It was on the morning of August 25, 2013 that a field worker made the grisly discovery of Todd Chance’s bullet-riddled lifeless body in an almond orchard 11 miles from his home.
Detectives later found his missing black 2011 Ford mMustang abandoned at an intersection, 15 miles away.
From the very beginning, the Kern County Sheriff's detectives have insisted that his wife Leslie Chance has been their only suspect in his slaying.
On August 29, 2013 Leslie Chance was arrested and booked for her husband’s murder.
But five days later Chance was released just before she was set to make her first court appearance.
According to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors sent the case back to the sheriff’s department for further investigation.
Then, on September 4, 2013, Chance, a principal of Fairview Elementary School at the time, was placed on administrative leave.
Funeral services for Todd Chance were held the next day.
Under the advice of her attorney, Kyle Humphrey, Leslie Chance did not attend.
Court documents show that chance had four life insurance policies worth a total of $500,000 with his wife, Leslie Chance, as the beneficiary.
Documents also revealed that the mother and widow filed separate claims against the four life insurance companies. The first dated exactly two years after Todd Chance's death.
Although Leslie had never been charged with her husband’s murder - she has be involved in court battles with the insurance companies who have refuse to payout the claims.
That brings us to the present. On Thursday, December 1, 2016, KCSO issued an arrest warrant for Leslie Chance. And just before 5:30p during a traffic stop in the 5600 block of District Blvd., Chance was arrested for the second time and booked on first-degree a murder charge.
Though it is unclear what developments over the last three years led to Chance’s arrest. In a press release, Kern County Sheriff’s officials said that they have “conducted and extensive, exhaustive murder investigation.”
