Son of woman found dead in Pittsburgh South Side home charged in her murder

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh police officers arrested a man Thursday they say murdered his mother inside the South Side home they shared.

Michael Hensley is facing criminal homicide charges for the death of Annette Morros, 66.

Coroner’s report says Pittsburgh woman died of blunt force trauma; son says no evidence of that

On Monday, Aug. 2, at 10:46 a.m., Pittsburgh Police were called to a residence on Sarah Street in the South Side for a report of an unconscious woman who was barely breathing. The caller stated that he was her son, Michael Hensley, and that he “did his part by calling an ambulance” and that “this is what [his mother] gets for being so self-centered.” He then said that he “didn’t care about saving her life.”

Once EMS and police arrived, they found Morris lying on her back with both eyes bruised, a cut above her left eye, and bruising around her chest, neck and arms. Officials pronounced her dead at 10:47 a.m.

Hensley said that his mother was addicted to heroin, and he found her unresponsive in the living room. He also said that he didn’t do anything and didn’t know what happened.

Pittsburgh’s Violent Crime Unit was called out to the home and confirmed that the woman’s injuries were consistent with blunt force and that there was no way she could have fallen without any ladders, chairs, or stairs nearby.

On Wednesday, Aug. 4, detectives discovered 84 calls from the home between 2016 - 2021. Thirty-four of those calls were domestic abuse-related, where Morros stated that her son was assaulting her.

Witnesses said that they saw Morros knocking on the front door late in the evening before her death and that she was crying for help. Hensley then came out of the home and said that he was looking for pills and had to go to the pharmacy. According to court documents, witnesses noted that they both seemed to be under the influence.

At 10 a.m., witnesses entered the home and found Morros conscious and somewhat responsive, sitting on the floor. They asked Hensley what happened, and he said that she would not give him his drugs.

On Tuesday, Aug. 3, detectives spoke with the Allegheny Medical Examiner, who said that Morros died of blunt force trauma and that this was a homicide.

Isabella Castronova watched her neighbor’s home across Sarah Street turn into a crime scene on Monday night.

“You see five cop cars on a pretty quiet street. You wonder what’s going on. Then we saw the M.E. come, and we started to get a little more concerned,” said Castronova. “We definitely saw some people in white hazmat suits going in and out, taking them on and off as they went in and out of the scene.”

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Hensley had cuts and bruises all over his face and body.

He wouldn’t do an interview without a lawyer but told Channel 11 that he tried to do CPR on his mom.

Neighbors said with recent violence on the South Side, they were concerned when it made its way to their usually quiet section of the neighborhood.

A man who lives upstairs didn’t even know his downstairs neighbor was murdered. As Channel 11′s Amy Hudak was talking to him, the victim’s son, Hensley, came outside to tell his side of the story.

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