The Interrogation of Lorna Shaw: When a Wife Becomes a Suspect

On a Tuesday evening in late summer, Lorna Shaw and her husband Jeremy drove out to the home of a man named Steven—a man Lorna says she had never met before. They walked through his cluttered house, discussed cleaning up years-old papers, talked about Star Wars, and left around ten o'clock. Lorna says that was the only time she ever went to Steven's property. Days later, Steven was dead, and Lorna found herself in an interrogation room with detectives from major crimes, being told that her husband had murdered him and that her own name was on a warrant.

What unfolds over the course of the interrogation is a slow, painful unraveling. Lorna initially presents herself as a wife who knew very little about her husband's business dealings, his nighttime activities, or his past. She describes a marriage of convenience more than intimacy—they slept on different schedules, he handled all the finances, and she stayed home with her foster daughter Sheila and another girl named Brianna. When detectives ask about Jeremy's criminal history, she mentions drug offenses and property crimes but insists she doesn't know the details. "I know that he has a section in his life that I wasn't part of," she says.