GUILTY CA - Jean Leppan, 33, found in shallow grave, Yucca Valley, 26 Jan 2004 *Arrest*

http://www.clarkstonnews.com/Articl...1-sub-Tragic-end-to-search-for-happiness.html

Jean Lizette Farrias Leppan, 33, disappeared in January 2004. Four months later, her skeletal remains were found in a shallow grave in a desert area 22 miles from the Twentynine Palms Marine base where her ex-husband had been stationed. He was questioned, but never charged in her death...

On Oct. 13, two San Bernardino, Calif. detectives and a district attorney, accompanied by a deputy and detective from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, arrested Charles Patrick Leppan at his residence in the 3800 block of Cherry in the Clarkston Lakes Mobile Home Park in Brandon Township. It is believed he had been living here the past two years.

He was extradited to California and on Oct. 29, Charles Patrick Leppan was charged with one count of murder in the death of Jean Lizette Farrias Leppan, said San Bernardino District Attorney John Thomas.

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http://www.clarkstonnews.com/Articl...14472.113121-Leppan-murder-trial-delayed.html

The murder is believed to have taken place around Jan. 26, 2004 in the home Charles Leppan shared with Jean, his ex-wife, in Yucca Valley, Calif. The actual date of the murder is difficult to determine because Charles Leppan never reported his ex-wife missing, nor did anyone else...

In initial interviews with police, Leppan said his ex-wife was trying to reconcile with him, while he was trying to kick her out of the home. The couple originally met in Virginia, while Leppan was stationed there. Their marriage lasted only about two or three years and was turbulent. Domestic violence charges were filed in Virginia, and their troubles continued in California...

Charles Patrick Leppan filed for divorce on Dec. 18, 2002 and the marriage was dissolved on June 19, 2003. The couple had one child together, a daughter who was 3-years-old at the time of her mother's death.

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‘Our family is forever broken’ Sentence for ex-wife’s death: 13 years

JOSHUA TREE — After 15 years, Jean Leppan’s family got some answers on Friday morning as her killer, Charles Leppan, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for her death.

Jean Leppan’s body was found buried in a shallow grave 22 miles east of downtown Twentynine Palms on May 12, 2004. Charles Leppan, 46, was an early suspect but investigators were unable to find enough evidence to link him to her death. The two were reportedly living in a house in Yucca Valley and attempting to reconcile their marriage when Jean disappeared that January.

Leppan never reported her missing, and he remarried two weeks after she disappeared, investigators said.


Nine years later, Leppan was arrested at his house in Clarkston, Michigan, on Oct. 13, 2013, after investigators in the cold-case unit said they had new evidence linking him to Jean’s death. He was brought to California, where he has remained in custody for the past six years on $1 million bail.