Dateline NBC - Deadly Omission

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

A woman's murder shines a light on an unsolved mystery from years earlier. As the connection between the two cases becomes clear, a long-hidden truth surfaces. Could a master manipulator be behind both crimes? Andrea Canning reports.Listen to Andrea Canning and Blayne Alexander as they go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’: https://link.chtbl.com/tdl_deadlyomission

Tonight on Dateline. I dropped to my knees. I screamed. I couldn't believe it. My friend is dead. Casey is dead. It felt like my dad. He said, can I please?

A woman has been found in a condo. There had been a gunshot. And the gentleman who found her is her husband, John. It was like a punch in the gut. Did we miss something? And if we did, would Casey still be alive? Now we have three victims. Three women are dead, and you could be next.

I was petrified. It was so unbelievable that there is that kind of evil out there. You both decided that you were going to record a conversation. I wired her up. The secret wiretap thing. Good grief.

What was the strategy? Getting to talk. Told the police everything. What do you want to know from me? Crying out loud. There's something damn suspicious. I looked right at him and I thought, oh, this is on.

Three women dead in a triple murder mystery. Could an undercover sting help catch the killer? I'm Lester Holt and this is Date Live. Here's Andrea Canning with Deadly Omission. Here is Andrea Canning with Deadly Emission. I don't think there was a day that went by I didn't think about him or what he was doing. He was the suspect who slipped away. I felt like, Lord, I hope that there's not anything I missed. A man who had everyone fooled. He's going to trick you into thinking he loves you

and he doesn't. A master manipulator disguised as the perfect catch. Just one woman to the next. He's a narcissist. He's not going to stop until the day does. He's a dangerous, a dangerous person. Our story begins here on a Saturday night in October 2005. Everyone tucked away in their quiet homes, asleep. Ronnie Myers was just getting home to his condo complex outside of Atlanta after a night at the dog track when he saw it.

I was backing into this space here, and as I was backing in, I noticed something shiny sitting on the curb. So when I got out of the car, I walked back toward the object and I noticed it was a purse. I yelled to see if anybody was out here. Was there stuff out of the purse or in the purse? No, everything was contained in the purse. Okay, odd to see a purse just sitting there. Usually you notice if you lost your purse. I thought it was very suspicious.

So first I didn't want to touch it. And I was like, well, maybe somebody came home intoxicated and just set it down. Presumably you'd think that the person would live in this complex. Exactly. Inside the purse was a note with the words, I love you, John, and an ID with a name, Casey Peek.

There was also a cell phone. Ronnie scrolled through it and found a number for a John Peek. And I said, well, maybe this is a brother or husband. He decided to wait until the son was up to call. And so when I got him on the phone, I said, I'm trying to reach Casey. And he said, who is this? I said, well, I found her purse in my complex.

And he said, you did? Ronnie gave him the address and John picked up Casey's purse. Then soon after at a different complex down the road. This is Ronan 911. Yes, this is John Peake. Okay, what's going on? I just found my wife dead.

She said, Silly, please. And you're sure that she's deceased? I'm pretty sure, yeah. Do you know what happened? The back door's open. Okay, how old is your wife? I'm 44. Did it appear to be natural causes?

Had she been sick? I don't know. I didn't get that close. I just stress. I have officers on the way to help you, okay? Thank you. Within minutes, officers were at the scene. John was waiting outside and directed them to the back door. The condo had been ransacked. Cabinet doors were open. When the officers were at the scene, John was waiting outside and directed them to the back door.

The condo had been ransacked. Cabinet doors were open. Things were strewn across the floor. In the bedroom was Casey, lying in a pool of blood. She'd been shot. The detectives are coming out, okay? So they're going to look at the scene and then they're going to ask you to make sure

we have everything correct, okay? An officer spoke to John outside. Alright. Let me get my notepad, just stay right here for me. John told the officer he last spoke to his wife Casey at 4 p.m. the day before. She's going to a friend's house. Did she tell you the name of the friend? What was the friend's name? Did she tell you the name of the friend? What was the friend's name?

Kim. Kim. To get something of this magnitude was pretty unusual for that complex. Detective Ron Waddell from the Smyrna Police Department got the call. As I got there, I met with another detective and we're directed around to the back of the condo. They're doing a crime scene log in the back, and it's just time for us to go in and see exactly what we believe may have happened

inside the condo. So you go in pretty much right away? Yes. And as you walk into this condominium, what are you seeing? All the blinds are shut. It's dark inside. Our victim is laying in the bed,

and she's got her glasses on. The TV's on and her glasses are a little askew on her face. And there in the mattress, a big clue, a bullet from a.30 caliber rifle. You could tell that there had been a gunshot that went through her back. It exited through the front and through her forearm before getting stuck in the mattress.

What do you see in the condo? Is there anything out of place? Is there a murder weapon? Unfortunately, there's no murder weapon there, but the rest of the condo has been completely gone through. Casey's sister Jackie Dawn and brother-in-law David Krueger were driving home from a wedding in Texas when the phone rang. I got a call on my cell phone and it was Smyrna Police Department who told me that my sister was dead. I was in shock. He said she'd been found dead of a gunshot wound.

Dead of a gunshot wound. It was just horrendous. Word spread quickly to Casey's friends, Jan Taylor and Kim Schepner. I dropped to my knees. I screamed. I couldn't believe it. And I felt like, oh myepner. I dropped to my knees. I screamed. I couldn't believe it. And I felt like, oh my gosh, she was just at my house. She was just here.

Kim is the friend John mentioned to the officer. She and Casey had talked late into the night. Kim didn't want Casey to go home. And I said to her, why don't you stay, Casey? It's about 45 to 50 minutes to drive home. Why don't you stay tonight? Come on, girl, stay here." And she just said,

No, I've got things to do tomorrow. What happened to Casey Peake? Horror. Am I in a nightmare? You know, it's just absolute gut punch. A question that unraveled another mystery. You worried he could kill again? Yes.

It just made my skin crawl. And turned families desperate for answers into amateur detectives. I'm gonna say this one more time. Let him speak. He's geared towards going into the audience. Can it be a skeptical audience? Detective Ron Waddell has worked hundreds of crime scenes in his career, but Casey Peek's murder has seared into his memory. That has always kind of stuck with me, the expression on her face. I realized she's deceased,

but did it look like an expression of fear? Yes, ma'am. Fear, for sure. Eyes were open. It actually looked like she was still looking at somebody that was in the room. While the detective launched his investigation, Casey's sister Jackie Dawn and brother-in-law David flew to Atlanta.

It was where Casey, a computer programmer, had built a life for herself miles away from her family and friends in Texas. She was doing really well. She was surrounded by a lot of great girlfriends. Oh, yeah. Friends like Kim and Jan, they met Casey at the Atlanta Ski Club.

The club to be in in Atlanta. I don't think of skiing when I think of Atlanta. No, and people say that. No, most people don't. No, but believe me, half of the members were just there for the socials. So Casey loved the social L.A.? Yes.

The ladies would go out often. All three were single, open to finding a partner, especially Casey. She was very intelligent. She was very good at what she did. She didn't need to rely on a man. Exactly. She just very good at what she did. She didn't need to rely on a man. Exactly.

She just really wanted a companion. I mean, she wanted to have it all. To have the career, have the love, have all the things that that entails. The house. And the house. Then, one day, John Peek walked through her door. You know how the old saying, you got to leave your house if you want to meet somebody? Get off your couch.

