For over five years, I have written about many different crimes and strange stories. This week’s story is about one of the more unusual unsolved murder cases I can remember. It involves the deaths of two different women with the same name.

Marc Hoover.

One woman was a nurse named Mary McGinnis Morris, 39. The other was a loan officer named Mary Lou Morris, 48. Both were brutally murdered in Houston, Texas over two decades ago in desolate areas.

This strange mystery began on October 12, 2000, after Mary Lou failed to make it to her bank job. Her husband Jay became worried after not hearing from his wife the entire day. Mary Lou was reliable and wouldn’t skip work without a valid explanation.

Jay called the police and reported his wife’s disappearance. Later that evening, a passerby came across a burned-out car. Someone had deliberately set the car on fire and left it in a desolate area. The police discovered a body inside the car. Tooth fragments identified the dead woman as Mary Lou Morris. Everyone interviewed by the police spoke highly of Mary Lou. There wasn’t a motive for anyone wanting her dead.

On October 16, 2000, a nurse named Mary McGinnis Morris was discovered murdered in a desolate area. Someone had shot her in the head. Police suspected the killer wanted the death to appear as a suicide. But they observed scratches on her body and torn clothing. She had fought with her killer before she died. Like Mary Lou, she was also murdered.

Unlike Mary Lou, someone disliked Mary McGinnis. She had marital woes and experienced issues with a former co-worker. It’s alleged he made a death threat against her. Before her death, she met with a friend named Laurie Gemmell. The friend said she later received a phone call from Mary McGinnis. While at a drugstore, Mary McGinnis became frightened of someone she saw. She told Laurie she was going to return to work before going home.

Shortly after calling Laurie, it’s believed someone abducted Mary McGinnis and then murdered her. The police considered her husband Mike and a former co-worker as possible suspects. Her husband Mike claimed he was at the movies with his daughter. He declined a polygraph and didn’t allow the police to speak to his daughter.

Police also learned Mary McGinnis possibly engaged in an affair. She also carried a substantial life insurance policy. The police also learned Mike had called his wife’s phone sometime near her time of death. The call lasted four minutes. He insisted he didn’t speak to his wife and the phone company made a mistake about the four-minute phone call

Today, the police haven’t uncovered a motive for either murder. It’s surmised that someone hired a hit man to kill one of the women. He may have possibly killed the wrong Mary.

If that’s what happened, his intended victim was likely Mary McGinnis. However, the police haven’t connected the two cases. So, was this a tragic coincidence or did a hitman kill the wrong person? If robbery and sexual assault weren’t a motive for either murder, then why would anyone kill either woman? Several months after Mary Lou’s death, her husband learned that someone had used his wife’s phone card.

It was used by a teenager in Galveston, Texas, who claimed she found the phone card inside a purse left in a parking lot. No one in Mary Lou’s family recognized the purse. Someone also called Jay several times asking for Mary Lou. The caller’s identity remains unknown.

For now, there have been no significant breaks in either case. Families of both women still seek justice for their loved ones.

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.