Notorious Cruise Murder Case Brought Back in the Spotlight
A mysterious murder of a cruise ship passenger during a Mediterranean cruise has found its way into the spotlight again, nearly 20 years after the incident shocked passengers and made headlines.
On March 13, 2025, the UK’s new true crime drama, “The Push,” premiered, diving into some of the most bewildering criminal cases from around the world.
The very first episode? “Murder on a Cruise Ship,” which centers around the death of Micki Kanesaki in a cruise mystery that was so stunning it was destined for television.
Kanesaki, a former Orange County, California, paralegal, was sailing with her ex-husband, Lonnie Loren Kocontes, an attorney, on a Mediterranean cruise together from Spain to Italy in May 2006.
Sharing a cabin on the Island Escape, a cruise ship jointly owned by Royal Caribbean and First Choice Travel, which was originally built as a ferry boat and later converted into a cruise ship, Kanesaki mysteriously disappeared on the evening of May 25, 2006.
The following day, her body was found floating near the coast of Paola, Italy.
It took seven years before Kocontes was arrested on the suspicion of murder in an attempt to gain financial access to $1 million of funds tied up between Kanesaki and himself.
It took another 7 years before he was tried and convicted of the crime, receiving a lifetime sentence without parole in September 2020.
Airing on Channel 5 in the UK, “The Push” provides viewers with an in-depth look at the psychological and legal intricacies of the case, providing a detailed reconstruction of the crime, along with interviews with key figures involved in the investigation and a review of the trial.
A Tragic Reunion at Sea
Married in 1995 and divorced in 2001, Orange County prosecutors claim Kocontes strangled Kanesaki and threw her body overboard during their cruise in a premeditated murder plot.
The case against Kocontes, which became fodder for “The Push,” was filled with intrigue as prosecutors won their case on a single flaw: Kocontes first strangled his ex-wife before throwing her body overboard.
Because she was deceased when she went into the sea, her lungs did not fill up with air, making her body float instead of sinking, allowing it to be found.
“The defendant thought he had planned the perfect crime and lured his pray to her death with a Mediterranean cruise,”said Todd Spitzer, the Orange County district attorney that prosecuted Kocontes.
“He picked the perfect ship, the perfect state room, and the perfect time to kill his ex-wife. And he almost got away with murder,” he continued.
While awaiting trial, Kocontes was also indicated in May 2015 on two counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of solicitation to bribe a witness.
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It seems that while detained at the Orange County Jail, he allegedly drafted a letter intended for his third wife to sign.
The document claimed her previous grand jury testimony in 2006 was truthful and that her damning 2013 testimony was coerced by law enforcement threats.
Prosecutors said that between February and July 2014, Kocontes solicited fellow inmates to secure his new wife’s signature on the letter and subsequently kill her.
However, a former inmate reported the plan to authorities, leading to the new charges.
Although it’s too early to know how many viewers watched the docudrama, fans of the genre can find less dramatic ways to get their entertainment aboard a special true crime cruise sailing on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Joy in January 2026.