Forensic Transmissions Episode 155: Michael Colucci Trial
Michael and Sara Lynn Colucci had been through some ups and downs in their marriage. Sara, apparently had never fully recovered from the suicide of her first husband. She was smart, quick-witted, and impulsive, but also prone to depression. At first, she seemed to have been happy in her marriage to South Carolina jeweler Michael Colucci, but due to some bad business decisions, money had become tight and the couple were facing significant financial losses.
On the way back from a difficult discussion money issues with their attorney on May 20, 2015, Sara apparently asked Michael to pull up outside a warehouse they owned so she could slip through the fence and use the bathroom, as she had done many times before. When she didn’t return, Michael went to investigate, and found that Sara had hung herself with a garden hose. However, evidence collected at the scene did not support Michael Colucci’s version of what happened, and indicated there was a fight or struggle.
In April 2017, while Michael Colucci was awaiting trial, his father Ivo Colucci, owner of Colucci’s Jeweler’s in Summerville, S.C., shot and killed his wife Doris in the family jewelry store. He was determined unfit to stand trial because he suffered from dementia; he was prone to violent outbursts. Ivo Colucci died in 2018, aged 84. In December 2018, a mistrial was declared in the Michael Colucci case, and he remains in prison, awaiting retrial.
This episode contains the testimony of the Coluccis’ neighbor of seven years, Dorothy Montijo.