A Scary Fall Into Lake Erie | Body Overboard | Case Files: Dark Waters | Forensic Files

[theme music] [stirring music] NARRATOR: The fourth largest lake in the USA, Lake Erie.
It sits on the boundary of Canada to the north, and also borders four US states.
But on American Independence Day 2017, a family out boating on Lake Erie noticed something out of the ordinary,
off the shore of Dunkirk, New York. - They believed it was a blow-up doll because it
was floating in the water. The boaters approached and realized it wasn't a blow-up doll.
It was a human being. [stirring music] NARRATOR: The body appeared to be female,
but it had been ravaged by the waters and marine life. ERIC ROGERS: She did not have a top on.
She had no hair. All her hair was gone. And she just had a floral bikini bottom.
[stirring music] - She's got bites, you know. Her entire face, all of her features are gone,
are worn off. It is literally just a head with no nose, no eyes, no mouth, and, obviously, being bloated.
And there's things all over her body. It was very upsetting. She was found too by a family.
All the injuries to her were very hard to see. [stirring music] ERIC ROGERS: The recreational boaters then contacted
the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department, who contacted the Pennsylvania State Police and
the Coast Guard. And the Coast Guard then contacted me and said, hey, we have a body floating 6 miles off the shore of Dunkirk,
New York. NARRATOR: Police recovered the body. Its bloating gave them an idea how
long it had been in the water. - In this case, the body was estimated to have been
there for about three weeks. Lake Erie is very cold. The water is also very cold, and
that is going to have an effect on how that body decomposes. Because the water temperature is a lot cooler,
as is the air temperature, it was better preserved than it would have been for normally
being in the water. However, decomposition had begun to set in, which would make the identification of this person
more difficult. [helicopter whirring] - The body was recovered in the water by the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department.
They went out and put a blue tarp under the body, put the body in a tarp. When it was brought ashore, I was in Dunkirk, New York,
because I had been interviewing the people who were in the water that discovered the body/ and then I took
photos of the body as it had come in from the waters in the blue body bag. NARRATOR: Investigators needed to identify the woman,
but they also had to work out what happened to her. Deaths in Lake Erie are not uncommon.
It's popular with swimmers and scuba divers, but its waters hold many dangers. [water sloshing]
- Certainly, there are things in the water like temperature creating hypothermia.
There's significant shipping traffic that goes through the Great Lakes. Even though the Great Lakes are lakes and not the ocean,
water movement is significant, in addition to just the effects of wind and gravitational pull.
[water sloshing] [stirring music] - The tide on Lake Erie is only about 30 millimeters,
about 3 centimeters. But the lake itself is about 240 miles long, about 380 kilometers.
And that gives it plenty of length for big waves to develop. Waves are created by the wind, and
you can get these big storms across all of the Great Lakes. NARRATOR: Although it was summer,
Lake Erie had recently been hit by a storm. MICHELLE DUPRE: Because this is one of the Great Lakes in Michigan area, the water is rough.
And storms that come up are much more detrimental to preserving a body than you might expect.
So when we're trying to identify a deceased person, we want to go for the fastest way possible.
Because we often-- until we can identify the victim, we often can't tell exactly what happened
and put a timeline together. So what we try to do is look at the amount of decomposition
and what type of decomposition there is. In this case, the body had been in the water
for approximately three weeks, so dental records were used to compare the victim to dental records
that were on file. NARRATOR: The body was confirmed as local woman, 51-year-old Karen LeClair.
She'd been reported missing three weeks earlier. [stirring music] - Christopher LeClair was a commercial fisherman
in the waters of Lake Erie. He had asked his wife, Karen LeClair, to go out on the fishing boat to help him attend to his nets.
NARRATOR: They set off on the couple's boat, the Doris-M. ERIC ROGERS: They left the East Marina on the Doris-M.
