Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 23 - Drowning Sorrows - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a family vacation turns into a nightmare that's when i see the body of
a female lying face down in the water and possible clues provide more questions than answers either it was an
accident someone caused her death or she killed herself experts can't seem to agree on exactly what happened there is
not one single eyewitness to anything there are no confessions there are no fingerprints until groundbreaking
science discovers the truth method opportunity motive and last person to see them alive classic reasons for
murder [Music] [Music] every year the younger family spent their vacation on the western shore of
lake michigan in a place called watervale it's almost a sanctuary for them to go
somewhere else in the state where they can just forget about the rest of the world and reconnect with her with
themselves and their families and their loved ones florence worked as a bank loan officer
her husband mark a mortgage broker was also a well-known radio personality mark unger had a sports radio show and
made him somewhat of a celebrity within a circle of friends their vacation in 2003 was like most
others the youngers checked into their cabin had dinner and mark spent time with their two sons while florence was
outside for some fresh air i read a story to the boys sang a song put them to bed kiss them
good night and came back out to the deck and that florence was not on the deck mock assumed florence went next door to
their friend's cabin since their lights were on not wanting to leave the children alone
mark went to bed [Music] when he awoke just after dawn florence still wasn't there
he called the resort owners approximately 7 30 in the morning asking them if they had seen florence
they said they had not the resort owners went looking for her and found florence's body in the lake
and called 911. there was a guest at waterdale there was an acquaintance of it and i believe this
suicider is drowning what is her name when police arrived they noticed florence's body was in the
lake next to a boat launch 12 feet above was the deck outside the unger's cabin when i looked up there was a deck
railing from the boathouse and i noticed the deck railing was broke and fractured
out it looked as if florence had been sitting on the railing and it gave way investigators measured the height of the
railing and discovered that it was 10 inches below the state building code you look at that rail and it's low
enough that you think if somebody had been sitting on it they could lose their balance and fall over the edge i know
that i personally didn't want to sit on it the splintered railing led to suspicions
it was structurally unsound they referred to it as a death trap and that it was an accident waiting to
happen a person could reasonably pieced together someone fell through a railing hit the
ground and ended up perhaps in the lake there florence's body was transported to the
medical examiner for an autopsy the medical examiner found no drugs or alcohol in her system
he did find evidence of severe head trauma but the cause of death wasn't the head trauma
it was drowning there was plenty of fluid and that was the result of her active inhalation
of the water from the lake because she was submerged but what caused florence to fall to her
death was it suicide an accident or something more sinister this is flo unger and she was a student
from 1975 to 1978. the tragic death of florence unger the mother of two young children was a shock
to co-workers friends and family unless you've lived through it it's very difficult to explain you're you feel
like your head's going to explode it's totally complete devastation there's nothing like it it's unimaginable
police at the scene had to consider every possibility what do you have you know do you have a
suicide do you have an accident or or do you have a homicide florence's family ruled out suicide as a
possibility there's no way that she could have contemplated suicide for a number of
reasons number one she would never have left her children parentless an accident seemed like a distinct
possibility the railing on the deck outside the younger's cabin was freshly broken
it looked as if she were sitting or leaning on it and it gave way causing her to fall to the boat launch
below but how did the body get into the water mark unger hired a private independent
forensic firm to find out why they concluded that with florence falling 12 feet from
the deck the momentum of the fall carried her forward from the point of impact they produced five different
scenarios computer animations that showed different ways that florence could have possibly ended
up in the water the forensic firm concluded that florence's death was an accident
but the medical examiner completely disagreed bodies do not bounce that's number one
she would have been rendered unconscious upon contact an unconscious person unconscious individual cannot just
walk into the water and dr dragovich noticed that the blood stain on the boat launch was nearly a
foot in diameter for blood to go to that size to the diameter that we're talking on the
cement platform the body would have had to bend there for a period of time to find out how long florence would have
laid their bleeding dr dragovich examined slides of her brain tissue he focused on the neurons
a cellular communication system that controls movement memory and emotion dr dragovich discovered
