48 Hours - Love and Death in Alaska Part 2

Episode Date: December 27, 2015

Is Mechele Linehan a conniving ex-stripper who should be in jail for murder, or was she unfairly targeted by police because of a past life?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. 48 Hours presents a 20-year mystery and the ending nobody expected. This is a story about a well-to-do Michigan man who came to Alaska looking for a new life and instead found disappointment, obsession,

financial loss, and he ended up dead. The question is, did the woman he was obsessed with, the exotic dancer, kill him? Did the exotic dancer's friend kill him for the benefit of the exotic dancer? There were a lot of unanswered questions, so the case went cold. She became a woman with a master's degree in public administration, married to a doctor with an eight-year-old daughter. her. Fast forward to 2004, the Alaska State Troopers set up a cold case unit. It's one of their first cases. Exotic dancer and her friend are charged with his murder. I always cooperated with the police. I never felt that I was a suspect. They never told me I was a suspect.

I did not kill Kent LaPink. But it's hard to know whether they actually did it or not. There's no evidence that directly links them to Kent LaPink's murder. So who really did kill Kent LaPink? For months, reporter Megan Holland, formerly of the Anchorage Daily News, had been trying to answer that question. This has more elements, more characters, more avenues, more interesting people involved than any case I've ever heard of. Love and death in Alaska.

48 Hours continues. Kent Leppink was shot to death in the Alaskan wilderness. After a decade, the woman he'd hoped to marry, Michelle Linehan, and another of her admirers, John Carlin, were charged with Kent's murder. Let's talk for a minute about handguns. Carlin's trial was first. Prosecutor Gullifson singled him out as the shooter, manipulated by Linehan into killing Kent for the insurance.

Kent's death is what Michelle wants, and John was willing to make it happen. With Michelle out of town, he says, Carlin took Kent to hope. And that's when the Desert Eagle comes out ready to go, and that's when Kent initially gets it in the back, turns around, falls down, gets it in the stomach, and then gets it in the face. That is not at all how the defense sees things. John Carlin, in this case, ladies and gentlemen, is just the man that cleans up Michelle's messes. If Carlin later helped wash a gun, his lawyer says, well, he was just cleaning up another of Michelle's messes. Kent's parents don't buy it. He shot my son. I know he did. I just know with all my heart he did. But will the jury agree?

The whole trial became quite emotional. And then when you sit a day and wait for the jury to come back, that was an awful long day. And waiting almost four days for a decision feels like forever. We, the jury, find the defendant, John Collin, the third guilty of murder in the first degree, is charged in the indictment. I bawled. I couldn't believe it. Numb. Shock.

Maybe several days of shock. Hello? Hey, is this John? Yeah. It's Megan Holland with the Daily News in Anchorage. Waiting by the phone in Seattle, John Carlin's son. His testimony helped convict his own father. Have you heard?

No. Are you sitting down? Just tell me. Guilty. Okay. Thank you. It was a killing that was cold, and it was calculated, and it was cruel. At sentencing... I believe that a maximum sentence is warranted.

Sentence Mr. Carlin to serve 99 years in prison. Carlin gets the maximum, 99 years in prison, not even eligible for parole until 2041. God bless you. God bless Alaska. Back in Olympia, Michelle's friends are struggling to accept that the church-going PTA mom, entrepreneur, and devoted wife they know had such a colorful past. Is it possible in your mind that she had anything at all to do with this man's death? No, it's not possible that she did what they say she did. She's told me the whole story from the get-go. Including her husband Colin Lenahan says all about her job

as star stripper at the Great Alaskan Bush Company. Her whole goal was to save up money for college, and it was something that I could definitely respect. She had absolutely no intention of doing that for the rest of her life. As for all those boyfriend-fiancés... You know, I didn't really ask any probing questions. I mean, I understood that she had relationships with 22-year-old to get married to. And they all thought they had.

