Deadly Omission

Summary

Dateline NBC: "Deadly Omission" – A Comprehensive Summary

Host: Lester Holt
Reporter: Andrea Canning
Episode Title: Deadly Omission
Description: This episode delves into a chilling true-crime story involving the murders of two women, Carol Marlin and Casey Peek, orchestrated by their husband, John Peek. Through in-depth investigations and family-led efforts, Dateline uncovers the manipulative tactics of a master manipulator and the quest for justice by the victims' loved ones.

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1. Introduction to the Case

The episode opens with Andrea Canning introducing a tragic narrative of betrayal and murder. Three women are found dead, with their husband John Peek emerging as the prime suspect. The story spans nearly a decade, unraveling complexities in both personal relationships and investigative procedures.

Notable Quote:

• "Three women are dead in a triple murder mystery. Could an undercover sting help catch the killer?"
  — Andrea Canning [02:03]

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2. The Victims and the Suspect

Victims:

• Carol Marlin: A 46-year-old engineer at Lockheed Martin.
• Maggie Ginn: Carol's close friend and coworker.

Suspect:

• John Peek: Carol Marlin's common-law husband and later, Casey Peek's husband.

John Peek is portrayed as a charismatic individual who seamlessly integrated into the social circles of both victims, masking his true intentions.

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3. The First Incident: Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn (1996)

In June 1997, John Peek reported his common-law wife, Carol Marlin, missing. Detective Eddie Herman of the Cobb County Police Department initiated the investigation, which led to the discovery of Carol and Maggie's brutal murders at Maggie's residence. Both women were found beaten to death, with no signs of forced entry or robbery, suggesting a targeted attack.

Key Points:

• Crime Scene: Maggie's home appeared staged to resemble a burglary, but nothing of value was taken.
• Evidence: A torn invoice from Lockheed Martin was found in Maggie's hand, and a threatening letter received by Carol indicated internal personnel issues at her workplace.
• John Peek's Behavior: He was immediately considered a suspect due to inconsistencies in his statements, such as claiming he didn't know Maggie's address despite having access to it.

Notable Quotes:

• "The dresser is... all the drawers are pulled open. But when you look into any of those, nothing has been touched inside the drawers."
  — Andrea Canning [39:01]

• "She's a manipulator. She's a narcissist. He's not going to stop until the day he dies."
  — Andrea Canning [88:29]

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4. The Second Incident: Casey Peek (2005)

Almost a decade later, Casey Peek, a computer programmer and John Peek's second wife, was found dead in her condo. Similarities to the first case quickly surfaced, raising suspicions about John Peek's involvement.

Key Points:

• Discovery: Casey's husband, Ronnie Myers, found her with a gunshot wound, and the scene was meticulously staged to mimic a robbery.
• Investigative Patterns:
  • Both crimes involved John Peek being the initial person to report the missing wife.
  • The staging of the crime scenes suggested an attempt to divert suspicion.
  • In both cases, John Peek lied about not knowing the victims personally, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Notable Quotes:

• "Do you think that John Peek could kill again?"
  — Andrea Canning [51:12]

• "He has no empathy. He has no caring. He's gonna trick you into thinking he loves you, and he doesn't. It's all about, how can you benefit him."
  — Andrea Canning [84:36]

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5. Investigation and Family-Led Efforts

Frustrated by the lack of progress and fueled by their suspicion, Casey Peek's family—Jackie Don and David Kruger—took matters into their own hands. Employing covert methods, they conducted an undercover wiretap during meetings with John Peek to gather incriminating evidence.

Key Points:

• Wiretap Operation: Equipped with hidden recorders, Jackie and David sought to document John's incriminating statements.
• Revelations: During one of these meetings, John Peek inadvertently revealed a past confession to the murder of his first wife, Carol Marlin, strengthening the case against him.
• Challenges: Despite their efforts, physical evidence remained scarce, with gunshot residue tests returning negative for John.

Notable Quotes:

• "Let him speak. He's geared towards playing to the audience."
  — Andrea Canning [69:30]

• "We knew he killed Casey."
  — Andrea Canning [73:56]

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6. Linking the Cases and Building the Case Against John Peek

Through meticulous comparison of both cases, investigators identified a pattern of deceit and staged crime scenes orchestrated by John Peek. Financial motives emerged as a critical factor, with life insurance policies and hidden assets revealing a possible motive rooted in greed.

Key Points:

• Financial Motive: John Peek benefited financially from the deaths of both Carol and Casey, with substantial life insurance payouts.
• Pattern of Behavior: His ability to manipulate relationships and investigations pointed to a calculated approach to committing murders without direct evidence.
• Legal Strategy: Prosecutors decided to charge John Peek primarily for Casey's murder, intending to leverage this conviction to secure charges for the earlier double homicide.

Notable Quotes:

• "If you're planning a murder to gain insurance proceeds, makes sense to do whatever's necessary to keep that insurance policy intact, doesn't it?"
  — Andrea Canning [80:46]

• "He is the most dangerous kind of con man."
  — Andrea Canning [84:36]

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7. The Arrest and Legal Proceedings

In April 2007, after years of relentless investigation and circumstantial evidence, John Peek was arrested and charged with the murders of Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn. Despite lacking direct physical evidence, the accumulation of financial motives and behavioral patterns sealed his fate.

Key Points:

• Plea Deal: Facing mounting evidence and pressure, John Peek pleaded guilty, resulting in a life sentence.
• Ongoing Manipulation: Even behind bars, Peek continued to manipulate situations, attempting to fabricate evidence against others to divert suspicion.
• Impact on Families: The prolonged investigation took a significant emotional toll on the victims' families, who sought closure and justice.

Notable Quotes:

• "I would like to give you anything I can."
  — Andrea Canning [16:48]

• "I think greed. It's easy money."
  — Andrea Canning [81:33]

---

8. Conclusion and Legacy

"Deadly Omission" serves as a poignant reminder of the depths of manipulation and the pursuit of justice. The coordination between professional detectives and determined family members ultimately unmasked John Peek's true nature, ensuring he faced the consequences of his actions.

Notable Quotes:

• "You just feel it's more of his lies, more of his manipulation."
  — Andrea Canning [85:21]

• "And he's a monster."
  — Andrea Canning [87:17]

---

Key Takeaways:

• John Peek's methodical approach to committing murders highlights the importance of recognizing patterns in criminal behavior.
• Family involvement can be instrumental in uncovering the truth, especially when professional investigations hit dead ends.
• Financial motives often underpin criminal actions, emphasizing the need for thorough examination of financial records in homicide cases.

Final Reflection: Andrea Canning and Lester Holt encapsulate the emotional and investigative journey, underscoring the relentless quest for truth and the profound impact of such crimes on families and communities.

---

This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the "Deadly Omission" episode, capturing the essence of the investigation, the roles played by key individuals, and the ultimate pursuit of justice for the victims.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Andrea Canning]

Tonight on Dateline.

[Lester Holt]

I dropped to my knees. I screamed. I couldn't believe it. My friend is dead. Casey is dead.

[Andrea Canning]

Just found my wife. Connected. A woman has been found in a condo. There had been a gunshot and the gentleman who found her is her husband John. It was like a punch in the gutter. Did we miss something? And if we did, would Casey still be alive? Now we have three victims.

[Lester Holt]

Three women are dead, and you could be next. I was petrified. It was so unbelievable that there is.

[Andrea Canning]

That kind of evil out there.

[Lester Holt]

You both decided that you were going to record a conversation.

[Andrea Canning]

I wired her up.

[Lester Holt]

The secret wiretap thing. Good grief. What was the strategy? Get him to talk.

[Andrea Canning]

I told the police everything. What do you want to know from me?

[Lester Holt]

Crying out loud, there's something damn suspicious. I looked right at him and I thought, oh, this is on.

[Andrea Canning]

Three women dead in a triple murder mystery. Could an undercover sting help catch the killer?

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

[Andrea Canning]

Here's Andrea Canning with deadly omission. I don't think there was a day that went by I didn't think about him or what he was doing.

[Lester Holt]

He was the suspect who slipped away.

[Andrea Canning]

I felt like, lord, I hope that there's not anything I missed.

[Lester Holt]

A man who had everyone fooled. He's gonna trick you into thinking he loves you and he doesn't. A master manipulator disguised as the perfect catch. Just one woman to the next.

[Andrea Canning]

He's a narcissist. He's not going to stop until the day he dies.

[Lester Holt]

He's a dangerous. A dangerous person. Our story begins here on a Saturday night in October 2005. Everyone tucked away in their quiet homes, asleep. Ronnie Myers was just getting home to his condo complex outside of Atlanta after a night at the dog track when he saw it.

[Andrea Canning]

I was backing into this space here, and as I was backing in, I noticed something shiny sitting on the curb. So when I got out of the car, I walked back toward the object, and I noticed it was a purse. I yelled to see if anybody was out here.

[Lester Holt]

Was the stuff out of the purse or in the purse?

[Andrea Canning]

No, everything was contained in the purse.

[Lester Holt]

Okay. Odd to see a purse just sitting there. Usually you notice a few pops.

[Andrea Canning]

I thought it was very suspicious. So first I didn't want to touch it. And I was like, well, maybe somebody came home intoxicated and just set it down.

[Lester Holt]

And presumably you'd think that the person would live in this complex.

[Andrea Canning]

Exactly.

[Lester Holt]

Inside the purse was a note with the words I love you, John, and an ID with a name Casey Peek. There was also a cell phone. Ronnie scrolled through it and found a number for a John Peek.

[Andrea Canning]

And I said, well, maybe this is a brother or husband.

[Lester Holt]

He decided to wait until the sun was up to call.

[Andrea Canning]

And so when I got him on the phone, I said, I'm trying to reach Casey. And he said, who is this? I said, well, I found her purse in my complex.

[Lester Holt]

And he said, you did? Ronnie gave him the address, and John picked up Casey's purse. Then soon after, at a different complex down the road, he's running 911.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, this is John Peek. Okay. What's going. I just found my wife, dad. She said, feel like. Please.

