In the late summer of 1976, Mary Ann Spain, a 29-year-old divorced mother of two, was building a life for her family in Springfield, Missouri. A dedicated operating room technician at the Cox Medical Center, she was known as a caring and capable woman. Her life, however, had recently become entangled with a man whose violent nature was hidden just beneath the surface. That man was Michael Herbert Singh, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago who had changed his name from Rupert Sookman after moving to the United States.
Their relationship was turbulent, marked by Singh's escalating aggression. On September 23, 1976, the volatility erupted into fatal violence. During a heated argument in front of Mary Ann's home, Singh pulled out a gun and shot her. The brutal act was witnessed by her young daughter. After the shooting, Singh fled in his car, leaving Mary Ann to die. Her 5-year-old daughter ran to neighbors for help, but it was too late.
An autopsy would later reveal she had been shot multiple times.
The police response was swift. Singh was apprehended the same day while driving along Route 63. Inside his vehicle, officers found the pistol used in the killing. The investigation that followed would begin to uncover a dark history that extended beyond this single, tragic event in Missouri. Singh was a serial killer, responsible for the deaths of at least two other women between 1975 and 1982. The year before he killed Mary Ann, he had murdered his 16-year-old girlfriend, Candace Lynn Starr, in New Mexico.
The trial for Mary Ann's murder took place in 1977. Prosecutors presented a powerful case, which included the harrowing testimony of Mary Ann's own daughter, who described the argument and the moment her mother was shot. A forensic pathologist detailed the fatal wounds. In his defense, Singh made baseless and cruel allegations against Mary Ann, claiming she was the aggressor and that her death was an accident. The jury rejected his story but ultimately convicted him of the lesser charge of manslaughter in a 12-1 decision.
For the killing of Mary Ann Spain, Michael Herbert Singh was sentenced to just 10 years in prison. In a further blow to her family, a court in 1980 ruled that Singh was entitled to half of his late wife's $9,500 life insurance policy, on the grounds that manslaughter was not considered an intentional murder under the policy's terms. After serving only four years, Singh was moved to a work-release program in Kansas City.
His freedom, however limited, allowed him to kill again. In 1982, he married a woman named Susan Irving, who soon became another victim of his violent temper. After assaulting her, he abducted and bludgeoned her to death. He was caught while trying to bury her body. For this murder, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to the Fulton Medical Clinic, a state mental health facility.
Michael Herbert Singh’s life of violence ended behind institutional walls. On March 30, 2005, he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. While his death brought an end to his reign of terror, it offered little solace for the families he destroyed. Mary Ann Spain was remembered as a devoted mother and a skilled medical professional whose life was stolen by a man who would evade true justice for her murder.
