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MICKI Kanesaki was murdered while on a cruise in May 2006.
Her case is the subject of a Dateline episode that premiered on Sunday, May 14, 2023.
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What happened to Micki Kanesaki?
In May 2006, Kanesaki went on a cruise with her ex-husband, Lonnie Loren Kocontes — a former Irvine, California lawyer.
As reported by NBC Los Angeles, Kanesaki’s body was found by the crew of a research vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy on May 28, 2006.
The 52-year-old had been strangled to death.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said Kanesaki’s autopsy showed that her lungs “were completely free of water” and she had “severe hemorrhaging around her neck,” which was “consistent with strangulation.”
The publication also reported that, according to Price, Dr. Pietrantonio Ricci told authorities that Kanesaki also suffered a skull fracture or hemorrhaging in her brain.
Who killed Micki Kanesaki?
As NBC Los Angeles reported, on Friday, September 18, 2020, Kocontes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering Kanesaki and “throwing her body overboard while on a Mediterranean cruise to solve his financial disputes with the victim.”
On June 15, 2020, Kocontes was convicted of murder “with a special-circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.”
Following the September 2020 verdict, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Kocontes “almost got away with the perfect crime” when talking to reporters, as per NBC Los Angeles.
The outlet continued: “He said the defendant strangled the victim before throwing her overboard, so there was no way for her lungs to fill up with water and the body floated instead of sinking, allowing it to be found.”
Spitzer said Kocontes chose the cruise ship because each room “had a direct drop” to the sea.
Before the murder, Kocontes was living in Safety Harbor, Florida.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Price said Kocontes and Kanesaki met while they were both employed at the same Los Angeles law firm. He was working as an attorney, while she was a paralegal.
Price said the pair got married in 1995 before divorcing in 2002 “but continued living together in Ladera Ranch and took steps to split up their assets to protect him from threatened litigation.”
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According to the publication, Price said that in 2002, Kocontes met a woman named Amy Nguyen through a dating website and that they had an intimate relationship while Kocontes continued living with Kanesaki, who at first “had no idea this affair was happening.”
Per the outlet, Price said Kocontes wed Nguyen in Las Vegas in 2005 and the two began living together in Orange. She then said that in September 2005, Kocontes filed a motion in court to have a judge force Kanesaki to sell their Ladera Ranch home.
She said: “There was a dispute between the two whose house this was.”
Price noted that Kanesaki did not want to sell the house or move elsewhere.
NBC Los Angeles continued: “Eventually, Kocontes dropped the issue, left Nguyen and moved back in with Kanesaki, but told Nguyen he loved her and did not want to leave her, the prosecutor said.
“Kocontes then had new wills drawn up for himself and Kanesaki, according to Price, who said Kocontes was named as executor of his ex-wife’s estate.
Following the cruise and murder, Nguyen spoke with police.
As stated by the outlet: “Nguyen told investigators that at some point, Kocontes told her that he paid his friend Price to kill Kanesaki and hurl her overboard, according to the prosecutor, who said the friend did not go on the cruise.
“Nguyen lied to a federal grand jury in 2006 that was investigating the killing, Price alleged.”
It continued: “While federal agents were looking into the death, Kocontes at some point talked Nguyen into removing a hard drive from one of his computers in his Irvine office, Price said.
“She lied to the federal grand jury because Kocontes threatened to kill her and make it look like an accident, Price alleged.”
As NBC Los Angeles also reported, Kocontes was charged with “attempting to solicit the murder” of Nguyen while he was in prison.
However, prosecutors “moved to dismiss that case” since Kocontes was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
How can I watch the Dateline episode about Micki Kanesaki?
The Dateline episode about Kanesaki’s murder premiered on Sunday, May 14, 2023, at 7pm ET, 6pm CT on NBC.
It will later be available for streaming on Peacock.
The @DatelineNBC Twitter account shared multiple previews ahead of the TV program’s debut.
On May 13, it tweeted a video preview, along with the words: “It was just two days into the cruise when the trip took an awful turn… The full story Sunday on a classic #Dateline mystery at 7/6c.”
Josh Mankiewicz reported on the episode.