Mm-hmm. thought they had. Can you see how having three fiancés, if you will, in an 18-month period, all of them older men, at times two of them living in the same house, and you're meanwhile getting money, gifts, et cetera, from them? I mean, to the average person, that might look like a scam. gifts, etc. from them. I mean, to the average person, that might look like a scam. Anybody else that knew me or worked with me or worked with us didn't feel that way. She says she never asked the men in her life for more than they already wanted to give. Did John Carlin ask you to marry him?

Yes. And you said what? No. So John Carlin was never a fiancé? No. Kent Leppink thought he was, but he wasn't. Kent Leppink never thought he was. But prosecutors say a message to Kent suggests he had every reason to think he was very much in the picture.

My darling Kent, Michelle writes, if you still want to marry me, we should just go and do it. We should get married within the next month. We should just do it and start our life. But he definitely was not. He was not. Regardless of what he told anybody else. Right. And Scott Hilkey definitely was. Definitely was. For a while. About a year. Yeah and then he wasn't. Yes. They were all infatuated but Michelle says she truly loved only Hilke. Carlin was like a big brother, and Kent became a bother. He'd been obsessively collecting information about her.

Social security number, credit cards, phone bills. He was even reading her emails and tracking her every move. Were you afraid of him? I think I had become afraid of him toward that time. Did he have any reason to be afraid of him? I think I had become afraid of him toward that time. Did he have any reason to be afraid of you? No. She only pretended to be engaged to get Kent off the hook with his parents, she says, because T.T., as Kent was called, was hiding a painful secret.

I think T.T., as Kent was called, was hiding a painful secret. I think T.T. was gay. I think that he wanted a life that was a normal life. He could never tell his family he was gay. Kent's mother insisted they wouldn't have cared for a second, but that in fact, Kent was not gay. But Michelle's lawyer, Kevin Fitzgerald, says his behavior kept everyone guessing about a lot. Kent LePink was an odd guy. I mean, a very odd guy. I don't think, and frankly, I think in the period of April 1996, I don't think he was well mentally.

Fitzgerald says Kent's mental state explains much of the evidence, including those eerie letters home. I mean, is he going to say, hey, I've been lying extensively to you guys for a year and a half about the true nature of this relationship? Or is it easier for him to say, Michelle's a bad person and she's involved with other bad people? I don't know. I think that's pretty convenient out for him. If you look at the content of the letters themselves, there is nothing to suggest that he's aware of any plan to kill him. So it's just a coincidence that five days later he's dead. Yeah, I think in this case it is a coincidence. That's the timing of it, definitely. Fitzgerald dismisses the emails as well. And what I don't see in those emails is I don't say go forth and kill Kent LaPink.

So when I hear people say, well, the emails were, you know, powerful, I say, how? Even the email in which Michelle tells Carlin the Seychelles are a safe haven, no matter what the crime. If you were contemplating a murder, would you have put something like that in that would be so, you know, in hindsight, so incriminatory? I mean, that would be nuts. Same goes for the Hope Note about that non-existent cabin. He says the setup was all John Carlin Sr.'s idea to get rid of a rival. I think what happened is he said, you want to find Michelle? I'll show you where she is. And I think he went out there with Sr. And I think Sr. killed him in hope. I don't think Michelle was part of that.

But surprisingly, Michelle herself lets Carlin off the hook. I have a hard time thinking that John did it. Is there any possibility, do you think, that he did it thinking he was doing you a favor? I mean, he was completely infatuated with you. And could that be the case? I don't know. Because you didn't do this. No.

And you didn't know about it. And you didn't plan it. No. You had nothing to do with Kent Lepping's death. You can call her a lying bitch. You can call her a lying bitch. You can call her a psychopath. You can call her a sociopath. But the bottom line is, that's not who she is.

Who Michelle Linehan really is will be at the heart of her upcoming trial. Everybody at that point agreed that John Carlin pulled the trigger. The question is, what was her role? Exactly. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party.

So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror

movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. If standing trial for first-degree murder has Michelle Linehan even the slightest bit worried...

