Michelle Ashford is a proxy assailant using her brother Michael to attack Catherine Lansing out of jealousy.
History[]
Michelle was dating Catherine's ex-husband Roger Lansing, but Roger kept obsessing over Catherine despite her moving on, sending her flowers and letters begging her to come back. Michelle was furious and saw Catherine as a rival, so Michelle ordered her brother Michael to kill Catherine out of jealousy. To disguise the murder attempt as that of a sadist, Michael broke in and held Catherine hostage, threatening to kill her while torturing Catherine by slashing and sexual violence. While proceeding to stab and strangle her in an attempt on her life, a mailman came and heard the commotion. Panicking, Michael stabbed the postman three times with one of his wood tools and fled after cleaning the scene, leaving Catherine to die.
When the mailman was found, responders were called and rushed Catherine to the hospital, where the staff successfully saved her life by a hair after extensive surgery and other intensive care. The ruse briefly diverted suspicion, as serial killer Matt Bergstrom falsely pled to the crimes in exchange for not being prosecuted for his actual crimes. As expected, he was exonerated when Catherine received a threatening note, while Bergstrom was still in prison. While Bergstrom was forced to confess to one murder not covered in the deal to not be extradited to a state that would execute him, Michael was tracked through his tools matching the weapons at the scene of Catherine's attempted murder and the postal worker's murder. He fully confessed in interrogation, and both siblings were arrested.
Michelle and Michael were tried in federal court because of the murder of the postman, and they were found guilty and imprisoned for life on all charges. (L&O: "Agony")