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NEW INFORMATION RELEASED IN JESSICA LUNSFORD KILLING
wcsh6.com ^ | 4/8/05

Posted on 04/08/2005 5:41:40 PM PDT by TexKat

Court documents say it's possible a nine-year-old Florida girl who was abducted and killed may have been alive when officers first questioned the suspect.

HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) - John Couey, who is a convicted sex offender, had been staying with his half-sister near the home of Jessica Lunsford. Police went to the half-sister's home twice while looking for the child, and said no suspicions were raised.

Police say that Couey later told them he was hiding in the home during the second interview.

The court documents released Thursday say that the timeline "leaves open the possibility" that Lunsford was alive during each interview. Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said that Couey was in a "drug haze" during the abduction.

Lunsford was found sexually assaulted and buried near the mobile home.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: couey; jessicalunsford; lunsford; substanceabuse
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To: TexKat

Surgical Castration, or a straight razor with turpentine.

Which 'll it be, Mr Cooey?


41 posted on 04/08/2005 7:24:43 PM PDT by digger48
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To: CitizenM

Did you hear it just now at 9:26 p.m. central CNN?


42 posted on 04/08/2005 7:27:00 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: TexKat

Just a part of it, got a phone call. I heard the end, however, and I believe they said that the buried alive aspect has not been proven. I will keep hoping we never hear that is true. I am trying to focus on the Mass and rejoice in the Pope's place in Heaven. I will do the same for poor Jessica. Whatever happened, she is in a place where only good will come to her. With Terri and JPII - what good company.


43 posted on 04/08/2005 7:37:17 PM PDT by CitizenM ("Rise, let us be on our way" - Pope John Paul, II (noted in Ratzinger's Homily@ PJPII's Requiem))
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To: anniegetyourgun
So, he didn't kill her, he just "let her die".......

Thats what CNN is reporting, that it is possible that Couey buried Jessica alive.

Also I noticed in all the current articles regarding this matter, they state that Couey raped her or sexually assualted Jessica and buried her. They do not state that he raped her or sexually assualted, killed her and then buried her.

44 posted on 04/08/2005 7:41:37 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: CitizenM
and I believe they said that the buried alive aspect has not been proven.

Approximately 20 minutes ago, CNN reported that Couey informed the LE that thats what happened, however LE is not confirming at the present.

45 posted on 04/08/2005 7:47:26 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: CajunConservative; paul51; Teflonic
The bastards sister needs to be charged as well for not telling police that her brother is a sex offender.

Exactly! They should be given the death penalty in this case IMO. Wouldn't she have known the girl was there? I mean it's not like the trailer was huge.

Florida's laws or non-laws suck once again.

Abducted Fla. Girl May Have Been Alive When Officers Questioned Suspect

UPDATED: 9:22 am EDT April 8, 2005

HOMOSASSA, Fla. -- A chronology offered by a registered sex offender who confessed to abducting and killing a 9-year-old neighbor indicates she may have been alive when officers initially visited the home where the man was staying, according to court documents.

John Evander "Couey's timeline of the events after he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford leaves open the possibility that she was alive and in the house at the time of the first and possibly the second interview," said the documents released Thursday.

Citrus County sheriff's deputies canvassed the girl's neighborhood after her father reported her missing from her bed Feb. 24 and made two stops at the home of Couey's half-sister. No suspicions were raised, but detectives say Couey later told them he was hiding in the house during the second interview.

Couey, 46, who pleaded not guilty to murder Wednesday, had been staying off and on at the mobile home visible about 150 yards from the girl's home.

He has 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. The victim was sexually assaulted and buried near the mobile home.

Couey was arrested March 17 in Augusta, Ga., and his four Homosassa housemates were arrested the next day. Prosecutors did not pursue obstruction charges after concluding they lacked legal grounds to support charges based on the housemates' interviews during the prolonged search.

"Florida does not have a statute which makes it a crime to lie to a police officer in all situations, nor is there a law which requires a person to disclose the whereabouts of a registered sex offender," prosecutors wrote in a newly disclosed memo.

"I believe these individuals truly obstructed this agency's criminal investigation into Jessica's death," Dawsy said in a statement faxed Thursday to the St. Petersburg Times.

Couey was staying with his half-sister Dorothy Marie Dixon, her boyfriend Matthew Oley Dittrich, her daughter Madie Catherine Secord and her husband Gene Secord.

On the first stop, Dittrich gave his name but didn't say Couey was staying there because he knew Couey was wanted on a misdemeanor probation violation. On the second visit, investigators spoke to Dittrich and Dixon.

