For more than 20 years, Jack Potter has been tricking people in believing his dead wife in 2003 when his leg was found amputated in a garbage container in Rancho San Diego, prosecutors say.
One of the most disturbing and cold cases in the area was concluded Friday when 72-year-old Jack Potter was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Laurie Potter.
Potter pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to suffocating his 54-year-old wife in February, prosecutors said.
Laurie Potter was found in a garbage container in 2003.
(San Diego County Sheriff)
Prosecutors say for almost 20 years, Potter had benefited from Laurie’s death, pretending she was still alive. He fraudulently opened a credit card in her name, used family court to sell his home in Temecula, and pocketed the profits, prosecutors said.
He met his new girlfriend at a strip club, gave her a Hammer SUV and a ski boat, leased her an apartment, and gave her a credit card with a $30,000 limit, prosecutors said. My girlfriend creepyly shared my wife’s name.
Potter expressed regret at the hearing Friday, apologized, and said he loved his wife.
“I once made my feelings better,” he said. “I don’t know why. I’m sorry that just happened.”
A maintenance worker at Country Hills Apartment in Rancho San Diego discovered Raleigh’s foot in October 2003, but law enforcement couldn’t identify her and the case was not resolved.
Until 2020, new DNA research techniques led to an unforgettable cold case breakthrough. Detectives ran crime scene DNA in a national database, matching it to distant relatives.
The detectives then gradually asked close relatives to share their DNA until they arrived with Raleigh’s adult son six months later. His sample was able to identify Laurie, and subsequent investigations provided evidence linking her husband to the crime, according to a 2021 news release from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
When Potter was arrested in 2021, Laurie’s family were unaware of her whereabouts, but according to the sheriff’s office they thought she was still alive.
She was never reported missing without genetic testing — the same technique used to obtain crack scores for Golden State Killers and cold case — the murder probably hadn’t been resolved, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Laurie’s son, John Carlson, said at Potter’s sentencing hearing that he lost contact with his mother but tried to contact her and renew the relationship.
Carlson said that Potter told his mother, “I wanted to be alone, but unfortunately I believed.
Raleigh’s lawsuit marks the first time that the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office attempted to use an investigational genealogy to identify the murder victim.
“This case reminds us that the pursuit of justice never stops,” San Diego County King dist. Atty. In the summer, Stephen said in a statement Friday. “And there is no sadness of those who lose someone because of violence. Today, we respect Laurie’s memory and stand with her family in a much-anticipated moment of justice.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
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