Dateline: The Breakup - Who was LaNell Barsock and what happened to her? Disturbing details of a 2010 murder, revealed

NBC’s Dateline episode titled, The Breakup recounts the events of LaNell Barsock’s murder on June 16, 2010. She was allegedly discovered by her friend, La’Rene Austin, who informed the LA police about finding Barsock’s body in her home’s garage in Palmdale, California.

However, that was not the only story as after a thorough investigation, the police discovered that it was not her live-in boyfriend, Louis Bonheur, but Austin, who tried to frame Bonheur for the murder, was the one who killed Barsock.

The synopsis of the Dateline episode reads:

"When a nurse is gunned down in her home, detectives initially believe they have a clear suspect. As they delve deeper into the investigation, new information leads them down a completely different path."

More on this in our story.

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Dateline: The Breakup - Who was LaNell Barsock, and what happened to her? Details explored

LaNell Barsock, a 29-year-old nurse from California, was described as a kind-hearted and philanthropic individual. She lived in Palmdale, California, with her boyfriend, Louis Bonheur, whom she met at the school where she was taking classes to become a nurse.

However, the woman met her end in June 2010 when her body was found in her own garage. She was reportedly found by her best friend. As per Dateline, after Austin’s report, detectives Bob Kenney and Joe Espino went to Palmdale and found Barsock’s body with a plastic bag wrapped around her head.

Bob Keney shared with Dateline that they had assumed that the killer might have known the victim as they had covered Barsock’s head. He said:

"Usually when somebody puts a plastic bag or any type of covering over a victim’s face it means they don’t want to see that person or they don’t want that person who is deceased watching them, so we made the assumption that whoever had done this killing knew the victim."

Moreover, an attempt to move the body was also discovered by the detectives after finding bedding covered with Barsock’s blood in the trunk of her car. She also shared about noticing someone resembling Barsock’s boyfriend, Bonheur, in Barsock’s home when she found the body.

The first and easiest suspect became Bonheur as detectives during the investigation found out that Barsock and him had a complicated relationship as he was controlling and often checked Barsock’s phone and kept on a check on who she talks to and meets at work.

Detective Joe Espino told Dateline:

"There was a dark side that people didn’t know about Louis, and that was that he was a very jealous and controlling individual."

Furthermore, Austin also told the detectives that the couple also argued about a secret phone that Barsock used to talk to someone named Ike the day Barsock died. The police then arrested Bonheur from Barsock’s mother’s home. During the interrogation, they showed him a letter that Barsock had written that said she was breaking up with him to be with Ike.

However, Bonheur seemed unaware of the letter, and later, the police had to let him go as they discovered Bonheur was far away from Barsock’s house at the time of the murder as they found CCTV footages capturing him.

This sent the detectives in the other direction as they realised most of the story about the day Barsock died was from Austin’s perspective. Kenney told Dateline:

"The lights start to go on that we’re heading in the wrong direction."

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Dateline: The Breakup - La’Rene Austin was found guilty of murdering LaNell Barsock

The police then began looking at Austin as a suspect and found numerous evidence that pointed at Austin as the killer. She had introduced herself as a childhood friend of Barsock, but the detectives noticed that Barsock’s mother did not recognise her.

They also found two bullets in her possession, which matched the one Barsock was shot with, including fingerprints and a footprint in the crime scene. They also found out that Barsock met Austin via Craigslist and were in a relationship that Barsock had ended.

As per Dateline, Austin did not like that Barsock ended the relationship and wanted to be just friends and shot her while doing her hair. Austin initially tried to flee but was caught by the police and put on trial in 2015 after pleading not guilty. She was then sentenced to two 25-year prison sentences for first-degree murder and sent to the California Institute of Women and will be eligible for parole in 2032.

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