And they proceeded through the channel into the waters of Lake Erie. And at that point, Karen was suffering
from nausea from the fumes off the port side of the boat. He was in the captain's house.
- Christopher was up driving the boat. He was checking on her. - He reports her being off the port side,
leaning over the boat. - One point, he looks back, she's gone. [water sloshing] So he had theorized she fell over the boat.
She was just, I guess, sick and ill and fell over. - He then reported her missing as being overboard.
NARRATOR: The Doris-M made a distress call, and a full scale emergency response was launched.
ERIC ROGERS: That triggers a whole bunch of agencies. The US Coast Guard, the Fish and Boat Commission
is notified immediately because it's in the waters of Lake Erie. The Pennsylvania State Police were notified immediately.
- When he gave the distress call that she fell overboard, you can't thank the Coast Guard enough.
They scrambled a helicopter, I believe, out of Detroit. There were cutters out of Buffalo, the Erie Coast Guard.
Canada may have contributed to this. All in a desperate attempt to save Karen LeClair.
ERIC ROGERS: It was a great deal of manpower. We had our Pennsylvania State Police aviation unit,
helicopters were up. Obviously, the Fish and Boat Commission had their boats out.
The Coast Guard had their boats out. And they were all searching the waters of Lake Erie
approximately 4 or 5 miles off the shore in a northwesterly direction. NARRATOR: It was a race against time to find Karen alive.
[stirring music] SARAH MORMINO: Given the harsh conditions of the water, once Karen went overboard,
it would have been very hard for her to survive for a prolonged period of time. Even the best swimmer cannot keep
themselves afloat in waves 4 to 5 feet for an extended period. NARRATOR: Despite Karen being a strong swimmer
and a qualified scuba diver, the cold water, even in July, meant hypothermia could set in within hours.
SARAH MORMINO: Even if she was able to stay afloat for an extended period of time, the waves would have pushed her
and pulled her very far from her initial entry into the water. This makes it very difficult for rescuers
to know where to start the search, as they don't know where she currently is. [lightning strikes]
NARRATOR: By nightfall, all hopes of finding Karen alive were fading. - The search for Karen LeClair went on Sunday, June 11,
and into Monday. Monday is when the Pennsylvania State Police took over the lead investigation
of the disappearance of Karen LeClair. ELIZABETH HIRZ: Obviously, everyone was very concerned and
sad and worried about her. And I believe the search was called off Monday night, about 30 hours they
had been searching for her. And they declared her dead at that time. Just a despair.
It was very sad. And it's just confusion. This was a woman that went out on that boat.
Regardless of the conditions, scuba diver, I think it was, you know, how did this happen?
ERIC ROGERS: Despite the fact that she did go over, it was a fishing vessel. And the Doris-M, being the size that it is
and the heavy steel that it's made out of, it should have navigated those waters fairly easily.
Definitely not to the point where they would rock to the point where somebody would fall overboard.
It doesn't make sense. NARRATOR: Investigators feared things were not as they seemed.
- That's just not adding up. Things in this case just don't add up. It seems suspicious in nature.
[foreboding music] [stirring music] NARRATOR: In Pennsylvania, detectives are investigating after local woman Karen LeClair was
found floating in Lake Erie. Her husband reported her falling overboard from their fishing boat three weeks earlier.
It was thought she drowned. [water sloshing] - The lake is known to have several strong currents,
strong enough to where, most of the time, officials recommend that people do not swim in the waters
as they can be very dangerous. Karen fell overboard. If she was unable to keep herself afloat,
she would have sunk all the way to the bottom. [water sloshing] Lake Erie also ranges in depth, with the deepest point
being approximately 210 feet. When a body enters the water and sinks in water deeper than 100 to 130 feet, a lot of the times,
that pressure will hold them underwater and they will not resurface. However, on average, the depth of Lake Erie is about 64 feet.
And as gases build in their system, they will float to the surface. This happened to Karen LeClair.
