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A divorced mother of three daughters, Michele Neurauter, was found hanging in her Corning, New York home in August 2017. Her death was initially ruled a suicide, but suspicious ligature marks and scratches on the victim's face suggested otherwise. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be asphyxia.
The investigation later revealed that Michele was strangled to death by her ex-husband, Lloyd Neurauter, with whom she was once embroiled in a protracted custody battle over their youngest daughter. She got the custody, and the former was asked to pay child support and alimony.
Additionally, Lloyd manipulated their second daughter Karrie into helping him carry out the crime. He gave the teenager an ultimatum and asked her to drive him to Michele's house. Karie then helped him stage the scene to make it appear like a suicide.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen chronicles Michele Neurauter's murder case in an episode titled The Ultimatum. The synopsis of the episode states:
"Michele and Lloyd Neurauter are devoted to their three daughters, even after their divorce; when Michele is found dead in her home, police suspect she killed herself; then, they uncover a deadly betrayal too twisted to be true -- except it is true."
The upcoming episode will air on the channel this Tuesday, May 23, at 8 pm ET.
Michele Neurauter was found dead of an apparent suicide but had strange ligature marks and scratches on her face
When Michele Neurauter's neighbor contacted 911 on August 28, 2017, to report that the mother-of-three was standing still at the bottom of stairs at her home, police in Corning, New York, encountered a twisted family conspiracy while looking into the apparent suicide.
New York State police entered the residence, where they discovered 46-year-old Michele "laying at the bottom of the stairs" with "a rope around her neck." They reported that "there was no pulse. She was cold and stiff to the touch," as per CBS.
Authorities believed "she had been hung," and the incident appeared to be a suicide, at least at first. They soon found odd ligature marks and scratches on the victim's face. The cause of death was initially declared asphyxia, but the manner of death remained undetermined. The autopsy also revealed that she died on the night of August 26 or the following morning.
Moreover, investigators couldn't find Michele Neurauter's 14-year-old daughter, who resided with her, anywhere. They only learned of her whereabouts when the victim's second daughter, Karrie, 19, informed them that she had her younger sister Charlotte at her apartment nearly 100 miles away in Rochester, New York, where she was a student at Rochester Institute of Technology.
According to Oxygen, Karrie told the police that she was at Michele's Corning home the night before when her mother allegedly accused her of always taking her father's side. She claimed she then took Charlotte to her dorm room.
Karrie further said that her mother and father, Llyod Neurauter, were "in a crummy marriage, followed by a bitter divorce, followed by a long legal battle." Michele reportedly spent five years in a prolonged custody battle with her ex-husband over their youngest daughter, Charlotte. Lloyd eventually lost custody of Charlotte and was ordered to pay child support.
Michele Neurauter's murder investigation revealed a twisted plot, a brainwashed daughter, and an ultimatum
Suspecting the involvement of Michele Neurauter's former husband, Lloyd, investigators questioned him, and he told them he was in upstate New York on the night of August 26 at a hotel in Rochester to visit Karrie the following morning. He then drove home to New Jersey and, from there, flew to California. His alibis were confirmed.
Weeks later, a medical examiner ruled out suicide, claiming that the damage to her throat was unique to manual strangulation. Investigators, now looking into the case as a homicide, learned that Michele's relationship with her kids was good until Lloyd "started to poison them against her" to a point where Karrie had started hating her mother.
Karrie's phone records revealed that on the night of Michele Neurauter's death, she was at her mother's house for two hours, contrary to the time she mentioned earlier. Authorities learned that Lloyd owed $100,000, in large part to alimony and child support, and discovered that Michele's youngest daughter Charlotte was the beneficiary of her $200,000 life insurance policy.
Investigators wire-tapped their phones and interrogated the father-daughter duo separately until Karrie cracked and told them about her father's ultimatum - Lloyd reportedly said to her that he was "either going to kill myself or I gotta kill your mother."
Karrie chose her father and drove him to Michele's house as part of their pre-arranged plan. There, she distracted her younger sister while Lloyd lured Michele to an upstairs bedroom and strangled her to death. The father-daughter duo staged the crime scene to make it appear like a suicide. A significant amount of Lloyd's DNA was also found on the victim's body and clothes.
In December 2018, Lloyd Neurauter was sentenced to life in prison without parole for ex-wife Michele Neurauter's murder. Meanwhile, Karrie pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to one to three years. She was granted parole in 2020.
Oxygen's Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will further delve into Michele Neurauter's murder this Tuesday.
