mark weinberger, 11 years older, was already a very successful ear nose and throat doctor. we were bonding about medicine because i had just gotten through doing a stint in neuroscience at the university of chicago. we were just making jokes about the medical milieu. he was very funny. so you hit it off right off the bat? we went out to dinner. it was thursday. i spent all weekend with him and by monday i was enamored and smitten. within months michelle had moved out of her parents home and into mark s townhouse in chicago. the whirlwind was on, athens, miami, caribbean sunsets and french champagne. michelle, you look beautiful. for a southwest chicago girl whose father was a pipe fitter, this was head-turning stuff. just want to say this is the best vacation ever. i love you, baby. her new love was a philosophy quoting poetry writing renaissance man. he professed his love in a
poem. he just swept me off my feet. you had an unbelievable life. it really was, yeah. like it was just so romantic when i first met him, it was awesome. and then things just got, like, exponentially more outrageous as time went on. outrageously good. yeah. for instance, instead of simply popping the question to michelle, mark flew her to rome. he had a driver bring her to meet him. mark dropped to one knee and presented her with an enormous ring while a group of minstrels he had hired serenaded them. i was crying and everybody in the piazza was clapping. it was a beautiful moment. their wedding in 2001 was actually a three-act extravaganza. first a small wedding in chicago s botanic garden held solely for the purpose of allowing michelle s father, who was dying of cancer, to walk her down the aisle.
next, there was a lavish blessing ceremony in a 12th century villa on italy s amalfi coast. mark flew in a dozen guests from the states. then mark topped it all off by renting chicago s field museum and inviting 110 guests for another formal reception there. those were the memories that kept running through michelle s mind as she and her mother waited for mark to return. but when the sun set that night and mark had not returned as the captain had promised, michelle knew something was horribly wrong, but what? there were no reports of an accident involving mark, no signs of foul play, no ransom notes, only questions. was there a note of any kind? nothing. no message, nothing? i went through the boat like a crazy person, just tearing everything up, looking for something. and the only two things i found is 1,000 euros and my passport in a drawer.
call, no letter, nothing. and that made me realize that i need to take care of myself, and try to get back on my own two feet. mark was still alive. she knew that, because even though she hadn t heard from him since that brief phone call in greece, credit card statements were still coming into their home in chicago. michelle weinberger: he s going to the biggest fashion houses across france and buying clothing. and he s at casinos. and you re back, and you can t even pay the water bill. michelle weinberger: right. and i m sitting there crying every night, listening to our songs, you know, mourning his loss. and he s in the south of france. narrator: his credit card tally in the south of france alone added up to more than $50,000. since there s no law against disappearing, michelle couldn t really go to the authorities. it seemed the only people even interested in finding mark weinberger were his creditors.
he just swept me off my feet. narrator: you had an unbelievable life. it really was, yeah. like, it was just so romantic when i first met him, and it was awesome. and then things just got like exponentially more outrageous as time went on. outrageously good? outrageously good, yeah. narrator: for instance, instead of simply popping the question to michelle, mark flew her to rome. he had a driver bring her to meet him at the piazza navona. once there, mark dropped to one knee and presented her with an enormous ring while a group of minstrels he d hired for the occasion serenaded them. michelle weinberger: i was crying, and everybody in the piazza was clapping, and it was a beautiful moment. narrator: their wedding in 2001 was actually a three-act extravaganza. first, there was a small wedding in chicago s botanic garden, held solely for the purpose of allowing michelle s father, who was dying of cancer, to walk her down the aisle.