Catherine and Mason meet through mutual friends. The couple decide to marry, move into a quiet neighborhood in Houston, and have two children.
As the now Herring family grows, Mason Herring establishes a successful law firm while Catherine Herring steps down as an executive with a non-profit to spend full-time raising the children.
Catherine Herring is pregnant with her third child and catches her husband lying about his whereabouts and texting a former female colleague. After a confrontation, Herring tells his wife he wants to separate so he can work on himself, and move out. The couple goes to marriage counseling and their therapist suggests they spend Spring Break together.
Mason Herring tells his wife he wants a divorce but would look like a jerk divorcing her while she is pregnant. Catherine Herring still has hope for the marriage and believes they can work it out. During their Spring Break together, Mason Herring brings his wife breakfast in bed.
Mason Herring seems to be getting excited about their third child and encourages his wife to drink more fluids as it is better for the baby. To that end, along with breakfast in bed, Mason Herring brings Catherine a glass of water with the food, insisting she drink it all while he watches. The water is cloudy but the dutiful husband promises it is just old pipes or slightly dirty glass. Catherine Herring drinks all the water.
About 30 minutes after Mason Herring leaves for work, Catherine becomes sick, with painful stomach cramps, and diarrhea, and after her third trip to the bathroom realizes she is bleeding heavily. Herring goes to the emergency room where even after she is treated and sent home, she is still bleeding.
After getting home from the hospital, Mason Herring continues to bring drinks to his wife, including a bottle of orange juice. The seal on the bottle is broken and a powder is seen in the bottom of the bottle. Catherine Herring doesn’t drink what her husband gives her, but she saves it and takes the evidence to a private investigator.
Surveillance cameras inside their home catch Herring putting a powdered substance from a bag in his pocket into a drink that he gives his wife.
Catherine Herring retrieves the trash and finds a blister pack of Cyrux, a generic version of misoprostol, the drug most commonly used to induce an abortion. Catherine Herring meets with Houston police.
Mason Herring was arrested in November 2022 and charged with assault with intent to force an abortion, assault of a pregnant person, and attempted injury to a child. He agrees to a plea deal; the first assault charge is dropped and the injury to a child charge is reduced to a third-degree felony.
Herring will spend 180 days in county jail with 10 years probation.
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[Feature Photo: Catherine and Mason Herring/Instagram]