WV WV - Aliayah Lunsford, 3, Lewis Co., 24 Sep 2011 #14 *Guilty*

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[...]

Divita, now a 15-year law enforcement veteran, recalled Lunsford fixating on the small-town gossip that surrounded the disappearance, “as if her interest was in what the community thought of her more than her daughter being missing.”

Lunsford sounded frustrated about the “trash talk” and inaccuracies she had read on social media.

“The real story is she was in her bed and then she wasn’t,” Lunsford said on the recording. “Somebody saw something, somebody knows something, and those are the people who need to be talking.”

Divita said her agency determined that sending a female interviewer might be less intimidating. The trooper, while noting Lunsford’s pregnancy at the time, said the woman spent most of the conversation laying on the hotel room bed and showing “no sense of urgency.”

In other audio segments, Lunsford reminisces about Aliayah being soft-hearted with a pouty expression that could get her “anything she wants.” The moments of splashing in mud puddles and playing with toy trucks mixed with Aliayah reverting to a “prissy little girl.”

Three FBI special agents also testified Wednesday morning, among them Chris Farrell, who worked in the Clarksburg office during 2011.

He recounted a separate interview, one that intensified when investigators flagged “lot of inconsistencies” in Lunsford’s story. At one point when she turned silent, Farrell thought the mother was on the verge of confessing and his interrogation became more pressurized.

[...]

http://wvmetronews.com/2018/04/18/l...intentionally-or-unintentionally-to-my-child/
 
The ex-husband of Lena Lunsford-Conaway claims he and his then-wife used bath salts the night police allege Lunsford-Conaway hit her three-year-old daughter Aliayah with a wooden slab from a bed board.

Ralph Lunsford testified on the witness stand Wednesday, as he recalled the events of September 23-24, 2011.

Lunsford said that he, Lena, and their children drove in a van to buy bath salts at a head shop in Clarksburg.

Later that night, Lunsford said, he and Lena used the bath salts. He had a beer and then went to bed.

He said he woke up the next morning, at about 5:30 or 6 a.m., and left for work.

A co-worker at the time testified Wednesday that he picked up Lunsford and drove him home from work on September 24.

Lunsford arrived home shortly before Lena pulled up in the van beside him. He said she asked him if he had seen Aliayah. When he told her he hadn't, he asked her if she called 911.

Lunsford-Conaway would later tell police that she first noticed Aliayah was missing at about 9 or 9:30 a.m. The first 911 call didn't come until 11:31 a.m.

[...]

Lunsford also painted a grim picture of the relationship between Lena and Aliayah. He claimed that Lena treated Aliayah differently than the other children and punished her in a much harsher manner.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Tom Dyer raised questions about Lunsford's credibility. Dyer brought up Lunsford's history of domestic abuse and pointed out that he spent a decent amount of time at a second home in Vadis.

Lunsford, who was not Aliayah's biological father, vehemently denied any role in her disappearance or presumed death. He said that many of his arguments with Lena revolved around her treatment of Aliayah, and that he would spend time at his house in Vadis when Lena kicked him out.

[...]

http://www.wdtv.com/content/news/Lu...are-stalling-the-investigation-480127603.html
 
[...]

Several hours after Lena Lunsford claims Aliayah went missing, police were summoned to their Bendale home. By then, Ralph Lunsford noticed that drug paraphernalia — such as marijuana pipes and “a straw to snort your bath salts” — had been cleaned up.

Earlier Wednesday, as prosecutors moved into a third day of building a case, they re-played for jurors an informal interview — conducted inside a hotel room within a week of the disappearance — when Lena Lunsford met with a female state trooper from the Crimes Against Children Unit.

“I love that little girl. I want her home,” the mother said on the recording. “You would not believe some of the what-ifs that have been put in my head.”

Maybe she opened the door to a stranger, Lena Lunsford suggested, adding “a kid don’t just disappear.”

The trooper, Sgt. T.M. Divita, advised Lunsford that parents sometimes accidentally injure their children and panic, to which Lunsford replied:

“I did not do anything intentionally or unintentionally to my child. I have no idea where she is, and that’s why I’m tying to make sense of this. … She’s obviously been taken somewhere. If I knew where she was at, I would go get her myself.”

[...]

http://wvmetronews.com/2018/04/18/l...intentionally-or-unintentionally-to-my-child/
 
[...]

Called by Lewis Prosecutor Christina Flanigan, Ralph Keith Lunsford Jr. also testified that he didn't do anything to Aliayah, and that he doesn't know what happened to her.

And he said that Aliayah was treated differently by Conaway.

"She expected more out of the child, I thought, than the rest," Lunsford said. "For instance, at mealtime the other children were allowed to get up and leave their plates. Aliayah wasn't."

He added that Aliayah would be sent into timeout in a corner for "hours at a time."