[water sloshing] NARRATOR: But even before her body resurfaced, investigators had their doubts about the situation.
[water sloshing] - Just falling overboard? Randomly falling overboard in Lake Erie,
you don't hear that a lot, especially right outside in the bay. I just said, something doesn't seem right with this.
ERIC ROGERS: So from the time that she was reported missing on Sunday, it was a constant investigative effort.
It's all hands on deck. It's an area between 15 to 20 investigators working around the clock in an attempt to determine
as much information as we possibly can and follow those leads in whichever direction they go.
Speaking to the coworkers of Karen LeClair, speaking to other people down in the marina
who were familiar with Christopher LeClair. NARRATOR: Detectives looked into Karen's personal life and
her relationship with husband Christopher. ERIC ROGERS: Karen LeClair is a beautiful woman, very loving,
caring woman, hard worker, well loved by her family and friends, her coworkers, wonderful work ethic.
- She worked at a local business auto dealership where she was a very dedicated employee.
ELIZABETH HIRZ: When she wasn't working, she was out with her husband on their boat.
Just salt-of-the-earth woman. ERIC ROGERS: Karen LeClair was a very good wife to Christopher LeClair.
She was married to him for about 26 years. - Met in Florida, I believe, and came up here and lived here in Albion, about 27 acres,
I believe, on a home. From what we learned, she was very devoted to Chris. Loved him very much.
Just very even-keeled and loving. - We realized how dedicated Karen was as a wife
when we found out what type of person Christopher was. Because we spoke to a number of people
who, not only had business acquaintances with Christopher, but also had personal relationships with Christopher.
And I would say, of those people we spoke to, very, very few had anything positive to say
about Christopher. NARRATOR: Behind the scenes, the couple had their ups and downs.
ERIC ROGERS: Christopher LeClair was not doing well financially, but that was his own doing.
He was a commercial fisherman. However, his nets were unattended for weeks. So imagine a commercial fisherman
who has large nets in the lake, is catching perch by large quantities and other fish in Lake Erie
to take to market to sell. Imagine not pulling those nets up on a daily basis to take those fish out
while they're still fresh so you can make money on them. Well, either because of his lifestyle,
maybe his own laziness, failed to attend to those nets to the point where the Fish and Boat Commission go out
and pull up his nets, because the decomposition of the fish in the nets was just atrocious.
The livelihood was there. It was his effort that lacked. - He was very lazy. And he basically wanted everything done for him.
He did the minimum that he could do. If you did talk to people, they knew of his lack of work ethic.
ERIC ROGERS: He could have very well been a successful commercial fisherman. And there are other commercial fishermen
in the area that are doing well, but they're putting the effort forth to make their business successful.
Christopher did not choose to do that, and that resulted in him having financial difficulties.
Karen actually stayed with him during some very difficult times, even after she found out he had a mistress.
ELIZABETH HIRZ: It has been going on for quite some time and was quite serious. ERIC ROGERS: She did move out of their residence
in Albion, Pennsylvania, but she eventually came back. So she was a dedicated wife.
NARRATOR: Investigators needed to speak to Christopher himself. - That is when we brought Christopher LeClair
in for an initial interview to get all the details of what happened. - He started off basically talking about their marriage,
and it was a good marriage. And sticking with the story that she was ill, sat in the back of the boat, and then fell over.
It came out that she's an avid swimmer. She's a scuba diver. So they were starting to press him on a few of those matters.
During that interview, he was really starting to get nervous. So then he talked about how his wife had cancer.
She wasn't doing well. - He would tell people that Karen LeClair had cancer. There were no indications that Karen LeClair
had any type of cancer. And that was not-- the fact that she did not have cancer
was also supported by family members. ELIZABETH HIRZ: Christopher had told Karen's boss
that Karen had cancer. But this individual followed-up with Karen and she said, no, I don't have cancer.
JONI JOHNSTON: She wasn't somebody who would necessarily air her dirty laundry in public.