[Lester Holt]

And you sure that she's deceased?

[Andrea Canning]

I'm pretty sure, yeah. Do you know what happened? The back door is open. Okay. How old is your wife? I'm 44. Did it appear to be natural causes? Had she been sick? I don't know. I didn't get that. Cause she's stiff. I have officers on the way to help you. Okay, thank you.

[Lester Holt]

Within minutes, officers were at the scene. John was waiting outside and directed them to the back door. The condo had been ransacked. Cabinet doors were open. Things were strewn across the floor. In the bedroom was Casey lying in a pool of blood. She'd been shot.

[Andrea Canning]

The detectives are coming out. Okay, so they're gonna look at the scene, and then they're gonna ask you.

[Lester Holt]

Too, to make sure we have everything correct.

[Andrea Canning]

O.

[Lester Holt]

An officer spoke to John outside.

[Andrea Canning]

All right, let me get my notepad. Just stay right here for me.

[Lester Holt]

John told the officer he last spoke to his wife Casey, at 4pm the day before.

[Andrea Canning]

She's going to a friend's house. Did she tell you the name of the friend? What was the friend's name? Kim. Kim. To get something of this magnitude was pretty unusual for that complex.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Ron Waddell from the Smyrna Police Department got the call.

[Andrea Canning]

As I got there, I met with another detective. And we're directed around to the back of the condo. They're doing a crime scene log in the back. And it's just time for us to go in and see exactly what we believe may have happened inside the condo.

[Lester Holt]

So you go in pretty much right away?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

And as you walk into this condominium, what are you seeing?

[Andrea Canning]

All the blinds are shut. It's dark inside. Our victim is laying in the bed and she's got her glasses on. The TV's on, and her glasses are a little askew on her face.

[Lester Holt]

And there in the mattress, a big clue. A bullet from a.30 caliber rifle.

[Andrea Canning]

You could tell that there had been a gunshot that went through her back. It exited through the front and through her forearm before getting stuck in the mattress.

[Lester Holt]

What do you see in the condo? Is there anything out of place? Is there a murder weapon?

[Andrea Canning]

Unfortunately, there's no murder weapon there, but the rest of the condo has been completely gone through.

[Lester Holt]

Casey's sister Jackie Don, and brother in law David Kruger were driving home from a wedding in Texas when the phone rang. I got a call on my cell phone, and it was Smyrna Police Department who told me that my sister was dead. I was in shock.

[Andrea Canning]

He said she'd been found dead of a gunshot wound.

[Lester Holt]

Dead of a gunshot wound. It was just horrendous. Word spread quickly to Casey's friends, Jan Taylor and Kim Sheppner. I dropped to my knees. I screamed. I couldn't believe it. And I felt like, oh, my gosh. She was just at my house. She was just here. Kim is the friend John mentioned to the officer. She and Casey had talked late into the night. Kim didn't want Casey to go home. And I said to her, why don't you stay, Casey? It's about 45 to 50 minutes to drive home. Why don't you stay tonight? Come on, girl. Stay here. And she just said, no, I've got things to do tomorrow. What happened to Casey Peake? Horror. Am I in a nightmare?

[Andrea Canning]

You know, it's just absolute gut punch.

[Lester Holt]

A question that unraveled another mystery. You worried he could kill again?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes. It just made my skin crawl and.

[Lester Holt]

Turned families desperate for answers into amateur detectives.

[Andrea Canning]

I'm gonna say this one more Time. Let him speak. He's geared towards playing to the audience.

[Lester Holt]

Can it be a skeptical audience? Detective Ron Waddell has worked hundreds of crime scenes in his career. But Casey Peek's murder is seared into his memory.

[Andrea Canning]

That has always kind of stuck with me. The expression on her face.

[Lester Holt]

I realize she's deceased, but did it look like an expression of fear?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, ma'am, Fear for sure. Eyes were open. It actually looked like she was still looking at somebody that was in the room.

[Lester Holt]

While the detective launched his investigation, Casey's sister Jackie, dawn and brother in law David flew to Atlanta. It was where Casey, a computer programmer, had built a life for herself, miles away from her family and friends in Texas. She was doing really well. She was surrounded by a lot of great girlfriends. Oh, yeah. Friends like Kim and Jan. They met Casey at the Atlanta Ski Club, the club to be in in Atlanta. I don't think of skiing when I think of Atlanta. No. And people say that sometimes people don't.

[Andrea Canning]

No.

[Lester Holt]

But believe me, half of the members were just there for the socials. So Casey loved the social elements.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

The ladies would go out often. All three were single, open to finding a partner. Especially Casey. She was very intelligent, she was very good at what she did. She didn't need to rely on a man exactly. She just really wanted a companion. I mean, she wanted to have it all, to have the career, have the love, have all the things that that entails. The house and the house. Then one day, John Peake walked through her door. You know how the old saying, you gotta leave your house if you want to meet somebody. Get off your couch, get off your couch. That's what I always say. She is the one case where the man came to her. The man came to her. Casey had a party at her condo and one of her guests brought john as their plus one. He was a 46 year old software engineer who worked as a consultant at an electronic payment company. John ended up hitting it off with the party host. Then she sent a picture of him and a brief little blurb and says, I'm going to call you about him. He's really great.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my God.

[Lester Holt]

She went nuts. Oh yeah. Good looking man. They became a couple instantly. Was she in love with him?

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my God.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Like lost in love. Yes. And they got married very quickly. And how quickly? Like within was it? Maybe four or five months.

[Andrea Canning]

It was quick.

[Lester Holt]

John and Casey both had been married before. This time things felt different. He was one of those really romantic people and flowers and notes and scavenger hunt things and taking her out and stuff like that. So she was really bowled over by him. And she hadn't had anything like that before. She felt like she hit the jackpot. Absolutely. They bought a new home in an upscale community just outside of Atlanta. It was a sprawling, huge mansion.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my gosh.

[Lester Holt]

A gorgeous house, perfect place to have.

[Andrea Canning]

And the neighborhood, like, had this beautiful entrance and rolling hills and. It was beautiful.

[Lester Holt]

Definitely. A dream came true for her. John fit right in with Casey's circle of friends. We did a lot together, and just.

[Andrea Canning]

He was very nice.

[Lester Holt]

Nice to all of us. But after a few years, Jan and Kim noticed a shift. It was when John took a consulting job with Habitat for humanity over 100 miles away in Americus, Georgia.

[Andrea Canning]

And he was down there all the.

[Lester Holt]

Time, and he wouldn't come home on the weekends. And so you're thinking there might be something up? We were just thinking, what's up? Why isn't he coming home? Yes, exactly. Is there another woman? Possibly.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, exactly.

[Lester Holt]

Even though Casey was one of the smartest women they knew, her friends say she didn't see what they saw. She, you know, didn't really see the forest for the trees, really. And I was just like, look, please open your eyes. You know?

[Andrea Canning]

Then she found a charge on her credit card.

[Lester Holt]

She did. It was a hotel charge, not far from where she and John lived. Odd, because John was supposed to be away on a weekend trip with the guys. Casey got in her car and went looking for him.

[Andrea Canning]

So she drives down there, and she went up to the front desk, and she was like, my husband is here.

[Lester Holt]

I just saw the charge.

[Andrea Canning]

And they're like, sorry, ma'am, we can't give you his room number. She demanded that they give. And they gave her the room number.

[Lester Holt]

Casey stormed up to his room and banged on the door. No one answered. And then security escorted her out. Oh, my gosh.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my God. She was devastated.

[Lester Holt]

Even though she didn't see John, she suspected the worst.

[Andrea Canning]

He tried to deny it, but it was. It was obviously and patently a lie.

[Lester Holt]

John's denying it. Kayce's not buying it. What does she do? So Casey moved out of the house and moved back to her condo. That was April 2005, almost two months before their fifth wedding anniversary. But the estrangement didn't last long. Casey and John decided to work on the marriage, and it was going well. She talked about it with Kim the night they saw each other for the very last time. Everything was really upbeat and positive. I mean, she was glowing. She was so happy. We had a great conversation.

[Andrea Canning]

She's a Christian person. She just believes in forgiveness and she believed in her marriage to death. Do his part.

[Lester Holt]

Back at the crime scene, Detective Waddell finished his walkthrough and met with John, who was still waiting outside with the officer.

[Andrea Canning]

At that point, we call him over to, you know, see exactly what's going on with him and what had happened.

[Lester Holt]

Does he agree to go with you? Absolutely, willingly?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

And what a story they were about to hear.

[Andrea Canning]

I'm not sure who I'm going with right now. Does that make sense?

[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

Are you guys on good terms? Are you in a separation phase or what? We're separation, probably getting back together even.

[Lester Holt]

Though they were still living apart. He told the officer they were seeing each other again. Now Casey was gone. And John was eager to help detectives find her killer.

[Andrea Canning]

Hopefully with what information you'll be able to give us, what kind of points in the right direction. I would. I would hope. I'd like to give you anything I can.

[Lester Holt]

John spoke to Detective Waddell and his partner at the police station.

[Andrea Canning]

Explain to me what happened today.

[Lester Holt]

He told them about the call from Ronnie about the purse that led him to check on Casey.

[Andrea Canning]

I called her name. I heard a television on, and I felt a chill go through my body at the time. And I walked back there, and she was very still, and I touched her leg, and I knew she was dead. So I ran out and made a call.

[Lester Holt]

Detectives filled him in on their investigative process.

[Andrea Canning]

A large percentage of homicides are done by family members. So the first place we look is towards the family. Then we go out. Okay, this. This is pretty. This. You are not a suspect. You. You are, though, involved with somebody that was murdered.

[Lester Holt]

The detective asked John if he thought Casey might have been seeing someone else.

