An Atlanta murder trial took an unexpected turn this week when the victim’s mother revealed on the witness stand that she was once married to a serial killer—and even helped him commit murders.
The revelation came Monday as Norma Patton testified in the case against her son-in-law, Christopher Wolfenbarger, who is accused of killing Norma’s daughter, Melissa Wolfenbarger, in 1998.
Wolfenbarger’s defense attorneys attempted to challenge Norma’s credibility as a witness, according to 11Alive.com and WSB-TV. They questioned why she waited months to check on Melissa after she failed to show up on Christmas Day that year. Norma testified that she didn’t want to travel alone to Atlanta, even though she had long suspected Wolfenbarger.
Defense attorneys then brought up Norma’s past marriage to Carl Patton, who confessed to killing five people in the 1970s and died in prison in 2024. Known as the Flint River Serial Killer, Carl was convicted after Norma accepted immunity in exchange for testifying against him…