The Officer’s Wife: The Plot to Kill Captain Marty Theer

Marty Theer was stationed at Pope Air Force Base outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina when he was killed. Pope is part of Fort Bragg – an Army instillation that had earned a reputation among military members as an undesirable transfer. Soldiers and their families frequently referred to Fayetteville, the host city to Fort Bragg, as Fayette-Hell, Fayettenam, and Fatalville.

Marty and Michelle Theer had managed to keep their marriage together, just barely, while Michelle continued in college. Once she earned her Psychology degree and began her career, however, she felt that her home life was seriously lacking.

Lonely, Michelle became active online, searching for men who shared her appetite for adventurous sex. John Diamond responded to Michelle. John was on his second marriage, which was showing signs of collapse due to his frequent infidelities. Michelle and John started out looking for romance to spice up their otherwise boring lives and, after months of flirtatious messages, they agreed to meet. They hit off right away. John would later say it was love at first sight.

John and Michelle became inseparable, then they branched out into the local swingers’ scene to keep things interesting. When Marty Theer was shot dead on December 17th, 2000, investigators quickly zeroed in on Michelle and John.  They had been far from discreet and many people knew about their affair. Michelle stood to gain a half a million-dollar insurance payout from her husband’s death. Phone and email records along with the statements of multiple witnesses revealed an obsessive off and on relationship and a premeditated murder, but did the pair plot the murder of Marty Theer together or did his killer act alone?