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[Music]
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up next a family vacation turns into a
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nightmare that's when i see the body of
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a female lying face down in the water
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and possible clues provide more
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questions than answers either it was an
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accident someone caused her death or she
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killed herself experts can't seem to
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agree on exactly what happened there is
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not one single eyewitness to anything
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there are no confessions there are no
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fingerprints until groundbreaking
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science discovers the truth method
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opportunity motive and last person to
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see them alive classic reasons for
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murder
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[Music]
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[Music]
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every year the younger family spent
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their vacation on the western shore of
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lake michigan in a place called
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watervale
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it's almost a sanctuary for them to go
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somewhere else in the state where they
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can just forget about the rest of the
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world and reconnect with her with
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themselves and their families and their
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loved ones
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florence worked as a bank loan officer
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her husband mark a mortgage broker was
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also a well-known radio personality
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mark unger had a sports radio show and
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made him somewhat of a celebrity within
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a circle of friends
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their vacation in 2003 was like most
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others the youngers checked into their
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cabin had dinner and mark spent time
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with their two sons while florence was
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outside for some fresh air
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i read a story to the boys
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sang a song put them to bed kiss them
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good night
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and came back out to the deck and that
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florence was not on the deck
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mock assumed florence went next door to
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their friend's cabin since their lights
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were on
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not wanting to leave the children alone
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mark went to bed
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[Music]
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when he awoke just after dawn
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florence still wasn't there
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he called the resort owners
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approximately 7 30 in the morning
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asking them if they had seen florence
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they said they had not
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the resort owners went looking for her
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and found florence's body in the lake
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and called 911.
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there was a guest at waterdale there was
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an acquaintance of it and i believe this
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suicider is drowning what is her name
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when police arrived
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they noticed florence's body was in the
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lake next to a boat launch
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12 feet above was the deck outside the
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unger's cabin
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when i looked up there was a deck
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railing from the boathouse and i noticed
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the deck railing was broke and fractured
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out
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it looked as if florence had been
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sitting on the railing and it gave way
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investigators measured the height of the
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railing and discovered that it was 10
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inches below the state building code
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you look at that rail and it's low
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enough that you think if somebody had
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been sitting on it they could lose their
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balance and fall over the edge i know
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that i personally didn't want to sit on
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it
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the splintered railing led to suspicions
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it was structurally unsound
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they referred to it as a death trap and
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that it was an accident waiting to
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happen a person could reasonably
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pieced together
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someone fell through a railing hit the
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ground and ended up perhaps in the lake
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there
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florence's body was transported to the
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medical examiner for an autopsy
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the medical examiner found no drugs or
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alcohol in her system
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he did find evidence of severe head
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trauma
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but the cause of death
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wasn't the head trauma
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it was drowning there was plenty of
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fluid and
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that was the result of her active
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inhalation
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of the water from the lake because she
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was submerged
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but what caused florence to fall to her
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death
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was it suicide an accident
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or something more sinister
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this is flo unger and she was a student
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from
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1975 to 1978.
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the tragic death of florence unger the
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mother of two young children was a shock
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to co-workers friends and family
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unless you've lived through it it's very
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difficult to explain you're you feel
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like your head's going to explode it's
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totally complete devastation there's
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nothing like it it's unimaginable
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police at the scene had to consider
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every possibility
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what do you have you know do you have a
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suicide do you have an accident
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or or do you have a homicide
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florence's family ruled out suicide as a
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possibility
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there's no way that she could have
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contemplated suicide for a number of
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reasons number one she would never have
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left her children
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parentless
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an accident seemed like a distinct
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possibility the railing on the deck
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outside the younger's cabin was freshly
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broken
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it looked as if she were sitting or
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leaning on it and it gave way
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causing her to fall to the boat launch
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below
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but how did the body get into the water
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mark unger hired a private independent
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forensic firm to find out why
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they concluded
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that with florence falling 12 feet from
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the deck the momentum of the fall
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carried her forward from the point of
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impact they produced five different
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scenarios computer animations that
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showed different ways
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that florence could have possibly ended
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up in the water
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the forensic firm concluded that
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florence's death was an accident
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but the medical examiner completely
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disagreed
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bodies do not bounce that's number one
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she would have been rendered unconscious
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upon contact an unconscious person
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unconscious individual cannot just
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walk into the water
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and dr dragovich noticed that the blood
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stain on the boat launch was nearly a
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foot in
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diameter for blood to go to that size to
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the diameter that we're talking on the
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cement platform
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the body would have had to bend there
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for a period of time
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to find out how long florence would have
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laid their bleeding dr dragovich
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examined slides of her brain tissue
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he focused on the neurons
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a cellular communication system that
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controls movement memory and emotion
