WHEN police finally discovered where murdered Frank Stonemark's body was after months of searching, it was a grim find.
He had been strangled to death before his callous killers had hacked off his arms, legs and head with a chainsaw, stuffing his dismembered body into bin bags before burning his remains.
Even more shockingly, those responsible for the heinous crime, which police would later prove in court, were in fact Frank's second wife, Carmen, who was 20 years his junior, and her lover, James Deese, then 52, who worked for Frank.
Here, we take a closer look at the twisted tale, in which Carmen - seemingly motivated by money and lust - convinced her lover to kill her elderly husband, 76, before assisting him in hiding the dismembered body...
Before Carmen, Frank Stonemark had a relatively peaceful, ordinary family life.
He and his first wife Elaine were a hardworking couple who had two daughters - Cathy and Susan - and a son.
Together they built a small rental property business together in the bustling town of Carbondale, Illinois.
As Frank’s daughter Cathy Stonemark recalled in Hayu documentary, Snapped: Killer Couples, which reveals the full horrors of the case: “It was a true family business.
"We all had our roles - cleaning units, cutting grass, painting, repairs… We were all expected to contribute to the family."
However, in the mid nineties and after 34 years of marriage, Frank and Elaine’s relationship began to fall apart as the business grew, and Frank bought his ex wife out of the business.
Speaking exclusively on the documentary Elaine says: “I had worked from the beginning of this marriage, all along, non-stop, every day, and there was no way it was not going to be fifty-fifty, and with that it was a very rough divorce.”
However it was soon clear Frank had moved on already - and he’d actually been having an affair with one of their tenants - 33-year-old Carmen Noland.
I think my dad saw a younger woman, obviously twenty two years younger than him, that was showing some interest, and I’m sure it was flattering."
Frank's daughter Cathy
Elaine recalls: “Carmen was from Romania [and] she showed up looking for a rental and I rented to her for three years, until the divorce, so for three years I saw her every month as I got the rent from her."
Cathy Stonemark says: “Honestly, I think my dad saw a younger woman, obviously twenty two years younger than him, that was showing some interest, and I’m sure it was flattering to him.
“They bought a large piece of property where he built his home, and resided with Carmen.
"The first time I met her, I knew she wasn’t in love with my dad. I knew she was out for my dad’s properties and money."
They tied the knot in 2010, and Carmen helped out with the company finances.
By 2017, the couple approached 20 years together - seemingly proving any doubters who believed their relationship couldn't last 'wrong'.
The pair spent more time together, as Frank began to handover his work responsibilities to employees, including maintenance man James Deese, who lived on their property.
Lt. Jon Kilquist, Jackson County Sheriff’s Investigator, says: “The way Frank employed his people, they all lived in kind of a tight knit community, they were together everyday, Frank and James were always working on properties together.”
Frank's friend Jeff Woodruff added: “Frank became increasingly detached from the business.”
Then, on the night of October 30, 2017, authorities received an alarming call from Carmen, saying Frank had been missing since 6pm the previous day.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Investigator Jon Kilquist says: “She said they’d had an argument and he took off in a red minivan.
“His health had deteriorated and he was on medication at the time of his disappearance.”
The police began asking Frank’s family if they knew anything, but as Frank’s daughter Susan says: “Nobody had heard anything.”
Meanwhile when questioned, Deese confirmed the last time he’d seen Frank was the day he went missing, after he’d borrowed his van and dropped it back off.
He also told officers Frank seemed upset that day - but he didn’t know why.
Then, on November 3, Carmen contacted detectives and told them she’d discovered his passport was missing, and that she believed he’d drained his bank account, which had over $200,000 in it.
She suggested to police maybe he’d gone to a vacation property he owned before the divorce in the Dominican Republic, where he’d holidayed with his children when they were growing up, to get away for a while.
But there was no record of a plane ticket being purchased, and his passport hadn’t been used to travel.
Susan says: “Her story that he left, and he left with a wad of cash, didn’t add up.”
Investigator Jon Kilquist says: “As an investigator you learn over the years whatever information you get, you don’t take it at face value - you dig into it.
“We started checking bank records, digging deeper…"
Another area the police explored was whether Frank was struggling with money issues - could he have fallen foul of loan sharks?
Again, Carmen suggested to police he liked to gamble - but they soon discovered he hadn’t used his casino player card in at least two years, meaning they'd been given another frustrating 'red herring'.
Old police records revealed however Frank had previously been arrested for assaulting an employee of his a few years earlier - who Carmen had apparently been having an affair with, before Frank found out and confronted him.
They quickly discovered this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to infedelity, and Carmen had seemingly been suspected of having affairs with several maintenance men over the years.
