Married Couple Was on the Run — Then Wife Ended Up Dead. Who Killed Her? By KC Baker

For years, Nicholas Kassotis lived in fear of a mysterious, dangerous man who he believed had been stalking him and his wife in Georgia.

As a result, Kassotis, a former Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) officer for the U.S. Navy, and his second wife, Mindi Mebane Kassotis, a writer, “were moving every few days, few weeks, few months, under control of this person we’ll keep calling Jim McIntyre,” Kassotis’ attorney Douglas Weinstein said, WJCL reported.

Then, on Dec. 2, 2022, the unthinkable happened.

Mindi’s head and other parts of her dismembered body were found scattered in the woods of a hunting club near Riceboro and the Liberty and McIntosh County border, the Georgia Bureau of Information said in a press release at the time.

The body had been placed in the area sometime after Nov. 18, 2022, per the release.

Five months later, on May 12, 2023, police made an arrest in connection with Mindi’s murder. Taken into custody was not Jim McIntyre — who was considered an unverified individual, according to authorities — but Nicholas, 40, who also goes by the name Nicholas Killian Stark.

Arrested in Lancaster, Pa., Nicholas was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and removal of body parts from the scene of death or dismemberment. 

Mindi’s body was identified the day before his arrest, the GBI confirmed, per the release.

In August 2025, Nicholas was convicted of murdering Mindi and sentenced to life in prison, The Coastal Courier reported.

During the trial, his attorneys told jurors Nicholas had been acting strangely and lying to friends and family because he feared McIntyre, who Nicholas claimed worked for the FBI and had warned the couple that their lives were in danger, according to the Courier.

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In a statement to PEOPLE in August, Weinstein claimed that the McIntyre figure “controlled every aspect of Nick and Mindi’s life,” calling the victim’s death a “mystery.”

State prosecutors, however, dismissed the defense’s argument, calling it a “CIA, conspiracy theory type argument,” according to local WJCL.

Months before Mindi’s death, Nicholas’ ex-wife was awarded a $1.5 million divorce judgment against Nicholas, prosecutors said, per the outlet. They allege that Kassotis and his new wife went on the run to avoid paying the money.