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In July 2012, Iowa native Seth Techel was found guilty of first-degree murder by the court. He was convicted of shooting to death his wife, Lisa Techel, on May 23, 2012, with a shotgun.
Lisa and Seth were married for only seven months, and Lisa was four months pregnant with their first baby when she was killed. The couple lived in their trailer in Agency, a small town in rural southeastern Iowa. But Seth Techel was allegedly seeing someone else. He murdered his wife, and later denied the charges against him.
How was Seth Techel convicted?
In May 2012, Seth Techel called 911 to report his wife's murder. He claimed he was in the shower when he heard a loud noise identified as a gunshot. When he rushed out to examine it, he found that his wife lay unresponsive on the bed with a hole on the cover. Seth alleged that he heard footsteps in the hall and rushed to catch up with them, but he was too late.
His defense team claimed that a mentally ill neighbor carried out the murder because he had a falling out with Seth.
Prosecutors claimed that he murdered his wife in cold blood because he was pursuing a romantic interest with a co-worker, Rachel McFarland, whom he had promised to leave his wife exactly on the day she was murdered.
Moreover, he was inside the trailer when the incident took place and did not render any aid to Lisa even though he was trained. He did not list the shotgun used to shoot Lisa, which was later found in the tall grass around the property.
Techel denied all charges that the prosecution laid against him.
However, the circumstantial evidence offered by prosecutors against Seth was enough to declare him guilty by the three-judge panel of the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Where is Seth now?
The first two trials conducted in the case ended in hung juries as the jurors were divided on his guilt. But the third trial convicted Seth and sentenced him to serve life in prison without parole. The charges against him included first-degree murder and non-consensual termination of a human pregnancy. He will likely be spending the rest of his life in prison.
Before the murder, Seth Techel interned with the deputy sheriff's office because he was interested in the position. He also worked as a county jailer and volunteered as a firefighter in his own time.
To learn more about the Lisa Techel murder case and Seth Techel's motivations to kill his wife, catch the Oxygen series Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode, which will drop on May 11, 2022.