Jessica's father Mark Lunsford and Dawsy have traveled to Tallahassee to urge legislators to change state law to make it a felony to harbor a sex offender without notifying law enforcement. Other proposals would mandate life sentences or lifetime electronic monitoring for child molesters.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

46 posted on 04/08/2005 7:57:55 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: sandbar

Check out post #46, that will knock you for a loop.


47 posted on 04/08/2005 8:01:20 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: TexKat

I am just going to steer clear of Florida. It is really screwed up.


48 posted on 04/08/2005 8:13:49 PM PDT by CajunConservative
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To: CajunConservative

O'Reilly is talking about this now.


49 posted on 04/08/2005 8:15:45 PM PDT by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: Fresh Wind

Are you really buying his excuse?


50 posted on 04/08/2005 8:19:53 PM PDT by thoughtomator ("The Passion of the Opus" - 2 hours of a FReeper being crucified on his own self-pitying thread)
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To: TexKat

The sick f--k!!!! If I were the father, I would be starting up a posse, dragging that worthless bitch of a sister out of her house and hanging her by her own entrails.


51 posted on 04/08/2005 8:25:49 PM PDT by nonliberal (Graduate: Curtis E. LeMay School of International Relations)
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To: TexKat

"Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has said that Couey was in a "drug haze" during the abduction."

You know, I'm not really pro-drugs, I'm not really anti-drugs, I've got mixed feeling about the war on drugs, and (full disclaimer) I drink too much and I smoke too much, but I just have to say, there are an AWFUL LOT OF PEOPLE who are in "drug haze[s]" some of the time, a lot of the time, ALL OF THE TIME, and they do not kidnap and murder children.


52 posted on 04/08/2005 10:00:52 PM PDT by jocon307 (Irish grandmother rolls in grave, yet again!)
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To: OldFriend; All

"They they purchased a bus ticket for this murdering scum proves they knew"

Yes, and that makes them accomplices doesn't it? Before and after the fact, as they used to say on TV? I'd say this group should face quite as many charges as the murderer himself, maybe more, like obstruction of justice, etc.

HAVE any of these others been charged, arrested, anything? Does anybody know?


53 posted on 04/08/2005 10:04:27 PM PDT by jocon307 (Irish grandmother rolls in grave, yet again!)
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To: TexKat
His disgusting crime was sick enough without this new information.This country has to take scumbags like this guy off the streets before they have a chance to rape and kill more children.This rat bastard had an arrest sheet that was full of something like 25 arrests with many of them for violent crimes.He even admitted to molesting a young girl some years back while being questioned for another crime he was convicted of and they still let him out ten years early.The system should treat child molesters like murderers because even when their victims remain alive he still murderes a big part of their sole.Scum like this shouldn't ever be allowed to roam free in our neighborhoods.
54 posted on 04/08/2005 10:23:53 PM PDT by rdcorso (In America Criminals Have More Rights Than The Disabled.What A Disgrace)
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To: Fresh Wind

....or undocumented republican employees!


55 posted on 04/08/2005 10:28:29 PM PDT by 88-fxstc
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To: TexKat


foul.

This guy should be flensed.


56 posted on 04/08/2005 10:33:10 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: Fresh Wind
"But drugs only hurt the user, don't they?"

well, the libertarians will tell you that it was wrong for this man to use drugs and then commit a crime, and so , rightfully, according to the law, he will be punished.......

just too bad that a little innocent 9yro had to pay the price for this man to be able to be a drug maniac....

his rights = no rights for her...

57 posted on 04/08/2005 10:44:48 PM PDT by cherry (I)
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To: TexKat

This is truly evil.


58 posted on 04/09/2005 12:26:06 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)
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To: FormerACLUmember

I have mixed feelings about the death penalty, until it comes to hurting children. Anyone who does anything to hurt a child needs to DIE. And not by injection, They need to suffer alot, just like they made that child suffer. Sorry, just my opinion.


59 posted on 04/09/2005 12:35:34 AM PDT by Lovergirl (Terri..I don't personally know you but I love you.)
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To: Graybeard58
I don't buy that. They eventually found out that he spent time in the house across the street. They should have figured that out using whatever data bases they had, only sooner. It could have saved that girl. Also they did go in the house. Something does not make sense to me. Sounds like if the police were more on the ball Jessica would not be dead.
60 posted on 04/09/2005 5:52:38 AM PDT by blueriver
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