repair proteins in florence's brain that were released after her head injury this showed that florence's brain was
struggling to survive long after she hit her head and before she drowned these neurons are suffering from lack of
oxygen they are damaged and there some of them are already dead but some of them are
trying to repair themselves it was a long period of time she was alive unconscious but alive
still alive still breathing dr dragovich estimated that florence was lying on the cement for at least 90
minutes possibly for as long as two hours before she was in the water and there was other conflicting evidence
the blood stain on the boat launch and the broken railing above did not line up the trajectory
of where she wound up on the deck was not in line with where the break in the railing occurred
to see whether the deck railing was structurally unsound analysts tested an unbroken section of the deck railing
using what's called a load cell the load cell is more or less a scale it's a series of
springs and sensors and it measures compression and tension florence weighed 110 pounds
to simulate her sitting on the railing analysts attached a bicycle seat to one end of the load cell
to the other end they attached a t-bar to which they applied 200 pounds of pressure the railing
didn't buckle or break somebody from the lab made the comment wow 200 pounds so we knew right then and
there that any any plan to paint the rail is is rotting and dilapidated weren't going to work
it was beginning to look like the scene had been staged to look like an accident
it was a charge florence's husband mark adamantly denied people that knew mark said mark was not
a killer mark would not do that that he loved flo that he loved his family that that he would not do anything like that
mark had no criminal history and his children said they heard nothing suspicious on the night of the incident
no argument or fight between their mother and father mark continued to maintain his wife's
death was a tragic accident he told the police she had been a little depressed but he later went
on to tell the police flo would have never committed suicide he was adamant about that
but florence's family believed this was murder and that mark was her killer method
opportunity motive no alibi and last person to see them alive classic reasons for murder
he had them all mark and florence unger appeared to have an ideal marriage on the surface they would appear to be
the perfect couple living in an affluent community with two beautiful children a
beautiful house but to those who were in their inner circle they knew that there
were many many problems mark unger's issues with drugs and gambling had cost him his job
he was a pathological gambler mark was a an alcoholic he was a drug addict and this this was affecting his uh his
personality he spent as much as six months at a time in rehab florence actually said at one point it
almost seemed like rehabilitation had become his job police also learned that florence had
filed for divorce two months before her death and had moved on to another relationship
there was evidence of a relationship that flo had become involved in and this individual was a close friend of marx as
well so it was a difficult circumstance at best investigators discovered that florence
had seen this man just a few days before her death and that mark might have known
about it i believe on that deck that it's a very real possibility that something about
florence's relationship came out and now yet another potential motive emerged florence had two life insurance policies
with a combined value of three-quarters of a million dollars and mark was the sole beneficiary
there's no question that flo was worth more debt to mark than she was alive even stranger just five days before his
wife's death mark had a run of bad luck at a local casino we understand that he lost about seven
thousand dollars shortly before a fateful trip and i mean within within days of that
fateful trip and friends told investigators florence didn't want to take the trip to
the lake in fact she was afraid to go clo's friends were all apprehensive several of her friends asked her why are
you doing this why are you going up there she did not want to go but she was afraid to go and she admitted that to a
neighbor and if that weren't enough the resort owner gave police even more evidence also circumstantial
he said when he told mark he had found florence's body mark didn't ask him where it was
the resort owner absolutely positively testified that he did not tell mark where flo was
florence was but mark appeared to know exactly where to go mark ran right to florence's body lying in the water
without being told where she was at and without being able to observe her from his vantage point
to prove this investigators placed a mannequin in the water exactly where florence's body was
found then an investigator with a video camera stood at the exact spot where the resort
owner told mark his wife was dead in this videotape it's clear the body can't be seen until
the viewer is virtually on top of it he knew exactly where the body was at but none of this proved murder
in fact investigators had no direct evidence linking mark to florence's death that is
until they looked at mark unger's shoes and found a white smear the state police crime lab
found a white speck of what they uh believed was paint investigators sent mark's shoe along
with six different paint samples collected from the resort to forensic scientist keith lamont
