Where is Mechele Linehan Today 2023: The True Story of the Alaskan Stripper

If you followed true crime in the mid-2000s, the name Mechele Linehan probably rings a bell. It was everywhere. One day she was a suburban mom and a doctor's wife in Washington state, and the next, she was being hauled back to Alaska to face charges for a cold case murder from 1996. People called her a "lethal chameleon" and a "manipulative siren." But honestly, where is Mechele Linehan today 2023?

The short answer is that she is a free woman. She isn't in a cell. She isn't under house arrest. After one of the most chaotic legal battles in Alaskan history, the woman the media once dubbed the "Alaskan Temptress" has basically vanished back into a normal life.

The Conviction That Didn't Stick

To understand why everyone is still asking about her in 2023, you have to remember the absolute circus of her 2007 trial. Mechele was accused of conspiring with a man named John Carlin III to kill Kent Leppink. Kent was a fisherman who was found shot to death on a trail in Hope, Alaska.

The prosecution’s theory was wild. They claimed Mechele was obsessed with the 1994 movie The Last Seduction, where a woman manipulates a man into committing murder for money. They said she was a "femme fatale" who played several men against each other at the Great Alaskan Bush Co. strip club.

She was convicted. She got 99 years.

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But then things got weird. In 2010, the Alaska Court of Appeals threw the whole thing out. Why? Because the original trial used two pieces of evidence that were totally illegal to show the jury.

One was a "letter from the grave" written by Kent Leppink. In it, he told his parents that if he ended up dead, Mechele, John, or another guy named Scott "probably killed me." The court ruled this was hearsay—you can't cross-examine a dead guy. The second issue was the movie. The court decided that just because someone likes a movie doesn't mean they're a murderer.

Where is Mechele Linehan Today 2023?

After her conviction was overturned, Mechele was released on a $250,000 bond. A wealthy executive from Pennsylvania actually put up the money for her bail.

By 2012, the State of Alaska realized their case was crumbling. John Carlin III, the man they said actually pulled the trigger, had been murdered in prison in 2008. Without his testimony and without that letter from the grave, prosecutors didn't have enough to win a second trial.

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In August 2012, they officially announced they wouldn't seek a new indictment.

So, fast forward to 2023. Mechele Linehan is living as a private citizen. She moved back to Washington years ago. She has mostly avoided the spotlight, though she did sit down for an interview with 48 Hours back in 2015 to tell her side of the story. Since then? Silence.

She's likely still in the Pacific Northwest. She had a daughter and was married to a doctor, Colin Linehan, who famously stood by her through the entire 99-year-sentence ordeal. Whether they are still together or where exactly she works now is something she keeps very close to the vest. You won't find her on a public Instagram feed or doing the reality TV circuit.

The Mystery That Remains

Even though the legal case is closed, the public's obsession hasn't really died down. You’ve got two camps. One side thinks she’s a cold-blooded mastermind who got away with the perfect crime because of a legal technicality. The other side sees a woman who was slut-shamed by the justice system for her past as a stripper and wrongly accused because she was an "easy target."

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The reality is probably somewhere in the messy middle.

Detectives like Linda Branchflower, who spent years on the case, are still convinced she was involved. But in the eyes of the law, Mechele Linehan is innocent.

What You Can Learn from the Linehan Case

This case is a massive lesson in how the justice system handles "character evidence." It shows how easily a jury can be swayed by a person’s lifestyle rather than hard physical evidence. There was never any DNA or a weapon that tied Mechele to that trail in Hope.

If you're looking for more info on this, you can check out:

• The 48 Hours episode "Love and Death in Alaska."
• The People Magazine Investigates episode "Alaskan Temptress."
• The official Alaska Court of Appeals ruling (Linehan v. State, 2010).

She’s out there. Living a life that looks nothing like the one described in the 2007 trial. Whether she's the person the prosecution described or just a woman who had a wild youth and got caught in a nightmare, we may never truly know.

If you are interested in the legal specifics of her release, look up the 2012 dismissal of the indictment by Judge Philip Volland. It highlights exactly why the state couldn't move forward without the controversial "letter from the grave."