In the summer of 1984, Teri Lynn Mulvaney, a 25-year-old woman, was building a life for herself in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She worked as a secretary for the Public Service Company of New Mexico and was a beloved daughter. Her life, full of promise and potential, was brutally cut short on June 28, 1984, when she was found murdered in her apartment on Galisteo Street.
The shocking discovery sent a wave of fear through the community and began a long and arduous journey for justice for Teri and her family.
The investigation into Teri's death revealed she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Suspicion soon fell upon her neighbor, David Bruce Morton, a man with a prior conviction for armed robbery. The case against him seemed to strengthen when he was arrested for drunk driving, and a cellmate came forward, claiming Morton had confessed to killing Teri. Despite this apparent confession, prosecutors at the time felt there was insufficient evidence to bring formal charges against him for the murder, leaving a grieving family with no sense of closure.
Teri's parents, however, refused to let their daughter's case go cold. In an extraordinary display of determination, they launched a persistent letter-writing campaign, tirelessly advocating for justice. Their efforts were aimed at convincing the district attorney to present the case against Morton to a grand jury. Their relentless pursuit paid off, and in 1988, David Bruce Morton was finally brought to trial for the murder of Teri Lynn Mulvaney. The trial, however, ended in a hung jury, with eleven jurors favoring acquittal, and the case was dismissed, delivering another devastating blow to Teri's loved ones.
For years, Morton remained a free man, and the shadow of his suspected crimes loomed large. He eventually moved to Amarillo, Texas, where his violent streak continued. In 1990, he murdered 22-year-old Kim Kendall. This crime ultimately led to his downfall. He was convicted of the Kendall murder and sentenced to life in prison in Texas. The similarities between the murders in Texas and New Mexico prompted investigators to take a renewed look at Morton as a suspect in other unsolved cases.
This re-examination, coupled with the unyielding efforts of the families of his victims, eventually broke the decades-long silence. In 2003, while serving his sentence in Texas, David Bruce Morton confessed to the murders of Teri Lynn Mulvaney and another Santa Fe woman, 22-year-old Janet Benoit, who was killed in 1983. In February 2004, he pleaded guilty to both murders, finally admitting his responsibility for the lives he had stolen. He received additional life sentences for these crimes, ensuring he would never be free again.
Morton, who became known as "The Santa Fe Strangler," is the proven killer of three women and is suspected in as many as five other slayings and disappearances that instilled fear in the Santa Fe area during the 1980s. Among the suspected victims was 18-year-old Teal Pittington, who vanished just weeks after Teri's murder in August 1984. Her body was found in a culvert near Lamy in March 1985, and it was determined she had been strangled with her own bra. While Morton was a strong suspect, another man was also considered, and her case remains officially unsolved. Though justice for Teri Lynn Mulvaney was delayed for nearly two decades, it was ultimately achieved through the unwavering love and dedication of her parents, who refused to let her memory fade.
