Paperback: Michelle Theer was the real "Gone Girl".
Caught in a love triangle between her Army Ranger lover, Sergeant John Diamond, and Air Force Captain husband, Captain Frank Martin (Marty) Theer, Michelle wanted an out. She also wanted a half-million dollar insurance policy payable on her husband's death.
On December 17, 2000, Michelle’s romantic quandary would come to end. On this night, Michelle and Marty had attended a Christmas party hosted by Dr. Thomas Harbin, a fellow psychologist who shared office space with Michelle. On the way home, Michelle asked Marty to stop by her office so that she could get some books she had forgotten to bring home earlier that day.
Marty stayed behind in the couples’ 1999 Ford Explorer as Michelle went into the upper floor office. After several minutes had passed, Marty grew impatient and went to see what was keeping his wife. As he climbed the outdoor stairway, Marty was shot four times by a gunman in the shadows. When his body tumbled to the bottom of the stairway, the gunman fired a fifth bullet into his body. It was this bullet that was fatal, according to medical examiners.
When Fayetteville police continued to build a strong case against Michelle, she would go on the run becoming a wanted fugitive, going so far as altering her appearance with plastic surgery, using fake documents as well as dyeing her hair. In Florida, where she had had the surgery done, she signed an apartment under the name of Lisa Pendragon. The Florida driver’s license she obtained was issued to Alexandra Solomon. Her plans were to go to a Latin American country until one simple misstep brought her into the hands of the law.
On 5 August 2002, after being on the run for three months, Michelle was arrested for the murder of her husband. Two years later, she would turn down a plea deal which would send her to prison for only ten years. The case then went to trial for ten weeks, drawing both local and national media attention. Despite the lengthy trial, on 3 December 2004, the jury returned a verdict of guilty after a mere six hours of deliberation - six days before her 34th birthday.
Both Diamond and Michelle are currently serving life sentences without parole for the 17 December 2000 murder in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Michelle is currently incarcerated at the North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women in Raleigh, North Carolina. With the help of her mother and sister, Michelle continued to proclaim her innocence on her blog at www.michelletheer.org; that is, until it mysteriously and without warning shut down in early 2012.
In April 2011, a federal appeals court denied her request for a new trial.
John Diamond is currently behind bars at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. For a short while, he attempted to maintain his own blog, which he named Free John Diamond, with the aid of his sister but apparently gave up as it has not been updated since November 2007. His most recent appeal in 2010, filed on the basis of a conflict of interest, was denied by a federal court.
Both Diamond and Theer were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
About the author: The Real Gone Girl was published in 2016 both in paperback and Kindle formats.
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