The stripper and the steelworker

Once upon a time in Alaska, for a moment in the mid-'90s, was a house full of desire. The salesman, the ex-steelworker, the fisherman: three men and one exotic young woman.

And now, 11 years later, the state would try to prove that Michele Linehan, as the vixen puppeteer, so controlled her would-be lover, John Carlin III, that he willingly put a bullet - three of them - in the body of his rival.

Passion, manipulation, murder.

This was the state's case: for the love of the stripper, the steelworker murdered the fisherman.

And she made him do it.

They pleaded not guilty. She was now out on bail.  Carlin would be tried first.

Pat Gullufsen: It's a story that is going to involve passion, greed, manipulation and deception.

Prosecutor Pat Gullufsen began the trial by telling the jury it was those explosive forces that led to Leppink's murder, claiming that John Carlin was so desperately in love he'd do anything for a greedy Mechele -- even commit murder, if she asked him to.

And what was Carlin's motive for murder? To ensure Mechele got Kent's million dollars in life insurance and that he, Carlin, got the girl.

The irony is, claimed the prosecutor, that neither Carlin nor Mechele knew that Kent had just removed Mechele as the beneficiary, as they plotted their crime with a method that left its own distinct fingerprints all these years later: e-mail.

They were all e-mailing during those months of jealousy and desire before the murder, said the prosecutor. E-mails flew among Kent, Mechele, Carlin III, and Scott Hilke.

Pat Gullufsen: Ms. Hughes was sending to Mr. Carlin a copy of an e-mail she'd received from Mr. Leppink.

Linda Branchflower: Yes.

In court, cold case investigator Linda Branchflower offered a review. The e-mails, she said, revealed Mechele was manipulating Kent - conning him - and at the same time plotting with Carlin to kill him.

For example, in one e-mail, Carlin tells Kent he's no romantic rival, in essence, he says: "I’m fat, bald, have no social graces...and besides, I’m impotent."

But at the same time, Carlin was e-mailing Mechele, expressing his deep love, thanking her for giving him the most special night of his life. And on March 31, John Carlin wrote to her about how difficult it was for him with Kent in the house:

"I get so frustrated," he wrote, "I don't want to wait, just do it now. But your future is at stake and I am forced to wait. I love you so much and cannot show it."

And April 24, a week before Kent's murder, a long e-mail, Carlin to Mechele...

Linda Branchflower: ‘...The one I've fallen in love with, the one I'd do anything in the world for including giving up my life.’

April 28, three days to the murder, this aside in an e-mail from Mechele to Carlin:

Did you know that you can buy a citizenship in the Seychelles for around ten mill. And no matter what crimes you have committed they will not extradite.

By the time that e-mail was sent, said the prosecutor, the trap was set.

Betsy Leppink: He said I’m looking for Mechele. John Carlin knows where she is and he won't tell me.

The trap... 'The Hope Note.' The prosecution claimed it was a carefully crafted lure to get Kent to Hope, where he'd be executed.

Back in 1996, investigators found this note in the glove box of Kent's car, parked outside the Carlin home.

It's a note between Carlin and Mechele, suggesting she planned a tryst with another man somewhere in this tiny village 90 miles from Anchorage.

The top part of the note, the typed portion, was written by John Carlin. It reads, in part:

"Dear Mechele,

The roof on your cabin in Hope is finished. It will not leak anymore...

It goes on in great detail, saying Carlin is happy he bought the cabin for Mechele, that it makes a fine getaway. And it ends,

"You guys enjoy your stay in the cabin this weekend. With all the love I can have for a wonderful woman as you."

And at the bottom is a hand-written reply from Mechele, saying, in part,

"Great. Please don’t let anyone know where we're at but you already know that. When will the generator be rebuilt and the back door does it close now?

Kent, discovering the note left out for him to find, would have no idea there really was no generator... no back door... in fact, that the cabin didn't even exist.

Inventive, for such a blatant lie.

Remember, Mechele was at Lake Tahoe with her real boyfriend, Scott Hilke.

The prosecutor claimed Carlin and Mechele wanted to make Kent jealous, wanted to make him to go to Hope and try to find her.

He would fail to find the non-existent cabin, of course, the prosecutor said, would have no choice but to ask John Carlin to take him there.  And that's when, the prosecutor claimed, Carlin walked Kent up that dirt trail, and pulled out a Desert Eagle pistol and shot him three times.

Or did he? After all, nobody else was there to see it.

Pat Gullufsen: Did she refer to Kent Leppink's death while she was there?

Mechele Hughes: Yes, she did.

The prosecutor called Mechele's sister, a woman named Melissa Hughes, a reluctant witness who testified Mechele had gone to see her not long after the murder.

Melissa Hughes: She said he got what he deserved, that people didn't like him and that he hunted and stuffed animals and she thought he got what he deserved.

Mechele's cruel comments, the Hope Note, the e-mails, the insurance, all of it seemed suspicious, sure. But proof beyond a reasonable doubt of murder? Maybe. Maybe not.

But then the prosecution was about to call its key witness. And both who that person was and what he had to say would be explosive.

Now John Carlin IV had already told anyone who'd listen that his father was innocent.

And much of his testimony seemed to add little more than details of that unusual living arrangement in which he said Kent Leppink didn't get too much respect.

John Carlin IV: He seemed to be a bit of an errand boy.

Young Carlin said Kent followed Mechele around like a puppy in love.

Then, the prosecutor went to the night Kent disappeared. Who saw him last? What was going on?

John Carlin IV: It was the evening and I was going up to bed.

Pat Gullufsen: He was downstairs?

John Carlin IV: That's right.

Pat Gullufsen: And who was he with?

John Carlin IV: With my father.

So far, nothing new. But then the testimony that could put his father away for life.

Pat Gullufsen: Was there a point in time when you came into the house and your father and Mechele were near the bathroom?

John Carlin IV: Yes.

Pat Gullufsen: Do you remember seeing a pistol in the sink?

John Carlin IV: Yes.

Now that was big.

John Carlin IV: I remember coming around the corner and seeing Mechele and my father and there was a firearm in the sink and the sink was about half full of a clear liquid.

Pat Gullufsen: Could you smell anything that you associated with the liquid?

John Carlin IV: I did smell bleach.

Why else would you clean a gun with bleach than to get rid of inconvenient evidence?

And remember, for years the elder Carlin denied he ever owned the type of gun used to kill Kent Leppink. So the prosecution called a man who said he sold a Desert Eagle to a man right around the time the Carlins moved to Anchorage.

Pat Gullufsen: Are you able to tell whether or not these are the items you sold with the Desert Eagle?

Stilchen: Yes, sir. They look like the exact items I sold.

Those items -- a holster, gun case, belt and ammo pouch -- were found in Carlin's home.

But the defense said none of it was proof of murder, and besides, they had another suspect in mind. And here was a hint: a very clever woman.

Marcy McDannel: She had the motive, opportunity and means to do it.

Keith Morrison, Dateline NBC: So she's your most likely suspect.

Marcy McDannel: Absolutely.

Sidney Billingslea: Absolutely.

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