But she was close enough to her coworkers and to her supervisors that if she had been sick,
and if somebody had broached her with this, she certainly would not have lied about it or not told them.
So this is completely out of character for her. What Chris LeClair is saying is clearly a lie.
[stirring music] NARRATOR: Next, detectives question Christopher about his affair.
- He started to offer up that the individual was just a fling, didn't mean a lot to him.
And then when they kept pressing, it became every other month that he was with this mistress.
Then they asked, you know, when was the last time you were with her? And he said, a month ago.
And then within the same breath, changed it to, last Friday night. So he was very inconsistent and all over the place with that.
And every time they would ask a question, he would give more information that was completely contradictory to what he just said.
NARRATOR: Police were also puzzled at Christopher's reaction to the news that his wife's rescue was now a recovery mission.
ERIC ROGERS: The Coast Guard informed him that the recovery efforts were going to begin.
He showed very little emotion. His only question to me at that time was, how long do you think it would take
for a body to float up in the waters of Lake Erie this time of the year? [water sloshing]
It was very matter-of-fact. There was zero emotion. NARRATOR: Investigators needed another way
to check Christopher LeClair's story about how and when his wife went missing. ERIC ROGERS: There was a very good possibility
that there was video footage down on Dobbins landing in the East Marina where Christopher had
his boat, the Doris-M, docked. So we immediately got manpower, and we began to look for video footage.
There were some new cameras installed in various areas of the East Marina, but also going out the Coast Guard station in the channel
out to Lake Erie. Fortunately, we found some very, very good footage. ELIZABETH HIRZ: It was phenomenal footage.
I mean, it was very clear. And they actually had one of the state troopers sit and watch for hours.
NARRATOR: The footage showed the couple arriving at the dock the day before Karen
was reported missing. [stirring music] - When Karen and Christopher pull in that Saturday,
he loads up the ice. They get on the boat, they take off. ERIC ROGERS: The two of them proceeded
through the East Marina. Out through the channel and into the waters of Lake Erie.
He then returned later that afternoon, I believe it was three or four hours later.
Docked his boat on a wall of the East Marina, where he typically never docked his boat.
- We believe he knew there were-- he thought outside of the view of the cameras,
so it wasn't in his regular boat slip. And it's just him. At no point does anyone else get off that boat.
He's the only one that gets off. - Two people went fishing. One person came back.
And it was not until the following day that he reported her missing. [stirring music]
- Sunday we see him come back around noon, get back on the boat where it's docked,
and go out and buy himself. And then the distress signals about an hour and a half later.
JONI JOHNSTON: So it became very clear that he did not go out with his wife on June 11 like he said.
And so the fact that he has already lied to them about the timeline of events, I think,
would have been a huge red flag. - We knew at that point that something tragically
had happened to Karen LeClair. He was not telling us the whole story about what happened in the waters of Lake Erie
on that weekend. [stirring music] [water sloshing] NARRATOR: Lake Erie, Pennsylvania.
Detectives are questioning Christopher LeClair's claims that his wife fell overboard during a fishing trip.
Video evidence suggests he took his wife out on the boat and returned without her the day before he
reported her missing. He's been lying to them. But why? - Based on everything we were gathering,
it was very evident that Christopher LeClair was responsible for the disappearance of his wife.
So at that point, our investigation focused strictly on him. It focused on his affair with his mistress.
There were a bunch of factors that we started to focus on and delve into to determine exactly why he
would want to kill his wife. NARRATOR: Prosecutors reviewed video footage of Christopher's initial police interview
where he discussed his mistress. ELIZABETH HIRZ: He would talk about the fact that Karen knew about this woman, Tracy Butler,
but it was years ago that she found out about it, then eight months ago. Watching his demeanor through that,
he was getting extremely frustrated when they did not believe his answer and just move on.
