As Mark Wilson was getting ready to hit the sack after a hectic day at work, he had no idea of the horror about to unfold.
The five-time Australian DanceSport champion, who found national fame as a judge on Dancing With The Stars, was running a successful dance studio in Melbourne’s outer north-eastern suburbs with wife Annemarie when he received the late-night call that changed his life.
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“It was the fire brigade telling me our studio was on fire,” the 55-year-old explains. “I told Annemarie not to worry, it was probably something small.”
Jumping into his car, Mark raced to his beloved studio but as he approached, the ferocity of the blaze was obvious.
“There were police barriers and all I could see were smoke and flames. The studio was totally destroyed,” he recalls.
Mark’s world fell to pieces when the fire brigade informed him the fire was no accident but had been deliberately lit.
An investigation followed but police failed to find the arsonist. At his wits’ end, Mark hired a private investigator but that, too, was to no avail.
The original DWTS judges: Mark Wilson, Todd McKenney, Helen Richey and Paul Mercurio.
“I couldn’t imagine why someone would do that,” he says. “Without a studio I spent the next few years moving from venue to venue each week, so we could keep our classes going. It was exhausting but we had a mortgage and school fees to pay.”
It was another three years, in late 2008, before Mark finally got himself back up and running, opening a new purpose-built studio in outer Melbourne.
But just 12 weeks later, another call in the middle of the night brought devastating news… it was the emergency services informing Mark his new dance studio had been gutted by fire.
It was then that the shocking reality hit Mark – the arson attacks were personal. A stalker was out to get him, determined to destroy him. But who?
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Mark and wife, Annemarie. Image source: Facebook.
“A week after the second fire, that person [the arsonist] rang my home. They told my wife they knew where we lived and if I set up another dance studio, they would burn down our home.
“Initially there was a sense of disbelief and then I spent countless hours trying to work out why someone would do this. I still don’t know who or why, and I don’t think I will ever know,” says Mark.
Worried about the safety of his wife and three young children, the protective family man enrolled himself and them in self-defence classes and maximised security at his property. But he still couldn’t put his fears aside.
“When we returned home late, I’d check around the cars and in the shadows,” he says.
“When this happens, you’re never the same. You always wonder if that evil person is still out there.
“But it was important from the start to show my family there was life beyond this.”
“You always wonder if that evil person is still out there.” Image source: Facebook.
Mark and Annemarie stayed strong and brave, refusing to be terrorised by the predator that lurked, but the dancer admits life was tough. To make ends meet, he ran classes across Melbourne at night and got a job in advertising during the day.
Eight years on, though, Mark had reached breaking point. His stalker was still on the loose but he knew he had to stop living in fear.
Deciding on a fresh start, Mark moved his family interstate and became a business coach.
“Some things happen in life that are not always fair but you have to keep looking ahead,” he says, filled with positivity for the future.
Mark will be forever haunted by what happened, and some may even say that by moving on and starting again, Mark’s stalker has won. But not in this spirited man’s eyes.
“I don’t know who did this to me or why, but I have no anger towards them,” he says. “There’s no point being bitter. We’ve grown immensely as a family and our children have flourished – that’s the most important thing to us.”
