Jolie Rouge

Documents Detail Fla. Abduction Case
Cops Were Close to Saving Jessica Lunsford


HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) - A 9-year-old girl who was abducted from her bed and allegedly slain by a sex offender might have been alive when officers questioned residents at the mobile home where the suspect lived, according to court documents.

John Evander Couey, 46, who pleaded not guilty to murder Wednesday, had been staying off and on at the mobile home of his half sister, Dorothy Marie Dixon, about 150 yards from Jessica Lunsford's home. ``Couey's timeline of events after he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford leaves open the possibility she was alive and in the house at the time of the first and possibly the second interview,'' the document released Thursday said.

Citrus County sheriff's deputies stopped twice at the sister's mobile home while canvassing the girl's neighborhood after she was reported missing Feb. 24. At the first interview, shortly after Jessica was reported missing, the deputies spoke to Couey's niece and her boyfriend.

The second time, deputies spoke with the niece again and Couey's half sister. No suspicions were raised either time, but authorities say the residents did not mention that Couey was staying at the home.

The detectives said Couey later told them he was hiding in the home during the second interview. He denied ``that anyone else in the house was aware that he had kidnapped the child or that she was being held in the house,'' according to court papers.

Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said that Couey was in a ``drug haze'' during the abduction, and a time frame on how long she was alive might never be known. The girl was sexually assaulted and buried near the mobile home.

Couey was arrested March 17 in Augusta, Ga.


04/08/05 09:02

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...05missing_girl

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Jolie Rouge

Officials Say Girl Raped, Buried Alive

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A 9-year-old girl was raped, bound and buried alive, kneeling and clutching a purple stuffed dolphin, state prosecutors said in documents released Wednesday.

Jessica Lunsford's body was found March 19 buried about 150 yards from her house in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa.


According to the documents, Jessica was found wearing shorts and a shirt - different from the pink nightgown her family said she was wearing when they reported her missing Feb. 24, The Tampa Tribune said in its online edition late Wednesday.

The body was wrapped in two plastic trash bags knotted at her head and feet in a grave covered by a mound of leaves, the state attorney's office said in the documents.

Jessica died of asphyxiation, according to a coroner's report. A convicted sex offender, John Evander Couey, 46, is charged in her slaying. Officials said they believe Jessica may have been alive in Couey's home while police and volunteers searched for her. After she was killed, Couey fled to Georgia.


A message left for Couey's attorney was not immediately returned Wednesday evening.



04/20/05 19:24

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...05missing_girl

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Njean31

omg he seriously needs to die asap

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Jolie Rouge

Documents give details of 9-year-old's death
Florida eyes tougher sex offender law
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Posted: 10:32 PM EDT (0232 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- New details emerged Wednesday on the last moments in the life of slain 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, while Florida lawmakers moved forward on a bill named for her that would impose tougher penalties on sex offenders.

Some Floridians have called for harsher penalties and closer monitoring of sex offenders after the recent slayings of Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde.

As Jessica's father, Mark, watched on Tuesday in Tallahassee, the Florida House unanimously approved the Jessica Lunsford Act. The state Senate will now take up the issue.

Today, 292 pages of court documents were made public detailing the prosecution account of her last days at the hands of her alleged killer, John Evander Couey.

Bound and buried near her home, possibly while still alive, Jessica cradled in her arms a stuffed toy dolphin, the documents say. It was the same stuffed animal that was missing from the girl's home in Homosassa, Florida, when she disappeared, police have said. Her father won the toy for her at a fair shortly before she was abducted February 23.

In a letter found by investigators, convicted sex offender Couey confessed to killing the girl, law enforcement sources told CNN. In a previous confession to authorities, Couey said he buried the girl alive, sources have said.

Police said Couey confessed March 18, a day after he was arrested, and helped them find Jessica's body. A large-scale search involving hundreds of volunteers had failed to find the site, only a few hundred yards from the Lunsfords' home.

Jessica's body was found buried behind a house where Couey lived with his half-sister. Her body was covered by garbage bags, documents said, and her hands were bound with what appeared to be stereo wire.

Authorities have charged Couey, 46, with capital murder, burglary with battery, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child younger than 12 in Jessica's abduction and death. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A judge has ordered him to provide handwriting and DNA samples to prosecutors.

