Found Deceased CO - Gannon Stauch, 11, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, 27 Jan 2020 **ARREST** #42

[LietKynes]

Yeah, I'm worried she may have burned him late on Sunday, and decided to kill him to cover up that abuse. Burns are among the most common injuries from child abuse.

From her 1/29 texts to one of the detectives:

"I was scared I would get fussed out about it and I didn't know if he should go to the doctor."

And

"You don't understand how hard it is to be a step mom."

Considering these were sent via text after 2 AM, I'm guessing she felt a bit of a rapport with this particular detective and opened up a little with her. That line about being scared of "getting fussed out" may be one of the few true things she's told them.

bbm
That's just so sickening.
The autopsy report should reflect if he was burned.

Has anyone uploaded the video to here ?
It's been discussed on this thread obliquely but it would be nice if those who haven't seen it (and are able to bear watching it) could weigh in !

 

[Warwick7]

You're in for a wild ride. It's impossible to summarize that report. The sheer stupidity of Letecia Stauch (and her obvious panic) is well documented.

I hope you're doing well, I know you've been really busy.

Thanks hun, yes busy busy busy. But yesterday things started slowing down so I started working on the AA. Thanks to some amazing posters and their timelines, I'm getting a better grasp on events.....
:0)

 

[10ofRods]

Something clicked here for me.

I have the beginnings of an idea.

LS came home and backed into the driveway. Let's say she drugged Gannon and waited a loooong time for him to die. Drove around for a while. He finally passes out. She stops somewhere and puts him in the suitcase, which she had with her. No blood yet. She thinks he's dead.*
She intends to bring him home in the suitcase and place him back in bed.... exactly like he was that morning. She has the picture to help her make it look like he hadn't left his bed all day.

She gets home and brings him in, inside the suitcase, through the garage. Starts to put him in his bed and she realizes he's still alive. She is running out of time, so she gets a .22, pushes his face into the pillow and shoots him. Blood splatter, not much noise... bullet lodges inside his body and doesn't make an exit wound.

Maybe her original intent was to send little sister in to find him dead after school.

*Or, if not dead, she thought he would suffocate inside the suitcase.

I've had a couple of new thoughts about your scenario. It all works for me, except that I do believe there had to be an exit wound or there wouldn't be that blood splatter pattern. Maybe not (I'm not a splatter expert, but it does look like a high velocity event to me).

Since I think her planning ability is limited, it's entirely possible she thought of mutually exclusive, conflicting things to do. I'll never understand how someone could go this far in trying to think through the execution of a child. Whatever her original "reasons" were for this, she got so bogged down in the details of her own plan(s) that she screwed up at every possible step.

 

[lucidtx]

People with Antisocial, Borderline, and Narcissistic Personality Disorders are able to dehumanize others, which can lead to acts of cruelty.
They are incapable of empathy as well. The only personality disorder in the Cluster B group that is an exception to this is Histrionic.
IMO LS exhibits signs of Borderline with secondary Antisocial PD. According to the DSM-V a person must have 5 of the following criteria (not all) to Dx BPD:

-Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
-Unstable & intense personal relationships
-Impulsivity
-Affective instability (rollercoaster of emotions)
-Inappropriate & intense anger
-Lack of self-identity
-Transient stress-related paranoid ideation (feeling people are out to get you or assuming you’re being targeted when faced with stressful situations)
-Suicidal ideation
————————————————-
Antisocial Personality Disorder:

-Disregard for morals & laws
-Lack of remorse
-Difficulties maintaining stable employment
-Disregard for the feelings & rights of others
-History of criminal infractions beginning before adulthood
-Interpersonal relationships involve manipulation, exploitation & abuse

There are both genetic & environmental components for personality disorders. There is a strong correlation, however, between BPD and sexual abuse. JMO

What do y’all think?

Borderline/APD seem on point to me. I'm very curious about what's up with her cognitively. Her narratives are just so disjointed, her speech/writing patterns often bizarre but it doesn't really remind me of what I've heard/read from people in psychosis or mania. It's possible, though, that she also has something like bipolar or schizoaffective going on too. Those disorders can dampen cognitive abilities, and frequently present in one's 20s-30s. Has anyone seen samples of her writing from when she was younger?

 

[Warwick7]

I know I'm way behind and this has probably already been discussed, but in the AA, it is stated that they believe GS exited the truck and that the murder happened after the video from RD. So 2 things: 1. RD lied about that being the break they needed and 2. What the h e double hockey sticks happened then?

