Naman Shrestha
NBC’s ‘Dateline: Deadly Omission’ provides a detailed account of the murders committed by John Peek around the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. After almost a decade of investigation, the police managed to catch the killer responsible for the killings of Carol Marlin, Margaret Ginn, and Kasi Peek. Although the focus is on the victims as well as the killer, many questions arise regarding the whereabouts of the perpetrator — John Peek.
John Peek Murdered His Wife and Her Friend For Insurance Money
It was in 1952 when John William Peek was brought into the world by his parents. Born and raised in the state of Georgia, he went on to do great academically as he graduated from high school with flying colors. After completing college, John landed a job in the IT sector at Lockheed. At some point in his life, he crossed paths with a woman named Carol Marlin and fell in love with her. Eventually, the couple made their relationship official in the eyes of the law by tying the knot. While John worked in IT, Carol was a program planner by profession. The married couple seemed to lead a picture-perfect life until John began plotting a plan for his wife’s murder.
A couple of weeks before her murder, he somehow convinced Carol to make him the primary beneficiary of her $700,000 life insurance policy in place of her mother. Once the process was completed, John went over to the house of his wife’s 64-year-old friend and former coworker, Margaret Ginn, and bludgeoned them to death. After killing them, he ensured that he locked the door and placed a torn Lockheed invoice in Carol’s hand with the name of her coworker, Barry Webb, written on it. On the same night, John also reportedly broke into Barry’s basement workshop, after which the latter called 911 to report the intruder.
A few hours later, the killer pretended to know nothing about his wife’s disappearance and reported her missing to the police, claiming that she had gone out to dinner with Margaret but did not return home. After the detectives found the body in Margaret’s house, they interrogated John Peek, who was deemed the primary suspect in the case. He claimed that the couple led a happy married life. As for his alibi, he said that he grabbed dinner from a restaurant and then returned to his Marietta, Georgia, residence. When he was asked if someone could have a possible motive to cause harm to Carol, he told the investigators about an alleged threatening letter she had received just a week prior to the murders.
A Strong Case Was Built Against John Peek After the Murder of His Second Wife
As the investigation intensified over the next few weeks, the detectives learned about the change in the beneficiary of the victim’s life insurance policy, raising even more suspicion about John’s involvement. Unfortunately, all the police had at the time was suspicion and circumstantial evidence, so John remained out of prison for several more years. In 1999, John Peek met a divorcee named Kasi at a party, and not long after, they began dating. After eight months of knowing each other, the couple got married in May 2000. The initial phases of the marriage went by smoothly, but it soon began deteriorating as John got involved in an extramarital affair in 2004. Upon finding out about it, Kasi left the house and started living alone elsewhere.
Although estranged, she still hoped to salvage their marriage. However, it wasn’t meant to be, as on October 2, 2005, John shot 44-year-old Kasi to death at her Smyrna house, just a few miles away from Marietta, Georgia. After shooting her in the back, he fled the scene without getting seen. When the police came across Kasi’s body, they began a murder investigation and questioned John about his whereabouts. He told them that he was busy working on his house in Allatoona. Upon searching his house for evidence, they came across a collection of ‘CSI’ tapes, but nothing significant was found. He was cornered because Kasi’s relatives filed a civil lawsuit case against him. When they learned about his suspicious behavior linked to the finances of his wives, in October 2005, he was arrested for the murders — Carol, Margaret, and Kasi.
John Peek is Incarcerated at a Georgia Prison Facility
In an unexpected turn of events, John William Peek took a plea deal in exchange for a reduced sentence. He admitted his guilt in connection to the three murders — two in 1996 and one in 2005. Finally, in April 2007, the killer was sentenced to three life sentences, which were to be served concurrently, without the possibility of parole. As of now, John is serving his three life sentences behind bars at Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville, Georgia.
