A Twelve Year Relationship, Its Ending, and the Record Left Behind

Evidentiary Method

The archive uses several categories so that recollection, documentation, attribution, and inference are not blended together.

Chronological Framework

I. The Relationship

Mark and Jacqueline were together for approximately twelve years. They were never formally married, but Mark considered Jacqueline his wife and says they lived as husband and wife.

The relationship continued through moves, serious illness, surgery, disability, financial pressure, changes in employment, and the ordinary difficulties of maintaining a household over many years.

During one of Mark's major surgeries, Jacqueline was the person beside him when he went under anesthesia and again when he woke. Mark says his family did not appear for that surgery. That memory became one of the strongest reasons he believed Jacqueline genuinely loved him and would remain beside him through serious illness and physical decline.

Mark says he saved Jacqueline's life on two occasions and repeatedly put his own needs aside when she needed help. He describes the relationship from his side as one in which her happiness frequently took priority over his own.

That history is important because the later events did not follow a brief or casual relationship. They occurred after roughly twelve years of shared life and after Mark says both people had repeatedly represented the relationship as permanent.

II. Jacqueline When the Relationship Began

Mark says that when Jacqueline first moved in with him, after they had known each other only a few months, she took his second bedroom because she did not want to remain living with her mother and father.

At that time, Mark remembers Jacqueline as intensely socially avoidant and frightened by ordinary public situations. She would not routinely go grocery shopping. Even when Mark went to the store, he says Jacqueline often remained in the vehicle rather than entering.

Mark describes the young woman he first knew as being like an abused puppy, frightened easily and reluctant to leave the house without him. He connects this behavior to years Jacqueline had spent isolating herself in the woods behind her parents' home.

Mark has sometimes described the behavior as almost agoraphobic. This archive does not present that characterization as a clinical diagnosis. The relevant historical fact is the pattern itself: Jacqueline was unusually reluctant to be around strangers or go places without Mark.

Over the years, Mark says she became more capable of functioning in public and around other people. Even so, he remembers her rarely going anywhere without him except for recurring trips involving her father and a small number of ordinary errands.

III. Daily Affection and the Word Forever

Mark remembers affection as an ordinary part of the relationship rather than something that appeared only during unusually good periods.

He says Jacqueline commonly told him she loved him five or six times a day. Their recurring exchange was that one would say I love you and the other would answer I love you more. The exchange became a private couple ritual.

The word forever became another symbol of the relationship. Mark says Jacqueline regularly reassured him that no matter how angry she became, she would never leave him.

Mark says that at least a few times each year he deliberately gave Jacqueline an opportunity to tell him if she was unhappy. He says he told her that if she truly wanted another life, he would rather help arrange a peaceful transition than have either of them remain trapped in an unwanted relationship.

Because Mark depended on caregiving assistance, he says the one practical condition he would have needed was enough time to arrange a replacement aide before Jacqueline left.

IV. Disability and the Caregiving Relationship

Mark is a United States Navy veteran rated 100 percent Permanent and Total disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

By the time the relationship ended, he was living with substantial mobility limitations, severe neuropathy, low vision, and the consequences of a 2019 amputation involving his right great toe and part of the foot.

Jacqueline became Mark's state appointed caregiver in 2019. Mark says she therefore knew his physical condition not as an outsider hearing about it, but as the person who had been responsible for helping him live with it.

According to Mark, Jacqueline knew which daily tasks he could not safely perform, the care he required, that he had no nearby family prepared to assume that care, that he lived in a rural area, and that replacement caregiving support could not simply appear overnight.

This distinction is central to Mark's understanding of the departure. In his view, the ending removed both a romantic partner and a major component of the practical support structure on which his safety depended.

Mark later considered asking Oklahoma authorities whether the circumstances implicated protections applicable to vulnerable adults or caregiver responsibilities. He did not pursue that route. He says he had promised God that he would not seek revenge.

This archive does not claim that Jacqueline was adjudicated to have committed elder abuse, vulnerable adult abuse, caregiver neglect, or another crime. No such adjudication is represented here.

V. Her Father's Illness, the Move, the House, and the Van

When Jacqueline's father was dying of stage four cancer, Mark says he moved with Jacqueline from Coos Bay, Oregon so she could be closer to her father in Grove, Oklahoma.

Mark says that within less than two months he obtained financing and acquired the house. A few months later he purchased Jacqueline a new van so she could make the recurring trips to Grove reliably.

