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Produced by Christopher Gidez
On August 28, 2017, police from the north of the state of Corning, in the state of New York, was called to Michele Neurauter's home. The police found the mother of three, aged 46, hanging on a rope – an apparent suicide. But police chief Jeff Spaulding had doubts, calling "a disturbing" rope mark found on Michele's chin.
Michele's mother, Jeanne Laundy, thought she had been murdered, and pointed to Neurauter's former husband, even though he was more than 2,500 km away on a job interview in California when Michele was found dead .
"I think it's more than likely that Lloyd has killed her," said Jeanne Laundy, "48 Hours" correspondent, Erin Moriarty.
Lloyd Neurauter was Michele's ex-husband. For five years, the couple had been involved in fierce guard battles. Michele accused Lloyd of having returned their daughters against her.
On the day the police found Michele, Karrie, the 19-year-old couple's daughter at Rochester College, told investigators that her father had helped her move into her apartment and that he had spent the night in a hotel. .
But when police checked the video of the hotel, they actually saw Lloyd get into Karrie's car with Karrie – who had visited him at the hotel. In the video, Lloyd does not return until the next morning.
The police quickly began listening to phone calls between father and daughter – and that is when the investigation turned as no one saw it coming.
"We simply do not have a case like this, where this level of invasive harm has an impact on a lifetime and results in such a horrific event," said Steuben County Attorney in New York. . Brooks Baker.
A broken family
On a cold day in January 2018, Lloyd Neurauter, 45, was surrounded by local police and state police five months after Michele's death.
RADIO POLICE: We are with a suspect on the top floor of the Spring Street garage.
D.A. Brooks Baker | Steuben County, N.Y.: He is on the fifth floor of a parking garage in Princeton, New Jersey, threatening to jump.
This was not supposed to end well. Almost 30 years ago, in 1989, Lloyd, 16, fell in love with former classmate Michele Laundy.
Jeanne Laundy: They were going to the same high school. And she was a graduate and we told her that she could invite friends, and … she invited Lloyd.
Michele's mother, Jeanne Laundy, remembers how quickly the relationship developed.
Erin Moriarty: How did she feel for him?
Jeanne Laundy: Oh, she was falling in love.
Two years later, in 1991, Michele and Lloyd tied the knot.
The newlyweds went to the university.
Michele gave birth to a daughter and two years later, a second child, Karrie.
Jeanne Laundy
The family has settled in the community of Corning, in the upstate of New York State.
D.A. Brooks Baker: This is the kind of place where many people still do not lock their doors.
Corning is a quaint family place, best known as the headquarters of Fortune 500, Corning Glass. Lloyd worked there as an engineer. Michele gave birth to a third daughter and she did school at home for the kids.
Later, she would teach at a local college.
Mina Raj: She was an English teacher when I met her. She was very good at reading and writing … and … she always really encouraged her daughters to express herself and to instruct herself.
Mina Raj met Neurauter's second daughter, Karrie, in ballet class.
The two quickly became linked.
Mina Raj: All our families of dancers were very close.
Her mother, Cynthia, will become one of Michele's closest friends
Erin MoriartyWhen did you meet Michele for the first time?
Cynthia Raj: I first met Lloyd, because he would bring the children to class, dance lessons … he would get his hair done … and the mothers were rather enamored of him.
Mina Raj: I thought that he was a really amazing person. He is very charismatic, is very careful.
But while Mina was spending more time with Karrie, she was worried about Lloyd's dominant parenting style.
Mina Raj: Sometimes I called my mother and told her that I worried about the severity of her discipline, for very little things. It was a bit like you had never known when he would take a picture. … and if he decided that he was angry with one of them, he would call them, shouting "in front of the center". … make them kneel in front of everyone.
Cynthia Raj: The first time I saw that … Karrie was very close to me and I could see, physically see her body shaking
Mina Raj: I saw them slap them.
Erin Moriarty: Slap? On the face?
Mina Raj: On the face, yes.
Erin Moriarty: Would he do things to Michele?
Jeanne LaundyHe would put it … with a smile on his face.
And then, towards Thanksgiving 2007, Michele suddenly cut ties with her parents. His mother thought Lloyd was behind the rift.
