In September 2019, it was revealed that Mark Burns, a native of Farmington, Utah, and a former member of the American army, had r*ped eleven women between 1991 and 2001 in Utah and Wyoming. After almost two decades, the police were finally able to link these crimes. Burns, who was later found guilty of multiple counts of aggravated s*xual assault, among other crimes, was sentenced to 242 years in prison.
Mark Burns had started dating 19-year-old Dianne in the 1980s, and it was during that time that Burns had been arrested on r*pe charges. While Dianne was extremely shocked, Burns convinced her that he was being falsely accused and later went on to marry her in 1986, a move that Dianne has claimed time and time again was done to better Mark's image in front of the legal authorities.
The couple's marriage was certainly an unstable one, with Dianne revealing that Burns was not only mentally but physically abusive and had spent most nights outside the house without any explanation. Dianne filed for divorce in February 1990 after having suffered enough and never heard from Mark after that day, until she discovered almost three decades later that he was being convicted of eleven s*xual assault cases that had occurred during the period of their marriage and continued afterward.
Evil Lives Here's upcoming episode, titled He Called It "The Need", will revisit these cases and be centered around Dianne's perspective. She will provide a deeper insight into their turbulent marriage and how she discovered Mark Burns' criminal history. The official synopsis of the episode, as per IMDb, reads:
"When Dianne Burns moves across the country to marry Mark Burns in prison, she holds no doubts of her fiance's wrongful conviction until after his release, when she begins to see signs of both his guilt and plans to resume his criminal behavior."The episode premieres on July 21, 2023, at 7 pm ET on Investigation Discovery.
Mark Burns had been convicted of multiple r*pes and murder
In an investigation launched by the Utah Police Department almost two decades after the assault cases, they were finally able to trace back their forensic and DNA evidence to 74-year-old Mark Burns. Upon interrogation, Burns reportedly confessed to all the assault crimes he'd been accused of without much questioning. He claimed that in the summer of 200, he traveled to Evanston, Wyoming, to carry out an armed robbery because he'd grown bored of r*pes.
He pleaded guilty to all of the 17 charges brought against him in February 2019, which included eight charges of s*xual assault, six charges of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated burglary, and one case of aggravated robbery. All of the charges he was convicted of were first-degree felonies, landing him a sentence of 242 years in prison.
According to Uinta County Clerk Kerri Wright, Mark was also given a life sentence the following year for killing Sue Higgins in 2001. It was revealed that Higgins had been duped by Mark, as he had claimed to be a representative of the Chamber of Commerce and had entered her house on the pretext that he had misplaced his pen. Upon being invited inside, the criminal pulled a revolver on Higgins and shot her.
All of his crimes have now earned him a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Mark Burns currently continues to serve his sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility.
Watch the upcoming episode of Evil Lives Here on July 21, 2023, at 7 pm ET, exclusively on Investigation Discovery.
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