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July 7, 2004SUSPICIOUS DEATH: Preliminary hearing for Mark Unger beginsTestimony reveals her affair, his erratic behaviorByRecord-Eagle staff writer BEULAH - An Oakland County woman who died after a fall from a deck at a Benzie County resort last fall had an affair with her husband's best friend, a witness testified. Glen Stark, of Bozeman, Mont., said his affair with Florence Unger lasted two years and ended a week before her body was discovered floating in shallow water in Lower Herring Lake. Stark said he was a close friend of Mark Unger, the dead woman's husband. Prosecutors contend Mark Unger killed his estranged wife. Stark's testimony came Tuesday during the first day of a preliminary hearing for Unger, 43, on a charge of first-degree murder. Prosecutors say Unger pushed his wife from a deck on top of a boathouse on Oct. 24 as the couple spent a weekend with their two sons at Watervale Resort near Arcadia. Unger's attorney, Robert Harrison, asked for a five-minute recess after Stark's testimony so his client could compose himself. Harrison, one of three attorneys representing Unger, said he knew of the affair - but not any details - since shortly after he took the case, but that he only informed Unger on Sunday or Monday. "It was obviously very distressing, that someone who he regards as his best friend was doing something like that with his wife," Harrison said. Stark said he stayed with the Unger family in Huntington Woods five days prior to Florence Unger's death while he was in the Detroit area on business. Stark had moved to Montana in August from Michigan. Stark testified that Florence Unger, 37, who had filed to divorce her husband on Aug. 26, described her husband to him as "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde." "Mark had threatened to take the house and the kids and leave her with $1,000 a month," Stark testified. "She told me Mark's behavior had been increasingly erratic." Stark was one of 11 witnesses called Tuesday by two assistant Michigan attorneys general, who are handling the case for Benzie County. The hearing is scheduled to resume today and reconvene Aug. 16 for testimony from an expert witness who was not available this week. Two of Florence Unger's close friends testified they had very little contact with her in the week leading up to the woman's death. Susan Witus, of Huntington Woods, said she talked to Florence Unger on the telephone shortly before the Ungers left for northern Michigan. "I commented how we hadn't spoken all week and she just said it was the worst week of her life," Witus said. She said Florence Unger told her she didn't want to go into details, but she said she and her husband had been "warring." Laurie Glass, of Huntington Woods, testified that Florence Unger didn't tell her about the trip to Watervale because she knew she wouldn't approve of a weekend spent with her husband. Another friend, Gary Scholnick, said he had lunch with Florence Unger a day before her death and she told him she was headed north with her husband on the advice of her divorce attorney, who said it was important for the couple's children and for the divorce proceedings. Linn Duncan, a resort owner who said he rented a cottage to Unger and his family for 10 or 12 years, testified about the discovery of Florence Unger's body. Duncan said he got a telephone call at 7:38 a.m. the morning of Oct. 25 from Mark Unger, who told him his wife was missing. Duncan's wife found Florence Unger's body floating in the lake near the boathouse. Police said they believe Florence Unger was pushed from a deck on top about 12 feet to a concrete apron below, and that her body was moved from the slab to the water. Harrison focused his questioning around a different theory - that Florence Unger fell to her death because of the dilapidated condition of the boathouse deck. Duncan acknowledged to Harrison he was concerned about the condition of the deck railings.
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