Erin Moriarty: What do you think happened?
Jeanne Laundy: I think he's threatened her either to harm the kids … or to harm her.
Cynthia Raj: She said, "Cynthia … it's Lloyd who made me cut off with them." He did not want her to have a place to go if she wanted to leave.
But that is Lloyd who left the next year. In 2008, he took a new job in New Jersey, leaving Michele and the kids in Corning.
Cynthia Raj: Once gone, Michele seemed to be a different person.
Erin Moriarty: Better?
Cynthia Raj: Better, she seemed much more relaxed.
Susan Betzjitomir was Michele's attorney.
Susan Betzjitomir: Her husband had asked for a divorce. Michele was surprised that he was filing for divorce, she was a stay-at-home mom, she had done everything she thought she could do to make him happy, as well as the family.
And in 2013, after the couple's divorce, Michele moved into a new house with girls. And that's when the real problem started. Lloyd wanted sole custody of the children.
Susan Betzjitomir: Lloyd was relentless in the use of the judicial system to harass Michele. … it never ended.
Susan Betzjitomir: There were 26 separate sets of deposits after the divorce.
Erin Moriarty: And how unusual is this?
Susan Betzjitomir: This is super unusual. If you have two or three, that's a lot. To be 26 years old is amazing.
Erin Moriarty: And what was he chasing for? What were these deposits used for?
Susan Betzjitomir: He continuously filed claims against Michele … Lloyd was trying to get out of the alimony.
And Michele accused Lloyd of trying to turn the children against her. The eldest daughter was already living with Lloyd and Karrie had gone to college.
Susan Betzjitomir: Karrie was … at the RIT, she was ready to graduate in another year.
But Lloyd continued to fight for the care of their youngest child, then 14 years old. "48 hours" we agreed not to show recent pictures of her.
D.A. Brooks Baker: I think that anyone who worked in a courthouse had heard of the Neurauter case, this husband and his wife were going there all the time. … so it's one of those cases that everyone has heard about, about the water cooler or in a bar, and the name has been quoted. It was one of those cases that did not leave.
But in late August 2017, Lloyd did something unusual. Betzjitomir has received a text from Michele:
Susan Betzjitomir [reading text to Moriarty]: He says: "I'm in shock, Lloyd did not show up for his exclusive custody application … He did not withdraw, he did not ask for It has not responded to phone calls, nor to court e-mails, nothing …
Erin Moriarty: It's unusual for him to know how many of these filings he has made
Susan Betzjitomir: It was very unusual. It was very unusual. It was unthinkable, really.
Due to the absence of Lloyd, the case was closed. Michele seemed relieved and happy.
Susan Betzjitomir: It was summer and she had a mutual friend and the kids were sliding on big blocks of ice on a grassy hill.
Two days later, on Monday, August 28, 2017, a family friend came for the 14-year-old swimmer from Neurauter for swimming. Instantly, he knew that something was really wrong:
OPERATOR 911: 911 Center.
CALLING: There is something strange happening at our friend 's house. … I thought I saw the mother standing in the staircase, but she is motionless.
Corning Police Sergeant Jon McDivitt was the first to answer Michele's home that afternoon.
Erin Moriarty: Agree. So, tell me what you did.
Sgt. Jon McDivitt [outside Michele’s house]: So, I went to the front door here. And through these three windows, I could see inside. … and I could see a woman lying at the bottom of the stairs. … opened the door. A dog ran out. I came running … And as I got closer, I could see … There was a rope around his neck. … There was no pulse. She was cold and stiff to the touch.
Jeanne Laundy
He found the death of Michele Neurauter, 46 years old.
Erin Moriarty: So, your first thought when you saw it was what?
Sgt. Jon McDivitt: There seems to be a suicide by hanging.
But Corning's chief of police, Jeff Spaulding, was not so sure.
Erin Moriarty: Because you could not understand how she had a mark here [gestures a U shape around her chin].
Chief Jeff Spaulding: No, I did not like it, it was disturbing. it seemed that – someone … had gone back and threw a rope on his neck and pulled himself down to cause that.