[Andrea Canning]

Is she the type that if she did go out somewhere, that there's a probability she would have picked somebody up? I mean, just hooked up with somebody? No, not at all. She's a straight arrow now. I've been racking my brains. You know, I was like, how can I help you? You know, I'm not sure what else I can give you. I don't know anything else. I mean, I just, you know, no, she. I don't think she was depressed. I don't think she did suicide.

[Lester Holt]

Detectives had more questions about his relationship with Casey.

[Andrea Canning]

I saw her Friday night. She was. She was happy on Friday night.

[Lester Holt]

You know, he said they had dinner and watched a movie, and we're getting along. Did you buy his story that they were working on the marriage, that things were getting better?

[Andrea Canning]

I didn't have any evidence to refute it one way or the other. That initial interview you tend to take for face value and see where it goes from there.

[Lester Holt]

John told them Casey was excited to make it work.

[Andrea Canning]

She wanted to get back together faster than I do.

[Lester Holt]

What was her argument or her position?

[Andrea Canning]

Well, she'd like to do it now. Okay. And I'm saying I'm not today. Not moved in, but just me seeing her more often. You weren't into this or. I basically said, you know, I don't want to move too fast on this.

[Lester Holt]

John told detectives that Casey wanted reassurance that there was no one but her. She thought there was another woman.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay. Did she confront you with that? Oh, yeah, many times.

[Lester Holt]

How did she confront you with it?

[Andrea Canning]

Kindly? Yes. Pretty much kindly, yeah. And how did you readdress it? I don't have another relationship. I lied.

[Lester Holt]

Lied because he was seeing another woman. Her name was Liza Kent. He'd met her in Americus, Georgia, on that Habitat for Humanity job. The detectives had a love triangle on their hands.

[Andrea Canning]

Casey didn't know anything about Liza. Lisa know anything about Casey? Yes, she did. She knew you were married. She knew I was married. And that wasn't a problem with her? That was a problem. He's playing both of them against one another. He told us that Liza believes that he is going to divorce his wife, and he's leading her to believe that. But then also, he is taking his estranged wife down this road where he's taking her out for dinner and movies a couple of nights a week.

[Lester Holt]

He wants to have his cake and eat it, too.

[Andrea Canning]

100%? Yes. Every slice.

[Lester Holt]

John said that after Casey moved out earlier that year, Liza moved in. But he fessed up to investigators that things weren't any better with Liza.

[Andrea Canning]

We've been fighting. Okay, so. And Tuesday, I asked her to leave for a few days, and Lisa's just gone. You have no way to contact Lisa? I don't know where she's at right now. I know this is a weird relationship question, but I just gotta ask. Lisa moves out on Tuesday. You're eating lunch with or dinner in a movie with Casey on Friday. I'm not sure who I'm going with right now. Does that make sense? Casey's not 100.

[Lester Holt]

It was clear to detectives that John was not a good husband or a good boyfriend. John says something about his girlfriend in this interview that is very eye opening.

[Andrea Canning]

Well, as it turns out, she's got a gun.

[Lester Holt]

And according to John, Liza knew where Casey lived.

[Andrea Canning]

Do you think she's able to do this? Capable of murdering her? I don't think so. That's kind of a big doubt. I don't think. I mean, there's no. Well, yes or I don't think so. Is she jealous? No, not jealous is the wrong word. She doesn't like me being married.

[Lester Holt]

Jealousy or worried he's going to get back together with Casey.

[Andrea Canning]

Maybe the divorce isn't happening as fast and she can speed it up a little bit is kind of the way it sounded.

[Lester Holt]

Then John revealed that not only did Liza have a gun, she threatened to use it on him.

[Andrea Canning]

Because I was accusing her of having an affair because he was communicating to somebody. Emailing. She went into the bedroom and said, don't come in here, I have a gun. Okay. Immediately after she left, I knew she used to keep a gun in a drawer. So I put taking that gun and placed it up in the closet. All right, so you've hidden that gun. I've hidden that gun because I don't like guns.

[Lester Holt]

But he said Lisa had more than one.

[Andrea Canning]

She was raised with guns. Okay, so she had more than one at a time or she has one in the trunk also. Trunk with her car. On her car.

[Lester Holt]

Detectives had to find Lisa.

[Andrea Canning]

I need your assistance. Unless locating her. Okay.

[Lester Holt]

John let the police search his home in his car. And he agreed to take a gunshot residue test before he left the station.

[Andrea Canning]

This is what we call a gunshot residue collection kit. Okay. And what we do is we swab somebody's hand to find microscopic evidence to see if there's any trace that they've fired a gun. Have you fired a gun in the last week or handled a gun in the last. No, no.

[Lester Holt]

While the detectives waited for the results to come back, they went out looking for Lisa and found her.

[Andrea Canning]

I, you know, wasn't happy with him.

[Lester Holt]

He was still married, and that was a problem. Officers arriving at KC Peak's condo first thought they were looking at a burglary gone bad. But as technicians took a closer look at the scene, it became clear that nothing was taken.

[Andrea Canning]

The dresser is. All the drawers are pulled open. But when you look into any of those, nothing has been touched inside the drawers. All of the electronics that would have had any kind of street value are all still there.

[Lester Holt]

So this appeared to you to be staged?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, that's exactly what it looked like. It was just Stage Crime Scene 101.

[Lester Holt]

Plus there was no forced entry. So either she didn't lock her door, or the person who came in presumably had a key.

[Andrea Canning]

There was one screen that was off of a window up front, but it had been off for weeks and they just hadn't come out to fix it yet. But the front door was locked, but the back door was open.

[Lester Holt]

And there was an important element that stood out.

[Andrea Canning]

When she died, they covered her up.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, so this feels personal, right?

[Andrea Canning]

Didn't cover her face, but covered her up to the. To her neck. Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Waddell believed Casey was likely killed by someone who knew her.

[Andrea Canning]

We had that entire complex canvassed for anyone who had been there over the weekend at all. And not one person heard that gunshot.

[Lester Holt]

You would think if this happened in a condo complex that someone would have seen something, heard something.

[Andrea Canning]

Zero. It's just amazing to us that we didn't get One witness out of the complex at all.

[Lester Holt]

They did have one lead, courtesy of John Peake.

[Andrea Canning]

And you're Lisa Kent.

[Lester Holt]

Kent K E N T. Detectives found his girlfriend Lisa and brought her into the station.

[Andrea Canning]

Seemed very apprehensive for coming in and also wanting to tell me some stuff. I can tell you right now that Casey, John's wife, was murdered. So we're looking at every, you know, first thing we look at is closest members to the family. Then we start searching for other suspects.

[Lester Holt]

Can I ask you a question?

[Andrea Canning]

Do they know what caliber pistol? You said it was a pistol. All right, we're not sure.

[Lester Holt]

The detective redirected the interview and asked Liza about her relationship with John.

[Andrea Canning]

Tell me the whole story. I mean, there's. There's a story behind this, and I need to figure out where we're at.

[Lester Holt]

I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Liza told detectives that when she met John, he said he was divorced. She learned that was a lie.

[Andrea Canning]

I, you know, wasn't happy with him.

[Lester Holt]

He was still married, and that was a problem. As they approached their one year anniversary, Liza gave him an ultimatum.

[Andrea Canning]

I told him, if you're not fully.

[Lester Holt]

Fully divorced by then, I don't know what I'll do, but I'm out of here. And he told me, and this was like a week and a half ago. He said, we signed the papers today. Detectives asked where she was the weekend Casey was killed. Friday was the 30th. Friday night I was in Americus, Georgia. She said she was celebrating a birthday with a friend over 100 miles away. It was pretty much in her company the entire weekend. They would have to check that out. Of course, detectives also wanted to know about the guns John mentioned, including the one in her car. A rifle. It's in the trunk of my car.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay, but that gun has been with you the whole time? Yeah. Have you fired it recently?

[Lester Holt]

I don't think it's been fired in years.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay. Be important. I mean, you're a suspect.

[Lester Holt]

And they probed her about John's story that she threatened him with a gun. He kept following me all over the house, yelling at me. And I went upstairs in the spare bedroom, and I locked that door, and I said, john, if you come through.

[Andrea Canning]

That door, I have a gun. And would you have used it? Oh, hell no. That's a big gun.

[Lester Holt]

I wouldn't have the nerve if. If it were. And he asked me this recently.

[Andrea Canning]

He asked me if I would use it on somebody. And I told them if I didn't know them, I might be able to disassociate from that.

[Lester Holt]

Disassociate? Was she saying she might be capable of murder? Do you confront her with this idea that she might have killed Casey?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes. And she said she has never met the woman before, never has had any kind of inclination to do anything like that, and never really had the motive to do it anyway because John was divorcing her, so it wasn't an issue.

[Lester Holt]

But of course, John had been lying to Liza. Perhaps Liza found out John was reconciling with his wife and lost it.

[Andrea Canning]

We're going to walk out to your car. I'm going to get your gun from you, okay? The gun. I want to test it. May be a while before you get it back.

[Lester Holt]

Liza was allowed to leave, but detectives told her they needed to know her whereabouts.

[Andrea Canning]

I need to be able to talk to you. I need contact.

[Lester Holt]

But something else was brewing. Detectives learned that while John had been going on and on about his love.

[Andrea Canning]

Life, she wanted to get back together faster than I do.

[Lester Holt]

He'd failed to mention one very important detail.

[Andrea Canning]

Is there anything in your past I.

[Lester Holt]

Need to know about?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes. Okay. Yes, of course there is.

[Lester Holt]

Can you believe it?

[Andrea Canning]

It was a head shaker. You've been talking to us for hours. How is it that you've never mentioned this to us?

[Lester Holt]

Smyrna detectives were talking to John Peak about his dead wife, Casey, when they asked a question that should have been routine.

[Andrea Canning]

Is there anything in your past I need to know about?

[Lester Holt]

His answer. Detectives had never heard anything quite like it.

[Andrea Canning]

1996. I had a wife at that time. She was murdered. That's kind of important. I think it's important, too.

[Lester Holt]

Can you believe it?