Mid-nineties: Frank Stonemark and his first wife Elaine divorce after 34 years together, and it's revealed Frank had been having an affair with tenant Carmen Noland, twenty years his junior.
2010: Frank and Carmen tie the knot, and the pair buy a plot of land where they build a home and live together.
October 30 2017: Carmen calls the police to report Frank missing.
November 3 2017: Carmen contacted detectives and told them she’d discovered his passport was missing.
March 17 2018: Police finally received a report of a sighting of Frank’s red van, in a car park in Kentucky.
July 11 2018: Carmen brought in for a formal interview. The same month, James Deese pleads guilty to first-degree murder.
July 2019: Carmen pleads guilty to first-degree solicitation to commit murder and concealment of a murder, and is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
July 2020: Deese receives a 25-year sentence for first-degree murder. Concealment of a homicide and moving a body charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
On March 17, 2018, nearly five months after Frank went missing, police finally received a report of a sighting of Frank’s red van, in a car park in Kentucky, which, according to investigators, had been ‘hiding in plain sight’ the whole time.
Investigator Jon Kilquist says: “When I walked up to the back of the van I could see two windows were tinted but it looked like there was a red smear.
“We used a luminol type liquid around the back end of the van, and could see there’d obviously been blood in the van.
“James Deese then contacted us, to say he had information about [the case].”
Dramatically, Deese then came forward and told cops he knew Frank wasn’t missing - he was dead.
He revealed Carmen called him at 10pm on the day Frank went ‘missing’ asking for his help.
When he arrived, he initially claimed he found Frank dead on the floor, with blood pooled around his head.
He claimed at this point Carmen asked him to help move his body, but he refused and went back to his trailer.
However, he then agreed to take part in a police sting and record a telephone conversation to help nail Carmen for the murder.
Worried about what might be revealed about his own involvement in that call, Deese was then forced to come completely clean.
This eventually led to the whole, horrifying truth coming to light.
Investigator Jon Kilquist says: “Mr Deese essentially explains that Carmen told him that he has to kill Frank so that they can be together and live happily ever after.”
James went on to tell investigators that on October 29 Frank had invited him round to watch a game, which is when Carmen told him to kill him.
"He grabbed Frank by the neck and told us he recalled squeezing his neck until he heard a pop,” Detective Patrick Horstmann, Jackson County Sheriff’s Investigator recalled.
The pair then moved Frank’s body to a property 20 miles away, and Carmen came up with a plan to get rid of the body for good.
Harry Hitzeman, Chicago Daily Herald reporter, says: "James and Carmen went back to where they had dumped Frank’s body, bought it back to the Stonemark house, and then Carmen gives James a chainsaw and tells him to cut up the remains."
Lt. Jon Kilquist says: “He confessed to dismembering Mr Stonemark - it was unsettling.
"They burnt the remainder of Mr Stonemark in burn barrels."
With barely anything left of Frank's body, the burn barrels themselves became a crucial piece of evidence.
Reporter Harry says: “James actually drew maps for detectives to find the burn barrels and detectives secured warrants to go and search those."
According to Jackson County State’s Attorney Mike Carr investigators never found Stonemark’s body, but were able to find evidence of his death including "blood on sheet rock located in the van Deese admitted using to transport the body".
It seems for Carmen, the motivation was money, with it later revealed Frank had threatened to remove her from his will.
Detective Patrick Horstmann says: “Carmen believed that Frank had a substantial amount of money in a separate account, and we learned Carmen, after Frank’s disappearance, was taking steps in trying to gain access to some of the property and money with Frank being gone.”
On July 11, 2018, Carmen was bought in for a formal interview - where she continued to lie to cover her tracks, with Deese's confession unbeknown to her.
Detective Patrick Horstmann says: “We had a lot of information that she didn’t realise we had.
"We would ask her a question and she would give us an answer and immediately we knew she was lying to us. That went on for a number of hours.”
Eventually, in July 2018, James Deese pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to testify against Carmen, and later received a 25-year sentence.
Carmen pleaded guilty to first-degree solicitation to commit murder and concealment of a murder, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Frank's daughter Susan says: “The day of his sentencing, when my sister and I [finished] our victim impact statements, [Deese] did turn around as we were sitting behind him in the court room.
"He looked at all three of us, and said ‘I can’t take it back’, he wished he’d never have done it, and he was sorry."
Finally, Frank's ex Elaine adds: “I hadn’t really cried for Frank for over twenty years, but my heart was broken, for my daughters.
"No one deserves to be killed, no one.”
Episodes of Snapped: Killer Couples are available to stream on Hayu in the UK.
