Murder of Larry McNabney

Laurence "Larry" McNabney (December 19, 1948 – September 10, 2001) was an American attorney based in Sacramento, California. His body was discovered buried in a vineyard near Linden, California, on February 5, 2002.

McNabney's wife, who used the name Elisa McNabney, was later identified as Laren Renee Sims, a woman with a lengthy criminal history including fraud and identity theft convictions in Florida and 38 known aliases. She met McNabney in 1995 while working at his Las Vegas law office under an assumed identity; a Nevada State Bar investigation subsequently found she had embezzled more than $74,000 from clients. McNabney married her in 1996 after relocating his practice to Sacramento.

McNabney later hired Sarah Dutra as a legal secretary. Tensions grew in the McNabney marriage as Elisa and Dutra spent increasing amounts of time together, funded by Larry's income, and Larry began to suspect an affair between them.

On September 10, 2001, following a horse show, Elisa McNabney and Sarah Dutra injected Larry McNabney with the horse tranquilizer xylazine at a Los Angeles hotel; he was last seen alive being pushed in a wheelchair by the two women. Elisa reportedly drove to Yosemite National Park intending to bury Larry, but he was still alive, and she returned to Sacramento with him unconscious. He died the following day, September 12, 2001, after receiving further tranquilizer doses. Forensic examiners and Elisa's later confession indicated his body was kept in a refrigerator in the McNabney garage for approximately three months before being moved to a nearby winery, where it was found by San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office detectives on February 5, 2002.

Before the body was discovered, Elisa had liquidated more than $500,000 in assets and disappeared, last seen on January 11, 2002. Larry's disappearance had also been reported to police by his son and a newly hired secretary who grew suspicious after being hired the same day Larry vanished. Following the discovery of the body and confirmation of Elisa's true identity and criminal record, a nationwide manhunt ensued across several states before she turned herself in near Fort Walton Beach, Florida, on March 20, 2002.

While in custody awaiting extradition to California, Elisa gave a full confession to law enforcement, stating she killed her husband because he was physically abusive and that outstanding Florida warrants prevented her from leaving him or reporting him. One week later, on Easter Sunday 2002 (March 31, 2002), she hanged herself in her jail cell, leaving a note asking that her children receive proceeds from any lawsuit against the jail over her suicide; a subsequent investigation disputed her claim that she had not been regularly checked.

Sarah Dutra stood trial in 2003 for the murder of Larry McNabney. She was acquitted of first-degree murder but found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and being an accessory to murder, and was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison. She was released from the Central California Women's Facility on August 26, 2011, after serving eighty-five percent of her sentence.

The case was adapted into the 2005 Lifetime television film "Lies My Mother Told Me" and has been covered by television programs including Dateline, as well as in the true-crime book "Marked for Death" by Brian J. Karem.