[Andrea Canning]

It was a head shaker. You've been talking to us for hours. How is it that you've never mentioned this to us? That you had a previous spouse murdered? How did we get all the way through this interview and that never come? I forgot about it. And I was going to bring it up earlier, but we didn't get to it. How can you go through an interview and not have told us this yet?

[Lester Holt]

It is the ultimate omission.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, ma'am. 100%. 100%. The biggest omission I've ever had in any investigation I've ever done.

[Lester Holt]

Turned out it was not something John had kept secret from other people in his life. The only thing we knew is that she had been killed. His wife had been murdered, and it was devastating. And because he'd met Casey, this was a closure thing. Did you talk to him? About her and about the murder? No. The only things I knew were anything that Casey had told me and that it was horrible. Now, Detective Waddell needed to find out all about that previous murder case. He got on the phone with Detective Eddie Herman from the Cobb County Police Department.

[Andrea Canning]

It's like, hey, does the name John Peek mean anything to you? And just as dead silent as that, I was like, I thought maybe we dropped the phone. I remember it like it was yesterday.

[Lester Holt]

That phone call brought Detective Herman back in time nearly a decade to June 14, 1997. He was working the night shift.

[Andrea Canning]

I got a call from a Precinct 3 uniform officer and an individual by the name of John Peek was reporting his wife missing.

[Lester Holt]

Her name was Carol Marlin. Carol was a 46 year old engineer at aircraft maker Lockheed Martin. John said she'd gone to dinner with a friend and was expected back at their home in Marietta, Georgia around 8:30. But it was getting late and he hadn't heard from her. He worried she'd been in an accident. Was there any weather that night? You know, rainstorm, something that could have caused an accident or delayed her?

[Andrea Canning]

No, it was a clear night.

[Lester Holt]

Still. The detective checked for any car accidents involving Carol's dark blue Camry, but there were none. A couple of hours later, John called back to say his wife still hadn't returned. He wanted to file a missing person.

[Andrea Canning]

Report at that time. I just felt like I needed to go down there.

[Lester Holt]

The fact that it was made so early, the report was giving you a weird feeling.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes. Not because of the report itself. It was a time frame. I knocked on the door, he opened the door. He invited me in, sat down in the living room, and I just went into the basic background on him and Carol, what she was doing that evening.

[Lester Holt]

John told the detective he and Carol had been together for 11 years. They weren't technically married. They were common law husband and wife. They both worked at Lockheed Martin. When did John say he last spoke to Carol? That day.

[Andrea Canning]

He had a voicemail from her at about 4:30. I'm going to pick Maggie up.

[Lester Holt]

Maggie Ginn was her friend. She was 64 and by then retired. She'd also worked at Lockheed Martin. The two women had stayed close, often had dinner together. Did you think about that? This could just be two girlfriends. Time gets away from you.

[Andrea Canning]

Well, that's one of the things I did think about. You know, maybe. Maybe Carol and Maggie are sitting somewhere just talking.

[Lester Holt]

The detective drove by the restaurant where John said the women liked to go. It was closed and no sign of Carol's car in the parking lot. He also wanted to go by Maggie Ginn's house, But John said he didn't know her address.

[Andrea Canning]

He did have her phone number, which he gave to me. If I had a phone number today, obviously, we'd be able to get an address just like that.

[Lester Holt]

As Detective Herman was looking for Carol, John called her sister, Susie Sutton, in Ohio. He says she's missing. And we were concerned, too, because that wasn't like Carol. I mean, she could have just stayed out a little longer, but that would not be like Carol to stay out all night. So you're just waiting for information? Yes. I did think that maybe somebody had kidnapped Carol, so that did pass through my mind. It was now morning. Detective Herman drove over to Lockheed Martin, where a security guard gave him Maggie's address. He and another investigator headed right over to her house at the end of Whippoorwill Drive.

[Andrea Canning]

I came in at this stop sign right here. When I stopped and looked, you could see the blue Camry in the driveway. Carol Marlin's blue Camry.

[Lester Holt]

And you knew that's the kind of car she drove because you'd been looking for her all night.

[Andrea Canning]

In fact, we dialed the phone number from outside, and you could hear the phone ringing inside the house, but nobody was answering.

[Lester Holt]

So that's almost sort of eerie that you can hear the phone ringing.

[Andrea Canning]

Right. I didn't have a good feeling at all.

[Lester Holt]

The detectives banged on the door. You'd think that one of them would wake up, though, hearing the knocking and the phone ringing.

[Andrea Canning]

Right. I mean, we're banging on the windows and the doors and not getting anything. No response from inside.

[Lester Holt]

Very likely, these two women are inside this house.

[Andrea Canning]

Correct.

[Lester Holt]

Before he went inside, he wanted permission from someone in Maggie's family. The next door neighbor had the phone number for one of her children. Children. Maggie's granddaughter, Layla Bryant, remembers that day.

[Andrea Canning]

The police had called and said that they needed to get into grandmother's house and that the door was locked and.

[Lester Holt]

Wanted to go ahead and break in. The detectives kicked the door down and entered the house. It was dark inside.

[Andrea Canning]

First thing I noticed were a bag of groceries. And of course, then we're on high alert because we don't know what walking into. And I shine a flashlight into the dining room area, and I see the body of a female on the floor by the dining room table.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, my gosh.

[Andrea Canning]

And I immediately hollered the team behind me. I said, we got one down. I checked her. There was no vitals.

[Lester Holt]

It was Carol. She appeared to have been beaten to death. You know there's two women missing, correct? So now you're expecting possibly another body in this house.

[Andrea Canning]

So we moved on from that area, went into the other bedrooms.

[Lester Holt]

That's when Detective Herman made another grim discovery. Maggie Ginn had also been beaten to death. You now have a double homicide.

[Andrea Canning]

Correct.

[Lester Holt]

At that moment, the murders were a complete mystery. But the detective was about to talk to John Peake and he had a curious lead.

[Andrea Canning]

What do you think about that letter? Frighten me. At first.

[Lester Holt]

There was a direct threat in that letter. There was? Yeah, there was. True crime podcasts. There is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before. Because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts, discover Hydro, the best kept secret in fitness. Hydro is a state of the art at home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivering the ultimate full body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 5,000 classes shot worldwide and taught by Olympians and world class athletes. For a 30 day risk free trial, go to hydro.com and use code FIT to save $475 on a Hydro Pro rower. That's H Y--R-O-W.com code FIT. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.

[Andrea Canning]

At Mint Mobile, we like to do.

[Lester Holt]

The opposite of what big wireless does.

[Andrea Canning]

They charge you a lot, we charge you a little.

[Lester Holt]

So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you.

[Andrea Canning]

That's right.

[Lester Holt]

We're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a [e-mail] switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees, extra Speed slower above 40 gigabytes. See details Detectives working Casey Peek's murder were learning all they could about a different case. The 1996 double murder of Carol Marlin and her friend Maggie Ginn. The connection, John Peake. You have his deceased common law wife, right? Her friend and now his current wife.

[Andrea Canning]

Less than 10 years apart.

[Lester Holt]

Back in the 80s, Carol and Maggie met when they Both worked at Lockheed Martin. Maggie was a secretary, Carol an engineer. They had a pretty big age difference.

[Andrea Canning]

There was a big age difference. It felt like maybe Carol thought of.

[Lester Holt]

Grandmother more as a mom, you know.

[Andrea Canning]

And it felt good that there was somebody there to kind of take care of her.

[Lester Holt]

Carol just loved Maggie. And I think Maggie really loved Carol, too. It's funny too, Even with the 20 year age gap, sometimes people just click with each other, right? I think they did. I saw the warmth and the caring and the love between them, definitely. Maggie's family rushed over to the house that was now a crime scene.

[Andrea Canning]

My dad and my aunt and uncle just sat on the steps at the.

[Lester Holt]

House across the road and just watched.

[Andrea Canning]

Their childhood home with police in and out, knowing that their mom was there.

[Lester Holt]

John Peake showed up too.

[Andrea Canning]

He was pacing back and forth and was holding his hands in his face.

[Lester Holt]

Richard Peluso was also at the scene. He was a rookie detective back then.

[Andrea Canning]

It was awful. It was definitely a lot of trauma.

[Lester Holt]

Was there any sign of a break in? Was anything stolen that this maybe was interrupted when they came home from dinner?

[Andrea Canning]

There were a couple of drawers that were pulled out and there were a few things that had been moved about the shovel.

[Lester Holt]

She had a lot of nice jewelry.

[Andrea Canning]

And things like that in the house.

[Lester Holt]

And none of that was taken.

[Andrea Canning]

It did not have the appearance as your typical burglary where it's ransacked and somebody is looking for something in particular.

[Lester Holt]

If not a robbery, then it looked like some kind of planned attack. So one of these two women was targeted? It appeared that's correct.

[Andrea Canning]

I remember asking Eddie, could. Could it have been more than one person? Because it was so savage and it was so much. But they were in two different rooms. Eddie's response was like somebody moved fast and they knew what, they knew what they wanted to do.

[Lester Holt]

It made sense to detectives that Maggie might be the target since she lived there. Maybe her friend Carol was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did Maggie's kids have any idea of who would want to hurt the ladies?

[Andrea Canning]

No. They were in disbelief.

[Lester Holt]

It just didn't make sense that something.

[Andrea Canning]

Like that would happen.

[Lester Holt]

Who would murder Maggie? Right. I'm assuming no enemies.

[Andrea Canning]

No, no. I mean, never. Never.

[Lester Holt]

She was humble and quiet and. And just living her life. And, you know, it was unthinkable. Maggie's family insisted the police shouldn't waste their time digging into her her life.

[Andrea Canning]

One of them was extremely upset and said, my mother is not responsible for any of this. Whatever this was is about. It's not about my mother. I was a new detective and I was learning how to be a detective. But my gut was telling me then that Maggie had nothing to do with this.

[Lester Holt]

And a big clue told him his gut might be right. As detectives got a closer look at the crime scene, they noticed a stark contrast with the bodies looking at the.