In addition, Michele's youngest child – the 14-year-old athlete at the heart of the battle for the guard and supposed to be taken for swimming – was nowhere to be found.
D.A. Brooks Baker: Obviously, the number of possible negative results is huge.
A FRANTIC SEARCH
Lieutenant Jeff Heverly | Corning Police Department: I said … "did we check, you know, the basements? Did we check the attics? Did we check the garages?"
In the hours following the arrival of the police at Michele Neurauter, a frenzied search was opened.
Lieutenant Jeff Heverly could not find his 14-year-old daughter
Lieutenant Jeff Heverly: She should have been around. I knew she lived with Mom.
Later that day, he received a phone call:
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: That's Lieutenant Heverly. Can I help you?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Hello. I'm calling Karrie.
It was Karrie Neurauter, 19, the middle child of Michele:
KARRIE NEURAUTER: My friends called me earlier today and told me about my mother and that she – [sobbing]– I am sorry.
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: It's good. Take your time.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: They called and told me that my mother was hanged [sobbing].
Karrie told the officer that his younger sister was safe:
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: and … is still with you now?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yes, she is in my apartment.
She was close to 100 miles with Karrie in Rochester, New York.
Jeanne Laundy
Karrie then explained to Heverly how it had happened. She had returned to Corning late Saturday night to spend one last night in her room at home:
KARRIE NEURAUTER: … When I arrived, my mother started to panic. She would panic a lot.
Karrie said her mother was furious with her, accusing her of having sided with her father in the family court fights:
KARRIE NEURAUTER: And then she started to panic and scream. … and she woke up … my little sister.
Karrie says that she decided to leave by taking her younger sister with her.
Lieutenant Jeff Heverly: She claimed that … she was worried about her younger sister, so she took her … to the outside, put her in the car … and then drove her to Rochester.
Jeanne Laundy
While the police were relieved that Michele's youngest was safe, Karrie's story made no sense. Why would Michele be so upset the very day she celebrated her victory at court? Those who knew Michele best could not believe that she would commit suicide.
Susan Betzjitomir: I never believed it … She was determined to succeed in her life and she did it.
Cynthia Raj: She had a good job … and it was not the place of her life where she would have committed suicide after all the very difficult years that she had lived.
While it seemed that Michele had been hanged, there was this strange mark of ligature on her chin. While the police were waiting for the results of the autopsy …
Chief Jeff Spaulding: I thought we would get accurate results. They would say, "Yeah, 100% it's a homicide." Or, "Yeah, 100%, it's a suicide."
But the conclusion of the medical examiner surprised them.
D.A. Brooks Baker: And they tell us, "Undecided, indeterminate causality."
Michele's mother did not need an autopsy to tell him what had happened.
Jeanne Laundy: I did not believe that she had committed suicide.
Mina Raj
She immediately thought of the murder – and a name reminded me.
Jeanne Laundy: I think it's more than likely that Lloyd killed him, but I did not understand how, since he had an alibi.
Lloyd Neurauter was in California more than 500 km away for a job interview, when the police found Michele 's body:
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: How long has it been in California?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Since yesterday.
Karrie told the investigators everything:
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: Was he in Corning at all yesterday?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: No. He helped me take me to my apartment on Saturday.
LT. JEFF HEVERLY: D & # 39; AGREEMENT.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: But he was not in Corning.
Even though Lloyd was not in Corning, he had been close – about 100 miles away.
D.A. Brooks Baker: So, suddenly … he only has an hour left and changes to Rochester.
Karrie says that after his father helped him move into his Rochester apartment on Saturday, he spent the night in a hotel and flew to California the next day. He was still there when his family announced the death of Michele. He returned to the east and, after 36 hours, went to the Steuben County Family Court.
D.A. Brooks BakerHe came … to extinguish his alimony and alimony.
Erin Moriarty: C & # 39; is the first place he went when he learned that his ex-wife had been suicidal?
D.A. Brooks Baker: This is correct.
The police caught up with him in court:
[Police Video]
LLOYD NEURAUTER [walking up to Volpe’s car]: Hello, investigator Volpe?
INVESTIGATOR JAMES VOLPE: Hey, how are you?