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dr dragovich discovered
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repair proteins in florence's brain that
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were released after her head injury
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this showed that florence's brain was
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struggling to survive long after she hit
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her head
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and before she drowned
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these neurons are suffering from lack of
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oxygen
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they are damaged and there some of them
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are already dead but some of them are
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trying to repair themselves it was a
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long period of time
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she was alive unconscious but alive
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still alive still breathing
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dr dragovich estimated that florence was
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lying on the cement for at least 90
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minutes possibly for as long as two
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hours before she was in the water
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and there was other conflicting evidence
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the blood stain on the boat launch and
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the broken railing above
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did not line up
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the trajectory
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of where she wound up on the deck was
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not in line with where the break in the
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railing occurred
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to see whether the deck railing was
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structurally unsound analysts tested an
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unbroken section of the deck railing
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using what's called
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a load cell
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the load cell
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is more or less a scale it's a series of
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springs and sensors and it measures
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compression and tension
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florence weighed 110 pounds
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to simulate her sitting on the railing
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analysts attached a bicycle seat to one
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end of the load cell
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to the other end they attached a t-bar
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to which they applied
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200 pounds of pressure the railing
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didn't buckle
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or break
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somebody from the lab made the comment
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wow 200 pounds so we knew right then and
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there that
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any any
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plan to paint the rail is is rotting and
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dilapidated weren't going to work
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it was beginning to look like the scene
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had been staged to look like an accident
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it was a charge florence's husband mark
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adamantly denied
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people that knew mark said mark was not
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a killer
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mark would not do that
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that he loved flo that he loved his
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family that
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that he would not do anything like that
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mark had no criminal history
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and his children said they heard nothing
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suspicious on the night of the incident
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no argument or fight between their
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mother and father
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mark continued to maintain his wife's
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death was a tragic accident
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he told the police she had been a little
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depressed but he later went
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on to tell the police flo would have
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never committed suicide he was adamant
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about that
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but florence's family believed
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this was murder
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and that mark was her killer
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method
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opportunity motive
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no alibi and last person to see them
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alive classic reasons for murder
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he had them all
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mark and florence unger appeared to have
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an ideal marriage
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on the surface they would appear to be
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the perfect couple living in an affluent
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community with two beautiful children a
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beautiful house but to those who were in
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their inner circle they knew that there
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were many many problems
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mark unger's issues with drugs and
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gambling had cost him his job
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he was a pathological gambler mark was a
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an alcoholic he was a drug addict and
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this this was affecting his uh his
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personality
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he spent as much as six months at a time
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in rehab
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florence actually said at one point it
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almost seemed like rehabilitation had
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become his job
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police also learned that florence had
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filed for divorce two months before her
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death and had moved on to another
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relationship
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there was evidence of a relationship
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that flo had become involved in and this
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individual was a close friend of marx as
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well so it was a
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difficult circumstance at best
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investigators discovered that florence
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had seen this man just a few days before
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her death and that mark might have known
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about it
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i believe on that deck that it's a very
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real possibility that something about
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florence's relationship came out
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and now
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yet another potential motive emerged
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florence had two life insurance policies
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with a combined value of three-quarters
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of a million dollars and mark
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was the sole beneficiary
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there's no question that flo was worth
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more debt to mark than she was alive
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even stranger just five days before his
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wife's death mark had a run of bad luck
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at a local casino
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we understand that he lost about seven
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thousand dollars
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shortly before
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a fateful trip
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and i mean within within days of that
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fateful trip
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and friends told investigators
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florence didn't want to take the trip to
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the lake in fact
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she was afraid to go
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clo's friends were all apprehensive
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several of her friends asked her why are
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you doing this why are you going up
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there she did not want to go but she was
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afraid to go and she admitted that to a
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neighbor
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and if that weren't enough
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the resort owner gave police even more
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evidence also circumstantial
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he said when he told mark he had found
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florence's body
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mark didn't ask him where it was
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the resort owner absolutely positively
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testified
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that he did not tell mark where flo was
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florence was
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but mark appeared to know
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exactly where to go mark ran right to
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florence's body lying in the water
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without being told where she was at and
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without being able to observe her from
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his vantage point
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to prove this
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investigators placed a mannequin in the
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water exactly where florence's body was
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found
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then an investigator with a video camera
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stood at the exact spot where the resort
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owner told mark his wife was dead
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in this videotape
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it's clear the body can't be seen until
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the viewer is virtually on top of it
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he knew exactly where the body was at
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but none of this proved murder
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in fact
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investigators had no direct evidence
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linking mark
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to florence's death
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that is
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until they looked at mark unger's shoes
