The Nurse, the Dog Trainer and the Billionaire
On September 21st 2023, a local Carlsbad New Mexico newspaper published a story about a man, Jon Green, who had been charged with solicitation to commit murder. While in jail, Green had allegedly paid the $2,500 bond of another inmate, Greg Markham, in exchange for killing his estranged wife, Dr. Kim Lark.
According to the article, the plot was discovered when Dr. Lark received a letter from a third inmate who claimed to have roomed with Green. The inmate overheard Green discussing a plot with Markham to murder her. The inmate offered to provide more information on the plot in exchange for paying assistance on his $40,000 bond.
Lark, believing the information had merit, reported the case to police on March 27th 2023. The police went to the jail to interview the inmate, who described the wild plan he had overheard involving Markham collecting Green’s van, using fentanyl to kill Lark and make it look accidental, stealing money hidden in Lark’s house, and burying her body over the border in Mexico. There was even apparently a secret code phrase – “walked the dogs” was to be used to indicate the job was done.
The information provided by the inmate - both about the plot as well as particulars about Green and Lark - appeared to have been sufficient for police to launch an investigation. Using phone and CashApp records, police were able to collect evidence demonstrating an alleged payment from Green to Markham. In May, Markham, detained at the time for a parole violation, admitted to investigators that he had been hired by Green to kill Lark. Markham said that once he had left jail, he had decided not to go through with it, but that he “was afraid of Green now”. Markham was arrested on September 12th 2023, appeared before the magistrate the following day, and was released pending court proceedings.
As of the publishing of this blog, I have not found any further news articles mentioning court proceedings for Green or Markham involving these charges. However, a search of online detention records suggests that charges against Markham were dropped, and he was released as of March 4th 2024. According to records for Green, there should have been court proceedings in mid-February 2024 with another hearing on March 20th 2024. Perhaps we will hear more shortly.
The story of a failed murder plot in a New Mexico jail is perhaps not particularly noteworthy. However, that news, along with the story about how Green initially ended up in jail, might begin to interest some people.
Green pleaded no contest in September 2023 to a set of forgery charges. A longer list of charges involving burglary, larceny, fraud, resisting arrest and concealing his identity had been dismissed as part of a plea bargain.
The charges originated from a criminal complaint filed by Lark against Green in April 2023. According to the complaint, Green had broken into her office and stolen her paycheck, checkbook and iPad. Following the break-in, Green then attempted to withdraw money from her account and cash a check at a local bank but fled after being confronted by the police.
Things went quiet for a couple of weeks. Then, on the 12th of May, Green resurfaced and stole Lark’s SUV that had been parked outside her place of work. Inside the SUV were her three search and rescue dogs named Storm, Felony and Zero. Zero was heavily pregnant and due any day. Green went into hiding with the dogs. Lark initially tracked Green using her iPad but soon the trail went dark.
Likely as a result of her role as an urban search and rescue dog trainer with FEMA and her history with 9/11 recovery efforts, Lark was very well networked. Assisted by the offer of a $50,000 reward, news of the dognapping spread nationwide via Facebook and was picked up by local news in New Mexico and Texas. As part of the nationwide dog hunt, it was disclosed that Green also went by another name: Ted Maher.
Lark also employed the services of an ex-FBI private investigator, Abel Peña, to track and locate Green. They quickly narrowed the search down to the San Antonio area and by mid-June Green was located and taken into custody. The three dogs and eight healthy puppies were quickly returned to Lark. This name, tied with the theft and dog hunt, attracted the interest of Dateline and about two weeks into the search they aired an episode about the situation.
It turned out that Jon Green, aka Ted Maher, was the man made famous around the world as the nurse who had spent eight years in prison for the death of Edmond Safra, the billionaire banker. A man that Dateline had aired another episode about in 2008. In that episode, Maher maintained he was innocent of the starting the fire that killed Safra, suggesting darker forces at play.
Lark shared with Dateline that she and Maher had met about five years earlier (around 2017). Early in the relationship, Green shared details of his past and his version of events. Lark said she believed him. They were married and, for a while, things were good. After a couple of years Lark said Maher started to act erratically and violently. Even her dogs, sensing something amiss, began reacting negatively to him. Events escalated and ultimately led to the dognapping and arrest of Maher.
Interestingly, the search and arrest of Ted Maher garnered very little national or international interest beyond the Dateline episode, Newsweek, and a short article in a local Monaco publication. The subsequent murder plot got even less attention, with the only press coverage being the local Carlsbad article.
