early stages.

[00:05:10]>> Police arrive at Debbiey's house and detectives quickly take control of the crime scene. There's no sign of forced entry to the home. Did Debbie let someone in or is this a random opportunity where a prowler tried her door and found it unlocked?

[00:05:23]>> Investigators examine Debbie's room and the state of her body.

[00:05:27]>> Debbie's mom, Gertrude, was there first.

[00:05:29]She tells them she touched Debbie's leg to see if she could wake her. And when she lifted a pillow off Debbie's head, she saw the extent of her injuries. Her head is being repeatedly battered.

[00:05:42]Who would commit such a violent crime to a defenseless woman as she lay asleep in her own home?

[00:05:48]>> Suddenly, Debbie Masters Baker is gone.

[00:05:51]The long search for her killer is just beginning.

[00:06:01]Austin, Texas, January 13th, 1988.

[00:06:05]The body of single mother and realtor Debbie Baker is found on her bed by her horrified mother.

[00:06:12]She's been badly beaten over her head with a blunt object, investigators are quickly on the scene. David Fugat is a detective with the Austin Police Department homicide unit. Being intimately aware of the initial murder investigation, he will become a lead investigator in Debbie's murder case years later.

[00:06:32]No suspects or arrests in yesterday's brutal murder of a North Austin mother.

[00:06:36]An autopsy reveals that 34 year old Deborah Baker died from at least six severe blows to the head with a heavy instrument. She was discovered dead in her bedroom by her mother.

[00:06:49]We had entry that was made into the residence through a back door with blunt force trauma to the head and then objects placed on top of the head which is not very common was a pillow and that really stood out in this particular case.

[00:07:04]I've been in homicide now almost 19 years had 65 murders as lead investigator and I've worked on probably over 600 at least to some degree. And uh we just we just don't see that type of behavior.

[00:07:19]>> Debbie has been struck with a blunt object several times. A small baseball bat is found in her bedroom.

[00:07:26]>> Her son had a small wooden bat that was in the bedroom at the time, but we don't necessarily believe now that that was used. We think it may have been some other some other type of linear object.

[00:07:38]We just it was never recovered, so we we don't know definitively. The injuries are horrifying. The person or persons who did this acted with clear, brutal intent. What detectives don't know is why someone would do something like this to Debbie Masters Baker.

[00:07:56]>> Police see that a video cassette recorder, a VCR machine, and a popular movie tape are missing from Debbie's bedroom.

[00:08:03]>> You know, it ended up being a 1984 Montgomery Wards VCR and a Raiders of Lost Arc VHS tape.

[00:08:11]Is this a robbery gone wrong? Did someone come into Debbie's house to steal valuables when Debbie interrupted them?

[00:08:18]>> A jewelry box on the dresser in Debbiey's bedroom has been left untouched.

[00:08:24]>> When there's a VCR machine missing, but a jewelry box is untouched, especially when it's in plain sight, it calls into question whether robbery was the real motive.

[00:08:33]>> Did Debbie surprise the robber while he was stealing her things? The attack is so vicious it seems doubtful that robbery is the motive.

[00:08:42]>> Debbie's body is unclothed. Detectives can't rule out sexual assault as a motive.

[00:08:49]>> There was not necessarily evidence of sexual assault, but there was certainly what we believe to be a component of it.

[00:08:58]You know, we believe that he potentially had masturbated next to the body.

[00:09:08]Investigators take a closer look at the sliding door that opens onto Debbie's backyard. It was left unlocked, and it seems likely the killer gained entry through the backyard.

[00:09:20]>> As the sun sets, officers notice something curious. A pattern in the leaves lying on the grass that leads to the rear fence.

[00:09:29]>> She had a privacy fence that encircled her property.

[00:09:34]There were leaves just based upon that time of year where it looked like there was some disturbance on the ground just on the inside fence line.

[00:09:42]>> Detectives see a trail through the fallen leaves that goes from the unlocked sliding door of Debbie Baker's house to the fence at the back of her yard. It is possible for shoes or boots to track leaves for a few yards and then make a trailer pathway which would be discoverable by police officers.

