A New Mexico doctor is recovering her search-and-rescue dogs, a billionaire banker remains dead in Monaco, and somewhere between those two realities sits a man with two names and a tangled web of alleged crimes spanning more than two decades.
Background
Jon Green — born Ted Maher — lived quietly in Carlsbad, New Mexico, after returning to the United States following his 2007 release from a Monaco prison. He had served roughly seven years of a 10-year sentence for arson convictions stemming from a December 1999 fire that killed billionaire banker Edmond Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente in their penthouse above a Monte Carlo bank branch.
In New Mexico, Green reinvented himself. He met Dr. Kim Lark in 2017 during routine medical appointments. By Valentine's Day 2020, they were married. Lark, a physician with a lucrative practice and valuable search-and-rescue dogs trained to assist FEMA and law enforcement, believed she had found a partner who shared her interests — skiing, biking, and the outdoors.
According to Lark, Green mentioned early in their relationship that he had been falsely accused of arson more than two decades earlier, a claim involving the deaths of two people including a billionaire in Monte Carlo. She says she initially believed his version of events.
The marriage began deteriorating by April 2022 when Lark discovered her checkbook was missing and learned from her bank that someone was forging checks using her name at multiple banks around Carlsbad. Security footage showed Green attempting to cash the fraudulent checks. Lark filed for divorce and changed the locks on her home.
About a month later, three of Lark's search-and-rescue dogs — Storm, Zero, and Felony — along with her vehicle vanished. Zero was pregnant at the time. The highly trained dogs had assisted FEMA during national disasters and worked crime scenes with law enforcement.
The Investigation
Green was arrested June 13, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas, after Abel Peña, a retired FBI agent who founded the nonprofit Project Absentis to help locate missing people, tracked a lead to a parking lot. Authorities charged Green with forgery and larceny. He had shaved his head and changed his appearance.
Peña continued investigating and located Lark's dogs at a house belonging to the aunt of one of Green's friends. Zero had given birth to eight puppies in a box in a back bedroom. Peña transported all 11 dogs to his home until Lark could retrieve them.
While detained at the Eddy County Detention Center in Carlsbad on those charges, Green met Greg Markham, who was being held on drug-related allegations. According to Markham, Green became furious with Lark for reporting the forgery and calling police.
Markham claims that during chess games they played together daily, Green repeatedly asked if he knew someone who could kill his wife. Markham says he saw an opportunity — he needed bail money to save his own dog from being euthanized.
"And I was like, 'you know what, man, I can't find anybody. I'll do it. How do you want it done?'" Markham told CBS News correspondent Erin Moriarty on "48 Hours."
Markham says Green described a specific plot: poison Lark by lacing her water with fentanyl to make her death appear as an overdose. If she refused to drink, Green allegedly suggested threatening the dogs instead.
"And she'll do whatever you want done," Markham quoted Green as saying.
Green paid for Markham's bail. But Markham says he was never serious about carrying out the killing — describing himself as a con man, not a hit man. He reported the alleged murder-for-hire plot to authorities.
In Monaco, the case against Maher centered on events of Dec. 3, 1999, when fire engulfed Safra's penthouse. Autopsies determined both victims died from smoke poisoning. Maher was wounded and bloody at the scene.
Maher initially told authorities that masked intruders broke in, attacked him with knives, and that he lit a small fire trying to trigger smoke detectors to summon help. He later signed a confession — written in French, which he did not understand — claiming there were no intruders and that he had stabbed himself to make his rescue attempt appear heroic.
Defense attorney Michael Griffith argued at Maher's 2002 Monaco trial that his client did start the fire but never intended for anyone to die — only wanted to appear as a hero. Maher was convicted of arson leading to two deaths and sentenced to 10 years. He briefly escaped prison in January 2003 by cutting bars and scaling walls, only to be recaptured the following day.
Authors Jennifer Thomas and Bill Hayes later worked with Maher on the book "Framed in Monte Carlo," in which he returned to claiming intruders attacked him. According to Thomas and Hayes, a French newspaper reported that a judge at an unrelated hearing claimed Maher's sentence had been predetermined before his trial began.
Key Takeaways
- Jon Green, 54, born as Ted Maher, was charged with murder-for-hire in New Mexico while serving time for forgery
- He previously served 10 years in Monaco after being convicted of arson in the 1999 fire that killed billionaire Edmond Safra and nurse Vivian Torrente
- Greg Markham claims Green offered him money to kill Lark, but Markham says he never intended to carry out the killing
- The alleged murder plot involved a fentanyl-poisoning scheme or threats against Lark's search-and-rescue dogs as leverage
- Green escaped briefly from Monaco prison in 2003 before being recaptured and completing his sentence by 2007
- Lark recovered her three adult dogs plus eight puppies after Peña tracked them to a house in Texas
What's Next
Green remains detained in New Mexico facing the murder-for-hire charges. His defense team has fiercely denied all allegations related to the alleged plot against Lark. The case is pending in Eddy County, where prosecutors are reviewing evidence including recorded communications Markham says he preserved.
Meanwhile, questions persist about the Monaco convictions. Thomas and Hayes continue to advocate for Maher's claims of innocence, pointing to alleged judicial irregularities they say were never fully examined during his trial. Green has not been charged with any new offenses related to the 1999 deaths, as those cases remain closed under French jurisdiction.