Murder of Jessica Lunsford - Misplaced Pages

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Jessica Marie Lunsford (October 6, 1995 – February 27, 2005) was an American kidnapping, rape and murder victim.

Jessica was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida on February 23, 2005. The case of her disappearance and subsequent murder was covered extensively by the media.

Circumstances of the case

After approximately three weeks of intense searching for the young girl in and around the area of her home, a person of interest, now known to be John Evander Couey, was first arrested in Savannah, Georgia for an outstanding warrant of marijuana possession, but was released after questioning because it was only a local warrant. Later Couey was arrested in Augusta, Georgia.

Her father, Mark Lunsford, is currently trying to have the suspect get the death penalty. According to police reports, Lunsford was abducted after attending a local church service.

John Couey stated he went to Jessica's house at about 3am, entered through an unlocked wooden door, awoke her, told her (Exact Quote) "Don't yell or nothing" and had Jessica follow him, she did of her own free will.

Couey occupied the trailer along with two other women. Couey admitted in his video taped and recorded deposition to having sexual intercourse with Jessica in his bedroom.. They then both slept nude together the first night at which time he then again assaulted her in the morning., leaving her in the closet with the instructions not to leave. She stayed in the closet the entire day as John Couey reported for work at "Billy's truck lot". never attempting to escape.

John Couey related that Jessica did not appear a virgin the first time they had sexual intercourse, stating she did not cry or yell out, and in fact smiled and said it felt like she was having her period. The coroner's report stated that Jessica's vagina showed prior healed notches, clefts and scars in her hymenal remains in a 6, and 12 oclock position that were present before John Couey's rape, though he stated in his court deposition that it could be of natural occurance as well as molestation..

On March 19, 2005 at exactly 12:13am, police found Jessica's body at a residence located on West Sparrow Court, buried in a hole approximatley 2 1/2' deep and 2' circular, covered with leaves. The body was removed from the ground at exactly 3:37am and transported to the coroner's office.

Her body had undergone "moderate" to "severe" decomposition. and according to the publicaly released autopsy reports was skeletonized on 2 fingers that Jessica had poked through the bags before suffocating to death. The coroner ruled that death would have happened even in best circumstances within 2-3 minutes from lack of oxygen..

Her mother, Angela Bryant, lives in Morrow in southwestern Ohio's Warren County.

Response to the case in the media and in the law

The kidnapping and murder of Jessica Lunsford quickly became a media circus. Critics of the media's influence, particularly NBC's Dateline, claimed it was an example of Missing White Woman Syndrome. It became a nightly topic on The O'Reilly Factor, particularly because of Bill O'Reilly's advocacy for the imposition of harsher jail sentences for convicted sex offenders. Journalist Greta Van Susteren also devoted a great deal of time to the case.

On March 1, 2005, Jessica Lunsford, the official website for Jessica Lunsford, hosted by David Stodghill and Charlotte Web Hosting mentioned here on CNN received over 10,000,000 unique hits in 9 hours, making it Alexa.com's third most visited website for the year of 2005.

On March 30, 2005, the Florida State House Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved a bill informally named after Jessica Lunsford, which if passed would require the electronic tracking of sex offenders on probation. O'Reilly has supported the bill.

A judge ruled on June 30, 2006 that John Couey's taped confession is inadmissible in court and will not be heard by members of the jury in the case. This decision was based on the fact that, at the time the confession was recorded, police had not granted Couey's repeated requests for access to a lawyer. It was ruled that all evidence collected after Couey's confession, including the recovery of Lunsford's body, will be allowed in court, as will incriminating statements made by Couey to investigators and a jail guard.

References

Footnotes

St. Petersburg Times, June 30, 2006

Web sites

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Categories:

Circumstances of the case

Response to the case in the media and in the law

See also

References

Footnotes

Web sites