[00:10:00]The police now suspect someone may have hopped the fence to gain entry into the house.

[00:10:05]>> If police are correct, then someone very likely knew they could get into the house through an unlocked door, and that would mean they had knowledge of Debbie.

[00:10:15]But did Debbie know them?

[00:10:21]Most murders are committed by people known to the victims. So, detectives will now focus their investigation on people who knew Debbie Baker.

[00:10:31]>> Debbie's mom and sister tell police that Debbie wasn't dating anyone at the time.

[00:10:38]>> The investigation into Debbie Baker's killing is just beginning. And already things aren't adding up. A missing VCR machine, but a jewelry box still in place. No signs of forced entry, but no one stands out as a person who might want to kill her. and the viciousness of this crime. Debbie's body badly beaten, nude, and face down with her head covered by a bloodstained pillow.

[00:11:04]Is this a robbery, a twisted sexual assault, a coverup, or all of the above?

[00:11:08]Did Debbie Baker know her killer or killers?

[00:11:13]>> The first person investigators need to interview is the one with the most to gain.

[00:11:21]Debbie Baker, a single mom and realtor in Austin, Texas, spends an evening with her mom and sister at a friend's baby shower on the evening of Tuesday, January 12th, 1988.

[00:11:32]She gets home around midnight.

[00:11:35]The next morning, Debbie's body is discovered in her bedroom by her distraught mother, Gertrude. Her battered head is covered with a bloody pillow. Investigators comb the crime scene for evidence. Their initial investigation uncovers a few key facts.

[00:11:54]The VCR player and a movie tape are missing. Perhaps Debbie has been robbed.

[00:12:00]>> A person looking to steal does not necessarily have a motive to bludgeon a woman to death as she sleeps. Debbie's body is found face down and nude, but there is no immediate evidence of sexual assault.

[00:12:16]Investigators believe Debbie's death is caused by blunt force trauma to the head. No murder weapon has been recovered.

[00:12:23]>> Her wallet is empty. The VCR player and a movie tape are missing. Perhaps Debbie has been robbed.

[00:12:32]>> Debbie's jewelry is untouched on her dresser in plain sight.

[00:12:37]>> Why steal a VCR player but leave the jewelry behind? Doesn't make sense.

[00:12:43]Forensics finds important pieces of trace evidence. A hair on the comforter and another in the bathroom. Neither belonged to Debbie or her mother. Could this hair belong to Debbie's killer?

[00:13:00]They did collect uh bath towels from the bathroom and they had taken vacuuming of the bed comforter and that's where we're able to get the pubic hairs.

[00:13:13]>> In 1988, these physical items are valuable evidence, but DNA technology is just emerging as a forensic tool.

[00:13:21]>> This is in the the mid to late 80s. DNA technology was just in its infancy at that time.

[00:13:27]>> Investigators will collect the evidence and hope that it might prove to be helpful.

[00:13:33]>> Detectives notice tracks through the leafy backyard leading to the rear fence.

[00:13:38]>> It looks like someone hopped the fence tracking leaves as they walked toward the unlocked sliding doors and then came inside to murder Debbie.

[00:13:47]>> There were leaves just based upon that time of year. So, I believe that he had hopped the fence, made his way into the residence, and then basically hid out.

[00:13:59]>> Police suspect the killer knew the victim. So, they start with the most likely suspect, her ex-husband.

[00:14:08]During the course of any investigation, when we're looking at uh homicide cases, you know, virtually 50% of our homicides involving female victims involve dating or family violence. The murderer is most likely familiar with Debbie, has reason to target her, and is likely male. The murderer knows how to get into the house without breaking in.

[00:14:29]>> Philip Baker lives down the street from Debbie's home. Is he responsible for his ex-wife's murder?

[00:14:34]>> Financial troubles could be a motive, and disputes over the kids could be another. Even if the kids think everything is great between mom and dad, a lot of bad stuff can happen behind closed doors.

[00:14:48]Since they were each maintaining their own homes, Debbie and Philip both had their share of financial challenges. For now, Philip becomes the prime suspect.

