In the summer of 2022, the life of 40-year-old Marie D. Covington was tragically cut short. A resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia, she was a mother to four children and a beloved employee at a local Wawa convenience store, known for a smile that could illuminate any room. Her disappearance on August 17, 2022, from her home on Thalia Trace Drive, set in motion a series of events that would end in the discovery of her death and a subsequent murder conviction.
The day after she was last
seen, her family reported her missing, prompting a critically missing adult alert from the Virginia State Police on August 20th. The investigation into her whereabouts took a grim turn when police in Norfolk responded to a call late that Saturday night and found an unresponsive woman in the 1000 block of Galt Street. The woman was pronounced deceased at the scene and was soon identified as Marie D. Covington. The cause of death was determined to be a gunshot wound to the head.
The primary suspect in Covington's abduction and murder was her on-and-off romantic partner, 43-year-old Gary Morton. He was apprehended on August 20, 2022, after a high-speed chase that began in Chesapeake and concluded with his arrest. Morton was driving Covington's white Ford SUV at the time of his capture, and inside the vehicle, authorities found two concealed semi-automatic pistols and an open container of alcohol. Even before Covington's body was discovered, Morton was already in police custody.
Following his arrest, Morton was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm, with the charges later upgraded to first-degree murder. He also faced charges of abduction, concealment of a body, attempted malicious wounding of another individual shortly after the abduction, and associated firearm charges. During his trial, Morton claimed that Covington's death was accidental, alleging it occurred during a shootout with another man. However, the evidence presented and witness testimonies did not corroborate his account. Covington's daughters testified that they witnessed Morton assaulting their mother and forcing her into her car before driving away.
Ultimately, a Norfolk Circuit Court judge found Gary Morton guilty of first-degree murder, abduction, concealing a dead body, and other related charges. Before the two-day bench trial commenced, Morton had pleaded guilty to concealing a dead body. Investigators had found Covington's body in an outdoor household trash bin, along with used cleaning supplies and a car seat cover. Morton confessed to shooting and killing Covington, hiding her body, and fleeing from the police.