No, I don't see RD lieing.

We don't know the basis for "this is the break we need." We assumed it was GS not getting out of the truck. But, for argument's sake, what if it's the switch or whatever fell out of the vehicle, was the break that they actually needed. Or the clothing he was wearing, what is that was the actual break they needed.

What bothers me is the short periods of window time for the murder to take place after they got home.

 

[BitchieBlackmore]

As per the AA, She searched for fixing a suede couch. Did she get his blood on it? Did she end up cleaning it in a way that did not test positive for luminol? Was this where the whole incident/violence/video started?
Also as per the AA, a teal couch pillow showed signs of blood, was this pillow overlooked because she focused on cleaning the couch?
Moo

In the video she posted after the carpet burning , didn't she say something about needing to sell stuff to pay for the damage, specifically naming the sofa as one of those items?

It seemed like an odd suggestion at the time, but after reading the AA, I guess her line of thinking is she could sell the sofa to pay for the repair BECAUSE it's damaged. ‍

 

[BitchieBlackmore]

hmm, that’s an idea, awful sad too. I’m thinking she was cleaning rags outside.

Hopefully all of the waste management witnesses on the list have provided used rags/ papertowels with blood/ DNA evidence.

 

[squareandrabbet]

In the video she posted after the carpet cleaning, didn't she say something about needing to sell stuff to pay for the damage, specifically naming the sofa as one of those items?

It seemed like an odd suggestion at the time, but after reading the AA, I guess her line of thinking is she could sell the sofa to pay for the repair BECAUSE it's damaged. ‍

Yes, she did.

But then she told someone (nonsense) that she only mentioned the sofa because Gannon was volunteering up prized possessions of his to be sold and, because he knew she loved the sofa, this was some sort of "Gift of the Magi"-style sacrifice on her part.

(I rolled my eyes at this bowl of word salad so hard they fell out of my head, and it took forever for me to chase them down and put them back into their sockets... 'scuse me.)

The AA is the first time we've ever heard of the sofa as being damaged in any way.

 

[Warwick7]

this feeling has been kind of creeping since i read the AA

i think she hated G, he was so many things she was not, genuine, kind, thoughtful, people like Tee look at the world for what they can get from it, every thing they do is motivated by self, even if it seems considerate or generous, it is all a part of the game, sadly they tend to think that everyone is just playing to win as well.
Age is irrelevant, i suspect she saw G's spirit and personality as an act, that only she was clever enough to see through and she resented him and saw him as competition.
it sounds ridiculous but i have known similar people and they have treated young children as though they are acting with some big agenda, trying to manipulate people at an age that those kinds of thought processes don't exist.

if all she wanted was revenge on his bio parents, she could have taken his life in a much less violent, less messy way, smothering him with his own pillow, quiet, and would have made finding dna evidence much more difficult

she chose to not just take his life, she tried to obliterate him, with no thought to the evidentiary consequences of her actions...
the level of violence and the way she disposed of his body reflect total disdain towards G as a person, as a child she had helped raise, no connection or love, no remorse or guilt after the fact, she had in her mind erased his existence from her world and she couldn't comprehend that didn't mean he no longer mattered to everyone else.

I hate saying Amen to this, but AMEN!

 

[jvikes]

I've had a couple of new thoughts about your scenario. It all works for me, except that I do believe there had to be an exit wound or there wouldn't be that blood splatter pattern. Maybe not (I'm not a splatter expert, but it does look like a high velocity event to me).

Since I think her planning ability is limited, it's entirely possible she thought of mutually exclusive, conflicting things to do. I'll never understand how someone could go this far in trying to think through the execution of a child. Whatever her original "reasons" were for this, she got so bogged down in the details of her own plan(s) that she screwed up at every possible step.

If a hollow point round for a smaller caliber handgun (but maybe not as small as a .22) was used there may be no exit wound since they tend to break up on impact. Asuming this is all close range. Maybe a large entrance wound like that could be enough to cause splatter, but maybe not as much as having an exit wound from a full metal jacket round.

 

[AbigailHobbs]

In the video she posted after the carpet burning , didn't she say something about needing to sell stuff to pay for the damage, specifically naming the sofa as one of those items?

It seemed like an odd suggestion at the time, but after reading the AA, I guess her line of thinking is she could sell the sofa to pay for the repair BECAUSE it's damaged. ‍

Good memory! I had forgotten about that. That does make sense now! I think they are definitely related

 

[Boxer]

I agree. And yes, they would have needed a warrant. And yes, Gannon was too old to have gotten himself in the truck and not be able to yell, scream and kick to get someone to let him out. LE uses common sense, they do not conduct searches without warrants. If Gannon had been known to have some kind of severe intellectual impairment, they may have asked her if she had checked the vehicles (she would have said yes).