[00:14:56]Philip has an alibi. He was taking care of Jesse and Caitlyn at his house the night of Debbie's murder, but the kids are too young to be reliable witnesses.

[00:15:07]Imagine what the children are going through at this time. They've lost their mother, and now their father is under suspicion for her murder.

[00:15:19]The job of an investigator is to gather all of the evidence, and having an alibi isn't always enough to remove suspicion unless it's airtight.

[00:15:26]>> He was certainly somebody that uh investigators looked at very early on.

[00:15:30]Uh but they were able to clear him.

[00:15:32]>> As investigators remove Philip as a suspect, they don't have any immediate alternatives. And as investigator too, you know, we we we have a duty to you know, exclude people as much as we do incriminate them.

[00:15:47]>> With that, the case goes cold and it will be 23 years before police get a break in the case.

[00:15:57]On October 28th, 2011, Debbie's daughter, Caitlyn, is a young woman when Austin Police Department homicide detective David Fugat gets in touch.

[00:16:08]So, they've kind of been going through this roller coaster ride for for many, many years. And uh and that explains why the family was even somewhat apprehensive when I first came onto the case.

[00:16:17]>> The two children have been left to grow up without their mother. Debbie's own sister and mom have lost a best friend.

[00:16:23]After all these years, it seems unlikely that justice will be served.

[00:16:26]>> The investigation, there are a lot of ups and downs where they think the investigators are are making headway.

[00:16:33]So, they get their hopes up and then uh and only to find out that it didn't pan out.

[00:16:39]>> The case is reopened for an unlikely reason in 1986, 2 years before Debbie is killed and 12 miles from her home. A stained blue bandana is found on the ground near another brutal homicide.

[00:16:54]>> Was found a short distance from the scene. Um it did have blood stain on it.

[00:16:58]In 1986, a young brunette woman, Christine Morton, was murdered in her bed, just 12 miles from where Debbie Baker would be killed in the same way two years later. DNA on that bandana is collected and put into a national data bank. And when a man called Mark Allen Norwood is arrested for burglary in California in 2011, his DNA is a match for the material found on the bandanna.

[00:17:22]his DNA standard was collected and uploaded to to Kotus, which is our uh national combined DNA indexing system. We were able to then confirm that in fact the DNA that was on the bloodstained bandanna in the Williamson County case was a mixture of both Mark Allen Norwood and Christine Morton.

[00:17:47]This stained blue bandana is helping police solve a vicious unsolved murder.

[00:17:52]But can it lead detective David Fugan to the man who killed Debbie Masters Baker?

[00:17:58]In January of 1988, 34year-old mother of two Debbie Masters Baker is found dead by her mother in her bedroom with a blood soaked pillow covering her battered head.

[00:18:08]>> When Debbie's mother discovers her daughter's body, she knows her grandkids have lost their mother. It's horrifying.

[00:18:15]>> Some cash, a VCR, and a Hollywood movie tape was taken from Debbie's house, but Debbiey's jewelry was left behind in plain view. Seaman and human hair not belonging to Debbie are found at the scene on her bed comforter and towels in her bathroom.

[00:18:31]>> Police gather evidence from the scene.

[00:18:33]The circumstances paint a picture of a psychopathic killer.

[00:18:36]>> The police can't connect anything they find to a suspect, and so the case goes cold for more than two decades. Now, for the little children of Debbie Baker, the trauma of losing their mother is a wound that just won't heal.

[00:18:48]>> Yeah. For the son, it just he uh is really just with withdrawn. I spoke to him and he was very reserved. Uh the daughter, Caitlyn Baker, is a little bit more outspoken.

[00:18:58]>> Now, a young woman, Caitlyn pines for a mother she lost when she was too young to even remember. Caitlyn um was only she was just a small child at the time and she's commented repeatedly through the years that she never knew her mother. So, it's been it's been difficult.

[00:19:18]>> Caitlyn grows up believing that justice must prevail. She gets a degree in criminal justice and finds a job as a parallegal.

[00:19:28]>> She's always been the one that's been the most vocal wanting to see justice justice for her mom.