The burden of proof wasn't on me. It was on the state. You'd hardly know it. So I didn't feel that I had to put on a show for them. My job was to let the state present their evidence. I know I didn't mastermind this slaying. Another jury already has convicted John Carlin of actually pulling the trigger. Now, prosecutor Pat Gullifson must convince this jury

that Michelle was the mastermind, the brains behind the crime. She didn't kill Kent, but it was her idea, her plan. If it wasn't for Michelle Linehan, Kent LePink could still be alive today. All she needed was somebody to do the dirty work, somebody to pull the trigger. And if he can prove that, then under Alaska law, Michelle will be just as guilty of murder as if she had fired the fatal shot herself.

You have no doubt at all that Michelle planned this whole thing from start to finish. The evidence tells me that this is a strong case. It's also very similar to the case against John Carlin, so similar that prosecutors will be calling many of the same witnesses. The evidence will be much of the same, too. The life insurance, the hope note, the Seychelles email, and the washing of the gun. This case seems to be not one thing, but a bunch of little things. I don't know if they're a bunch of little things, but you're right. That's what a circumstantial case is about. I thought there certain you know bumps and certain things that we were going to need to explain defense attorneys wayne fricke

and kevin fitzgerald's bigger worry is that michelle's past will get in the way of the jury seeing what they say is the real Michelle today. She's married to Dr. Linehan. She's a homeowner. She's a business owner. She's college educated, has her master's degree. In other words, she's no longer that stripper, so good at getting men to do her bidding. Here's a real person with a real life. She's no longer that stripper, so good at getting men to do her bidding. There's a real person with a real life. She's got a seven-year-old daughter. Is active in her daughter's Catholic church and Catholic school, and is active in the community.

To which prosecutors say, so what? Underlying the whole defense was that she's a changed woman. That doesn't mean we'll forget about a murder that she was involved in and instrumental in committing 11 years ago. State's next witness will be Laura Aspiotis. To keep the focus on Michelle's past, Gullifson calls another former exotic dancer, a friend from 11 years ago, Laura Aspiotis. Did you and Michelle watch movies a lot? Yes, we did. And remarkably, she produces a diary in which she wrote down who watched what movie when,

although her memory's a bit hazy. February 1, you watched Grumpy Old Men. Mm-hmm. And half, according to your diary, half of Mr. Holland's opus, right? Yes. In court, Aspiotis can't find reference in the diary to the one movie she swears was Michelle's favorite. A 1994 thriller called The Last Seduction. Sit down. It starred Linda Fiorentino as a femme fatale who persuades her lover to kill her husband for money and for their future. She could tell right away that he was very naive.

I don't do murder. Yeah, well, you would if you loved me. I'll do it. I'll kill the bastard. So what made you change your mind? We're going to have a life together, Wendy, in New York, the two of us alone. What was her reaction to that movie? She told me that that was her heroine and that she wanted to be just like her. Oh, my God.

In the movie, the husband is murdered. The lover goes to jail while the femme fatale coolly walks away with a pile of cash. There are a lot of similarities between controlling and manipulating the relationship in this case and that movie. And even though Laura Aspiotis' diary doesn't prove Michelle liked or even saw this movie, Pat Gullifson wants the jury to see it now. Are we really talking about playing this 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 them watch this movie, did you? Well, I got pretty close to convincing myself that he might. By the time the judge rules against him, the jury knows all about the movie, and the prosecution moves on. Our next witness will be John Carlin IV. To its star witness, John Carlin's son,

To its star witness, John Carlin's son, again with his startling story of seeing his father and Michelle washing a gun. I recall smelling bleach or a similar chemical. I remember seeing Ms. Hughes standing at the doorway and my father in the bathroom with a firearm in the sink in a clear liquid. The look on his face was communicating to you what, if anything? Don't ask questions. I felt just heartbroken for him. Was that before? I think he was afraid of hurting me.