LLOYD NEURAUTER: Good. Just be careful about how I approach a car. I do not want to surprise anyone.
VOLUME INVESTIGATOR: No problem.
D.A. Brooks Baker: They sit in the car of the investigators, spend a video interview and talk for a long time.
[[[[Police video]
VOLPE: Investigator, when did you get divorced?
LLOYD NEURAUTER: We divorced in August 2012.
Lloyd is serenely echoing Karrie's story. In the hours leading up to Michele's death, he was in Rochester helping Karrie move into his apartment:
[[[[Police video]
LLOYD NEURAUTER: I'll check at Microtel.
Lloyd says that he arrived at this hotel on Saturday. The surveillance cameras of the hotel support it. Karrie came for a moment. A dark video of the car park then shows Karrie and him heading for his car:
[[[[Police video]
LLOYD NEURAUTER: I accompanied her to the car.
INVESTIGATOR VOLPE: So what? You come back to the hotel?
LLOYD NEURAUTER [Nods to affim]Yeah. … I invited her to lunch the next morning.
And at 7 am the next morning, cameras show Karrie arriving for breakfast, accompanied by her 14-year-old sister.
Erin Moriarty: And you also checked his phone. Where was this phone during this period?
Chief Jeff Spaulding: Checked his phone. … This corroborates what Karrie told us. This dad stayed at the hotel.
But the video of the hotel tells a different story. When Lloyd drove Karrie to his car that night, we can see him getting in the car with her and then going away. And the video does not show it back that night. So while Lloyd's phone was in the hotel room all night, where was Lloyd? The investigators had to question, especially when they watched the video of the hotel the next morning.
Chief Jeff Spaulding: We do not see Lloyd all night … and here it is 6:30 in the morning … and here he goes past the camera, he crosses the parking lot and heads for his vehicle. … He always seems to wear the same clothes as the night before. … Lloyd's story is that he stayed in the hotel room all night, the video shows no.
The police were now certain. Lloyd was lying to them. They dug deeper – in search of a motive.
D.A. Brooks Baker: He was not in a good financial situation. Lloyd … had … over $ 100,000 in credit card debt … and he was paying almost $ 6,000 a month to his ex-wife.
Baker says that after Michele's death, Lloyd tried to recover Michele's life insurance, for a payment of $ 260,000. They suspected Lloyd of killing Michele and Karrie could cover him.
D.A. Brooks BakerSo, we … decide to wiretap on Lloyd and Karrie's phones.
[Wiretap audio]
KARRIE NEURAUTER: I panic.
LLOYD NEURAUTER: Me too.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Oh, I do not know what to do. I do not know what to do. I do not know what to do.
AN INFATHOMABLE ULTIMATUM
In the fall of 2017, just over two months after the death of Michele Neurauter, the Corning police began listening to Lloyd and Karrie Neurauter's phone calls:
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Hello?
LLOYD NEURAUTER: Hi, darling, how's your training going so far?
KRRIE NEURAUTER: Oh, that's good.
LLOYD NEURAUTER: Very good.
Chief Jeff Spalding: We did not get on the wire until mid-November. It had arrived late August early September. So it had been two months and we did not say much. So, in order to refresh things, we did what we call "tickling the wire".
Tickle the thread. It's a familiar trick to cops who work in drug cases. An investigator calls Karrie to tell him that he has any other questions. Corning Chief of Police, Jeff Spaulding, played the recording of "48 Hours:"
VOLPE: Hi, is it Karrie Neurauter?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yes, that's it.
INVESTIGATOR VOLPE: OK, that's the investigator Volpe with Corning PD … Uh, well, the reason I called … I did not know if you were going to be there if you had time to meet me. … or what time you could … come to my place?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yeah … I should be able to meet you on Monday if you are available?
VOLUME INVESTIGATOR: D & # 39; AGREEMENT.
After hanging up with the police, Karrie quickly calls his father:
D.A. Brooks Baker: As we hoped, the next call is to Lloyd, telling him: "What am I doing?"
LLOYD NEURAUTER: What did you tell him exactly?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: I do not know.
