Chris Morland Oklahoma man with history of prior domestic violence, charged with murder of Cassidy Ritchie newly married Tulsa woman of less than a month. Red flags everywhere.
An Oklahoma man with a prior history of domestic violence arrests has been accused of killing his wife of less than a month. The murder charge comes after the newlywed woman’s bludgeoned body being found under piles of clothes in the backseat of a damaged SUV abandoned along a ditch.
Chris Morland was booked on suspicion in Texas on January 28th, following the discovery of the body of Tulsa, OK woman Cassidy Ritchie, 39, who was last seen alive by her family on January 20 before being reported missing.
Investigators found her SUV abandoned along U.S. Highway 412 and, after getting a warrant to search inside, they found Cassidy Ritchie dead, ‘hidden in a very small space and covered with clothing and boxes,’ Tulsa police said in a Jan. 29 news release.
‘She was so happy on her wedding day,’
In an updated release, Tulsa Police stated the newlywed woman’s husband, Chris Morland, being charged with murder.
Morland had already been taken into custody before the discovery of Ritchie’s body due to unrelated warrants filed in Texas, police said, but detectives spoke with him during the search for his wife and he was uncooperative.
‘Morland told multiple stories, and multiple versions of those stories,’ police stated. ‘Morland would not come off any of his stories and maintained that she was just somewhere visiting a friend.’
Ritchie and Morland got married on Jan. 7, less than two weeks before her disappearance, McClatchy News previously reported.
‘She was so happy on her wedding day,’ her brother, Kyle Ritchie, told KJRH. ‘I don’t know if she was just too scared, too scared to say anything. (Her husband) just was a whole different person after the marriage.’
The red flags were everywhere
Investigators located Ritchie’s SUV on Jan. 26 but were forced to wait two days for a warrant to search after they asked Morland to sign a waiver granting them permission, but he refused, police said. Investigators have not said how Ritchie died, but ‘she had several injuries from blunt force trauma.’
Of note, Morland has previous domestic violence charges in other states. Police also said that Ritchie ‘was involved in prior domestic violence incidents,’ involving Morland according to a Facebook press release.
Morland was previously charged with assault causes bodily injury-family violence, a misdemeanor, in connection with a Jan. 31, 2021, incident at the Oyo Motel in the 1800 block of Maurine Street, involving a previous Wichita Falls partner that he may or may not have been formally divorced from, the Times Record News reported.
The charge was dropped March 2, 2023, because police could not find the victim and she was not cooperative, according to the dismissal order.
Oklahoma divorce records filed by the Wichita Falls victim show that she and Morland were married Sept. 23, 2018, in Montague County.
The victim filed for divorce from Morland in Aug. 18, 2022, on the grounds of incompatibility. She contended they had been separated since Sept. 23, 2021.
At the time of his arrest Monday, Morland was on probation for three Tulsa County charges, according to Oklahoma court documents.
He pleaded no contest to two charges of obstructing an officer and one charge of public intoxication in connection with incidents Aug. 4.
Morland remained held in Tulsa County Jail on a $5 million bond set Tuesday for a pending murder charge to be filed by the District Attorney’s Office.
A motive for Cassidy Ritchie’s alleged murder remains under investigation by police.
