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Now, a special two-part edition of 48 hours. The mountains were absolutely amazing.
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We would fly down the waterline and it was just gorgeous. You could see glaciers.
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It was great. Never saw anything like it. Alaska is big. It's cold. It's brutal.
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It's unforgiving. It's also the place where bad people come to get away. We have a lot of cases up here dealing
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with a lot of whackados and uh this is one of them. This case is about money. It's about
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power. It's about greed. It's about sex. >> Kent Leink was found lying on his back.
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Uh his legs were crossed. The victim in this case was shot three times. And this was a very personal crime.
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He was fun. He was energetic. He was adventurous. He was full of the old G whiz. And he said, "Mom, I've met the
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most wonderful girl in the world. I have fallen in love. Her name is Michelle Hughes."
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>> Michelle was a stripper who worked at the Alaska Bush Company. And that's where she basically stocked
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her prey. It was work and that's all it was. I thought I could do it and save up enough
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money just for school. >> Kent proposed to Michelle about a month after he met her and she accepted. 10
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days after that, she got engaged to Scott Hilkkey. Several months later, John Carlin III came along. She was
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engaged to him >> and she just overwhelmed these men. They were sucked in. >> Kent Lepink um ends up dead as a result
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of his relationship with Michelle. >> Michelle Hughes went on to become Michelle Lahan.
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>> Michelle's such a charming woman. I introduced her to most all of my friends and all of my friends were so very
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impressed with her as well. >> She became a mom, moved to Washington, and she became a woman with a master's
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degree. >> I continued to go to school, very active in my daughter's school in our church.
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>> Married to a doctor with an 8-year-old daughter, somebody who both gave back to the community and was
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a volunteer in all sorts of organizations. I knew that she had been in Alaska. I I didn't know there was any
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trouble in her past. >> There's no doubt in my mind that John Carlin III and Michelle acted together
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to kill Kent Leank. >> There's no DNA. There's no hard evidence. There's nothing that
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irrefutably links Michelle or John to the murder of Kent Leank. >> I did not kill Kent Lepic. I can look at
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right. Mr. Leping, I did not kill your son. This is the strangest case I've ever worked on.
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I haven't even heard of a case this weird. >> Since we aired this story, the whole
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nature of this case has changed. And so has the outcome with some stunning new developments.
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But when it all began, Michelle Lahan found herself the focus of a complex murder investigation.
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>> I just feel like there's nothing I could do to make people believe me or make people like
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me. It hurts me that it hurts me that the family would think that I did it. Michelle is a chameleon. She's going to
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portray to other people what she thinks is in her best interest. The evidence is
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going to show that she is a conniving witch. >> Yeah. Well, the witch I might be, but a
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psychopath clearly I'm not. I'm Susan Spencer. Tonight on 48 Hours, Love and Death in Alaska.
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A lot of my customers are really lonely. It's sad, but it's true. >> When you're a stripper, you have 50
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boyfriends a night. You do, and that's just the way it is. >> Tina Brady ought to know. Over more than
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15 years, she's seen a lot of men pass through the Great Alaskan Bush Company. >> Try wearing these to the PTA.
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>> But she remembers a time when they all seem to go after one particular woman.
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>> Michelle to me was a really hot showgirl. >> Michelle Hughes. She was gorgeous. One of our top girls.
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I mean, when she danced, I always wanted to know her secret because I know she had one.
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>> Michelle Hughes came here because she wanted to make big money. >> Reporter Megan Holland, formerly of the
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Anchorage Daily News, has been covering this story, and she says Michelle did what she set out to do. She was making
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a,000 to $3,000 a night. >> But that was then. A decade later, Michelle was living near
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Seattle with her master's degree, physician husband, and daughter. >> We like to cook together as a family.
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It's loud and it's a busy house and I love it. >> She's definitely one of the most
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fair-minded, generous people. She always had good words of wisdom. Pals like Christina Hermac say the Michelle they
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know fits right in. >> Person that she is now and has been for the last seven years is a wonderful
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woman. Certainly, the woman she is now bears little resemblance to the stareyed 18-year-old girl who left Louisiana for
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New York to work in a modeling agency. In 1994, Michelle headed further north. She'd been dancing at the Great Alaskan
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Bush Company only a few months when a shy 35-year-old fisherman walked in the door. His name was Kent Lepinc.
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>> Kent 6'4 and he always dressed cowboy boots, big hat. >> According to his parents, Betsy and
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Kent, he had always had an impulsive streak. >> He lived right on the edge all the time.
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And sometimes he lost his footing. He'd been in trouble, caught skimming money from the family business in Michigan.
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They'd hoped Alaska would be a new start. >> He worked on a boat that picks the fish
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up and takes them to the fisheries. He really loved what he was doing and I and I thought that was neat.
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>> Fantastic. >> Kent also saw it as a break from his past. And when he met Michelle Hughes, he
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thought he had found his future. He seemed to be head over heels in love with this woman.
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>> Oh, ex. Yes, very much so. >> So much so that he'd proposed after just a month.
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>> I think he truly wanted to marry her. >> They'd even talked about going into business together.
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>> He just um worshiped her. >> He did not tell us she was a dancer. A fact left out when Ken and Betsy
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Leping had met Michelle in Anchorage. They were underwhelmed anyway. >> She would kind of pull back a bit
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physically when he'd put his arm around her. It's hard for a mother to be that honest, but she didn't love him like he
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loved her. >> Did you have any sense that there were any other men in this woman's life?
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>> No. None. >> Well, I I was suspicious. Ah, a mother's intuition. >> I've never met anyone like Michelle
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Hughes in my life, and I've not met anyone like that since. >> When traveling salesman Scott Hilkkey
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met her at the club late in 1994, he fell hard, too. >> You fell in love with this woman?
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>> I did. I was in love with her. Yes. >> Hilkkey says he soon asked Michelle to
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marry him, becoming another fiance. Did you at the time you proposed, did you have a clue that Kent Lepink had
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proposed to Michelle and that she had accepted his proposal? >> No clue whatsoever.
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>> He's telling his parents that he's met the love of his life. >> I told my parents the same thing.
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>> And then there was John Carlin. >> She brings out a charm that just it's like a magnet. It makes you feel good.
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Carllin had just lost his wife to cancer and was raising his teenage son alone. He wandered into the club in the summer
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of 1995. >> She's mesmerizing. She really should have gone to Hollywood. >> By the time he discovered she was seeing
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other men, he was in too deep to care. >> I was in love with her. So I said, "What
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the heck?" Carlin professed his love and around Christmas of 1995 says he popped
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the question. So, are you still with us here? It is mind-boggling, but prosecutors say that
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over an 18-month period, Michelle did have three fiances, or at least three guys who seem to think they were her
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fiances. Even more confusing, for part of that time, she lived in the same house with two of them, though not
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always the same, too. >> So, everybody's kind of in and out of this house. >> That is correct.
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>> How does this happen? >> I have no clue. >> They became entangled in this bizarre
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wasn't even a love triangle. It was like a love hexagon. What is it about this woman?
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>> I think she outsmarts most people that she gets involved with. I think that she
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reads a situation, figures out how to recreate her personality in such a way that she will profit from that.
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>> And profit she did from every boyfriend. >> She got lots of jewelry. and she got
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lots of furs. >> Not to mention car payments, house repairs, diamonds, all went on the tab.
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>> A lot of regulars buy you gifts. Michelle did not do anything differently than any other dancer.
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>> After work one day, Tina reminded us that Michelle's fiances also were her customers,
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and they were all at least 10 years older than she was. >> I don't think that she had any intent on
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marrying anyone. Tina says Michelle was just playing the game. >> Michelle had a way. She had a way of
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going, "Love me and love me till 2:30 and then at 2:30 I'm going home." >> Scott Hilkkey finally got the message.
