PRIEST RIVER, Idaho – The wife of the man arrested in connection to the death of his previous wife is speaking out.
Christine Lott was last seen in Priest River 14 years ago. Her body was found in 2016. Then in June, her former husband, Stephen Lott, was arrested and charged with first degree murder and failing to notify the coroner of a death.
Stephen’s current wife, Laura Lott, said she is very sad to hear of what happened and her heart goes out for the victim and her family. She also says that hearing that her husband was the one who allegedly did this was completely shocking.
"I can't imagine what it's like to be searching for your daughter for 14 years," she said.
Laura and Stephen met in Washington and then moved to Tennessee to be married. Laura said Stephen never said much about his former wife.
"He had told me whenever he and I first met that Christine had disappeared with one of her friends, and that was it. That's all I was ever told," she said.
A family member recently told detectives that Stephen wrote them a note, saying Christine took her own life. That contradicted what he told police in 2004 and it lead to his arrest, which caught Laura off guard.
"It was very heartbreaking because the man that I had lived with for the last three years was nothing compared to what detectives had described to me," she explained.
She said she never saw any red flags in Stephen. He still has to be convicted of the murder but Laura said no matter what her heart breaks for Christine's relatives.
"I'm very sympathetic. I feel sorry that they've lost their daughter. I can't imagine what it's like to be searching for your daughter for 14 years," she said.
Stephen is being held on $1 million bond.