KIDNAPPED AND BURIED ALIVE: THE HEARTBREAKING CASE OF JESSICA LUNSFORD
In February of 2005, a child would be abducted from her own home in the wee hours of the morning, by a man who had originally only intended to commit a burglary. This man was a known sex offender who had a loose leash under the eyes of police. Jessica Lunsford would be sexually assaulted multiple times over the course of a few days, and then discarded underground while still breathing, like her life didn’t matter. This is one of the hardest cases I’ve had to write about, as I could see the pain and sadness in her fathers eyes while he faced his daughter’s assailant in court.
SHE RADIATED LOVE AND HAPPINESS
Jessica Marie Lunsford was born on October 6th, 1995, and spent most of her life living in North Carolina with her parents, Mark and Angela. She also had a few older siblings, but they were all teenagers by the time she was born. Jessica was considered a miracle baby, as Angela had a few miscarriages before Jessica came along. However, parents divorced a year after she was born, leaving Mark full custody of Jessica. For most of her life she was the only child living in her father's household. Jessica was a total daddy’s girl and the two were pretty much like best friends. They loved each other so much, they often had playful battles to convince the other that they loved them the most. He worked in construction and sometimes couldn’t afford to get a babysitter, so he’d even bring her to work with him and she’d hangout and talk to his coworkers, play with wood chips, everyone loved her. Eventually, her grandparents (Mark’s parents), moved to Florida. Jessica missed their grandparents so much, they decided to move to Florida to be with them. Mark thought that it would be a good idea to move into his parents trailer home so he could help them, as they were getting older. Jessica loved her grandparents so much, and often did a lot of things with them. They’d take her out to eat, go shopping, they’d play games together, and they would even go to karaoke. Jessica actually wanted to be a singer, inspired by her two favorite artists, PINK and Shania Twain. Her career interest would often change as she loved to do so many things, including acting and working in fashion. Her inspiration for fashion was actually inspired by her grandmother, who would take her shopping to fabric stores and then sew clothes for her dolls. Overall Jessica was described as an outgoing, friendly, affectionate girl that loved hugs and cuddling and treated everyone with kindness.
THE ONE TIME THE DOOR WAS LEFT UNLOCKED…
When Jessica was 9 years old, her father Mark had a date with a woman, and was very excited about it. He hasn’t really dated ever since his divorce with Angela, so this date was a really big deal. He said goodbye to Jessica and left her with his grandparents who would put her to bed when he wasn’t home. He went out for his date and ended up staying the night at her house. When he came back the next morning, he heard Jessica’s alarm going off, wondering why she hadn’t shut it off yet. He went to her room and saw that her bed was empty… She was nowhere in the house, and she wasn’t outside. That’s when he realized something… He forgot to lock the door after he left. Her grandparents haven’t seen her since they put her to bed, and her grandfather woke up around 3am to use the bathroom, but he didn’t check on her before going back to bed. Mark immediately panicked and called the police to report her missing. When he got off the phone with the police, he called every single person he knew and asked if they saw her or had heard from her. The police ended up sending out an alert nationwide about the missing nine year old, and received help from at least 100 people who went out and looked for her. The police tried to rule out everything they could before assuming this was an abduction case. They asked if it was possible that she had run away, maybe to go searching for her mother who she’s been missing and hadn’t seen in four years. Mark said absolutely not, she would never run away, she would never just go off searching for her mother, she lives in a different state. If Jessica wanted to see her mom she would’ve asked him to arrange something. Then they asked him if it was possible that she had gotten into some online chats with any strangers, as this was the beginning of the 2000’s where online chat rooms and stranger dangers were becoming a new problem. Mark said no, she’s nine, she doesn’t do any of that online internet stuff. Then, Mark noticed something. Jessica loved stuffed animals, always had so many of them, including her new favorite stuffed animal, a purple dolphin that he had won for her at a fair just a few weeks earlier. That stuffed animal was missing. It was this right here that made police confirm that this was most likely an abduction. The police went onto the sex offenders registry and put out a search for all sex offenders and pedophiles around their area, doing door to door interviews to gather information, check for anything suspicious, and receive alibis. Investigators had their work cut out for them, because 208 sex offenders came up on their registry. While investigators were checking on the sex offenders, Mark and Jessica’s grandfather were actually taken in for questioning, and were considered possible suspects. It was so, so heartbreaking for them to be sitting in that room, for three whole days, being questioned, being drilled over and over again about if they had anything to do with her disappearance, if they had hurt her, gave her away, anything at all. They were so distraught, as they had so much love for this little girl, her father being her best friend in the entire world, her grandfather who adored her immensely, being seen as suspects… It was heartbreaking. They were each given a polygraph test, and even though those aren’t 100% effective, and they’re not admissible in court, they both passed. Jessica’s mother, Angela, was also contacted. Angela hasn’t seen her daughter in years, and she had even remarried and had a new child, and never heard from on the night Jessica went missing. The police were starting to run out of leads, not having any solid answers, everything was starting to feel hopeless… Until they visited the home of one sex offender, 46 year old John Couey.