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>> We were planning on a year uh engagement and that year came and went. >> By late 1995, he had had it.
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>> We didn't get married and it was obvious at that point that we weren't going to.
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Though he and Michelle would still see one another on and off, he left Alaska, which only made John Carlin turn up the
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heat. >> Our relationship started to go into full bloom when she broke up with Scott.
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>> Remember Kent Lepink? Well, his mother says he was telling his family to get ready for a wedding.
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>> Did you assume they would get married? >> Yes. Yes. on a trip to Anchorage in the
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spring of 1996. His dad says he was expecting to see his future daughter-in-law.
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>> She was supposed to meet with us and uh we were trying to get a date set. They
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kept changing dates. >> But he says by the time he got there, Michelle was mysteriously missing.
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Kent was mortified >> and he was just kind of beside himself because she didn't appear on the scene
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and I had to come up there and all this. >> Upset, Kent's dad says he went back to
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Michigan, not realizing that within hours of his departure, Kent had mailed his parents a letter. A letter so
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alarming that when they got it, they immediately called, but they failed to reach him. Actually, it was a letter
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inside a letter. And the first letter asked us not to read the second letter unless something
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happened to him. Something already had. Kent Leping's body was found off this deserted road 90 miles south of
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Anchorage on May 2nd, 1996, the day the letter arrived. He'd been shot three times, point blank.
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There were shell casings near his body, but no murder weapon to be found. It was about 5:00 on a Saturday morning.
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Our son Ransom and his wife were banging on our door and the sheriff had gone to
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their house. Yeah, it was a terrible, terrible, terrible moment. hell. And in that same awful moment, the
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lepins remembered that second letter. We had a letter from the victim saying, "If I'm dead, this is who killed me.
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Wow, they really did pick a remote spot. >> This is in the middle of nothing. 49year-old detective Linda Branchflower
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has been down this remote road before. >> There was a electrical crew that was coming up to check the radar station
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which is >> many times in fact since the veteran cop started investigating the Kent Leping
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murder case. We thought it was a workable case because there were suspects that were clearly developed.
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The isolated road is near Hope, Alaska, some 90 miles south of Anchorage. >> The driver looked up this road and he
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saw something red in the trail and that's when he discovered Kent Lapping's body.
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>> Do you think for one second that they thought that his body ever would be found? I think they thought if it was
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found, it wouldn't be found anytime soon and it wouldn't be found intact. And they probably thought that if bears got
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to the body that uh evidence of murder would be gone. >> As it was, it was impossible to
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determine an exact time of death, only that it had been within a day or two. >> Well, we got uh three evidence items
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listed. >> Steve Dehart was among the first investigators to get to the crime scene.
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It's a empty 44 Magnum casing found at the crime scene in Hope, Alaska. >> He never imagined for a second that the
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victim himself would provide even more critical clues. >> There was a letter to his parents.
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>> Actually, remember there were two letters, one inside the other. >> Put in your uh safe deposit box. If you
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think anything fishy has happened to me, then you can open up the other envelope.
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>> They say they agonized, but in the end honored Kent's wishes. >> I was going to just open the other
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letter and then I thought, no. >> What did you think when you get this first one that says, you know, don't
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open the second one unless something terrible happens to me? >> Absolutely scared to pieces.
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scared and confused, which made the devastating news of Kent's death even harder to bear.
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>> Oh, it's the most painful thing that's ever happened to us. First thing we did
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was open the second letter. It was terrible. Um, we were Yeah, it was really terrible.
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>> For in that second letter, Kent seems to solve his own murder. Michelle, John, or Scott were the people
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or persons that probably killed me. Do me another favor. Make sure Michelle goes to jail for a long time.
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>> Everything was happening so fast that Yeah. >> So, what could I have done to have kept
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him alive? And there are not answers for that. There just aren't answers for that.
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The letters gave police at the time three ready-made suspects. >> I hate to be vindictive in my death, but
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paybacks are hell. >> Michelle and her two remaining suitors, John Carlin. >> The letter Kent mailed to his parents
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narrowed their scope of investigation. and Scott Hilkkey. >> I was surprised that, you know, there
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was any suspicion thrown on me. >> Surprised, Hilkkey says because he was in Lake Tahoe, thousands of miles away.
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Though they'd broken up, Michelle had asked him to meet her there. He now thinks the timing was no accident.
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>> Her intent was to be out of the state when anything bad that was going to happen happened. I believe now that I
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was used as an alibi. For the record, did you shoot Kent Leping? >> No, I did not.
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>> He may sound like he means it, but Hilky failed a polygraph on that one allimportant question.
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>> Did you fire the shots fatal? Damn. No. >> Your overall score indicated that you
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were deceptive and that you were most deceptive when asked, did you shoot Kent Lepic?
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>> I think that's interesting because obviously I wasn't there and obviously I didn't do it. Polygraphs, you know,
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sometimes are helpful, but they're just a tool and uh sometimes they are absolutely wrong.
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>> Investigators came to believe this one was wrong. Although they never checked
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all the airline and phone records, they nonetheless decided that Hilky in fact had not been in Alaska. Michelle,
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however, had flown back the night before Kent was found. >> I wanted to mess around with it more.
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>> A day later, police interviewed her. You think he's dead? >> We don't know. We can tell you that
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violent death. >> She begins to sob. >> When did it happen? >> We don't even know that for sure.
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>> Later, through tears, she tells them that Kent did own a gun. >> He's got a handgun. A big gun. I can get
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>> She also told them something else. In their minds, the most incriminating fact
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of all. There was a $1 million insurance policy on Kent's life. >> Nobody buys a life insurance policy for
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a wedding gift. >> Investigators say that's exactly what Michelle had done, paying for the policy
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herself and naming guess who as the main beneficiary. >> It was insane. I was afraid and I told
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him that. He said, "Mom, I'm a big boy." >> But even Kent had second thoughts. A
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clue at the crime scene proved it. >> What exactly was found on the body itself?
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>> Well, his wallet was on his body. Um, he had jewelry, his watch and necklace were
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on his body. Um, also, uh, he had a change of beneficiary form. >> And this is a, uh, change of beneficiary
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form from, uh, New York Life. After days of indecision, Kent had taken Michelle off the policy completely.
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>> But if she didn't know that, then the million dollars could be a million motives.
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>> Kent had no more money. His only value would be a life insurance policy. >> If Michelle had a motive, did she
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perhaps also have help? To police, a mysterious note found days later in Kent's car.
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>> Well, it's become known as the hope note. has the name John typed there at the bottom
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>> hinted at a conspiracy with John Carlin. >> What exactly is the Hope note? >> He uh indicates in the note that he
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purchased this cabin for her in Hope, Alaska. >> And what about this cabin in Hope?
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>> There is none. >> So they they just invented this? >> Yes, they made it up. >> But the cabin sounds very real in the
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typed note. A hoax made to look like a genuine exchange between Carlin and Michelle and meant for Kent to find.
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Carlin writes he's fixed the roof, cleaned the fireplace. You guys enjoy your stay, he says, making it sound like
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Michelle won't be alone that weekend. She scrawls back. Great. Please don't let anyone know where we're at. Love you
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and thanks again. Prosecutors say the note was meant to lure Kent to hope in search of Michelle,
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who actually was in Lake Tahoe with Scott Hilkkey. The note worked at least once. A few days before his murder, a
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distraught Kent drove to Hope. Cafe owner Maria Motoyama remembers meeting him. >> He came in and showed
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picture of a blonde girl. We wanted to know if we had seen her in town and said she was his fianceé.
