Marsh worked the photograph’s geography. The Lake Norman marina identification was confirmed. Shadow angles and foliage color narrowed the shot to late May or June, consistent with the June 2006 stamp. An old retired dock photographer, who had kept 30 years of printed albums, remembered a couple he knew as Aaron and Kate.
Aaron and Kate Mercer. He was a freelance IT consultant and she, a part-time reading tutor. Neighbors near them in Knoxville remembered them as quiet and private. No children. Evening walks. He had a slight limp. She kept a vegetable garden. They had moved away around 2021, exactly when the payments stopped. Nobody knew where.