Mark says those trips became predictable. Jacqueline would often leave Friday, call Friday night, call again Saturday, and then tell Mark on Sunday whether she would return Sunday night or Monday morning.

Mark says the van was purchased specifically because the family travel was frequent and because Jacqueline's mother, Kim, did not like making the long drive.

The house and van matter in this archive not simply as possessions, but as part of the relationship history. Mark says he reorganized his life and finances to make it easier for Jacqueline to remain close to her dying father.

VI. Daily Life: Computers, Marijuana, and Astronomy

Mark remembers Jacqueline's daily routine as becoming increasingly centered on a computer, marijuana, and astronomy.

He says she commonly woke, sat at her computer for much of the day, and kept a small marijuana pipe and lighter nearby. Mark says he personally witnessed Jacqueline use THC virtually every day throughout much of the twelve year relationship.

Jacqueline told Mark, according to his recollection, that she began using marijuana when she was approximately eleven years old.

Mark estimates that at times roughly $500 per month was spent on marijuana flower, pre rolled products, vape products, gummies, drinks, candy, cookies, and other THC products.

When they lived in Coos Bay, Mark says the marijuana shop near their house knew Jacqueline by name because of how frequently she visited.

Mark also remembers the smell in the house becoming so strong that he quietly bought an air filtration unit because he wanted cleaner air to breathe. He says he did not explain the real reason at the time because he wanted to avoid another argument.

One incident stayed in Mark's memory because of its absurdity. Jacqueline believed that approximately half of a joint had been lost inside a vehicle. Mark says the search became so extensive that bags of soil in the trunk were opened and left spilled. When the trunk was opened again later, Mark remembers plants growing in the spilled soil.

Mark also remembers Jacqueline being especially excited about a work related trip to Washington because recreational marijuana was legal there.

Mark eventually used marijuana himself after Jacqueline encouraged him to do so. He says he never used it at the level he observed in Jacqueline and stopped after she left without treatment or a prolonged quitting process.

At night, Jacqueline frequently shifted from the computer to her telescope and astrophotography equipment. Mark says she sometimes remained outside until approximately five in the morning, slept only a short time, and then returned to the computer.

At the time, Mark interpreted the routine as hobbies that kept Jacqueline occupied and happy. After the relationship ended, he came to view the same routine as one that also created increasing isolation between them. That latter conclusion is Mark's interpretation.

VII. The Misfits Concert: A Rare Exception

One of the unusual times Mark remembers Jacqueline willingly entering a crowded public environment was a Misfits concert she had long dreamed of attending.

While they were living in Washington State, Jacqueline wanted to see the band for her birthday. Mark says he spent approximately $800 on tickets and took her even though he was using a wheelchair and was not personally interested in the music.

He remembers the seats as excellent and Jacqueline as intensely excited by the experience. She yelled that she loved one of the performers and, according to Mark, the performer responded by telling her to shut up, which she found hilarious.

The concert became historically relevant to Mark because it was one of the few times he remembers strong excitement overriding Jacqueline's ordinary reluctance to be out among other people.

VIII. Astronomy and the One Thing Mark Could Not Regularly Do

Jacqueline sometimes became upset because Mark did not come outside at night and participate in her telescope sessions.

Mark says the reason was not indifference. His health and physical limitations often made it impossible for him to sit outside at night, remain in a trailer, or stay outdoors for long periods.

He did make the effort on some occasions and went outside to look through the telescope and spend time with her. He simply could not do it regularly.

Mark later wondered whether his inability to share that interest more often contributed in some way to emotional distance between them. He does not claim that it caused the affair or departure.

He remembers it because, in his view, it was one of the very few recurring wishes Jacqueline had that he physically could not fulfill.

IX. The Gas Station Meeting

Near the end of the relationship, Jacqueline told Mark that a man associated with the astronomy community wanted to buy some of her old lenses and that she was going to meet him at a nearby gas station.

Mark offered to put on his shoes and go with her. Jacqueline told him there was no need, saying the meeting would take only a few minutes and the location was just around the corner.

Mark now identifies that man as Mark Jennings and remembers the encounter as the first time Jacqueline met Jennings in person.

Mark says he trusted her and did not argue because he was concerned about the emotional strain surrounding her father's illness and death.

X. Facts That Took on Meaning Only Later

Mark says he did not understand the complete sequence while it was happening. Several details acquired significance only after Jacqueline was gone.