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Frustrated, Kent returned to Anchorage only to be found dead back in hope a few days later. No proof how he got there or
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who killed him. Investigators had no witnesses, no murder weapon, no direct evidence. Over time, officers were
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transferred out of the area. The investigation stalled. They had the life insurance policy.
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>> Yes. They had Kent Le Pink's letters >> to his parents predicting that if something happened to him,
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>> you know, these would be the people who would have done it. >> Yes. >> And yet no charges.
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>> No charges. >> Scott Hilkkey already was living in California. Carlin and Michelle were free to leave
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Alaska and separately each soon did. >> It appeared to me like like maybe it would never get solved. Michelle finally
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settled in Washington, neatly shedding her past. >> Um, I did a lot of volunteer work in our
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community from the beginning when we got there. I continued to go to school. >> And for eight long years, Alaska seemed
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forgotten. Then one day, detectives knocked on the door of her neat suburban home. They asked for clarification on
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certain statements I had made in the past. So I I tried to help them as much as I could. I was just shocked by it.
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And I was just really shaken up. I think that it's a normal progression of life that you you have a job, you go
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to school, you get married, you might have a family, and I think that's where where
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my life went. Meet Michelle Lahan, formerly exotic dancing star Michelle Hughes >> and they told me to apply in person and
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we walked in and there was this woman on stage and I just stood there and my jaw
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dropped and it was the first time I had ever been in a place like that. At the great Alaskan Bush Company,
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Michelle caught on fast. But she insists she always saw stripping as just a means to an end.
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>> I would go to work and I kept my goal in mind. My goal was to make money and leave.
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>> And leave she did. Just months after Kent Lepink's murder, Michelle left Alaska for good,
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eventually settling in Olympia, Washington. I went to school full-time >> and talk about reinventing yourself.
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>> I studied biology and psychology and I got a master's in public administration
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>> in 1998 in New Orleans. She married a young doctor named Colin Lennahan just a
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day after he graduated med school. >> I'm not a big uh believer in love at first sight, but it's probably as close
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as you can get. A year later, they had a daughter. >> I've known this woman for 10 years. I
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catch myself just, "Wow, she's amazing." And her daughter, our daughter, adores her.
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>> Their life together in Olympia, Michelle says, was the very definition of normal.
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>> We have pizza night. The neighbors come over and they bring their kids and we
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have just lots of dough and cheese everywhere. It's a mess and I love it. In 2004, Colin served an army tour in
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Iraq. And for a year, Michelle was a single mother, but she had a strong network of
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friends. >> Michelle's beautiful on the inside as she is on the out. >> Michelle's close friend, Christina
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Hermach. >> Michelle's vivaceious and friendly, intelligent and witty. >> Michelle is a lethal chameleon, if there
00:28:30
is such a thing. Detective Linda Branchflower says, "Be careful. Michelle's whole life is a facade.
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>> She can change herself to fit any situation and play any role. She's deadly."
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>> She came to that conclusion in 2004, soon after joining Alaska's new cold case unit.
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Investigators quickly made the 8-year-old Lepink murder a top priority. Did you really look for any other
00:29:01
suspects when you started probing this again? >> We we went where the evidence led us and
00:29:06
we didn't find anything in our investigation to indicate anybody else could have done it.
00:29:10
>> I honestly I honestly thought it'd gone away. >> It soon did go away for Scott Hilkkey.
00:29:16
>> Did you fire the shots fatal dam was ruled out despite that failed polygraph?
00:29:23
We did try to investigate whether or not Hilkkey knew that the murder was going to take place and there was nothing to
00:29:30
indicate that at all. Branchflower badly needed a break and on a pair of old computers seized in the
00:29:40
original investigation, she found it. Many of the emails had been deleted back then, but with the technology that we
00:29:49
had in 2004, we were able to do a lot more with the computers. >> What exactly did you find on this
00:29:54
computer? >> Well, they were they were able to pull up emails between Kent and Michelle.
00:30:00
Michelle and Carlin, Michelle and Hilky, that indicate different things of their
00:30:04
relationship. scores of emails, some silly, some meaningless, but very interesting to
00:30:12
investigators. In an exchange between Michelle and Kent, you should not be concerned about
00:30:18
John. He's more a brother or even a father to me. But in an email to Carllin, you are the
00:30:26
most important thing in my life. I need you more than you ever will know. >> First of all, they show how manipulative
00:30:33
she is being. Special cold case prosecutor Pat Gulliffson >> that she is saying one thing to one
00:30:39
person, another thing to another person, >> but manipulation and murder are two different things.
00:30:47
>> Is there any specific evidence in those emails that connects Michelle to Kent
00:30:52
Ling's death? >> I think you come real close with the Sey Shell's email. The so-called se shell's email was sent
00:31:01
from Michelle to Carlin just days before the murder. It seems to suggest that the tiny island
00:31:08
chain off the African coast just might be a safe haven from the law. Did you know that you can buy a
00:31:16
citizenship in the Sey Shells for around 10 mil? She asks, "No matter what crimes
00:31:21
you have committed, they will not extradite." It's the whole idea that she's talking
00:31:28
about not being extradited. When you start putting that together with the rest of the evidence, it's pretty strong
00:31:35
that there's something going on there that extradition is important to. >> Investigators decided the emails were a
00:31:44
very good start, but not strong enough to make a solid case in court. They needed the missing murder weapon.
00:31:53
They knew from markings on the bullets it was an unusual gun. >> This is a 44 caliber Desert Eagle. This
00:31:59
is the same type of gun that was used in the murder of Kent Lepink. 6 in barrel.
00:32:03
>> It's very heavy. >> It is heavy. >> Heavy, cumbersome, and hard to shoot. >> Geez. John Carlin consistently denied
00:32:12
ever owning one. Branch Flowers shot his story full of holes with information from an unlikely
00:32:22
source. Carllin's own son. He'd been only 17, a juvenile at the time of the crime.
00:32:30
>> His father wouldn't let us talk to him, was now an adult. Confronted by police
00:32:34
in 2005, Carllin's now adult son decided to talk. Where did this Desert Eagle come from? Uh, my father bought it out
00:32:44
of a newspaper. >> So, what he saw an ad or something? >> The classifides. Yes. >> He was able to provide the link between
00:32:53
his dad and the Desert Eagle. >> Branchflower not only dug up the old ad, she found the seller, one David
00:33:02
Stilchin. >> And I put the gun up for sale and the first person that called me was John
00:33:07
Carlin. And that's who bought the gun from me. But Carllin's son kept talking about
00:33:14
what he'd seen just days after the murder. >> I came into the house. Michelle was
00:33:21
standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Uh my father was there as well and uh the gun was in the sink and uh was
00:33:31
soaking in some sort of chemical. >> At the time, Carllin's son couldn't be sure if it was a Desert Eagle. Did
00:33:37
anybody offer an explanation as to what they were doing with this gun? >> No. >> What did it look like he was doing?
00:33:43
>> Looked like he was cleaning a gun. >> And to this day, he is unsure about the
00:33:47
implications of what he saw. Who do you think killed Kent Leping? >> I I lean towards a uh party yet to be
00:33:55
discovered. >> You don't think your father had anything to do with it? >> No. >> You don't think Michelle Hughes had
00:34:00
anything to do with it? >> I didn't say that. But Branchflower had no doubts. She was
00:34:07
sure that Carllin Senior did have a role in the murder. And she was just as sure
00:34:12
that he had not done it alone. >> I think she's got some explaining to do. >> Branchflower headed for Seattle with
00:34:26
some tough questions for Michelle Lahan. when she would ask me a question, I would answer it and
00:34:36
the best that I could and I felt like she was just so combative with me. >> Michelle says from the first time the
00:34:44
police questioned her in the days after the murder, she always cooperated fully.
