They
were the family that everyone envied for their seemingly idyllic life.
Martin
and Michele MacNeill were a successful couple with eight beautiful children.
They lived in an exclusive gated community – he was a doctor and she was a
striking former beauty queen.
But
behind closed doors, there were enough secrets and lies to make a blockbuster
thriller. It ended in a calculated murder that left the killer free for five
long years, Love Sunday reports.
Michele
had been married to her husband Martin for almost 30 years. She had been a
straight A-student, a cheerleader and a beauty queen when she met Martin
through their mutual Mormon faith. The pair eloped when they were both just 19
and started a life together in a gated Mormon community at Pleasant Grove,
Utah, not far from Salt Lake City.
Together,
they had eight children. Four were biological – Rachel, Vanessa, Alexis and
Damien. While Giselle, Ella and Sabrina were adopted from the Ukraine. Their
eighth child, Ada, was later revealed to be their grand-daughter. She was
Vanessa’s daughter.
The
couple were highly respected. Although Martin worked as a doctor he was also a
trained lawyer. At one point he was a bishop in his local congregation of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The
MacNeills looked like the perfect family but Martin had plenty of secrets. One
of which was Gypsy Willis, a woman he’d been having an affair with.
Martin
was captivated by Gypsy. He wanted to be with her but he couldn’t just walk
away from his family – what would people think? So he’d play mind games with
his wife, constantly threatening to commit suicide when things didn’t go his
way. While Michele desperately tried to hold their marriage together, Martin
was plotting the unthinkable.
In
March 2007, Martin suggested to Michele that she should have a facelift. At
first she was reluctant because she had blood pressure problems, and she wanted
to lose some weight. But Martin pushed her until she changed her mind.
Michele
thought it would save their marriage, but in the last consultation before the
surgery, Martin went along and gave the surgeon a list of painkillers he wanted
Michele to take. It included strong medication that wasn’t usually prescribed.
On
April 3, 2007, Michele had the surgery and returned home the next day. Their
daughter Alexis, who was home at the time, later testified that she found her
mum unresponsive at one point because of the high levels of medication. Her dad
admitted he’d perhaps given her too much – so Alexis took charge of the
medicine.
After
a few days, Alexis went back to study away from home, believing her mum was on
the road to recovery. But the next day, April 11, Martin called police to say
he’d come back from work and had found Michele face down in the bath.
Paramedics
rushed to the scene but it was too late. Michele, 50, was dead. Martin acted
the grieving husband, wailing and crying, but everyone sensed it was a fake
reaction. An autopsy then determined Michele’s cause of death to be
cardiovascular disease and her death was recorded as accidental from natural
causes.
Martin’s
older children and Michele’s family were convinced it was foul play. Two weeks
after her death, Martin brought Gypsy into the house and said he’d hired her as
a nanny. It confirmed their worst fears when it turned out they shared a
bedroom.
Only
son Damien, 24, defended his father at first, but in January 2010 he committed
suicide.
The
family pushed police for three years until 2010, when the cause of death was changed
to ‘undetermined.’ It took another two years for police to arrest Martin.
In
October 2013, Martin pleaded not guilty to murder and insisted his wife had
died accidentally. The trial was partly televised and became a must-see
sensation across the US.
The
prosecution said that Martin had given his wife a high level of prescription
drugs and had left her to drown in the bath – perhaps even holding her down
under the water. He’d told the 911 operator he’d performed CPR but he hadn’t.
Martin
had wanted to start a new life with his mistress but couldn’t just simply walk
away because of his standing in the community. Prosecution said it was ‘almost
the perfect murder’.
Inmates
testified that Martin had told them that he’d killed his wife, and another
former lover said he’d told her he could make a murder look like heart failure.
Lover Gypsy also testified against him and admitted having an affair before and
after the death of Michele.
The
defence team insisted Michele had overdosed on her medication and had fallen
into the bath and died. But in November 2013, the jury found Martin guilty of
first degree murder.
Just
when the world thought that Martin had committed the ultimate crime – it was
revealed that he faced further charges.
Just
five weeks after the death of his wife, he’d slipped into the bed of his
daughter, Alexis, 30, and sexually abused her. When she woke up, he said he’d
mistaken her for her mother. In July 2014, Alexis, who waived her right to
anonymity, testified against her dad, who claimed that he was ‘asleep’ during
the assault. He was found guilty.
In
September this year, Martin MacNeill, 58, was sentenced while family and
friends of the victim held up smiling photos of her. Daughter Rachel begged for
a severe sentence. "He took the kindest, most caring person I’ve ever
known, and he calculatingly took her from us all," she said.
Michele’s
sister Linda was emotional. "I shatter thinking of my sister looking at
her own husband as he was doing this to her," she said. She turned towards
Martin. "I can finally look into the eyes of my sister’s murderer and say,
‘Martin, you haven’t gotten away with this.’"
Martin
sat his in orange prison jumpsuit and showed no remorse. At times he looked
smug and even laughed. He was given 15 years for the sexual abuse of his
daughter and sentenced to life for the first degree murder of his wife. He
won’t be eligible for parole for 17 years.
Finally
a truly evil man was locked behind bars. It was a calculating crime that
revealed just the kind of husband and father he really was.
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