The Stranger She Loved

by Shanna Hogan

  In 1973, Martin enlisted in the army. He was just seventeen, but claimed he was eighteen. Martin’s commanders and fellow recruits soon noticed his curious behavior. He was often insubordinate and got in trouble with commanders. He spoke of hearing voices urging him to kill and seemed deeply disturbed.

  About two years into his service, Martin’s commanders sent him for psychiatric testing. After a battery of tests and evaluations, psychiatrists deemed Martin a “latent schizophrenic” with “other mental and psychological infirmities.” In 1975, at the age of nineteen, Martin was discharged from the army due to his mental illness. He applied for and was granted financial benefits through the Veterans Benefits Administration and also through Social Security.

  Around this time, Martin was introduced to the Mormon religion through missionaries. Despite never having been particularly spiritual, he integrated himself in the LDS community, attending services at the local Mormon church. He even went on a mission to spread the Mormon message, a typical practice for young LDS members, especially males. But while missions usually last two years, Martin’s term ended after just a few months. The other missionaries became fearful of Martin’s mercurial moods and erratic behavior. It was determined that his mental issues were too severe to complete a mission. Martin flew back home, escorted on the plane by another missionary.

  Despite his apparent mental illness, Martin had lofty goals and ambitions, including becoming a psychiatrist. He moved to Olympia, Washington, a bustling governmental hub located in the Pacific Northwest, encircled by historical landmarks and lush evergreen trees.

  Martin enrolled at Saint Martin’s University, a private Catholic college located in neighboring Lacey, Washington, where he studied psychology. Because he was able to transfer sixty-five educational credits he claimed from the army’s extension program, he graduated from Saint Martin’s in just two years, with degrees in psychology and sociology. He planned to continue his education and become a doctor.

  After graduating in 1977, he moved to Mission Viejo, where his sister Mary was living. There, he attended the same Mormon church and was a member of the same singles’ ward as Michele Somers.

  * * *

  Martin possessed a dangerous combination of intelligence and callous ambition. For such a brilliant but twisted mind as his, boredom was insufferable. The sheer monotony of life seemed so corrosive and thick, it drove him to extreme, risky behavior. Despite the consequences, he seemed intent on creating turmoil.

  In the summer of 1977, he was watching an episode of the news program 60 Minutes that included a story about check forgers and how they operated. He was fascinated with the simplicity of the scam and told friends he could execute the con with fewer risks. “I could do it better,” he said.

  For reasons even he would later consider inexplicable, Martin decided to commit check fraud. Selecting a random name from the county recorder’s records, he hired a friend to go to the Office of Vital Records and obtain a copy of that individual’s birth certificate by swearing to be that man’s father.

  Using the birth certificate, Martin went to the DMV and was able to obtain a temporary driver’s license, which he used to open a checking account. He deposited fifty dollars and received a set of blank checks.

  On Labor Day weekend in 1977, when he knew the banks were closed, Martin used the checks and phony license during a three-day shopping spree. Dressed in designer slacks and a collared shirt, he brashly strolled into fourteen different stores, spending thousands of dollars on extravagant purchases including furniture, appliances, jewelry, and clothing.

  Business owners and sales clerks would later remember him as affluent-looking, smooth, confident, and not at all nervous. Martin purchased diamond rings, watches, couches, chairs, a grandfather clock, a refrigerator, TVs, bicycles, car tires, sixty pairs of socks, two dozen pairs of shoes, a wardrobe of clothing, and even a year’s supply of chocolate-covered cherries. By the time a store employee became suspicious, he had spent about thirty-five thousand dollars. The employee alerted police, and Martin was arrested and charged with fourteen felonies.

  After consulting with a lawyer, at first Martin pled not guilty by reason of insanity, based on his previous diagnosis of schizophrenia. As part of his defense he was evaluated by two court-appointed psychiatrists. He tried to explain why he felt compelled to attempt the scam. “I don’t know why I did it,” Martin told one psychiatrist. “I didn’t want the stuff. I didn’t need the stuff.”

  Martin also spoke of his homicidal urges and the voices in his head. While the psychiatrists believed he was deeply damaged, they deemed him mentally fit to stand trial. “The patient has gotten into trouble with the authorities due to his desire to kill people at the command of voices,” a psychiatric report stated.

  The case was prosecuted by the then assistant district attorney of Orange County, Gary Ryan, who remembered the young delinquent as intelligent and full of potential. “He was bright and he was a con,” Ryan explained. “He should have been a success. He had all the talent in the world.”

  As Martin fought the charges, he continued to go to church, and he confided his legal troubles to a bishop. Throughout the fall of 1977, he attended church-sponsored activities for young single Mormons, where he first caught a glimpse of Michele. Confident in his approach, Martin asked her on a date and she said yes.

  Just a few months later, Michele Somers would become his bride.

  4.

  Martin’s initial lust for the young beauty queen flourished into a domineering desire. He seemed to love Michele with a selfish intensity—he wanted to possess her.

  Shortly after they first met, he began to govern every aspect of her life. In the beginning, Michele was smitten with her handsome, ambitious, and extraordinarily attentive new boyfriend. Their relationship was passionate and exciting.

