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 Although
Leo Mitchell's on-screen appearances were brief, his name dominated
several weeks of storylines in the summer of 1989. Connected to the past
of Michael Donnelly and Laura Asher, Leo Mitchell is a dangerous drug
dealer who operated in Boston years earlier.
At
the time, Leo was Laura's lover before she later became involved with
Michael. Seeking revenge after she left him, Leo kidnaps Jamie, Laura's
son. When Michael, then a police officer, arrives to save Jamie, he
accidentally kills the boy. Eight
years later, Leo escapes imprisonment in South America and travels to
Santa Barbara to take revenge on Michael. He also blames him for the
death of his brother during a police operation. Leo tracks down Laura
and Michael on the beach and threatens them with a gun, but Michael
disarms him. Fearing that Leo's arrest would expose Laura's past to
district attorney Ethan Asher, Michael takes Leo to the Mexican border
to hand him over to local authorities. However, Leo manages to escape by
breaking the bars of his cell. He
returns to Santa Barbara and, on a foggy evening, finds Laura and
Michael at the beach bar. A gunshot is heard, and Leo falls dead. His
body mysteriously disappears, and the search for it becomes entangled in
jealousy and revenge from Ethan toward Michael, whom he suspects of
having murdered Leo. Celeste
DiNapoli, who was present at the bar that night, agrees to be hypnotized
by Heather Donnelly to recall what she saw. But Laura surprisingly
interrupts the session. Since Leo had been one of Laura's clients when
she was a prostitute, Celeste refuses to continue, fearing her past will
be exposed. Eventually,
thanks to visions from the psychic Sandra Mills, Leo's body is found at
the bottom of a well far from town. Michael,
alternately jailed and released during the investigation, later meets of
a woman named Maria near Leo's grave, who turns to be a former mistress
of Leo. She reveals that Leo had been blackmailing corrupt police
officers, including Michael's former partner Jeff Nugent. Michael
investigates this lead, but it leads nowhere when it turns that Jeff's
gun does not match the murder weapon. Finally,
the truth comes out : Laura confesses to her husband that she is the
killer. Seeing Leo about to shoot Michael in the back, she killed him
with Ethan's gun, threw Leo's weapon into the ocean, and hid the body. The
case appears closed, without Laura being worried by justice since Ethan
decides not to pursue charges, considering that she acted in
self-defense. Nearly
four months later, the case resurfaces unexpectedly when Ethan's new
secretary, Phyllis Blake, discovers Leo's file. She brings Jeff Nugent
to Santa Barbara to frighten Laura and begins sending anonymous letters
to blackmail her. Gina, who is having an affair with Ethan, asks her
mother to stop for his sake. The
case remains buried, although Laura eventually admits to Ethan that she
did indeed kill Leo in cold blood...
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