D.A. Brooks Baker: And Lloyd says, "Oh, it's probably just fit, do not worry about that." But then he says, and that's where he puts our doubts aside, he says … "I do not think I want you to talk to them."
LLOYD NEURAUTER: Tell them, "I'm sorry, I have an appointment for a consultation in New Jersey tonight" … and tell them it has been very hard for you.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yes.
LLOYD NEURAUTER [laughing]: Could you cry?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: I could.
LLOYD NEURAUTER: My God, it would be nice if it was just finished.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: That would be the dream.
Erin Moriarty: Why lie?
D.A. Brooks Baker Exactly. Why do not you sit down with the investigator, spend 20 minutes and tell the same story you already have.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Well, if it was something more serious, I guess it would have people coming after me anyway, right?
LLOYD NEURAUTER [laughing]: Yes, he would not ask you to come by the main door. He said, "I have a warrant."
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yes.
LLOYD NEURAUTER: So that can not be that.
The police are clearly suspicious. But with this indefinite autopsy retaining the case, the D.A. asked a private forensic doctor to take a fresh look and finally confirm whether Michele had been murdered.
D.A. Brooks Baker: We take all the pictures of the autopsy … we take all the findings, the documentation of the evidence, and we will sit down with him.
Steuben County Office
There was no body to examine because Lloyd had cremated Michele's remains. But the pathologist saw this rope mark on Michele's chin and a petechial haemorrhage in his eyes.
D.A. Brooks Baker: He then goes on to something else, as the doctors do in silence, and says, "It's a homicide."
Michele Neurauter was strangled to death. The police came out to confront Lloyd and Karrie.
Erin Moriarty: I mean, at this point, you think Lloyd is the leader.
D.A. Brooks Baker: No question.
Erin Moriarty: Did you think that if Karrie Neurauter was involved, she would be the weakest link?
Chief Jeff Spaulding: I thought that she would be the weakest link … You put her in an interview room without dad, without her cell phone, and you did an interview with her, I thought that would she would be the first to give.
On January 24, 2018, five months after Michele's death, two investigators went to the Lloyd's office in New Jersey. At the same time, two state police officers found Karrie at his university internship in Syracuse, New York.
Erin Moriarty: Was this your Hail Mary pass? Was it that?
Chief Jeff SpauldingYeah. That's what we considered the day of the match
The investigators announce the news to Lloyd.
D.A. Brooks Baker: And they say, "Lloyd, listen … we have to tell you something … the forensic doctor ruled that it was a homicide."
INVESTIGATOR: Were you there that night?
LLOYD NEURAUTER: No. Rochester.
INVESTIGATOR: And so that night, you spent the night in your hotel room?
LLOYD NEURAUTER: [nods to affirm]
INVESTIGATOR: OK.
Chief Jeff Spaulding: And they suggested that "damn it, Lloyd, maybe you want to take a test at the lie detector."
Chief Jeff Spaulding: And to my surprise, he said, "Of course." So, they told them how to get to a police station in New Jersey … where we had a polygraph operator already on guard.
Lloyd seemed confident in his innocence. Two hundred miles away in Syracuse, Karrie was anything but.
Erin MoriartyKarrie cracks.
D.A. Brooks Baker: Karrie cracks
[Police audio]
KARRIE NEURAUTER [whispers]My father came with me on Saturday night.
He was there. Hardly a whisper, on a police audio recording, Karrie admits that his father went to his mother's house with her that night. And she helped him stay undetected:
MARK PROCOPIO, INVESTIGATOR: … you enter through the main door of the house. Do you want to tell me at this point? Where was mom?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: She was at the top of the stairs, so she saw my dad come in and then they started arguing, so he went upstairs. And they were arguing in his room.
Karrie said her mother stopped screaming and everything became very calm. At first, she told the New York State Police that she did not know why. But then she admits:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [sobbing]: I saw my mother.
Investigator Mark Procopio: Did you see your mother?
Investigator ALLISON REGAN: Yeah. We know you did it, darling
Investigator Mark Procopio: We know you have done it.
ALLISON REGAN, INVESTIGATOR: We know you did, darling.
KARRIE NEURAUTER [sobbing]: I saw it.
ALLISON REGAN, INVESTIGATOR: This is good. All is well, darling. We know.
