COULD ONE PARENT SO STRONGLY INFLUENCE A TEENAGER TO HELP MURDER THE OTHER PARENT?
“48 Hours” Investigates in “Karrie’s Choice”
Saturday, March 23
(L-R) Karrie, Lloyd and Michele Neurauter
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Could one parent in a bitter custody battle sway a teenager so strongly that they’ll help commit the murder of the other parent? Erin Moriarty and 48 HOURS tackle that question in a report on the death of a Corning, N.Y., mother and the investigation into what really happened in “Karrie’s Choice” to be broadcast Saturday, March 23 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
It’s a case that dives deep into the dynamics of a brutal custody battle, a shocking death of a beloved mother of three, and an investigation that led police in a direction they couldn’t have predicted.
Michele Neurauter was found in her home hanging from a rope in August 2017. It appeared to be a suicide, though police had some doubts. At the time, she was in a battle over the custody of her youngest child with her ex-husband, Lloyd Neurauter.
Corning Police Chief Jeff Spaulding tells Moriarty that he was troubled because a rope mark found on Neurauter’s chin was “unsettling.”
“It appeared as though somebody shorter in stature had gone behind and thrown a rope over the neck and pulled back and down and caused that,” Spaulding says.
The police were not alone in their thinking, either. Michele’s Neurauter’s mother, Jeanne Laundy, thought she was murdered, and pointed fingers at Neurauter’s ex-husband, even though he was more than 2,500 miles away on a job interview in California when Michele was found dead.
“I’m thinking it’s more than likely Lloyd killed her, but I couldn’t figure out how, because he had an alibi,” says Laundy.
Police would later learn that before Neurauter flew to California, he made a stop in Rochester, less than 100 miles away from Corning. There, he helped the couple’s middle child, Karrie, move into a new apartment. At the time, she was a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Police began listening into conversations between Lloyd and Karrie Neurauter. That’s when the investigation turned in a way no one saw coming.
“I’m freaking out,” Karrie told her father in one conversation taped by police.
“Me too,” the dad said on the tape.
Months later, Karrie and Lloyd Neurauter were arrested and charged in the death of Michele Neurauter. While not accused of actually killing her mother, Karrie Neurauter was charged with helping her father plan the murder.
How did Lloyd sneak into Michele’s house in Corning and allegedly kill her? Was their daughter somehow involved in the death of her mother? How could one parent convince a child to help kill the other parent?
“You think she was brainwashed?” Moriarty asks Steuben County District Attorney Brooks Baker.
“I really think she was brainwashed,” Baker says.
Moriarty and 48 HOURS report the story through interviews with Michele Neurauter’s family and friends, investigators and attorneys. 48 HOURS: “Karrie’s Choice” is produced by Christopher Gidez. The producer-editor is Michael McHugh. George Baluzy and Gary Winter are the editors. The development producer is Marc Goldbaum. The associate producer is Kat Teurfs. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
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