Between Off Campus, Rivals season two, and the upcoming return of Love Island, there is literally so much good TV on right now. Despite all that, though, sometimes you just can't beat a classic true crime documentary.
Speaking of, Channel 5's The Push: Murder on a Cruise Ship is just that. The one-part special, which is a feature-length one hour and 35 minutes, investigates the tragic murder of Micki Kanesaki. She was killed by her ex-husband, Lonnie Kocontes, while the pair were cruising along the Italian coast in 2006.
Here's everything we know about the crime, plus details on where Lonnie Kocontes is now.
What happened to Micki Kanesaki?
Before recapping the fateful cruise, which marked the end of Micki Kanesaki's life, let's first unpack how she came to be on it with her ex-husband, Lonnie Kocontes.
Micki and Lonnie met while working at the same law firm in Los Angeles in the 90s. Lonnie had recently moved to the area from Florida, where he worked as an attorney. The pair went on to marry in 1995, but they divorced in 2002. Nonetheless, the pair continued living together as they were co-owners of their home.
While the pair continued to live in the same property, Lonnie secretly began dating someone else: Amy Nguyen. That's when things turned sour. He tried to force Micki into selling the home, but then made a U-turn and dumped Amy. At the same time, he drew up new wills for himself and Micki and made himself executor of her estate.
Everyone's clicking on...
This brings us to 2006, when Micki and Lonnie decided to go on a cruise together. In May 2006, they set off on their travels around the Italian coast, but by May 28, Micki had disappeared. Her body was later recovered from the sea by a research boat, and an autopsy revealed she had been strangled before being thrown into the sea.
It wasn't until two years after Micki's death that suspicion fell on Lonnie, however. In 2008, tried to withdraw $1 million from her account, prompting an investigation. Eventually, in 2013, he was arrested, but it wasn't until 2020 that he was convicted of her murder at trial.
Where is Lonnie Kocontes now?
At his trial in 2020, Lonnie Kocontes was convicted of his ex-wife's murder, with "a special-circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain," per the Orange County DA Office where he was tried. He was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
As for where Lonnie is now, two decades on from Micki Kanesaki's tragic murder? He is understood to be serving his sentence at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California.
Stream The Push: Murder on a Cruise on Channel 5.