[Andrea Canning]

Injuries, particularly after the medical examiner got on the scene. And we got a better look at Carol Marlin. She was a focus. Whoever did this, it was overkill with.

[Lester Holt]

Carol Marlin because her injuries were so much worse.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes, it was overkill, and that was huge to me.

[Lester Holt]

For Carol's sister Susie, the brutality made it all the more difficult to understand. Carol was always so full of life. She was bubbly. She had this oversized personality. She just was a joy to be around. And smart too. Carol met John at Lockheed Martin where she handled military contracts. So she was dealing with some high level security stuff in her job. Yes, she was. She was, yeah. I mean, I love hearing about how she's in this, you know, sort of a man's world, really making it in aerospace technology. Right. Carol could really hold her own and she was very gifted and very talented. Carol had been married before. She wasn't looking for a husband. But then she met John at work. John could be very charming. I think they had a lot of romance. I was happy that she'd found somebody that it seemed like she loved a lot. Detectives wanted to get as much information from John as possible. He went with them to the police station for an interview.

[Andrea Canning]

It's going to be an interview with Mr. John P E K John. I guess where we want to start is first of all, let me ask you if you know of anybody, any reason to do any harm to your wife or. No, I can't say anybody wants to really do harm to her. She was a friend to everybody and he could not think of anybody or any reason why she would be murdered.

[Lester Holt]

The detective had to ask him where he'd been the night she didn't come home.

[Andrea Canning]

You know, I'm going to be asked this, so I'm asking you where you went. Yeah. And who may have saw you.

[Lester Holt]

Okay. John said he left work at 5 and went to pick up some filtered water. And then he grabbed dinner, went to.

[Andrea Canning]

Wendy's, picked up salad. I baked potatoes. I got home, I finished eating, I ate wine.

[Lester Holt]

Even though John couldn't think of anyone who would want to hurt Carol, he did want police to know this. A few days earlier, Carol received a threatening letter at the office.

[Andrea Canning]

What do you think about that letter frightened me at first.

[Lester Holt]

What is this threatening letter about?

[Andrea Canning]

It went to her, and it went to four other employees, and it had to do with personnel stuff that Carol Marlin and none of the other employees, as it turns out, had anything to do with.

[Lester Holt]

What was the threat in the letter?

[Andrea Canning]

The threat was essentially, you're going to do right or you're going to pay the consequences. I took a letter, I read the letter to immediately to her administrative supervisor, according to John Carroll, blew it off and didn't think anything about it, laughed about it. But he insisted that Lockheed Security be notified.

[Lester Holt]

It was a clue to investigate for sure. But suddenly, a man named Barry Webb walked into their investigation with an even more important lead.

[Andrea Canning]

I said, what are you doing in my house?

[Lester Holt]

He said, I'm watching you.

[Andrea Canning]

You know, you can't make this up. I mean, this is like straight out of a movie.

[Lester Holt]

Layla Bryant's teenage years were shattered by her grandmother's murder. Her sense of safety and security, gone. And I can remember constantly walking around to make sure that the doors were locked. It brings an awareness that there is.

[Andrea Canning]

That kind of evil out there that you just kind of lived not knowing about before.

[Lester Holt]

It's stealing your innocence.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, it really is. At the time, Cobb county police detectives were doing everything they could to catch the killer of Maggie Ginn and her friend Carol Marlin. They'd heard about a strange letter Carol received at Lockheed Martin. And at the crime scene, they found another clue pointing in the direction of the company. Something in Maggie's hand.

[Andrea Canning]

She's laying slumped in the chair, and in her hand was a torn piece of paper. It was a invoice from Lockheed Martin.

[Lester Holt]

So now you have a threatening letter that Carol received regarding Lockheed Martin. And now Maggie has a piece of paper in her hand that says Lockheed Martin.

[Andrea Canning]

That's a common denominator.

[Lester Holt]

The name Barry Webb was signed on the invoice. But before detectives could track him down, he called them.

[Andrea Canning]

Barry Webb says to me in the phone call, hey, I just saw the news. I know these people.

[Lester Holt]

Barry claimed to have information relevant to the case, so investigators brought him in for questioning. Detective Herman didn't know if he was sitting across from the killer or someone who could provide them with a break in the case.

[Andrea Canning]

This interview is in reference to the double homicide investigation.

[Lester Holt]

Who is Barry Webb?

[Andrea Canning]

He's a Lockheed employee. Got to be very good friends with John Peak and Carol Marlin. Back when I was married, we double dated with them. My wife and I would go out with them to a concert, go out to games.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Herman cut to the chase and asked Barry about the invoice found at the crime scene.

[Andrea Canning]

Let me show you something so you can maybe identify it. Well, this would be a piece of a receiving memo that we get when we order software or hardware. Is that your signature? Huh? Got it on.

[Lester Holt]

That's your name?

[Andrea Canning]

I don't even make my R's like that. We have a sample of your handwriting service.

[Lester Holt]

But Barry was more interested in telling them why he called in the first place. He launched right into a story about a break in at his house.

[Andrea Canning]

I think around 10, 15 or so yesterday evening. I'm sitting in the living room watching tv, and I heard a noise in my basement. So I proceeded downstairs in the basement. I looked around. I couldn't see anyone. But I looked out the garage window to see if I could see any, and I didn't. So I opened the door and I stepped out. And then the door began to close behind me. There was someone in there trying to.

[Lester Holt]

Close the door behind me and lock me in. He said he shoved the door open and confronted an intruder.

[Andrea Canning]

I said, what are you doing in my house?

[Lester Holt]

He said, I'm watching you.

[Andrea Canning]

So he ran out the door. He took a bag on his way out, which was outside, and he tore out through my backyard down the street. Can you describe that? It was very dark.

[Lester Holt]

I did not realize.

[Andrea Canning]

See the magnet closely.

[Lester Holt]

But he told detectives he heard something.

[Andrea Canning]

The bag had something in there, like a metallic clinking type sound.

[Lester Holt]

Barry hadn't called the police just to report the break in. He wanted them to know who had broken in.

[Andrea Canning]

John broke into my house.

[Lester Holt]

The intruder was John Peek. And if this guy was telling the truth, it happened the night of the murders. The same night John reported. Reported Carol missing. Barry Webb then told investigators John called him soon after and apologized. He said, I'm sorry, but I might know something about Carol if he came.

[Andrea Canning]

Up to my house this week.

[Lester Holt]

But why would John be looking for Carol at Barry's house?

[Andrea Canning]

We're not looking to enter into your personal life, but if you had any type of relationship, Carol, in any way, shape or form, this. This is the venue right here, right now, in this room. The major guy. Tell us about it. I did not.

[Lester Holt]

Okay.

[Andrea Canning]

You've never had any type other than a work relationship. And many years ago, when my wife and I would go out with John and Carol and do things, that was it. Okay. I'd be seriously concerned, Barry, to get two or three days into this murder case and to find out that you and her had some type of relationship. I understand that. I would have a very bad problem.

[Lester Holt]

With that, too, because it would. They took a hair sample from Barry and let him go. They certainly wanted to talk to John Peak again.

[Andrea Canning]

Do you not think it's important to tell the investigating detective that you got caught breaking into a co worker's house during this time frame?

[Lester Holt]

You confronted him about Barry Webb, but by that point he had an attorney.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

And he wouldn't talk about it.

[Andrea Canning]

No, he would not.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators went over what they knew and had a bad feeling about John Peak. Back at the crime scene. His behavior had seemed like an act.

[Andrea Canning]

And I looked at him and was amazed on what I was seeing because he was not acting at all like somebody that just learned something like this had occurred. He's like, trying to. Trying to create emotion that really wasn't there.

[Lester Holt]

But the fact that John showed up at all was even more. More suspicious.

[Andrea Canning]

Every conversation I'd had with John Peake leading up to him showing up at the scene was he did not know where Maggie again lived.

[Lester Holt]

John claimed he'd gotten the address from Lockheed Martin that morning. But John had installed a VCR for Maggie, so he knew perfectly well where she lived.

[Andrea Canning]

And everybody knew that John had been.

[Lester Holt]

To the house before. In fact, he had made some little.

[Andrea Canning]

Repairs around the house.

[Lester Holt]

It's very sad looking back, because in her journal, she had written how nice it was that John would take the.

[Andrea Canning]

Time to come over there and fix something.

[Lester Holt]

That single lie was enough to convince Maggie's family that John was the killer and Carol was the real target.

[Andrea Canning]

Once they knew for a fact that he had told the police that he didn't know where grandmother lived, that took.

[Lester Holt]

All the other options off the table for them. Detective Herman agreed. But building a case against John would be harder than anyone could have imagined.

[Andrea Canning]

I don't think there was a day that went by I didn't think about him or what he was doing.

[Lester Holt]

He was about to find out.

[Andrea Canning]

Two wives, two murders. Just no.

[Lester Holt]

And Casey's family would try whatever it took to get answers. Two dead wives. Two dead wives. John, crying out loud, did you fear that John Peake could kill again?

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely. Without a doubt.

[Lester Holt]

True crime podcasts, there is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts, Discover Hydro the best kept secret in fitness Hydro is a state of the art at home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivering the ultimate full body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 5,000 classes shot worldwide and taught by Olympians and world class athletes. For a 30 day risk free trial, go to hydro.com and use code FIT to save $475 on a Hydro Pro rower. That's H-Y-R-O-W.com code FIT.

[Andrea Canning]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Lester Holt]

With the price of just about everything.

[Andrea Canning]

Going up during inflation, we thought we'd.

[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

Thing Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless get 3030 better get 30 better get 202020.

[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

Sold.