[00:19:35]In 2011, a break in Debbie Baker's cold case comes from a direction that no one can foresee.

[00:19:44]It all starts roughly 2 years before Debbie died on August 14th, 1986 in Austin, Texas, and about 12 m away from her home.

[00:19:55]>> Nearby the scene of another brutal homicide, a stained blue bandana is found lying on the ground.

[00:20:04]The circumstances of this earlier murder case are strikingly similar to Debbie Baker's killing.

[00:20:13]>> On the morning of August 13th, 1986, a young, attractive mother, Christine Morton, is found beaten to death in her bed by a blunt instrument.

[00:20:25]Christine is being bludgeoned on her head with a wooden weapon. when she's found a carry bag is covering her battered head from view.

[00:20:33]>> In the Christine Morton case, there was reason to believe that she was hit with a piece of wood cuz I think they did find splinters in that particular case.

[00:20:43]>> Christine's husband, Michael Morton, is accused of murder.

[00:20:47]>> Texas prosecutors accused Michael Morton of being angry that Christine would not have sex with him on his birthday the night before. I mean, this was, I believe, the day after Michael Morton's birthday, and he was wanting to be intimate with Christine Morton that night of his birthday, and she told him, you know, she had a headache or she was she just wasn't in the mood that night.

[00:21:08]>> Michael wrote Christine a nasty note that came back to haunt him big time >> and tacked it to the uh the mirror in the bathroom, and the investigator saw that and felt that that was every motive for him to to kill her. That doesn't seem like a lot of motivation to provoke a murder, unless something else much more serious is going on.

[00:21:29]>> One item is found missing from the house. A cold commander handgun. For some reason, other valuables are left behind.

[00:21:37]>> In 1987, Michael Morton is sent to prison for Christine's murder, but he steadfastly maintains his innocence.

[00:21:46]Prosecutors are satisfied they have the right man. And I think that they were just kind of um put the blinders on and were solely focused on Michael Morton that they weren't willing to look at anything else. Um I think this was a case of tunnel vision.

[00:22:03]>> After Michael is locked away, a team of lawyers working for the Innocence Project takes up his case and fights to have him released. But it will be years before that stained blue bandana will connect investigators to the man who killed two young women asleep in their beds.

[00:22:21]Austin, Texas. Two murders two years apart.

[00:22:26]On Wednesday, August 13th, 1986, Christine Morton is found dead in her bed, killed by multiple blunt force trauma wounds to her head.

[00:22:36]And on another Wednesday, January 13th, 1988, Debbie Baker is found dead in her bed, suffering from multiple blunt force traumas to the head.

[00:22:45]>> Two Wednesdays, two young brunettes killed in Austin, Texas, in their beds, their heads covered.

[00:22:52]>> Both murders committed on the 13th of the month. How can this be a coincidence? Both cases we had entry that was made into the residence through a back door where they had been struck repeatedly and then objects placed on top of the head which is not very common. Um and that really stood out in this particular case.

[00:23:09]>> In both cases there's one item missing from the home but other valuables in plain sight are left untouched.

[00:23:14]>> Now in both cases the husband is the only suspect. In Debbie's case the husband is quickly eliminated.

[00:23:24]In Christine's case, the husband goes to prison.

[00:23:27]>> Michael Morton was convicted for killing his wife.

[00:23:33]>> Thankfully, he was not given the death penalty, or else it could have been an even worse outcome.

[00:23:38]>> For years, Michael steadfastly claimed he'd been wrongfully convicted, refusing to sign a confession.

[00:23:45]>> And he said, "My integrity is all I have left, you know, and I'm going to hold on to that." I just I'll never if I have to spend the rest of my life maintaining my innocence then behind bars then that's what I will do.

[00:24:00]That's the one thing that they were not able to take away from him.

[00:24:03]>> It's actually the ongoing work by Michael Morton and his supporters to overturn his conviction that opens a door to possibly solving Debbie Baker's murder case.

[00:24:12]>> And it all starts with that stained blue bandana.

[00:24:17]uh he was serving his life sentence in prison when uh his attorneys fought to have this bandana that was found by a family member tested.

