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Spouse whose ex killed kids will get benefits

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma County judge has granted a request to vacate the divorce of a woman whose former husband fatally shot their two children before killing himself last month.

Wednesday’s ruling by District Judge Don Deason allows Michelle Thorson to collect benefits from the military.

“From the bottom of my heart ... I tell you I’m sorry,” Deason told Thorson.

Her attorneys said after the hearing the ruling was the only way the longtime stay-at-home mom could get any money or health care from the military to make a new life.

“She would have received nothing,” attorney Lynn Loftis of the Women & Children’s Law Center in Oklahoma City, said in a story copyrighted by The Oklahoman.

Airman Dustin Thorson and Michelle Thorson divorced on Valentine’s Day after almost 11 years of marriage.

Eleven days later, he shot 4-year-old Dylan and 9-year-old Jourdain in an upstairs bedroom inside their base home after a scuffle with their mother, officials said.

Dustin Thorson, 35, a decorated technical sergeant who served in Iraq, then shot himself. Michelle Thorson was fleeing for help when she heard the shots that killed her children.

The airman had threatened last year to kill the children after a divorce, once saying to his son, “Tell Mommy you love her and don’t want Daddy to hurt you,” according to court papers.

The final paperwork on the divorce was never filed.

The woman’s attorneys argued the divorce should be vacated because the airman was guilty of fraud. They argued he never intended to abide by the divorce agreement as “evidenced by his actions” Feb. 25.

Attorneys for Thorson’s estate challenged the request, saying Cheyenne Thorson, Dustin Thorson’s 13-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, could lose out on benefits. The judge said they had filed their objection too late to be heard. The attorneys said they may appeal.

Michelle Thorson’s attorneys said after the ruling they think Cheyenne, who lives in Alabama, still will get benefits.

The judge revealed Wednesday that he had reservations Feb. 14 about agreeing to the divorce. The judge said the hearing that day had focused on accusations by Dustin Thorson that his wife poisoned him and accusations by Michelle Thorson that the airman abused drugs.

The judge said he was surprised when the two agreed after lunch to the divorce. The judge said he wonders now if the airman was pressured by his commanders.

“I wish ... that I had inquired further,” said Deason, a former prosecutor. “I had reservations. I had impressions of this man’s behavior. I did not act on them.”

Michelle Thorson, 30, wept and spoke little during the hearing.

She is now living in Illinois with her parents.

Michelle Thorson’s children were remembered at a service Feb. 29 at the Tinker Air Force Base chapel. A family friend said at the end of the service, mourners released purple and red balloons after a prayer.

Greg Krager, of O’Fallon, Ill., said the children’s bodies were cremated, and their mother has the ashes with her in Illinois.

“That way, wherever she goes in the world, her kids will always be with her and when she dies the kids will be buried with her,” Krager said.