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.

When they weren't together, the couple exchanged as many as 100 text messages a day. Even while he was at the hospital, supposedly doting on Connie Hoagland, Larry Hoagland was sending messages and even a photo to his secret lover.

"When he rededicated his life to his wife, about 40 minutes after he got to the hospital he was out in the hallway taking pictures of himself in that fish-eye mirror and texting her," Luke said. "He sent it to her email, says, 'I love you Lee Ann, I wished you were here.'"

Both Connie Hoagland and Lee Ann Rupert testified in court last April, at Larry Hoagland's attempted murder trial. Rupert told the court that Hoagland told her that he was in the process of getting a divorce from his wife and had already moved out of their home. She and Larry Hoagland often spoke of getting married. She also said she knew nothing of Hoagland's pipe bomb scheme. Det. Luke said the Sheriff's department investigation confirmed that Rupert was unaware of the pipe bomb plot.

Rupert did not respond to phone messages from "20/20" seeking an interview.

Larry Hoagland testified that he never mentioned divorce to his wife. He said he only planned to tell her he wanted a divorce as he was on his way out the door.

"It sounds very cowardly, but that's what I was going to do," he said in court.

It was more than just his affair that police -- working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- used to build a case against Larry Hoagland. In his wallet, they found scraps of paper for cell phones used for the operation of a different pipe bomb -- one that failed to detonate just two blocks from the Hoaglands' home. Police found that botched bomb just two weeks before the explosion that injured Connie Hoagland.

At his trial, Larry Hoagland claimed that the numbers were given to him "by a transient that I call Jerry."

"He said, 'Here, take my phone number,'" Hoagland said.

The jury in the trial didn't buy his story. In May 2012, they found Larry Hoagland guilty of premeditated attempted murder and other charges. He was later sentenced to life plus 13 years in jail.

Larry Hoagland continues to maintain that he had nothing to do with the attempt on Connie Hoagland's life. Larry Hoagland's attorney denied a "20/20" request for an interview.

Watch the full story on "20/20" TONIGHT at 10 p.m. ET.