Leppink letter raises new questions

In a bizarre letter written two days before his body, shot three times, was found near Hope in May 1996, Leppink told his parents that if he turned up dead, to blame Linehan or two prominent men in her life, John Carlin or Scott Hilke.

“It was my time and there’s nothing that can change that,” he writes in the letter. “There are a few things I’d like you to do for me, though. I hate to be vindictive in my death, but paybacks are hell.”

Portions of the letter were entered into evidence Monday. Prosecutors say Linehan conspired with Carlin to kill Leppink for a $1 million life insurance payout she erroneously thought was to go to her.

Betsy Leppink, the victim’s mother, took the witness stand in the morning. She testified that the day before she heard her son had been killed she and her husband received the package in the mail that her son called his “insurance policy.” It contained a cover letter and a sealed envelope.

In the cover letter, he told his parents, “If I didn’t think that things could get a little ‘rough’ up here, I wouldn’t have sent you this.”

“It’s not funny to talk about getting killed, but in today’s world you have to expect anything.”

In the sealed envelope, which his parents opened after they found out he was dead, Kent Leppink writes to his parents not to dwell on his death. He asks them to tidy up his personal business, and he tells them to “take Mechele DOWN. Make sure she is prosecuted.”

In portions of the letter not shown to the jury, Leppink tells his parents to give or sell his boat to a friend, to take his $1-million life insurance money to pay off his debts, and to take some of his life insurance money to go on a nice beach vacation. He also gives them detailed information about Linehan, who then went by her maiden name, Hughes. He accuses her of using Carlin’s medical insurance as her own, and not reporting her exotic dancing income to the Internal Revenue Service. He gives them contact information for insurance companies, Linehan’s mother’s address, and Linehan’s Social Security number.

On the day he sent the package, Kent Leppink lived at Carlin’s South Anchorage home, where Linehan also resided. The next day, he spent the evening at the house watching television and drinking beer, Carlin’s son, John Carlin IV, testified at his father's March trial.

Linehan’s defense attorney, Wayne Fricke, asked Betsy Leppink if her son ever expressed any fear of Linehan. She said no.

“He didn’t seek to move out of that house, correct?” he asked.

“I don’t have a clue,” she answered.

Kent Leppink’s brothers have also taken the witness stand in the last two days of trial. They testified that the $1-million life insurance payout, which Kent Leppink changed the beneficiary on days before he died, went to two of his three brothers and his nieces and nephews. His parents and a third brother would not accept any of the money.

The family also testified that several years before Leppink died there was a deep rift in the family. Leppink had embezzled as much as $100,000 from the family’s Michigan grocery business. When the family found out, they kicked him out of the company. He left Michigan and eventually ended up in Alaska.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.