Laurence William "Larry" McNabney (December 19, 1948 – September 10, 2001) was an American attorney whose body was found buried in a vineyard on February 5, 2002. After a nationwide manhunt, his wife, Elisa McNabney, was captured in Florida and arraigned for first-degree murder. The case made national headlines when police learned that her name was in actuality Laren Renee Sims Jordan, and that she had served time in a Florida prison for fraud and identity theft. Before Elisa could stand trial however, she hanged herself in her jail cell. Elisa's friend Sarah Dutra was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison for murdering Larry McNabney.
Background of Elisa McNabney Elisa McNabney (née Redelsperger or Barasch; January 20, 1966 – March 31, 2002) was born Laren Renee Sims to parents Jesse and Jackie Sims in Attleboro, Massachusetts, before moving to Brooksville, Florida. The Simses were a wealthy and prominent family in Brooksville, and by all accounts, Laren had a comfortable and privileged childhood. Laren was a cheerleader and fashion model, and an excellent student at Hernando High School; she had an IQ of 140. Despite her intelligence, she dropped out of high school, got married at the age of eighteen, had two children with two different fathers, and started committing crimes, managing to amass a 113-page-long rap sheet. Laren was arrested for stealing a L'Oreal hair color kit from a Woolworth's in Tampa, Florida. After being released on that charge, she violated her probation by illegally using a credit card belonging to an ex-husband of hers. In 1993, after she was arrested for attempted shoplifting in Texas, she cut off her ankle monitor and fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, with her daughter Haylei Jordan (born January 29, 1985). At the time she met Larry McNabney, Laren had already been married and divorced three times, and was known by then as Laren Jordan. Over the years, Laren Sims had a total of 38 aliases, including:
Melissa Godwin Tammy Keelin Elizabeth Barasch – her former cellmate at Jefferson Correctional Institution Eliza/Elisa Barasch – a variant of Elizabeth Barasch Elisa Redelsperger – the name she allegedly used when she met Larry McNabney Shane Ivaroni – the name she used while she was on the run Laren Jordan – her prior married name and the name under which she was arrested
Marriage to Larry McNabney Jordan, using the alias "Elisa Redelsperger" or "Eliza (or Elisa) Barasch" (sources vary) met Larry McNabney in 1995 when she applied for a job at his Las Vegas law office. She worked as his office manager and assisted McNabney in settling a number of large cases. Subsequently, in late 1995, Larry's law firm was investigated by the Nevada State Bar, which determined that Elisa embezzled more than $74,000 from clients. While he managed to avoid disbarment, his license to practice law in Nevada was revoked, and only if he fired Elisa and never again permitted her to work at his law firm would it be reinstated. Instead, Larry closed down his offices in Reno and Las Vegas in Nevada and moved his practice to Sacramento, California, and, despite the embezzlement, married Elisa in 1996. In an exclusive first-time interview given to 20/20 in 2022, Elisa's daughter Haylei spoke of how McNabney was an alcoholic and drug addict who'd made her feel "unsafe," and testified that she had witnessed him physically abuse her mother, and that McNabney had stalked them and threatened the both of them on numerous occasions that he would kill them both and then kill himself—or hand Elisa off to Florida authorities for her outstanding arrest warrants—if Elisa ever tried to leave him. After a particularly violent altercation between Elisa and Larry, Elisa had Haylei sent off to Maine "for her own safety." In spite of these allegations, McNabney's daughter from a previous marriage, Cristin Olson, denied any reports of physical abuse; however, prior to Elisa, McNabney had been married four times, and two of his ex-wives had restraining orders filed against him, with one claiming he had choked her and slammed her against a car. Another of McNabney's daughters, Tavia Williams, said that after he began dating Elisa, she "drove a wedge" between her and McNabney, and she effectively made McNabney cut off all contact with his children and family. After McNabney hired Sarah Dutra to work in his Sacramento office as a legal secretary, Elisa and Dutra reportedly spent a lot of time together partying, which caused tensions in Larry and Elisa's marriage. Elisa inundated Sarah with lavish gifts, including but not limited to designer clothes, shoes, high-priced wine, VIP attendance to horse shows, and a brand new BMW—all using Larry's income. Elisa reportedly spent so much time with Sarah that Elisa's daughter, Haylei, was "jealous." Elisa concocted the existence of a boyfriend to conceal the fact that Sarah was regularly sleeping over at the McNabneys' home in Woodbridge, and the fact that she had put Sarah up in an apartment in which she cohabitated with Elisa's daughter, Haylei. Elisa also secretly rented out separate rooms on separate floors for Sarah in the same hotels that she and Larry would stay in while on husband-and-wife vacations, so that she could meet and spend time with Sarah covertly. This, along with the amount of time they were spending together, further infuriated Larry McNabney, and soon, he began to suspect that Sarah and Elisa were involved in a sexual affair.
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