A preliminary autopsy report has said Jessica died after being sexually assaulted, but Hernando County Medical Examiner Steven Cogswell said Wednesday that the final report is pending and the cause of the child's death might never be known.

Details released Wednesday, he said, are "initial impressions" on how Jessica died.

After Couey's arrest, Mark Lunsford said he would spearhead an effort to change Florida's sex offender laws. "There should be a law for Jesse," he said at the time.

Unanimous vote

On a 118-0 vote, the Florida House passed legislation that would require longer prison sentences, lifetime probation and electronic monitoring for sex offenders convicted of crimes against children.

The Jessica Lunsford Act would punish the molestation of children under 12 with a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life, "followed by probation or community control for the remainder of the person's natural life and subject to a system of active electronic monitoring."

The bill also would make it a third-degree felony in Florida to harbor a sex offender.

Police in Homosassa initially arrested Couey's half-sister and two others living in her home, accusing them of obstructing justice by failing to notify authorities that he was living there. But prosecutors declined to file charges against the three, saying the withholding of information alone did not constitute a crime and there was no provision in Florida law that required someone to tell police of a sex offender's whereabouts.

Lawmakers say they want to close that loophole in the law.

The state legislation also came days after authorities in Ruskin, Florida, found Sarah Lunde's body in a pond near her house.

Sex offender David Onstott, who previously dated the girl's mother, told authorities he choked the teen and dumped her body in the pond on April 10, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said. Sarah's remains were found Saturday.

CNN's Rich Phillips, John Zarrella and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/20/fl...ing/index.html

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DIRKSWIFE4

I honestly feel they should do the same thing to that creature that he did to that baby.

I sit here and read this and it goes through my mind can you imagine HOW that baby felt, the fear, the terror. I cant stop crying, this is so so sad.

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Njean31

i cried too....all last night after reading about this. i hope this wakes people up, these perverts should have NO rights, especially after admitting he did it. why not just go ahead and kill him? why does he get to breathe after burying this child alive after he repeatedly raped her. omgomgomg, i am so sad and MAD over this.

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KimNRandy

I like what they did to the guy in Iran. These sickos get away with too much in this country.

An eye for an eye is the fairest justice in these circumstances.

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ilvscooby

That is awful...WTF is wrong with people I'm just bawling after reading that...buried alive and holding on to her stuffed animal. Stories like these make me so ANGRY...now he gets to sit in a nice air conditioned jail cell watching cable tv They should do the SAME thing to him that he did to her... I am outraged and saddened, but I can only imagine how her poor parents must feel

The punishment should be just as barbaric(if not more) as the crime, maybe then we wouldn't have as many children turning up dead

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Jolie Rouge

Jury selection begins in Lunsford trial
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 12, 6:22 PM ET

MIAMI - Ruth Lunsford often visits the grave of her granddaughter, Jessica, most recently to tell her that the man accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering the third-grader nearly two years ago is finally about to stand trial. "I went to the grave site and said to Jessie, 'It's almost over,'" she said in an interview. "I know she's looking down on us and saying, 'Good job.' When this is all over, she's going to be doing cartwheels all over heaven. She's going to be saying, 'Amen.'"

Jury selection began Monday in the trial for John Evander Couey, a 48-year-old convicted sex offender who faces the death penalty for Jessica's 2005 slaying if he is found guilty.

Circuit Judge Richard Howard denied a defense request to further delay the trial, saying, "The fact of the matter is, this case is going forward." A few minutes later, he began questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the heavily publicized case.

Court recessed for the day after 52 potential jurors were questioned, with 14 returning for a second round of interviews. The will be no jury selection Tuesday because a hearing on a defense motion could take several hours, Howard said. Publicity had forced the trial to be moved from Citrus County, where the abduction occurred, to Miami.

Choosing a jury was expected to consume much of the week, with the final panel sequestered. News organizations are barred from showing the faces of jurors or reporting their names.

Jessica's death had led to tougher sex offender laws in Florida and at least 18 other states and prompted creation of the first-ever coordinated Justice Department effort to track down noncompliant offenders nationwide, such as those who fail to register or aren't living where they are supposed to. "The impacts of Jessica Lunsford's story have been huge," said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. "In our view, enormous good has come and thousands of children's lives are going to be saved because Jessica Lunsford lived."