00:34:49
>> I told them about uh the life insurance policy. >> Do you know if anybody has anything to
00:34:57
gain from Kent's death? No, other than um life insurance. >> Life insurance. >> Yeah.
00:35:03
>> And it wasn't just the life insurance policy. She also told them about the note that she and Carlin had written
00:35:10
about that fictitious cabin in Hope. >> John the letter that we wrote. >> What letter is it?
00:35:17
>> About the cabin in Hope. >> Investigators dismiss all this initial cooperation as Michelle just trying to
00:35:25
cover all the bases. Michelle says well they would say that they have never listened. When were you
00:35:32
aware then you know oh my god you know they think I did this. >> When they were leaving
00:35:39
I asked them to keep me informed of what was happening and Linda Branchflower said that I would be
00:35:47
informed that I was going to be indicted >> in the fall of 2006. A decade after the
00:35:54
crime. Michelle Lennahan and John Carlin were indicted for the murder of Kent Lepink.
00:36:00
>> They're both charged with murder in the first degree. >> Michelle posted bail and was free to
00:36:06
return to her family in Washington. >> I just feel like there's nothing I could do to make people believe me.
00:36:13
>> John Carlin echoes her complaint. >> I didn't do it. Bottom line. >> But unlike Michelle, he would spend the
00:36:20
next 6 months under arrest. the day before his body was found. What What were you doing?
00:36:28
>> Well, that's the big question in him. >> Carlin remains an enigma until the very
00:36:45
day his trial begins. >> Please rise. Support Court for the State of Alaska third judicial district is now
00:36:50
in session. >> Mr. Gulliffson. >> Prosecutor Pat Gulliffson tells the jury >> may have pleased the court.
00:36:56
>> This was in effect an execution. >> Kent Le Pink was found dead. He had been shot three times.
00:37:04
>> He is intentionally vague as to whether Carlin pulled the trigger or just pull
00:37:09
the strings with Michelle firing the shots. Under Alaska law, Carlin can be convicted either way. It's a story
00:37:17
that's going to involve passion, greed, manipulation, and deception. >> A story made all the more tragic. Betsy
00:37:28
Leping says because Kent wrote the ending himself. >> Do you recall when you were notified
00:37:33
that uh Kent had been found dead? Do you recall the day? >> I believe it was a Saturday morning.
00:37:41
>> Did you then open the sealed portion of >> Yes, we did. This is in part what it
00:37:47
contains. Michelle, John, and Scott were the people or persons that probably killed me. Make sure they get burned.
00:37:57
>> Even though Kent named John Carlin as one of his probable killers, his lawyers, Marcy McDaniel and Sydney
00:38:05
Billingsley, >> whatever is most convenient for you, >> think they can win this circumstantial
00:38:10
case. Are you absolutely convinced that John Carlin is innocent? I believe him. >> The defense tries to cast suspicion on
00:38:19
anyone but John Carlin. >> Let's talk about Scott Hilkkey. >> They ignored Scott Hilky's potential
00:38:26
involvement altogether. >> They even offer up Carllin's then teenaged son, suggesting he could have
00:38:35
had a relationship with Michelle. if he's an infatuated 17-year-old and she's got her hooks in him, too.
00:38:42
>> Trying to discredit him before he takes the stand with his story of the gunwashing.
00:38:48
>> He would have every reason to lie if he did it. The police had him as a suspect.
00:38:53
>> But the defense's chief suspect is Michelle herself. >> I think Michelle did this. She lost it
00:39:02
and she shot him. His lawyers pointed the finger at Michelle and said that she was a manipulative seductress, an evil
00:39:10
woman who committed the crime herself, that John had nothing to do with it, and that she just used him as a scapegoat.
00:39:19
She pulled the trigger and killed him for the million-dollar life insurance policy.
00:39:24
>> What you will not be able to eliminate and what the state will never be able to
00:39:29
disprove is that Michelle herself the center of everything, the hub of the wheel, acted alone.
00:39:38
>> It's just that I'm sitting here on trial for my life. They're not talking about
00:39:42
me. >> So, let's look again at Michelle Hughes, >> talking about her. >> Carlin says both sides were so focused
00:39:48
on Michelle, he felt like an afterthought at his own trial. >> One day, I sat there all day long and
00:39:56
all they did was talk about Michelle. I mean, I didn't even have to be there that day. She is back home in Olympia
00:40:01
awaiting her trial. But prosecutor Gulfson insists none of this would have happened without her.
00:40:07
>> John Carlin was in love with Michelle. He had spent a great deal of money on Michelle.
00:40:13
>> With twin motives of love and money. All the two needed, he says, was a plan.
00:40:19
Enter that phony hope note. >> Mr. Carlin and Michelle Hughes had fabricated a note and left it for Mr. of
00:40:28
pink to find in the house. >> Kent believed that Michelle was in hope. In those days right before his death, he
00:40:36
was obsessed with finding her. The note would lure a jealous Kent to hope, the prosecutor says, where
00:40:45
Michelle or Carlin would kill him. >> The hope note is so strange. >> It's pretty astounding. Here they are
00:40:53
purposely delivering a message to Kent in the form of this note that Carlin has bought her a cabin in hope. Uh not only
00:41:02
that, but that Michelle is there with somebody. >> Wrong says Carlin. It was just a prank
00:41:08
to mislead Kent, nicknamed Titi, so Michelle would be free of him on her trip to see Hilkkey. Carlin says he
00:41:16
didn't really want her to go, but he desperately wanted to please her. >> I wrote the note. I know what I wrote
00:41:23
the note for. And it wasn't to get Titi out of the house. It wasn't to get Titi down to Hope.
00:41:27
>> You've never had a cabin in Hope? >> No. The note just allowed her to go down
00:41:32
to have be with Scott. >> Carlin's problem, of course, is that Kent Lepink's body turned up in hope.
00:41:40
>> I suspected that Carlin was involved. >> And given Michelle's grip on the men in
00:41:45
her life, Scott Hilkkey isn't surprised. >> There is an amazing pull there. And Hilki says Kent Lepink never could see
00:41:52
that Michelle was using him. >> I think he followed her around like a puppy dog. I think he was certainly
00:41:58
willing to do anything for her that that would ingratiate or or strengthen his relationship with her. No question about
00:42:05
it. >> When she wasn't with her boyfriends in person, Hilki says Michelle was always
00:42:11
on email. >> We would call Linda Branchflower to the stand. emails, which according to Linda
00:42:16
Branchflower, prove that John Carlin in particular would have done a lot more for Michelle than just write the hope
00:42:24
note. >> The most beautiful person in the world, the one I have fallen in love with, the
00:42:28
one I would do anything in the world for, including giving up my life. anything, including murder. Branchflower
00:42:34
says, "Why else does Michelle write the Seyell's email, helpfully explaining that for $10 million, the islands are a
00:42:42
safe haven from the law?" >> You just thought you'd find that interesting. >> Did you think I was going to go there
00:42:49
and pay $10 million to get a citizenship in the SAS shells off a $1 million life insurance policy?
00:42:59
No answer from Carlin to Michelle ever was found, but for Branchflower, the Seyell's email helped clinch the case.
00:43:08
So, you figured when when you came across the Sey Shell's email, I you thought that this is this is really
00:43:14
>> this is good. >> This is good. This is this is very, >> very good. >> But the defense stresses that most of
00:43:20
the emails are ambiguous or even make Carllin's case for him, showing that he and Kent were close. I value my
00:43:29
friendships more than I value most things. Kent wrote, "Thanks for being a friend."
