Idaho woman said her husband fell off boat, drowned. She was just charged with murder
An Idaho woman has been charged with murder in her husband’s death more than two years after she claimed he drowned after falling from their boat.
Laurcene “Lori” Isenberg, 66, of Coeur d’Alene, was charged with first-degree murder last week in the death of 68-year-old Larry Isenberg, the Spokesman-Review reported.
Larry Isenberg died in February 2018. At the time, Lori told authorities that he fell from their boat on Lake Coeur d’Alene and drowned, though an autopsy revealed he had lethal levels of diphenhydramine, an antihistamine commonly sold as Benadryl, in his system when he died.
Since Larry Isenberg’s death, Lori has faced unrelated criminal charges, as well as accusations that she may have tampered with Larry’s estate — circumstances that complicate the already-tangled case.
Body found in Lake Coeur d’Alene
On Feb. 13, 2018, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report that a man had fallen into the lake while attempting to repair the motor on his boat. According to a Sheriff’s Office Facebook post, officials received a 911 call from Lori Isenberg shortly before 10:30 a.m. Lori told law enforcement that she “attempted for some time to locate Larry on her own without success,” the post said.
The sheriff deployed a dive team, as well as sonar devices, in an attempt to locate the body.
A week later, Lori Isenberg sent an email to friends and family detailing what she claims happened on Feb. 13. In the letter, which was obtained by the Coeur d’Alene Press in 2018, Lori said Larry was recovering from the flu and “wanted to take (her) on a date to get us both out of the house.”
Around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, the couple took their boat to the southern part of Lake Coeur d’Alene to a spot called Sun Up Bay, Lori wrote. They put a canvas cover on the boat and brought a small space heater to ward off the cold.
Lori said in her letter that Larry began to inspect the electric motor at the front of the boat, claiming that it “didn’t sound right.”
“Then he stood up, looked at me with a confused look on his face and started to fall over,” Lori wrote. “I jumped up and tried to get to him, but I tripped on the heater and banged my head and couldn’t reach him in time.”
Lori said she “started driving fast and frantically looking for him” because she was in shock and without a cellphone to call for help. She said she later located Larry’s phone in the boat and was able to call 911. The day after Larry went missing, Lori went back out on the lake with the search team, she said.
“I cannot describe the pain I feel,” Lori wrote at the end of her email. “It is like half of me is gone.”
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office recovered Larry Isenberg’s body from the lake on March 1, 2018.
Lori Isenberg investigated amid suspicious circumstances
According to TV station KHQ, Lori Isenberg became a suspect in Larry’s death following the results of his autopsy. When he died, Larry had more than 7,000 nanograms of antihistamine in his system. A normal dosage is between 100 and 1,000ng. He did not die of a stroke or drowning, the medical examiner concluded.
Court records show that Lori Isenberg has been charged under a specific section of Idaho code relating to murder “by means of poison, or lying in wait, or torture ... to execute vengeance, to extort something from the victim, or to satisfy some sadistic inclination.”
The same day that Larry died, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported that Lori was no longer the executive director of the North Idaho Housing Coalition, and that the housing nonprofit was investigating potential embezzlement. She was arrested a few weeks later.
A search warrant filed in July 2018 in Spokane Superior Court linked Larry’s death to Lori Isenberg and her “spiraling financial troubles,” KHQ reported.
According to the July search warrant, KHQ reported, “handwritten changes” were made to Larry Isenberg’s will in favor of Lori’s children in the weeks before his death. When the couple married in 2004, Lori had six children and Larry had two. The changes effectively gave 80% of Larry Isenberg’s estate to Lori’s adult children and the remaining 20% to Larry’s adult children.
Last year, Lori pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from the North Idaho Housing Coalition and was sentenced to five years in prison. Four of her daughters were also arrested and pleaded guilty to receiving funds that Isenberg stole, the Spokesman-Review reported.
According to court records, the first-degree murder case against Lori Isenberg was filed in Kootenai County District Court on Jan. 31, 2020. She remained in jail on Monday with a $2 million bond.
She is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
