Even though it’s been more than 30 years since Michelle Saum Schofield died on February 24, 1987, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about her case.
In “20/20: Last Seen in Lakeland,” the main question has been whether or not her husband Leo Schofield really killed her or is in prison for someone else’s actions. But for now, if you just want to know more about Crissie Carter, his second wife and the one person who will always fight for his freedom, we have the information you need.
What’s Crissie Carter’s name?
Crissie, a former state probation officer, met Leo, an inmate, for the first time when she was teaching at the Hendry Correctional Institution in 1991. After hearing Leo’s story, she became very interested in him and his life. He was one of her helpers when she taught prisoners how to balance their checkbooks and write resumes. She noticed that he told everyone he met that he was innocent, and he did the same with her. The only thing that makes it different is that Crissie went home to look at all the legal records herself. When she said she believed him, this led to the start of a personal relationship.
Over time, their friendship turned into a deep romance, and in 1995, after Leo had been transferred, they got married in the chapel at DeSoto Correctional Institution. Crissie was honest about how her family felt about her choice of a life partner. “They were supportive, but not necessarily happy,” she said. “I used to have friends who no longer talk to me.” She hasn’t let any of this bother her, though, because she loves Leo and believes in his innocence with all her heart. This is why she started going to court as well.
In 2004, Crissie hired a new lawyer for her husband’s defense. This lawyer quickly helped her get the fingerprints from Michelle’s car, which had not been identified before, checked out. This wasn’t possible in 1987, but in December of the same year, new information confirmed a match to Jeremy Scott, who had been convicted of murder in 1988 for something else. Even though they worked hard, this seemingly important piece of evidence, along with Jeremy’s confession and subsequent retraction, did not help Leo’s legal case in any way, which made his wife sad.
What happened to Crissie Carter?
Crissie Carter Schofield once said, “A lot of people get involved with Leo’s case because they hear the story from me…” “Then they meet Leo. He’s different, there’s something about him.” So, it’s not surprising that she keeps being her husband’s biggest supporter, especially through her work with groups like The Innocence Project to get him freed one day.
We should also say that Crissie’s hard work isn’t just for Leo or to feel like she’s righted a wrong. She insists that it’s also for Michelle and to get her what she thinks is real justice. She said, “It doesn’t end when Leo gets out.” “This is the story of Michelle.” Crissie lives in the Fort Myers area of Florida, where she is proud to work as a professional clinical social worker. This is what we know about her personal life.
Crissie, a former state probation officer, met inmate Leo in 1991 when she was teaching at the Hendry Correctional Institution. It only took her a few months to learn about his amazing story. He told everyone he met that he was innocent, and she was no different.
Crissie said that her family liked him, but she didn’t know why she chose him. She has always thought that he was innocent, so she has gone to court.
Crissie hired a new lawyer for her husband’s defense in 2004. This lawyer quickly helped Crissie with her long-term goal of having Michelle’s fingerprints, which had not been identified before, photographed and officially looked at in 1987. Still, in December 1988, new evidence linked the body to Jeremy Scott, who had been convicted of murder in a different case in 1988. But this seemingly important piece of evidence, along with Jeremy’s confession and retraction, has done nothing to hurt Leo’s legal case.
What is crissie carter doing now?
Crissie Carter Schofield once said, “A lot of people get involved in [Leo’s case] because they hear my story…” “He’s different.” So, it’s not surprising that she still fights the hardest for her husband, especially through her work with groups like The Innocence Project to get him cleared one day.
Crissie is committed not just for Leo or to feel like she’s righted a wrong, but also for Michelle and because she believes in real justice. “This is the story of Michelle.” From what we know, Crissie lives in the Fort Myers area of Florida at the moment.
Innocent had nothing to do with it, had no idea it was going to happen, didn’t know it was happening, and didn’t want it to happen. “That’s me,” he told “20/20” from prison in an exclusive interview that will air Friday, September 23 at 9 p.m. ET.
Prosecutors said that Leo Schofield, who was 21 at the time, was full of anger and ready to blow up at his wife.
Schofield’s lawyer said there was no physical evidence linking him to the stabbing murder, and the state’s version of what happened didn’t make sense.
Crissie, Schofield’s second wife, and the non-profit group The Innocence Project of Florida are some of the people who have believed his story and worked to clear him.
