Murder of Micah Rine Pate: Husband Thomas Pate was having an affair but claims he shot her by accident

Your Worst Nightmare examines the disappearance and murder of Micah Rine Pate, who vanished in Bartlett, Tenn., in 2009. Her husband, Thomas Pate, was ultimately charged with her murder in a case of extreme marital strife.

On April 30, 2009, Pate told police that his wife, a private clinic nurse, had gone missing while jogging in their neighborhood. A few days later, on May 2, Micah’s body was found in the Loosahatchie River; she had been shot in the back of the head.

On the night she disappeared, there had been a series of texts and phone calls to a woman in New York from Thomas’s cellphone.

This woman, a school teacher and a dance instructor was having an affair with Thomas; the pair had spent the weekend just before Micah died together.

Micah had kept a journal where she wrote of a marriage that was in tatters. She knew of her husband’s infidelity but hoped herself and Thomas could patch things up by attending marriage counseling.

However, they never got a chance to repair their damaged relationship as, according to prosecutors, Thomas shot his wife in the heads in some woods near their home.

Thomas Pate lied about what happened to Micah

Thomas initially claimed he had nothing to do with Micah’s murder, but after failing a lie detector test and confessing to his father, he changed his story. He then stated that he had killed his wife, but that it was all a tragic accident.

With a lack of substantial evidence for both the prosecutors and Thomas’s version of events, a compromise was struck with both sides agreeing to a plea deal. Thomas pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25-years in prison without parole.

He’s scheduled for release in 2036 when he’ll be 52-years-old.

Thomas continues to maintain that his wife’s death was an accident, in an interview from prison, he said, “I didn’t kill my wife intentionally.”

More from Your Worst Nightmare

Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on Your Worst Nightmare.

Charles Ray Crawford abducted 20-year-old Kirsty Ray from her Mississippi home in 1993. He left a ransom note in her room demanding $50,000 before forcing her into the woods where he sexually assaulted and murdered the young student.

Tennyson Jacobson had just become a new mom when a man broke into her home in Washington state and attempted to rob her in front of her baby daughter. Jacobson fought the man off who then fled the scene. That night the intruder returned, and as he fought with Jacobson’s husband, she stabbed him to death with a kitchen knife.

Your Worst Nightmare airs Saturday 11 am on Investigation Discovery.