What happened to Micki Kanesaki?
MICKI Kanesaki was murdered in May 2006 while on a cruise.
Her case is the subject of a Dateline episode which premiered on Sunday, May 14, 2023.
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What happened to Micki Kanesaki?
In May 2006, Kanesaki took a cruise with her ex-husband Lonnie Loren Kocontes – a former attorney from Irvine, California.
As reported by NBC Los AngelesKanesaki’s body was found on May 28, 2006 by the crew of a research vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy.
The 52-year-old had been strangled.
Assistant District Attorney Susan Price said Kanesaki’s autopsy showed her lungs were “completely anhydrous” and that she had “profuse bleeding around her neck” which was “consistent with strangulation.”
The publication also reported that Dr. According to Price, Pietrantonio Ricci told authorities that Kanesaki had also suffered a fractured skull or a brain hemorrhage.
Who Killed Micki Kanesaki?
As reported by NBC Los Angeles, Kocontes was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on Friday, September 18, 2020 for the murder of Kanesaki and “thrown her body overboard during a Mediterranean cruise to settle his financial disputes with the victim.” “.
On June 15, 2020, Kocontes was convicted of murder, “charged with murder for financial reasons in special circumstances”.
Following the September 2020 ruling, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that speaking to reporters, Kocontes “almost got away with the perfect crime,” NBC Los Angeles reported.
The outlet continued, “He said the defendant strangled the victim before throwing her overboard, preventing her lungs from filling with water and causing the body to float rather than sink so that it could be found.”
Spitzer said Kocontes chose the cruise ship because each room “slopes straight down to the sea.”
Before the murder, Kocontes lived in Safety Harbor, Florida.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Price said Kocontes and Kanesaki met while they were both associates at the same Los Angeles law firm. He worked as a lawyer while she worked as a paralegal.
Price said the couple married in 1995 before divorcing in 2002, but “continued to live together at Ladera Ranch and took steps to divide their assets to protect him from looming lawsuits.”
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According to the publication, Price said that Kocontes met a woman named Amy Nguyen through a dating website in 2002 and that they had an intimate relationship, while Kocontes continued to live with Kanesaki, who initially “had no idea this affair was happening.” .
According to the outlet, Price said Kocontes married Nguyen in Las Vegas in 2005 and the two began living together in Orange. She then said that in September 2005, Kocontes petitioned the court to get a judge to force Kanesaki to sell his home at Ladera Ranch.
She said: “There was an argument between the two whose house this was.”
Price noted that Kanesaki didn’t want to sell the house or move elsewhere.
NBC Los Angeles continued, “Eventually, Kocontes dropped the subject, left Nguyen and moved back in with Kanesaki, but told Nguyen he loved her and didn’t want to leave her, the prosecutor said.”
“Kocontes then had new wills drawn up for both himself and Kanesaki, according to Price, who said Kocontes was appointed executor of his ex-wife’s estate.”
After the cruise and the murder, Nguyen spoke to the police.
The source explained, “Nguyen told investigators that Kocontes at one point told her he paid his friend Price to kill Kanesaki and throw her overboard, according to the prosecutor, who said the friend was not on the cruise took part.”
“Nguyen lied to a federal grand jury investigating the murder in 2006, Price claimed.”
It continued, “At one point while federal officials were investigating the death, Kocontes persuaded Nguyen to remove a hard drive from one of his computers in his Irvine office, Price said.”
“She lied to the federal grand jury because Kocontes threatened to kill her and made it look like an accident,” Price claimed.
As NBC Los Angeles also reported, Kocontes was charged with “attempting to incite the assassination” of Nguyen while in detention.
However, prosecutors “dismissed the case” because Kocontes was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
How can I watch the Dateline episode about Micki Kanesaki?
The Dateline episode on the murder of Kanesaki premiered on Sunday, May 14, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. CT on NBC.
It will later be available to stream on Peacock.
The @DatelineNBC The Twitter account shared several previews ahead of the TV show’s debut.
It was May 13th tweeted a video preview, along with the words, “It was only two days into the cruise that the voyage took a horrific turn… Full story on Sunday via a classic #dateline puzzle at 7/6c.”
Josh Mankiewicz covered the episode.