Murder of Michelle Warner by Mark Castellano examined by Single Mom Missing on ID

Single Mom Missing on ID is investigating the murder of Michelle Warner by her boyfriend, Mark Castellano, at their home in Houston, Texas.

In September 2012, Michelle Warner (sometimes known as Michelle Chaffin) was reported missing by her family after her ex-husband contacted them when the 31-year-old mother of two failed to show up for a scheduled visitation with her older daughter.

The family spoke to Castellano, who told them Michelle had just walked out after an argument. He said she seemed “strung out,” and he accused her of abandoning her children.

In the meantime, Castellano had already left Houston with their child and moved in with his parents in Odessa in the west of Texas.

The police were suspicious of Castellano. He was interviewed on TV by Dr. Phil, where he presumably hoped to dissuade suspicions. He told Dr. Phil that he and Michelle had argued on the night she disappeared but insisted that she had stormed out of the apartment and he hadn’t seen her since.

Eventually, Castellano agreed to return to Houston for an interview with detectives.

Mark Castellano admitted to choking Michelle Warner but claimed self-defense

The interview lasted about two hours, and during that time, Castellano admitted to being responsible for killing Michelle.

However, he gave three different accounts of what happened in the same interview. He claimed that Michelle had taken a swing at him, causing him to grab her neck and fling her onto a bed; he said he heard a pop, her tongue stuck out, “and that was it. There was no going back.”

At one point, Castellano said he simply choked her to death, stating, “I grabbed her by the neck, and before I knew it, I broke her neck or choked her or whatever.”

On a third occasion during the interview, he claimed that he had fallen on her and crushed her windpipe, though he admitted that he held that position on top of her “for like a minute and a half or two.” Castellano even gave the officers a physical demonstration of how this happened.

Mark Castellano hid remains in an oilfield after Michelle Warner murder

After Michelle was dead, Castellano placed her body in a closet and drove his son to his parents’ home in Odessa. He then returned to Houston, where he put Michelle’s remains into a large plastic container. He again drove back to West Texas, where he buried the mother of his son in a shallow grave on an oilfield near Midland, TX.

In June 2014, a jury rejected Castellano’s claims of self-defense and found him guilty of murder. A day later, the same jury took four hours to decide on a sentence of 27 years and a fine of $10,000.

Single Mom Missing airs Saturday at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.