Lunsford, known as Keith, said Lena, he and the children drove on Sept. 23, 2011, to a Clarksburg head shop to buy the bath salts, then to Buckhannon to take care of a traffic ticket before going to Braxton County for family business and then back to their Bendale dwelling.

In addition to using bath salts that night, he said he also went out and bought a 24-ounce Budweiser and drank it, then went to bed. He said he didn't know of anything wrong with any of the children when he went to sleep.

Lunsford said he arose early the next morning — late that morning Aliayah was reported missing by Conway — and was driven to work by another employee. The other employee briefly took the stand to corroborate that point.

[...]

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/...cle_cc75be46-863b-5ae8-89dc-234e622319ad.html
 
I wonder if Ralph is too drug addled to feel guilty about what happened to Aliayah?
 
I wonder if Ralph is too drug addled to feel guilty about what happened to Aliayah?

Probably, but, Lena is despicable. Her children were a meal ticket for her. If I recall correctly she was getting substantial funds for each of her kids, a free cell phone and WiFi. I think she was busted for selling her food stamps to buy bath salts. She is unsalvageable.
 
Probably, but, Lena is despicable. Her children were a meal ticket for her. If I recall correctly she was getting substantial funds for each of her kids, a free cell phone and WiFi. I think she was busted for selling her food stamps to buy bath salts. She is unsalvageable.

I won't argue with you about Lena, all true. But Ralph could have done something to change the course of history. He openly admitted she treated Aliayah different than the other children. He could have made an anonymous call to CPS, or talked to Lena's mom or her sister. He could have done SOMETHING to protect her!!

Also find his statement about doing bath salts, then drinking a beer and going to bed that night pretty hinky. Bath salts act like an amphetamine?
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/s...ewis-Co-24-Sep-2011-14-*Trial-Underway*/page9
 
Thursday, April 19th:
*Trial continues (Day 4) (@ 9am ET) - WV - Aliayah Lunsford (3) (Sept. 24, 2011; not found) - Lena Marie Lunsford Conaway (34), "mom" indicted (3-6-17) on 4 counts: Murder of a child by parent by failure to provide necessities, which carries a life sentence; death of a child by parent by child abuse, which carries up to 40 years in prison; child abuse resulting in injury, which carries 1-5 years; and concealment of a dead body, which also carries 1-5 years. Pled not guilty. Jurors consist of 12 women, 2 men & 2 women alternates. No trial hearing on 4/30. Trial should last about 2 weeks.
 
So not only did the sisters witness the abuse, try to save their sister AND find their sister dead...
Lena also took them with her to bury their sisters body?
It appears that she made one of them HELP her bury the body?

I've got nothing. Just wow.
 
Are there still people searching for Aliayah or are they just waiting for someone to accidentally find her? Seems like the girls may have an idea of where she was buried. I wonder if she wasn't buried near Ralph's to make it look like he killed her?
 
AFAIK right now there is no organized searching for Aliayah. I am hoping and praying that depending on the outcome of the trial, that she will be located. The forensics folks say it is unlikely she would be found "intact" after all this time-maybe only hair and bones (: but still that would be something. Just my opinion
 
Are there still people searching for Aliayah or are they just waiting for someone to accidentally find her? Seems like the girls may have an idea of where she was buried. I wonder if she wasn't buried near Ralph's to make it look like he killed her?

This is what I'm wondering. Seems like it would be a major boost to the girls testimony if she was located where they say Lena put her. Maybe they have looked unsuccessfully?
 
While about 55 miles away students and fans were reveling in the first broadcast of ESPN's College Game Day from the West Virginia University campus, it was a quiet morning in the Weston satellite community of Bendale.

One resident spent the morning cutting pipe for a home improvement project. Others watched television and ate breakfast.

But none of the six people living in the area at that time who were called to the witness stand Thursday in the homicide trial of Lena Marie Lunsford Conaway noticed anything out of the ordinary.

There was no one going house to house looking for a little girl. No one calling out for a lost child. Nothing peculiar.

[...]

https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/...cle_62096e65-cb59-51b0-8e40-bf0b08f106a4.html
 
Are there still people searching for Aliayah or are they just waiting for someone to accidentally find her? Seems like the girls may have an idea of where she was buried. I wonder if she wasn't buried near Ralph's to make it look like he killed her?

I live in the same county that this occurred in and, at this time, no there is no search going on. The police have sporadically looked at tips (and I know that one of them was Vadis..perhaps around the time that DC told her story?) but there has not been a formal search like there was in the days and weeks that Aliayah first went missing.
At the time that Aliayah was first reported as missing, the search was more concentrated in Bendale (where the Lunsford's lived at the time) and certain outlying areas.
Vadis is a very small community and from the testimony heard during the trial, Lena went looking for remote roads without signs (oil and gas rig roads, most likely) and the place where the daughters separately took law enforcement was basically a ravine where water and flood waters could and probably do run through.
Also, the judge cautioned the community from doing their own searches in that area.
 

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