Get off your couch. That's what I always say. She is the one case where the man came to her. Casey had a party at her condo and one of her guests brought John as their plus one. He was a 46-year-old software engineer who worked as a consultant at an electronic payment company. John ended up hitting it off with the party host. Then she sent a picture of him and a brief little blurb and says,

I'm going to call you about him. He's really great. Oh my gosh, she went nuts. Oh yeah. Good looking man. They became a couple instantly. Was she in love with him? Oh my gosh, yes. Oh yes.

Like lost in love. And they got married very quickly. How quickly? Like within... Was it maybe four or five months? like lost in love. And they got married very quickly. How quickly? Like within... Was it maybe four or five months? It was quick. John and Casey both had been married before.

This time things felt different. He was one of those really romantic people and flowers and notes and scavenger hunt things and taking her out and stuff like that. So she was really bowled over by him. And she hadn't had anything like that before. She felt like she hit the jackpot.

Absolutely. They bought a new home in an upscale community just outside of Atlanta. It was a sprawling, huge mansion-like house. Oh my gosh, a gorgeous house. Perfect place to have all your... And the neighborhood had this beautiful entrance and these rolling hills. Oh, it did. It was beautiful.

And it was beautiful. It was definitely a dream come true for her. John fit right in with Casey's circle of friends. We did a lot together, and just he was very nice to all of us. But after a few years, Jan and Kim noticed a shift. It was when John took a consulting job with Habitat for Humanity over a hundred miles away in Americus, Georgia. And he was down there all the time and he wouldn't come home on the weekends.

So you're thinking there might be something up. We're just thinking what's up. Why isn't he coming home? Exactly. Is there another woman possibly? Yes. Exactly. Even though Casey was one of the smartest women they knew, her friends say she didn't see what they saw.

She didn't really see the forest for the trees, really. And I was just like, look, please, open your eyes. Then she found a charge on her credit card. She did. It was a hotel charge not far from where she and John lived. Odd, because John was supposed to be away on a weekend trip with the guys. Casey got in her car and went looking for him. So she drives out there, and she went up to the front desk, and she was like, my husband is here. I just saw the charge.

And they're like, sorry ma'am, we can't give you his room number. She demanded that they give, and they gave her the room number. Casey stormed up to his room and banged on the door. No one answered, and then security escorted her out. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. She was devastated. Even though she didn't see John, she suspected the worst.

He tried to deny it, but it was obviously and patently a lie. John's denying it. Casey's not buying it. What does she do? So Casey moved out of the house and moved back to her condo. That was April 2005, almost two months before

their fifth wedding anniversary. But the estrangement didn't last long. Casey and John decided to work on the marriage, and it was going well. She talked about it with Kim the night they saw each other for the very last time. Everything was really upbeat and positive. I mean, she was glowing. She was so happy. We had a great conversation.

She's a Christian person. She just believes in forgiveness. And she believed in her marriage to death do us part. Back at the crime scene, Detective Waddell finished his walkthrough and met with John, who was still waiting outside with the officer. At that point we call him over to see exactly what's going on with him and what had happened. Does he agree to go with you? Absolutely. Willingly?

Yes. And what a story they were about to hear. I'm not sure who I'm going with right now. Does that make sense? About 100 percent. From the beginning, John Peek was candid with police about the status of his marriage with Casey. Are you guys on good terms? Are you in a separation phase or what?

We're in separation probably getting back together. Even though they were still living apart, he told the officer they were seeing each other again. Now Casey was gone and John was eager to help detectives find her killer. Hopefully with what information you'll be able to give us, what kind of points in the right direction, I would hope. I'd like to give you anything I can. John spoke to Detective Waddell and his partner

at the police station. Explain to me what happened today. He told them about the call from Ronnie about the purse that led him to check on Casey. I called her name. I heard a television on. And I felt a chill go through my body at the time. And I walked back there.

And she was very still. And I touched her leg. And I knew she was dead. So I ran out and made a call. Detectives filled him in on their investigative process. A large percentage of homicides are done by family members. So the first place we look is towards the family, then we go out. This is pretty... You are not a suspect.

You are, though, involved with somebody that was murdered. The detective asked John if he thought Casey might have been seeing someone else. Is she the type that if she did go out somewhere that there's a probability she would have picked somebody up? No. I mean, just hook up with somebody? No. Not at all. She's a straight arrow.

No. I've been racking my brains, you know, like, how can I help you? I'm not sure what else I can give you. I don't know anything else. I mean, it's just, you know, no, she, I don't think she was depressed. I don't think she did suicide. Detectives had more questions about his relationship with Casey. I saw her Friday night. She was, she was happy on Friday night, you know.

He said they had dinner and watched a movie and were getting along. Did you buy his story that they were working on the marriage, that things were getting better? I didn't have any evidence to refute it one way or the other. That initial interview you tend to take for face value and see where it goes from there. John told them Casey was excited to make it work. She wanted to get back together faster than I do. What was her argument or her position?

Well, she'd like to do it now. OK, I'm not ready. Move in today? Not move in, but just me seeing her more often. You weren't into this? I basically said, you know, I don't want to move too fast on us. John told detectives that Casey wanted reassurance that there was no one but her. She thought there was another woman.

Did she confront you with that? Oh yeah, many times. How did she confront you with that? Kindly? Yes, pretty much kindly. And how did she confront you with that? Kindly? Yes, pretty much kindly. And how did you readdress it? I don't have another relationship. I lied.

Lied because he was seeing another woman. Her name was Lisa Kent. He'd met her in America's Georgia on that Habitat for Humanity job. The detectives had a love triangle on their hands. Casey didn't know anything about Lisa. Did Lisa know anything about Casey? Yes, she did.

She knew you were married? She knew I was married. And that wasn't a problem with her? That was a problem. He's playing both of them against one another. He told us that Lisa believes that he is going to divorce his wife. And he's leading her to believe that.

But then also he is taking his estranged wife down this road where he's taking her out for dinner and movies a couple of nights a week. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. 100%, yes, every slice. John said that after Casey moved out earlier that year, Lisa moved in. But he fessed up to investigators that things weren't any better with Lisa.

We've been fighting. Okay. So, and Tuesday I asked her to leave for a few days. And Lisa's just gone. You have no way to contact Lisa? I don't know where she's at right now. I know this is a weird relationship question, but I just got to ask. It was clear to detectives that John was not a good husband or a good boyfriend. John says something about his girlfriend in this interview that is very eye-opening.

Well, as it turns out, she's got a gun. And according to John, Lisa knew where Casey lived. Do you think she's able to do this, capable of murdering her? I don't think so. That's kind of a big doubt. I don't think. I mean, there's no, well, yes, or I don't think so. That's kind of a big doubt. I don't think. I mean, there's no, yes, or I don't think so. Is she jealous? No. Not jealous is the wrong word.

She doesn't like me being married. Jealousy or worried he's going to get back together with Casey. Maybe the divorce isn't happening as fast and she can speed it up a little bit is kind of the way it sounded. Then John revealed that not only did Lisa have a gun, she threatened to use it on him. Because I was accusing her of having an affair because he was communicating to somebody, emailing. She went into the bedroom and said, don't come in here, I have a gun.

Okay? Immediately after she left, I knew she used to keep a gun in a drawer. So I'd taken that gun and placed it up in the closet. So you've hidden that gun? I've hidden that gun because I don't like guns. But he said Lisa had more than one. She was raised with guns.

