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Micki Kanesaki went missing while cruising in Italy with her ex-husband Lonnie Loren Kocontes in late May 2006. The former couple were reconnecting and making plans to remarry at the time. Kaneski's body was found floating near the coast in Italy, just two days after she disappeared. An autopsy revealed that she was strangled to death before her body was thrown overboard.
Lonnie Loren Kocontes, the ex-husband, was arrested in 2013 for murdering Kanesaki for financial gains. He initially told authorities that he had taken sleeping pills that night and woke up the next morning to find the victim missing. He was later convicted of first-degree murder in a delayed trial and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2020.
An upcoming episode of NBC Dateline is scheduled to chronicle Micki Kanesaki's murder case this Sunday, May 14, 2023. The episode, titled Open Water, airs on the channel at 7 pm ET.
The official synopsis of the episode states:
"A romantic Mediterranean cruise, intended to rekindle the love between Micki Kanesaki and her ex-husband, turns into a tragedy when she vanishes."
The body of Micki Kanesaki, who went missing while on a cruise with her ex-husband, was found floating off the coast in Italy
Micki Kanesaki met Lonnie Loren Kocontes while working at a Los Angeles law firm, where she was employed as a paralegal and the latter as an attorney. The couple married in 1995 and divorced in 2002. However, they continued living together in Ladera Ranch. Kanesaki suffered from arthritis, left her job as a paralegal, and got into investing.
In 2002, Kocontes connected with Amy Nguyen on a dating website and soon developed an intimate relationship with her while still living with Kanesaki, who "had no idea this affair was happening." In 2005, she married Nguyen in Las Vegas, after which they moved in together. However, in September of that year, Kanesaki and Kocontes began fighting over the sale of their Ladera Ranch home.
The issue ended when Kocontes left Nguyen and moved back in with Kanesaki. After their move, the former couple had new wills drawn up and Kanesaki named himself as the executor of her estate. Not long after, they planned their Mediterranean cruise vacation and allegedly planned to get remarried.
As per Lonnie Loren Kocontes' version of the events, they boarded the ship on May 21, 2006, in Spain, which was followed by a daylong Sicily excursion on May 25. The former couple then returned to the ship, had dinner with a bottle of wine together before going to a casino and seeing a show.
Kocontes told authorities that he took a sleeping pill before hitting the bed and only woke up at 4:30 am to find 52-year-old Micki Kanesaki missing. He even suggested that she might have fallen overboard because of all the wine they consumed the previous night. Two days later, Kanesaki's body was found floating in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Paola, Italy.
Micki Kanesaki's ex-husband Lonnie Loren Kocontes strangled her before throwing the body off the cruise
According to NBC Lost Angeles, an autopsy confirmed that Micki Kanesaki's lungs "were completely free of water'' and she had "severe hemorrhaging around her neck,'' which was "consistent with strangulation." The medical examiner concluded that she was killed before being dumped in the water.
Amy Nguyen later told authorities that Lonnie Loren Kocontes and his best friend, Bill Price, who worked as a private investigator, conspired to kill Kanesaki on the cruise ship. He was arrested in 2013 from his home in Safety Harbor, Florida, and was extradited to California, where he stood trial years later.
Prosecutors believed he "specifically asked for a balcony room" on the cruise. Additionally, according to Oxygen, they maintained that Kocontes planned to murder Kanesaki for financial gain, given that he was supposed to inherit over $1 million from her bank accounts and the sale of a house they shared. Both had him designated as a beneficiary.
Lonnie Loren Kocontes' murder trial in Micki Kanesaki's murder started in Februaty 2020, and he was found guilty with a special-circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain later in June. Afterwards, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Learn more about Micki Kanesaki's murder case on NBC Dateline's upcoming episode this Sunday.