Instead, they went through their usual protocol for child runaways, including some type of general announcement to the public and to squad cars, such that the and Go in Fountain thought they had video of Gannon (it wasn't) by Tuesday.

Did both Stauch children sleep in the basement? So as to be not seen and not heard? Did HH have the upstairs bedroom? To me, from the various leaks of pictures and videos, and now the AA, it seems to me that both Laina and Gannon were in the basement.

If I am understanding the timeline properly, LE believe that LS murdered Gannon in his bed, in the basement, between 2:20pm and 3pm on Monday. She then put him in the Tiguan, met Laina and got her bike out for her, sending her outside to play. She then cleaned the bedroom well enough that no blood spatter was visible (the AA shows a fan shaped spray that's at least 8 feet across at its widest, with more saturation/spray near the head of the bed; the stain on the mattress is consistent with a severe head wound).

At almost 7 pm, after conversations with Albert, LS dials 911 to report a runaway. The police enter the information into a database (and put out some kind of alert for officers to look for Gannon). They arrive around 10:30 and are permitted into the house and yard, where they briefly look for signs of Gannon. Apparently, LS tells them she has no idea what friend Gannon was going to see. LS makes no attempt to search for Gannon, neither does HH (who was earlier sent with Laina to Dollar General to pick up a few things, giving LS more time to clean).

Next morning, LS goes in the Tiguan to the CoS airport, where she rents a car and picks Albert up around 8-9 am. He meets with LE and of course, takes a look around the house. Unclear what LS is doing that day. Does she go back to the airport, take the Tiguan and hide Gannon in northern CoS?

Whatever else happened on Tuesday, Albert must have noticed something up with the carpet, as eventually LE gets very interested in the carpet issue. Apparently no one took the sheets off of Gannon's bed that day (or did they?) Albert notes that the bed is in an unusual position (so that LS could get behind it to clean the wall). It's possible the bloodstains were seen that day. If so, it's so hard for me to understand why LS wasn't arrested as soon as the DNA results came back...

MOO hid body late evening 1/28, Tiguan was tracked to Hwy 105 near Sierra Pines late evening 1/28.
She contacted HH for a ride home late that night from hwy 21 and Carefree which is one of the entrances into the N.Nevada PetCo shopping mall.
Then leaving Tiguan at the Big Wave car wash around the corner on Tuft/New Center Point she met HH somewhere nearby to take her back to get the rental car at the airport. Assuming that she left rental at the airport parking when she went back get the Tiguan with Gannon in it.

She returned rental and somehow got the Tiguan next morning.
IIRC she arrived at the EPSCO on 1/29 with a freshly washed Tiguan around noon

So one more thing about LS being a human disaster ...
Dear Daughter, for your 18th birthday I am giving you an accessory after the fact murder charge.

Hope HH grew up quick and saw the monster before she dug in too deep.

 

[Warwick7]

I think LE was grappling, even at the time of the AW, with the seeming conflict between the appearance of Gannon not returning with TS at 2 pm, the blood in his bedroom consistent with death, but the proof of him alive at 10 am. A word puzzle that seems unsolvable.

But here's where I'm at with this -- we know TS was up all night, doing random Google searches (which weren't Google searches by any definition of search I've ever seen), we believe Gannon was injured Sunday night, probably severely....

TS didn't leave at 10 am with Gannon to run everyday errands. She backed the truck into the driveway to elude cameras. She left her phone at home. She carefully created a weird alibi with her dual Petco trips....

I think, despite LE's working theory, that Gannon did not die in his bedroom at 2:30, but died between 10 and 2. Let me correct that -- sweet Gannon didn't just die. SHE STOLE HIS LIFE.

From 2:30 onward, TS was all about clean up --

JMO JMO JMO

I so lean this way also.

I'm having trouble with short windows of opportunity to kill him. And I'm having trouble with a gunshot in broad day light.

But, I'm having a really hard time going against all the brilliant minds on this thread, that detail blood amounts, blood splatter, back door opening 10 times, rigor mortis.... needless to say all the cleaning supplies that were requested.

