We can’t blame this on the Lockout, but it is an interesting story nevertheless.
Naposki played a couple of years with the Patriots and Colts in the late 80’s, the story of the murder is something straight out of 48 Hours on ID.
Check the details:
Murphy charged Naposki and Packard with murder last year in the 1994 cold-case slaying of millionaire Orange County businessman William McLaughlin. Packard was McLaughlin’s live-in girlfriend, and he pampered her with loads of cash, a luxury car and her own beach house. He named her the beneficiary of his $1 million life-insurance policy. He didn’t know Packard returned his generosity with contempt. Police said she used his house as a love pad for a long list of men she met at bars or the Sports Club in Irvine.
To authorities, the murder motive is obvious: to steal McLaughlin’s fortune, which included a checking account that usually held no less than $650,000; a private plane; a Las Vegas house; and a Newport Beach estate steps from the Pacific Ocean.
Packard and Naposki—who played for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts—quickly became suspects after the crime, police allege. Packard had spent the days before and after the killing stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from McLaughlin, moves she tried to conceal by transferring some of the funds to a Nevada shell corporation she’d created. She bought gifts for herself and Naposki or simply handed him large sums of McLaughlin’s money.
Packard allegedly also urged witnesses to not tell detectives that she’d spent the hours before the slaying with Naposki—who, according to prosecutors, owned a 9mm handgun like the one used in the killing, had bragged that he wanted McLaughlin dead, kept the millionaire’s license-plate number scribbled on a note in his car, was desperate for a big payday after his football career crashed and worked as a nightclub bouncer just 140 feet from McLaughlin’s front door.
Can you imagine if Twitter or TMZ was around in 1994 how big this story would have been? I am surprised this hasn’t been made into a Lifetime Movie (probably already has).
Why it has taken 17 years to charged Naposki and Packard is a mystery and many wonder if that will hurt the case.
I tell people who assume that gold digging, drama and foolishness started when Tiger Woods crashed his SUV, that this type of stuff has been happening for years, we just didn’t have the outlets where everyone could talk about it so freely as we do now.
I hope Naposki and Packard are ready for their 15 minutes of fame.