00:43:34
>> This is one of the best defense cases I've seen in a very long time. There's a
00:43:40
lot of reasonable doubt in this case, >> but the defense is about to run up against a potentially devastating
00:43:47
witness. >> Thank you, honor. Our next witness will be John Carlin, the fourth, >> taking the stand to testify against his
00:43:54
own father. Are you nervous? >> A bit. >> Who reluctantly drops his bombshell on
00:44:01
the jury and on his dad. Do >> you remember seeing a pistol in the sink? >> Yes.
00:44:08
>> And describe what you remember about that? >> I remember coming around the corner um
00:44:17
and seeing uh Michelle and my father uh and there was a a firearm in the sink. And it was the sink was about half full
00:44:28
of a clear liquid. >> He didn't really want to rat on his dad, but he, you know, was just
00:44:35
he didn't want to carry this anymore. >> Could you smell anything that you associated with the liquid?
00:44:40
>> I did smell bleach. >> I felt like I was betraying my father. Um I felt like I was betraying myself.
00:44:47
>> So much so that he went to visit his father in jail just a few days later. He's doing good. I just kind of gave him
00:44:56
a nod and it was strange. Um, he's feeling real confident. So, you know, we're hoping that he'll be walking out
00:45:04
the door and heading to the airport by the end of the month. >> Apparently, Carlin didn't fully
00:45:08
understand the impact of his testimony on his father's case. John Kurlin III's lawyers offered no explanation
00:45:19
as to why their client might have been washing a handgun after the murder. He shot my son. I know he did. I just
00:45:29
know with all my heart he did. I didn't mastermind this slave. I thought it was over. One way or
00:45:48
another, it was over. This is the strangest case I've ever worked on. >> This special two-part edition of 48
00:46:01
Hours will continue. This special two-part edition of 48 Hours continues. This is a story about a wellto-do
00:47:07
Michigan man who came to Alaska looking for a new life and instead found disappointment, obsession,
00:47:17
financial loss, and he ended up dead. Question is, did the woman he was obsessed with, the exotic dancer, kill
00:47:27
him? Did the exotic dancer's friend kill him for the benefit of the exotic dancer? There were a lot of unanswered
00:47:34
questions. So, the case went cold. She became a woman with a master's degree in public administration, married
00:47:44
to a doctor with an 8-year-old daughter. Fast forward to 2004. The Alaska State Troopers set up a cold case unit. It's
00:48:00
one of their first cases. The exotic dancer and her friend are charged with his murder.
00:48:07
>> I always cooperated with the police. I never felt that I was a suspect. They never told me
00:48:13
I was a suspect. I did not kill Kit La Pink. >> But it's hard to know whether they
00:48:19
actually did it or not. There's no evidence that directly links them to Kent Le Pink's murder.
00:48:26
So, who really did kill Kent Le Pink? >> For months, reporter Megan Holland, formerly of the Anchorage Daily News,
00:48:33
had been trying to answer that question. >> This has more elements, more more characters, more avenues, more
00:48:41
interesting people involved than any case I've ever heard of. Love and death in Alaska. 48 hours
00:48:54
continues. Kent Lepink was shot to death in the Alaskan wilderness. After a decade, the
00:49:04
woman he'd hoped to marry, Michelle Lahan, and another of her admirers, John Carland, were charged with Kent's
00:49:12
murder. >> Let's talk for a minute about handguns. >> Carlland's trial was first. Prosecutor
00:49:18
Gulfson singled him out as the shooter, manipulated by Lahan into killing Kent for the insurance.
00:49:26
>> Kent's death is what Michelle wants and John was willing to make it happen. >> With Michelle out of town, he says
00:49:34
Carlin took Kent to hope >> and that's when the Desert Eagle comes out ready to go. And that's when Kent
00:49:41
initially gets it in the back, turns around, falls down, gets it in the stomach, and then gets it in the face.
00:49:46
That is not at all how the defense sees things. >> John Carlin in this case, ladies and
00:49:53
gentlemen, is just the man that cleans up Michelle's messes. >> If Carlin later helped wash a gun, his
00:50:01
lawyer says, well, he was just cleaning up another of Michelle's messes. Kent's parents don't buy it.
00:50:08
>> He shot my son. I know he did. I just know with all my heart he did. But will
00:50:14
the jury agree? >> The whole trial became quite emotional. >> And then when you sit a day and wait for
00:50:22
the jury to come back, that was an awful long day. >> And waiting almost 4 days for a decision
00:50:33
feels like forever. We the jury find the defendant John Cin the third guilty of murder in the first
00:50:49
degree as charged in the indictment. >> I borrowed. >> Couldn't believe it. Numb shock. Maybe
00:51:01
several days of shock. >> Hello. >> Hey. Is this John? >> Yeah. It's Megan Holland with the Daily
00:51:09
News in Anchorage. >> Waiting by the phone in Seattle, John Carlin's son. His testimony helped
00:51:16
convict his own father. >> Have you heard? >> No. >> Are you sitting down? >> Just tell me.
00:51:25
>> Guilty. >> Okay. Thank you. And it was a killing that was cold and it was calculated
00:51:36
and it was cruel. >> At sentencing, >> I believe that a maximum sentence is warrant sentence Mr. Carlin to serve 99
00:51:45
years in prison. >> Carlin gets the maximum 99 years in prison. Not even eligible for parole
00:51:54
until 2041. God bless you. God bless Alaska. Back in Olympia, Michelle's friends are
00:52:11
struggling to accept that the churchgoing PTA mom, entrepreneur, and devoted wife they know had such a
00:52:19
colorful past. >> Is it possible in your mind that she had anything at all to do with this man's
00:52:25
death? No, it's not possible that she did what they say she did. >> She's told me the whole story uh from
00:52:32
the get-go, >> including her husband, Colin Lahan, says all about her job as star stripper at
00:52:39
the Great Alaskan Bush Company. >> Her whole goal was to save up money for college, and it was something that I
00:52:48
could definitely respect. She had absolutely no intention of doing that for the rest of her life. As for all
00:52:55
those boyfriend fiances, >> you know, I didn't really ask any probing questions. I didn't I mean, I
00:53:00
understood that she had uh relationships with all three of them at one point in time.
00:53:06
>> You have three men close to 40 years old who are frequenting a topless bar. all trying to find a 21, 22 year old to
00:53:24
get married to >> and they all thought they had. >> Can you see how having three fiances, if
00:53:35
you will, uh, in an 18-month period, all of them older men at times, two of them
00:53:40
living in the same house, uh, and you're meanwhile getting money, gifts, etc. from them. I mean, to the average
00:53:49
person, that might look like a scam. >> Anybody else that knew me or worked with
00:53:54
me or worked with us didn't feel that way. >> She says she never asked the men in her
00:54:06
life for more than they already wanted to give. >> Did John Carlin ask you to marry him?
00:54:14
>> Yes. >> And you said what? >> No. So, John Carlin was never a fiance. >> No, >> Kent Lepink
00:54:24
thought he was, but he wasn't. >> Kent Leping never thought he was. >> But prosecutors say a message to Kent
00:54:31
suggests he had every reason to think he was very much in the picture. My darling
00:54:37
Kent, Michelle writes, "If you still want to marry me, we should just go and do it. We should get married within the
00:54:43
next month. we should just do it and start our life. But he definitely was not. >> He was not.
00:54:50
>> Regardless of what he told anybody else, >> right? >> And Scott Hilkkey definitely was.
00:54:56
>> Definitely was >> for a while. >> About a year. >> Yeah. And then he wasn't. >> Yes.
