Dateline: Who was Micki Kanesaki, and what happened to her? Details of the 2006 disappearance, explored

Dateline featured a chilling disappearance case from 2006 of Micki Kanesaki, a 52-year-old paralegal professional.

Kanesaki disappeared during a Mediterranean cruise in May of the year after just two to four days into the voyage with her ex-husband. The trip, which was meant to reconcile and mend things between the couple, took her life. On May 28, her body was found floating on the water surface at the Paola coast, Italy.

The case got into the headlines as the investigation unfolded, and it was revealed that she lost her life because of strangulation and was dead before being thrown into the water. This highlighted a murder case rather than an accident. Read on to know some crucial details about the case and more about Micki Kanesaki, as shown in the Dateline episode.

Dateline: Who was Micki Kanesaki, and what happened to her?

As mentioned, Micki Kanesaki was a paralegal professional and was working in a Los Angeles law firm.

There, she had met Lonnie Loren Kocontes, who was the attorney. Kanesaki married Kocontes in 1995, and they got divorced after seven years in 2002. However, reports suggest that they continued to live together for financial reasons. In May 2006, when the couple was on a cruise in the Mediterranean, while the Island Escape ship was travelling between Messina, Sicily, and Naples, Italy, Micki vanished.

Towards the end of the month, after extensive research with the Italian coast guards looking for the missing piece, they found her body floating near the coast. The body was sent for autopsy, which confirmed some foul play. The reports showed that Kanesaki was dead before drowning in the water, as there was no water in her lungs. Rather, there were severe signs of neck strangulation, skull fracture, and bruises, which pointed towards nothing but murder.

Dateline: Details of the 2006 Kanesaki disappearance, explored

In 2006, Kanesaki vanished, and her loved ones were in disbelief. It was Loonie who called friends like Susan McQueen and Bill Price.

“This can't be” said McQueen, after hearing about the disappearance.

Price held onto hope that she was simply somewhere onboard, but Kocontes told him multiple searches had already turned up nothing, as shown on Dateline.

When the authorities got to know about Kanesaki's troubled relationship, her ex-husband Lonnie Loren became the prime suspect. As the investigation progressed, the former California attorney was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder with a "special circumstances" enhancement for financial gain.

As mentioned, the couple, even after the divorce, were living together as they had their joint accounts and mutual wills. Prosecutors allege Kocontes meticulously planned the murder to benefit financially. He promptly attempted to transfer over $1 million from joint bank accounts in 2008, which further led to the FBI's involvement in the case.

Arrested in 2013, Kocontes was indicted in Orange County despite the crime occurring internationally. Finally, in June 2020, he was convicted of murder for financial gain, and in September, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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The Dateline episode titled, Open Water, exploring the case, aired on August 9 on NBC.

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