 

[Warwick7]

Im not sure what you mean because she was out of the house and not killing Gannon at the time. The lock and unlock is just mentioned bc she left her phone at home I think and thats a couple minutes after she returned. The lock/unlock was mentioned I think as adding to the evidence that she is constantly on her phone and social media all hours of the day typically. They make a point to mention the amount of social she uses in hours.

Ok

 

[Pink2017]

Good memory! I had forgotten about that. That does make sense now! I think they are definitely related

Oh, she sure did say that, “sell the sofa”
Always a bit of truth in her lies.

 

[Boxer]

this feeling has been kind of creeping since i read the AA

i think she hated G, he was so many things she was not, genuine, kind, thoughtful, people like Tee look at the world for what they can get from it, every thing they do is motivated by self, even if it seems considerate or generous, it is all a part of the game, sadly they tend to think that everyone is just playing to win as well.
Age is irrelevant, i suspect she saw G's spirit and personality as an act, that only she was clever enough to see through and she resented him and saw him as competition.
it sounds ridiculous but i have known similar people and they have treated young children as though they are acting with some big agenda, trying to manipulate people at an age that those kinds of thought processes don't exist.

if all she wanted was revenge on his bio parents, she could have taken his life in a much less violent, less messy way, smothering him with his own pillow, quiet, and would have made finding dna evidence much more difficult

she chose to not just take his life, she tried to obliterate him, with no thought to the evidentiary consequences of her actions...
the level of violence and the way she disposed of his body reflect total disdain towards G as a person, as a child she had helped raise, no connection or love, no remorse or guilt after the fact, she had in her mind erased his existence from her world and she couldn't comprehend that didn't mean he no longer mattered to everyone else.

Totally agree. And his tears probably infuriated her further.
The Eguardo rape addition to her narrative indicated she assaulted him with an object before killing him and used a suitcase from the house.
Monster.

 

[iQuill]

Well . . . I've made it through the AA. I'm so grateful for the job LE has done to uncover the truths amongst LS lies. It would seem like they certainly have enough to convict her . . . and all this before they even found GS body. The woman is despicable . . . how anyone can kill an innocent child . . . and why? Because she was mad at her husband - no rational thinking whatsoever. Reminds me of the Frazee fiasco. Just get a divorce! MOO

 

[MerryB]

Borderline/APD seem on point to me. I'm very curious about what's up with her cognitively. Her narratives are just so disjointed, her speech/writing patterns often bizarre but it doesn't really remind me of what I've heard/read from people in psychosis or mania. It's possible, though, that she also has something like bipolar or schizoaffective going on too. Those disorders can dampen cognitive abilities, and frequently present in one's 20s-30s. Has anyone seen samples of her writing from when she was younger?

I think possibly what you’re picking up on is Southern black dialect in her speech coupled with a low-average IQ which results in poor sentence structure and illogical and/or confusing transitions. I don’t see any evidence of mania or pressured speech evident during manic episodes nor schizoaffective “word salads.” JMO

 

[LietKynes]

Sorry if this has been said.....I'll never catch up.

If we remember that our system of justice is set up not only to punish people for crimes but also to protect us from what those people might do in the future, why should anyone get a bye because she was influenced by her mother's bad behavior?

I'm with you, mommadukes, hoping HH told all she knew once Momma was in handcuffs.
If not, punishment could and should be in the cards for any criminal act.

Let's not forget that “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”

blue bolding mine.
Can't agree more.

The AA said HH was "not cooperating (with LE)".
There's no way to dance around that; imo.

They either asked her questions which she refused to answer, or she told them outright that she wouldn't say anything because she needed to protect her mother regardless of where Gannon was or what her mother had possibly done.
"Not cooperating" can mean many things, that's just two examples.
I'm sure there are more if anyone wants to chime in on the specifics of the wording in the AA.

It doesn't indicate that HH was cooperating initially and then changed her mind-- but uncooperative from the beginning.
If she was helpful at the start the AA would have reflected that.
It breaks my heart, and is so sad that the apple may have fallen close to the tree.
Hoping this will change !

Never mind about the true victims, Gannon and his family !!!!
I am not going to be dismissive of them nor forget what they've been put through and what they'll suffer for the remainder of their lives.

There are people I know who have not fully healed from the deaths of their son and daughter-in-law during a home invasion.
And that was 18 years ago.

 

[LietKynes]

Totally agree. And his tears probably infuriated her further.
The Eguardo rape addition to her narrative indicated she assaulted him with an object before killing him and used a suitcase from the house.
Monster.

The autopsy will reflect further charges, most likely.
I agree with you there has to be a reason TS included that graphic information.