00:55:03
>> They were all infatuated, but Michelle says she truly loved only Hilkkey. Carlin was like a big brother and Kent
00:55:13
became a bother. He'd been obsessively collecting information about her. Social security number, credit cards, phone
00:55:20
bills. He was even reading her emails and tracking her every move. Were you afraid of him?
00:55:29
>> I think I had become afraid of him toward that time. >> Did he have any reason uh to be afraid
00:55:36
of you? >> No. She only pretended to be engaged to get Kent off the hook with his parents. She
00:55:46
says because TT, as Kent was called, was hiding a painful secret. I think Ti was gay. I think that he wanted a life
00:56:12
that was a normal life. He could never tell his family he was gay. >> Dear friends,
00:56:18
>> Kent's mother insisted they wouldn't have cared for a second, but that in fact Kent was not gay. But Michelle's
00:56:26
lawyer, Kevin Fitzgerald, says his behavior kept everyone guessing about a lot. Kent Le Pink was an odd guy. I
00:56:35
mean, a very odd guy. I don't I don't think and frankly, I think in the a in the period of April 1996, I don't think
00:56:44
he was well mentally. >> Fitzgerald says Kent's mental state explains much of the evidence, including
00:56:51
those eerie letters home. I mean, is is he going to say, "Hey, I've been lying uh extensively to you guys for a year
00:57:00
and a half about the true nature of this relationship, or is it easier for him to
00:57:05
say Michelle's a bad person?" Um, and she's in, you know, she's involved in kind of with other bad people. I don't
00:57:15
know. I think that's a pretty convenient out for him. If you look at the content of the
00:57:21
letters themselves, there is nothing to suggest that he's aware of any plan to kill him.
00:57:29
>> So, it's just a coincidence that 5 days later he's dead. >> Yeah, I think in this case it is a
00:57:34
coincidence that the timing of it. Definitely. >> Fitzgerald dismisses the emails as well.
00:57:40
>> And what I don't see in those emails is I don't say go forth and kill Kent Le
00:57:45
Pink. Um, so when I hear people say, "Well, the emails were uh, you know, powerful," I say, "How?"
00:57:56
>> Even the email in which Michelle tells Carllin the Sey shells are a safe haven
00:58:01
no matter what the crime. >> If you were contemplating a murder, would you have put something like that
00:58:08
in that would be so, you know, in hindsight so incriminatory? I mean, that would be nuts. Same goes for the hope
00:58:16
note about that non-existent cabin. He says the setup was all John Carlin Senior's idea to get rid of a rival.
00:58:26
>> I think what happened is he said, "You want to you want to find Michelle? I'll
00:58:32
show you where she is." And I think he went out there with Senior. And I think Senior killed him in hope. I don't think
00:58:40
Michelle was part of that. But surprisingly, Michelle herself lets Carlin off the hook. I
00:58:46
>> have a hard time thinking that John did it. >> Is there any possibility? Do you think
00:58:53
that he did it thinking he was doing you a favor? I mean, he was completely infatuated
00:59:03
with you. And could that be the case? >> I don't know. But you didn't do this. >> No.
00:59:14
>> And you didn't know about it. >> And you didn't plan it. >> No. >> You had nothing to do with Kent Leping's
00:59:21
death. You can call her a lying [ __ ] You can call her a psychopath. You can call her
00:59:28
a sociopath. But the bottom line is that's not who she is. Who Michelle Lahan really is will be at
00:59:41
the heart of her upcoming trial. Everybody at that point agreed that John Carlin pulled the trigger. The question
00:59:47
is what was her role >> exactly If standing trial for firstdegree murder has Michelle Lahan even the slightest
01:00:15
bit worried. >> The burden of proof wasn't on me. It was on the state. >> You'd hardly know it.
01:00:23
>> So, I didn't feel that I had to put on a show for them. My job was to let the state present
01:00:29
their evidence. I know I didn't mastermind this slang. >> Another jury already has convicted John
01:00:41
Carlin of actually pulling the trigger. >> Now, prosecutor Pat Gulliffson must convince this jury that Michelle was the
01:00:49
mastermind, the brains behind the crime. >> She didn't kill Kent, but it was her
01:00:56
idea, her plan. >> Courts say the last that >> if it wasn't for Michelle Lahan, Kent Le Pink could still be alive today.
01:01:11
All she needed was somebody to do the dirty work, somebody to pull the trigger. >> And if he can prove that, then under
01:01:21
Alaska law, Michelle will be just as guilty of murder as if she had fired the fatal shot herself.
01:01:33
Do you have no doubt at all that Michelle planned this whole thing from start to finish?
01:01:38
>> The evidence tells me that this is a strong case. >> Guilty of murder in the first degree.
01:01:44
>> It's also very similar to the case against John Carlin. So similar that prosecutors will be calling many of the
01:01:51
same witnesses. The evidence will be much of the same, too. the life insurance, the hope note, the seell's
01:01:59
email, and the washing of the gun. This case seems to be not one thing, but a bunch of little things.
01:02:07
>> I don't know if they're a bunch of little things, but you're right. That's what a circumstantial case is about.
01:02:11
>> I thought there were certain, you know, bumps and certain things that we were
01:02:15
going to need to explain. Defense attorneys Wayne Fricky and Kevin Fitzgerald's bigger worry is that
01:02:28
Michelle's past will get in the way of the jury seeing what they say is the real Michelle today.
01:02:36
>> She's married to Dr. Lahan. She's a homeowner. She's a business owner. She's college educated. Has her master's
01:02:45
degree. In other words, she's no longer that stripper so good at getting men to do
01:02:52
her bidding. >> Here's a real person with a real life. She's got a seven-year-old daughter
01:02:58
>> is active in her daughter's Catholic church and Catholic school and is active
01:03:04
in the community. >> To which prosecutors say, "So what >> underlying the whole defense was that
01:03:10
she's a changed woman. That doesn't mean we'll forget about a murder that she was
01:03:15
involved in." and instrumental in committing 11 years ago. >> State's next witness will be Laura
01:03:22
Aspiotis. >> To keep the focus on Michelle's past, Gulfson calls another former exotic
01:03:28
dancer, a friend from 11 years ago, Laura Espotis. >> Did you and Michelle watch movies a lot?
01:03:36
>> Yes, we did. >> And remarkably, she produces a diary in which she wrote down who watched what
01:03:43
movie when. Although her memory's a bit hazy. >> February one, you watch Grumpy Old Men
01:03:51
>> and half, according to your diary, half of Mr. Holland's Opus, right? >> Yes.
01:04:00
>> In court, Aspot can't find reference in the diary to the one movie she swears
01:04:05
was Michelle's favorite, a 1994 thriller called The Last Seduction. Sit down. >> It starred Linda Fentino as a fem fatal
01:04:16
who persuades her lover to kill her husband for money and for their future. >> She could tell right away that he was
01:04:24
very naive. >> I don't do murder. >> Yeah, well, you would if you loved me. >> I'll do it. I'll kill the bastard.
01:04:30
>> So, what made you change your mind? >> Going to have a life together, Wendy, in
01:04:34
New York. The two of us alone. >> What was her reaction to that movie? She told me that that was her heroine
01:04:43
and that she wanted to be just like her. >> Oh my god. >> In the movie, the husband is murdered.
01:04:53
The lover goes to jail while the fan fatal coolly walks away with a pile of cash.
