A Texas woman became suspicious of her husband when a breakfast-in-bed incident resulted in unexpected bleeding and nausea, prompting her to spend weeks gathering evidence of him.
According to the Daily Beast, Catherine Herring said concerns arose in February 2022, after her husband, Houston-based attorney, Mason Herring, said he wanted to end their nearly decade-long marriage.
Catherine’s suspicions heightened when she discovered him texting a former female colleague. Confronted about this, Herring told her that he needed to work on himself, and subsequently moved out.
Later, when Catherin learned she was pregnant, she believed that Mason was dedicated to reconciling their marriage.
Her husband, however, was not happy about the pregnancy. He later stated in a personal statement filed during their divorce proceedings that he “wanted a divorce and would look like a jerk for leaving me when I was pregnant.”
In April 2022, before the divorce proceedings, Herring gave Catherine a glass of water and a biscuit while she was in bed, insisting that she needed to stay hydrated for the pregnancy. Over time, his demeanor shifted, becoming increasingly assertive, bordering on anger, as he pressed her to drink the water before heading to his office.
“He starts urging me, like, ‘Chug it, I need to go,’ and he kind of had anger in his voice,” Catherine told The Daily Beast.
“All of a sudden I was like, ‘Something weird is going on. And that’s when I looked down into the cup and saw that the water wasn’t clear.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Catherine became seriously ill after the encounter, and doctors could not identify the cause. Instead of drinking the next water he gave her, she kept it as evidence.
She installed surveillance cameras at their home even though she was no longer living there. She then searched trash cans on April 24, 2023, and discovered Cyrux, a medication that contains Misoprostol — a drug that induces abortions.
Two days later, Mason Herring was filmed putting a powder into his Catherine’s water. The wife contacted authorities, who arrested Herring on charges of assaulting a pregnant person and assault-force induction to have an abortion.
Six water samples were sent to a lab in Oklahoma which determined that at least two of them contained Misoprostol.
AP reports that Herring was sentenced to six months behind bars for the ordeal. Catherine ended up having a daughter, who now has developmental delays, and was infuriated by the low sentence.
“I do not believe that 180 days is justice for attempting to kill your child seven separate times,” she said, according to The Associated Press.
Mason Herring initially faced a felony assault charge, but took a plea deal for a charge of “injury to a child and assault of a pregnant person.”
Along with 180 days in jail, he will serve 10 years on probation and isn’t allowed contact with Catherine or their child.
“It’s a sad situation and Mason has accepted his responsibility,” Herring’s lawyer, Dan Cogdell, said after sentencing.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Listen to a previous episode on the case below.
[Feature Photo: Herring couple/Facebook]
Additional reporting by Jacquelyn Gray
