Teen Missing After Decade-Long Manhunt for Mom Ends in Suicide

At left is a photo of Kristopher Loesch taken around the time of his disappearance in 1999. At right is an age-progressed photo of how Kristopher might look today. He would be 18 years old.

(Courtesy Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

Getting Away With Murder

At the time, police had no reason to suspect foul play. Barbara Loesch's death was ruled accidental -- the official cause of death was drowning -- and the insurance money was paid out to Loesch, who promptly signed it over to Hanson, who ran a home-improvement business.

"They hung around for a while because, at that time, they thought they had pretty much fooled us," McLean said.

Still, nagging questions remained, such as how the cord for the television set had gotten unplugged by the time police found Barbara Loesch's body. Did the force of the electrical current pull it out of the socket? Or did someone unplug it before leaving the body?

Then, in 1999, Bradley Steckman, a friend and employee at Hanson's home-improvement business, was arrested and charged with the murder of Dorothy Martin, an elderly woman living in Washington state.

McLean said that Steckman was Hanson's "thug" and that he told police she had requested he break into the woman's house to steal a diamond ring she had seen while working there. But Martin surprised Steckman and he smothered her to death.

While being interviewed by police in Washington, he told investigators that he had been involved in Barbara Loesch's death -- that his job was to rig the television to expel as much energy as possible and then assist Loesch in drowning her mother after she was stunned by the jolt.

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McLean said Steckman pleaded guilty to Loesch's murder and was given a concurrent sentence with that of Martin's murder in exchange for his testimony against Hanson and Loesch. Without elaborating, McLean said police believe Steckman may have had knowledge about the death of Gary Loesch, but the convict isn't speaking.

Other than Steckman's statements, police had no physical evidence to connect Hanson and Loesch to Barbara Loesch's murder, and the lovers took off shortly after Steckman's arrest with then-9-year-old Kristopher in tow.

McLean said police were careful in their negotiations with Steckman because or their belief that he may know about Gary Loesch's death. Steckman had been also concerned about the safety of his son, given the publicity surrounding the two murders.

Chuck Loesch, Tina Loesch's brother, said the last time he saw his sister was at their mother's funeral. He had no idea at that time that she had anything to do with the death, calling her "one hell of an actress."

He hasn't seen Kristopher since he was a small child, maybe 2 or 3 years old.

Tina Loesch, he said, "was always mixed up with the wrong crowd, always causing trouble."

When police notified him Monday afternoon that his sister and her girlfriend had been found dead, it came as a surprise -- only because the family assumed all these years that at least one of them was dead and that they may have fled the country. They also assumed the couple wasn't even together anymore.

"It does bring a sigh of relief in a sense that we don't have to go through a trial and sit through years and years of torment," he said.

But there's still so many unanswered questions -- including whatever happened to Kristopher, who may not even know he has an uncle.