And he did not like that. And when they would bring him back to Tracy, he would get frustrated, I believe
walked out at one point. So it was very telling in looking back on that really is
who Christopher LeClair was. He was always in control. And he was so manipulative, and that everyone
did what he asked and wanted. And that wasn't happening in that interview room, and he just didn't know how to handle it.
He was so arrogant that he actually-- knowing he was recorded in that room, at one point,
took his phone and started deleting text messages from his girlfriend. So just, I think, he's gotten away
with so much over the years, he just thought he could continue that pattern. ERIC ROGERS: When Christopher LeClair
was questioned during that initial interview, he minimized the relationship that he had with Tracy.
He did not say it was for five years. Our investigation revealed that it was for five years.
He minimized the emotional attachment he had to Tracy. He said it was just a sexual relationship at that time.
NARRATOR: His lover told a different story. ELIZABETH HIRZ: Pennsylvania State Police
also talked to Tracy Butler. So confirmed the affair, confirmed with Tracy that it was much more serious
than Christopher had let on. ERIC ROGERS: When Christopher's wife moved out, his mistress Tracy moved in to Christopher's house in Albion.
During that time, Tracy became pretty comfortable living out there in Albion, Pennsylvania.
However, Karen moved back in with Christopher, and Tracy was back home into the city of Erie.
She wanted to be back living in his house in Albion, Pennsylvania. She had children who she wanted to get
enrolled in the school in that area for the following school year. He had to make a decision.
ELIZABETH HIRZ: She had given him an ultimatum that he either leave his wife or she was going to leave him.
JONI JOHNSTON: - Oftentimes, when I see people who end up murdering somebody, and they are people who have never murdered anybody
before, they don't have a violent criminal history, there are very significant situational variables
that come into play. So, for example, they might feel like their back is up against the wall,
but they don't have any options. Which, again, is no excuse because most people wouldn't
do that under any circumstances, but you can look and see where that person felt desperate.
ERIC ROGERS: The more we looked into it, and the more we looked into the background
of Christopher LeClair, we realized that there may be another motive as to why he would have killed her and
then pushed her overboard. He wanted to maintain his relationship with his mistress,
but his wife was in the way. [water sloshing] [stirring music] - Obviously, Karen, her body wasn't able to be found.
We know the only other person with her on that boat was Christopher LeClair. We knew the ultimatum that Tracy had given him.
It was decided that evening to arrest him for the murder of Karen LeClair. [stirring music]
- We knew Christopher had access to a number of guns. He had quite a few guns in his residence.
So we tactically approached his residence from all directions with anticipation that he was in the house and without knowledge
of how he would react. At that point, we were notified that the vehicle, which I believe he was driving, was located on the roadway
outside of his residence. And he was taken into custody at that particular point.
NARRATOR: From prison, Christopher's calls and letters were monitored by detectives.
- He was giving us more information from his jail cell that we really didn't even need to go out and get.
ERIC ROGERS: In listening to the phone calls of Christopher LeClair, we realized that he
was a very gifted liar. He could lie at a drop of a hat. He would talk to Tracy on a regular basis.
And the outlandish web of lies that he would tell her was unbelievable. The letters that they would share with one another
about their love for one another, it clearly allowed us to see that he knew Karen was out of the picture.
That he was planning on getting out of jail and continuing this relationship with his mistress, Tracy.
- He really was building our case from his jail cell. NARRATOR: But investigators still had a problem.
ERIC ROGERS: It was about proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he was responsible for the death of Karen.
But we did not know how that happened at that point because we didn't have a body.
Without a body, you can't tell, obviously, the nature or manner of death. [stirring music]
NARRATOR: Three weeks later, on July the 4th, that changed when Karen's body was found 50 miles away from
where she left the dock alive. And the damning evidence found with her body proved this was no boating accident.
ERIC ROGERS: There was a blue rope tied around the upper portion of her chest under her arms.
There was a white rope and a blue rope also tied around her ankles. Those two ropes were joined by a rope
in the middle of her body. From that single rope, there was another rope that had an anchor attached to it.