[00:24:26]>> The Williamson County District Attorney's Office fought to prevent the bandanna from being DNA tested.

[00:24:31]>> And that went on for a number of years until the Innocence Project was able to convince a judge to give them a court order that allowed them to have that tested. In 1990, the FBI begins a pilot project examining DNA samples from crime scenes across America from various police agencies. It's called the Combined DNA index system or KOTUS. It combines local, state, and national DNA databases. By 2020, KOTUS contains more than 14 million profiles. And that's where the DNA information from the bandanna is entered into. And when they did, that's when they uh got the COTUS hit on the DNA standard in conjunction with the mixture of Christine Morton's blood and that DNA came back to Mark Allen Norwood.

[00:25:22]>> When Detective Fugat sees circumstantial connections between the two killings, he starts investigating Norwood as a suspect in Debbiey's murder. and were able to then later make that connection between him and the Deborah Baker case based on proximity, how close he was living to the house.

[00:25:39]>> Blood and hair taken from the blue bandana is analyzed and the DNA is compared to millions of other entries in the Cotus database.

[00:25:48]>> It matches a hair found at the scene of Debbie Baker's murder.

[00:25:52]>> We're just gaining more and more evidence and uh and the case became stronger by the stronger by the day.

[00:26:02]So once it came out that that was Mark Allen Norwood was in fact going to be the perpetrator in both of those homicide cases, uh, a judge granted Michael Morton's release from from prison.

[00:26:19]Mark Ellen Norwood was a high school dropout who worked as a dishwasher and did odd jobs in Austin in the mid to late 1980s. Norwood has a long rap sheet for petty crimes. Attempted theft, driving with a stolen vehicle, malicious mischief, assaulting with intent, contributing to delinquency of a minor.

[00:26:35]The list goes on.

[00:26:37]>> He actually has pretty significant history of being a burglar where he was stealing from people's garages, from their vehicles, and then I think that over time it just kind of progressed to where he was now breaking into houses and committing burglaries of of habitation. Norwood is connected by DNA to two vicious murders. And the odds that that here found in Debbie Baker's house did not belong to Norwood are 1 in 377.2 billion.

[00:27:08]Norwood does carpet installation work in the neighborhoods around the Morton and Baker homes during the time of both murders.

[00:27:20]We've got the petty burglaries that are taking place, you know, and then it kind of evolves where he's now window peeping on uh these female neighbors. And uh we think that eventually led to him breaking into the the houses where he knew that these women were and that they were going to be vulnerable at the time.

[00:27:41]>> Both women were killed by blunt force trauma to the head. Christine suffered eight blows to the head with a blunt object and Debbie six blows.

[00:27:48]>> Both of the occasions that we're aware of, they were both in bed.

[00:27:53]You know, where they had already since retired for the night and there wasn't anybody else in the house.

[00:27:59]>> In both crime scenes, the wallets were emptied and one item was stolen. And yet, items of value like jewelry are left behind. In Debbie's case, a VCR is taken. In Christine Morton's case, it is a gun.

[00:28:14]>> A man who had every every opportunity and uh uh it's dev devastating dev absolutely devastating for those for those families to you know know what what uh these women had had gone through you know in the final minutes of their life.

[00:28:32]Now, stealing money is an obvious thing, but it seems like the other thefts of the VCR and gun were more like trophy thefts.

[00:28:41]>> But the most significant piece that tied this all together was the fact that the person that he was doing the carpet laying with was able to tell investigators that during this time frame after the murder of Christine Morton that Mark Allen Norwood sold him a cult commander firearm. And that was a gun that was actually stolen during the murder of Christine Morton. So investigators from the Austin Police Department looked at the gun and they read off the serial number. They knew this was this was going to make the case.

[00:29:15]>> Further investigation of Mark Norwood leads to more connections between this man and the two vicious murders his DNA now ties him to. Back in 1987, neighbors reported to police that Norwood was selling what appeared to be stolen items in weekend garage sales.

[00:29:30]>> Debbie Baker's VCR is never found, but police find items from four separate burglaries. Among the things Norwood was trying to get a quick buck for. One neighbor identified clothing that had been stolen from their own home.