He discovered that a laptop, telescope, clothing, and other belongings were missing. While cleaning the back bathroom, he also found a used condom wrapper and an unused pregnancy test.

Mark says those discoveries were among the first physical clues that caused him to reconstruct the period before the departure differently.

Mark states that Jacqueline had an affair while the relationship was still ongoing and that Mark Jennings later became her partner. Mark later learned that Jacqueline had a baby boy.

Where exact dates of meetings, sexual contact, conception, travel, or other private events remain unavailable, this archive does not invent those dates.

XI. The Stated Reason for the Final Trip

The stated reason for the final trip was that Jacqueline's mother, Kim, was coming to pick her up so that Jacqueline, her mother, and Jacqueline's two sisters could spend time together after the death of Jacqueline's father.

Mark says Kim making the trip was unusual because she generally did not like making that drive. He estimates the round trip required roughly six hours.

Nevertheless, the explanation was plausible enough that Mark understood the trip as temporary. Jacqueline had made family visits many times before.

The historical significance lies in the difference between what Mark understood that day and what he concluded only after later discoveries.

XII. The Camera, the Shop, and the Two Minute Stop

Mark had exterior security cameras in front of the house that could see partially up the street.

After Jacqueline and her mother left in the truck, Mark says he watched the vehicle stop near the far side of his shop for approximately two minutes and then continue away.

At the time, the stop did not alarm him. He thought Jacqueline may simply have remembered something she had forgotten and asked her mother to wait.

Later, after Mark discovered that the laptop, telescope, and other belongings were gone, the stop took on a different meaning.

Mark concluded that Jacqueline had likely staged those belongings at or near the shop beforehand and used the brief stop to retrieve them without walking visibly out of the house carrying the items.

Mark emphasizes that he did not instantly reconstruct these details because he was grieving, enraged, medically vulnerable, and nearly blind. He says the significance of individual details came into focus only after he had time to examine what was missing and compare that information with what he had observed.

XIII. The Weekend Contact Pattern Breaks

Mark says Jacqueline called Friday night and appeared normal.

Mark called her Saturday. He remembers the conversation as short but not immediately alarming.

Sunday passed without the normal contact.

On Monday morning, Mark says Jacqueline told him:

I'm never coming home again.

A surviving screenshot displayed under Kim Starble's name includes messages saying that the sender was out of state, was not coming back, still loved Mark, was dying inside, and had lost herself.

Because the screenshot is labeled with Kim's name, this archive does not claim that the screenshot alone proves who was physically typing. Mark believes Jacqueline was using or communicating through her mother's phone.

Mark's own replies in the surviving screenshot include expressions of shock, grief, and disbelief.

XIV. The Phone Call That Contradicted the Explanation

Mark says he was told that Jacqueline had taken her mother's phone, was with friends, was out of state, and that her mother did not know where she was.

Approximately thirty minutes later, Mark says the same phone accidentally called him. He says he could hear Kim talking in the background.

Mark considers that accidental call the first direct evidence he personally encountered that the explanation about Kim not knowing where Jacqueline was was false.

Mark also says he later obtained a text message from Kim acknowledging that she had helped Jacqueline get away from him. The exact wording of that message is not reproduced here because the original text has not yet been recovered for this archive.

XV. Mark's Reconstruction of the Departure

Mark believes the departure had been planned before he understood what was happening.

His conclusion is based on the unusual solo meeting with Jennings, the belongings later discovered missing, the two minute shop stop, the abrupt break in the established family visit pattern, the communications afterward, and later information concerning Jacqueline's relationship with Jennings.

Mark believes Jennings was waiting at Kim's home and that Jacqueline later left with him for the Tampa area.

That specific reconstruction is Mark's conclusion. This archive does not represent Jennings's physical presence at Kim's home as independently proven unless supporting records or witnesses are later added.

XVI. Household Finances Before the Departure

Mark estimates that while the household was intact, he and Jacqueline had approximately $2,500 per month in combined income.

Jacqueline earned roughly $1,200 per month through her Acumen caregiving work. Mark's income was approximately $1,500 per month.

The amount was modest, but Mark says it was generally enough to cover the mortgage, utilities, food, medicine, cat expenses, transportation, and ordinary household bills.

Jacqueline's Acumen wages were not deposited into an ordinary jointly controlled checking account. Mark says Acumen loaded her wages onto a Walmart or similar prepaid payroll card established through the caregiver program and controlled by Jacqueline.