So she had more than one. She was raised with guns. So she had more than one at a time? She has one in the trunk also. Trunk of her car? Her car. Detectives had to find Lisa. I need your assistance in locating her. John let the police search his home in his car,

and he agreed to take a gunshot residue test before he left the station. This is what we call a gunshot residue collection kit. Okay. And what we do is we swap somebody's hand to find microstopic evidence to see if there's any trace that they've fired a gun. Have you fired a gun in the last week or handled a gun in the last week? No. No. While the detectives waited for the results to come back, they went out looking for Lisa

and found her. I, you know, wasn't happy with him. He was still married and that was a problem. Officers arriving at Casey Peek's condo first thought they were looking at a burglary gone bad. But as technicians took a closer look at the scene, it became clear that nothing was taken. The dresser is, all the drawers are pulled open. But when you look into any of those, nothing has been touched inside the drawers.

All of the electronics that would have had any kind of street value are all still there. So this appeared to you to be staged? Yes, that's exactly what it looked like. It was just stage crime scene 101. Plus there was no forced entry. So either she didn't lock her door or the person who came in presumably had a key? There was one screen that was off of a window up front, but it had been off for weeks, and they just hadn't come out to fix it yet. But the front door was locked, but the back door was open. And there was an important element that stood out.

When she died, they covered her up. So this feels personal. Right, didn't cover her face, but covered her up to So this feels personal. Right, didn't cover her face, but covered her up to her neck, yeah. Waddell believed Casey was likely killed by someone who knew her. We had that entire complex canvassed for anyone who had been there over the weekend at all,

and not one person heard that gunshot. You would think if this happened in a condo complex that someone would have seen something, heard something. Zero. It's just amazing to us that we didn't get one witness out of the complex at all. They did have one lead, courtesy of John Peek. And you're Lisa?

Kent. Kent, K-E-N-T. Detectives found his girlfriend, Lisa, and brought her into the station. I'm very apprehensive for coming in and also wanting to tell me some stuff. I can tell you right now that Casey, John's wife, was murdered. So we're looking at every, you know, first thing we look at is closest members to the family then we start searching for other suspects.

Can I ask you a question? Mm-hmm. Do they know what caliber pistol? You said it was a pistol. Uh, we're not sure. The detective redirected the interview and asked Lisa about her relationship with John. Tell me the whole story.

I mean, there's a story behind us, and I need to figure out where we're at. I'll tell you whatever where we're at. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Lisa told detectives that when she met John, he said he was divorced. She learned that was a lie. I, you know, wasn't happy with him. He was still married and that was a problem. As they approached their one-year anniversary, Lisa gave him an ultimatum. I told him, if you're not fully, fully divorced by then, I don't know what I'll do, but I'm out of here.

And he told me, and this was like a week and a half ago, he said, we signed the papers today. Detectives asked where she was the weekend Casey was killed. Friday was the 30th. Friday night I was in Americas, Georgia. She said she was celebrating a birthday with a friend killed. She said she was celebrating a birthday with a friend over 100 miles away. They would have to check that out, of course. Detectives also wanted to know about the guns John mentioned, including the one in her car.

And they probed her about John's through that door, I have a gun. And would you have used it? Oh, hell no. That's a big gun. I wouldn't have the nerve. If it were. And he asked me this recently. He asked me if I would use it on somebody.

And I told him if I didn't know them, I might be able to disassociate from that. Disassociate? Was she saying she might be capable of murder? Do you confront her with this idea that she might have killed Casey? Yes, and she said she has never met the woman before, never has had any kind of inclination

to do anything like that, and never really had the motive to do it anyway because John was divorcing her so it wasn't an issue. But of course John had been lying to Lisa. Perhaps Lisa found out John was reconciling with his wife and lost it. We're going to walk out to your car, I'm going to get your gun from you. Okay. The gun I want to test it maybe a while before you get it back.

Lisa was allowed to leave, but detectives told her they needed to know her whereabouts. I need to be able to talk to you. I need contact. But something else was brewing. Detectives learned that while John had been going on and on about his love life... She wanted to get back together faster than I do. He'd failed to mention one very important detail. Is there anything in your past I need to know about? Yes.

OK. Yes, of course there is. Can you believe it? It was a head shaker. You've been talking to us for hours. How is it that you've never mentioned this to us? Smyrna detectives were talking to John Peek about his dead wife, Casey, when they asked a question that should have been routine. His answer?

Detectives had never heard anything quite like it. Uh, 1996. I had a wife at that time. She was murdered. That's kind of important. I think it's important too. Can you believe it? It was a head-shaker. You've been talking to us for hours. How is it that you've never mentioned this to us, that you had a previous spouse murdered?

How did we get all the way through this interview and that never happened? I forgot about it and I was going to bring it up earlier, but we just didn't get to it. How can you go through an interview and not have told us this yet? It is the ultimate omission. Yes ma'am, 100 percent. 100 percent the biggest omission I've ever had in any investigation I've ever done. Turned out it was not something John had kept secret from other people in his life.

The only thing we knew is that she had been killed. His wife had been murdered and it was devastating, and because he'd met Casey, this was a closure thing. Did you talk to him about her and about the murder? No, the only things I knew were anything that Casey had told me and that it was horrible. Now, Detective Waddell needed to find out all about that previous murder case.

He got on the phone with Detective Eddie Herman from the Cobb County Police Department. It's like, hey, does the name John Peek mean anything to you? It just as dead silent as that. I was like, I thought maybe we dropped the phone. I remember it like it was yesterday. That phone call brought Detective Herman back in time, nearly a decade, to June 14, 1996. He was working the night shift. I got a call from a Precinct 3 uniform officer, and an individual by the name of John Peek was reporting his wife missing.

Her name was Carol Marlin. Carol was a 46-year-old engineer at aircraft maker Lockheed Martin. John said she'd gone to dinner with a friend and was expected back at their home in Marietta, Georgia around 8.30. But it was getting late and he hadn't heard from her. He worried she'd been in an accident. Was there any weather that night? You know, a rainstorm, something that could have caused an accident or delayed her? No, it was a clear night. Still, the detective checked for any car accidents

involving Carole's dark blue Camry, but there were none. A couple of hours later, John called back to say his wife still hadn't returned. He wanted to file a missing person report. At that time, I just felt like I needed to go down there. The fact that it was made so early, the report was giving you a weird feeling. Yes. Not because of the report itself, it was a time frame.

I knocked on the door, he opened the door, he invited me in, sat down in the living room, and I just went into the basic background on him and Carol, what she was doing that evening. John told the detective he and Carol had what she was doing that evening. John told the detective he and Carol had been together for 11 years. They weren't technically married. They were common law husband and wife. They both worked at Lockheed Martin. When did John say he last spoke to Carol that day?

He had a voicemail from her at about 4.30. I'm going to pick Maggie up. Maggie Ginn was her friend. She was 64 and by then retired. She'd also worked at Lockheed Martin. The two women had stayed close, often had dinner together. Did you think about that this could just be two girlfriends? Time gets away from you?

Well, that's one of the things I did think about. You know, maybe Carol and Maggie are sitting somewhere just talking. The detective drove by the restaurant where John said the women liked to go. It was closed and no sign of Carol's car in the parking lot. He also wanted to go by Maggie Gin's house, but John said he didn't know her address. He did have her phone number, which he gave to me. If I had a phone number today, obviously, we'd be able to get an address just like that.

