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William Gregory Mordick, a 64-year-old Washington resident at the time, was given a 25-year-long life sentence in January 2011 for the murder of his estranged wife almost three decades earlier after a jury found him guilty based on circumstantial evidence such as DNA recovered from the crime scene and journal entries.
In a relatively short declaration moments before Judge John Conley of the Superior Court condemned Mordick for the first-degree murder of Katherine Mordick, the accused maintained his innocence. He asserts his innocence to this day. His wife was found with her throat slashed inside her Anaheim Hills home on January 23, 1983.
Conley imposed the obligatory term after hearing heartfelt testimonies from Katherine Mordick's family members, who characterized their sister as a loving, extroverted, kind, and bright woman. The daughter, Elise Mordick, expressed her love for her mother and said she wished they had never been separated; however, she asserted that she has always believed in her father's innocence.
The aforementioned claim does raise questions about Gregory Mordick's alleged involvement in his wife's murder. With that being said, we will discuss the murder case in detail ahead of Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode, which is set to air on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, at 8 pm ET.
How was Gregory Mordick linked to his estranged wife's murder?
During two high-profile trials, Deputy DA Dan Wagner contended that Gregory Mordick, then in his late 30s, picked up his young daughters on January 22, 1983, then came back and slit his wife's throat while the former couple's two daughters, then aged 2 and 4, sat in the car. Katherine Mordick, then 28-years-old, bled to death in their Ridgecrest home, and her body was discovered the next day.
Although ample amounts of blood, both the victim's and the killer's, were found in and around the crime scene, it was only in 2008 that they could link the DNA to Gregory. He was arrested when Orange County forensic lab experts found that the blood had traces of his DNA along with that of the victim's.
Authorities maintained that a bloodstain on the back sliding door that combined the victim's and Mordick's blood was the most important piece of evidence. Simultaneously, police also recovered the accused's journal, which had various entries about his strained marriage with the victim.
Following the murder, Mordick reportedly started a new life as a commercial photographer in Tacoma, Washington. He never remarried and raised his two daughters alone. The girls still maintain their father's innocence to this day.
Mordick was first accused of murder for monetary gain on the basis of the prosecution's argument that he aimed to kill his wife in order to avoid paying her over $124,000 in child support payments over a 16-year period. If found guilty based on this, Mordick might have received a life sentence without the possibility of release. However, a second jury found the allegation untrue and found him guilty of first-degree murder.
The victim's sister claimed the family suspected Gregory Mordick all along
According to the victim's sister, Mary O'Connell, many family members had harbored suspicions about Gregory Mordick being involved in Katherine's murder right from the beginning. She expressed her desire for Mordick to receive the death penalty in a statement before Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley, but acknowledged that this was not feasible.
Mary O'Connell reportedly said,
"I knew it that night. We all knew it that night. He did it to punish Kit, to control her, to gain complete control of the girls."
She added,
"He must never walk the streets again. He should spend each and every day for the rest of his life looking through bars. So punish him for every time he was unfaithful to Kit. Punish him for trying to isolate Kit from her family and friends. ... Punish him for ambushing Kit. Punish him for leaving Kit there to die alone. Punish him for murdering Kit."
However, given the 25-years to life sentence he received in 2011, Gregory Mordick is unlikely to survive long enough to be released on parole. When he was originally tried for his alleged crimes in 2009, the jury could not decide whether he was guilty or not, which resulted in a mistrial.
The defense maintained during both trials that part of the DNA evidence had been contaminated. It was also claimed that Katherine's reported time of death was in the evening, whereas Gregory's last interaction with his wife was in the morning. In his testimony, Mordick asserted his innocence, claiming that Katherine was alive when he stopped by the house that morning.
Katherine "Kit" Mordick's 1983 murder by her then-husband, Gregory Mordick, will be the subject of Dateline: Secrets Unvovered's upcoming episode. The synopsis of the episode titled Haunting Images states:
"A young mother was killed and her family hoped for quick justice. As the years went by with no arrest, that hope faded. What didn't fade: small traces of DNA. Nearly three decades later, that evidence was about to reveal an ugly truth."
As previously mentioned, the episode will air on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, at 8 pm ET.