IF ONLY SOMEONE CHECKED THE CLOSET…
John was a very dangerous man who had a list of convictions such as dozens of burglary charges, along with being a sex offender. At the time of the investigation he even had a warrant out for his arrest for being in possession of cannabis. When the police went to his home, they found out that he had moved and didn’t inform police that he was relocating, which is a federal violation. Sex offenders need to inform police whenever they relocate, so they can update it in the sex offender registry. Afterwards, they went to the trailer where his sister lived, along with a few other family members. His sister informed police that he was living with them, but wasn’t sure where he was at the moment. At this time, they didn’t have a search warrant to inspect the home. However, what the police didn’t know at the time, was that they were just a few feet away from Jessica, while she was still alive, during the time they were questioning his family about his whereabouts. The officers walked into the house and peaked through some doors, but weren’t allowed to search further. Meanwhile… The scared nine year old girl was sitting in the dark closet of his bedroom, not making a sound, as she was told by John to not make any noise and to stay in the closet no matter what. It’s heartbreaking that Jessica was so close to being saved, if they just would’ve opened that closet door…
After the weekend where Jessica had initially gone missing, police came by to check on John once again, but his niece gave him money for a bus ticket, but didn’t know where he was going. John was now a high suspect as running away just a few days after she had originally gone missing threw up red flags in their heads, along with the fact that his sister’s trailer was located just around a hundred yards away from Jessica’s home.They ended up finding John at a homeless shelter, as he didn’t use a fake name to sign in. He told police that he was there looking for work, and was questioned about Jessica’s disappearance. He told police that he had no idea what happened to that girl, and he didn’t even know she existed until he saw her on the news. Police didn’t have anything to hold him on at the time, and had to release him.
On March 12th, a couple weeks after she had gone missing, the police finally obtained a search warrant to search his sister’s trailer. In his bedroom, inside his closet, they found a mattress with blood stains. They tested the DNA on the mattress and it was an exact match to Jessica’s DNA. John was now immediately arrested and charged for the kidnapping and murder of Jessica Lunsford.
THE CONFESSION
On March 18th, 2005, John made his confession. He told the police that he had initially just wanted to break in and rob the home, but he had made too much noise and Jessica woke up and found him. He panicked and was afraid that she’d snitch, as she had seen his face. Without thinking, he grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth and told her not to scream. He told her she had to go with him. Before leaving, she asked him if she could at least go and grab her favorite stuffed animal, which he allowed her to do. She came back with the big purple dolphin that her father won for her at the fair. When they got back to his home, he raped her, and told her she needs to stay in his bed and not to leave the room, and they fell asleep. The next morning, he raped her again, and then put her in his closet and told her not to make any noise, and don’t come out under any circumstances, and if she did, something bad would happen to her, and he left for work. Jessica must’ve been so scared, as she was afraid of the dark and used three nightlights in her room to help her sleep. When he came back home and found that the cops were coming around asking questions, he knew he had to do something. He wasn’t sure if he should let her go back to her home, as he was afraid of going back to prison. Instead, when the trailer was empty, he raped Jessica one last time and told her that he was going to bring her back to her dad now, but she had to do what he said. He opened up two large plastic garbage bags and told her to get inside, along with her stuffed animal. He told her he was gonna drop her off at her house, and when he drops her off, she can break free from the bags. Instead, he dug a hole nearly 3 feet deep and buried her alive, and then made a run for it. Another heartbreaking part of this story was the fact that John would’ve been caught digging a hole and placing her body inside of it, if the view wasn’t completely blocked off by a giant tent that the cops put up. Police needed to make a base near Jessica’s home in case something happened and were needed right away. But… Instead, it only caused the opposite effect. Jessica’s last chance of being saved was gone.
The coroner discovered after retrieving the body from the ground, that Jessica had poked two of her fingers through the plastic bags, using her last few breaths of strength to try and free herself, and her two fingers were skeletonized. The coroner also stated that she had run out of air and suffocated after around one to three minutes after being in the ground. The rest of her body had moderate to severe decomposition.
TRIAL AND SENTENCING
Originally, the judge said that his confession would be inadmissible in court, since he confessed before he was able to have his lawyer present. However, the trial court ruled that all evidence obtained after his confession, including the discovery of her body, autopsy reports, and all the incriminating statements made by him while in jail to investigators, along with a jail guard, will be admissible in court.
John’s trial had to be held in Miami as they couldn’t find a jury that was impartial to his case in Homosassa. On March 7th, 2007, John was found guilty on first degree murder, kidnapping, assault or battery on any person, burglary, and capital sexual battery. John Couey was sentenced to death. However, on September 30th, 2009, before John was able to carry out his sentence, he ended up dying of natural causes, just around two years after he killed Jessica.