  But Michele also had doubts about Martin. At times his controlling manner seemed to frighten her. After one of their dates, she expressed her concerns to her sisters. “I don’t know about Martin,” she said, shaking her head.

  On one occasion, Martin and Michele were arguing in his car when she suggested they break up. Suddenly, Martin grew frantic. From the center console of his car, he retrieved a pistol and placed it against his temple, as Michele would later tell her sisters.

  “I can’t live without you,” Martin screamed at Michele. He cocked the weapon, his finger on the trigger. “If you leave me I’ll kill myself.” After several minutes, Michele convinced him to set the gun aside, and they continued dating.

  But the stress of their dramatic relationship seemed to weigh heavily on Michele. Over the course of their courtship, she lost weight and seemed fraught with worry. Reflecting back, Linda Cluff wondered what Martin must have said to convince Michele not to leave him. “There were fights and she couldn’t take it. You could see the stress in her face,” Linda recalled. “I don’t know what happened. Her whole world changed in a few months after meeting him.”

  Maybe Michele mistook Martin’s obsession for love. Or perhaps he used her compassion against her. During their relationship, Martin told stories of his traumatic childhood, claiming his mother was a prostitute. Michele’s tender heart seemed touched by the wounded young man with the tragic past.

  Soon after they met, Martin made plans to introduce Michele to his then seventy-nine-year-old father in Long Beach. On Halloween 1977, Martin and Michele were attending a play when suddenly he claimed to experience a dark foreboding. “I feel like something happened to my dad,” he said to Michele.

  The next day, November 1, Martin went to his father’s house and knocked on the front door, but there was no reply. Finding a key, he entered the home. Inside he discovered Albert MacNeill Sr. dead. When he later informed Michele of his father’s passing, she was convinced her boyfriend had experienced an astonishing premonition of death.

  Albert MacNeill Sr.’s death was ruled natural, relating to age and health problems. Martin seemed devastated, and Michele was symp
athetic. He collected a few thousand dollars from his father’s insurance policy—money he desperately needed due to his impending legal troubles from the check fraud.

  Soon it seemed Michele had fallen deeply in love. But while she had strong feelings for Martin, her friends and family were far from impressed. Once the couple had become serious, Michele brought her boyfriend home to meet her mom and siblings. Martin strolled brashly through the front door, pausing to admire his reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. He spoke haughtily of his own educational background and career ambitions. He seemed cold, disingenuous, rude, and arrogant. Helen had a bad feeling about Martin, and Michele’s siblings believed there was something off about his demeanor. The more time Martin spent with Michele, the more her family grew concerned.

  “I thought he was just a big actor—he just gave me the creeps,” Linda Cluff said years later. “He was self-absorbed. It became more and more apparent each time I saw him that he believed he was more superior than anyone else and he thought very highly of himself.”

  Weeks later the Somerses’ bishop came to the house to warn Helen about her daughter’s blossoming romance with Martin. “I can’t tell you why exactly,” the bishop said. “But there are some things in his background that are concerning.”

  Around this time Martin confessed to Michele about his arrest for check fraud. While she seemed worried, Martin simply shrugged. “It’s no big deal,” he insisted. “It was just a dumb mistake I made in the past.”

  When Michele spoke to her family about the arrest, they tried to convince her to end it with Martin. But Michele defended her boyfriend. “If you only knew about his childhood,” she said.

  By the time anyone in Michele’s life learned the true extent of the criminal charges, she would already be his wife.

  Over the course of their relationship, Martin tried to isolate Michele from her family and friends. He had a way of twisting situations to paint her family as the villains. During one argument at the Somerses’ home, Martin turned to Michele, pointing at her mom and sisters. “Look at them, Michele. They’re crazy.”

  As Michele’s friends watched her slip further into Martin’s grasp, they were troubled as well. “We were all very concerned for Michele,” childhood friend Cynthia Crosby Woods explained. “She very much loved Martin but she was very much dominated and very much controlled by Martin.”

  But despite the concerns of her loved ones, just a few months after they met, Martin and Michele were wed. On February 21, 1978—a Tuesday—they went to the justice of the peace and eloped.

  For a while Michele’s mom and siblings had no idea about the marriage.

  Weeks later, Martin came to the Somerses’ home with the intent of collecting Michele and her things, to move her into his apartment, Linda remembered. Helen protested, a blowup ensued, and the police were called. As Martin frantically grabbed Michele’s possessions, he sneered. “It’s too late, we’re already married!”

  Helen was distraught.

  Soon after, Helen spotted a newspaper article in the Orange County Register with the headline: BRILLIANT FORGERY SPREE INSPIRED BY TV. Scanning the article, she realized it was about Martin. Her new son-in-law was facing fourteen felony counts for forging over thirty-five-thousand dollars’ worth of checks.

  Compelled to investigate, Helen drove to the courthouse and obtained all the records related to Martin’s prosecution, including two psychological evaluations. She was horrified to learn that Martin was a diagnosed schizophrenic and heard voices urging him to kill. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he killed her someday,” Helen told two of her daughters.