He saw what had happened to his dad, and I think that it put him in a really bad position. Mr. Carlin, that means you're finished. All right. But the damaging story seems a little less so when the defense points out that before his grand jury testimony, Carlin's son twice had told police his father was alone when washing the gun. He said Michelle wasn't present, right? That was my understanding of what he was saying, that she was in the house but not necessarily in the room. For nearly a month, the testimony drags on. Do you solemnly swear for him to testify and give him the case number before this court will be the truth, the whole truth, insurance company in the days before Kent died. Was that innocent?

She attempted to cancel the policy. Or very calculated? We think that call was made for to check on the insurance, not to cancel the insurance. Did you indicate to her that Mitchell LePink had died? Yes. And what about her reaction when police told her the news? Was she really as upset as it sounds on that tape? When did it happen? You don't need to know that for sure.

Can they tell? No, they can't tell. Did the emotional reaction of Ms. Hughes, did that leave any kind of impression in your mind with regard to sincerity? I've done a lot of death notifications and things like that, and it just seemed that it lacked a bit of sincerity. Certainly, the jury is watching her reactions now. I didn't want to look at the jury. If I smiled, it made me bad.

And if I cried, I was guilty. Or I feel like no matter what I did, it wasn't right. She considers testifying, but her lawyers convince her she'd be eaten alive on the stand. So the defense instead calls the one person here who might know Michelle well enough. When were you married? To make the difference. The day after I graduated from medical school was May 1998. What kind of things do the two of you enjoy to do? Everything from watching movies, reading, going to the park with our daughter, just kind of family time.

I thought Colin was pivotal to present Michelle, to really bring her to life. Tell me what it was like to testify. It's horrible. Nerve-shattering, anxiety-provoking, nightmare. You know, their son is dead. You can't take back that. I have nothing but sympathy for them. It kills me that in their hearts that they think Michelle had anything to do with that

because I know from the bottom of my heart and soul that she did not. It hurt me so bad that somebody would think that I would do something to their child. It's tough. Very, very tough. Hard. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island.

It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it,

people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one

belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively Thank you. Together, Kent and Betsy Leping coped with the loss of their son for years. I think he was being set up. With all my heart, I feel it was set up. You have no doubt whatsoever that she was, what, the mastermind here? I think so, yeah. That's the way I see it, yes. This person manipulated the circumstances with her guile, with deception.

And Pat Gullifson says Hollywood couldn't have written it any better. 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? The problem is, you're going to write the ending, she isn't. The movie, give me a break. I mean, that is desperation. In closing, Kevin Fitzgerald emphasizes that there is not a shred of direct evidence against Michelle. Conjecture, speculation,

suspicion, innuendo. That's the package that the state has presented to you. He tells the jury they can't convict on that or on Michelle Linehan's past. We ask that you return her to her family and to her husband and to her daughter. That you return the only true and just verdict in this case, which is to find that Mrs. Linehan is not guilty. Thank you. Please rise.

We've climbed a mountain in this trial, and now we wait for the answer the jury has for us. Do you remember what was going through your mind as the jury comes filing back in? I thought it was over. Over in what way? I remember thinking to myself that one way or another it was over. It was over.

For nearly five weeks, the jury in the Michelle Linehan murder trial has struggled with the central question of her tangled past. Is she just a suburban mom with a heart of gold? Or a conniving ex-stripper with a heart of stone. You may be seated. I see from your notes that you've indicated that the jury has reached a verdict. Is that true? It takes the jurors just two days to decide. It takes the jurors just two days to decide. Ms. Linehan, would you please stand while I read the verdict?

And your husband may stand with you if you wish. You can come up. You can stand next to her, Dr. Linehan. I didn't want to look at the jury. I felt uncomfortable. I was numbed. But it wasn't really going through my mind, it was going through my heart and my soul. We, the jury, find the defendant,

Michelle K. Linehan, guilty of murder in the first degree as charged in the indictment. of murder in the first degree as charged in the indictment. At first, it doesn't seem to sink in. Please be seated. Counsel, do either of you wish to examine... I went in that day planning to go out to dinner that night and fly home with my family. You were able to accept what they were saying.

