Michael Ashford is a murderer and attempted murderer primarily targeting Catherine Lansing at the instruction of Michael's sister Michelle.
History[]
Michelle was dating Catherine's ex, Roger Lansing. However, Roger kept mailing flowers and letters to beg her to restart their relationship, despite his abuse and drug use. Michelle became jealous and ordered Michael to kill Catherine. So Michael took some of his wood shop tools, broke into Catherine's apartment, threatened to kill her if she fought back, and started brutally torturing her to disguise the violence as that of a sadist. After Catherine was tortured by repeated slashing and presumably sexual violence, which could have been with at least one foreign object, Michael tried to stab and strangle Catherine until she died. However, a postal worker arrived at the door, leading to Michael panicking. He stabbed the postman to death with one of his woodworking tools and scrubbed the scene down to Drano poured down the drains, fleeing and leaving Catherine to die.
Miraculously, she survived when the mailman was found dead and emergency responders were called to the building. After numerous operations and other medical measures to stabilize her condition, Catherine successfully lived and was placed in intensive care to recover. The ruse actually worked briefly, as serial killer Matt Bergstrom was suspected, and he took a false plea just to be exonerated of his actual crimes and then be proven innocent of Michael's. This almost worked when Catherine received a threatening note under her door, while Bergstrom was still in prison. Around when Bergstrom confessed to prevent extradition to a death penalty state, Michael's weapons were found at his shop and he was arrested. He confessed and revealed Michelle was behind the plan.
The siblings were taken to federal court for the mailman's murder, and they were found guilty and imprisoned for life for their crimes. (L&O: "Agony")
Victims[]
- Catherine Lansing (tortured by slashing and presumably sexually assaulted; attempted to stab and strangle to death)
- Unnamed mailman (stabbed three times with a woodwork tool)