The Murder Of Micki Kanesaki Aboard A Cruise Ship
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty ImagesA souvenir photo of Micki Kanesaki and her ex-husband from the cruise they took in 2006, during which Kanesaki disappeared.
Unlike other cruise ship disappearances on this list, Micki Kanesaki’s body was found after she vanished from a Mediterranean cruise in May 2006. And unlike others on this list, her death was determined to be foul play.
According to Oxygen, Kanesaki was on the cruise ship with her ex-husband, Lonnie Loren Kocontes. Though the two had divorced, Kocontes claimed that they had reconciled and planned to remarry.
As he tells it, they boarded the ship on May 21, 2006. After sailing around Italy, they enjoyed dinner and a bottle of wine together on May 25. By the next morning, however, Kanesaki had vanished — and Kocontes suggested that she’d had too much to drink and fallen overboard or taken her own life.
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty ImagesLonnie Kocontes at trial in February 2020. He was charged with murdering his ex-wife and sentenced to life in prison.
But a few days later, searchers found Kanesaki’s body floating off the Italian coast. And her autopsy suggested that Kaneski had not fallen overboard — purposefully or otherwise — but that she’d been murdered.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the autopsy revealed that Kanesaki had “severe hemorrhaging around her neck,” consistent with strangulation, and no water in her lungs, meaning she was likely already dead when she entered the water.
Further investigation found that Kocontes had purposely booked a balcony room and had asked a friend in law enforcement about security on cruise ships. What’s more, he had both financial and personal motive, as he had started a new romantic relationship and would inherit $1 million if Kanesaki died.
“The defendant thought he had planned the perfect crime and lured his prey to her death with a Mediterranean cruise,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “He picked the perfect ship, the perfect state room, and the perfect time to kill his ex-wife. And he almost got away with murder.”
Lonnie Kocontes was later found guilty of killing Micki Kanesaki and sentenced to life in prison.
