In a surprise to many, Charles Buck was found not guilty Wednesday by a three-judge panel in the high-profile death of his wife.
Buck's wife, Leslie, was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home in a case that received widespread publicity in southeastern Connecticut since her death in May 2002.
She had been kidnapped and assaulted soon before her death by a Ledyard handyman, but she escaped and eventually returned to the family's home on Masons Island Road in Mystic. Just days after the kidnapping, she was found dead.
A series of doctors could not agree on the cause of her death, and the three-judge panel found her husband not guilty.