Woman Tied to 1982 Laguna Beach Killing Convicted of Murdering Stepson

Laura Lee Feist was just 17 years old in 1982 when she shot her 21-year-old boyfriend to death in Laguna Beach after he told her he wanted to break it off.

Tried as an adult, Feist was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to time in the California Youth Authority. She was released in 1990.

More trouble came for her in 1993. Calling herself Laura Lee Marsden, she was convicted of bigamy for marrying one man while being already married to another, according to the Baltimore Sun. She may have even been married to yet another man at the time.

In 1996 – this time calling herself Laura Lee Bush – she was convicted of insurance fraud after setting her car on fire and trying to collect the cash.

Fast-forward to this past Wednesday, when Feist – now known as Laura Lee Day – was found guilty of drowning her 6-year-old stepson last October at a beach in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Prosecutors argued that Day/Bush/Marsden/Feist was jealous of the child’s birth mother and allowed him to go into the surf without a life jacket. According to the Associated Press story on her latest conviction:

Day told police she watched Taylor play in the surf at a North Padre Island beach and allowed him to take his life jacket off while he was in the shallow water. She said at some point he disappeared beneath the surf and surfaced face down.

Police say Day brought her unconscious stepson to a hospital emergency room Oct. 5, and attempts to revive the boy failed. 

Prosecutors … alleged that Day was jealous of the child's mother and let him wade into the surf without a life jacket knowing the boy needed it. 

"There is no reasonable doubt that Laura Day murdered this little boy. She knew it'd be an easy way to kill him and it'd be an easy way to make it look like an accident," said prosecutor Brittany Jensen.

Now 48, her conviction in the Texas case means an automatic sentence of life without parole.

For further reading, the Houston Press - which dubbed Day "the Wicked Stepmother" - published this detailed story on the woman's criminal past at the time of her October arrest.