  Helen tried to speak with Michele about her findings. But now that she was married, Michele was determined to make it work with Martin.

  “We have no idea how or what he said to explain everything to her, but we just know whatever we said made her draw further from us and closer to him,” Linda recalled. “There was no talking to her. He had a hold on her. There was nothing we could do.”

  Around that time Helen discovered something unusual in her car. Martin had recently borrowed her vehicle and he had left his briefcase in the trunk, which Helen discovered while loading groceries. Helen peaked inside the briefcase and found blank stationery and an official seal from Saint Martin’s University. Helen knew it was the college Martin had attended, and it struck her as odd. She showed everything to Linda, who made an impression of the seal. Helen added the seal to her collection of news clips, court documents, and psychological evaluations.

  “I want to keep ahold of these because I just have a feeling we may need them someday,” Helen told her daughters. There would be no way she could have known then how important that evidence would eventually become, but on an incredible hunch, she would store those documents for three decades.

  Fearful of losing their relationship with Michele, the Somers family made an attempt to embrace Martin. “It was from that point on that we just had to move forward to keep a relationship with Michele,” Linda later said. “We, as Michele’s family, tried our hardest to accept Martin. What else could we do? We had to deal with the devil, as we saw him, or lose what we had left of a relationship with Michele.”

  But while Michele’s family tried to make amends, Martin only seemed to widen the rift. The Somerses watched helplessly as Michele drifted farther away from her family.

  * * *

  Facing years behind bars for forgery, theft, and fraud, Martin took a plea and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of felony probation. Four months after tying the knot, he served the six-month sentence in a California jail. He used the money he had collected from his father’s insurance policy and his army benefits to pay for expenses while he was incarcerated.

  Once released, he reunited with his wife and they moved into an apartment in Hollywood.

  After serving his time in prison, Martin seemed intent on changing his life. Whatever mental illness had driven him from the military and Mormon missionary work was suddenly no longer an issue. The disturbing voices in his head seemed to lower to a whisper and then, quite curiously, go silent.

  5.

  Martin sat at his wife’s bedside as she rested in the delivery room of a hospital in California. She wore a sleeveless white gown, her feathered blond hair cascading around her shoulders. In her arms she cradled a baby bundled in a blanket. As she glanced down at her new daughter, a peaceful grin spread across Michele’s face.

  It was October 11, 1979, and Michele had just given birth to a girl she named Rachel Renee. Following Martin’s stint in jail, the young couple had wasted no time starting their family. Just one month after her husband’s release, Michele learned she was pregnant. She was twenty-two.

  Once Rachel was born, Michele’s world revolved around motherhood. Over the next five years she would give birth to four children. By all accounts she was an exceptional mother. “Above all, her kids meant everything to her,” her sister Susan recalled. “Her life pretty much circled around whatever they were involved in doing. That’s what her days were really filled with … her children.”

  Meanwhile, Martin enrolled in medical school and began working toward a career as a doctor. He abandoned his plan of being a psychiatrist, aiming instead for a career as a physician. He pursued his degree through a little-known program launched in 1972 for American medical students attending foreign universities. The course of study requires students to complete four years of schooling at a foreign college, perform clinical work at American schools, and complete a residency. Before being licensed, students must pass the same exams and requirements as American-trained physicians. Thousands of doctors have become licensed through the program, most attending schools in Mexico.

  At the age of twenty-three, Martin enrolled in a college in Guadalajara, Mexico, known as the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara School of Medicine.

  In early 1980, Martin, Michele, and baby Rachel briefly moved to Mexico. After just one semester, however, Martin left the school for re
asons unknown. The family returned to California, where they lived in Walnut, an affluent suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County.

  Martin transferred his credits from Mexico to the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific in Pomona, California. The school was later renamed Western University of Health Sciences. For the next three years, Martin studied osteopathic medicine, a holistic field focusing on the musculoskeletal system and based on the principle that a person’s health is reliant on the skeleton, muscles, and ligaments functioning together.

  Meanwhile, the MacNeill family grew. The couple’s second daughter, Vanessa Marie, was born on September 16, 1981. Fourteen months later, on November 19, 1982, Alexis Michele came along.

  In 1983, Martin graduated from medical school and was licensed as an osteopathic surgeon in California. More than a year later, Martin and Michele’s only son, Damian Alexander, was born on January 31, 1985.

  Martin then landed a residency at a hospital in New York and moved his family of six to Flushing, a residential community in north-central Queens.

  After completing his residency, the MacNeills settled in Utah. Martin was licensed as an osteopathic physician in Utah in 1987. And over the next twenty years Dr. Martin MacNeill, D.O., worked as a physician at hospitals and clinics across the state.

  No one knew then that his entire career was based on lies.

  * * *

  From the pictures in their photo album, the MacNeills appear to be the perfect, wholesome Mormon family.

  In one picture the children are piled on the couch with their parents, the girls wearing frilly dresses and bows in their hair. Michele holds baby Damian on her lap. Martin, wearing surgical scrubs and oversized eyeglasses, has one arm draped around his wife.