AL AL - Heaven Ross, 11, Northport, 19 Aug 2003

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I have to agree.. I don't think Shae ever left the house that morning.
 
Fairy1 said:
BBM - Do you lean toward the killer having ties to that specific house or just the general area? I assume LE researched the history of the house and ruled out past owners or renters. At least I sure hope they did!
Click to expand...

I lean toward the killer knowing the area well... and knowing that the house was uninhabited. He/She knew that it would not be searched in relation to Shae.

I had an eye doctor appt very close today, so I drove over to Creek Road. It's all changed so much since the tornado. I took some pictures of the road if anyone would like to see them, but there's not much to tell with the devastation that the tornado left. It's just a gravel road with fallen trees all behind it. Some of the people have built back nice homes since the tornado, including the neighbor across from Creek Road who is quoted in many articles about Shae. Most of the lots are still empty with concrete slabs, though.
 
I really don't know what to think. The mother's boyfriend had hurt Shae before. But the other two cases possibly tied to Shae's murder are very compelling in terms of considering a serial killer. It's disturbing to think Shae's mother would have stayed with the possible murderer of her own child for so long after if she truly believed he was involved - unless she was involved too. Some of her statements really creeped me out. And the drama.

I do agree it seems the killer would have been familiar with the area where Shae's remains were found. I think it's very interesting that her backpack was found with her.

Poor little baby girl.
 
Fairy1 said:
I wasn't familiar with Shae's story and many of the story links posted here years ago no longer work. I found this site looking for old articles and it has most everything going back to when Shae went missing:

https://storify.com/tuscaloosanews/10-years-later-heaven-lashae-ross-murder

Some very interesting information, IMO.
Click to expand...

Thank you Fairy1 for posting this link. Virtually all of the other links are no longer valid on this Cold Case so I was having a hard time refreshing my memory by just reading the posts. This link you posted helps tremendously and also clears up some questionable 'info' I was getting from just reading the thread.
I understand the copyright rule for current cases but it sure does make a problem trying to read the older cases. :banghead:
 
Ociboys said:
Couple thoughts that jumped out at me. First, she never made it to the bus stop so I would not believe the kidnapping or stranger abduction theory as my first choice. Google maps show this is a dead end straight road for each entrance to trailer park. No optional exits. Her sister was at the bus stop and confirmed to be first to leave the home. She said stepdad came up the road for her. Did she see other cars? Sister also states another child was in the car with stepdad on date of disappearance. Sister was not allowed to be polygraphed per one of the news reports. Mom never gets up that morning. S-dad alleges to have talked with Shea offering a ride. No confirmation that sister had any conversations with Shea that I can gather. It is very possible that Shea never left the house that morning to go to school. I think LE (if they are working on this case) needs to question the sister and other unknown child who was in the car with S-dad. heres my links and reports. I'll try to google map but not sure I know how.

By Stephanie Taylor
Staff Writer
August 21, 2003
NO LINK. POST#4

Last seen by family members at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Heaven LaShae Ross, 11, disappeared somewhere between her home and a bus stop about 50 yards away on Hunter Creek Road.

Shae’s sister, Alex Ross, 13, had been waiting at the bus stop Tuesday morning and said her sister never made it there. She knew something was wrong when her mother’s boyfriend, who she said the girls think of as their father, showed up to give them a ride to school because it was about to rain.

“She usually walks with someone else. I left a few minutes ahead of her. I didn’t think anything was wrong until they came and got me and didn’t know where she was," Alex said.


8/19/2005
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/p...plate=dateline

He said he offered to drive Shae to school the day she went missing because her book bag looked heavy. She declined the offer. She had only been out the door a few minutes when a loud thunderclap made Thompson go out the door after her.

"She doesn't like thunderstorms," he said. "They scare her....

"But when I came out the door, I didn't see her at all. It's like she just vanished."

posted:12/23/05
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...n1161706.shtml

...Heaven's older sister, Alex, was waiting at the bus stop near some mailboxes. But because it was pouring rain that morning, their stepfather decided to drive them to school.

"I probably left at 6:56, 6:55 and she left around like 7:00 and my step dad got there around 7:02, maybe, and he just came around there and was like, 'Where is Shae?' And I was like 'I don't know,' " Alex Lowery remembers.
Click to expand...

BBM: It sounds like the sister saw Heaven that morning and everything was normal. Since there was only a narrow window of time, it couldn't have been the stepfather despite all the dysfunction in the family. Since Heaven "usually walked with someone else" I expect she went to meet a friend wherever they usually met up to walk together. I strongly suspect whoever killed her was someone right there in the trailer park who was one of the ones who was conveniently not home when police first canvassed the area. Probably someone without significant or any priors and who seems perfectl normal.
 
