It was previously revealed through Tom Mahood’s research that Carol Lazar passed away just two days after Bob married Tracy Ann Murk, despite still being legally married to Carol (certificates). These peculiar circumstances have sparked various theories and rumors on the Internet, ranging from murder to revenge suicide. In this article, I aim to propose a theory that will hopefully put an end to the speculations surrounding Carol’s death and exonerate those who have been falsely accused.
Carol Nadine Asher
On July 27, 1980, Carol Nadine Strong and Robert S. Lazar tied the knot in Woodland Hills, California. Both of them were employed at Fairchild Industries, where they are believed to have met each other. Carol, born in 1942, was 15 years older than Bob. According to SignalsIntelligence’s research, Carol’s actual family name was Asher, not Strong as she claimed on her marriage certificate. The investigation further revealed that Carol Nadine Asher had been charged with second-degree murder in 1975, to which she eventually pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to at least five years in prison, with a potential release date in late 1977. After serving her sentence, Carol became a test technician at Fairchild. It was during this time that she married Bob, and the couple relocated to Los Alamos in 1982. In Los Alamos, Carol reportedly worked as a contract technician at Los Alamos Labs and later started two photography shops in town with Bob.
Tracy Ann Murk
On April 19, 1986, Bob Lazar married Tracy Ann Murk in Las Vegas. The marriage certificate was delivered to an address that belonged to Tracy’s father Donald. It’s important to note that Bob was still legally married to Carol at the time. However, after Carol’s passing, Bob and Tracy married for a second time in October, making their marriage legal. For this second marriage, Tracy used the alias Jackie Dianne Evans. Tracy was six years younger than Bob and half the age of Carol. Tragically, Carol passed away on April 21, just two days after Bob and Tracy’s first marriage.
According to Bob’s biography, Tracy was initially hired by Carol to work in the couple’s photo business in Los Alamos.
One saving grace in all of this, which I felt Carol had a hand in making, was that Tracy was in my life. Carol had hired her to work at one of our photo stores.
Bob’s friend Gene Huff also confirmed that Tracy was hired to work at the photo business.
Bob’s wife, Tracy, usually did the photo deliveries to our office and, at first, I had talked to her and seen her infinitely more than Bob. Periodically she would talk about when she and Bob lived in Los Alamos, not together, and I just presumed that he ran a photo lab down there. Bob and Tracy met when Tracy was hired to work at a business run buy Bob’s first wife, Carol.
Initially, I believed that Bob and Tracy backdated their marriage certificate with the intention of committing bankruptcy fraud. The idea was that by making their marriage illegal, Bob could protect some of his assets by transferring them to Tracy, and marrying her after filing for bankruptcy to prevent those assets from being seized. While it is technically possible to backdate a marriage certificate, I have conducted an investigation and reached out to the office of the Clark County Clerk. They have confirmed that no changes were made or requested for the April 1986 marriage certificate. This finding does not necessarily imply that Bob and Tracy did not engage in bankruptcy fraud; it simply means that the marriage certificate was not altered for that purpose.
As previously mentioned, Tracy was younger than Bob and significantly younger than Carol. She also assumed a different identity, using the name Jackie Dianne Evans for their second marriage certificate, similar to how Carol had used a name other than her own. While Jackie’s reasons may have been comparable to Carol’s, they were not identical.
According to the research conducted by SignalsIntelligence, Tracy was arrested for forgery shortly before her employment with the Lazars. In 1985, she worked as a teller at the Los Alamos National Bank, where an undercover bank agent, investigating theft, coaxed Tracy and two of her friends into attempting to steal money from one of the bank accounts. Their endeavor proved unsuccessful, leading to Tracy’s termination and subsequent charges in December of the same year. While awaiting court proceedings, Tracy changed her name to Jackie, reportedly in an attempt to evade prosecution. Unlike Carol, it appears that Tracy managed to avoid being apprehended. It is worth noting that Tracy used her real name on the first marriage certificate issued shortly before Carol’s passing.
Carol’s death
Carol Lazar passed away on April 21, 1986. According to the police report, her cause of death was determined to be suicide. She was found in the garage of her Las Vegas home, inside a vehicle filled with exhaust fumes. Bob allegedly discovered his wife’s body on the morning of the 21st after returning from out-of-state car racing. Bob claimed that the car was still running when he arrived. A suicide note, containing the words “I did it by myself,” was found in the house. An unused gun was also discovered on the driver’s seat, along with a small television set facing Carol. The coroner arrived at 8:35 AM. Although no autopsy was performed, the coroner’s report concluded, based on a blood test, that the cause of death was carbon monoxide asphyxiation. The report indicated that rigor mortis had already begun to dissipate when the body was examined. It also mentioned that the last known “sighting” of Carol alive was on the afternoon of the 19th (the day of the marriage), via a phone call between Bob and Carol. While the police report suggested that the possible time of death was between the 19th and the 21st, the coroner chose to document the 21st in the report. Since no autopsy was conducted, an exact date could not be determined, but it is evident that the coroner did not consider such determination necessary.