So the anchor was used to assist in keeping the body down, which is consistent with what
Christopher had asked me as far as how long would it take a body to come up in the waters of Lake Erie.
He already had knowledge as to what he did to Karen, how he had tied her down. NARRATOR: But if it was weighed down,
why did Karen's body resurface? [water sloshing] [stirring music] SIMON BOXALL: We can demonstrate that
here, when a body is weighed down, it will sit on the sea floor. And if the sea floor is reasonably smooth,
then it can drag along the sea floor. But if it then gets snared on, say, a sandbank or a rock or
something similar to that, then it can stay there for a long period until it's resuspended by a wave.
Because Lake Erie is relatively shallow compared to many marine areas, it means those waves, which can be quite big,
are quite capable of extending to the sea floor and lifting any body that's on the sea floor up.
And that will then make it jump over some of these obstructions. And so the waves are critical to the body
moving along the sea floor. NARRATOR: Now, investigators needed to link Christopher LeClair to the items used
to weigh his wife's body down. They started a search on Christopher's boat, the Doris-M.
ERIC ROGERS: We discovered that the rope that was used around her chest and her ankles
was actually rope that was cut off of a hammock. It was like a two-tone blue rope.
That was a hammock that was located on the Doris-M. [stirring music] And then the off-white rope was also
rope that was used to secure his anchors to the boat. And the anchor that was used for her body
was also very, very similar to anchors that were located on the Doris-M. - There are three anchors, kind of a small, medium, large.
And, obviously, he had used the largest anchor in that set. So, obviously, photographed all of that
and, again, just added to the evidence against him. NARRATOR: But investigators still needed
to know whether Karen drowned or if she died by other means. Her body was sent for a post-mortem.
ELIZABETH HIRZ: Several of us drove out there to observe the autopsy. She's this beautiful blonde woman.
And then you go to this autopsy, and just what's happened to her was very, very difficult.
And also just to see how he had tied her up in those ropes and tied her to that anchor.
MICHELLE DUPRE: Even though there was decomposition on the body, there was no other evidence of injury to the arms
or to the legs, which would have indicated that she may have struggled once the ropes were
tied around her. This would lead us to believe that she was deceased at the time she was put into the water.
NARRATOR: Then the pathologist noticed two injuries to the head. - He noticed above the right ear, and then another injury
on the left ear. In this case, you could see the skull had fractured. [water sloshing]
- The injury itself was to her right temple. So we knew we had a bullet wound. ERIC ROGERS: The manner and cause of death
was determined to be a single gunshot wound to the right side of the head, exiting on the left side
of the Karen's head. NARRATOR: Despite the decomposition of the body, the autopsy could determine how far
the gun was from Karen's head. - The medical examiner did an exceptional job in that autopsy, and getting us that evidence that it
was a very close bullet wound. [gunshot] - You could tell it was a contact wound
to the right side of the head. Because when you shoot somebody in the head and it's in contact with the skin,
it creates this stippling effect, which is almost like a burning of the skin from the heat
of the discharge of the round going through and the barrel of the gun. When they removed the layer of skin around the wound,
you could actually see gunpowder residue between the tissue and the layer of skin.
So that gunpowder does not get under the skin, unless the shot that's fired to kill her
is basically right up against her head at the time it is discharged. [stirring music]
- We can tell that it was a gunshot wound because when it enters the skull, as it did
in Karen's case, we can tell the entrance from the exit wound. ERIC ROGERS: So you have a smooth entry and
the stippling on the entry. But on the exit, you have a rough edge, or a tearing effect.
Or the skull, because of the gases is being pushed out, it creates a crack in the skull.
[stirring music] NARRATOR: Even though the murder weapon had yet to be found, investigators charged Christopher LeClair
with his wife's killing. - All the physical evidence that we found regarding the gunshot wound to the head, and then all the ropes from
the Doris-M and the anchor from Doris-M, that physical evidence basically sealed his fate regarding the killing of his wife.
