florida, four time zones away. it was 2:00 a.m. when she docked, got the news, bonnie would not be okay. alaska state troopers had called and said that bonnie had died in a hiking accident. and you re thinking they re nuts. what s going on? why? why would you say something like that? reporter: but it was true, at least that bonnie was dead. it was a hiker who found her body floating in mchugh creek a few miles from anchorage. at first they didn t know who it was, no i.d. on the body. alaska state troopers finally figured it out from the class ring she was wearing. but karen could not take it in. not bonnie, her model child, her conscientious college freshman who she knew was going to school that day, not hiking, miles and miles from home and the university. none of it made sense. she didn t drive, so how did she
anchorage, alaska, it was september 1994, and kenneth dion was a 25-year-old cocaine addict on the way down a long criminal spiral. now at 41, he was entering middle age and facing 124 years in prison for rape and murder. was bonnie murdered? no. she died accidentally. reporter: but not if defense attorney andrew lambert could help it. bonnie accidentally fell off the cliff and died. reporter: after having consensual sex with your client. not necessarily that day. reporter: it could have been a couple of days before. it could have been. reporter: and that was the essence of it, the defense of kenneth dion, that he and bonnie had consensual sex and a few days later she just happened to die in a hiking accident, no provable connection between the two events said the defense. dion told trooper hunyor a few years later that he had never met bonnie, his attorney was now saying the opposite with no evidence of how or when they met. but after all it was the prosecutor s job to
middle age and facing 124 years in prison for rape and murder. was bonnie murdered? no. she died accidentally. reporter: but not if defense attorney andrew lambert could help it. bonnie accidentally fell off the cliff and died. reporter: after having consensual sex with your client. not necessarily that day. reporter: it could have been a couple of days before. it could have been. reporter: and that was the essence of it, the defense of kenneth dion, that he and bonnie had consensual sex and a few days later she just happened to die in a hiking accident, no provable connection between the two events said the defense. dion told trooper hunyor a few years later that he had never met bonnie, his attorney was now saying the opposite with no evidence of how or when they met. but after all it was the prosecutor s job to prove rape, not his to prove otherwise. attorney lambert scoffed at the statement that bonnie was too busy or in love with her
now at 41, he was entering middle age and facing 124 years in prison for rape and murder. was bonnie murdered? no. she died accidentally. reporter: but not if defense attorney andrew lambert could help it. bonnie accidentally fell off the cliff and died. reporter: after having consensual sex with your client. not necessarily that day. reporter: it could have been a couple of days before. it could have been. reporter: and that was the essence of it, the defense of kenneth dion, that he and bonnie had consensual sex and a few days later she just happened to die in a hiking accident, no provable connection between the two events said the defense. dion told trooper hunyor a few years earlier, he had never met bonnie, his attorney is now saying the opposite, with no evidence of how or when they met. but after all it was the prosecutor s job to prove rape, not his to prove otherwise. attorney lambert scoffed at the statement that bonnie was too busy or in love with her
now at 41, he was entering middle age and facing 124 years in prison for rape and murder. was bonnie murdered? no. she died accidentally. reporter: but not if defense attorney andrew lambert could help it. bonnie accidentally fell off the cliff and died. reporter: after having consensual sex with your client. not necessarily that day. reporter: it could have been a couple of days before. it could have been. reporter: and that was the essence of it, the defense of kenneth dion, that he and bonnie had consensual sex and a few days later she just happened to die in a hiking accident, no provable connection between the two events said the defense. dion told trooper hunyor a few years later that he had never met bonnie, his attorney was now saying the opposite with no evidence of how or when they met. but after all it was the prosecutor s job to prove rape, not his to prove otherwise. attorney lambert scoffed at the