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Georgia Woman’s Murder Unravels Years-Old Mystery of Two Friends Who Were Also Killed: "He Was a Monster"
Friends Carol Marlin and Margaret (Maggie) Ginn were found dead after meeting for dinner in Marietta, Georgia. But it would take the murder of Kasi Peek, years later, for the crimes to be solved.
A dinner between friends in Marietta, Georgia, ended with both of them dead, but it would take years — and another murder — before detectives could unravel the mystery and bring the “diabolical” killer to justice.
Friends Carol Marlin and Margaret (Maggie) Ginn met for dinner on the evening of June 13, 1996, but when both women were later found dead, it sent shockwaves through the community and baffled even seasoned investigators.
“I mean, what did we miss? What did we miss?” Eddie Herman, who was a detective in Cobb County, Georgia, told Dateline for an all-new episode, “Deadly Omission,” airing Friday, October 25 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC.
For years, the case went cold.
“It’s hard enough to lose somebody, but to know the killer is walking around, free,” Ginn’s granddaughter Layla Bryant told Dateline of the family’s anguish, as seen in a preview of the episode.
Kasi Peek is killed a town over from Carol Marlin and Maggie Ginn's murders
Herman worried that the killer would strike again. His worst fear came true on October 2, 2005, when another woman, Kasi Peek, was found dead in a neighboring town, changing the trajectory of the earlier investigation.
“A woman's murder shines a light on an unsolved mystery from years earlier," a synopsis for the episode explains. "As the connection between the two cases becomes clear, a long-hidden truth surfaces. Could a master manipulator be behind both crimes?”
Peek’s murder shifted the investigation into high gear and turned her own family into amateur detectives as they strived for answers.
"He was a monster"
"Beforehand, he was a nice guy. After, he was a monster," Peek's sister, Jaquidon Kruger, told Dateline of the suspected killer.
A relative of one of the victims even agreed to wear a secret wire tap to try to ensnare the killer.
“I can’t believe that I’m going to talk to my brother-in-law with a secret wiretap thing,” she's heard saying in the Dateline preview.
The case continued to take one surprising turn after another.
“You know, you can’t make this up,” Herman told Dateline. “I mean this is, like, straight out of a movie.”
The detective’s determination — and persistence from the victims’ families — finally led authorities to the answer they’d been waiting for.
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“(The) most surprising part of the story was how someone can blend into society so easily, have an amazing job, friends — and be absolutely diabolical at the same time,” Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning told NBC Insider.
The most challenging aspect of sharing the story was tracking down everyone who had key insights to share, given the number of years that have passed since the murders.
“But everyone looked and sounded great and it felt like the story just happened yesterday,” Canning said of the final result.
Dateline's Andrea Canning: "Trust your gut"
According to Canning, the episode serves as a reminder for viewers to “trust your gut.”
“Trust your friends’ instincts if they think something is wrong with the man of your dreams,” she told NBC Insider. “There might be something there! Don’t discount it.”
To find out more about how the mystery comes together, watch Dateline on Friday at 9/8c p.m. on NBC or stream the episode on Peacock when it becomes available the next day.
And for even more Dateline, sign up for the show's official newsletter and check out its podcast.