Mark says he did not have meaningful access to that payroll card or its records. Even so, because they lived as a household, the income ordinarily contributed to food and other shared expenses.

XVII. The Acumen Paycheck and the Night Before the Departure

Mark remembers an Acumen caregiver paycheck arriving around midnight at the beginning of the day Jacqueline left.

He says that while Jacqueline was outside with her telescope, she went to the bank across the street and withdrew the money in cash without telling him.

Mark says he discovered the withdrawal only later when reviewing the account activity.

The precise date, amount, and underlying account record for that particular withdrawal have not yet been recovered for this archive. It is therefore preserved as Mark's recollection rather than represented here as a reproduced bank record.

XVIII. Money Removed After the Move to Tampa

Mark separately remembers approximately $400 remaining in the household bank account after Jacqueline left. He says that money was intended for food and bills for the month and that Jacqueline removed the remaining funds after reaching the Tampa area.

The exact figure remains approximate unless the household bank record is recovered.

A different surviving Money Network screenshot in Jacqueline's name shows a beginning balance of approximately twenty cents, an Acumen Fiscal Ag EDI payment of $480.54 on August 9, 2024, withdrawals of $404 and $64, associated fees, location text beginning with Temple Terrace, and an ending balance of $6.24.

That screenshot documents the transactions visible on that particular account only. It is not presented as proof of activity in every household or personal account.

XIX. Financial Collapse, Food Access, and Transportation

After Jacqueline left, her caregiving income disappeared from the household at the same time that Mark lost the person who had ordinarily driven and assisted him.

Mark says his remaining income was approximately $1,500 per month and that roughly $750 went immediately to the mortgage.

Utilities, medicine, cat food, household needs, and transportation had to come from what remained.

Mark says he was often lucky to have $50 to $100 left after ordinary monthly bills and sometimes had less when expenses were unusually high.

Because he did not drive, obtaining groceries became expensive. Mark remembers a trip to Ponca City costing approximately $30 one way. Grocery delivery was not available to him at the time.

He says there were days when he survived on little more than bread and water.

Two different problems were operating at once. Mark's appetite had collapsed because of grief, and he also lacked practical access to enough food because money and transportation had become severe problems.

Mark says he repeatedly entered payment arrangements simply to keep essential expenses manageable.

XX. The Loss of the Van

The van Mark had purchased so Jacqueline could travel to see her dying father eventually became unaffordable after the household finances collapsed.

Mark says the vehicle was repossessed or voluntarily surrendered because he could no longer afford the payments.

He says he still has video of the night the van was taken.

The loss carries particular significance for Mark because the vehicle had originally been purchased to make Jacqueline's family obligations easier. After she left, he could no longer afford to keep it.

Mark says he considers himself fortunate that he managed to keep the house.

XXI. Medical Collapse After the Departure

The consequences were not limited to grief or financial stress.

Preserved medical and military record material states that Mark lost approximately thirty pounds in the weeks after Jacqueline left because he could not eat.

Mark was using insulin during that period. The combination of rapid weight loss, drastically reduced food intake, and his insulin regimen was followed by repeated severe hypoglycemia.

Recorded blood glucose fell into the high twenties and low thirties.

Mark says he nearly died.

He also describes severe panic, sleep disruption, isolation, inability to function normally, emotional dysregulation, and repeated medical crises.

Mark believes malnutrition and the lack of reliable food access worsened his physical decline. The exact contribution of each factor should be determined from the medical record where possible rather than assumed.

The full hospital chronology remains an open portion of the archive and can be expanded as exact dates and records are recovered.

XXII. The Animals Left Behind

Mark says Jacqueline's departure affected animals who had lived with her for years and could not understand why she had disappeared.

He sees this as one of the most painful aspects of the entire event because the animals were not participants in the adult relationship and had no ability to understand the circumstances.

Rocky

Rocky was born in the home. Jacqueline was present from the beginning of his life.

After Rocky emerged from his first weeks isolated with his mother, Mark says he became intensely attached to Jacqueline.

Mark describes Rocky as emotionally living on Jackie.

After Jacqueline disappeared, Mark says Rocky stood in a corner staring at nothing for approximately two weeks and could not be engaged normally.

Rocky later died in Mark's arms at approximately five in the morning. He is buried across the street from the house beneath a memorial stone.

Mark believes the emotional shock of Jacqueline's disappearance contributed to Rocky's decline. That is Mark's belief and is not presented as a veterinary finding.

