In the quiet agricultural community of Bakersfield, California, Martha Catlin, a 79-year-old woman, lived a life that would end in a dark and calculated betrayal. Adopted as an infant in 1944 by Martha and her husband Glenn, Steven David Catlin grew up in their Kern County home. Decades later, it was this adopted son who would orchestrate her death, making her the final victim in a string of poisonings that also claimed the lives of two of his wives.
On December 8, 1984, Martha Catlin
collapsed and died after a brief, two-or-three-day illness. Her death was initially attributed to a stroke, a conclusion that seemed plausible for a woman of her age. Shortly after she fell ill, Steven had visited her with his new fiancée. Following her death, he quickly ordered that her body be cremated, a request that would have permanently erased the evidence of his crime. However, authorities intervened, and the cremation was postponed so an autopsy could be performed. This decision would prove to be the key to unraveling a series of murders spanning nearly a decade.
The investigation into Martha’s death was not an isolated event. It was tragically connected to the death of Steven's fifth wife, Glenna Kaye Catlin, just nine months earlier in Fresno. Glenna Kaye died on March 14, 1984, after being hospitalized for what initially appeared to be a severe case of the flu with fluid in her lungs. Her death, however, had aroused the suspicions of Steven's third ex-wife, Edith Ballew, who noted the eerie pattern of sudden illnesses befalling the women in Steven's life. She contacted the sheriff with her fears, prompting a closer look at another past death: that of Steven's fourth wife, Joyce Catlin, in 1976.
Joyce Catlin had died on May 6, 1976, also in Bakersfield, from what was officially listed as "pneumonia" or acute respiratory failure. Though her body had been cremated on Steven's orders, Mercy Hospital had retained tissue samples. In November 1984, as investigators were looking into Glenna Kaye's death, they submitted Joyce's preserved tissue for analysis. The results were damning. Toxicological reports from Martha's autopsy and the analysis of tissue from both Glenna Kaye and Joyce revealed the same sinister cause of death for all three women: paraquat poisoning. Paraquat is a highly toxic herbicide so lethal its use was eventually banned in the United States. The poison causes catastrophic lung damage, leading to a slow and painful death that mimics respiratory illness.
The motive for these cold-blooded killings was financial gain. Steven Catlin was the beneficiary of life insurance policies on both of his deceased wives, collecting about $57,000 after Glenna Kaye's death. He was also the sole heir to his adoptive mother's estate. Prosecutors presented evidence that he feared Martha might disapprove of his multiple marriages and divorces and decide to leave her estate to charity instead. The investigation culminated in the discovery of a bottle of paraquat, complete with Steven's fingerprints, in his garage. On December 23, 1985, Steven David Catlin was charged with the murders of his mother, Martha, and his fourth wife, Joyce.
Steven Catlin faced two separate trials. First, in May 1986, he was tried in Monterey County for the murder of Glenna Kaye Catlin. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Then, he faced trial in Kern County for the murders of Joyce and Martha. On June 1, 1990, a jury found him guilty on both counts of first-degree murder, with special circumstances of murder for financial gain, murder by poison, and multiple murders.
For the murder of his adoptive mother, Martha Catlin, Steven David Catlin was sentenced to death. He also received a life sentence for the murder of Joyce Catlin, as her death occurred before California had reinstated the death penalty. The state Supreme Court unanimously upheld his death sentence in 2001. Steven David Catlin remains on death row at California State Prison, Corcoran, a chilling testament to the greed that drove him to poison the three women who should have been closest to him.
