An Unlikely Confession

On a November night in 2012, Chuck, a 61-year-old retired Marine, flew from Washington to Arizona to help a woman he'd been having an affair with for six months. Cynthia's husband David was paralyzed with ALS, bedridden, and—according to her—abusive and controlling. Chuck thought he was coming to help with nighttime care. By the end of the week, he had helped kill David with a trash bag and a pillow, and then watched Cynthia celebrate Thanksgiving with her family as if nothing had happened.

Two weeks later, sitting in a police interview room in Nevada, Chuck told investigators everything.

The Affair and the Grooming

Chuck met Cynthia at an RV resort in Boulder City, Nevada, in March 2012. She introduced herself, learned he was a Marine, and mentioned her father was a retired Marine colonel. They became friends, then lovers. Cynthia told Chuck her husband David was a genius—a 140 IQ computer analyst—but also a controlling abuser who beat her and their children. She showed him photos of bruises and described police reports that went nowhere. "I said, man, I said, person like that, I said, you need to just let them die and get it over with," Chuck recalled telling her.