Abbie Vansickle reports in the St. Petersburg Times:
INVERNESS - For weeks, rumors swirled that the man suspected of killing Jessica Lunsford kept her inside his home for a time, then buried her alive.It should also make Couey's half-sister, Dorothy Dixon, and her daughter, Madie Secord, criminally liable for lying to investigators about Couey whereabouts. Couey was living with Dixon at the time, and the timeline suggests that Lunsford might still have been alive when police came looking for Couey.Documents released Wednesday suggest those grisly accounts are true.
Investigators found Jessica just as John Couey told them they would.
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.
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Comments (6)
Does anyone know the answer... (Below threshold)1. Posted by fooltomery | April 22, 2005 2:37 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Does anyone know the answers to these questions:
(1) Did Florida police ask permission to search the trailer where Couey was living?
(2) If they asked, was permission refused? (If so, this would suggest complicity in the crime by the person(s) who refused permission to search.)
(3) More damningly, if permission was not asked, why was it not asked? (This failure might have cost little Jessica her life.)
1. Posted by fooltomery | April 22, 2005 2:37 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 22, 2005 02:37
2. Posted by Tom | April 22, 2005 2:01 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Ugh. Each time this story turns up in the news, there's some new even more startling and horrible development than what has already come out. The level of depravity displayed in this case is just incredible...
2. Posted by Tom | April 22, 2005 2:01 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 22, 2005 14:01
3. Posted by Yogi | April 25, 2005 10:42 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Refusal of a search does NOT IN ANY WAY imply guilt. I would have refused the search without a warrant myself, and I live across the country.
3. Posted by Yogi | April 25, 2005 10:42 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 25, 2005 22:42
4. Posted by Kevin | April 25, 2005 10:49 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Knowingly lying to the police about whether a registered sex offender is living with you does imply guilt. I doubt police asked to search the place initially, they were just trying to get the current whereabouts of all sex offenders in the area.
4. Posted by Kevin | April 25, 2005 10:49 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 25, 2005 22:49
5. Posted by karen ross | June 1, 2005 12:03 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
If you want to get involved in changing things for our children visit the only official website owned by the lunsford family. These volunteers are doing some great work in an attempt to change things for all of our children. There is lots of work to be done. Website address is www.jessicamarielunsford.com
Check out the email campaign going on right now. We need people to help email letters to lawmakers.
Sincerely,
Karen Ross aka Concerned mom
5. Posted by karen ross | June 1, 2005 12:03 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 1, 2005 00:03
6. Posted by Lynette | April 6, 2007 2:40 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I think it is too easy to give him a lethal injection for his crime. He should have to die EXACTLY the way she did. If the crazies out there say that is cruel then they have lost sight of what this scared little girl went through under 4 feet of cold earth. There just isnt any punishment for doing wrong in our society anymore. What a shame because the children will almost always pay the price, not the killers.
6. Posted by Lynette | April 6, 2007 2:40 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on April 6, 2007 02:40