[Lester Holt]

Give it a try@mint mobile.com Switch $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees Extra speed slower above 40G back in 1996, almost a decade before Casey Peake was killed, detectives were trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to Carol Marlin and her friend Maggie Ginn. John Peake had stopped talking to investigators, but his wife Carol's family had lots to say. Detective Herman said, do you think John would have done something like this? And my mom said, oh, John wanted her to fly, you know. And I said, I'm not sure about that. Why did you think that John liked to be secretive about things? Susie described how the ever so charming man Carol first met eventually started acting like a creep. And he was sort of slightly sleazy, even with me. Susie recalled something that happened during a wilderness canoe trip. He kept teasing me about taking a shower and I wouldn't do it and it made me uncomfortable. Like, did he want you to like take your clothes off and take a shower? Well, that was sort of the implication. John had been married and divorced twice before he met Carol. Susie told investigators she suspected suspected John had cheated on her sister. He definitely seemed like a big womanizer or at least loved the attention of women and, you know, moving from one woman to the next. Yes, I think he had affairs that Carol didn't know about. I think they fed his ego. He needed to be like pumped up. He liked that affection, that attention. Yes Very much. Susie also told investigators that in the year leading up to the murders, Carol and John weren't getting along. They were arguing a lot. And also that their sexual relationship had ended, that John had ended it. Investigators had no physical evidence tying John to the scene, but they knew he lied about not knowing where Maggie lived and could not explain that odd break in at Barry Webb's house.

[Andrea Canning]

I just felt like he was our guy. It was just going to be a question of how do we prove it? How do we get there?

[Lester Holt]

They went to talk to the Cobb county da. How did the DA Feel about the case you had put together?

[Andrea Canning]

The DA Felt good about the case. Circumstantial, but did not want to move forward with an arrest at that time. What he was saying to us, keep working it. Maybe something will come up.

[Lester Holt]

Frustrating.

[Andrea Canning]

Very frustrating.

[Lester Holt]

They kept digging, but the double murder investigation hit a wall. Months ticked by. Then years. Did the family just think that this is what we have to live with, that we'll never know?

[Andrea Canning]

I think that they had come to.

[Lester Holt]

Terms with the fact that there may.

[Andrea Canning]

Never be an arrest. I know I was disappointed. I was kind of hard on myself. I mean, what did we miss?

[Lester Holt]

What did we miss in those frustrating years? John moved on. He met Kayce and started a new life. He had a $700,000 windfall from Carol's life insurance and was living in that huge house. Casey's friends heard about John's previous wife, too. He set the record straight with her very early. Oh, yes. Look, I need to let you know this, Casey. I was a suspect in a murder case in 1996. I didn't do it. Of course he downplayed it. He never mentioned that he was still the one and only suspect.

[Andrea Canning]

It never went cold.

[Lester Holt]

Why do you say it never went cold?

[Andrea Canning]

I was intentionally going down to Peek's house, knocking on his door.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Herman hoped that he'd get John to say something, anything. But nothing ever came of Herman's unannounced visits. Sometimes he'd run into John Peak randomly.

[Andrea Canning]

One time I was jogging down at the River Trail, and I saw him.

[Lester Holt]

Did you try to talk to him?

[Andrea Canning]

I did. I ran up behind him.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, what did he not. How did he react?

[Andrea Canning]

He didn't even comment. You know, he just kind of went off to the side.

[Lester Holt]

That can't feel good when you see him out jogging.

[Andrea Canning]

No.

[Lester Holt]

And you believe he's responsible for a double homicide?

[Andrea Canning]

No. And what we're feeling ain't nothing compared to what the families are feeling.

[Lester Holt]

Hard enough to lose Somebody.

[Andrea Canning]

But to that there's no justice and that a killer is walking around free.

[Lester Holt]

Did you fear that John Peake could kill again?

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely, without a doubt.

[Lester Holt]

And then, after almost a decade of trying, his worst fear was realized when he got that call from Detective Ron Waddell in the next town over. What were you feeling?

[Andrea Canning]

I was kind of numb. I had a knot in my stomach. When Ron said, does the name John Peak mean anything to you? I'm like, what's he done now? I felt like, lord, I hope that there's not anything I missed or we missed, because now Casey Peake's dead.

[Lester Holt]

Now investigators from two murder cases were joining forces, and they were about to learn a lot more about the real John Peake. Beforehand, he was a nice guy. After, he was a monster. The investigation into Casey Peek's murder was only hours old when Detective Ron Waddell discovered that Casey wasn't John Peek's own only dead wife.

[Andrea Canning]

This changes the total trajectory of all of our investigation.

[Lester Holt]

He'd become their main person of interest. But Detective Waddell still had other leads to check out, including John's girlfriend, Lisa. She admitted to police that she had a gun and she'd been frustrated with how slowly John's divorce was moving. But she seemed genuinely surprised when investigators told her John was getting back together with Casey.

[Andrea Canning]

When you said, would it surprise you.

[Lester Holt]

If somebody told you that he was.

[Andrea Canning]

Seeing her, do you mean that he was seeing her? Oh, absolutely. They were dating. Really? And been dating on Tuesday nights for quite a while. Oh, so that's what he has been doing on Tuesday nights?

[Lester Holt]

Apparently. Are you sure?

[Andrea Canning]

Some. Some nights, yes.

[Lester Holt]

That's when she learned John was lying to her about his wife and figured out he was pointing the finger at her. So he's throwing you under the bus in that interview room? Yes. Yes. It didn't work. Liza told us what the detectives told her. They're like, we know that you didn't kill anybody. We can tell that you're not that kind of person. Actually, John Peake is trying to manipulate our detectives as we speak, trying to take the focus off of him and put it on someone else. That's a far cry from where their relationship started. She said they met when John was working that out of town job in Americus, Georgia, where she lived. It was a romance story. That sounded familiar. He was good looking, he was intelligent, and he knew how to treat a lady. You open the door, you take them to dinner. He did all the right things. He did, said all the right things, made Me feel like a queen. Just as John had done with Casey, he showered her with attention and over the top romantic gestures. He insisted on having a party at my house. He said, don't worry about a thing. I'm going to do all the cooking. I didn't have to lift a finger. I didn't have to pay for anything and just had to invite the right people. Sounds like you found the perfect guy. Yeah, that's. That's kind of what I thought. John also opened up about what happened to Carol. He put his hand over mine and took a deep breath and said, About 10 years ago, my wife was murdered. You actually remind me a little bit of her. Oh, yeah? What's going through your mind when you hear this? I felt sorry for him. Liza and John spent time together whenever he was in town for work. But on one occasion, Liza met him in Atlanta. That was the night Casey showed up banging on their hotel room door. This woman was yelling, john, John, are you in there? All along, he had told me he was divorced. He told me that she was very insecure and didn't like herself very much and kind of alluded that she was a little, you know, nuts. Liza continued seeing him after that. They were even talking marriage. But after a while, she says, John's charm started to fade. I started to feel like he was controlling some things. She says John started demanding to know who she was with and tracking her mileage to confirm where she'd been. She also suspected he'd hacked into her email. The things that he was saying, only things that I had put in email. So I said, you've hacked into my email?

[Andrea Canning]

And he goes, no, no, no.

[Lester Holt]

I didn't do anything that Liza said. When she started pulling away, John's behavior became frightening. He had told me that he wanted to take me to dinner. And as we were driving, I said.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, where are we going?

[Lester Holt]

He said, anywhere. I want to take you. Like controlling. Yes. And he, I want to take you. I'm in charge. I'm in charge. I'm going to take you wherever I want to, and you have no choice. Casey's friends had heard stories about the not so charming side of John Peak. He was the definition of a love bomber. Overly romantic and doting at first, but over time, he became manipulative, controlling, and sometimes cruel. He told Casey she needs to lose weight.

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

And so Casey actually got liposuction because of what John said. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

He told her she was gaining a little too much weight.

[Lester Holt]

Oh. And she did what she needed to do. She would do anything to keep, to keep that marriage. She was focused on that. When Casey told them she was giving John a second chance, they didn't approve. Kim talked to Casey about it over dinner the last night she was alive. I said, casey, you're such an amazing friend, person, and you are. You just don't need to go back to him. You need to be on your own and you need to enjoy because you have so much to offer. A week after Casey's murder, her friends and family gathered in Georgia for a memorial service. Her friends brought pictures, you know, and.

[Andrea Canning]

Put them all against the wall and everything.

[Lester Holt]

The service was held at the same funeral home as Carol's service nearly a decade earlier. Police were keeping tabs on John.

[Andrea Canning]

He drove by the funeral home five or six times before he would even go in.

[Lester Holt]

John must have known all eyes would be on him.

[Andrea Canning]

We both assumed, with good reason, that he was guilty of the murder, because, I mean, this is a matter of probabilities. One guy, two wives, two murders, just. No, we never had.

[Lester Holt]

Not one doubt, not one doubt, not one doubt, not one doubt it was John, that it was John. At the funeral, John finally showed his face. What was his behavior like?

[Andrea Canning]

He came in, sat in the back, left. We didn't really talk to him.

[Lester Holt]

When Casey's friend Kim got up to speak, she concluded with a message for Casey's killer. I just looked right out and I said, we're going to find the person that did this. And I looked right at him and I felt the coldest, I mean, like, there's nothing there. And I thought, oh, this is on. This guy is scary. To police, John Peek was the obvious suspect. Problem was, just like in the double homicide years before, they had no physical evidence tying him to the crime. As the detectives continued their investigation, Casey's sister and brother in law were starting their own. I can't believe that I'm going to.

[Andrea Canning]

Talk to my brother in law with a secret wiretap thing.

[Lester Holt]

Good grief. True crime podcasts. There is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of crime Junkie episodes now. Wherever you get your podcasts, discover hydro. The best kept secret in fitness. Hydro is a state of the art at home rower that engages 86% of your muscles, delivering the ultimate full body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 5,000 classes shot worldwide and taught by Olympians and world class athletes. For a 30 day risk free trial, go to hydro.com and use code FIT to save $475 on a Hydro Pro rower. That's H Y--R-O-W.com code FIT.

[Andrea Canning]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Lester Holt]

With the price of just about everything.

[Andrea Canning]

Going up during inflation, we thought we'd.

