6: Letecia Stauch Week 3 Trial Recap: Daughter Testifies & Caught in Even More Lies | Gannon Stauch Case

2023/4/20

Chapters

Week 3 of the Letecia Stauch trial included heartbreaking testimony from Letecia's daughter and significant revelations about Letecia's lies and behavior during the trial.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.

Buckle up and crank up that volume. This is Serialistly with Annie Elise.

Hey everybody, welcome to a special bonus episode of Serialistly. Now, you know I released a bonus episode last Thursday with all of the coverage of the week for Letitia Stout's trial, giving you all of the bombshell takeaways, the key highlights, everything that we've learned so far this week in the trial. If you're still catching up, totally fine. You can go back a couple episodes because I'm releasing these bonus episodes week to week that gives you the full recap of what happened this week in court. And

And as a reminder, if you want to watch the video version, those are available on my YouTube channel. But for this week's recap, the video version won't be available for a couple of days because YouTube likes to take a while to approve it. So you're listening to it here first.

As a reminder, please take a quick second to rate and review the podcast if you enjoy it. And don't forget to follow along so that you don't miss any episodes or any bonus episodes that I like to keep you on your toes with and randomly drop. Now that you guys kind of know what's going down, let's go into all of the craziness that has continued to unfold in the Letitia Stalk trial. Week three of the Letitia Stalk trial was terrible.

Truly unbelievable. There has been some incredible testimony and truly heartbreaking testimony, but more than that, some huge revelations. Because Letitia's daughter took the stand, who everybody has been assuming this entire time has known more and had had a firsthand account of Letitia's behavior. We know Letitia had asked her to purchase some of the cleaning supplies that was used.

So her testimony was going to be incredibly valuable to hear and it did not disappoint in that regard and my heart just broke for this girl while she was on the stand. The second week of the Letitia Stouck trial was full of unbelievable testimony and heartbreaking details about what exactly she did to Gannon. However, some of the most unexpected moments actually occurred when court was supposed to be over for the week.

When the jury was released for the weekend, one stayed back to let the judge know that she realized she actually knew one of the expert witnesses. She didn't recognize her name on the witness list during jury selection, but when she saw her testify, she remembered that her family had assisted the witness during end-of-life care for her mother.

The defense told the judge that they believed the juror should be dismissed because the expert witness's testimony is going to be pivotal in the trial and she could have an emotional bias. The judge said that he would think about it, whether or not to bring in an alternate juror over the weekend, and then he had some things to address with Letitia herself.

It came to the court's attention that Ms. Leticia had actually been flipping off witnesses during their testimony. There were dozens of pictures of her circulating on Twitter and YouTube, which showed Leticia flipping the bird and over and over again. And the judge gave her a piece of his mind for disrespecting the court. Ms. Stauk, what you need to understand is that I can control the conduct of an awful lot of people in the courtroom, including yours. And

Don't do that. Don't show that kind of, don't be making disrespectful gestures to witnesses, to people, to family members, anything like that. You need to understand that if that continues, I can have you removed and the trial will continue without you. And you will sit in a holding cell in this building and every time we take a break, I'll bring you back up to ask whether or not you can conform your conduct to what I'm requiring.

If you choose to act in a disruptive behavior or disruptive fashion, I'll just have you removed and we'll continue on without you. And then we'll check and see if you want to come back and behave in a respectful manner. So I'll just leave it at that. And we will see where we are on Monday. He said that if it came to his attention again that she was intimidating any witnesses, then she would spend the rest of the trial in a holding cell in the courthouse.

One of the very last witnesses on Friday was Stephanie Happ, and she is the one that the juror realized she knew. She had some really important testimony and is the senior firearms examiner with the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab. Now, in her testimony, she stated that the bullet that was recovered from Gannon's body was shot by a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun, which matches the gun found on the dresser in the master bedroom of the family's residence.

She was even able to conclude that the bullet found in Gannon was shot from not only that type of gun, but that exact gun.

In cross-examination, she was asked about the two bullets that were found in the pillow stuffed in the suitcase with Gannon, and if she thought that a bullet like that could have gone all the way through the pillow. Ms. Happ stated that she believed if the bullets hadn't come into contact with anything else, they should have gone through the pillow. But the bullets indicate that they went through more than just the pillow itself, which would be why they didn't go all the way through.

So it's easy to see why the defense would say that her testimony would be pivotal, and they said she will even testify more throughout the trial about the gun used to kill Gannon. So week three resumed right as planned on Monday morning. Court started with some quick housekeeping things, and juror number 12 was dismissed due to her knowing one of last week's witnesses. The judge's deciding factor was that if it had been known during jury selection, the challenge would have been granted.

which I totally get why they decided to go ahead and remove her. However, on her end, it probably sucks to have sat through all of that testimony and all of those graphic images and details only to now be dismissed five weeks in. Now remember, we are on week three of actual trial, but the two weeks prior to the start were jury selection weeks. So the judge also discussed Letitia's conduct last week when trial resumed this week.

