The Dateline episode “The Carrollton Plot” investigates the brutal attack of 53-year-old wife and mother of three, Nancy Howard. When she came home from church, a man was hiding in her garage. He grabbed her by the neck and pointed a gun at her head. A shot was fired. Nancy had been hit in the head, right above her eye, but she survived. Her husband of 30 years John “Frank” Howard, “a high flying accountant,” was away on business in California when he learned that this wife had been brutally attacked in their Carrollton, Texas home. When police saw the surveillance camera footage from the church, they discovered Nancy had been followed.
Frank Howard was found guilty of attempting to commit capital murder. He had fallen in love with another woman, Suzanne Leontieff. Their affair last for more than three years. According to Dallas Magazine, at Frank Howard’s 2014 trial, Leontieff “giggled nervously” when she testified. (Leontieff was with Howard when he received a call about Nancy being attacked.) At the trial, two years had passed since Leontieff had been in the same room with Frank Howard. Last time she had seen Howard was when she drove him to the airport to see Nancy after the attack. Dateline airs Fridays at 9pm on NBC.