As Detective Herman was looking for Carol, John called her sister, Susie Sutton, in Ohio. He said she's missing. And we were concerned, too, because that wasn't like Carol. I mean, she could have just stayed out a little longer. But that would not be like Carol to stay out all night. So you're just waiting for information? Yes. I did think that maybe somebody had kidnapped Carol, so that did pass through my mind.

It was now morning. Detective Herman drove over to Lockheed Martin, where a security guard gave him Maggie's address. He and another investigator headed right over to her house at the end of Whippoorwill Drive. I came out at this stop sign right here. When I stopped and looked, you could see the blue Camry in the driveway, Carol Marlin's blue Camry.

And you knew that's the kind of car she drove because you've been looking for her all night. In fact, we dialed the phone number from outside and you could hear the phone ringing inside the house, but nobody was answering. So that's almost sort of eerie that you can hear the phone ringing. Right. I didn't have a good feeling at all. The detectives banged on the door. You'd think that one of them would wake up though, hearing the knocking and the phone

ringing. Right. I mean, we're banging on the windows and the doors and not getting anything, no response from inside. Very likely these two women are inside this house. Correct. Before he went inside, he wanted permission from someone in Maggie's family. The next-door neighbor had the phone number for one of her children. Maggie's granddaughter, Laila Bryant, remembers that day.

The police had called and said that they needed to get into grandmother's house and that the door was locked and wanted to go ahead and break in. The detectives kicked the door down and entered the house. It was dark inside. First thing I noticed were a bag of groceries. And of course then we're on high alert because we don't know what we're walking into. And I shine a flashlight into the dining room area and I see the body of a female on the floor by the dining room table.

Oh my gosh. And I immediately hollered at the team behind me. I said, we got one down. That checked her. There was no vitals. It was Carol. She appeared to have been beaten to death. You know there's two women missing. Correct. So now you're expecting possibly another body in this house.

Correct. So we moved on from that area, went into the other bedrooms. That's when Detective Herman made another grim discovery. Maggie Ginn had also been beaten to death. You now have a double homicide. Correct. At that moment, the murders were a complete mystery.

But the detective was about to talk to John Peek, and he had a curious lead. What do you think about that letter? Well, it frightened me at first. There was a direct threat in that letter. There was, yeah, there was. Detectives working Casey Peek's murder were learning all they could about a different case. The 1996 double murder of Carol Marlin and her friend Maggie Ginn.

The connection. John Peek. You have his deceased common-law wife. Right. Her friend. And now his current wife. Less than 10 years apart. Back in the 80s, Carol and Maggie met when they both worked at Lockheed Martin. Maggie was a secretary, Carol an engineer.

They had a pretty big age difference. There was a big age difference. It felt like maybe Carol thought of grandmother more as a mom, you know, and it felt good that there was somebody there to kind of take care of her. Carol just loved Maggie, and I think Maggie really loved Carol, too. It's funny, too, even with the 20-year age gap, sometimes people just click with each other. Right, I think they did. I saw the warmth and the caring and the love between them, definitely.

Maggie's family rushed over to the house that was now a crime scene. My dad and my aunt and uncle just sat on the steps at the house across the road and just watched their childhood home with police in and out, knowing that their mom was there. John Peek showed up too. He was pacing back and forth and was holding his hands in his face. Richard Peluso was also at the scene. He was a rookie detective back then. It was awful.

It was definitely a lot of trauma. Was there any sign of a break-in? Was anything stolen that this maybe was interrupted when they came home from dinner? There were a couple of drawers that were pulled out and there were a few things that had been moved about the shovel. She had a lot of nice jewelry and things like that in the house and none of that was taken. It did not have the appearance as your typical burglary where it's ransacked and

somebody is looking for something in particular. If not a robbery, then it looked like some kind of planned attack. So one of these two women was targeted, it appeared. That's correct. I remember asking Eddie, could it have been more than one person because it was so savage and it was so much,

but they were in two different rooms. Eddie's response was like, somebody move fast and they knew what they wanted to do. It made sense to detectives that Maggie might be the target since she lived there. Maybe her friend Carol was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Did Maggie's kids have any idea of who would want to hurt the ladies? No, they were in disbelief. It just didn't make sense that something like that would happen. Who would murder Maggie? Right. I'm assuming no enemies? No, they were in disbelief. It just didn't make sense that something like that would happen. You would murder Maggie. Right. I'm assuming no enemies? No, no.

I mean, never, never. She was humble and quiet and just living her life and, you know, it was unthinkable. Maggie's family insisted the police shouldn't waste their time digging into her life. One of them was extremely upset and said, my mother is not responsible for any of this. Whatever this is about, it's not about my mother. I was a new detective and I was learning how to be a detective, but my gut was telling me then that Maggie had nothing to do with this. And a big clue told him his gut might be right.

As detectives got a closer look at the crime scene, they noticed a stark contrast with the bodies. Looking at the injuries, particularly after the medical examiner got on the scene, and we got a better look at Carol Marlin, she was a focus. Whoever did this, it was overkill with Carol Marlin. Because her injuries were so much worse. Yes, it was overkill and that was huge to me. For Carol's sister, Suzie, the brutality made it all the more difficult to understand.

Carol was always so full of life. She was bubbly, She had this oversized personality. She just was a joy to be around. And smart, too. Carol met John at Lockheed Martin, where she handled military contracts. So she was dealing with some high-level security stuff in her job.

Yes, she was. She was, yeah. I mean, I love hearing about how she's in this, you know, sort of a man's world, really making it in aerospace technology. Right. Carol could really hold her own, and she was very gifted and very talented. Carol had been married before.

She wasn't looking for a husband, but then she met John at work. John could be very charming. I think they had a lot of romance. I was happy that she'd found somebody that it seemed like she loved a lot. Detectives wanted to get as much information from John as possible.

He went with them to the police station for an interview. It's gonna be an interview with Mr. John P.E.K. John, I guess what we want to start is, first of all, let me ask you if you know of anybody that would have any reason to do any harm to your wife or... No. I can't say anybody wants to know you harmed her. She was a friend to everybody, and he could not think of anybody or any reason why she would be murdered. The detective had to ask him where he'd been the night she didn't come home. You know I'm going to be asked this. So I'm asking you where you went and who may have saw you. John said he left work at 5 and went to pick up some filtered water, and then he grabbed dinner.

Went to Wendy's. Picked up salad, baked potato. I got home, I finished eating my head off. Even though John couldn't think of anyone who would want to hurt Carol. He did want police to know this. A few days earlier, Carol received a threatening letter at the office. What do you think about that letter? Well, I'll write me first. What is this threatening letter about?

It went to her and it went to four other employees, and it had to do with personnel stuff that Carol Marlin and none of the other employees, as it turns out, had anything to do with. What was the threat in the letter? The threat was essentially, you're going to do right or you're going to pay the consequences. I took the letter, I read the letter, took it immediately to her administrative supervisor. According to John, Carol blew it off, didn't think anything about it,

laughed about it, but he insisted that Lockheed's security be notified. It was a clue to investigate for sure, but suddenly a man named Barry Webb walked into their investigation with an even more important lead. I said, what are you doing in my house? He said, I'm watching you.

You know, you can't make this up. I mean, this is like straight out of a movie. Laila Bryant's teenage years were shattered by her grandmother's murder, her sense of safety and security gone. And I can remember constantly walking around to make sure that the doors were locked. It brings an awareness that there is that kind of evil out there that you just kind of lived not knowing about before. It's stealing your innocence. Yeah. Yeah. It really is.

