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Dateline Season 23 Episode 2, titled Before Dawn followed the May 2012 case of Lisa Techel, a pregnant woman of 23 years, who was murdered in her Agency, Iowa trailer.
The official synopsis of the episode, as per IMDb, states,
“Dateline goes to Iowa to examine the murder of expecting mother Lisa Techel who was shot to death in her home in May 2012. Police originally suspect a disgruntled neighbor, but investigators soon focus on Lisa's husband Seth after they discover several sexual texts from him to another woman. Prosecutors take him to court and after three trials convict him of murdering his wife.”
Let us now explore the harrowing details of the murder case as Dateline depicted.
Also read: Dateline: A complete timeline of Nancy Shore’s murder attempt, explored
5 harrowing details of the Lisa Techel case as shown in Dateline
Lisa Techel was murdered when she was carrying her first child
The most gruesome aspect of Lisa Techel’s murder, as shown in Dateline, was the fact that she was pregnant with a daughter when she was shot to death. She was married to Seth Techel, and the couple had been expecting their first child, a daughter, together when the tragedy happened. They had named their daughter Zoey Maria.
Lisa and Seth were high school sweethearts and were loved by both their families. It was Seth who had discovered Lisa’s body and heard the gunshot that killed her.
Also read: Dateline: Open Water - A complete timeline of the Micki Kanesaki murder case, revisited
Lisa was found with a gunshot wound
Lisa’s death on May 26, 2012, was a shocking and sudden event. Her husband, Seth, talked to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations (DCI) special agents and informed them that while he was in the shower at 5 am on that fateful day, he heard a gunshot.
He then came out of the bathroom and found Lisa lying in their bedroom with a gunshot wound on the upper left side of her head. Seth called in help, and upon arrival, the responders pronounced Lisa to be dead as she had been shot with a Mossberg 500.
Also read: Dateline: A complete timeline of the David Jackson murder case, revisited
Seth accused their neighbor, Brian, of being responsible for the murder
Lisa and Seth both worked with law enforcement, and they had 5 guns, which were all legal possessions. When the investigation started, the first thing that came to the notice of the authorities was that there were no signs of any kind of forced entry into Lisa and Seth’s house.
As the police started to dig deeper, Seth quickly pointed a finger at Brian Tate, their neighbor, with whom he had some ongoing feud. However, Brian successfully provided an alibi and cleared his name in the case.
Seth was having an affair
As the police realized that Brian was innocent, and also the lack of forced entry meant someone known to Lisa had most likely committed the crime, the investigation took a new turn. Upon interviewing one of Seth’s friends, the police came to know that he was having an affair with Rachel McFarland, his colleague at Job Corps.
When the authorities asked Seth about Rachel, he eventually broke and admitted to the affair. He also said that he had promised Rachel that he would leave Lisa. This gave the police enough motive to further investigate Seth.
Seth murdered Lisa as a result of his extramarital affair
After digging deeper, the police found texts and calls between Seth and Rachel where they talked about Lisa and how Seth would be leaving her. Another one of Seth’s friends informed the police that he had left a Mossberg 500 in the trailer where Lisa and Seth lived.
However, the police had not found this gun initially when they were listing the weapons the couple owned. Ultimately, the gun was found, and since it was the murder weapon, it did not take long for the authorities to solve the case.
Seth was arrested on charges of first-degree murder. His charges also involved the termination of a human pregnancy, which was strictly non-consensual. He was given a life sentence without parole and is currently serving his term at the Anamosa State Penitentiary in Iowa.
Dateline can be streamed on Peacock.
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