California Woman Survives Suburban Bombing, Husband's Double Life

Oct. 19, 2012 — -- Connie Hoagland, a mother of three from suburban San Diego, says she is ready to forgive and forget the man who tried to kill her by planting a bomb in her car more than two years ago.

That man was her husband.

"I don't want to think about him anymore," she told "20/20." "I just am done with that. I had to forgive him."

Hoagland, 54, suffered devastating injuries on Sept. 23, 2010 when she turned the ignition of her truck and it exploded, leaving Hoagland lying in a pool of blood near the day-care center where she worked.

"I just remember my feet were in such pain ... [like] they were just blown off," she said.

Police determined a pipe bomb was to blame for the explosion, but who, they wondered, would want to hurt Hoagland?

"Not knowing who she was or anything about the Hoaglands whatsoever ... [they asked]: Was there gambling debt? Was there some type of drug deals going wrong?" said San Diego Sheriff Det. Robert Luke. "We look at every angle there was."

When police questioned Hoagland's family, their first impression was a good one.

"They struck me as a very nice family. They stuck together, they were very proud of each other, they were very supportive of each other," Luke said.

Hoagland fell in love with the man who would become her husband when they were both in their 20s. Larry Hoagland was a professional photographer who was considered charming and well-liked. The pair were both active in their church and taught Bible study.

They had three children, the youngest of whom was still in high school in 2010.

But as Luke dug deeper, he found there was a specific problem nagging at the Hoagland family: deep debt. The couple was facing bankruptcy and Larry Hoagland, 50, was traveling out of town for work to try to keep the family afloat.

"We didn't have a lot of money, but I just trusted that he was trying to do the best he could," Connie Hoagland said.

But she added that she noticed a change in her husband when he started traveling and dealing with the couple's financial woes.

He "snapped more, just grumpy ... because of all the stress," she said. "I was just extra nice to him."

After the attack, when Connie Hoagland was recovering in the hospital -- a recovery that included putting a rod in her right leg -- police investigating her case got a clue that would lead to an arrest. When Larry Hoagland's business partner did a search of previous Web searches on the computer they shared, he found more than 20 different sites with information on bomb-making.

Police arrested Larry Hoagland just days after the bombing.

Hoagland called his family from jail, including his bedridden wife. During a phone call to her, he denied planting the bomb but made a startling confession of a different sort.

"He said, 'Hi Connie, I just wanted to let you know, because it's going to get out, that I've been having an affair," she said. "Then he said, 'But I'm dedicated to you ever since Thursday, and that was the day of the bombing.'"

She did once suspect her husband of cheating and confronted him. But after he denied it, Connie Hoagland let it go.

Until his arrest, Connie Hoagland never suspected her husband of planting the bomb.

"I didn't even think that he would have been a suspect," she said.

Police said that Larry Hoagland was, in fact, leading a double life. Those out-of-town visits for "work," they said, were actually trips to see his mistress, Lee Ann Rupert, a Pennsylvania woman who was once his high school sweetheart.