At the time, Cobb County police detectives were doing everything they could to catch the killer of Maggie Ginn and her friend Carol Marlin. They'd heard about a strange letter Carol received at Lockheed Martin. And at the crime scene, they found another clue pointing in the direction of the company, something in Maggie's hand. She's laying slumped in the chair, and in her hand was a torn piece of paper. It was an invoice from Lockheed Martin. So now you have a threatening letter

that Carol received regarding Lockheed Martin, and now Maggie has a piece of paper in her hand that says Lockheed Martin. and now Maggie has a piece of paper in her hand that says Lockheed Martin. That's a common denominator. The name Barry Webb was signed on the invoice. But before detectives could track him down, he called them.

Barry Webb says to me in the phone call, hey, I just saw the news. I know these people. Barry claimed to have information relevant to the case, so investigators brought him in for questioning. Detective Herman didn't know if he was sitting across from the killer or someone who could provide them with a break in the case. This interview is in reference to the double homicide investigation.

Who is Barry Webb? He's a Lockheed employee. Got to be very good friends with John Peake and Carol Marlin. Back when I was married, we double dated with them. So I like when I would go out with them to a concert, go out to eat. Detective Herman cut to the chase and asked Barry about the invoice found at the crime scene.

Show you something so you can maybe identify it. This would be almost like a piece of a receiving memo that we get from the order software or hardware. Is that your signature on it? I don't know. That's your name. I don't even make my Rs like that. Do we have a sample of your handwriting, sir?

But Barry was more interested in telling them why he called in the first place. He launched right into a story about a break-in at his house. I think around 10, 15 or so yesterday evening where I was sitting in the living room watching TV and I heard noise in my basement. I proceeded downstairs into the basement. I looked around, I couldn't see anyone,

but I looked out the garage window to see if I could see anybody and I didn't. So I opened the door and I stepped out and then the door began to close behind me. There was someone in there trying to close the door behind me and lock me in. He said he shoved the door open and confronted an intruder. I said, what are you doing in my house? He said, I'm watching you. So he ran out the door.

He took a bag on his way out, which was outside, and he tore out through my backyard, down the street. He described it. It was very dark. I did not really see the bag that closely. But he told detectives he heard something. The bag had something in there, like a metallic clinking-type sound. Barry hadn't called the police just to report the break-in. He wanted them to know who had broken in there, like a metallic clinking type sound. — Barry hadn't called the police just to report the break-in.

He wanted them to know who had broken in. — John broke into my house. — The intruder was John Peek. And if this guy was telling the truth, it happened the night of the murders, the same night John reported Carol missing. Barry Webb then told investigators John called him soon after and apologized. He said, I'm sorry, but I might know something about Carol.

I think she went to my house this evening. But why would John be looking for Carol at Barry's house? We're not looking to enter into your personal life, but if you had any type of relationship, character, any way shape or form. This is the venue right here, right now, in this room, with the Major and I. Tell us about it. I did not. Okay. You never had any type? Other than a work relationship, and many years ago when my wife and I would go out with John

Carroll and do things, that was it. Okay. I'd be seriously concerned, Barry, to get two or three days into this murder case and to find out that you and her had some type of relationship that I would have a problem with. You understand that? I understand that. I would have a very bad problem with that, too, because it would have been a bad thing. They took a hair sample from Barry and let him go.

They certainly wanted to talk to John Peek again. Do you not think it's important to tell the investigating detective that you got caught breaking into a coworker's house during this time frame? You confronted him about Barry Webb, but by that point, he had an attorney. Yeah.

And he wouldn't talk about it? No, he would not. Investigators went over what they knew and had a bad feeling about John Peek. Back at the crime scene, his behavior had seemed like an act. And I looked at him and was amazed on what I was seeing because he was not acting at all like somebody

that just learned something like this had occurred. He was like trying to create emotion that really wasn't there. But the fact that John showed up at all was even more suspicious. Every conversation I'd had with John Peek leading up to him showing up at the scene was, he did not know where Maggie Ginn lived. John claimed he'd gotten the address from Lockheed Martin that morning, but... John had installed a VCR for Maggie, so he knew perfectly well where she lived.

And everybody knew that John had been to the house before. In fact, he had made some little repairs around the house. It's very sad looking back because in her journal, she had written how nice it was that John would take the time to come over there and fix something. That single lie was enough to convince Maggie's family that John was the killer and Carol was the real target. Once they knew for a fact that he had told the police

that he didn't know where grandmother lived, that took all the other options off the table for them. Detective Herman agreed, but building a case against John would be harder than anyone could have imagined. I don't think there was a day that went by I didn't think about him or what he was doing. He was about to find out.

Two wives, two murders, just no. And Casey's family would try whatever it took to get answers. Two dead wives, two dead wives John crying out loud. Did you fear that John Peek could kill again? Absolutely, without a doubt. Back in 1996, almost a decade before Casey Peek was killed, detectives were trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to Carol Marlin and her friend Maggie Ginn. John Peek had stopped talking to investigators,

but his wife Carol's family had lots to say. Detective Herman said, do you think John would have done something like this? And my mom said, oh, John wouldn't hurt a fly, you know? And I said, I'm not sure about that. Why did you think that? John liked to be secretive about things. Suzie described how the ever so charming man Carol first met

eventually started acting like a creep. And he was sort of slightly sleazy even with me. Suzy recalled something that happened during a wilderness canoe trip. He kept teasing me about taking a shower and I wouldn't do it and it made me uncomfortable. Like did he want you to take your clothes off and take a shower?

Well that was sort of the implication. John had been married and divorced twice before he met Carol. Suzie told investigators she suspected John had cheated on her sister. He definitely seemed like a big womanizer, or at least loved the attention of women and, you know, moving from one woman to the next.

Yes, I think he had affairs that Carol didn't know about. I think they fed his ego. He needed to be, like, pumped up. He liked that affection, that attention. Yes, very much. Suzy also told investigators that in the year leading up to the murders, Carol and John weren't getting along. They were arguing a lot and also that their sexual relationship had ended, that John had ended it.

Investigators had no physical evidence tying John to the scene, but they knew he lied about not knowing where Maggie lived and could not explain that odd break-in at Barry Webb's house. I just felt like he was our guy. It was just going to be a question of, how do we prove it? How do we get there? They went to talk to the Cobb County DA.

How did the DA feel about the case you had put together? The DA felt good about the case. Circumstantial, but did not want to move forward with an arrest at that time. What he was saying to us, keep working it. Maybe something will come up. Frustrating. Very frustrating.

They kept digging, but the double murder investigation hit a wall. Months ticked by, then years. Did the family just think that this is what we have to live with, that we'll never know? I think that they had come to terms with the fact that there may never be an arrest. I know I was disappointed. I was kind of hard on myself. I mean, what did we miss? What did we miss? In those frustrating years, John moved on. He met Casey and started a new life. John moved on. He met Casey and started a new life.

He had a $700,000 windfall from Carol's life insurance and was living in that huge house. Casey's friends heard about John's previous wife too. He set the record straight with her very early. Oh yes. Look, I need to let you know this Casey, I was a suspect in a murder case in 1996. I didn't do it.

Of course he downplayed it. He never mentioned that he was still the one and only suspect. It never went cold. Why do you say it never went cold? I was intentionally going down to Peek's house, knocking on his door. Detective Herman hoped that he'd get John to say something, anything, but nothing ever came of Herman's unannounced visits.