01:05:03
There are a lot of similarities between controlling and manipulating the relationship in this case and that
01:05:11
movie. >> And even though Laura Aspiotus' diary doesn't prove Michelle liked or even saw
01:05:17
this movie, Pat Gulfson wants the jury to see it. Now, >> are we really talking about playing this
01:05:24
movie? Come on now. Come on. We can't be. But I mean, we were. You didn't really think the judge was going to let
01:05:31
them watch this movie, did you? >> Well, I got pretty close to convincing myself that he might.
01:05:39
>> By the time the judge rules against him, the jury knows all about the movie, and
01:05:44
the prosecution moves on. Our next witness will be John Carlin IV. >> To its star witness, John Carlin's son
01:05:53
again with his startling story of seeing his father and Michelle washing a gun. Uh recall smelling uh bleach or a
01:06:11
similar chemical. I remember seeing Miss Hughes uh standing at the doorway and uh
01:06:18
my father in the bathroom with uh a firearm in uh the sink in a clear liquid. >> The look on his face was communicating
01:06:28
to you. What if anything? >> Um don't ask questions. >> I felt just heartbroken for him.
01:06:37
>> Was that before? >> I think he was afraid of hurting me. He saw what had happened to his dad and I
01:06:44
think that it put him in a really bad position. >> Mr. Carlin, that means you're finished.
01:06:49
>> All right. >> But the damaging story seems a little less so when the defense points out that
01:06:54
before his grand jury testimony, Carllin's son twice had told police his father was alone when washing the gun.
01:07:03
>> He said Michelle wasn't present. Right. >> That was my understanding of his what he
01:07:07
was saying that she was in the house but not necessarily in the room. For nearly a month, the testimony drags
01:07:17
on. Do >> you swear? Affirm the testimony given the case before this court will be the
01:07:21
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> Michelle made a call to the insurance
01:07:28
company in the days before Kent died. Was that innocent? >> She attempted to cancel the policy
01:07:34
>> or very calculated. And we think that call was made for to check on the insurance, not to cancel
01:07:41
the insurance. >> Did you uh indicate to her that that uh Mr. Le Pink had died? >> Yes.
01:07:48
>> And what about her reaction when police told her the news? Was she really as upset as it sounds on that tape?
01:08:04
>> When did it happen? We don't even know that for sure. >> They can tell. >> No, they can't tell.
01:08:14
>> Did the emotional reaction of Miss Hughes, did that leave any kind of impression in your mind with regard to
01:08:20
sincerity? >> I've done a lot of death notifications and things like that and it just seemed
01:08:25
that it lacked a bit of sincerity. >> Certainly, the jury is watching her reactions now.
01:08:31
>> I didn't want to look at the jury. If I smiled, it made me bad. And if I cried,
01:08:38
I was guilty. Or I I feel like no matter what I did, it wasn't right. >> She considers testifying, but her
01:08:47
lawyers convince her she'd be eaten alive on the stand. So, the defense instead calls the one
01:08:54
person here who might know Michelle well enough. >> When uh were you married? >> To make the difference. the day after I
01:09:01
graduated from medical school. It was May 1998. >> What kind of things do the two of you
01:09:09
enjoy to do? >> Everything from watching movies, reading, going on uh going to the park
01:09:14
with our daughter, just kind of family time. >> I thought Colin was pivotal to present
01:09:21
Michelle to to really bring her to life. >> Tell me what it was like to testify.
01:09:27
>> It's horrible. nerve shattering, anxietyprovoking uh nightmare. You know, their son is dead.
01:09:38
You can't take back dead. I have nothing but sympathy for them. >> It kills me that in their hearts that
01:09:46
they think Michelle had anything to do with that because I know from the bottom of my heart and
01:09:52
soul that she did not. It hurt me so bad that somebody would think that I would do something to their
01:09:59
child. >> It's tough. Very, very tough. Hard together. Kent and Betsy Leping coped
01:10:25
with the loss of their son for years. >> I think he was being set up with all my
01:10:31
heart. I feel it was set up. You have no doubt whatsoever that she was what the mastermind here.
01:10:37
>> I think so. Yeah. That's that's the way I see it. Yes. This person manipulated the circumstances
01:10:53
with her guile, with deception. >> And Pat Gulfson says Hollywood couldn't have written it any better.
01:11:01
>> If she's the one who's going to write the ending to this, it's going to be just like the movie, isn't it?
01:11:10
>> Problem is, you're going to write the ending. She isn't. >> The movie. Give me a break.
01:11:18
I mean, that is desperation. >> In closing, Kevin Fitzgerald emphasizes that there is not a shred of direct
01:11:26
evidence against Michelle. >> Conjecture, speculation, suspicion, innuendo. That's the package that the state has
01:11:37
presented to you. He tells the jury they can't convict on that or on Michelle Lahan's past.
01:11:46
>> We ask that you return her to her family and to her husband and to her daughter,
01:11:53
that you return the only true and just verdict in this case, which is to find that Mrs. Delahan is not guilty.
01:12:02
Thank you. >> Please rise. We've climbed a mountain in this trial and now we wait for the answer jury has
01:12:17
for us. >> Do you remember what was going through your mind as the jury comes filing back
01:12:22
in? >> I thought it was over. >> Over in what way? >> I remember thinking to myself that one
01:12:32
way or another it was over. For nearly five weeks, the jury in the Michelle Lahan murder trial has
01:12:51
struggled with the central question of her tangled past. Is she just a suburban mom with a heart
01:12:59
of gold or a conniving expper with a heart of stone? You >> may be seated. >> I see from your note, but you've
01:13:14
indicated that the jury has reached a verdict. Is that true? >> It takes the jurors just two days to
01:13:20
decide. Uh, Miss Lenn, would you please stand while I read the verdict, and your
01:13:31
husband may stand with you if you wish. >> You can come up. You can stand next door, Dr. Lahan.
01:13:40
>> I didn't want to look at the jury. Um, I I felt uncomfortable. >> I was numbed,
01:13:48
but it wasn't really going through my mind. It was going through my heart, my soul.
01:13:52
We the jury find the defendant Michelle K. Lennahan guilty of murder in the first degree as charged in the
01:14:00
indictment. >> At first it doesn't seem to sink in. >> Please be seated. >> Council, do you either of you wish to
01:14:14
examine? >> I went in that day planning to go out to dinner that night and fly home with my
01:14:20
family. you were able to accept what they were saying. >> I don't know that I could have really accepted it. You know,
01:14:28
I I think I I did the best I could. >> The verdict hits Kevin Fitzgerald almost as hard.
01:14:39
>> It's a blow. It's a huge blow. Kind of rocks my world to tell you the truth. Presently, Miss Lahan, you can
01:14:48
have one final embrace with your husband, but then I'll need to have officer separate you and take you
01:14:52
downstairs. I'll wait until that's completed. To have your mom, your wife, your friend
01:15:01
be wrongfully convicted. It's uh it's terror. It's terrifying. It's miserable. It's torture.
01:15:12
It amazes me that that people actually that she's able to pull continue to pull this off with folks.
01:15:19
>> God is good one more time. He's been good to us. >> For Kent Leping's family, the whole
01:15:29
experience has been bittersweet. >> If we could have just taken our son home with us, you know, if that would have
01:15:36
been the prize for winning, but we can't ever do that, you know. He's still gone.
01:15:43
He wasn't perfect, but we loved him. We love him today. We love the memory of him.
01:15:51
>> The whole thing, quite frankly, to me, is very surreal. >> But Michelle's ex fiance, Scott Hilkkey,
01:15:58
thinks he has finally figured her out. >> I think she's inherently evil. Yes, I believe to this day that I was I was a
01:16:08
mark from from the get-go. You fell for at hookline and single. >> I did indeed.
