Dateline: Secrets of the Mist — 5 harrowing details about Carol Jeanne Lubahn's disappearance and murder, revisited

Dateline: Secrets of the Mist delves into the 1981 disappearance and murder of Carol Jeanne Lubahn, who went missing from her Torrance home after a heated argument with her husband, Michael.

Beneath the facade of a missing persons case lay a chilling truth that was brushed under the carpet for over three decades. Carol married her high school sweetheart, Michael, in 1972, and they had two beautiful children. The ambitious Carol enrolled for an architecture course at the El Camino College while Micahel took over his father-in-law's painting business. However, their marriage was eventually in shambles. They often fought, and Carol was reportedly seeing other people as well.

Nearly 30 years after Carol's disappearance, the investigators were able to trace her murderer. After years of inconsistent statements, in 2013, Michael Lubahn Clark finally confessed to killing his wife.

Here are the five most harrowing details of the 1981 disappearance and murder of Carol Jeanne Lubahn, as shown in Dateline

1) Dateline: Secrets in the Mist — A fatal argument that ended in silence

Carol was just 26 years old on the night she disappeared- March 31, 1981. That evening, she and her husband, Michael, fought over selling their home. As per records, Carol wanted to sell their Torrance home and move to a bigger one. However, Micahel didn't agree.

As per Michael's initial statement, she left the house on the fateful night. When he woke up, he claimed that Carol's car was missing and the garage door was wide open. Around three days later, on April 3, 1981, Michael finally alerted the authorities after he found her Audi parked near a restaurant in Redondo Beach. The investigators closed the case after they were unable to get any clues about Carol. Meanwhile, Michael moved on with his life — he relocated to Huntington, divorced Carol based on absentia, and remarried a woman named Kenny.

It was only three decades later that Carol's case was reinvestigated, and when the authorities found inconsistency in Michael's statement, they arrested him in 2011. After a failed social media campaign, several interrogations, and a letter that Michael wrote to his mother-in-law out of guilt, it was found out that Michael had killed his wife.

---

2) Dateline: Secrets in the Mist — A master manipulator who fooled everyone

Michael didn't just hide his crimes — he built an entire false narrative around them. For years, Carol's family believed his version of events. They invited him to family gatherings, trusted him with their family business, and grieved Carol's absence without suspecting the man beside them. He successfully manipulated his children, his in-laws, and even the authorities to some extent for three decades, who believed he was innocent.

---

3) Dateline: Secrets in the Mist — A chilling plan to kill Carol Jeanne Lubahn

Upon multiple interrogations, Micahel finally admitted to his crimes. He revealed that on March 31, 1981, when she left the house after their argument, she did come back late that night. Carol told Michael that she would take another man to her sister's wedding. That would seem enough to hurt Micahel's ego, who used a cushion to choke her, and then when she tried to make him understand, he struck her and she hit a table. What began as a marital spat turned deadly for the young mother of two.

What Michael did after taking Carol's life was quite disturbing — he hid her body behind a carpet roll near their garage. Later, he wrapped it up using multiple blankets and drove her lifeless body in her car to the Red Onion restaurant at Redondo Beach. He secured her body with cinder blocks and a 50-foot nylon rope. An experienced scuba diver, he paddled past the kelp beds off the Rancho Palos Verdes coast and dumped her body. To this day, despite extensive searches and Michael Clark's confession, Carol's remains have never been found.

---

4) Dateline: Secrets in the Mist — The deception that stole his children's truth

Perhaps the cruelest part of Michael's web of lies and betrayal was the impact on their children. They spend their lives believing their mother had abandoned them. Michael played along with this fake narrative. He staged calls on holidays to make them believe that their mother was alive. This betrayal ran deeper than murder.

---

5) Dateline: Secrets in the Mist — A confession that came too late

In January 2013, the then 59-year-old Michael Lubahn Clark finally confessed to his crimes before he was sentenced to fifteen to life in prison by Deputy DA John Lewin. Lewin revealed that Michael agreed to help the authorities trace his wife Carol's body; however, the divers couldn't find any trace as shown in Dateline. When Michael refused to say anything during his trial, Lewin recounted his confession, which was strikingly different from the version that he had told initially to the investigators. Surprisingly, after a polygraph test, it was revealed that Michael did not push Carol but instead punched her in the face, which caused her to fall, as per Dateline.

His confession brought some answers, but it came after years of lies, leaving a family scarred forever.

Also read: Dateline: Deadly Obsession - 5 harrowing details about Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness' murders, revisited

Tune in to SoapCentral for more updates.