Sometimes he'd run into John Peek randomly. One time I was jogging down at the river trail and I saw him. Did you try to talk to him? I did. I ran up behind him. Oh, what did he... how did he react? He didn't even comment. You know, he just kind of went off to the side. That can't feel good when you see him out jogging. No.

And you believe he's responsible for a double homicide. No. And what we're feeling ain't nothing compared to what the families are feeling. Hard enough to lose somebody, but to know that there's no justice and that a killer is walking around free. Did you fear that John Peek could kill again? Absolutely, without a doubt.

And then, after almost a decade of trying, his worst fear was realized when he got that call from Detective Ron Waddell in the next town over. What were you feeling? I was kind of numb. I had a knot in my stomach. When Ron said, Does it name John Peek mean anything to you?

I'm like, what's he done now? I felt like, Lord, I hope that there's not anything I missed or we missed because now Casey Peek's dead. Now investigators from two murder cases were joining forces, and they were about to learn a lot more about the real John Peek. Beforehand, he was a nice guy. After, he was a monster.

The investigation into Casey Peek's murder was only hours old when Detective Ron Waddell discovered that Casey wasn't John Peek's only dead wife. This changes the total trajectory of all of our investigation. He'd become their main person of interest, but Detective Waddell still had other leads to check out, including John's girlfriend, Lisa. She admitted to police that she had a gun, and she'd been frustrated with how slowly John's divorce was moving. But she seemed genuinely surprised when investigators told her John was getting back together with Casey.

When you said, would it surprise you if somebody told you that he was seeing her? Do you mean that he was seeing her? Oh, absolutely. They were dating. Really? Mm-hmm. And been dating on Tuesday nights for quite a while. Oh, so that's what he has been doing on Tuesday nights.

Apparently. Are you sure? Are you telling me that you're fact? Some nights, yes. That's when she learned John was lying to her about his wife and figured out he was pointing the finger at her. So he's throwing you under the bus in that interview room? Yes, yes.

It didn't work. Lisa told us what the detectives told her. They're like, we know that you didn't kill anybody. We can tell that you're not that kind of person. Actually John Peek is trying to manipulate our detectives as we speak, trying to take the focus off of him and put it on someone else. That's a far cry from where their relationship started. She said they met when John was working that out-of-town job in Americas, Georgia, where

she lived. It was a romance story that sounded familiar. He was good-looking. He was intelligent. And he knew how to treat a lady. You open the door. You take them to dinner. He did all the right things. He did and said all the right things. Made me feel like a queen.

Just as John had done with Casey, he showered her with attention and over-the-top romantic gestures. He insisted on having a party at my house. He said, don't worry about a thing. I'm gonna do all the cooking. I didn't have to lift a finger. I didn't have to pay for anything. I just had to invite the right people. Sounds like you found the perfect guy. Yeah. That's kind of what I thought. John also opened up about what happened to Carol. He put his hand over mine and took a deep breath

and said about 10 years ago, my wife was murdered. You actually remind me a little bit of her. Oh. Yeah. What's going through your mind when you hear this? I felt sorry for him. Lisa and John spent time together whenever he was in town for work.

But on one occasion, Lisa met him in Atlanta. That was the night Casey showed up banging on their hotel room door. This woman was yelling, John? John? Are you in there? All along. He had told me he was divorced. He told me that she was very insecure and didn't like herself very much and kind of

eluded that she was a little, you know, nuts. Lisa continued seeing him after that. They were even talking marriage. But after a while, she says John's charm started to fade. I started to feel like he was controlling some things. She says John started demanding to know who she was with and tracking her mileage to confirm where she'd been. She also suspected he'd hacked into her email. The things that he was saying, only things that I had put in email.

So I said, you've hacked into my email. And he goes, no, no, no, I didn't do anything like that. Lisa said when she started pulling away, John's behavior became frightening. He told me that he wanted to take me to dinner. And as we were driving, I said, oh, where are we going? He said, anywhere I want to take you. Like going? He said, anywhere I want to take you. Like controlling. Yes, anywhere I want to take you.

I'm in charge. I'm in charge. I'm going to take you wherever I want to, and you have no choice. Casey's friends had heard stories about the not-so-charming side of John Peek. He was the definition of a love bomber, overly romantic and doting at first.

But over time, he became manipulative, controlling, and sometimes cruel. He told Casey she needed to lose weight. And so Casey actually got liposuction. Because of what John said? Yes, he told her she was gaining a little too much weight. And she did what she needed to do. She would do anything to keep that marriage. She was focused on that.

When Casey told them she was giving John a second chance, they didn't approve. Kim talked to Casey about it over dinner the last night she was alive. I said, Casey, you're such an amazing friend, person, and you just don't need to go back to him. You need to be on your own, and you need to enjoy because you have so much to offer.

A week after Casey's murder, her friends and family gathered in Georgia for a memorial service. Her friends brought pictures, you know, and put them all against the wall and everything. The service was held at the same funeral home as Carole's service nearly a decade earlier. Police were keeping tabs on John. He drove by the funeral home five or six times

before he would even go in. John must have known all eyes would be on him. We both assumed with good reason that he was guilty of the murder because, I mean, this is a matter of probabilities. One guy, two wives, two murders, just no. We never had not one doubt. Not one doubt. Not one doubt.

Not one doubt. It was John. That it was John. At the funeral, John finally showed his face. What was his behavior like? He came in, sat in the back, left. We didn't really talk to him. When Casey's friend Kim got up to speak,

she concluded with a message for Casey's killer. I just looked right out and I said, we're going to find the person that did this. And I looked right at him and I felt the coldest. I mean, like there's nothing there. And I mean, like, there's nothing there. And I thought, oh, this is on. This guy is scary. To police, John Peek was the obvious suspect.

Problem was, just like in the double homicide years before, they had no physical evidence tying him to the crime. As the detectives continued their investigation, Casey's sister and brother-in-law were starting their own. I can't believe that I'm going to talk to my brother-in-law with a secret wiretap thing. Good grief.

As Smyrna police conducted their investigation into Casey Peek's murder, John's girlfriend Lisa was on edge. She'd been a wreck ever since she spoke to police. They said that they didn't have enough evidence to hold him and that they advised I leave town. How scared were you? I was petrified. I didn't want to stay with anybody that he knew I knew. So it's like you're on the run, sort of,

because you don't know for sure that he's after you, but you feel like you're on the run. Yeah, oh yes. And I slept with a knife under my pillow. Did you just look at her and say, honey, you absolutely could be the next target? Oh, 100%. Investigators were well aware John

had been the prime suspect in his previous wife, Carol's, murder. And they were struggling to find direct evidence linking him to Casey's murder. The gunshot residue tests they'd given him while he was at the police station came back negative. They'd also searched Casey's condo, but they didn't find anything useful.

They kept looking. You got a search warrant? Yes. For all of John's properties? All of them, yes. In addition to the house John lived in, investigators searched his lake house and investment properties,

looking for a weapon that matched the.30 caliber bullet found in Casey's mattress. Did John own a.30 caliber rifle? Not that we were able to find. Investigating this, I was able to find a couple of different people who he had actually asked to buy a hunting rifle from, but we were never able to find the rifle that was used. In a storm drain outside John's house, investigators did discover an unfired 30 caliber bullet. Inside the house, they noticed John had a fascination with true crime. He had quite the library of all of the

different murder shows. There must have been 50 or 60 different tapes of multiple different shows that seem a little one that we're doing here. Police had eyes on John again as he traveled to Casey's home state of Texas for her burial service. While there, he asked Casey's sister and brother-in-law to meet for coffee to clear the air.