KARRIE NEURAUTER: I just left her there.
MARK PROCOPIO: OK. When you saw her, was she still alive?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: No.
Chief Jeff Spaulding: it was one of those sacred cow moments. It was like "wow".
The investigators then took Karrie to a police station. They wanted the whole story on video. She says her father came to see her a week before the murder.
D.A. Brooks Baker: She says Dad came to see her … and said … I can not afford to pay your mother. There is no way out. … I have to kill myself. I'm sorry, you have to go without me, or I have plan B here!
KARRIE NEURAUTER: … who was killing my mother. … and … I had to choose!
Investigator Mark Procopio: Did he choose you?
KARRIE NEURAUTER: Yes.
Lloyd gave Karrie an unfathomable ultimatum:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: And, basically, he was going to kill himself, uh, or there was this way of … making sure that he was not killing himself …
Elle dit que Lloyd a exposé son plan. Ils le feraient ressembler à un suicide:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators, sobbing]: Il allait mettre une serviette dans sa bouche, alors elle resterait tranquille, puis mettre la corde autour de son cou et l'étrangler.
Karrie dit qu'elle est restée en bas, veillant sur sa sœur cadette endormie dans le salon:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: Et mon père est monté dans la chambre de ma mère et elle m'a dit: "Qu'est-ce que tu fais? Quoi," comme: "Pourquoi es-tu ici?" Et alors, elle criait. Et elle était comme, "Pourquoi? Pourquoi?" [cries].
La commotion réveilla la soeur de Karrie:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: Oui, elle s'est réveillée, alors j'ai dû la sortir de là. … Je paniquais. Je ne savais pas ce qui se passait… et je me suis dit «Oh mon Dieu». … Et puis je l'ai mise dans ma voiture.
Quand Lloyd a eu fini, il se faufila à l'arrière de la maison et se dirigea vers le hayon arrière de la voiture de Karrie. Selon Karrie, sa sœur âgée de 14 ans n'a jamais su que son père était là.
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: Et je me suis dit: "OK, allons-y." Et puis nous sommes allés fermer la trappe. Et nous sommes en route pour Rochester.
Jeanne Laundy
La police était maintenant prête à arrêter Lloyd. Le seul problème – il ne s'est jamais présenté à ce test polygraphique. Il avait disparu.
Erin Moriarty: Ils l'ont perdu.
Chef Jeff Spaulding: Ils l'ont perdu, mais Lloyd avait toujours son téléphone et nous étions toujours connectés au téléphone de Lloyd… Nous savions que son téléphone était quelque part au centre-ville de Princeton.
Ils ont réussi à le retrouver dans un parking municipal. Et là, sur le toit, Lloyd Neurauter.
Chef Jeff Spaulding: Lorsque les policiers sont intervenus pour confronter Lloyd et le prendre, il a sauté sur le rail et a menacé de sauter du garage de cinq étages pour se suicider.
KARRIE A-T-ELLE ÉTÉ LAVÉE?
Lloyd Neurauter a tenu la police à distance pendant deux heures. Quand il lui tourna le dos, ils firent leur déménagement.
Chef Jeff Spaulding: Ce soldat d'État du New Jersey qui a joué au football quelque part, a fait un sprint de 10 mètres et l'a simplement aplati, l'a attaqué.
POLICE AUDIO: Delta 22… 9-9-3… Nous en avons un en détention. Un en détention.
Lloyd was arrested and charged with first-degree murder of his ex-wife Michele Neurauter. Their daughter, Karrie — who police believed had been manipulated by Lloyd – faced second-degree murder charges for helping her father get into the house that night.
Erin Moriarty: What was your reaction when you heard that?
Jeanne Laundy: Not, Karrie. … not Karrie.
In February 2018, District Attorney Brooks Baker began preparations to face off in a courtroom.
D.A. Brooks Baker [in war room]: This became essentially our nerve center, our war room for the trial.
Erin Moriarty: This is not typical for the cases you usually try here.
D.A. Brooks Baker: No. Even a murder case, usually we can survive in a box or two, but to go four or five boxes … is demonstrative how much material there was here.
