Found Deceased CO - Gannon Stauch, 11, Colorado Springs, Lorson Ranch, El Paso County, 27 Jan 2020 *endangered* #7

[sleepysleuth]

I may have missed this - but it looks like Big Johnson Reservoir was drained back a few years ago for repairs. Has it been refilled yet?

 

[SalMAnder]

Cheyenne Mountain State Park. It is close to the Springs. Remote areas. Less visitors than Garden of the Gods. Was the trip to Garden of the Gods - so close to him missing - a type of deterrence ??

GofG is a city park that doesn't have an entrance fee or gate attendant. I'm pretty sure that CMSP does.

 

[Megnut]

It's an added layer of cunning and callousness that the last text AS received from his son more than likely came instead from the person who had already killed him. Cruel on top of cruel.

PF texted KB's mother, "Happy Thanksgiving!" After he'd just beat her daughter to death with a baseball bat.

If you don't care about other people, you just don't care.

I can't crawl inside minds like these.

JMO

 

[Seajay]

A secure parent, step or bio , realizes the benefit of having another person to love and support their child. They are very intentional about cultivating a relationship with that new adult in their child's life, because ultimately it benefits their child.

What is different in this case, the relationship with AS and TS was rooted in deception from the beginning. He wouldn't be the first man to deceived by her, but I sure hope he's the LAST!

BBM And I’m convinced that even if the man isn’t aware of the deception, the child usually is. The child can tell when someone doesn’t like them. Many times the child tries to show and voice their worry that the person doesn’t like them. IMO JMO

 

[10ofRods]

Just a few ponderings about LS and her current situation:

She is unlikely to be able to afford a good criminal defense lawyer and is likely to be struggling to find a place to stay. I imagine she's under surveillance. She cannot avail herself of a public defender until she is charged. This fact may lead to a temporary impasse in how LE can approach her. She can refuse to speak and then can have her lawyer (self-paid) present if she's not officially charged.

I think LS has difficulty staying quiet and typically wants attention. LE may be contacting her intermittently and getting dribbles of information, while she struggles to remain silent. Since DA and LE know she can't afford her own lawyer, there's no rush to charge her, so that the County has to start paying for her defense. Let her twist in the wind?

Right now, she needs housing, clothing, food and transportation. Presumably, her daughter needed the impounded car to get to work and must now either be relying on friends, public transport or similar. I doubt they can afford a rental car, although anything is possible. At 17 and in the military, the daughter is probably getting minimum wage and it's my understanding that the military cannot make a person a permanent member until they reach 18. If daughter is missing work, she won't make it to that milestone.

LS is used to controlling situations with drama, storytelling and embellishments to her story, but that only works in her domestic context and doesn't play well in public. I can only imagine how bizarre her story becomes when a good interrogator joins in. I think she would have a very hard time staying mum and probably reveals more each time they talk to her, and likely there are changes in her story. She has been asked questions, no doubt, about why Gannon appears on the 10:13 video. Presumably, her story changed. Which makes her a person of interest.

She has the final piece of the puzzle and she is backed into a corner. I don't think they'll charge her until she gives them that piece.

 

[MsBetsy]

I feel horribly for GS's bio mom, and for his little sister.

I ain't shedding any tears whatsoever for AS.

I'll save those for Gannon.

JMO.

AS may have been aware that his wife was treating Gannon poorly, but I doubt he could have anticipated what was to come.

At this point we don't even know if there was ongoing abuse occurring in the home, although I suspect there was.

However I don't think we know enough to assume that AS knew about it, or that he was not attempting to do something about it if he did know.

Imo

 

[cluciano63]

It's an added layer of cunning and callousness that the last text AS received from his son more than likely came instead from the person who had already killed him. Cruel on top of cruel.

PF texted KB's mother, "Happy Thanksgiving!" After he'd just beat her daughter to death with a baseball bat.

If you don't care about other people, you just don't care.

I can't crawl inside minds like these.

JMO

OT but I struggle with anyone being taken in by these sociopaths...but then that is their speciality..

 

[skystarr]

Think this through. If anyone had planned this - premeditation - then they may also have pre -planned where 'they' were going. And when 'they' were going. Everything after could also have been planned. It would be logic - naturally - to expect questions. To prepare for an interview. To plan responses in that interview. If this was thought out - then it would follow that the first thing to do - is throw LE off any track. It is 2020. For years - things can be discovered with cell phone pings and GPS, computers and technology. Recent HUGE cases have shown so many ways things are figured out and how they are figured out. Maybe that was also in the planning. Is it not plausible that LE is looking in an area - where they have been led to intentionally ?