Card said that FBI agents became involved with the case Wednesday. Family members said the agents were reviewing a surveillance tape from nearby Steve's Grill & Billiards that would have shown any vehicles in the area of the bus stop. Card said he could not comment when asked about the tape.

more-----FBI agents were still working to enhance a videotape obtained from Steve's Grill & Billiards Wednesday, Card said. The camera was facing the bus stop and could reveal clues about traffic on Hunter Creek Road Tuesday morning.


more------FBI Special Agent Jimmie Brown said that a videotape from Steve's Grill & Billiards had not revealed any clues about vehicles entering or leaving the trailer park Tuesday morning.

hopefully they looked at the tape from the night before as well to see if any cars left the MH lot.
so they only rule out that morning---no word on the night before
 
so the last night she came home from school and did her homework. she fell asleep and the sdad left her home alone and took her sister with him while he went to pick up the mom. he said her stomach was upset so she didnt eat dinner. the next morning the mom never gets up while the girls are getting ready for school.

I would not have left her alone--I would have left her sister there with her or woke her up and took her with me.
the neighbor who said she saw her walking to the bus stop. wonder how reliable she is. and if she was sure that it was THAT morning she saw her.

and it is not clear whether the sister was saying on a regular morning she leaves earlier than Shae and she walks with a friend OR if she was saying THAT morning she saw her, and left earlier.

what if, suppose, maybe,I wonder --these type of cases seem to always be rife with speculation.
 
Investigators on Friday hauled garbage bags full of Shae Ross' belongings to the Northport Police Department, saying that the items would be used to provide a scent for tracking dogs.

Shae, 11, has been missing since Tuesday. A neighbor last saw her walking to her bus stop on Hunter Creek Road at about 7 a.m. that morning.

Investigators took diaries, a day planner and her hairbrush from Shae's home in Willowbrook Trailer Park on Wednesday. Friday, they went to the home and left with bags containing sheets, pillows, pajamas, underwear, shoes and the last two outfits Shae wore, her mother, Beth Lowery, said.

Northport Juvenile Investigator Terry Carroll said during a Friday press conference that a K-9 team from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office in Florida would come to Northport next week if Shae is still missing. Tracking dogs belonging to the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office have already searched the area around the trailer park, but police are accepting all the help they can get.


I wonder if the dogs tracked her from her home to at least the point at which the neighbor said she saw her.
 
On Tuesday, FBI agents separated Lowery, Thompson, Alex and Blake and had each fill out a questionnaire. Each person was told not to discuss what the questions were about. Lowery took an hour to complete hers at home; Thompson filled his out at the Northport Police Department; Alex filled her copy out at school before F.B.I. agents took her to lunch; and Blake finished his at the home he shares with friends.

so even tho Alex was not permitted to take a LD test she was questioned out of sight of her parents so maybe she felt safe enough to be truthful about anything that may have alarmed her.
 
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20040819/NEWS/408190336/0/SEARCH


Shae's past riddled with incidents of physical violence

Published: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 1:31 a.m.
NORTHPORT | Long strings of shiny blue, green and gold beads make up the door into Heaven LaShae Ross' bedroom. Reports of the sixth-grader being knocked to the ground and her wearing pull-up diapers are raw glimpses into her life. One year ago today, the 11-year-old red-head, who loved pets and pink diaries and who was on the verge of getting a new trombone, disappeared from her home in Willowbrook Trailer Park.

There have been few leads in the case -- investigators cannot speculate if she ran away or was kidnapped -- but court records show she was no stranger to physical violence.

According to a 2000 Tuscaloosa District Court document, Kevin Thompson, Shae's stepfather, was charged with harassment, and Shae was listed as a witness.

Thompson "[threw] his stepdaughter to the ground while she was attempting to run for help," according to the document.

Thompson pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to serve 30 days of hard labor for Tuscaloosa County, according to the document. He also completed anger management class in March 2001.

In 1999, Thompson also was charged with a misdemeanor assault charge, according to a court document.

"During a heated argument, [Thompson] threw his girlfriend [Beth Lowery] to the floor, hitting her causing several bruises on both arms, the left leg. [The] victim had a bloody nose and had blood coming from her ear where her earring was pulled out of her ear," according to the document.

"They did everything together," Lowery said. "He used to pull her out of school, and they would take rides together. I don't know where they went. They were just very close."

The night before she disappeared, Shae complained of stomach cramps. Lowery thought it was a sign that she could be starting her period.

"I looked at Kevin and said, uh-oh," Lowery said. "So, she was laying across the chair watching TV, and Kevin massaged her stomach."

"She was a bed-wetter," Lowery said. "She wore pull-ups. I mean, she didn't do it every night, she'd do it every couple of nights. It's something that's hereditary.

"But because of that, when she started junior high, she would get up and take a shower and really take some time to get ready. She wanted to be all grown up."
 