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and found
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a white smear the state police crime lab
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found a white
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speck of what they
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uh
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believed was paint
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investigators sent mark's shoe along
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with six different paint samples
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collected from the resort to forensic
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scientist keith lamont
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i received several known samples from
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various locations from the vacation home
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and boathouse area
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he bombarded the sample with infrared
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light which identifies the chemical
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makeup of the samples in ways that can
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then be measured
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paints composition basically consists of
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a solvent which is a liquid
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a pigment which is the color
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and a binder and the binder you can
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think of as glue
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lamont found that the paint on mark
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unger's shoe was virtually identical to
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the paint on the railing and the post
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holding the railing
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the question paint sample from the
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stronger shoe was consistent chemically
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with the known paint from the rail
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to investigators
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this pointed to only one logical
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conclusion
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we believe mark kicked that railing and
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the paint stuff on the shoe certainly
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would suggest that
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but
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was this enough
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to get a conviction
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investigators knew two important details
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about the death of florence unger
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first
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tests showed a 110 pound woman sitting
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or leaning against the deck railing
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could not have caused it to splinter
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second
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forensic tests identified repair
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proteins in florence's brain
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scientific proof that she lay bleeding
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on the cement boat launch for about 90
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minutes before she drowned in the lake
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this made forensic history
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it was the first time
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immunohistochemistry was used in a
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criminal case
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it's an advantage of being a forensic
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pathologist at the same time a
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neuropathologist and being a general
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pathologist that i started with in the
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first place
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the best advice in police work is
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consider every
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death scene as a homicide scene
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seven months after florence's death
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mark unger was charged with first-degree
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murder there's no question if you look
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at the evidence in its totality um that
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mark unger made a calculated decision to
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take another person's life
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his lawyer said there was no case
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against him
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there is not one single eyewitness to
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anything there are no confessions there
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are no fingerprints
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prosecutors believe mark hoped to
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salvage their marriage
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but they think florence said no
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mark became violent and pushed her over
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the railing
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she hit her head on the boat launch 12
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feet below
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the evidence indicates she lay there
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bleeding for at least 90 minutes
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mark went back to their cabin and put
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the boys to bed
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when he returned to the boat launch
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he was probably surprised to learn that
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florence was still alive
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[Music]
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so he pushed her into the lake
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where she drowned
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but he didn't realize the size of the
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blood stain on the boat launch
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and the repair neurons in florence's
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brain
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both
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told a story
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in an attempt to make it look like an
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accident mark kicked the railing with
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his right foot transferring paint to the
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tip of his shoe
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and where he kicked the railing was
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inconsistent with the location of the
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body
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mark
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either
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found out about the relationship that
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florence was having with another man or
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else he if not found out she made it
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clear to him that you know that's only
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one of the things going on but this
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marriage is finished what mark did is he
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went out there
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and he put her in the water
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while she was still alive he had every
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opportunity to call for help he never
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did he let her lay there
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and after thinking about what to do
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after some time he premeditated it went
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back and put her in the water and let
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her drown
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three years after florence's death
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mark unger was convicted of first-degree
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murder and sentenced to life without
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parole
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his head snapped back
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when the verdict was read he was shocked
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at the verdict he anticipated going home
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that day
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i was wrongfully convicted of this crime
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i am innocent
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florence's parents say her death should
00:19:17
never have happened
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while my daughter's death was a tragic
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and unnecessary event i think there's a
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lesson to be learned from it
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and that is
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that a woman who is going through a
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divorce
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should avoid contact
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with her estranged husband
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unless it's absolutely necessary
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and then with witnesses present and even
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though it might be contrary to the
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advice of her lawyer
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and even
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if there's no history
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of
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mental or physical abuse
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divorce is a very volatile situation
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and it is better to er on the side of
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caution
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because
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even casual contact
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could result in a
00:20:05
dangerous or life-threatening event
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florence's parents are raising her
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children
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and keep a small garden in her memory
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although the grief
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is permanent
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i miss her every single minute
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of every single day
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and i hope he thinks about what he's
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done
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for the rest of his miserable life
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mark unger
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almost got away with murder
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only scientific analysis of brain tissue
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and his shoes
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ensured he didn't
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how he could think that he was going to
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get away with it i can't imagine being
00:20:49
able to establish that
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that florence was alive for an extended
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period of time
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before she was placed in the water was
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was crucial
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very important
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it was a great
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you know reminder that you know things
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aren't always as what they seem they're
00:21:07
not always what people try to portray
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them to be
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[Music]
