by  Seamus McGraw

June 21, 2006

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RENO, Nev. (Crime Library) —  For all his apparently careful planning, when Darren Mack, the swinger pawnbroker accused of stabbing his estranged wife to death and wounding a family court judge who he believed had wronged him, fled Reno, he left behind a trove of evidence, including bomb-making materials and a receipt for the rifle he is suspected of using against the judge.

Darren Roy Mack

It is, to be sure, one of the more enigmatic elements of the case. Authorities have said that there is little doubt in their minds that Mack, a man embroiled in a bitter divorce, had become almost obsessed with Judge Chuck Weller, a man who he believed was frustrating his attempts to win custody of his daughter. Mack had, according to authorities and published accounts, launched a campaign to discredit the judge, amassing documents, some of which were later recovered in his apartment, and had, according to reports in the local press, even amassed bomb-making materials.

Judge Chuck Weller

Authorities believe that in the days before he launched his attack, Mack planned his getaway, renting a sport utility vehicle from a California company with his business credit card and probably stashing away enough cash to keep him afloat while on the run. Authorities also suspect that Mack, a man with a taste for the tropics, may have planned a way to slip out of the country, perhaps to some remote area of South or Central America or the Caribbean where he could be absorbed into the anonymous fog of an expat community. He remains at large.

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