i received several known samples from various locations from the vacation home and boathouse area
he bombarded the sample with infrared light which identifies the chemical makeup of the samples in ways that can
then be measured paints composition basically consists of a solvent which is a liquid
a pigment which is the color and a binder and the binder you can think of as glue
lamont found that the paint on mark unger's shoe was virtually identical to the paint on the railing and the post
holding the railing the question paint sample from the stronger shoe was consistent chemically
with the known paint from the rail to investigators this pointed to only one logical
conclusion we believe mark kicked that railing and the paint stuff on the shoe certainly
would suggest that but was this enough to get a conviction investigators knew two important details
about the death of florence unger first tests showed a 110 pound woman sitting or leaning against the deck railing
could not have caused it to splinter second forensic tests identified repair proteins in florence's brain
scientific proof that she lay bleeding on the cement boat launch for about 90 minutes before she drowned in the lake
this made forensic history it was the first time immunohistochemistry was used in a
criminal case it's an advantage of being a forensic pathologist at the same time a
neuropathologist and being a general pathologist that i started with in the first place
the best advice in police work is consider every death scene as a homicide scene
seven months after florence's death mark unger was charged with first-degree murder there's no question if you look
at the evidence in its totality um that mark unger made a calculated decision to
take another person's life his lawyer said there was no case against him there is not one single eyewitness to
anything there are no confessions there are no fingerprints prosecutors believe mark hoped to
salvage their marriage but they think florence said no mark became violent and pushed her over
the railing she hit her head on the boat launch 12 feet below the evidence indicates she lay there
bleeding for at least 90 minutes mark went back to their cabin and put the boys to bed
when he returned to the boat launch he was probably surprised to learn that florence was still alive
[Music] so he pushed her into the lake where she drowned but he didn't realize the size of the
blood stain on the boat launch and the repair neurons in florence's brain both told a story
in an attempt to make it look like an accident mark kicked the railing with his right foot transferring paint to the
tip of his shoe and where he kicked the railing was inconsistent with the location of the
body mark either found out about the relationship that florence was having with another man or
else he if not found out she made it clear to him that you know that's only one of the things going on but this
marriage is finished what mark did is he went out there and he put her in the water
while she was still alive he had every opportunity to call for help he never did he let her lay there
and after thinking about what to do after some time he premeditated it went back and put her in the water and let
her drown three years after florence's death mark unger was convicted of first-degree
murder and sentenced to life without parole his head snapped back when the verdict was read he was shocked
at the verdict he anticipated going home that day i was wrongfully convicted of this crime
i am innocent florence's parents say her death should never have happened while my daughter's death was a tragic
and unnecessary event i think there's a lesson to be learned from it and that is
that a woman who is going through a divorce should avoid contact with her estranged husband
unless it's absolutely necessary and then with witnesses present and even though it might be contrary to the
advice of her lawyer and even if there's no history of mental or physical abuse divorce is a very volatile situation
and it is better to er on the side of caution because even casual contact could result in a
dangerous or life-threatening event florence's parents are raising her children and keep a small garden in her memory
although the grief is permanent i miss her every single minute of every single day
and i hope he thinks about what he's done for the rest of his miserable life mark unger
almost got away with murder only scientific analysis of brain tissue and his shoes
ensured he didn't how he could think that he was going to get away with it i can't imagine being
able to establish that that florence was alive for an extended period of time before she was placed in the water was
was crucial very important it was a great you know reminder that you know things
aren't always as what they seem they're not always what people try to portray them to be
[Music]

A family vacation turns into a nightmare when the wife is found face-down in the lake.

Brief Summary

Florence Unger drowned during a family vacation; her husband Mark was later convicted of her murder.

Key points

The Tragic Death of Florence Unger. Florence's death during a family vacation raises questions of accident, suicide, or murder.
Mark Unger's Conviction. After a lengthy investigation, Mark Unger is convicted of first-degree murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I miss her every single minute of every single day.

Florence's parents reflect on their loss.

20:21WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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