Gregory Markwardt

As I stated in my last blog, I have several cases ready to put together which I often struggle with. Besides the fact that I seem to lose a bit of luster when I research them without posting them soon and my memory often fails me I also have the issue that to give something the attention it deserves I have to “feel” it. While I may find one interesting when I start my research I may not feel the same later, especially if it has been days. In those cases I tend to want to “just get it done” and so as I said it does not necessarily get the attention it deserves. But, as I was going through the four or five I have ready I saw this one and remembered my excitement from it. I was glad to see it because I have struggled with the fact that I have wanted to research more cases. I have been re-watching Forensic Files, or at least listening to them, on Netflix lately and have heard several cases I had never heard about that I have been excited about digging into. Before I do that though I need to do these cases.

On the night of March 3, 1987 Michael Odom was out of town working and could not reach his wife, Kathy at their Houston Texas home. The Odom's had two children, four year old Tasha and two month old Shawn. Michael called one of his neighbors to look in on the family and what they found was tragic. The door had been left unlocked but there were no lights on save from the television.

The police were called and they would find the battered body of Kathy Odom in her bedroom. She had been severely beaten and stabbed more than sixteen times. She had also been strangled, sexually assaulted and her wrists were bound with the cord to a lamp. . Upon arrival it was believed that four year old Tasha had also been murdered as she lay on the couch and it was not until she gasped that the EMT workers realized she was in fact alive. No one knew who was responsible for this and were worried that the person would come back and “finish” the job they started with Tasha. She would be put in the hospital under an assumed name and it was ordered that she was not to be left alone.

It does not appear that Michael Odom was ever considered to be a suspect but investigators were unclear if Michael and Kathy's past lifestyle that involved drugs had not been a motive. The couple had met when they were sixteen and married in 1980. Both had been involved with drugs for quite some time and had faced legal issues because of it. In fact, in 1977, when they were twenty, both Michael and Kathy were arrested when Michael had sold heroin to an undercover officer. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver and while sentenced to six years in prison it seems he served two. It does not seem that Kathy was charged. In 1983 Michael was again arrested when he was driving while high and led police in a chase before crashing into a police roadblock. However, it appears that by 1987 they had turned their lives around and were doing well for themselves as well as their children. The same could not be said for Kathy's sister, Shelley.

Shelley Martin, Kathy's sister, had been introduced to Gregory Markwardt through Michael Odom. Greg had been married to Michael's sister Fran but they had divorced in the early 1980's. Greg and Michael had also apparently been close, especially since they were both into the drug scene. Like her sister, Shelley was also sixteen when she met the man she would marry; Greg was twenty-five at the time. Greg and Shelley would marry in 1983. It would be said that soon after they met Shelley, like her sister, became addicted to drugs, specifically heroin. In a 2004 interview Shelley and Kathy's father, Frank Martin, would be quoted as saying “They both married drug bastards.”

Greg and Shelley were known to steal from her parents for drug money. Greg had been raised by a wealthy aunt and uncle and the aunt repaid the Martin's the money and everyone agreed not to file charges. By 1987 though things did not seem as different for the Markwardt's as they did for the Odom's. In 1985 they had both pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine. They were sentenced to eight years of probation but then they both failed drug tests and were ordered to serve two years in jail. They had not been out of jail long before Shelley was murdered.

It was said that Greg and Shelley were showing up at the Odom's home quite often unannounced since they had been released from jail and that Kathy at least was not happy about it. Shortly before her murder Kathy had told a friend that Greg and Shelley had been over recently and that while Shelley was in the other room with the baby Greg had made “advances” towards her of which she of course rejected. This made Greg a prime suspect in the case. While Shelley seemed to never believe that to be the case it appears that her parents were less certain.

When questioned Greg would claim that on the night of the murder at the times in which he was not with his wife he was with a man named Hampton Robinson III. As a side note, Robinson was a friend of Charles Harrelson. Harrelson was the father of actor Woody, and in 1982 was convicted of murdering a judge. In fact Robinson had testified against Harrelson at his trial. It had been determined that all of the blood found in the house belonged to Kathy and that while semen had been found and tested, it was not conclusive. It was said that Greg could not be eliminated as a contributor but that the results were not as concrete as the prosecutor would have liked and he was not comfortable in charging him at that time. He refused a polygraph test and quickly hired an attorney. In fact he had gone to be questioned eleven days after the murder and while being interviewed he asked to leave to put more money in a parking meter and never returned.

Despite the Markwardt's having apparent marriage issues over the next several years it was said that Shelley resented the fact that her parents accused Greg of murdering her sister. But, the Martin's were already suspicious before anything was official. In fact, two days after the murder Frank Martin received a phone call in the middle of the night from the hospital where Tasha was being treated telling him that Shelley and Greg had come to visit. Frank told them to not allow admittance first because he was suspicious of Greg, but also the fact that no one had a reason to be there at three in the morning, especially them.

In 1998 a cold case squad was formed. Kathy Odom's case was one of the first that they picked up. They started with getting a warrant for hair, blood and saliva samples from Greg Markwardt. At that point Greg claimed that he and Kathy were having an affair, something no one believed. However, by this time the semen samples that had come from the crime scene were either too degraded or there had not been enough to re-test and investigators thought they had hit a dead end. Then they remembered, and found, the lamp cord that had been used to bound Kathy's wrists. Finally on December 18, 2002 Greg Markwardts was arrested and charged with murder.

Six months after his arrest Greg's wealthy aunt died “leaving him hundreds of thousands of dollars and part ownership of her home.” The Martin's decided to file a wrongful death suit against him and it tied up the estate which prevented him from using those funds towards his defense. It is clear that Greg Markwardt was convicted and in July of 2004 he was sentenced. However, I did not discover exactly what that sentence was.

It was said that for a very long time Shelley continued to support him and believe in his innocence. A few years after the murder the Martins moved to Oklahoma. A few years after that it seems that Shelley made up with her parents and she too moved to Oklahoma to be near her parents. There were some indications that she may have actually divorced Greg. It was indicated that she also had finally gotten clean and was doing very well for herself in her recovery. However, when it comes to the divorce I am unsure about that. Gregory Markwardts died in prison on June 29, 2008 at the age of fifty-five. Shelley was listed as his “long-time friend and life partner.”

This case is one of those that goes to show that investigators were right to suspect that Markwardts was guilty and DNA would prove it even if it did take decades.