(NewsNation) — Norma Patton, the wife and accomplice to a serial killer, is also the mourning mother of a daughter allegedly murdered by a different suspect: the daughter’s husband.
Earlier this month, Atlanta police arrested Christopher Wolfenbarger and charged him with murdering his wife Melissa, who was found dead; her body dismembered in trash bags on the side of the road in 1999.
The arrest may solve a 25-year-old cold case that involved police questioning Melissa’s father, Carl Patton, the notorious “Flint River Killer.”
It wasn’t until 2003 that detectives identified Melissa’s remains, which were initially found in black trash bags. The body’s DNA was a familial match to her father, who had been arrested for killing five people.
He was taken into custody for the 1977 murder of Liddie Matthew Evans, 31, and was soon linked to four other victims. The “Flint River Killer” resides at Dodge State Prison in Chester, Georgia.
Melissa’s mother, Norma Patton, still married to Carl Patton, joined NewsNation’s “Banfield” to discuss.
She said her husband was “devastated” to find out their daughter had been possibly murdered but also relieved to know now who may be responsible.
“He (Carl Patton) was deliriously happy as soon as he found out Chris had been arrested,” Norma Patton said on “Banfield.” “He was just jumping up in joy. He called me to tell me he knew.”
She also said she had “suspicions from Day 1” about Wolfenbarger’s involvement in her daughter’s death.
Patton acknowledged her daughter’s death “showed us what we put the other families through, and nobody deserves that. Those families didn’t deserve it, and we don’t deserve it either.”
She told “Banfield” that her husband was changed long before the death of his daughter.
“He changed long before he got locked up for the murders. He changed almost immediately, as soon as it was done in the ’70s,” Patton said.
“He’s changed even more since he’s been locked up and having to deal with the situation with Melissa and her death. Not being able to go to the cemetery and not being able to put flowers on the cemetery for his daughter.”