Except for a small, little known, “true crime” podcast.
The Murder Sheet is an online podcast run by a husband-and-wife duo, Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee. Their podcast gained some attention in June 2023 for uncovering important leads in the famous 2017 “Delphi Murders” case that led to an arrest.
On October 6th 2023, The Murder Sheet podcast aired an episode covering the dognapping, murder plot and sordid past of Ted Maher. Theirs was an “exclusive story”. Indeed, the podcast shared extensive details of the murder plot not yet shared anywhere else online.
They shared the name of the third inmate: Ryan Michael Gonzalez. They exposed further details of the plot including how Lark would be murdered and how Maher would pay Markham for the job. Listeners learned of Maher’s plan to access Lark’s property and cash in on $750k of insurance, and how he was pursuing a Netflix deal for his recent book. They even tell us the juicy tidbit of Green apparently getting caught “snorting contraband” in jail and getting transferred to another facility. Oh, and he had previously been arrested for domestic assault in Tennessee in 2016.
It’s not clear how the podcast authors got the additional details of the murder plot. Perhaps they attended court proceedings or read court documents, perhaps they interviewed Gonzalez and Lark. No interviews or primary sources are cited in the bibliography so one can only speculate. It’s also not clear how they were tipped off about the story, but the authors were able to research and publish their podcast within just a couple weeks of both Markham and Maher making their first court appearance on the murder plot charges.
After the description of the plot, listeners then learn the background story of Ted Maher from the authors:
During the early pre-dawn hours of December 3rd 1999, billionaire Edmond Safra was sleeping inside his opulent 10,000 square meter Monaco apartment.
Ted Maher, one of Safra’s nurses (Safra suffered from Parkinson’s and required 24-hour medical care), ran into his bedroom waking Safra. Maher bleeding from two stab wounds in his abdomen and leg informed Safra that masked attackers had broken into the apartment and encouraged Safra to hide for his safety. Safra got out of bed and locked himself and another nurse, Vivian Torrente, in his dressing room that seconded as a panic room. Maher gave them his phone and told them to call for help.
Maher meanwhile set a small fire in the apartment under a smoke detector as a way to notify and attract authorities to the scene. Maher then stumbled downstairs and shared the story of the attackers with the night watchman. Maher was then taken to the hospital to have his wounds attended to.
The Monaco fire brigade and police arrived quickly, however confusion set in. Lily, Safra’s wife, emerged from her bedroom on the other wing of the apartment and was escorted outside, thankfully unharmed. The head of Safra’s security team arrived, having rushed to the apartment from the Safra’s other residence ten kilometers away. He was mistaken for an intruder and was prevented from going up to the apartment.
Safra, convinced that the attackers might still be in the apartment, refused to open the door of the safe room. Authorities hesitated, uncertain if the intruders were still inside. The fire was allowed to continue and soon smoke filled the apartment. It would be a couple of hours before the authorities made their way inside, and put out the fire and locate Safra. By the time they opened the door to the dressing room, Safra was dead having died of asphyxiation. Torrente, also dead, lay close by.
Despite early stories of intruders, Maher quickly became a suspect in Safra and Torrente’s deaths. He was questioned by authorities in his hospital bed and soon signed a confession. The confession stated that, while he had not intended to kill his employer, Maher had deliberately set the fire as a way to ingratiate himself into Safra’s good graces. It said he had stabbed himself to make things look more real and to look like a hero. Maher was taken into custody and held in the local jail pending trial.
Nearly three years later, Maher’s trial was held. Maher’s lawyers argued that, while Maher set the fire, it was not intended to kill Safra and the slow reaction and confusion of the authorities were contributing factors to his and Torrente’s deaths. They didn’t pursue the intruder theory.
The death and trial were followed closely by international media. After all, it wasn’t every day a billionaire died, and in such odd circumstances. Rumors and questions swirled. Was the Russian Mafia involved as revenge for him exposing an IMF money laundering scheme? Was it his estranged family? Was it Lily? Why wasn’t Safra’s extensive security team on site that night? Was there missing video footage? Did Safra’s autopsy indicate he was shot? Did Safra strangle Torrente to prevent her from opening the door?
After ten days of court proceedings and after just a few hours of jury deliberation, Maher was convicted of arson leading to death and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Maher didn’t take the sentence lightly. Just a month later, he broke out of the Monaco jail with another inmate but was quickly captured in Nice, France and returned to jail. As punishment for his escape, a further year was added to Maher’s sentence.
