Wonder Lake woman accused of shooting husband, blaming intruder appears in court, gets public defender

The Wonder Lake-area woman accused of trying to kill her husband when she allegedly shot him at their home last week appeared in a McHenry County courtroom Wednesday and was appointed an assistant public defender.

Aneta Marsek, 45, is charged with attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm, each a Class X felony that carries a prison term of up to 30 years. She also is charged with aggravated domestic battery and obstructing justice/destroying evidence, according to the criminal complaint filed in McHenry County court.

Marsek spoke softly when asked by Judge Mark Gerhardt about her assets. She said she works for Antique Cruisers Inc. and that she has ”a couple hundred dollars” in a bank account. According to Buzzfile, an online company information website, Antique Cruisers Inc. is located at the address outside Wonder Lake where the Marseks live and where the alleged shooting took place. In her affidavit asking to be represented by a public defender, she said she owns a 2016 Chevy Cadillac, she “did” work for the company for five years and owns her home with her husband.

Marsek is being held in the county jail and in court Wednesday was no longer wearing a bandage on her head as she does in her police mugshot. She is accused of shooting her husband Dan Marsek, 41, “with the intent to kill” at their home about 11 a.m. Thursday, according to the complaint.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office had said in a news release last week that it responded to a call at the property for a report of “two people possibly shot.”

Aneta Marsek also is accused of trying to “prevent the apprehension or obstruct the prosecution or defense of any person” when she allegedly concealed a “firearm underneath a mattress” in their home. According to the complaint, she “knowingly furnished false information to the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office,” when she “reported that an unknown intruder shot” her and her husband.

It’s unclear whether Aneta Marsek actually was shot in the incident. Both she and her husband were flown to hospitals outside of McHenry County, but she was released and appeared in court within two days. Her husband initially was said to have life-threatening injuries, although his current condition has not been disclosed.

In October 2012, Aneta Marsek was the subject of a missing-person report. In a case that gained attention from national news outlets, Marsek and her two children were reported missing from Volo by Dan Marsek, who was described at the time as her estranged husband, according to a Northwest Herald report.

Lake County authorities conducted ground and aerial searches for Marsek and her children, and a dive team searched retention ponds near her home. But about a week after Dan Marsek last reported seeing her, she was found “unharmed and vacationing in the [Wisconsin] Dells,” according to a Lake County Sheriff’s news release at the time.

In the newly filed charges, Marsek made her first appearance before a judge Saturday morning, when she was ordered detained in the county jail. Judge Christopher Harmon referred to the state’s proffer detailing the 2012 incident, noting that given the “nationwide manhunt involving herself and her children ... there are no conditions or combination of conditions that can mitigate the defendant’s high likelihood of willful flight.”

A preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 1.