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A Cry in the Night

 
Karen Gregory, shown with her boyfriend David Mackey in 1983. A year later, Gregory was murdered inside her Gulfport home, stabbed repeatedly. During the assault, she let out a terrible cry that broke the silence of the surrounding neighborhood.
Karen Gregory, shown with her boyfriend David Mackey in 1983. A year later, Gregory was murdered inside her Gulfport home, stabbed repeatedly. During the assault, she let out a terrible cry that broke the silence of the surrounding neighborhood.
Published Jan. 23, 2014

Almost 25 years after a murder shocked the little city of Gulfport, the man convicted of the killing hopes that DNA evidence can clear him.

It was not the most important case in the world, or the most striking, or the most shocking. The victim wasn't rich. She wasn't famous. She wasn't the daughter of anyone powerful. She was simply a 36-year-old woman trying to make a life for herself. Her name was Karen Gregory. The fact that Karen was only one of many victims and that her death was not as newsworthy as some did not lessen the pain felt afterward by those who cared about her.

This 1988 10-part series chronicled the Karen Gregory murder case. Was the right man on trial? How would the prosecution try to prove it? How would the defense respond? And what would be the toll on the accused man's family — and on Karen's?

A Cry in the Night