Police found her body washed ashore on the New York shoreline of Lake Erie on July 5
The body had an anchor had an anchor strapped to the chest with nylon fishing rope, she’d been shot in the head
Leclair was seen getting on his boat with his wife on June 10 but she was never seen again, he returned alone a day later
The couple had been married twenty six years, but for eight months he’d been having an affair with a 44-year-old woman from their hometown of Albion
His girlfriend’s account contradicts suspect’s narrative and timelines
The suspect’s father Ernest Leclair, 74, is charged with tampering with and fabricating physical evidence
Christopher Leclair was earlier charged with one count of criminal homicide on June 13, based in large part on inconsistent statements investigators said he gave to troopers
Karen Leclair’s body washed ashore three weeks after she took a boating trip with her husband on Lake Eire, on June 11
Karen Leclair washed up on the New York shoreline of Lake Erie on Wednesday, three weeks after her husband Christopher reported her missing on June 11. He told police she’d fallen overboard during a boating trip. The remains of Mrs Leclair turned up with an anchor bound to her torso with nylon fishing rope and she had been shot in the head.
Karen’s husband was charged with her murder on June 11 hours after telling police she had fallen overboard as they sailed Lake Erie.
The body of Karen Leclair, washed up on the New York shoreline of Lake Erie on Wednesday, three weeks after her husband Christopher, 48, claimed she had fallen overboard when he was not looking.
In an apparent case of homicide, the 51-year-old victim had been shot in the head and had an anchor strapped to her torso with nylon fishing tape. in his initial interview
He claimed she was feeling queasy and had been sitting on a bucket on the deck of his commercial boat when she vanished.
Police on Wednesday declared that Karen Leclair, who disappeared on lake Eire in June, was shot. Police charged her husband with killing her and her father-in-law Ernest Leclair for hiding the gun. The suspect’s father Ernest Leclair, 74, is charged with tampering with and fabricating physical evidence, after investigators said he attempted to conceal the weapon used in the commission of the crime.
The give away was a prison conversation between Christopher Leclair and his father on Tuesday that led Pennsylvania State Police to suspect that a gun may have been involved in the June 10 disappearance of Christopher Leclair’s wife, Karen Leclair, whom he is accused of killing. This was before an autopsy performed on the remains of Karen Leclair on Wednesday,found that she had been shot.
Christopher Leclair allegedly shot his wife and weighed the body with an anchor before throwing it overboard on June 10. He has been charged with murder
Surveillance footage captured the couple boarding the boat on June 10 together and taking it out on the water. Only Christopher disembarked, however, and he was seen on the same cameras returning the next day which is when he made the phone call.
It was later alleged that he spent the night with his mistress who said he’d told her she could move in to his home soon after returning from the first boat outing.
Woman’s body found in NY may be slain Pennsylvania woman, Karen Leclair missing since boating trip with husband on June 10 – Christopher Leclair charged with murder and dumping body in lake
Police Wednesday said Christopher Leclair [left], shot his wife Karen Leclair [center], and dumped her body in Lake Eire. Karen’s father-in-law Ernest Leclair [right], is charged with hiding the weapon
Authorities charged Christopher, 48, with murder within hours of him calling them to report his wife missing.
In police interviews, he allegedly confessed to police that he’d been having an affair with another woman for the past eight months and admitted they’d been intimate on June 9, one day before his wife was last seen.
His lover was interviewed and claimed that on June 10, after going out to see with his wife, he returned to her home and discussed her moving to his house in Albion in the near future.
Leclair’s girlfriend also told police he mentioned a $30,000 life insurance policy on his wife when Leclair had pizza with the woman and her children at a restaurant about two months ago.
Karen Leclair had not been seen since she was filmed on dock surveillance cameras getting on her husband’s 52-foot commercial boat [photo] on June 10
The couple went out on the lake with Christopher Leclair’s fishing boat [photo], but only one of them made it back ashore
‘We were just looking for the truth, and we were trying to find answers. We were doing everything we possibly could to find and locate Karen Leclair.
‘So when we sit her husband down and we start asking questions and answers to those questions really don’t make sense, and we go back and look at surveillance videos from the marina and we see that, according to the videos, she disappeared on Saturday and he doesn’t report that until Sunday, that’s a red flag to our investigators.
‘At that point the theme of the investigation started to take a change,’ Lt. Wayne Klinen of the state police said.
Go Erie reports that investigators now suspect that Christopher Leclair, 48, shot his wife on their Erie-based commercial fishing vessel, the Doris-M, before tying her up, weighing her down with a small anchor and throwing her overboard on the afternoon of June 10. Authorities allege that Leclair then cleaned his boat, returned to it on June 11 and ventured out on the lake before radioing the U.S. Coast Guard that afternoon and reporting that Karen Leclair had just fallen off the vessel.
The pair had been married for 26 years when Mrs. Leclair disappeared.
The pair had gone out on the water on the Pennsylvania side of Lake Eire. The body washed up on the New York side
‘We were just looking for the truth, and we were trying to find answers. We were doing everything we possibly could to find and locate Karen Leclair.
‘So when we sit her husband down and we start asking questions and answers to those questions really don’t make sense, and we go back and look at surveillance videos from the marina and we see that, according to the videos, she disappeared on Saturday and he doesn’t report that until Sunday, that’s a red flag to our investigators.
‘At that point the theme of the investigation started to take a change,’ Lt. Klinen said.
Investigators then waited to see if Wednesday’s autopsy, at the Erie County, New York, Medical Examiner’s Office, would reveal that Karen Leclair had died from a single gunshot wound to the head from a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver: “There had to be a reason he wanted rid of that gun,” Lt. Kline said.
“Once we knew there was a gunshot wound, we went full tilt,” Kline said.
Troopers searching the Leclairs’ home on Wednesday recovered what is believed to be the murder weapon. Investigators allege that Ernest Leclair moved the gun from a hiding spot in the ceiling tiles in the basement to a bedroom, behind cabinets.
Investigators also searched his vessel, the Doris-M, to compare ropes and anchors to the ones that were tied to Karen Leclair’s body.
Ernest Leclair traveled to Erie County from Florida a week ago, after his son called him and asked him to start liquidating his assets to pay for a lawyer, but Karen Leclair’s family obtained an injunction preventing the liquidation of property.
Ernest Leclair has been charged him with a misdemeanor count of tampering with evidence. He was arraigned Wednesday evening. Bond was set at $25,000.
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