Saturday 20 April 2013

Addiction Can Lead To Murder

Addiction can take many forms; drugs, alcohol, sex, money.  But there are people who have addictive personalities and take to likewise people.  The case of Mark & Florence Unger is a case in question.  He is serving life without parole for her murder.  He still maintains his innocence but his subsequent behaviour after her death, and with a second, more thorough autopsy, led the Police to arrest and charge him.

    It all started out as the perfect marriage.  He worked as a sportscaster, becoming quite popular, and she as a housewife and mother, living a very comfortable life.  After a number of years, he changed jobs to a mortgage broker, a job he disliked but it still provided him with a very good income.  However, over time, he became addicted to drugs, booze and gambling.  With all this turmoil going on in his life, Flo started an affair with a man called Glenn.  Glenn fulfilled the sexual needs and emotional support she felt was lacking with Mark.  He went into rehab, so Flo had to go out to work to support the family.  Mark, after rehab, made no attempt to get back into employment, causing further divisions between them.  Eventually, she asked him for a divorce.  His reaction was of disbelief and anger.

    They had a weekend away, staying at a boathouse.  Flo was found floating in the lake by the owner, but the reaction of Mark puzzled the owner.  He ran straight to where she was in the water, dspite not being told exactly where she was.  She could not be seen from where they met up.  Plus, he made no attempt to pull her out of the water, and try resuscitation.  Police were called and processed the scene.  The initial officer on the scene was deeply suspicious, that things did not seem right.  But an autopsy ruled her death an accident, that she fell over a balcony, struck her head on the floor below and rolled into the lake.  Flo`s family did not agree and pressed for a new autopsy.  A more thorough examination discovered that she had drowned, not died from her head injury.  She was alive when she went into the water.  Examination of brain tissues showed that parts of her brain had started to repair itself, thus showing that she had been alive for some time before she died.  Mark was convicted of her murder.

    It seems to be yet another example of one spouse deciding that if they cannot have the other, then nobody can.  Was Mark addicted to Flo?  That he could never let go?  Also that Flo was addicted to the Mark she first married and tried to replicate that feeling with Glenn?  Why is accepting the sands of time such a problem for people?  We are all getting older, slowing down, and therefore should have to face our limitations. 

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