In that way, Jessica has joined a tragic list of other children — Adam Walsh, Jimmy Ryce, Amber Hagerman, Megan Kanka and others — whose names are synonymous with important reforms in the criminal justice system. "We look forward to the day when it doesn't take a tragedy involving a child to motivate people to action," Allen said.

Jessica was abducted one night from her bedroom in the small town of Homasassa. Her body was found three weeks later, on March 19, 2005, buried in garbage bags behind a mobile home a short distance from her own house. She had her favorite stuffed dolphin and her hands were bound by speaker wire, but authorities say it appeared she had tried to poke her fingers through the bags. She died of asphyxiation.

Couey, who was arrested for previous sex crimes involving children in 1978 and 1991, was living with his half-sister at the trailer near the Lunsford home. But authorities searching for Jessica didn't know that, because he had moved there without telling them as required under sex offender registration laws.

As the search intensified, Couey traveled to Georgia, where he was arrested on an unrelated Florida warrant. He confessed to Jessica's abduction and murder to two Citrus County sheriff's detectives who traveled there to interview him, but that taped confession was thrown out by a judge because Couey wasn't allowed to consult a lawyer as he requested.

That means the jury won't hear what is perhaps the strongest evidence against Couey. But the jury will be told that Couey described where to find Jessica's body and that he told jail guards and others about his alleged role in the crime. Prosecutors have DNA and other evidence placing Jessica in the Couey mobile home before she died.

Couey's attorney, public defender Dan Lewan, has repeatedly declined to discuss the case.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/...UPXORmwLtvzwcF


Details were released in the "Jessica Lunsford " murder case

This is the case where the girl was taken from her bedroom , and murdered by the sex offender

I can not believe that the police would reveal details this horrible. I feel so bad for this girls family. My heart goes out to them and everyone who knew her. She died a horrible death.

She was sitting upright in a 4-foot-deep grave, her wrists bound in front of her body with stereo wire. Two of her fingers had poked through the plastic trash bags stretched tight over her body. In her arms she clutched the stuffed purple dolphin that had been missing from her bedroom.

Her body bore no sign of injuries that would have caused death. Medical examiners ruled she died of asphyxiation, or a lack of oxygen.

That leaves open the likelihood that Jessica was alive in her grave as dirt and leaves were shoveled over her.


Article below: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/...girl%27s+death

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Ex-con guilty in Fla. girl's slaying
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

MIAMI - A sex offender was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl and burying her alive in a case that led to a crackdown around the country on people convicted of sex crimes.

Jurors deliberated about four hours before returning the verdict against John Evander Couey in the slaying of Jessica Lunsford, who was snatched from her bedroom in 2005 about 150 yards from the trailer where Couey had been living.

Her body was found in a shallow hole, encased in two black plastic trash bags. She had suffocated, and was found clutching a purple stuffed dolphin.

The jury next must decide whether Couey, 48, should get death by injection or life in prison.

Couey stood staring straight ahead and swaying slightly as the verdicts were read. Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, who has helped push efforts for tougher monitoring of sex offenders, showed no emotion.

Couey admitted to investigators shortly after his arrest that he committed the crime, but the confession was thrown out because he did not have a lawyer present as he had requested.

The evidence at trial included DNA from Jessica's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his bedroom, as well as Jessica's fingerprints in a closet in the trailer.

Jail guards and investigators testified that Couey repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest and that he insisted he had not meant to kill the third-grader but panicked as police searched for her.

Couey had a record as a sex offender. In 1991, he was arrested on a charge of fondling a child. In 1978, he was accused of grabbing a girl in her bedroom, placing his hand over her mouth and kissing her.

But authorities had not known that Couey was living near the Lunsford home even though he was required to tell them he had moved.

Jessica's killing prompted Florida and a number of other states to pass new laws cracking down on sex offenders and improve tracking of them through databases and satellite positioning devices.

Sentencing is to begin Tuesday. A psychologist testified for the defense that Couey has signs of mental illness and mental retardation, mitigating circumstances that could help spare him the death penalty.

Couey spent much of the trial drawing with colored pencils

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070307/...HMMxDq0IVH2ocA


What did he think would happen after he placed her in TWO garbage bags then put her in a hole and covered her with dirt ??

I'd flip the switch myself.

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Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

SLance68

I personally think they should have lead him out of the court room and just given Jessica Lunsford's father a good 20 minutes alone with him and then we would not have to pay for his appeals or feed his sorry ass while waiting to execute him. JMO!!!!!!!!