Schofield’s case is based on new evidence found in the last 10 years that he and his supporters say links the murder to another man. However, even this line of defense has run into several legal problems.
On February 24, 1987, Michelle Saum Schofield, who was 18 at the time, didn’t pick up her son Leo from the restaurant where she worked in Lakeland, Florida. Leo Schofield said he was worried and started driving around town with his parents and talking to friends and family to find his wife.
Police, friends, and family looked all over the area until they found her car, which had been left behind and broken into. Michelle’s body was found in a canal in Bone Valley, which is in central Florida, three days after she was last seen.
“At that moment, I was so mad at God. I took off my shirt. Leo Schofield said, “I punched a tree, punched the ground, and was pulling grass out of the ground.”
Leo Schofield’s past outbursts of anger would come up in the investigation because neighbors, friends, and family told investigators that he was volatile and argued with Michelle in their home. Multiple witnesses also said that Leo hurt Michelle physically, and Michelle’s best friend said that Leo even threatened to kill his wife.
Alice Scott, a neighbor, told police that she heard the couple fighting from her bathroom the night Michelle Schofield went missing. She also said that she saw Leo Schofield put a big object in the trunk of the car and drive away. This was a key part of their investigation.
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A couple who lived near the Schofields told police that the morning after Michelle Schofield went missing, they saw her car and her father’s truck near where her body was found.
Schofield’s lawyer questioned Scott’s testimony in court, saying that where he was seen at the time of the alleged fight in the house didn’t match up with when it happened. Scott’s testimony, according to Schofield’s lawyer, said that the fight happened right before Leo Schofield met his wife’s father, which was several miles away.
The lawyer said that he couldn’t have gotten from their house to the house of his father-in-law that quickly.
Former Polk County State Attorney Jerry Hill, who led the criminal investigation into the Schofield case, told 20/20, “In any case you look at, you’re going to find some differences in what witnesses say.” “It’s a person. I don’t think anyone who saw what happened looked at their watch and said, “There’s Leo.” I think they were as truthful as they could be when describing what they saw.”
During the trial, the prosecutors called 21 people who could testify about Leo Schofield’s character. These people said they had seen him act aggressively and violently in the past. Some people talked about times when they say Leo Schofield hurt his wife physically, like when he pulled her hair.
On the stand, Schofield denied what witnesses said, but he did say that he had hit his wife twice.
Schofield told 20/20 that he never hurt his wife physically while they were together.
“Physical abuse is one kind of abuse, and I’ve been guilty of emotional abuse,” he said. “I did a lotta yelling… “I could have punched a wall and been very dramatic, too,” he said.
Schofield was found guilty of first-degree murder, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Schofield kept saying for years that he didn’t kill his wife. Things started to change when he met Crissie Carter in 1991. Carter was a former state probation officer who became a therapist and taught at Schofield’s prison.
Carter told “20/20” that she too thought Schofield was innocent after hearing his side of the story and reading the court records. She said there were holes in the prosecution’s case.
Crissie Carter Schofield told “20/20” that what the state said didn’t make sense, but what he said did.
Their friendship turned into something more, and they ended up getting married and adopting a child.
Crissie says that when she was doing her research, she made a big discovery: the fingerprints that police found in Michelle’s car had never been identified.
“Whoever left their fingerprints in that car must have known something. She said, “We have to find out who that person is.”
In 2004, Crissie Schofield hired a new defense lawyer, Scott Cupp, who was able to get a copy of the fingerprints from the Florida State Police.
Later, the prints were run through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which was not available to Polk County investigators at the time. The system found that the prints matched those of Jeremy Scott, who was serving a life sentence for killing someone in 1988 and had been convicted of murder.
Alice Scott, a neighbor who testified against Leo Schofield, is not related to Jeremy Scott.
In 2007, the St. Petersburg Times, which was then called the St. Petersburg Times, started writing about the case and published an in-depth investigation.
Alice Scott’s testimony was looked at more closely after her ex-husband, Ricky Scott, told the St. Petersburg Times that she often lied. He told reporters from the St. Petersburg Times, “There’s no way Alice could have heard and seen at the Schofields’ that night what she said she heard and saw from that little bathroom window.”
