Ex Los Angeles Attorney Found Guilty Of Killing Ex-Wife Aboard Cruise Ship

For the second time within the past week, a man is making headlines for being convicted of killing his romantic partner aboard a cruise ship.

NBCLosAngeles.com reports that 62-year-old Lonnie Loren Kocontes was convicted of killing his 52-year-old ex-wife Micki Kanesaki while on a Mediterranean cruise in 2006. Kanesaki’s body was recovered by the crew of a different vessel on May 28, 2006, near Italy.

The report says that Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price accused Kocontes of being with Kanesaki solely for financial gain. The couple married in 1995 after meeting at a law firm in which Kocontes was an attorney and  Kanesaki was a paralegal. After divorcing in 2002 they continued to live together. 

Cruise injury attorney Jack Hickey discussing another cruise ship murder in 2017.

After the pair divorced, problems arose relating to the status of the couple’s assets and the fact that Kocontes apparently began seeing other people, particularly a woman named Amy Nguyen who he apparently met in 2002.

Eventually, the couple seemed to work things out and decided to take a cruise together in 2006. While aboard the ship at about 4:30 am on the morning of May 26, 2006, Kocontes, reports that he awakened in his cabin room and realized that his ex-wife was missing. Her body was found two days later.

After an investigation, authorities determined that Kocontes had been murdered. Her lungs were free of water, indicating she had not drowned but rather had been killed before falling into the water. Additionally, her neck show markings consistent with strangulation, the report says.