Further reading for the murder of Christa Worthington/ Typhoid Mary

Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod

Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical

Christa Worthington spent 40 years of her life in Manhattan as an up scale fashion writer then she decided to pack up the city life and move to a small house in Truro Massachusetts. Until on Jlan 6, 2002 at the age of 46 she was found stabbed to death in her seaside cottage, her 2 year old daughter also found sitting by her side unharmed.

Christa’s body was found by a neighbor who lived on the other side of the woods, she had been stabbed, raped and severely beaten up. The small down had not seen this sort of violence before and immediately the town started questioning everyone who had involvement in Christa’s life.

Tim, the neighbor who called the police is found to have been an ex lover but claims they remained friends and he had no involvement in her murder. They also find that Christa’s 2 year old daughters father is a married man, Tony Jackett, a man who has lived in the town of Truro his entire life and when he saw her moving into town he was smitten with her. After a year of dating on the side however, they broke up.

DNA was found on Christa’s body, however it being the early 2000’s the labs were backlogged and processing was slow. A year after her death, the DNA results come back and do not match any of the suspects the police currently have. So they decide to request DNA from every man who lived in the town.

Two and a half years after her death, Christopher McCowen’s DNA is matched to what was found on her body, he was Christa’s garbage man. McCowen under questioning tells police that he had consensual sex with Christa and then beat her, and that his friend was with him at the time and he was the one who murdered her.

After six hours of interrogation, Mccowen signs a document saying he does not want a lawyer and confesses to the murder. He gets found guilty of first degree murder of extreme atrocity, aggravated rape, and aggravated armed burglary.

Christopher McCowen is serving 3 concurrent life terms without the possibility of parole, but maintains his innocence.

and a little Typhoid action

Mary Mallon was an Irish born cook who was believed to have infected at least 53 people with typhoid fever, three of whom died. She was an asymptomatic carrier to the disease and refused to give up working to quarantine and in the end she died after almost three decades in isolation.

Episode 105

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