They agreed, but only after consulting with Smyrna PD. Jackadon and David were asked if they would actually do a wire to get John on tape. And we went and bought a recorder and wired her up. Let me have some piece of tape. You really can't see that that is so small. All right. Because those dark pants. I can't believe that I'm going to talk to my brother-in-law with a secret wiretap thing.

Good grief. What was the strategy? Get him to talk? Get him to talk, gauge his demeanor, how he answered questions. See if he divulged anything that we didn't know that might help. On their way to coffee, David coached Jackie Dawn on how to handle John. I want to say this one more time. Let him speak his ear towards the way into the audience. Can it be a skeptical audience? Yeah, but let your skepticism be silent.

When they arrived, John was already waiting for them. What do you want to know from me? I've told the police everything. You never told Casey everything. You lied to her up to the last minute. You never admitted the adultery, and you were living with the other woman the whole time. We talked about the relationship and what was

going on and why he was cheating on her and whether or not he really wanted to get back together and stuff like that. I always loved her, okay. It just got real difficult to be with her. He spent a lot of the conversation as it developed, basically painting Casey in a very negative light, very hard to live with, very demanding, unforgiving. Casey's moods went up and down, up and down. He's trying to paint a picture of a person that we certainly didn't know. Anger towards me, hostility towards me, wouldn't do anything, would just sit around.

She has some bad habits you don't know about and it ain't coming out. I'm sorry, because I promised her I'd never bring them out. After she's died, he's going after her character? Correct. And yet John insisted he still wanted to be with Casey. In fact, he said he and Casey had been planning to recommit to their marriage. We were going to probably go to Mexico over the new year,

you know, and renew our vows. When did you start making those plans? Because I never heard about those. Renewing the vial stuff. The last two weeks, I don't know. John told them it was under one condition. If we're going to renew our vials, we have to say it in the same outfits we had on before. Oh, I'm sure that went over real well.

It went over well enough that she was going to work out with me. She always thought that that was a big deal with you. It wasn't. It really wasn't. I always told her she was beautiful. Well, why make that a condition? You felt that way. She needed motivation to lose that weight because she didn't feel good about her weight. I mean, you know how many diets we've gone through? We were rather surprised, to say the least, about some of the things that he was saying. He's working to both assassinate in character and pain himself in a sympathetic light.

I lost the wife, okay? I've gotten over being persecuted, and it's very hard to mourn when you're being persecuted. He's painting himself as unlucky. That's correct. And a victim. Poor me. As she listened, Casey's sister could not keep her skepticism quiet. Two dead wives. Two dead wives, John, crying out loud.

And, you know, I never thought there was anything suspicious about Carol. But there's something damn suspicious about Casey's murder. I mean, Jackie Donne, I love this woman. I still love this woman. I didn't kill her. And that hurts more than anything else. After nearly three hours of back and forth, Jackie Donne and David had heard enough.

As they left the coffee shop and walked to their cars, Jackie Don worried that John might have been on to them. There had been a mishap with the recorder. I just didn't hope he didn't realize when I dropped the recorder out of my pocket. Yeah, this is, you know, well, junior detectives. He did not indicate to me that he saw it. They went home sure of one thing.

You know, there's that old saying, what you can know and then what you can prove are two different things, but there was no doubt after that conversation, we knew. We knew. You knew he killed Casey. Absolutely. No doubt. In the end, their undercover work didn't provide much

to move the investigation forward. But Jackie, Don, and David were not done sleuthing. They were about to find something that might be just what the detectives needed. This really shows, I would imagine, for the police premeditation. It shows premeditation and clear intent. I don't care how long you're in this business. And if anybody's in it and says they don't take the case as personal, nah, it's BS. The double murder of Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn had remained unsolved for almost a decade. But after Casey Peek was murdered,

the detectives were looking back through their files. Both fell under the Cobb County DA's office. Now detectives in both cases were meeting with Assistant District Attorney Jason Saliba. We reopened the case with Detective Herman, which was the first set of murders, and started going back through it to see if there was anything else that needed to be done,

if there was any testing. At the same time, the Smyrna detectives were working their case. So all your minds have to come together to create a game plan. It's not just one agency we're talking about. It's prosecutors, police. The two detectives, both of them,

agreed to work any parts of their cases that overlapped and to help the other one. As we sit down and start going over our similarities, I think we wound up with two and a half pages off of a legal pad of different similarities to the cases that really tied them together. Of course, in both cases, John Peek's wives were the victims, and John was the one to

alert police. The scenes were amateurishly staged as robberies and in both cases he lied about having access to the crime scenes. In the murders of Maggie and Carol, he told detectives he didn't know where Maggie lived, something the family knew wasn't true. And with Casey, he told police this about her condo. Out of the scene, he told us that he did not have a key. And he told us that a couple of different times, that he did not have a key to her condo. But Casey's friends knew that John had just

gotten a key from Casey. He says to her, Casey, let's really try to get back together. He says, I'm looking for a job, I don't have a computer, let's trade house keys. And so they traded house keys. And there was this. The detectives felt evidence was planted to throw the investigation off track in both

crimes. Casey's purse seemed to have been left in that parking lot for a reason. It has always been our belief, he didn't expect to get a phone call the next morning that her purse had been found. He thought somebody would pick up the credit cards, take them, use them. In Carolyn Maggie's case, detectives suspected John wrote that threatening letter to the Lockheed Martin employees as a red herring, and placed that invoice in Maggie's hand, the one with Barry Webb's name on it. We thought John picked him and he was absolutely going to frame him for murder. The prosecutor developed a theory of what happened that night.

When the women returned to Maggie's house after dinner, John either followed them inside or he knocked on the door. They recognized who it is and said, yeah, come on in. Yes, that certainly was a possibility. Once inside, John bludgeoned the women, possibly with a hammer. While Carol was John's target, the prosecutor believes he killed Maggie Once inside, John bludgeoned the women, possibly with a hammer. While Carol was John's target, the prosecutor believes he killed Maggie to make it look like a random crime. Then he took the murder weapon and went to Barry Webb's house.

We have always been convinced that the reason he was going into Barry Webb's was to plant the murder weapon. He had a bag full of something metal clanging in it, breaking in the night of the murder. The prosecutor poured over what he had and decided that Carolyn Maggie's case, as old as it was, was the stronger of the two. So two weeks after Casey was killed, the DA was ready to charge John Peek with murder.

How does that work? Because the district attorney's office with Carolyn Maggie initially did not wanna charge because there just wasn't enough evidence. Circumstantial case. We have another murderer, but nothing has really changed per se with Maggie and Carol's murders. Nothing really changed. You've got a different set of eyes looking at it. Those of us that were looking at it decided we did have enough and it wasn't gonna get any better. Eddie Herman had contacted me and asked could he be the one that actually cuffed John Peek? And to this day I can still remember Eddie's expression

on his face when John came to the door that morning. I looked at him when he opened that door, I said it's been a long time. Oh. Been a long time. Oh that gave me chills. And I said you're under arrest. You're under arrest for the murders

Carol Marlin and Maggie can. I felt a huge sense of relief, although I also felt scared because it was circumstantial. Maggie's family had been hungry for justice too. The senselessness of her murder was hard to wrap their heads around. There's pictures along those walls of all of grandmother's kids and her grandkids. And all I could think was, how could a person do that?