- To see the lengths that he went to hide his crime just deepened my resolve to make sure this man never
got out of jail. [water sloshing] [stirring music] NARRATOR: In Pennsylvania, detectives investigating
Karen LeClair's murder now know she was shot dead before being tied to an anchor
and thrown into Lake Erie. Her husband, Christopher LeClair, the prime suspect, is now in jail awaiting trial.
- He was not interested in talking to us because, I believe, at that point, he realized that we had
all the evidence we needed. NARRATOR: But investigators still had to find the murder weapon.
After monitoring LeClair's calls from prison, they struck gold. - He was communicating with his father on the phone.
And during one of our phone conversations that we were monitoring, he instructed his dad
that there was an item in the basement above a ceiling tile. [stirring music] I think he referred to it as, "outside the gun room,
there's an item that needs to disappear." We heard that, but we had a pretty good idea what his dad
was attempting to dispose of. - He was directing his father to go to the basement,
get a ladder, go up to the rafters, and there would be something there and that he needed to make sure was gone.
ERIC ROGERS: So we immediately brought the dad in, spoke to the father. The father was very forward with us
and said that he was instructed by Christopher to remove a gun, and he put it underneath the bed.
- A second search was executed at his home. And in a drawer under the bed, behind that drawer,
was found a cloth bag with a 0.38 revolver in the bag. And so that we had now, not only had the body,
we had homicide, we had the cause of death, we now had the weapon. [stirring music]
NARRATOR: 15 months after the body was found, Christopher LeClair finally stood trial, pleading not
guilty to first degree murder. ERIC ROGERS: Christopher conducted himself in a manner
that you would expect. There was very little remorse, very little emotion. And that's what you would expect from somebody
of his mental capacity as far as his egotistical behavior, narcissistic type of personality that he had.
NARRATOR: Witnesses revealed LeClair's long-held plans for Karen's murder. - There were conversations that he had 13 years prior on how
he would murder his wife by taking her to the middle of Lake Erie, wrapping her in rope or a net,
and sinking her to the bottom of the lake. Not only did he emphasize it to this person
who testified at trial. And when she responded, oh, you must be joking, he said,
no, this is what I would do. Then, years later, closer to when the event occurred,
he said it again to yet another witness. NARRATOR: The prosecution outlined Christopher's motive.
Killing his wife would make way for his lover, while avoiding a financially crippling divorce.
- We put all of this evidence out to the jury to just paint this picture. A lot of it involved text messages between he
and Tracy setting up the fact that, you know, they were trying to get pregnant, that she wanted him to leave.
So we have the motive. We have the opportunity. It was just it's such an amazing storyline
that we had against him that we just put everything in. ERIC ROGERS: On that June 10, Christopher
had an ultimatum that was provided to him by his girlfriend. And that was his last weekend, where
he had to do something with Karen in order to satisfy the ultimatum. NARRATOR: Through the CCTV at the Marina,
the court was shown LeClair taking his wife out into Lake Erie on their final trip.
[stirring music] ELIZABETH HIRZ: You are watching this video. This is the last day of her life.
He knows what's going to happen to her. This is the woman that you've been with for 27 years.
You hate her that much. NARRATOR: LeClair's text messages revealed what he did after killing Karen.
- He had just murdered his wife, and he's texting his mistress if he can pick up some beer to bring to the house,
if he could get some food. And he was that depraved that he was able to carry on a conversation with his mistress
while basically wrapping up his wife in an anchor to throw overboard. NARRATOR: The Doris-M's navigation system
was also used as evidence to show where Karen's body was dumped. - The GPS coordinates were very helpful to us
because we were able to see on Sunday, when he went back out, he went to the exact place
that he was the day before. And he was just circling that area. ERIC ROGERS: Because he wanted to make sure
her body hadn't come up, or there were any remnants that would indicate that her body was
in the water. NARRATOR: A tidal expert plotted out for the court the 50-mile journey.