I don't know that I could have really accepted it. You know, I think I did the best I could. The verdict hits Kevin Fitzgerald almost as hard. It's a blow. It's a huge blow. Kind of rocks my world to tell you the truth. Presently, Ms. Linehan, you can have one final embrace with your husband, but then I'll need to have officer separate you and take you downstairs.

I'll wait until that's concluded. To have your mom, your wife, your friend be wrongfully convicted, it's terror. It's terrifying. It's miserable. It's torture. It amazes me that people actually, that she's able to continue to pull this off with folks. God is good one more time. He's been good to us. For Kent Lepping's family, the whole experience has been bittersweet. If we could have just taken our son home with us, you know, if that would have been the prize for winning. But we can't ever do that, You know, he's still gone. He wasn't perfect.

But we loved him. We love him today. We love the memory of him. The whole thing, quite frankly, to me, is very surreal. But Michelle's ex-fiancé, Scott Hilkey, thinks he has finally figured her out. I think she's inherently evil, yes. I believe to this day that I was a mark from the get-go. But you fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

I did indeed. And you weren't the only one. I'm the lucky one. How so? I wasn't involved in any crimes, and I'm not dead. Hilkey says he still has many unanswered questions about this case, but then so does the prosecution. We know there was a gun. We know it went away.

And we know that it belonged to John Carlin and that it was in that house. What happened to this gun? Why has a murder weapon never been found? That's a good question. I don't know. But in a jailhouse interview with 48 hours guess who claims he does know

you A gun like this was used to shoot Kent Leppink three times and ultimately resulted in his death. There's no doubt about that. No. That gun, a Desert Eagle, never has been found. And for years, John Carlin adamantly has denied knowing anything about it, much less owning it. But now his memory has improved.

He was a.44. A Desert Eagle? Mm-hmm. He now says he not only owned a Desert Eagle, he thinks it probably was the one used to kill Kent Leppink. Why did you lie? Why? Uh-huh.

Because at the time they asked me, I was under scrutiny. Intense scrutiny. It appeared to me that these people were coming after me. That looked very bad for me. It looked very bad for me. He claims that sometime before Kent disappeared, the gun mysteriously vanished too, only to magically turn up in a closet after the murder. I found that gun. No, I didn't. I'm sorry. John found that gun in the closet, and I heard Michelle yelling, don't touch it, don't touch it. closet and I heard Michelle yelling, don't touch it, don't touch it. Carlin Sr. says he rounded the corner and came face to face with a glaring Michelle. Worried his son's fingerprints now were on the gun, he washed it. So what did you do with this gun then? Threw it away. Where'd you throw it? I put it in my pants and I got rid of it. Where did you get rid of it exactly through the

dumpster it's quite a tale it's quite a tale if the tale is true it still leaves a lot unanswered about Michelle but Carlin is sure of one thing she didn't pull the trigger who did good question but it wasn't me and she still seems to fascinate him it isn't definable whatever she needs to be she is you'll never ever sit down and get Michelle you never will not now not ten years from now you will never get Michelle. You will get what she wants at that particular time to portray to you. Prosecutor Gullifson insists he does get Michelle.

And the jury's verdict was right. She aided Carlin in doing it. And the jury's verdict was right. She aided Carlin in doing it. He's put Carlin in for 99 years and plans to make sure Michelle stays behind bars, too. The options up to the judge are anywhere from 10 to 99. I said she's trying to make the best out of a bad situation, and it's not easy. Her spirit should not be caged. I mean, if she's in a place she does not belong.

