Martin MacNeill: His Wife Died After Surgery. His Daughters Refused to Believe It Was an Accident.

 

Martin MacNeill: His Wife Died After Surgery. His Daughters Refused to Believe It Was an Accident.

Martin MacNeill was a doctor, a lawyer, and a father of eight. In 2007, his wife, Michele MacNeill, died in the bathtub of their Utah home.

Her death was initially treated as natural or accidental.

Her daughters knew something was wrong.

Prosecutors later argued that MacNeill had pressured Michele into undergoing cosmetic surgery she did not need, then exploited her recovery by giving her a dangerous combination of prescription medications and drowning her in the bathtub.

The motive, prosecutors said, was another woman. MacNeill was having an affair with Gypsy Willis, who moved into the family home shortly after Michele's death under the guise of being a nanny.

Michele's daughters, including Alexis Somers, spent years pushing authorities to investigate their father.

They were right to keep pushing.

In 2013, a jury convicted Martin MacNeill of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice. He was later sentenced to 17 years to life. In a separate case, he was also convicted of sexually abusing one of his adult daughters.

MacNeill died by suicide in prison in 2017.

Michele's death might have remained another tragedy written off as an accident.

Her daughters refused to let their mother's story end with his version of it.