[Lester Holt]

Bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a.

[Andrea Canning]

Thing Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless. 30, 30 biddy get 30 a bit to get 20. 20, 20. Better get 20.

[Lester Holt]

20 a bit to get 15. 15, 15, 15.

[Andrea Canning]

Just 15 bucks a month.

[Lester Holt]

So give it a [e-mail] switch $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees. Extra Speed slower above 40g.

[Andrea Canning]

Detail.

[Lester Holt]

As Smyrna police conducted their investigation into Casey Peak's murder, John's girlfriend Lisa was on edge. She'd been a wreck ever since she spoke to police. They said that they didn't have enough evidence to hold him and that they advised I leave town. How scared were you? I was petrified. I didn't want to stay with anybody that he knew I knew. So it's like you're on the run, sort of. Because you don't know for sure that he's after you, but you feel like you're on the run? Yeah. Oh, yes. And I slept with a knife under my pillow. Did you just look at her and say, honey, you absolutely could be the next target?

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, 100%.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators were well aware John had been the prime suspect in his previous wife Carol's murder. And they were struggling to find direct evidence linking him to Casey's murder. The gunshot residue test they'd given him while he was at the police station came back negative. They'd also searched Casey's condo, but they didn't find anything useful. They kept looking. You get a search warrant?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

For all of John's properties or all of them?

[Andrea Canning]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

In addition to the house John lived in, investigators searched his lake house and investment properties looking for a weapon that matched the.30 caliber bullet found in Casey's mattress. Did John own a.30 caliber rifle?

[Andrea Canning]

Not that we were able to find. Investigating this, I was able to find a couple of different people who he had actually asked to buy a hunting rifle. From. But we were never able to find the rifle that was used in a.

[Lester Holt]

Storm drain outside John's house. Investigators did discover an unfired.30 caliber bullet inside the house. They noticed John had a fascination with true crime.

[Andrea Canning]

He had quite the library of all of the different murder shows. There must have been 50 or 60 different tapes of multiple different shows that similar to the one that we're doing here.

[Lester Holt]

Police had eyes on John again as he traveled to Casey's home state of Texas for her burial service. While there, he asked Casey's sister and brother in law to meet for coffee to clear the air. They agreed, but only after consulting with Smyrna pd.

[Andrea Canning]

Jackadon and David were asked if they would actually do wire to get John on tape. And we went and bought a recorder and I wired her up.

[Lester Holt]

Let me have some piece of tape.

[Andrea Canning]

You really can't see that that is so small. All right. Against those dark pants.

[Lester Holt]

I can't believe then I'm going to talk to my brother in law with.

[Andrea Canning]

A secret wiretap thing.

[Lester Holt]

Good grief. What was the strategy? Get him to talk.

[Andrea Canning]

Get him to get him to talk. Gauge his demeanor, how he answered questions.

[Lester Holt]

See if he divulged anything that we didn't know that might help. On their way to coffee, David coached Jackie dawn on how to handle John.

[Andrea Canning]

I want to say this one more time. Let him be geared towards playing into the audience.

[Lester Holt]

Can it be a skeptical audience?

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, but let your skepticism be silent.

[Lester Holt]

When they arrived, John was already waiting for them. What do you want to know from me?

[Andrea Canning]

I've told the police everything you never told Casey ever.

[Lester Holt]

Everything. You lied to her up to the last minute. You never admitted the adultery and you were living with the other woman the whole time. We talked about the relationship and what was going on and why he was cheating on her and whether or not.

[Andrea Canning]

He really wanted to get back together.

[Lester Holt]

And stuff like that.

[Andrea Canning]

I always loved her, okay? It just got real difficult to be with her. He spent a lot of the conversation as it developed basically painting Casey in a very negative light. Very hard to live with, very demanding, unforgiving. Casey's moods went up and down, up and down. He's trying to paint a picture of a person that we certainly didn't know. Anger towards me, hostility towards me. Wouldn't do anything, would just sit around and she has some bad habits. You don't know. It ain't coming out. I'm sorry. Because I promised her I'd never bring.

[Lester Holt]

Him out after she's died. He's going after her character.

[Andrea Canning]

Correct.

[Lester Holt]

And yet John insisted he still wanted to be with Casey. In fact, he said he and Casey had been planning to recommit to their marriage.

[Andrea Canning]

We were going to probably go to Mexico over the new year, you know, and renew our vows.

[Lester Holt]

When did you start making those plants?

[Andrea Canning]

Because I never heard about those renewing the vowel stuff the last two weeks. I don't know.

[Lester Holt]

John told them it was under one condition.

[Andrea Canning]

If we're going to renew our vows, we have to say it in the same outfits we had on before.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, I'm sure that went over real well.

[Andrea Canning]

It went over well enough that she was going to work out with me.

[Lester Holt]

She always thought that that was a.

[Andrea Canning]

Big deal with you. It wasn't. It really was. I always told her she was beautiful. But why make that a condition if you felt that way? She needed motivation to lose that weight because she didn't feel good at her weight. I mean, you know how many diets we've gone through.

[Lester Holt]

We were rather surprised, to say the least, about some of the things that he was saying.

[Andrea Canning]

He's working to both assassinate in character and paint himself in a sympathetic light. I lost a wife. Okay. I've got over being the persecuted. And it's very hard, okay. To mourn when you're being persecuted.

[Lester Holt]

He's painting himself as unlucky.

[Andrea Canning]

That's correct.

[Lester Holt]

And a victim. Poor me. As she listened, Casey's sister could not keep her skepticism quiet. Two dead wives. Two dead wives, John, for crying out loud. And, you know, I never thought there was anything suspicious. Suspicious about Carol, but there's something damn suspicious about Casey's murder.

[Andrea Canning]

I mean, Jackie, Don, I love this woman. I still love this woman. I didn't kill her. And that hurts more than anything else.

[Lester Holt]

After nearly three hours of back and forth, Jackie, dawn and David had heard enough. As they left the coffee shop and walked to their cars, Jacky Don worried that John might have been onto them. There had been a mishap with the recorder.

[Andrea Canning]

I just didn't hope he didn't realize.

[Lester Holt]

When I dropped the recorder out of my pocket.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah, this is, you know. Well, junior detectives, he did not indicate.

[Lester Holt]

To me that he saw it. They went home, sure of one thing.

[Andrea Canning]

You know, there's that old saying, what.

[Lester Holt]

You can know and then what you.

[Andrea Canning]

Can prove are two different things. But there was no doubt after that conversation. We knew. We knew.

[Lester Holt]

You knew he killed Casey.

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely no doubt.

[Lester Holt]

In the end, their undercover work didn't provide much to move the investigation forward. But Jackie, Don and David were not done sleuthing they were about to find something that might be just what the detectives needed. This really shows, I would imagine, for the police, premeditation.

[Andrea Canning]

It shows premeditation and clear intent. I don't care how long you're in this business, and if anybody's in it and says they don't take the cases personal, it's bs.

[Lester Holt]

The double murder of Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn had remained unsolved for almost a decade. But after Casey Peek was murdered, the detectives were looking back through their files. Both fell under the Cobb County DA's office. Now detectives in both cases were meeting with Assistant District Attorney Jason Saliba.

[Andrea Canning]

We reopened the case with Detective Herman, which was the first set of murders, and started going back through it to see if there was anything else that needed to be done, if there's any testing. At the same time, the Smyrna detectives are working their case.

[Lester Holt]

So all your minds have to come together to create a game plan. It's not just one agency we're talking about. It's prosecutors, police, the two detectives.

[Andrea Canning]

Both of them agreed to work any parts of their cases that overlapped and to help the other one. As we sit down and start going over our similarities, I think we wound up with two and a half pages off of a legal pad of different similarities to the cases that really tied them together.

[Lester Holt]

Of course, in both cases, John Peake's wives were the victims, and John was the one to alert police. The scenes were amateurishly staged as robberies. And in both cases, he lied about having access to the crime scenes. In the murders of Maggie and Carol, he told detectives he didn't know where Maggie lived, something the family knew wasn't true. And with Casey, he told police this about her condo out at the scene.

[Andrea Canning]

He told us that he did not have a key. And he told us that a couple of different times that he did not have a key to her condo.

[Lester Holt]

But Casey's friends knew that John had just gotten a key from Casey. He says to her, casey, let's really try to get back together. He says, I'm looking for a job. I don't have a computer.

[Andrea Canning]

Let's trade house keys.

[Lester Holt]

And so they traded house. House keys. And there was this. The detectives felt evidence was planted to throw the investigation off track. In both crimes, Casey's purse seemed to have been left in that parking lot for a reason.

[Andrea Canning]

It has always been our belief he didn't expect to get a phone call the next morning that her purse had been found. He thought somebody would pick up the credit cards Take them, Use them.

[Lester Holt]

In Carolyn Maggie's case, detectives suspected John wrote that threatening letter to the Lockheed Martin employees as a red herring and place that invoice in Maggie's hand, the one with Barry Webb's name on it.

[Andrea Canning]

We thought John picked him and he was absolutely going to frame him for murder.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor developed a theory of what happened that night. When the women returned to Maggie's house after dinner, John either followed them inside or he knocked on the door.

[Andrea Canning]

They recognize who it is and say, yeah, come on in. Yes, that. That certainly was a possibility.

[Lester Holt]

Once inside, John bludgeoned the women, possibly with a hammer. While Carol was John's target, the prosecutor believes he killed Maggie to make it look like a random crime. Then he took the murder weapon and went to Barry Webb's house.

[Andrea Canning]

We have always been convinced that the reason he was going into Barry Webs was to plant the murder weapon. He had a bag full of something metal clanging in it, breaking in the night of the murder.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor pored over what he had and decided that Carolyn Maggie's case, as old as it was, was the stronger of the two. So two weeks after Casey was killed, the DA was ready to charge John Peek with murder. How does that work? Because the District Attorney's office with Carol and Maggie initially did not want to charge because there just wasn't enough evidence. Circumstantial case. We have another murder, but nothing has really changed, per se. With Maggie and Carol's murders, nothing really changed.