When reporters later asked Alice Scott about what her ex-husband said, she said, “When I couldn’t see and hear that well from the bathroom window, I walked to the screened porch where I could,” which was different from what she said at Schofield’s trial.
“She never said that at trial,” Gilbert King, the host of a new podcast about the case called “Bone Valley” and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, told “20/20.” “That was something new.”
When asked about Alice Scott’s statement to the St. Petersburg Times, Jerry Hill said on “20/20” that he thought Alice Scott was “credible” at the time she testified and that his investigators confirmed what she said.
“We sent out at least three different people to make sure she could see what she said she saw from where she said she saw it,” he said.
The fingerprints were used by Leo Schofield’s new defense team to ask for a trial. Jeremy Scott told Leo Schofield’s lawyers in 2010 that he had stolen car stereos in the area around that time, but he denied killing Michelle Schofield.
The request for a new trial was denied because the court found that Scott’s fingerprints alone would not likely have led to an acquittal on retrial and that there were no problems with the trial evidence that would have led to Leo’s release.
The Schofields, their lawyer, and other supporters were all very upset by the decision.
“It was important to me. “I knew then and I know now that Leo is a good man, and it hit me right in the gut,” Cupp, who is now a judge in Florida, told “20/20.”
In 2016, Leo Schofield’s lawyer, Andrew Crawford, talked on the phone with Jeremy Scott and said that Scott told him that he killed Michelle Schofield. But the conversation wasn’t caught on tape.
“What Jeremy is telling me is a big deal, because he has never before said he had anything to do with the murder,” Crawford told “20/20.”
When state investigators asked Jeremy Scott if he had confessed, he said he hadn’t, but he would take the blame for any murder if they paid him $1,000.
Jerry Hill said, “Jeremy Scott is a red herring, but he’s the only red herring they have. So, they are going to keep doing it.”
In 2017, Crawford asked an investigator, this time with a tape recorder, to talk to Scott again.
During this interview, Scott said that Michelle Schofield offered him a ride, and when a knife fell out of his pocket, there was a fight.
“I lost it the next thing I knew. Scott said during the interview, “I did stab her.” “I’m kind of freaking out right now because I have no idea what just happened.”
Crawford joined forces with The Innocence Project of Florida and asked for a second trial. This led to a hearing to look at the evidence.
A sad moment Jeremy Scott went up to the stand and said that he was the one who killed Michelle.
During cross-examination, the prosecution brought up the many times over the years that Scott denied having anything to do with Michelle Schofield’s murder. They also brought up details like the clothes she wore that night that he couldn’t remember or got wrong in his testimony.
When Scott was shown photos of Michelle’s autopsy, the hearing took a dramatic turn. Scott then said, “I didn’t do that.”
“They thought he had changed his mind,” Crissie Schofield said.
But when he was questioned again, Scott told the court that he had killed Michelle.
Leo was not given a new trial in the end. The court said that the evidence did not meet the legal requirements for a new trial, and they also said that Jeremy Scott’s testimony was not reliable.
“I wish I could find a better word than destruction, disbelief, and just madness to describe how I feel. Crissie Schofield said of the court’s decision, “There’s no way to understand it.”
In 2018, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Devil in the Grove,” Gilbert King, was at a conference of circuit judges in Naples, Florida, when he was approached by Cupp and told about Leo Schofield’s story and case.
In 2018, King was at a meeting of circuit judges in Naples, Florida. Cupp went up to him and told him about Leo Schofield and his case.
Since then, King and “Bone Valley” researcher Kelsey Decker have been looking into the case and working on a 9-part true crime podcast about Leo’s story called “Bone Valley,” which came out on September 21, 2022. Jason Flom is in charge of Lava for Good. He is a well-known advocate for people who have been wrongly convicted and was on the board that started the Innocence Project.
Recently, Scott was interviewed for a podcast, and he told Gilbert King, “Leo is innocent. Nothing was done by that guy. He’s not guilty.”
Jeremy Scott’s recording was played for Leo Schofield by “20/20” co-host Amy Robach during her exclusive TV prison interview.
“I am very angry about it. He told Robach, “He killed my wife.” “It’s not easy to forget.”
Leo Schofield could get out on parole next year, but even if he does, his wife, Crissie Schofield, says she will not stop trying to clear his name.
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