Wife Disappears After Husband 'Drowns' on Lake Trip

Investigators are looking for Lori Barnes
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 14, 2018 3:30 PM CDT

An Idaho man's drowning death may not be so accidental after all, Fox News reports. The wife of Larry Isenberg, 68, said he fell from their boat and drowned in Lake Coeur d'Alene in February, but the county examiner now says he died with lethal levels of Benadryl in his body and showed no signs of drowning or stroke. What's more, wife Laurcene (Lori) Barnes, 64, has failed to appear for an arraignment involving grand theft and 40 counts of forgery, and the family's will has been altered to evenly divide the estate between their eight children from previous marriages—two on Larry's side and six on Lori's, the Spokesman-Review reports. Also at issue is Lori's description of the drowning: She waited two hours to report it, had a bloody nose when she did, and said Larry appeared ill before falling out of the boat, while his friends say he'd been in good health.

On the day Larry vanished, the Coeur d'Alene Press reported that Lori had left her job as director of the North Idaho Housing Coalition. After an internal audit, she was arrested for allegedly stealing from the nonprofit, was released on $75,000 bond, and hasn't been seen since. A $500,000 warrant was issued for her arrest, and now the Spokane Sheriff's Office has a warrant for crimes including murder, grand theft, and criminal conspiracy. The sheriff is also investigating Lori's daughters, Amber Hosking and Jessica Barnes, for conspiracy to commit theft and first-degree murder. Per Fox 28 Spokane, a family friend tells detectives that "the only tension he knew of between Larry and Lori was her constant enabling and giving of money to help out her daughters." (More murder stories.)

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