 

[10ofRods]

An earlier thread talked about why there was a need to use a truck vs. an SUV that day. The thought being there may be a need to go off-road. Maybe needing high clearance in truck like that for off - road - or maybe just the height of the truck so no one could pull beside and see inside the truck. If it went off -road - it would most likely be dirty, muddy, dusty. And so logic would say that it was probably washed before returning home. Videos at car washes ? Or close to car washes that day ?

Some people have expanded photos from the video and the truck appears to have dust/dirt over the wheel wells when it returns. So I don't think it went through an exterior carwash - and if it did, it must have been super dirty right beforehand.

Most carwashes have cameras. At any rate, some dirt was still on it.

A secure parent, step or bio , realizes the benefit of having another person to love and support their child. They are very intentional about cultivating a relationship with that new adult in their child's life, because ultimately it benefits their child.

What is different in this case, the relationship with AS and TS was rooted in deception from the beginning. He wouldn't be the first man to deceived by her, but I sure hope he's the LAST!

AFAIK, AS knew what he was getting into. I can't use the word deceived. He knew what he was getting into and he knew what this woman was like, after two years. In this case, I don't think the three adults involved were necessarily seeking out relationship advice or cultivating healthy relationships within their trio. It's not easy to do, and they were long distance to boot.

But AS was and is the primary parent, along with LH, and he had certain responsibilities.

 

[kaen]

Cheyenne Mountain State Park. It is close to the Springs. Remote areas. Less visitors than Garden of the Gods. Was the trip to Garden of the Gods - so close to him missing - a type of deterrence ??

The trip to GOTG would explain dirt and mud from that geographic area on the tires in the coming days. When the cars were impounded, they would be doing analysis on the dirt composition found. GOTG and many places near it would have the same or similar soil.

 

[MassGuy]

Let me go ahead and tell you when frustration sets in. It set in when LE took the report for an 11 year old RUNAWAY and left it at that. So do they owe anyone anything? Yes they owe Gannon and his family everything. One can only imagine what could have been found at the house had LE started the 27th. The frustration also comes in when the public is attacked for conducting their own investigation to help bring this child home. If it weren't for that neighbor looking through his camera and doing his own investigation God only knows when and if they would have found it or even ask for it. So yes I am frustrated and the frustration has turned into anger at this point. At the end we all just want him found.

I think there are some assumptions being made here. Yes, LE initially characterized Gannon’s disappearance as being a “runaway.”

From very early on though, their words didn’t jibe with their actions. While calling this a runaway child case, they were clearly investigating the possibility of a crime.

We know this, in part, because of the stepmom’s tv interview. She was apparently grilled by law enforcement, and felt as if she was being treated as a suspect.

It takes time to get warrants, and warrants require probable cause. Investigations like this do not happen overnight.

And in regards to “the public conducting their own investigation,” the last thing law enforcement wants are idiots on Facebook interfering with what they are trying to do.

There have been no shortage of unfounded rumors perpetuated by social media at this point, and those are incredibly harmful.

It’s great that the public is being involved in the search, but they are not investigators.

The investigating should be left to law enforcement.

 

[californiagem]

Gannon Stauch: Officials focus on reservoir in search of boy who mysteriously vanished while under stepmother’s care

I'm not familiar with home security cameras, Can anyone tell me why the camera zooms in on the red truck when LS returns? Is that something the camera does on it's own or do you have to manually zoom in? It almost seems like it was manually zoomed to catch every move. Strange

 

[skywalker20]

I disagree. Not all 11 year olds are obsessed with their phones. I know some who don’t even bother touching theirs at all unless asked by a parent to bring it with them to keep in touch.

ja, but the chance of this is very close to zero.

 

[lilithblue]

I'm not familiar with home security cameras, Can anyone tell me why the camera zooms in on the red truck when LS returns? Is that something the camera does on it's own or do you have to manually zoom in? It almost seems like it was manually zoomed to catch every move. Strange

It's a video of a video. The person filming the video, I believe, is zooming in with their own camera. I think it's the far right corner of the range of the neighbor's camera.

 

[MsBetsy]

Let me go ahead and tell you when frustration sets in. It set in when LE took the report for an 11 year old RUNAWAY and left it at that. So do they owe anyone anything? Yes they owe Gannon and his family everything. One can only imagine what could have been found at the house had LE started the 27th. The frustration also comes in when the public is attacked for conducting their own investigation to help bring this child home. If it weren't for that neighbor looking through his camera and doing his own investigation God only knows when and if they would have found it or even ask for it. So yes I am frustrated and the frustration has turned into anger at this point. At the end we all just want him found.