The observable sequence is narrower and clear: Rocky had been deeply attached to Jacqueline, his behavior changed dramatically after she disappeared from his life, and he later died in Mark's arms.

Luna

Luna was another cat strongly associated with Jacqueline.

After Jacqueline left, Mark says Luna became critically ill and required approximately two weeks of repeated veterinary visits.

Mark says even the veterinarian feared Luna might not survive.

Luna did survive. Mark says she eventually began looking to him with the kind of attachment she had once shown Jacqueline.

Other animals in the household

Mark says other cats were also left behind. Some survived and some later died. The complete animal chronology remains incomplete and should be supplemented only when exact names, dates, photographs, or veterinary records are recovered.

XXIII. Emotional Volatility Mark Says He Witnessed

Over the years, Mark says he witnessed Jacqueline escalate rapidly over events he considered minor.

He remembers one incident involving something as small as a fork hitting the floor and another involving disappointment when an astronomy photograph did not receive the amount of attention she expected.

Mark also says that on one occasion Jacqueline slapped him approximately four times while he was seated in his chair.

Mark says he did not retaliate and believed that allowing the moment to pass was safer than escalating the confrontation.

This is preserved as a serious firsthand allegation from Mark.

This archive does not diagnose Jacqueline as psychotic, narcissistic, sociopathic, bipolar, or with any other psychiatric disorder. It records behavior Mark says he personally experienced.

XXIV. Personal Beliefs, Isolation, and Mark's Response

Mark remembers Jacqueline expressing unusual spiritual beliefs during the relationship.

He says she believed she was Mother Earth, or that after death she would become Mother Earth. Mark initially challenged the belief and says those challenges produced resistance and hostility.

Mark says he consulted a therapist friend because he did not know how to respond. According to Mark, the therapist advised him not to aggressively confront or reinforce the belief, but instead to avoid feeding it and allow it to fade naturally if possible.

Mark says the belief did not fade.

He also remembers Jacqueline creating small altars in the woods, leaving baked goods or other items for what she called fairies, making small paintings, and singing outside.

These details are included as part of the domestic history Mark remembers. They are not offered as a psychiatric diagnosis or as proof of criminal conduct.

XXV. Private Messages and the Later Public Narrative

Surviving material includes private messages associated with the departure and a later public Facebook post under Jacqueline's name.

The private messages are apologetic in tone. They include statements that the sender loved Mark, was dying inside, had lost herself, and was sorry.

A later public Facebook post under Jacqueline's name describes Mark as abusive, domineering, dangerous, cruel to her family, responsible for hoarding cats, and responsible for harassment after she left.

Those Facebook statements are preserved as Jacqueline's published allegations. They are not presented in this archive as adjudicated or independently established findings.

A visible response posted on Mark's behalf by Theresa Bartosik states that she had known Mark since 1984, had never seen him be mean or cruel, and noted that Jacqueline had remained with Mark for more than eleven years and had helped him through surgeries and amputation.

Mark believes the contrast between the apologetic private messages and the later public accusations reflects a deliberate change in narrative after the departure.

That conclusion is Mark's interpretation. The historical value lies in preserving both sets of statements so the contrast can be examined rather than silently choosing one and erasing the other.

XXVI. The Online and Astronomy World Mark Did Not Fully See at the Time

Mark says Jacqueline spent the overwhelming majority of many days at her computer.

He says he taught her how to use computers and Facebook and supplied or configured much of the technical equipment used for her astronomy interests.

After Jacqueline left, Mark says he discovered evidence of online accounts and activity he had not known about during the relationship.

Mark later suspected that some planning related to the affair or departure may have occurred during those long periods online.

He does not currently possess evidence establishing which specific private conversations occurred at which times. The archive therefore preserves that conclusion as suspicion rather than fact.

XXVII. Long Term Consequences

Mark says the damage did not end when the immediate medical crisis passed.

At age fifty eight, living in a rural location with substantial disabilities and caregiving needs, he believes the circumstances in which he was left profoundly damaged his willingness and ability to trust another romantic partner.

Mark sometimes fears that he may never enter another serious relationship.

He does not present that fear as an objective prediction. He says he remains open to the possibility that God could unexpectedly place someone in his life, but he does not intend to go looking for another relationship because he does not want more turmoil.

He says the house, his current income, and his property do not erase the medical, geographic, and emotional realities he now brings into any future relationship.