[00:29:43]>> But the key item for investigators was that Colt Commander handgun.

[00:29:47]>> Literally a smoking gun. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It was. It was a significant huge break in the in the case.

[00:29:55]>> A lot of other things had gone. My relationship with my in-laws uh in about a quarter century of my life.

[00:30:06]And yet this is a good day.

[00:30:10]A good day indeed. For the first time in more than 25 years, there are no murder charges hanging over Michael Morton's head. It went immediately from what we call cold case to a hot case.

[00:30:21]>> In October 2011, Michael Morton walks free from prison, exonerated from the terrible charge that he killed his own wife by bludgeoning her to death.

[00:30:31]>> I testified uh for the exoneration of Michael Morton. You know, he spent 25 years in prison for killing his wife and he didn't do it.

[00:30:42]>> Imagine the feeling of walking free after so many years. And add to that well the knowledge that so much of your life has been wasted in prison for a crime you had nothing to do with.

[00:30:53]>> Michael Morton's freedom is made possible because Mark Norwood's DNA is entered into a forensic database in California 21 years after he murders Christine Morton.

[00:31:03]>> Norwood faced a felony possession of methamphetamine charge in California in 2007. His DNA was logged and the Cotus database connected him to that forgotten blue bandanna that also held trace DNA from Christine Morton.

[00:31:18]>> Now, Detective Fuga can let the Baker family know that they have a suspect in Debbie's long cold murder case.

[00:31:25]>> Essentially, it started off as a snowball and it turned into an avalanche.

[00:31:32]After all these years, her grown children are being asked to hope one more time that there might be an answer to the unsolved murder of their long deadad mother.

[00:31:46]October 4th, 2011, wrongly convicted murderer Michael Morton is released from prison.

[00:31:54]DNA evidence points to Mark Allen Norwood as the real killer of his wife Christine a quarter century ago.

[00:32:05]Prosecutors use DNA evidence to link Norwood to two crime scenes two years apart with stark similarities. Two women both bludgeoned to death in their beds.

[00:32:17]Both died a Wednesday, both on the 13th of the month. Justice has been a long time coming for Christine Morton and for Debbie Baker.

[00:32:26]>> She was killed in 1988.

[00:32:29]My own mother was almost the same age as Deborah Baker was when when she was killed, and I was only 16 years old at the time.

[00:32:36]>> With the benefit of hindsight, these two crimes are so obviously linked. You have to wonder why it took police so long to make a connection. With evidence, including his own DNA found on a blue bandana near the crime scene, Mark Norwood is found guilty of killing Christine Morton in 1986.

[00:32:56]Now, a strand of his hair and other DNA evidence found in Debbie Baker's home in 1988 bring a new murder charge against him. Defense lawyers for Norwood, as well as some of his family members, are adamant that he is innocent of killing Debbie Baker.

[00:33:12]>> Karen's here, too. She She told me to be strong.

[00:33:16]>> I want you to be strong, too. Well, you're not the you're not the only person who has ever been mistreated in this.

[00:33:24]>> This got out of hand. Way out of hand.

[00:33:27]You know, >> it has. It has. And I'm not sure who who's doing all the pushing the buttons.

[00:33:34]Being poor, being poor does have a lot of disadvantages, doesn't it?

[00:33:38]>> The defense argues that the evidence against Norwood is circumstantial. At the time he was working as a part-time carpet layer and that was one of the excuses that he was given as to why his hairs would have been at this scene because he said, "Well, potentially I could have laid carpet in Deborah Baker's house."

[00:33:56]>> Keep keep on hoping because truth has a way of surfacing. It really does.

[00:34:02]deeper.

[00:34:03]>> Well, well, I hope I can hope I can I know you want me to be strong and everything, but I don't know where I could be as strong as you want me to be.

[00:34:13]>> No, I just a little.

[00:34:18]All it takes is a little.

[00:34:20]>> Damn.

[00:34:21]>> And God and God will do the rest.

[00:34:25]>> A conviction in a cold case like this is far from a sure thing. Just because his DNA is present at the Baker house doesn't mean Norwood's conviction is guaranteed.