We talked with Michelle at Alaska's only women's prison as she awaited her sentence. I mean, a jury has given its verdict, and that's the starting point. So what other factors are there that you feel the judge should consider? I have no criminal history. I'm not a violent person. It hurts me that the family would think that I did it. It hurts me that the family would think that I did it. I just want to go home. I'm sorry. But the judge sentences her to 99 years, her first chance at parole not coming until she is 68,

her family struggling to take it all in. Two burnt peanuts, one apple, and that's it. That's enough dessert. If you head above the water and do multiple things, or you can just kind of relax and let the water enter your lungs and sink. I've got to be number one dad and number one husband, and all the rest can just wait. And this is Michelle. I got to get it.

He struggles to keep the family together. Hi, sweetie. How you doing? By phone. How often do you talk to her? Every day. Every day. By phone. How often do you talk to her? Every day. Every day.

And as long as the money holds out, by flying back to Alaska to visit Michelle in prison, daughter in tow. She knows who her mom is. She loves and adores her mom. And she will continue to do that. Her family is pinning all hope on an eventual appeal. We have not given up, and I will never give up.

I will fight as hard as I possibly can, for as long as I possibly can, until some appellate court says, bug us no more. Go away, Fitzgerald. More than two years later, Michelle's attorney finally wins the fight. In February 2010, an appeals court reverses her conviction for murder because it says Kent Leppink's letter from the grave pointing the finger at her

never should have been allowed into evidence. I don't do murder. Yeah, well, you would if you loved me. Oh, my God! Same with the movie, The Last Seduction, which the appeals judge says had nothing at all to do with Michelle's case. Ms. Linehan has been given an opportunity to stand before the court,

once again presumed to be innocent. Michelle was released on bail, but prosecutors vowed to try her again, although their case is now weakened. In February 2008, John Carlin, convicted of the murder of Kent Lepping, died in a prison fight. Carlin's case was on appeal when he died, so the court threw the whole thing out. My sense of the case with Ms. Linehan

was that it was built on the foundation of John Carlin's conviction. Now, prosecutors are not even allowed to mention Carlin ever was convicted. For the first time in two and a half years, Michelle Linehan is on the road to what she hopes will be the beginning of a new life. We just got into the apartment. 48 hours was there as she took the measure of her newfound freedom. It hasn't kicked in yet, you know. These are my conditions. It says I have to stay within the Anchorage Bowl. My curfew is 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. There's so many things to see and do. She'll have to wear an ankle monitor to make sure she obeys all the rules. I have to go to the bail bondsman, have a picture taken. I can't believe I'm not in prison anymore.

But Michelle worries this freedom may be fleeting. I have so much, like, restored faith in people and the system. But then I don't want to be fleeting. I have so much like restored faith in people and the system, but then I don't want to be naive again. I saw what happened in the first trial. There was no way they were going to convict me, and they did. So for me to sit here now and say there's no way, there's a way. now and say, there's no way. There's a way. Ken and Betsy Lepink pray for another guilty verdict. When you lose a child you love so very much, it never stops hurting. We'll miss Kent as long as we live.

Looking back, they still marvel at those surreal days in Alaska. At Michelle's astonishing hold on Kent. At that haunting letter predicting his own murder, naming her as a likely suspect. A letter in which he wrote, make sure Michelle goes to jail for a long time. But he couldn't help adding, tell her how much I really did love her. I really did want to marry her. And make all of her dreams come true. Hi. Michelle had tasted freedom. We can talk more than 15 minutes now. And in 2011, nearly two years after the court reversed her conviction,

authorities dismissed her murder indictment. They could charge her again, but with a weakened case, that seems unlikely. With John Carlin's case thrown out after he was killed in prison, his son sued the state of Alaska for wrongful death. Carlin Jr. got a $160,000 settlement. Michelle tried to go back to life as she knew it in Washington State. But today, she and Colin are living apart, though they still work together at a skin care clinic she runs,

and they jointly care for their daughter, now 16. Kent Lepping's father died in 2014. His mother still visits Alaska. She says it's the place where she feels closest to Kent, though she struggles with the feeling that nobody ever was really held accountable for his murder. Now, who do you think killed Kent Leping? Chat now on Twitter and Facebook.