How could a person look in somebody's house and see their life on the walls and see the people that are going to miss them and not even care? You call it collateral damage. She was collateral damage for him. With John behind bars, detectives kept working Casey's murder. They knew that after the first murders, John received $700,000 in life insurance from Carol. Now detectives wanted to know if he was expecting another financial windfall from Casey's death. Her sister had just talked to her about her life insurance. I suggested that she did not need to have life insurance because she didn't have any

body that needed to be supported, like children, to be supported for life insurance. Casey's family didn't know if she kept the policy or not, but they wanted to make sure John didn't get a dime of it. We filed a civil lawsuit for the purpose of tying up all of his assets so that he could not spend them. He was not going to profit from anything that had to do with my sister. As part of that, they got a lot of financial documents that had been relatively well hidden from the police

and from our office, and they shared those with us. One of the things they found out, not only did Casey still have the life insurance policy, but John had secretly been making extra payments leading up to the murder. In the event that she just stopped paying the policy, he wanted to make sure that the policy was intact, even if she stopped payment and didn't tell him.

Because I had advised it and he knew it. That is sneaky, sneaky. If you're planning a murder to gain insurance proceeds, it makes sense to do whatever's necessary to keep that insurance policy intact, doesn't it? It wasn't just the insurance. There was a lot of personal property, belongings, cars, joint bank accounts, retirement accounts. There was a lot, a lot of money at stake. The prosecutor believed that's why John was leading Casey on. He needed to get this money before this divorce went through.

That's what we've always believed. Do you think that John Peek got a taste of maybe how easy it was to get rid of Carol, get the life insurance money, whatever assets they had, and then maybe he needs money again. I'll just do the same thing. It worked the first time. I think so, and I think it's great. It's easy money.

And Lisa, the girlfriend John was talking about marrying, turns out she was going to inherit some family money. Lisa's about to get a bunch of money. Exactly. Do you think he would have killed Lisa if given the opportunity for her money? Well, he'd already done it twice. Absolutely, I believe he 100% would have done it again.

Did you feel like he was capable of killing you? Yes. Yes, I did. Or sending somebody to kill me. To investigators, there was a clear pattern, and the financial documents Jackie Dawn and David discovered helped to bolster their case. You're getting more and more incriminating evidence against John Peek. Absolutely.

The DA decided he had enough and charged John Peek with Casey's murder. But then you and your team were prepared to go to trial and then something unexpected happened in the last hours. We were absolutely stunned. John Peek sat behind bars denying he had anything to do with the murders of three women. Then Assistant DA Jason Saliba got word of a confession, but not from John. Another man is saying he killed Maggie and Carol. There had been a prison confession to the murders of Maggie and Carol. We had one gentleman who came forward

and actually told us that he had been in jail with a gentleman who admitted to him, jailhouse confession, that he had killed two women over by Cobb General Hospital, and he killed them with a hammer. The alleged killer knew how the women were killed and that Maggie's house was near a hospital. Investigators confronted him with the story they'd heard from that other inmate. He said while he was in prison with you, that you made a statement that you broke into a house near a hospital

and you beat two women to death with a claw hammer. No. No. I didn't kill nobody. They're saying that you admitted to them that you killed two women. No. I didn't kill nobody. I didn't kill nobody. He was adamant he didn't know Carol or Maggie and had nothing to do with their murders. And investigators couldn't find any connection either. Someone wasn't telling the truth. What we were able to do is to go back and see

that our tipster that said this gentleman had confessed to him in prison had actually been John Peek's cellmate. So he was manipulating this person in jail. Right, trying his best to manipulate people in the investigation as best he could. And he kept at it. There was a long list of inmates that he attempted to pay to spread false information.

He was asking that they go out and give false narratives of the evidence to news outlets, to his attorneys, to make up alibis. To investigators, it seemed John Peek thought he was in control, even of their investigation, manipulating it just like he'd done with the women in his life. He has no empathy. He has no caring. He's going to trick you into thinking he loves you and he doesn't. It's all about how can you benefit him.

He is the most dangerous kind of con man, really. That's true. From behind bars, John was still trying to control Lisa. Here he is talking to his brother about her on a recorded call. I need someone to break through this and say, okay, hey, John is innocent. Remember your past.

You know he wouldn't have done this. Would you be a candidate for that? Yeah, yeah. Investigators gave Lisa the green light to meet with the brother, see what they were up to. What he had to give me from John was a rose and a card. Inside the card, John professed his love. John says he's still in love with you.

How does that make you feel? Sick. I felt creeped out. I was like, I don't care what he thinks or feels. And he's a psychopath. They don't really feel these things. For what he'd been doing in jail, the DA tacked on additional charges

of criminal solicitation. But there were still two very circumstantial murder cases to prove. We were in touch with the prosecutors and the detectives, and they were scared. They weren't sure if they had the evidence to get a conviction. Although John had initially been arrested for the murders of Carolyn Maggie, prosecutors decided to try Casey's murder first. Did you feel you had more evidence in Casey's murder? Or was it fresher, you know, timewise?

It was fresher. Investigators prepared to tell the jury their theory of the crime. That John arrived at Casey's condo while she was still at her friend's house and let himself in using the key she'd recently given him. Then he hid in the coat closet. He lets her come home. He lets her get in bed, and then he gives it enough time

to be able to go in quietly, ambush her in her sleep. And then he went and staged the apartment to make it look like a theft. Took her purse, went to the other apartment complex, laid her purse out. If they got a conviction in Casey's case, the DA planned to seek the death penalty for Carolyn Maggie's case.

Because now you can show he clearly is going to kill again. He's done it. Nine years later, he did exactly what we're going to allege he would do if he was not on death row. A few weeks before trial, John's attorney approached the DA. And he said, I believe he will plea if you offer him a life sentence. The prosecutors talked to the victims' families.

Carol's mother was very elderly. And the potential of a trial and then the appeals that go behind that, that she might not ever see this case completed before she passed on if we didn't take a plea. So the D.A. made an offer, life in prison, and on Friday, April 13, 2007, John appeared in court. I figured there was a 50-50 chance that knowing him, he could take that last ditch.

No, you know what, I've changed my mind. I don't want to do this. And down another rabbit hole we go. How do you plead to the charge, guilty or not guilty? Guilty, I've changed my mind. I don't want to do this. And down another rabbit hole we go. How do you plead to the judge guilty or not guilty? Guilty, sir. But he did. But he did. He pled guilty.

And they sent him off to the Georgia sedate penitentiary. It was a good day. John is now in his 70s. Still, as he sits in prison, the prosecutor says John's not done. We are the better part of 20 years later, and he's still trying to manufacture evidence in prison of other people who committed the crime.

Periodically, we have people come forward and give us evidence of what he's doing. You just feel it's more of his lies, more of his manipulation? Absolutely. He is a manipulator, he's a narcissist. He's not going to stop until the day he does. For the family and friends of his victims, they want what happened to serve as a wake-up call

for anyone in a similar situation. If this could be a sort of a beacon for women to see that it's easy to get manipulated, even if you are the smartest person in the room. How do you want KC to be remembered? For being such a wonderful friend and an excellent person. She was someone who dreamed big, had a huge heart, and she was a joy to be around. Carol was so cheerful and so full of life. I look at pictures

of her and I think about her. I wish Carol were here. My grandmother was a wonderful role model for me. I got her for 16 years and I have the memories and that I can share those with my kids and just grateful. And just grateful. That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our Talking Dateline podcast. Andrea Canning and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central.

I'm Lester Holt, for all of us at NBC News, good night.