OFFICER'S PRIVILEGE: THE COL. GEORGE MARECEK STORY

"Now I have Control of My Little Girl"

It's not immediately clear when authorities first began to question the sincerity of Marecek's public demonstration of grief. But little by little, their suspicion began to focus on him.

Certainly, the fact that he had, as late as January of 1991, purchased a $150,000 double-indemnity policy on his wife's life raised some eyebrows among investigators. And then there were the letters, the so-called love letters between Marecek and his cousin Hana whom he would later marry. Authorities, with Marecek's permission, recovered the letters from a hiding place inside a dewing machine at Marecek's Fayetteville home.

But there were also odd snippets of conversations that Marecek had after Viparet's slaying that made them look a little more closely at Marecek. For example, court records recount one conversation between Marecek and his eldest daughter. "On Thursday, June 6, 1991, Susan Kirk...drove to Fort Fisher to be with her father after she learned Viparet was dead. The next morning, she accompanied (Marecek) to the funeral home to pickup a box of Viparet's cremated remains and said, 'Now I have control of my little girl."

He then shifted the subject to the $300,000 he was expecting from the insurance company, Kirk would later testify.

There was also a comment he made to his son, Michael. Michael would later testify that Marecek was in his cups one evening after the slaying when he admitted that he "made a big mistake." At first, Michael Marecek testified that he believed his father had been referring to the murder of Viparet. Later, he recanted, saying that he believed that overzealous prosecutors had essentially brainwashed him, and later he testified in his father's defense.

And finally, there was the testimony of Preston, the Green Beret who told the court that Marecek in 1993 had hinted that he had a hand in his wife's death.