Karen's body took after being dumped. [water sloshing] SARAH MORMINO: Especially in Lake Erie,
these tides and current conditions are not just on the top. There are several strong currents that flow
at the bottom of the lake. That would have resulted in her body being moved from her original position.
- Her body would have continued to move in an easterly direction towards Dunkirk, New York,
where it almost found in the waters. We were very fortunate that, you know, the lake surrendered Karen and gave us the answers we needed.
JOHN TRUCILLA: When you take a step back, it was overwhelming the amount of evidence
that solidified him as the murderer of Karen LeClair. NARRATOR: But even with the evidence stacked against him,
LeClair came up with an eyebrow-raising defense to explain how Karen died. - The new story was that he was up driving the boat.
He now hears a bang. He looks back. She's slumped over. She had shot herself. He runs to her.
She's slipping off the boat. He grabs her foot. The boat is still moving forward,
so he ties her feet up to make sure she doesn't drop any further. And then pulls her in, and then makes
a decision that it would be too much for her family to know that she killed herself.
JONI JOHNSTON: And so to preserve her reputation, he then wraps her in these ropes
and puts an anchor around her, and tosses her in to the ocean. It's pretty arrogant for him to feel like he can
completely change his story. And I think the arrogance is really in convincing himself
that he is so good at lying that he can actually concoct an alternative scenario, and that certainly
a jury is going to buy it. - He just couldn't stop lying. And the lies were just becoming more and more ridiculous.
And he just-- he wasn't going to stop. He still maintained that it was a suicide.
And the fact that he thought he could win is shocking. I was very excited when doing the closing argument
and felt very confident. And the jury was out about two hours. - The verdict came back in a relatively short period
of time, that Christopher was guilty of the death of his wife. [stirring music] - At the sentencing, I very profoundly recognize Karen
LeClair as the epitome of a selfless person trying to make a relationship work, and he did everything in his
power to make sure it didn't. - Judge Trucilla sentenced Christopher LeClair to life
without parole plus, I believe, three years on top of that for the tampering and abuse of a corpse.
[somber music] - His ego and his superior mentality that he thought he had over everybody
eventually did him in. ELIZABETH HIRZ: I'll never forget that experience. And knowing and learning what the water does
to someone buried into the water for her body to be torn up, and it just revictimizes her
in such a degrading manner. He wanted her gone. There's no way anybody could do that and
have anything in their heart but just darkness. JOHN TRUCILLA: When you lose a life as sweet and
loving as Karen, I believe my words at sentencing was, I thought the LeClair family and
her friends could take solace in that they had an angel looking over them. And that Karen was that angel.
[stirring music] [theme music]

A woman's husband reports her falling overboard into Lake Erie, but police don't buy his story.

In this chilling true crime series, detectives, pathologists and police divers work together to decode complex crime scenes where victims' bodies are discovered in water.

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Brief Summary

Christopher LeClair murdered his wife Karen, staged her drowning, and was convicted after evidence revealed the truth.

Key points

Body Discovered in Lake Erie. A family boating on Lake Erie discovers a body floating in the water, leading to a police investigation.
Karen LeClair Identified. The body found in Lake Erie is confirmed to be Karen LeClair, missing for three weeks.
Suspicion Surrounds Husband. Detectives investigate Christopher LeClair's claims after inconsistencies arise in his story.
Video Evidence Contradicts Story. Surveillance footage reveals Christopher returned without Karen the day before she was reported missing.
Affair Revealed. Investigators uncover Christopher's long-term affair, raising questions about his motives.
Christopher LeClair's Ultimatum. Tracy gave Christopher an ultimatum: leave his wife or lose her.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was very upsetting.

Describing the discovery of the body.

2:12WatchMar 28, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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