Love and Death in Alaska (Parts 1 & 2) | "48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

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

The cold truth in a crime of money, power and sex. Now, another death turns this murder case on its ear. "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Susan Spencer reports in this two-part episode from December 2015. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode examines Kent Lepink's murder, focusing on Michelle Hughes and John Carlin's involvement amid complex relationships and manipulations.

Key points

Love and Death in Alaska. A complex murder investigation unfolds in Alaska, revealing layers of deceit and relationships.
The Chameleon of Relationships. Michelle Hughes captivates men, leading to a web of engagements and ultimately, murder.
A Letter from Beyond. Kent's haunting letter reveals his fears and names potential suspects in his murder.
Michelle's Reinvention. After leaving Alaska, Michelle reinvented herself, earning a master's degree and marrying a doctor.
The Sey Shell's Email. Investigators find an email suggesting Michelle was considering fleeing to the Sey Shells.
The Hope Note. Prosecutors claim a fabricated note lured Kent to his death, implicating Michelle and Carlin.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It hurts me that the family would think that I did it.

Michelle expresses her pain over the accusations against her.

4:13WatchJun 18, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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