A Long Beach Man Reported His Wife Missing. A Blood Test Landed Him with a Charge of Second-degree Murder

On a summer Monday afternoon in 2001, Bruce Koklich called the police to report his wife Jana missing.

Bruce said he kissed her goodbye at 6 a.m. after a quiet weekend together, when the couple had planned to meet at their Long Beach office, where they ran a real estate business. But by 10:30 a.m., Jana, 41, was nowhere to be found - not at home, not at the hospital, not near friends or family.

But there were a few signs that something was wrong. Jana had abandoned her social plans. Disturbing voicemails kept coming in on the couple's answering machine. The police were interested in questioning Jana's regular personal trainer and the couple's business partner.

And then there was Bruce. After investigators found traces of Jana's blood in her car and in the couple's bedroom, they turned a critical eye on the grieving husband.

But what happened in August long baffled detectives, who spoke candidly about the case in the fifth episode of the Netflix true crime documentary series Murder: Los Angeles.

"It's like she disappeared off the face of the earth"

After 11 years of marriage, everything seemed to be going well. Bruce and Jana were living in a beautiful home on top of a golf course, preparing to start an internet business, and planning to adopt children.

And then Jana was gone. "It's like she's disappeared off the face of the earth," her father said.

Bruce told investigators his wife had gone to a concert Friday night and returned shortly after midnight. The couple spent the next two days together at home, Bruce said.

LA County homicide detective Karen Shonka found voicemails from an unidentified male voice claiming to know Jana. Bruce said the couple didn't answer calls because they were bothering Jana.

Shonka speculated that the voicemails might be connected to Jana's father, Paul Carpenter, a former California state senator recently released from prison on corruption charges. Did one of Carpenter's enemies kidnap his daughter to get revenge?

Investigators asked the media for help, but no ransom note or demand was found.

Excluding suspects

Chris Botosan was a business partner who helped the couple set up a software company and accompanied Bruce on their search for Jana.

With Jana gone, Botosan could have pocketed more of the company's profits. But his alibi that weekend showed him seeing a girlfriend, making him an unlikely suspect.

Another person questioned was Dean, Jana's personal trainer of four years. The two had an appointment Saturday morning that Jana, never late, abruptly missed. But friends told investigators there was never anything unprofessional about the relationship between Jana and her PT.

Jana also missed a massage appointment with a friend on Saturday afternoon.

Bruce was shy when explaining Jana's aloofness: "We just wanted to shake it all off for the weekend."

So investigators questioned the couple's housekeeper, Consuelo Lopez. The week after Jana disappeared, Lopez noticed that the sheets she had laid out were gone, leaving only a flat sheet on the bed. Had Jana been abducted from her home-perhaps by the unfamiliar male voice leaving creepy voicemails?

That seemed unlikely: there were no signs of forced entry into the house.

Then Jana's Nissan Pathfinder was found abandoned four miles from the couple's home. And in the trunk: a feather and a large bloodstain.

If Jana had been murdered, her body would have been found nearby. A search party of 140 men scoured the area, but again found nothing.

Researchers began to examine Bruce further.

'All roads lead to Bruce Koklich'

Bruce refused to take a lie detector test, but pleaded on TV, "I'll do anything I can to get my wife back."

His statements attracted the attention of several women, who claimed that Bruce had made sexual and romantic advances toward them. One neighbor said that shortly after Jana disappeared, she received a note on her windshield from Bruce that read, "Would your granddaughter like to go out with me?"

Police found traces of Jana's blood on the carpet in the couple's master bedroom, which were matched to DNA found on her hairbrush.

Residents had also seen Bruce on Sunday, the day before she disappeared, sitting alone in Jana's car in a neighborhood far less upscale than theirs. But in his testimony, he said he had spent a peaceful weekend with Jana at their home.

Police wondered whether Bruce had deliberately left the car with the windows open and the keys in the ignition, hoping someone would steal the car and take the blame.

"He was very ambitious, driven by money and goals," Titchenal added.

They began treating her disappearance as a possible murder.

Investigators discovered that Jana had a $1 million life insurance policy. And while the couple considered adoption, a friend said those plans fell apart a month before Jana's disappearance. Titchenal said Bruce "needed control" - over the couple's finances and relationship - and now their marriage was in decline.

Shonka suspected a financial motive: "Bruce wanted to be the real estate mogul, the guy with the money and the property, and Jana was in the way. So he came up with a plan to get rid of his wife and kill her."

A 'no body' case

Bruce was charged with Jana's death and the trial began on February 18, 2003. Prosecutors had to prove that Bruce had a financial motive that led to Jana's disappearance. But there was one problem: her body had not been found.

The jury deliberated for six days, but ended in a 7-5 deadlock and declared a mistrial. "I couldn't believe Bruce got away with it. He killed Jana and he's walking free," said Jan Baird, a friend of Jana's.

But that didn't stop prosecutors from taking a different approach eight months later: a visual trial that would show the circumstantial evidence that Bruce must have been responsible. This time, the jurors deliberated for only a few hours-and quickly rang the bell, unanimously finding Bruce guilty.

Bruce was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

For Jana's family, there would be no full justice: "It is especially terrible that we do not know where her body is, so we could not have the comfort of a final farewell," her father said.

Koklich was denied parole in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023. In April, a court ruled his appeal was rejected making him ineligible for a new sentence.

Shonka said: "He's a selfish manipulator and thought he could somehow charm his way out of this, but it just didn't work."