LE initially conducted the investigation as a runaway case because Gannon was reported as a runaway and this was backed up by evidence that proved to be false and misleading.

Once they found evidence to contradict this they immediately switched gears. Unfortunately precious time was wasted because they had to spend hours looking through the surveillance footage in the hours after he "reportedly" went missing only to find that he was not a runaway at all.

If I remember correctly, early on LE stated that they did not believe he was a runaway. But because of the information that was given them, they had no choice but to follow through with the only information they had.

They searched the property on the night he disappeared but they had no reason to suspect foul play because of the evidence TS provided them.

So for me the frustration stems from the person who intentionally lied to LE and attempted to mislead investigators, not LE themselves.

Imo

 

[Blue Ridge]

I'm not familiar with home security cameras, Can anyone tell me why the camera zooms in on the red truck when LS returns? Is that something the camera does on it's own or do you have to manually zoom in? It almost seems like it was manually zoomed to catch every move. Strange

It was somebody's phone or camera zooming in on the video which was being viewed.

 

[TwoBlueJays]

AS may have been aware that his wife was treating Gannon poorly, but I doubt he could have anticipated what was to come.

At this point we don't even know if there was ongoing abuse occurring in the home, although I suspect there was.

However I don't think we know enough to assume that AS knew about it, or that he was not attempting to do something about it if he did know.

Imo

IMO - MOO
AS may be easily manipulated by sex (he divorced his wife and mother of his kids to marry his affair) and the type to keep his head down at home rather than provoke his wife. "Go along to get along" He may have known that his son was being verbally abused, probably heard her screaming at GS about stupid everyday things and listened to her complaining about GS in private, but I'll bet she saved the really cruel stuff for when he was out of town. Possibly he wasn't as involved as a parent because he was often away - distance can make it easy for you to step back from the day to day family drama. His little sister couldn't tell her dad what was happening because for her it was normal family life. The teenager may have felt bad for GS but could do nothing - she had to pick her mom's side. GS had no one, no ally, other than his mother, who was all the way across the country in SC. I can't imagine her agony knowing that TS was in charge of her kids. Allegedly, they were once friends, so she knew what kind of person TS was.

 

[10ofRods]

Think this through. If anyone had planned this - premeditation - then they may also have pre -planned where 'they' were going. And when 'they' were going. Everything after could also have been planned. It would be logic - naturally - to expect questions. To prepare for an interview. To plan responses in that interview. If this was thought out - then it would follow that the first thing to do - is throw LE off any track. It is 2020. For years - things can be discovered with cell phone pings and GPS, computers and technology. Recent HUGE cases have shown so many ways things are figured out and how they are figured out. Maybe that was also in the planning. Is it not plausible that LE is looking in an area - where they have been led to intentionally ?

There are various kinds of planning. Of the subset of people who admit to have at least thought about killing someone, only a few go on to plan. And only a few of those plan it well (they tend to be on the obsessive side, IMO). Even those "good planners" often have only vague ideas about what they'll do after the murder. They may think "I'll just dump the body out in the mountains," not realizing all the little details and ordinary mishaps that will need to be solved.

Still, people do get away with murder (sometimes planning, always some luck).

At this point, had the neighbor not reviewed his security video, this might still be classified as a runaway case.

Where I get intensely curious is considering at what point this became either attempted murder or murder. Or negligent homicide. LS knows where she last saw Gannon. She knows he got into her truck and she knows what happened next and when she last saw him.

Did she intend something more benign when they left? IOW, how long was this plan in motion? She planned to take Gannon somewhere and is seen leaving with him. But at that point, what was her plan? Did the plan occur to her once she was driving?

 

[GordianKnot]

I’m a lurker - live near Colorado Springs so I’m very interested in this story.

If he was injured Sunday night, wouldn’t his younger sister and possibly his older stepsister have witnessed it? And if so, maybe the video made by LH, AS and the little sister was intended to make TS nervous about the little girl talking?

ETA: All of the above is MOO.

BBM:

Welcome to Websleuths, Silverheels!

To your bolded point: That's a sharp observation.

I think it's entirely possible that video of GS's family was orchestrated by LE for the express purpose of putting pressure on any and all individuals who have any type of guilty knowledge r/t GS's disappearance.

JMO.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Jmoo Gannon wasn’t at school that day wouldn’t there be texts or fb messages or snaps with the “friend” talking about going over I mean he texted as or ts he was going to friends why haven’t we heard of messages to said moo moo

I really don't like to sound like a broken record but, where did this info come from that he texted anyone?