CBS News
Erin Moriarty [pointing to a photo of Michele on the wall]: There's a reason why you have that up there, don't you?
D.A. Brooks Baker: Yeah. … This is Michele's — the final day of Michele's life.
Erin Moriarty: It is?
D.A. Brooks Baker: It is. … This is the Saturday she was murdered … This is a good day for them they went icing. And … they got … You can't really see it, but they're on great, big ice blocks. This reminds us why we're doing it. Because this lady's not here to have another day like this.
Baker knows his odds of convicting Lloyd will greatly increase if he can convince Karrie to testify against her father.
D.A. Brooks Baker: And she is looking at 15 years-to-life if she cooperates with the understanding that if she does not cooperate and is not truthful at trial she'll face 25 years-to-life.
Corning Police Department
It takes Karrie, sitting in a jail cell, a couple of weeks to decide. She agrees to testify against her father and plead guilty. But then, during an interview with investigators, she surprises everyone, with a new detail:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: He opened the door and … My mom was laying on the floor. And he said he needed my help lifting her.
Admitting for the first time she had an even bigger role helping her father cover up the murder:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: We dragged her around the corner, and he tied the rope to the one prong of the bannister, and lifted her up and put, threw [sobbing] her over the side — sorry.
INVESTIGATOR: That's OK.
Chief Jeff Spaulding: She laid her hands on her mother and felt her mother's cold dead body. … That's pretty hard-core. This is the woman that gave you life, and you maybe didn't directly take her life, but you helped the individual that did.
It was so hard to understand. How could a child do this to her mother? Could Lloyd really have manipulated Karrie into this?
D.A. Brooks Baker: And I had that same problem. … and even as we were preparing for trial … I said, "Karrie, you're going to be asked that question. … There was a moment when your father says to you, "It's either I have to kill mom or I kill myself and you have to help me… And those are the only two choices. And why?"
Erin Moriarty: She's a smart girl … She could've said no.
D.A. Brooks Baker: Well, and you know, all those folks in Jonestown could have said, "We're not going to drink the Kool-Aid."
Erin Moriarty: You think she was brainwashed?
D.A. Brooks Baker: I really think she was brainwashed. We found out that there is a definition for what he was doing.
Erin Moriarty: And are you talking about parental alienation?
D.A. Brooks Baker: Yes, I am.
Parental alienation. It's when one parent consistently bad mouths the other in front of their children. And it's something Michele worried about. In fact, in court documents filed in the years preceding her death, Michele actually accuses Lloyd of turning Karrie against her. The district attorney thinks that's exactly what happened.
Erin Moriarty: But I could understand how you could cause your children to dislike the other parent, but to kill … that other parent? That seems like a step too far.
D.A. Brooks Baker: I don't think it's causing dislike, that's not what this parental alienation — it causes them to absolutely devalue them as people.
Case in point: two years before her death, Michele was backing out of her driveway while Karrie bickered with her and tried to block her car from leaving. Friends say, Lloyd then convinced Karrie that Michele tried to run her over. Karrie even called police on her mother. And while charges didn't stick —
Susan Betzjitomir: If you can brainwash your daughter into thinking that her inching out of the driveway … was your mother trying to run you over, then, "Well, she tried to kill you, so it's OK for you to help try and kill her."
And when Lloyd later gave Karrie that ultimatum:
KARRIE NEURAUTER [to investigators]: So basically, he was gonna kill himself, um, or there was this way to … so he wouldn't kill himself, umm which was killing my mom.
The D.A. says Karrie felt she had no choice but to choose her father over her mother. But would the jury believe it? As Lloyd's trial approached, the D.A. was determined to paint a picture of Karrie as Lloyd's pawn. But Lloyd had his own plans.
Erin Moriarty: Is his defense gonna be that she did it?
D.A. Brooks Baker: It has to be.
LLOYD SURPRISES EVERYONE
Erin Moriarty: How much were you looking forward to trying Lloyd Neurauter for murder?
