The stripper and the steelworker

Keith Morrison, Dateline NBC: Right around here, huh?

Jim Stogsdill: Yeah, generally this area...

This is Alaska State Troopers Investigator Jim Stogsdill.

And here, Stogsdill believes, is what happened in the last seconds of Kent Leppink's life.

Jim Stogsdill: Spun around probably like that, because the shot's over here, moved around this way, got it here again and then fell backwards, and then one in the face.

Keith Morrison: Boy, that's gotta be, you gotta be cold to do a thing like that. Or angry, as you say.

Jim Stogsdill: Angry is more likely.

It was one of those flukes of state budget politics that brought Jim Stogsdill here to the place Kent Leppink met his end years ago.

Stogsdill had been minding his own business as a fishing guide, long retired from the force, when the Troopers set up a cold case squad and asked him to join it.

And now?

Jim Stogsdill: I'm looking for somebody who knows this fellow well and wants him dead.

As Stogsdill read the old Leppink murder file, he found that strange letter Kent had written to his parents, a dead man accusing his friends of murder.

But there was nothing in the file to prove it. Mechele wasn't even in the state when the murder happened.

And back then, when police talked to John Carlin III, he seemed to know nothing that would aid an investigation.

John Carlin III: I don't, honest to God, I do not.

Still, the more Stogsdill read, the more his suspicion grew: John Carlin III and Mechele Hughes must have been involved somehow.

And then, a discovery. Not of a piece of evidence, mind you, but the lack of one. Something you'd think would be in the record, but wasn't.

Jim Stogsdill: One of the very largest missing links was a comprehensive interview with John Carlin IV, the son of John Carlin III.

Keith Morrison: Why wasn't it there?

Jim Stogsdill: Well it wasn't there because it was never done.

Why? Because he was a minor then. His father had the right to be present during any interview.

Jim Stogsdill: You weren't going to get much from Carlin IV, the son, especially if what he knew might be incriminating to Carlin III, while III is standing there.

Now the boy who was like a fly on the wall when whatever happened, happened, was all grown up, and living far away from his father.

So, in 2005, investigators tracked him down in the Seattle area, and - according to young Carlin - leaned on him a little.

John Carlin IV: They went into their whole thing about how they could have me thrown in jail for perjury. And, you know, "Not telling something you know is just as bad as committing the crime."

Keith Morrison: They were sweating you.

John Carlin IV: Yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, yeah.

And something the younger Carlin told them must have been important, because suddenly everything seemed to change.

A grand jury was assembled.

Even though, as Detective Stogsdill admitted, there simply wasn't any forensic evidence of the sort that might have made the case more of a sure thing.

Jim Stogsdill: This was a case of motive, opportunity and means, you know? So we're not looking at DNA stuff or scientific evidence but we're looking at what people are doing, the actions they're taking and the fact that they're capable of doing it. And, in fact, did do it.

By the time the grand jury assembled here in Anchorage, every one of those surviving Alaska friends had long since moved on to different parts of the country and new lives.

John Carlin was back in New Jersey; he'd taken a Russian bride, was helping raise her little girl. But when he heard about that grand jury, did he run, did he try to hide? No. Carlin volunteered to go right up to Alaska and deal with whatever questions anybody might still have.

Scott Hilke, who'd married an old girlfriend and settled into a life in northern California, testified at the grand jury hearing, then returned home to wait for news.

And here in Olympia, Washington, Mechele and her husband - it was Mrs. Linehan now - let the police know they were around and prepared to face whatever questions that jury might have.

Mechele Linehan's life had finally become what she'd always hoped it could be. Married to a doctor -- an American military veteran, a beautiful child, a life occupied with motherhood and local charity work and a key role in a brand new dermatology business which -- with her husband's skill and her considerable business acumen -- was taking off. And then one day, the past came knocking at the door.

Colin Linehan: While Mechele was at work, the squad of police surround the house and are like, you know, "Where's Mechele?" I’m like, "She's at work." She's like, "Well, we need to drive up there." I’m like, listen. The bottom line is she's cooperative.

Dr. Colin Linehan is Mechele's husband.

He says Mechele told him about Kent's murder when they first started dating.

Colin Linehan: Something like she's really close to somebody. And it started not to be that way. But he ended up getting killed. And she was investigated. She said, "They thought I had something to do with it." And she was like it really shook me.

He pointed out Mechele had once worked for the Washington State Ethics board.

Her innocence, he said, would be easy to prove. More difficult? The image he said was emerging from investigators and media in Alaska of someone who bore no resemblance to the woman he knew.

Colin Linehan: That was the main tactic throughout the whole thing was to define who Mechele was.

Keith Morrison: Define her as what?

Colin Linehan: A manipulative woman who has an insatiable greed for money who cares nothing about other people.

The grand jury issued two indictments: Scott Hilke was not charged. But both Mechele Linehan and John Carlin were. First-degree murder.

If convicted, each could face a maximum sentence of 99 years.

Kristina Hermach: It was incomprehensible that this could be happening.

Kristina Hermach is one of Mechele's closest friends in Olympia.

Kristina Hermach: The woman that she is, and has been, is a woman with a beautiful heart.

Mechele, said Hermach, was a constant volunteer for local charities, a wonderful mother and a careful businesswoman.

Kristina Hermach: Femme fatale she is certainly not. She's certainly not greedy. She met Colin when he was so poor he didn't have a car. She never seemed to be interested in attaining or getting.

Did the state actually have a first-degree murder case against the doctor's wife?

Colin Linehan: You've got to dehumanize her to make her able to commit this crime because the evidence sure wasn't there.

Was it? Against either Mechele or John Carlin?

Perhaps it depended on what the son John Carlin IV told those investigators. 

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