Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PLEASANT GROVE — A Pleasant Grove man who captured national attention for being the prime suspect in his wife's death — not to mention accused of a host of other crimes that sent him to federal prison — is now free, and his own kids say he continues to get away with murder.
Michele MacNeill seemed to have everything. She was beautiful, wealthy and married to a doctor who was also an attorney. That is, until she was found dead five years ago. Her children believe their father — Dr. Martin MacNeill — staged her death, something he adamantly denies.
Dr. MacNeill walked out of federal prison on Friday a free man. But his daughter, Alexis Somers, is haunted by the thought that he killed her mother and has not been charged.
"Supposedly, he's back in the Pleasant Grove home, my mother's home, where he murdered her," Somers said.
MacNeill's attorney says his client adamantly denies he did anything to harm his wife.
And in the 911 call to police, Martin MacNeill can be heard frantically screaming at dispatchers that he'd found his wife underwater in the bathtub. Somers believes her mother's death was staged, though, and that her father murdered her mother. She and her sisters have been pushing the Utah County Attorney's office since their mother's death to act.
Supposedly, he's back in the Pleasant Grove home, my mother's home, where he murdered her.
–Alexis Somers
"I don't understand," she said. "I don't understand how he's been able to get away with what he has so far, and why things aren't happening a little quicker," Somers said.
Somers keeps a book — with some pictures of her mother — but mainly it's full of what she says is evidence that the family has collected over the years.
"We've uncovered so much — my family, my aunts — trying to figure out who this man is, because he was just full of lies," she said. "Everything about my father has been a lie."
Lies she says can't cover the murder of her mother. And now that her father is out of federal prison, Somers wonders what he's capable of doing next.
"I'm afraid, because I know my father and what he can do," she said.
Martin MacNeill has not been charged in the death of Michele MacNeill.
The Utah County Attorney's Office declined KSL's request for an on-camera interview, but did say their investigation into the death of Michele MacNeill remains open and is active.
