OFFICER'S PRIVILEGE: THE COL. GEORGE MARECEK STORY

The Search Continues

If, as prosecutors have alleged, Marecek knew that his wife was not coming home, at least not alive, he certainly did make every effort to keep up appearances. The next day, he struck out again to search for his wife. Ever loyal to routine, before he began his search, however, he took time for his regular morning jog. As a detective who later interviewed him put it, Marecek "said that was a ritual for him and Viparet, they would both go jogging." That morning, Marecek ran alone, the detective wrote.

That done, Marecek returned to the task at hand. By his own account, he got a slow start. "Prior of (sic) actually starting, I got my bearings from the Fort Fisher piece, when I noticed a person standing on (a) sandbar. This gave me psychological motivation to drive onwhen I entered then sand bar, I noticed the person on the sandbar again at a greater distance wearingwhat looked like a dark blue jacket with a beard."

Thinking perhaps that Viparet had made her way out to the same sandbar, Marecek said he pressed on. "After a short time," he wrote, "I spotted something different, something that did not blend with the nature."

It was, authorities later confirmed, the body of his slain wife.

"It was my Viparet," Marecek wrote. And then, with what seems to be the only emotion in the entirety of his statement, Marecek tried to describe his grief. "The rest is very difficult to articulate in words. My subconscious mind must have taken control. I had no control over myself, I felt anger outrage, hate. I took the shortest way back to Fort Fisher to call the authorities," he wrote. "I cannot completely account for what happened during my run back or what happened when I arrived there."