[Andrea Canning]

You've got a different set of eyes looking at it. Those of us that were looking at it decided we did have enough and it wasn't going to get any better. Eddie Herman had contacted me and asked, could he be the one that actually cuffed John Peake? And to this day, I can still remember Eddie's expression on his face when John came to the door that morning. I looked at him when he opened that door. I said, it's been a long time. Been a long time.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, that gave me chills.

[Andrea Canning]

And I said, you're under arrest. You're under arrest for murders. Carol Marlin and Maggie Ken.

[Lester Holt]

I felt a huge sense of relief, although I also felt scared because it was circumstantial. Maggie's family had been hungry for justice, too. The senselessness of her murder was hard to wrap their heads around. There's pictures along those walls of all of grandmother's kids and her grandkids.

[Andrea Canning]

And all I could think was, how could a person do that?

[Lester Holt]

How could a person look in somebody's.

[Andrea Canning]

House and See their life on the walls and see the people that are.

[Lester Holt]

Going to miss them and not even care. You call it collateral damage. She was collateral damage for him. With John behind bars, detectives kept working Casey's murder. They knew that after the first murders, John received $700,000 in life insurance from Carol. Now detectives wanted to know if he was expecting another financial windfall from Casey's death. Her sister had just talked to her about her life insurance. I suggested that she did not need to have life insurance because she didn't have any body that needed to be supported like children to be supported for life insurance. Casey's family didn't know if she kept the policy or not, but they wanted to make sure John didn't get a dime of it. We filed a civil lawsuit for the purpose of tying up all of his assets so that he could not spend them. He was not going to profit from anything that had to do with my sister.

[Andrea Canning]

As part of that, they got a lot of financial documents that had been relatively well hidden from the police and from our office, and they shared those with us.

[Lester Holt]

One of the things they found out, not only did Casey still have the life insurance policy, but John had secretly been making extra payments leading up to.

[Andrea Canning]

The murder in the event that she, you know, just stopped paying the policy. He wanted to make sure that the policy was intact, even if she stopped payment and didn't tell him because I.

[Lester Holt]

Had advised it and he knew it. That is sneaky, sneaky.

[Andrea Canning]

If you're planning a murder to gain insurance proceeds, makes sense to do whatever's necessary to keep that insurance policy intact, doesn't it? It wasn't just the insurance. There was a lot of personal property, belongings, cars, joint bank accounts, retirement accounts. There was a lot, a lot of money at stake.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutor believed that's why John was leading Casey on. He needed to get this money before this divorce went through.

[Andrea Canning]

That's what we've always believed.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think that John Peake got a taste of maybe how easy it was to get rid of Carroll, get the life insurance money, whatever assets they had, and then, you know, maybe he needs money again. I'll just do the same thing. It worked the first time?

[Andrea Canning]

I think so. And I think it's greed. It's easy money.

[Lester Holt]

And Liza, the girlfriend John was talking about marrying, turns out she was going to inherit some family money. Liza's about to get a bunch of money.

[Andrea Canning]

Exactly.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think he would have killed Liza if given the opportunity for her money?

[Andrea Canning]

Well, he'd already done it twice. Absolutely. I believe he 100% would have done it again.

[Lester Holt]

Did you feel like he was capable of killing you? Yes. Yes, I did. Or sending somebody to kill me. To investigators, there was a clear pattern, and the financial documents Jackie, dawn, and David discovered helped to bolster their case. You're getting more and more incriminating evidence against John Peake.

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely.

[Lester Holt]

The DA decided he had enough and charged John Peake with Casey's murder. But then you and your team were prepared to go to trial. And then something unexpected happened in the.

[Andrea Canning]

Last hours, and we were absolutely stunned.

[Lester Holt]

John Peak sat behind bars denying he had anything to do with the murders of three women. Then Assistant DA Jason Saliba got word of a confession, but not from John. Another man is saying he killed Maggie and Carol.

[Andrea Canning]

There had been a prison confession to the murders of Maggie and Carol. We had one gentleman who came forward and actually told us that he had been in jail with a gentleman who admitted to him, jailhouse confession, that he had killed two women over by Cobb General Hospital, and he killed them with a hammer.

[Lester Holt]

The alleged killer knew how the women were killed and that Maggie's house was near a hospital. Investigators confronted him with the story they'd heard from that other inmate.

[Andrea Canning]

He said while he was in prison with you, that you made the statement that you broke into a house near a hospital and you beat two women to death with a claw hammer. No, I didn't kill nobody. They're saying that you admitted to them that you killed two women. No, I didn't kill. No, I ain't killed nobody.

[Lester Holt]

He was adamant he didn't know Carol or Maggie and had nothing to do with their murders. And investigators couldn't find any connection either. Someone wasn't telling the truth.

[Andrea Canning]

What we were able to do is to go back and see that our tipster that said this gentleman had confessed to him in prison had actually been John Peake's cellmate.

[Lester Holt]

So he was manipulating this person in jail.

[Andrea Canning]

Right? Trying his best to manipulate people in the investigation as best he could, and.

[Lester Holt]

He kept at it.

[Andrea Canning]

There was a long list of inmates that he attempted to pay to spread false information. He was asking that they go out and give false narratives of the evidence to news outlets, to his attorneys, to.

[Lester Holt]

Make up alibis, to investigators. It seemed John Peake thought he was in control even of their investigation. Manipulating it just like he'd done with the women in his life. He has no empathy. He has no caring. He's gonna trick you into thinking he loves you, and he doesn't. It's all about, how can you benefit him. He is the most dangerous kind of con man. Really? That's true. From behind bars, John was still trying to control Liza. Here he is talking to his brother about her on a recorded call.

[Andrea Canning]

I need someone to break through this and say, okay, hey, John is innocent. Remember. Remember your past. You know he wouldn't have done this. Would you be a candidate for that? Yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. Investigators gave Lisa the green light to meet with the brother, see what they were up to. What he had to give me from John was a rose and a card. Inside the card, John professed his love. John says he's still in love with you. How does that make you feel? Sick. I felt creeped out.

[Andrea Canning]

I was.

[Lester Holt]

I don't. I don't care what he thinks or feels. And he's a psychopath. They don't really feel these things for what he'd been doing in jail. The DA Tacked on additional charges of criminal solicitation. But there were still two very circumstantial murder cases to prove. We were in touch with the prosecutors and the detectives, and they were scared. They weren't sure if they had the evidence to get a conviction. Although John had initially been arrested for the murders of Carol and Maggie, prosecutors decided to try Casey's murder first. Did you feel you had more evidence in Casey's murder, or was it fresher? You know, it was fresher.

[Andrea Canning]

Time wise, it was fresher.

[Lester Holt]

Investigators prepared to tell the jury their theory of the crime, that John arrived at Casey's condo while she was still at her friend's house and let himself in using the key she'd recently given him. Then he hid in the coat closet.

[Andrea Canning]

He lets her come home. He lets her get in bed, and he gives it enough time to be able to go in quietly, ambush her in her sleep. And then he went and staged the apartment to make it look like a theft. Took her purse, went to the other apartment complex, laid her purse out.

[Lester Holt]

If they got a conviction in Casey's case, the DA Planned to seek the death penalty for Carol and Maggie's case.

[Andrea Canning]

Because now you can show he clearly is going to kill again. He's done it. Nine years later. He did exactly what we're gonna allege he would do if he was not on death row.

[Lester Holt]

A few weeks before trial, John's attorney.

[Andrea Canning]

Approached the DA and he said, I believe he will plea if you offer him a life sentence.

[Lester Holt]

The prosecutors talked to the victim's families.

[Andrea Canning]

Carol's mother was very elderly, and the potential of a trial and the. The appeals that go behind that, that she might not ever see this case completed before she passed on if we didn't take a plea.

[Lester Holt]

So the DA made an offer, life in prison. And on Friday, April 13, 2007, John appeared in court.

[Andrea Canning]

I figured there was a 50, 50 chance that knowing him, he could take that last ditch. No, you know what? I've changed my mind. I don't want to do this. And down another rabbit hole we go. Plead to the charge, guilty or not guilty, sir.

[Lester Holt]

But he did.

[Andrea Canning]

But he did. He pled guilty.

[Lester Holt]

And they sent him off to the Georgia State Penitentiary.

[Andrea Canning]

It was a good day.

[Lester Holt]

John is now in his 70s. Still, as he sits in prison, the prosecutor says John's not done.

[Andrea Canning]

We are the better part of 20 years later and he's still trying to manufacture evidence in prison of other people who committed. Periodically, we have people come forward and give us evidence of what he's doing.

[Lester Holt]

You just feel it's more of his lies, more of his manipulation?

[Andrea Canning]

Absolutely. He is a manipulator. He's a narcissist. He's not going to stop until the day he does.

[Lester Holt]

For the family and friends of his victims, they want what happened to serve as a wake up call for anyone in a similar situation. If this could be a sort of a beacon for women to see that it's easy to get manipulated even if you are the smartest person in the room. How do you want Casey to be remembered for being such a wonderful friend.

[Andrea Canning]

And an excellent person?

[Lester Holt]

She was someone who dreamed big, had a huge heart and she was a joy to be around. Carol was so cheerful and so full of life. I look at pictures of her and I think about her. I wish Carol were here. My grandmother was a wonderful role model for me.

[Andrea Canning]

I got her for 16 years and I have the memories and that I.

[Lester Holt]

Can share those with my kids and just grateful.

[Andrea Canning]

That's all for this edition of Dateline. And check out our talking Dateline podcast. Andrea Canning and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the DATELINE feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see.

[Lester Holt]

You again next Friday at 9, 8 Central.

[Andrea Canning]

I'm Lester Holt.

[Lester Holt]

For all of us at NBC News, good night. True crime podcasts. There is no shortage to consume. And if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday, we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of crime junkie episodes. Now, wherever you get your podcasts.