OFFICER'S PRIVILEGE: THE COL. GEORGE MARECEK STORY

A Complicated Case

Despite those statements, says Hicks, it is a complicated and arcane case. There was no smoking gun, no witness to the slaying, no DNA evidence. Even the footprints left at the scene were obscured by the tide and rain and were inconclusive. And for all the circumstantial evidence, there were nagging questions about the case. Why, for example, would Marecek, a man who had spent 36 years in the military, a man who was trained to kill men with his bare hands need to use a blunt object - and object which was never recovered - to slay his tiny, Thai wife?

Hicks now speculates that Marecek couldn't bring himself to actually wrap his hands around his wife's throat, that there was still too great an emotional connection there for that, but that he could have found the will to bash her into unconsciousness and then leave her to drown.

In fact, it took more than two and half years before authorities compiled enough evidence to seek an indictment against the Colonel. On January 10, 1994, Colonel George Marecek was charged with first-degree murder.