Mark describes the loyalty he once felt toward Jacqueline in a single sentence:

I would have laid down in front of a tank for Jackie.

XXVIII. How Mark and Jacqueline First Connected

Mark remembers first encountering Jacqueline through a Craigslist post concerning Norse gods. The wording struck him as unusually vulnerable and isolated. He says he responded in part because he worried that somebody less well intentioned might take advantage of a person presenting herself that way online.

Their early contact developed into friendship and then a long term domestic relationship. Within only a few months, Jacqueline moved into Mark's second bedroom because she did not want to remain living with her parents.

Mark remembers that the relationship began less as a conventional courtship than as one person trying to provide a safe and stable place for another person who appeared frightened, isolated, and uncertain about ordinary social life.

This early history matters because it helps explain why Mark later experienced himself not only as Jacqueline's partner but also as someone who had spent years protecting, teaching, supporting, and helping her function more independently in the outside world.

XXIX. The Woods, Spiritual Rituals, and Private World

Jacqueline told Mark that before and during parts of their relationship she spent substantial time alone in the woods near her parents' home. She described spending time near the lake and sometimes swimming or floating there at night.

Mark remembers Jacqueline creating small outdoor altars that she said were for fairies. He says she sometimes baked treats, painted small items, left offerings, and sang outside.

These activities are preserved because they were recurring parts of Jacqueline's private spiritual world and because Mark says they shaped the way she interacted with ordinary life.

This archive does not present unconventional spirituality as evidence of mental illness. It records the behavior because it was part of the shared history and because Mark later struggled to distinguish harmless imagination, deeply held belief, and behavior he found increasingly difficult to understand.

XXX. Social Anxiety, Employment, and Working Alone

Mark says Jacqueline frequently described herself as having severe social anxiety and preferred jobs in which she could work alone without close supervision.

A surviving Messenger screenshot dated December 1, 2021 contains a message from a profile labeled Jacqueline Starble stating that it was very hard for her to talk to people because of her social anxieties.

Mark says Jacqueline also told him directly that solitary work had another advantage for her: it allowed her to use marijuana without coworkers or supervisors immediately noticing that she was high.

Mark says he observed a broad pattern over multiple jobs in which Jacqueline sought work that kept her physically separate from other employees for much of the shift.

The archive does not claim that Jacqueline's anxiety was false. The narrower historical point is that Jacqueline herself described anxiety as a reason for preferring isolated work and, according to Mark, separately described that isolation as making marijuana use easier to conceal.

XXXI. Acumen and Mark's Later Caregiver Complaint

Jacqueline's formal caregiving work was administered through Acumen. Mark says that during roughly the final two months before the departure he believed the amount of meaningful caregiving Jacqueline actually performed had declined substantially.

After she left, Mark says he contacted Acumen and reported both the decline in caregiving work and the abrupt end of the caregiving arrangement.

Mark says he did not believe the response meaningfully addressed what had happened.

This archive does not state that Acumen made a finding of fraud, abandonment, neglect, or another violation. The preserved fact is that Mark says he made the complaint and was dissatisfied with the response he received.

XXXII. Being in the Same House but Increasingly Apart

One of Mark's later realizations concerned the difference between physical presence and an active relationship.

He says there were periods when he and Jacqueline could remain inside the same house for most of a day while spending remarkably little meaningful time together. Jacqueline might spend hours at the computer, move outside to the telescope late at night, return only to sleep, and then repeat the routine.

At the time, Mark says he largely accepted this because he believed Jacqueline was content and because he wanted her to have interests of her own.

Only later did he begin to interpret that period as a gradual withdrawal from the shared relationship. That interpretation is hindsight, not something Mark says he clearly understood while it was happening.

XXXIII. A Change Mark Noticed Near the End

Mark says Jacqueline's behavior changed noticeably during the period surrounding her father's death. He remembers increased emotional distance and a different quality in interactions that had previously felt predictable after so many years together.

Mark believes the developing relationship with Mark Jennings played a substantial role in that change. The archive identifies that as Mark's interpretation unless additional contemporaneous records establish the timing more precisely.

Mark also emphasizes that Jacqueline had previously told him she liked the house and was happy there. He says he did not understand her to be preparing to leave and did not believe the relationship was approaching an abrupt permanent ending.

XXXIV. The Affair as Mark Reconstructs It

Mark states that Jacqueline became involved with Mark Jennings before the twelve year relationship with Mark had ended.