In 2007, nearly seven years after the deaths, a judge made the startling claim in an interview that Maher’s trial had been fixed. As a result, Maher was released shortly thereafter, and he returned to the US.
Upon arriving in the US, Maher is served with a restraining order against his wife, which he violates. He recants his confession and claims he was indeed attacked and the court proceedings against him were a set up. He claimed the confession was forced and he didn’t know what he was signing as he didn’t speak French.
Maher ultimately publishes a book, telling his side of the story. He ends up in the job of a truck driver, makes his way to New Mexico and meets and marries Kim Lark.
This brings the audience full circle to the arrest of Jon Green aka Ted Maher for the 2022 forgery and theft of Lark’s dogs.
The podcast authors offered their conclusions of their research. Their view? While there are indeed a few puzzling details that have not been answered, and other factors certainly contributed to Safra’s and Torrente’s deaths, it all stemmed from the actions of Maher. He is to blame for the deaths. Maher’s version of the story is weak and riddled with inconsistencies. Plus his behaviour before, during and after the deaths has undermined any claims he has made.
Throughout the podcast, the authors raise and neutralize any argument that would lend credence to Maher’s claims:
No security team on duty? The apartment was well fortified so the Safras could have felt secure enough to dismiss the team. In any case, the next security shift was scheduled to arrive at 5am - only 10 minutes after the fire alarm sounded.
Maher’s claims he was stabbed by intruders? His story kept changing. It changed from hooded to masked attackers. His wounds weren’t serious and his clothes weren’t torn.
The switchblade that was found? It belonged to Maher. Plus, if there were hitmen, would a knife really be their weapon of choice? How was it that two men couldn’t subdue or kill an unarmed nurse?
Security alarm system not working? Maybe, but the place was wired extensively with video surveillance, and there was no footage of intruders. Nor was there any evidence of suspicious individuals found in Monaco’s network of cameras.
Safra’s head of security prevented from going upstairs to rescue Safra? That can be attributed to overzealous or incompetent first responders, but it doesn’t mean it happened with any ulterior motive.
The rumors of bullets in Safra’s body? Those were fabrications.
The marks and bruises on Torrente’s body? We’ll probably never know for sure, but does it matter in the end?
Claims by magistrate that the trial was fixed? If this is true, why did the judge continue to work on cases? These accusations remain “in limbo” until today with no resolution. Plus, according to a Safra lawyer, the judge was barely involved in the trial.
Heidi Maher’s (Ted Maher’s wife) claims of being mistreated by Lily Safra’s team and by Monaco authorities? Heidi stuck by Ted during the trial but then divorced him, saying that maybe she never really knew the man she married.
Maher couldn’t speak French and therefore didn’t understand the confession he signed? Safra’s biographer “strongly contests” that fact.
Maher’s book that describes in detail his experience and why he is innocent? No, it’s clearly written “to settle scores”. Not just regarding the people involved in the fire and trial, but also with his ex-wives.
After listening to The Murder Sheet’s account of Ted Maher, listeners come away with the impression that Ted Maher is a deeply disturbed man: manipulative, paranoid, violent, abusive, unstable, schizophrenic, addicted to drugs. Few, if any, would have much empathy for this man or feel that he belonged anywhere else other than in jail or a psychiatric ward.
Case closed.
Or is it?
The Safra’s main lawyer, Marc Bonnant, rejected the idea that the trial of Ted Maher could have been fixed. “Monaco is not a barbarian country,” he said in 2007. “You can’t fix trials in Europe.”
But as I finished listening to the podcast, something just didn’t sit right with me. I recently finished books written by Nick Bryant, Henry Vinson, and Martin Armstrong, each of which tells stories of justice gone wrong. For me, the books provided enough logic and facts that I walked away with a reasonable doubt about whether the main characters’ were guilty. And I was left with a deep uncertainty that any judicial process in the US or Europe, is guaranteed to be conducted fairly and with sufficient facts to ensure a fair judgement. It was something I no longer could accept on blind faith.
So, with that niggling doubt in mind, I have been digging more into the story of Ted Maher, looking for original documents and sources online, trying to find details that have been lost in time, seeking context critical to objectively assessing the events of the past and connecting the dots.
And, most importantly, trying the answer the question that just won’t leave me: why, after nearly 25 years of the fire, and after 15 years of trying to rebuild his life, would Maher suddenly snap in such a significant way?
My research has opened a spider’s web of past events, relationships and other connections that have surprised me and that potentially (still) challenge today’s commonly accepted narrative of Ted Maher.
My next set of posts will walk through some of these.
Stay tuned.