[00:34:33]>> But we were able to contact the actual property owner that Deborra Baker leased the house from and they didn't have any carpet or anything like that put into the into the house.

[00:34:42]>> The tide starts to turn against Norwood when his former wife Judy takes the stand.

[00:34:47]>> She's seen him at his best and at his worst. If Judy Norwood is believed by the jury, she will have a huge impact on this case. Judy claims she was threatened by Norwood if she testifies against him, but she does so anyways, and she tells the court about Norwood's habit of taking nighttime walks.

[00:35:05]>> There was an occasion where uh she caught him window peeping on a neighbor and confronted him about it.

[00:35:16]>> Judy Norwood is the defendant's ex-wife, so she may have a grudge against him, but she also lived with him and she has intimate knowledge of how he was. He got up in the middle of the night and he was outside and of course he uh ended up denying it and she went to that neighbor and told them what she believed that had happened.

[00:35:33]>> Judy explains that Norwood would often go out on his own on foot late at night.

[00:35:38]The next morning she would sometimes find small pieces of furniture or other household items in their house.

[00:35:43]>> We have a messed up world. We do. It seems like every day comes things that what's going on. Yeah. Uh he's he's heard that their defense is they're going to use this other case against other case against me to uh for to prosecute me for this other case like they did the Baker case in in the Morton case.

[00:36:07]>> After decades of petty theft and occasional senseless brutal criminal behavior, Norwood's criminal past finally catches up to him. On September 23rd, 2016, 28 years after Debbie Baker's brutal killing, a jury takes less than a day to find Mark Norwood guilty of capital murder.

[00:36:30]a man who had every every opportunity and uh it's dev devastating devast absolutely devastating for those for those families to you know know what what uh these women had had gone through you know in the final minutes of their life.

[00:36:52]It's his second capital murder conviction against Norwood in three years. Both based on DNA evidence connecting him to cold case crimes.

[00:37:01]>> Norwood's conviction won't bring Debbie back, but at least the Baker family now knows who did this to Debbie, and hopefully they can find some closure.

[00:37:07]You know, I just can't emphasize enough that although I I'm not able to change the circumstances of what happened, it was um it was gratifying for me to be able to to bring that that justice to uh to the daughter Caitlyn Baker and the and the family after all these after all these years.

[00:37:27]>> For decades, Mark Norwood evaded law enforcement, nearly getting away with two separate murders, while poor Michael Morton rotted in prison for something he clearly didn't do.

[00:37:39]that he was the very first witness to testify in the trial against Mark Ellen Norwood.

[00:37:46]So, that was quite a uh triumphant event to to go from being accused of killing your wife to now being the first first witness to testify against the individual that actually did. If Mark Norwood hadn't dropped a dirty blue bandana at a construction site 100 yards from the Morton home in 1986, there would be nothing to connect him to the Morton case. And if Norwood doesn't get busted for felony drug possession in California, his DNA doesn't get into the nationalist DNA database that leads to resolving the Debbie Baker cold case.

[00:38:22]Norwood's conviction brings a degree of relief to Debbie Baker's long-suffering family, in particular, the daughter Caitlyn, who grew up never knowing her mom.

[00:38:31]>> I don't believe there's necessarily anything such as as closure, but be able to to bring this to an ending point for her. So, now she knows who did this to her mother and that he was in fact held accountable.

[00:38:45]You know, we can never change what happened um but we can do the best that we can.

[00:38:51]Detective Fugat says he still stays in touch with Caitlyn. For both of them, it's a case that can never completely go away.

[00:39:01]She said that there's times where, you know, she feels like an ordinary kid, but then you have major events in your life like graduation from high school and, you know, she didn't have her mother there for that. And that uh obviously was was a big impact on her.

[00:39:16]And that's probably the most rewarding thing in in homicide investigations is being able to contact the families and tell them that we've apprehended the person responsible for killing their loved one and and ensure that there is justice not only for the deceased but for the living as well.

[00:39:48]For years, it looks like Mark Ellen Norwood will get away with two vicious, senseless murders until he is finally caught.