He says meetings were arranged without his knowledge and that Jennings later came to the house. Mark says sexual contact occurred inside the home while he was present elsewhere in the house and unaware of it.

The used condom wrapper and unused pregnancy test discovered in the back bathroom after Jacqueline left became important physical clues in Mark's later reconstruction.

Mark later learned that Jacqueline had a baby boy. He believes the pregnancy began while the relationship was still intact, but the archive does not assign an exact conception date without supporting medical or documentary evidence.

The historical distinction is important: Mark says the affair itself is something he later came to understand as fact, while the precise date and sequence of particular private encounters remain incomplete.

XXXV. Kim's Role as Mark Understood It

Mark says the final departure would have been much more difficult without the involvement of Jacqueline's mother, Kim.

Kim made the unusual long drive to pick Jacqueline up under the explanation that the women in the family would spend time together after the death of Jacqueline's father.

Mark then personally observed Kim's truck stop near his shop for approximately two minutes after leaving the house.

Later communications, including the accidental phone call in which Mark says he heard Kim in the background after being told she did not know Jacqueline's whereabouts, contributed to Mark's conclusion that Kim knew substantially more about the departure than he had initially been told.

Mark says he later obtained a text from Kim acknowledging that she helped Jacqueline get away. Because the exact surviving wording has not yet been recovered for publication, the archive records Mark's recollection of that admission but does not manufacture a quotation.

XXXVI. The Surviving Departure Messages

One surviving screenshot is displayed under Kim Starble's name. Mark believes Jacqueline was the person communicating through or using her mother's phone.

The messages include statements that the sender was with friends, was out of state, was not coming back, still loved Mark, was dying inside, and had lost herself.

My mom doesn't even know where I am, I took off with her phone because I had nothing. Please don't bother her. I am with some friends, I am out of state, and I am not coming back. I'm sorry. I hope everything works out for you, and I do love you but I am dying inside. I have lost myself.

I have to do what's right for me. I hope everything works out for you. I'm so sorry.

Mark's surviving responses include disbelief, statements that his life was over, a goodbye to the woman he still called his angel, and a statement that he would miss her. A reply states that the sender would miss him too.

The tone of these private messages is one reason Mark later found the public Facebook accusations so difficult to reconcile with the communications exchanged at the time of departure.

XXXVII. The Later Facebook Accusations and a Preserved Rebuttal

A later Facebook post under Jacqueline's name describes Mark as abusive and domineering, says she had been walking on eggshells, accuses him of hoarding cats and being cruel to her family, and says she left quietly because she feared he might harm her.

The same post accuses Mark of later harassing family members, friends, and others in an attempt to reach Jacqueline.

These statements are historically important because they became part of the public account of why Jacqueline left. The archive preserves them as Jacqueline's allegations. It does not present them as findings made by a court, police agency, or other independent authority.

A visible response posted on Mark's behalf by Theresa Bartosik states that she had known Mark since 1984 and had never seen him be mean or cruel to anyone. The response also notes that Jacqueline had remained with Mark for more than eleven years and had stood beside him through surgeries and his amputation.

Mark believes Jacqueline's later public account was intended to control the narrative and prevent people who knew both of them from challenging it. That explanation of motive is Mark's conclusion, not an independently established fact.

XXXVIII. Blocking, Distance, and What Mark Says He Did Not Do

Mark says Jacqueline blocked him from viewing her social media and that other people she knew were connected to Mark were also blocked.

Mark says he understood that he could have created a different account or used other means to monitor Jacqueline's public pages after the relationship ended.

He says he deliberately did not do that because seeing her new life was too painful.

This detail is included because the later Facebook post accused Mark of persistent efforts to reach or monitor Jacqueline and people around her. Mark's account is that he was devastated, sometimes attempted to understand what had happened, but did not create covert social media identities to follow her life after being blocked.

XXXIX. Online Activity Mark Discovered Only Afterward

Mark says he taught Jacqueline how to use computers and Facebook and supplied or configured much of the equipment used for her astronomy interests.

After she left, he discovered remnants of online activity and accounts he had not known about during the relationship, including evidence of a Bluesky account, a Skype account and additional facebook accounts.

Mark believes parts of Jacqueline's online social world had existed outside his awareness for a substantial period and that online acquaintances may have influenced her thinking and decisions.

He also suspects that some planning concerning the affair or departure may have occurred during the many hours Jacqueline spent online.

The archive does not state that any specific private online conversation occurred unless a message or other record is recovered. Those conclusions remain inference.