I'd have to look at bed wetting being a hereditary issue. I could see it being a kidney issue that's hereditary..but bed wetting is just a symptom. When I think about a child over 9 that still wets the bed, and an abusive step-parent in the home..it sends up a red flag to me. My niece was molested..she was a 9 year old bed-wetter. So this hits close to home.
Also, the mother assumed that she was having cramps? Had she already had her period? Maybe its just me, but starting at 11 sounds kinda young. I know its not uncommon, it just seems weird to me. Looking at her picture, she still looks like a little girl..theres no tell-tale signs of puberty. You'd expect to see skin changes and maybe a growth spurt..
And she doesn't think it's weird that her husband whom isn't related, is rubbing the girls belly? Good lawd..shut the door..lol

Maybe he didn't think it was cramps, maybe he thought she was pregnant and did the most horrible thing ever... poor baby girl..JMHO
Did they release the condition of the body and cause of death?
 
I think the whole cramps, bed wetting, puberty, riding around, step father etc. is highly suspect.....however-

My DD got her period at age ten. She still looked like a little girl, I hated it for her. One day she was my little girl playing dolls, and the next she would be like a hormone ridden teen. It was bad for both of us!

As for the bed wetting, one of my boys suffered from it. We took him to the dr. The dr said that his bladder had not matured at the same rate as the rest of his body and he would outgrow it. And he did by puberty. My DH said that his sister had the same problem as a child.

So those things are possible, however in this case, I just don't believe it. I suspect something was going on with the step father.
 
justonedrin said:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20040819/NEWS/408190336/0/SEARCH


Shae's past riddled with incidents of physical violence

Published: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 1:31 a.m.
NORTHPORT | Long strings of shiny blue, green and gold beads make up the door into Heaven LaShae Ross' bedroom. Reports of the sixth-grader being knocked to the ground and her wearing pull-up diapers are raw glimpses into her life. One year ago today, the 11-year-old red-head, who loved pets and pink diaries and who was on the verge of getting a new trombone, disappeared from her home in Willowbrook Trailer Park.

There have been few leads in the case -- investigators cannot speculate if she ran away or was kidnapped -- but court records show she was no stranger to physical violence.

According to a 2000 Tuscaloosa District Court document, Kevin Thompson, Shae's stepfather, was charged with harassment, and Shae was listed as a witness.

Thompson "[threw] his stepdaughter to the ground while she was attempting to run for help," according to the document.

Thompson pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to serve 30 days of hard labor for Tuscaloosa County, according to the document. He also completed anger management class in March 2001.

In 1999, Thompson also was charged with a misdemeanor assault charge, according to a court document.

"During a heated argument, [Thompson] threw his girlfriend [Beth Lowery] to the floor, hitting her causing several bruises on both arms, the left leg. [The] victim had a bloody nose and had blood coming from her ear where her earring was pulled out of her ear," according to the document.

"They did everything together," Lowery said. "He used to pull her out of school, and they would take rides together. I don't know where they went. They were just very close."

The night before she disappeared, Shae complained of stomach cramps. Lowery thought it was a sign that she could be starting her period.

"I looked at Kevin and said, uh-oh," Lowery said. "So, she was laying across the chair watching TV, and Kevin massaged her stomach."

"She was a bed-wetter," Lowery said. "She wore pull-ups. I mean, she didn't do it every night, she'd do it every couple of nights. It's something that's hereditary.

"But because of that, when she started junior high, she would get up and take a shower and really take some time to get ready. She wanted to be all grown up."
Click to expand...

Excellent piece of Victimology

Sounds pretty ominous, I don't think the police are going to have to look far to solve this one, ..that is if they haven't fouled the investigation.

History of Physical assault , once for "running for help"
Once even listed as a witness AGAINST her stepfather
Odd behavior of the "parents" following her disappearance, (not looking for her, not returning home but going to the school 1st)
Step father, removes girl from school, for ??? reason, and goes ??? they did "everything" together
Bed Wetting (often seen in kids who are sexually abused, not indicative, in and of itself , but a red flag given the other evidence none the less) Pull up diapers?
The DELIBERATE fire in her room
Stomach cramps the night before she goes missing -(Possibly post sexual assault ???/ Pregnancy??)
Parents last to see her alive
Unlikely body dump site
-if it were a stranger abduction, why hide the body when its already dumped out of the way?? , almost like someone didn't want her body to be found, or for it to be found LONG after she disappeared . More could be gleaned, if there was a description of how her remains were found, ... (IE were they wrapped in anything?) .

"David didn't think Shae would talk to a stranger, either.'

"We still talk at school about what could have happened to her," he said. "We think she ran away . Why?

"Because who would take a girl like that?"