In his biography Bob Lazar stated the following:
A price I wasn’t willing to pay, and for a few months wasn’t even aware I was paying, was the loss of Carol’s life. For a time she was able to hide her pancreatic cancer diagnosis from me… she waited for me to leave the house to run a few errands. She sat behind the wheel of a car in the closed garage and ended her life.
Considering that the police determined Carol’s death to be a suicide, they would not have been legally able to disclose her medical condition. However, if they were aware of her cancer and had corresponding documents, it could have simplified the determination process. This might also explain why no autopsy was performed, despite the unnatural nature of her death. While it cannot be proven that Carol indeed had cancer, such a medical condition appears to be a more reasonable explanation for her decision to take her own life compared to allegations of infidelity by her husband.
The Hypothesis
Based on the aforementioned facts, I have developed the following hypothesis, which I believe provides the most plausible explanation for what truly happened to Carol Lazar:
I believe that Carol loved her husband and was content until the inevitable tragedy of her cancer diagnosis shattered her dreams. To create distance between herself and Bob, who remained in Los Alamos to manage the photo business, Carol relocated to Vegas. She hired Tracy as a replacement, knowing that Tracy, like herself, had a criminal background and was in need of employment and support. Carol was aware of the potential consequences Tracy would face if she appeared in court and so devised a plan. She asked Bob to marry Tracy, with the intention of diverting the authorities’ attention away from Tracy and Los Alamos. This is why Bob and Tracy got married in Vegas instead of Los Alamos, and why the marriage certificate was sent to Tracy’s address in Los Alamos. If the police ever investigated Tracy, they would have seen the certificate and assumed she had left both the town and the state, allowing her enough time to change her name and assume a new identity, which she eventually did. This explains why Tracy used her real name on the first marriage certificate, and why Bob agreed to participate in this charade, as it was at Carol’s request. It is evident that Bob did not attach much importance to the marriage, as he immediately went to participate in car racing afterwards.
Unknown to both Tracy and Bob, Carol had devised a clandestine plan, complete with a hidden script for the second act. She instructed Bob to marry Tracy in Vegas, where she herself resided. Carol also arranged for Bob to call her before the marriage, which he apparently did. The purpose of this call was for Carol to ensure that the marriage was imminent and to time her own demise just before it took place. By doing so, Carol intended to ensure that her death would go unnoticed long enough for the marriage to happen and consequently be deemed legal rather than illegal. This was Carol’s elaborate scheme. If she was younger like Tracy she could have stayed with Bob for much longer, but she wasn’t and Nature had other plans. Thus she arranged a partner for Bob who could stay with him for the time she no longer could.
In the coroner’s report, it was mentioned that rigor mortis was already dissipating when the body was examined at around 8 am. Typically, rigor mortis begins to subside after approximately 10 hours and takes about another 20 hours to fully disappear. This suggests that the likely time of death was between the afternoon of the 19th and the evening of the 20th. While it may be tempting to blame the coroner for not investing the time and effort to determine the precise date and time of death, the true culprit who disrupted Carol’s plan was not the coroner but Bob Lazar. Since the marriage took place in Vegas, where Carol resided, one might expect that Bob would have visited her immediately after the event. However, he instead chose to race cars in a distant location and only returned on the 21st. If he had discovered the body on the 19th, there would have been no ambiguity regarding the time of death, but unfortunately, he did not return in time.
Final Testimony
When Tracy was recently questioned about why she changed her name, she cryptically replied, “It’s just not what you think it is.” I presume she was referring to the idea that she and Bob did something nefarious to Carol.
Bob wrote the following in her biography (I set the important bit to bold):
One saving grace in all of this, which I felt Carol had a hand in making was, that Tracy was in my life. Carol had hired her to work at one of our photo stores. She was a bit of a wild child to be sure, but the two of us grew close, drawn together by the belief that Carol set in motion the events that led to Tracy and me getting married soon after Carol’s death. Tracy and I traveled to Las Vegas together to oversee some matter related to the photo business — what matter that was, is lot in a fog now. I don’t know if either of us noted the irony of it, but we were married at the “We’ve Only Just Begun” chapel in Las Vegas in April of 1986.
May God rest Carol Lazar’s soul
The End