XL. Why the Medical Decline Became So Dangerous

Mark's immediate decline after the departure involved several problems interacting at the same time.

Grief and shock caused his appetite to collapse. The loss of Jacqueline's income and transportation created practical difficulty obtaining food. At the same time, Mark was diabetic and using insulin.

Preserved records describe approximately thirty pounds of rapid weight loss. Mark says his blood glucose repeatedly fell into the high twenties and low thirties.

In that setting, reduced food intake was not simply discomfort. It interacted with medication that could become dangerous when his body was no longer receiving the amount of food on which his prior insulin routine had been based.

Mark says there were repeated moments when he believed he might die.

The archive distinguishes this documented sequence from the exact medical contribution of each individual cause. Where physicians specifically attributed a condition to malnutrition, medication, stress, or another factor, those findings can be added when the complete records are recovered.

XLI. Food Insecurity in a Rural Setting

Mark's location made the financial decline more consequential than it would have been for somebody living in a city with reliable delivery and public transportation.

He did not drive. Grocery delivery was not available to his home at the time. A private trip to Ponca City could cost approximately $30 in each direction.

Mark says that once the combined household income disappeared, there were months in which only approximately $50 to $100 remained after essential bills and sometimes even less.

He remembers periods of living primarily on bread and water, not only because grief had destroyed his appetite but because obtaining adequate food had become financially and physically difficult.

This rural context is important to understanding why the sudden removal of both caregiver support and household income had such an immediate effect.

XLII. The Parallel Mark Sees Between Himself and the Cats

Mark sees a direct emotional parallel between his own experience and the animals Jacqueline left behind.

He had the ability, eventually, to understand that Jacqueline had made a decision and was not coming back. The cats did not have that ability.

Rocky, in particular, had known Jacqueline from the beginning of his life. Mark says the animal's behavior changed immediately after she vanished and that Rocky stood for long periods staring into a corner.

For Mark, one of the hardest parts of remembering Rocky is the belief that the animal kept waiting for a person who had simply disappeared from his world.

The archive does not claim veterinary proof that grief caused Rocky's death. It preserves the sequence Mark personally observed and the meaning that sequence continues to have for him.

XLIII. The Lasting Damage to Trust

Mark says the relationship changed his understanding of what a promise means.

For years, he heard I love you multiple times a day, heard repeated assurances that Jacqueline would never leave, and saw the word forever become a symbol inside the household.

At the same time, Mark says he had repeatedly told Jacqueline that she did not have to remain if she was unhappy. He says he was prepared to help her transition out of the relationship if she would simply give him enough time to arrange replacement care.

Because of that history, Mark says the secretive nature of the departure damaged his ability to trust verbal reassurance from another romantic partner.

The whiteboard remains in the kitchen. Mark says the word forever still hurts when he sees it and also functions as a reminder that even a promise repeated for years can fail without warning.

XLIV. Why the Archive Preserves Small Details

Many of the details preserved here may appear insignificant when considered alone: a truck stopping for two minutes, a word on a kitchen whiteboard, an unused pregnancy test, a missing laptop, a short Saturday telephone call, an accidental phone connection, an account balance, a cat standing in a corner, or a person who almost never left the house suddenly insisting on going somewhere alone.

The historical significance lies in the sequence.

Mark says he did not recognize the sequence while he was inside the crisis. His understanding developed afterward as individual details were compared with missing property, communications, financial records, later relationships, and the medical consequences that followed.

For that reason this archive attempts to preserve even small details while clearly identifying whether each detail is firsthand observation, documentary evidence, an attributed statement, or a later interpretation.

XLV. Why This Record Is Being Preserved

Twelve years of a person's life do not disappear simply because a relationship ends.

Mark says he moved across the country, supported Jacqueline's interests, bought a house, purchased transportation so she could visit her dying father, lived through illness and disability with her, and built his daily life around the assumption that the two of them were a permanent family.

The end of the relationship affected far more than Mark's romantic life. It affected caregiving, food access, transportation, finances, medical stability, housing security, animals in the home, and his ability to trust another person in the same way.

Mark does not claim that every unanswered question can now be resolved. He does claim that the events were consequential enough that they should not be reduced to a handful of social media statements or disappear as though the twelve years preceding them never existed.

I am not asking anyone to hate Jacqueline. I am asking people to understand what happened, what it cost, and what I survived.

That is the purpose of this archive.