When did Dianne and Mark Burns first meet? Details explored ahead of Evil Lives Here on ID

Evil Lives Here's upcoming episode, titled He Called It "The Need", will revisit the horrific s*xual assault cases that Utah native Mark Burns, a former army member, was convicted of.

Mark had committed numerous crimes during the course of his marriage, while his wife, Dianne Burns, had been completely in the dark. It was almost three decades after their eventual divorce that Dianne found out about the numerous crimes Mark had committed.

The episode will be centered around Dianne Burns as she reveals details about her turbulent marriage with Mark and how she discovered his horrible 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 July 21, 2023, at 7 pm ET, exclusively on Investigation Discovery.

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When did Dianne first encounter Mark Burns?

Dianne Burns (Image via Oxygen)

Dianne first met Mark Burns in 1960 in Waikiki nightclub while she was still a resident of Honolulu, Hawaii. Mark Burns, on the other hand, had been stationed at Pearl Harbor during that time. The pair developed a liking for each other and started dating a few days after. They dated for approximately a year before Mark was sent to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. In Dianne's words, he was "kind and generous."

While they were maintaining their long-distance relationship, Mark had contacted Dianne one night to shockingly reveal that he was in jail on r*pe and assault charges. Hearing this Dianne was devastated, however, Mark convinced her that he was being falsely accused and did not commit any crime. Believing his words, Dianne promised him that she would wait for him until he was out of jail.

Dianne and Mark went on to maintain their relationship for over a decade through phone calls and letters until the latter finally proposed. The pair were wed on May 2, 1968, in prison per court records.

Dianne, however, has claimed ever since that she believes that Mark used the marriage as a ruse to impress the parole board. After a few months of their marriage, Mark revealed to her that he had in fact committed the crime. However, he persuaded Dianne, who'd been horrified, that he'd never repeat it.

Mark Burns (Image via IMDb)

When Mark was freed from prison after three years of their marriage everything briefly returned to normal. However, Dianne has since revealed in numerous interviews that their relationship took a turn for the worse when Mark started being mentally and physically abusive.

He began arriving home late and eventually began sleeping outside. When Dianne questioned him about this, he would raise his voice and threaten to murder her.

Dianne had enough of Mark when he had reportedly tried to choke her once, she packed up her belongings and wrote him a note stating that their marriage was over. She moved to Minnesota and immediately filed for divorce. After the proper legal proceedings, Dianne and Mark Burns' marriage was formally over and they never contacted each other moving forward.

It wasn't until three decades later that Dianne found a YouTube video and learned that her former husband, termed by the news reporters as the "Clearfield Rapist", had been convicted of multiple r*pes between 1991 and 2001.

Mark Burns' mugshot (Image via Utah Police Department)

Mark Burns was convicted of eight charges of s*xual assault, six charges of aggravated kidnapping, two of aggravated burglary, and another count of robbery. He had been sentenced to 242 years in prison for his crimes.

In another shocking discovery, Burns also confessed to having committed the murder of 28-year-old Sarah Higgins in the year 2001. His confession landed him a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

While Mark Burns serves his sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility, Dianne continues living in Minnesota.

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Evil Lives Here's upcoming episode airs on Investigation Discovery on July 21, 2023, at 7 pm ET.