Something pings VERY close to home on this one ..
 
justonedrin said:
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20040819/NEWS/408190336/0/SEARCH


Shae's past riddled with incidents of physical violence

Published: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 19, 2004 at 1:31 a.m.
NORTHPORT | Long strings of shiny blue, green and gold beads make up the door into Heaven LaShae Ross' bedroom. Reports of the sixth-grader being knocked to the ground and her wearing pull-up diapers are raw glimpses into her life. One year ago today, the 11-year-old red-head, who loved pets and pink diaries and who was on the verge of getting a new trombone, disappeared from her home in Willowbrook Trailer Park.

There have been few leads in the case -- investigators cannot speculate if she ran away or was kidnapped -- but court records show she was no stranger to physical violence.

According to a 2000 Tuscaloosa District Court document, Kevin Thompson, Shae's stepfather, was charged with harassment, and Shae was listed as a witness.

Thompson "[threw] his stepdaughter to the ground while she was attempting to run for help," according to the document.

Thompson pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to serve 30 days of hard labor for Tuscaloosa County, according to the document. He also completed anger management class in March 2001.

In 1999, Thompson also was charged with a misdemeanor assault charge, according to a court document.

"During a heated argument, [Thompson] threw his girlfriend [Beth Lowery] to the floor, hitting her causing several bruises on both arms, the left leg. [The] victim had a bloody nose and had blood coming from her ear where her earring was pulled out of her ear," according to the document.

"They did everything together," Lowery said. "He used to pull her out of school, and they would take rides together. I don't know where they went. They were just very close."

The night before she disappeared, Shae complained of stomach cramps. Lowery thought it was a sign that she could be starting her period.

"I looked at Kevin and said, uh-oh," Lowery said. "So, she was laying across the chair watching TV, and Kevin massaged her stomach."

"She was a bed-wetter," Lowery said. "She wore pull-ups. I mean, she didn't do it every night, she'd do it every couple of nights. It's something that's hereditary.

"But because of that, when she started junior high, she would get up and take a shower and really take some time to get ready. She wanted to be all grown up."
Click to expand...

Wow! That doesn't sound good at all. This combined with adults outside the family saying the little girl was love-starved makes her high risk for buddying up to someone she shouldn't. You'd think if Alex said she didn't see Heaven that morning, LE would have really been on him even more than the were.
 
killarney rose said:
I think the whole cramps, bed wetting, puberty, riding around, step father etc. is highly suspect.....however-

My DD got her period at age ten. She still looked like a little girl, I hated it for her. One day she was my little girl playing dolls, and the next she would be like a hormone ridden teen. It was bad for both of us!

As for the bed wetting, one of my boys suffered from it. We took him to the dr. The dr said that his bladder had not matured at the same rate as the rest of his body and he would outgrow it. And he did by puberty. My DH said that his sister had the same problem as a child.

So those things are possible, however in this case, I just don't believe it. I suspect something was going on with the step father.
Click to expand...

Yes, agree about the bedwetting. Two of my three sons with my husband had this issue, as did my dh as a child. Our pediatrician, and everything I read about it which was a lot, said it could be hereditary. And that it generally stops for the child about the same time if stopped for the parent. And that's exactly what happened. But, I agree, in this case, it is definitely suspect. Because bedwetting is also a symptom of sexual abuse. The key to whether it's hereditary is generally if there was ever a time without it. With my kids, it pretty much happened, not daily, but enough to be of concern, until it slowly stopped. But, if the child does not have this problem, and then it develops, then there is another cause.

And the belly rubbing by the step-father. That is completely inappropriate and I'm pretty sure that mom knew it. If she was getting her period, that would be exactly the time an unrelated (or even related) man should definitely NOT be rubbing her in that area. Ugh!
 
The night before she disappeared, Shae complained of stomach cramps. Lowery thought it was a sign that she could be starting her period.

"I looked at Kevin and said, uh-oh," Lowery said. "So, she was laying across the chair watching TV, and Kevin massaged her stomach."

"She was a bed-wetter," Lowery said. "She wore pull-ups. I mean, she didn't do it every night, she'd do it every couple of nights. It's something that's hereditary.

"But because of that, when she started junior high, she would get up and take a shower and really take some time to get ready. She wanted to be all grown up."

does not sound good at face value--coming home from school and falling asleep, being left alone while the rest of the family goes to pick up the mom, skipping dinner, stomach cramps, dad rubbing belly, wetting bed, showering every morning all of a sudden. wearing
pull ups at 11 years of age.
 
The stepfather is obviously highly suspect. I just can't believe that the investigation would have ruled him out if it was--it seems like there was every opportunity to pin this on him.
 
LitCrit said:
The stepfather is obviously highly suspect. I just can't believe that the investigation would have ruled him out if it was--it seems like there was every opportunity to pin this on him.
Click to expand...

Im sure he is a suspect, but n cases like this that stall its usually because there's lack of physical evidence to prosecute .
 
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