01:16:12
>> And you weren't the only one. >> I'm the lucky one. >> How so? >> Um I wasn't involved in any crimes and I'm
01:16:18
not dead. >> Hilkkey says he still has many unanswered questions about this case,
01:16:24
but then so does the prosecution. >> We know there was a gun. We know it went away and we know that it belonged to
01:16:32
John Carlin and that it was in that house. >> What happened to this gun? Why has a
01:16:36
murder weapon never been found? >> That's a good question. I don't know. But in a jail house interview with 48
01:16:42
hours, guess who claims he does know, a gun like this was used to shoot Kent Lepink three times. and uh ultimately
01:17:10
resulted in his death. >> There's no doubt about that. >> No. >> That gun, a Desert Eagle, never has been
01:17:17
found. And for years, John Carlin adamantly has denied knowing anything about it, much less owning it.
01:17:25
But now his memory has improved. >> It was a 44. >> A Desert Eagle. >> Mhm. He now says he not only owned a
01:17:34
Desert Eagle, he thinks it probably was the one used to kill Kent Lepinc. >> Why did you lie?
01:17:41
>> Why? >> Uhhuh. >> Cuz at the time they asked me, I was under scrutiny. Intense scrutiny.
01:17:48
It appeared to me that these people were coming after me. That looked very bad for me.
01:17:58
It looked very bad for me. He claims that sometime before Kent disappeared, the gun
01:18:10
mysteriously vanished, too, only to magically turn up in a closet after the murder.
01:18:16
>> I found that gun. No, I didn't. I'm sorry. John found that gun in the closet, and I heard Michelle yelling,
01:18:23
"Don't touch it. Don't touch it." Carlin Senior says he rounded the corner and came face to face with a glaring
01:18:30
Michelle. Worried his son's fingerprints now were on the gun, he washed it. So, what did you do with this gun then?
01:18:38
>> Threw it away. >> I put it in my pants and I got rid of it. >> Where did you get rid of it exactly?
01:18:45
>> Threw it in dumpster. >> That's quite a tale. >> It's quite a tail. If the tale is true, it still leaves a
01:18:56
lot unanswered about Michelle. But Carllin is sure of one thing. >> She didn't pull the trigger.
01:19:03
>> Who did? >> Good question. But it wasn't me. >> And she still seems to fascinate him.
01:19:11
>> It It isn't definable. Whatever she needs to be, she is. You'll never ever sit down and get Michelle.
01:19:19
You never will. Not now. Not 10 years from now, you will never get Michelle. You will get what she wants at that
01:19:29
particular time to portray to you. >> Prosecutor Gulfson insists he does get Michelle.
01:19:40
>> And the jury's verdict was right. She aided Carlin in doing it. He's put Carl and I in for 99 years and
01:19:49
plans to make sure Michelle stays behind bars, too. >> The options up to the judge are anywhere
01:19:55
from 10 to 99. >> Said she's trying to make the best out of a bad situation. It's not easy.
01:20:07
>> Her spirit should not be caged. I mean, if she's in a place she does not belong.
01:20:15
>> We talked with Michelle at Alaska's only women's prison as she awaited her sentence.
01:20:20
>> I mean, a jury has given its verdict and that's the starting point. So, what other factors are there that you feel uh
01:20:29
the judge should consider? >> I I have no criminal history. I'm not a violent person.
01:20:39
It hurts me that it hurts me that the family would think that I did it. I just want to go home.
01:20:48
I'm sorry. But the judge sentences her to 99 years. Her first chance at parole not coming
01:20:57
until she is 68. Her family struggling to take it all in. >> Two burp peanuts, >> one apple, and that's it. It's enough
01:21:06
dessert. Keep your head above the water and do multiple things. Or you can just kind of relax and let the water enter
01:21:14
your lungs and sink up. I've got to be number one dad and number one husband and all the rest can
01:21:24
just wait. And this is Michelle. I got to get it. I love my word at least. >> He struggles to keep the family
01:21:36
together. >> Hey sweetie, how you doing? >> By phone. How often do you talk to her?
01:21:43
>> Every day. >> Every day. >> And as long as the money holds out by flying back to Alaska to visit Michelle
01:21:52
in prison, daughter in tow. >> She knows who her mom is. She loves and adores her mom. and she will continue to
01:22:03
do that. >> Her family is pinning all hope on an eventual appeal. >> We have not given up and I will never
01:22:12
give up. I I will fight as hard as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can until some
01:22:20
appellet court says, "Bug us no more." Um, go away, Fitzgerald. More than two years later, Michelle's
01:22:35
attorney finally wins the fight. In February 2010, an appeals court reverses her conviction for murder because it
01:22:44
says Kent Lepink's letter from the grave pointing the finger at her never should
01:22:49
have been allowed into evidence. >> I don't do murder. >> Yeah, well, you would if you loved me.
01:22:56
>> Oh my god. Same with the movie The Last Seduction, which the appeals judge says had nothing
01:23:02
at all to do with Michelle's case. >> Ms. Lenan is been given an opportunity to stand before the court once again,
01:23:11
presumed uh to be uh innocent. >> Michelle was released on bail, but prosecutors vowed to try her again,
01:23:22
although their case is now weakened. In February 2008, John Carlin, convicted of
01:23:28
the murder of Kent Leping, died in a prison fight. Carllin's case was on appeal when he
01:23:35
died. So, the court threw the whole thing out. >> My sense of the case with Ms. Litan was
01:23:44
that it was built on the foundation of John Carlin's conviction. Now, prosecutors are not even allowed to
01:23:51
mention Carlin ever was convicted. For the first time in two and a half years, Michelle Lanahan is on the road
01:24:02
to what she hopes will be the beginning of a new life. >> And we just got in the apartment.
01:24:08
>> 48 hours was there as she took the measure of her new found freedom. >> It hasn't kicked in yet. You know, this
01:24:15
these are my conditions. It says I have to stay within the Anchorage Bowl. My curfew is 8:00 p.m. to 7 a.m. There's so
01:24:22
many things to see and do. >> She'll have to wear an ankle monitor to make sure she obeys all the rules.
01:24:29
>> You have to go to the bail bondsman, have a picture taken. >> I can't believe I'm not in prison
01:24:34
anymore. >> But Michelle worries this freedom may be fleeting. I have so much like restored faith in
01:24:45
people and the system, but then I don't want to be naive again. I saw what happened in the first trial. There was
01:24:52
no way they were going to convict me and they did. So for me to sit here now and say
01:25:02
there's no way, there's a way. >> Ken and Betsy Lepink pray for another guilty verdict. When you lose a child
01:25:13
you love so very much, it never stops hurting. We'll miss Kent as long as we live.
01:25:25
Looking back, they still marvel at those surreal days in Alaska. At Michelle's astonishing hold on Kent,
01:25:35
at that haunting letter predicting his own murder, naming her as a likely suspect.
01:25:42
A letter in which he wrote, "Make sure Michelle goes to jail for a long time." But he couldn't help adding, "Tell her
01:25:50
how much I really did love her. I really did want to marry her and make all of her dreams come true.
01:26:08
>> Hi. >> Michelle had tasted freedom. >> We can talk more than 15 minutes now. And in 2011, nearly two years after the
01:26:16
court reversed her conviction, authorities dismissed her murder indictment. They could charge her again.
01:26:24
But with a weakened case, that seems unlikely. With John Carlin's case thrown out after
01:26:31
he was killed in prison, his son sued the state of Alaska for wrongful death. Carlin Jr. got a $160,000
01:26:40
settlement. Kent Leping's father died in 2014. His mother still visits Alaska. She says it's the place where she feels
01:26:50
closest to Kent, though she struggles with the feeling that nobody ever was really held accountable for his murder.