D.A. Brooks Baker: You never look forward to a trial because it means 90 hours of work every week … This one I wanted to try. I wanted everybody to see who Lloyd was, and for Michele's sake, to see what he had done to her
The evidence against Lloyd Neurauter was circumstantial. All the district attorney had was Karrie's word, and the jury might not believe her story. What he needed was physical evidence linking Lloyd to the murder of his ex-wife Michele.
Steuben County D.A.'s Office
D.A. Brooks Baker: We took Michele's clothes, we had them re-examined by the state police, looking for touch DNA … When we got done, what we found was Lloyd's DNA … had contact with Michele's clothing — the pajamas she was wearing the night she was murdered.
Prosecutors gave Lloyd the damning news and a final opportunity to come clean.
D.A. Brooks Baker: We made to him an offer I sort of expected he would never, ever accept. He had to plead guilty as charged to first-degree murder … he would face a sentence of … 25 years-to-life with the possibility the judge can sentence him to life without parole.
Just two weeks before trial …
Erin Moriarty: So, what did Lloyd decide to do?
D.A. Brooks Baker: He decided to plead guilty.
Steuben County D.A.'s Office
As part of his plea deal, Lloyd had to recount his role in the murder. But when it came time to take personal responsibility …
D.A. Brooks Baker: I thought we were gonna go bad from minute one, 'cause he starts off blaming Michele.
There were no cameras in the courtroom. But Lloyd tells the judge he killed Michele because he believed she might hurt their children.
Jeanne Laundy: That would be Lloyd, blame everybody else, blame the victim.
D.A. Brooks Baker: But then, he sort of said, "But that doesn't matter. I have no excuse. Murder is wrong." And, and he went through and allocuted line by line of what he did.
In the end, Lloyd fulfilled his end of the plea deal, admitting he planned and carried out the homicide and that he manipulated Karrie into helping him.
Erin Moriarty: So what should happen to him?
Jeanne Laundy: I want him to have life in prison. I don't want him to ever get out, and never hurt my grandchildren again. He has an evil mind.
Michele's mother, Jeanne Laundy, spent days writing a statement she hopes will persuade the judge to give Lloyd a stiff sentence. She read it to "48 Hours:"
Jeanne Laundy [reading]: Lloyd Neurauter abused and tortured my daughter for 25 years. … He coerced his own daughter into helping him kill her mother … Karrie is now in jail … facing the possibility of years in prison … Lloyd Neurauter should never be given the opportunity to harm anyone again. Please, Your Honor, give him life without parole.
And that's exactly what the judge would do.
REPORTER: What do you think about what happened today? The outcome?
JEANNE LAUNDY: I'm so overjoyed, so happy. Life without parole. … And Michele got justice.
But there was still the matter of Karrie, and what price should she pay for her mother's death.
Erin Moriarty: That's a harder one isn't it?
Jeanne Laundy: That's a hard one. I don't believe she should go to prison. … I think that she needs psychiatric help. I think she needs a lot of therapy,
District Attorney Brooks Baker would agree. Karrie needed therapy, but he didn't think that would be enough.
D.A. Brooks Baker: She has to pay a price. She has to serve a sanction. I think for her own sanity, she needs to serve some penance.
Remember, Karrie initially pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, a charge that could put her in prison for 15 years. But the D.A. supported a decision allowing her to now plead guilty to a lesser charge, second-degree manslaughter. Laundy again wrote to the judge:
Jeanne Laundy [reading letter]: I always ask myself, "What would Michele want me to do?" I do not believe my daughter, Michele, would want a long prison sentence for her daughter. … She would want her to eventually lead a happy life.
Jeanne Laundy
And the judge would be lenient — very lenient. Karrie Neurauter was sentenced one to three years in a state prison. It's a huge relief to Laundy. With time served, Karrie may not be locked up for very long. And when Karrie's released, Laundy plans to tell her and her two sisters all about Michele and just how much she loved them.
Jeanne Laundy: She knew that she had lost them … the two oldest. And she wanted them to be happy, and she hoped that someday they would realize what was done and come back to her and see how hard she fought … for them to have a good life. … She wanted to live a beautiful life, to have a beautiful life, and for them to be happy.
Shortly after her sentencing in December 2018, Karrie Neurauter went before the parole board. Her parole application was denied.
She will be eligible to apply again in February 2020.
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