Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

NORTHERN MICHIGAN— lovely and unspoiled with tiny towns on crystal lakes is a tourist paradise.  Beautiful clear days give way to dark, dark nights.

Nights that hold a multitude of secrets, some of them bone-chilling. 

Mark and Florence Unger loved the lake country.  It was a favorite getaway for them and their children—perfect, really, until it became forever the place of unspeakable tragedy.

Mark first met Florence — Flo for short — in college.

Connie Wolberg, Mark Unger's sister: She was beautiful and she was charming. And she was fun.

Mark’s sister Connie Wolberg describes Mark as a gentle teddy bear.  He and Flo began dating after graduation and married a few years later.

Wolberg: They seemed very, very much in love.

Mark was a sportscaster at a local radio station, and Flo worked in retail.

Mark Unger: I had the greatest job in the world. I went to every game.  I mean it was amazing.  And she worked at places where she could buy clothes and jewelry and stuff.  I mean, we were very happy.

Along came two beautiful boys. 

Unger: I knew she’d be an awesome mother.  And she was. 

The family bought the house in a pricey suburb of Detroit and Flo became a stay-at-home mom. To support their new lifestyle, Mark left his dream job in radio to work as a mortgage broker.  But things started to fall apart around 1998.   Mark hurt his back and became hooked on Vicodin.  He says addictions to alcohol and gambling followed... and took a big toll at home.

Unger: It was not only the Vicodin and the gambling, it was my behavior in general.  You know?  The selfishness. 

In time, Mark stopped working. The couple began sleeping in separate bedrooms.  With debts piling up, Flo reluctantly went back to work. 

In September 2002, Mark checked into rehab.  He returned home, he says clean, more than 5 months later.  By now the marriage was in shambles.

Unger: I mean she was not happy.  And she wasn’t afraid to show that.

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: But was there a time when she made it clear to you that reconciliation was not on the table?

Unger: Yeah it was in a therapy appointment with our marriage counselor.

Hansen: And what did she say exactly?

Unger: Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly what she said.  That’s between—you know, us.  But that’s where it happened.  And it was painful to hear.

But friends say Mark kept hoping he and Flo would stay together. In late October, they did something they often did. Took the boys on a  trip to northern Michigan to the secluded cottages on lower herring lake at a resort called Watervale.  Flo told friends she had misgivings about making the trip. 

Unger: I’m sure she had reservations about going.  I had reservations about going.  You know?  But we we’re dedicated to those kids.

Mark says things seemed fine once they got in the car...the family listened to music and laughed for much of the four-hour drive.

Unger: The colors were pretty to look at on the way up.  The kids were having a ball. It couldn’t have been better.

After dinner at a local restaurant, they went back to their cottage.  The boys settled in to watch a movie, and Mark says he and Flo went down to this boat deck. They chatted briefly with a man who took a small boat across the lake... then Mark says he left Flo to go put the boys to bed.

Unger: Flo was very comfortable on that deck.  She wasn’t ready to come in yet I guess.

Maggie and Linn Duncan are part owners at Watervale.  They had been out to dinner that night with friends and returned around 9:30.

Linn Duncan, part-owner at Watervale: Boy it was dark I’ll tell 'ya.  That I remember. 

Mark says he spent about 15 minutes with the boys and when he went back to the boat deck, Flo was gone.   He says he saw a light on at the Duncan’s house, and figured she was there and might want privacy... he didn’t look.

Unger: It wasn’t anything earth shattering that made me not go up there.  I just  thought about it and I said, “Oh she’s up there.  She’s fine.”  And I just went back to the cottage.

When Mark woke the next morning and Flo was still missing, he called the Duncans.

Linn Duncan: It sounded like—somebody—in tears and says, “This is Mark and—my wife hasn’t come home all night.”

The Duncans went down to the boat deck -  and what they found there still haunts them.  There was Flo, face down in the shallow water.

Linn Duncan: We have memories there that’ll never disappear.  Never.

Maggie Duncan: I’ll carry it to my grave.

Maggie called 911.

911 TAPE

Operator: Benzie county 911.

Maggie Duncan: Yeah, I’m pretty upset.

Operator: Okay, what’s your name?

Maggie Duncan: Maggie Duncan.  D-u-n-c-a-n. I believe there is a suicide or a drowning or something.

While Maggie was on the phone, Linn went to get Mark.  They met between Mark’s cottage and the boat deck.  Linn says he remembers exactly what he said. 

Linn Duncan: "Mark she’s in the water.  You’re not gonna like it."

Linn says Mark made a bee-line to Flo’s body. 

Unger: I picked her up.  And put my arms underneath her.  And just lifted her up.  And there was blood just started coming out.  And I just freaked. And I just dropped her. I mean I’m in the water with my wife who’s just cold and bloody. Dead.

Hansen: And you have your children.

Unger: Yeah I wasn’t thinking.  My whole life just ended right then.  I wasn’t thinking about anything.  My whole world had ended right there.

Troy Packard was the first officer at the scene.  He sensed something was off the minute he looked over the boat deck railing.   

911 TAPE

Troy Packard:  Better call out the troops on this one.

Operator:  Oh, yeah?

Packard:  Yeah, I got blood and ...

Operator:  Oh, Jesus, are you kidding?

Packard:  There is blood on the cement platform and now she is in the water.

Operator:  Oh God

Packard:  So how did the blood get on the cement platform before she got in the water you know?

That question would be asked again and again in the days... weeks... and months to come.  How did blood get on the cement platform if Flo was found in the water?

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