Um, then, uh, Mr Allen, I'm going to direct this question to you because you made the comments on Friday. Um, you had indicated that, um, you had received some information and I thought you said some photographs.

regarding the defendant's conduct which potentially could be construed as extending the middle finger or flipping people off including a witness perhaps family do you have those photographs I can get them printed basically it was just screen captures from what was being broadcast on WebEx which I think the court may also have the same things that I saw do we have that now

Okay, so we will, we will upload some of that so that there is some record of what it was. And you may have all noticed that the tables have been slightly reconfigured. They'll be reconfigured again after or at lunchtime.

largely because I think that table where it is is generally wasted space. So what we're going to do is give you a more narrow one and slide that table over further. I'll move that table then to the back so that you can put stuff on it. You may still be able to use it to some extent, but nobody will be able to sit at it. Ms. Stauk, you have the right and obligation to be present for your trial. Being present permits you to see the evidence the prosecution is presenting against you.

It permits you to communicate with your lawyers while that is going on and assist them in your defense. You also have the right for the jury not to see you in restraints that are commonly associated with being held in custody or confinement. That way, the jury does not see you as a prisoner or someone who is in custody and is not prejudiced against you because of that. These rights, however, are not without limitation. While you have the right to be present for your trial,

You also have the responsibility to behave with the respect and decorum required for this formal proceeding. You also have the responsibility to behave in such a fashion as to make the use of additional restraints unnecessary. Sometimes during trial, a defendant chooses to act out. The likelihood that that will happen, in my experience, seems to increase the longer the trial takes and the more serious the charges are.

And I know that right now we're in week four or we finished four weeks. We're starting week five. You aren't the first defendant to act out. Probably not going to be the last. I cannot imagine the pressure a defendant feels during any trial. It's not uncommon for a defendant to disagree with certain testimony or dislike a witness or a victim. Nevertheless, you cannot act disrespectfully in words or actions.

First of all, never helps you out. You've already heard one juror submitted a question regarding his observation of your conduct. They don't miss anything. It also makes your attorney's job much harder. They need to focus on the evidence presented and how to counter that rather than your conduct in the courtroom. I am also aware of the practical realities that exist in this case. I could hold you in contempt for your conduct in the courtroom.

That would mean that I could impose a sentence of up to six months of jail for each incident of conduct which I find to be contemptuous. However, in a case where a defendant is facing decades or even life in prison, if convicted, a six-month contempt sentence does not seem to be much of a deterrent. But that does not leave me without a remedy. We have moved the tables around. You are now sitting in a chair that does not rock or swivel.

you will be directly facing the bench and you will be more in my line of sight. I want to caution you against certain actions, such as waving your hands around, trying to stretch fingers out, and leaving one of them more prominent than the other. Those acts would be, in my opinion, disrespectful to the proceeding. It's disrespectful to the court and the legal process. I also view it as a form of witness intimidation and an attempt to influence presentation of evidence in this case.

If that conduct occurs again, it would be a violation of the decorum I expect in this case. Everybody that's sitting in the gallery sees signs that have already warned them of the same kind of conduct. You can't do it either. I may then impose other remedies. I could simply have a bolt installed on the underside of the table and have your hands cuffed to that bolt. You wouldn't be able to use your hands. The jury wouldn't be able to see the handcuffs. It would be uncomfortable.

I could have you removed from the courtroom and the trial would proceed without you. You would not be returned to the jail. Instead, you would be held in a holding cell in this building. You know how uncomfortable they are. You would then be transported back to the courtroom at every break to see if you had changed your mind and agreed to behave in a respectful manner a courtroom requires. And you would be brought over for the next day of trial and we would start all over again.

Also discussed was some information about exhibits and things like that. Nothing, you know, honestly really worth mentioning. As soon as that was done, we jumped straight back into testimony.

Finally, after two weeks of trial, Harley, Letitia's daughter, was called to the stand. Harley was waiting outside of the courtroom and the prosecutor left the courtroom and came back in with her. When she walked in, she was clearly emotional. And I can only imagine what a toll it has taken on such a young girl who was just 17 at the time.

On the stand, she was crying. You could hear her voice shaking, and the prosecutor told her that they were going to get through it and it would just be a conversation where he asked some questions. He seemed, in my opinion, to be very gentle and understanding of her emotions and how she was handling the pressure. Harley stated that she had not seen her mom, Letitia, since the day of her arrest in March of 2020.

Harley talked about her relationship with Gannon and with Lena. She had a good relationship with both of them. Even though they were step-siblings, by all means, they were like her little siblings. Albert came into Harley's life after her dad, Chance, died. At first, she said it was hard for Harley to let him in because she didn't want to replace her own father. But she said that eventually, her and Al got very close.

Chance died in October of 2014, and get this: up until last week, Harley did not know the truth of her own father's death. Letitia had told Harley that Chance had died when somebody came into his house, robbed him, and killed him. Then just last week, Harley found out online that her father had actually died of an overdose, and that her mom had lied to her.

As soon as that was said out loud, I knew that there had to have been many, many more lies that Letitia told Harley growing up. That was within literally the first few minutes of Harley testifying. And I know that sometimes people do lie about the cause of a death to their kids. However, typically, they do so to avoid traumatizing their kids. The way in which Letitia claimed he died was far worse and more traumatizing than the truth would have been to a 12-year-old.

The prosecution then asked if it was true that Harley had gained a large social media following due to the case. Harley said it was true. And looking at Harley's Instagram, you'd never know what she had gone through. Her Instagram is full of travel pictures and photos depicting a fun and exhilarating life. She is truly a stunningly beautiful girl.

The prosecution next started asking Harley about the beginning of the marriage with Al and Letitia. They were all living in Myrtle Beach in the beginning, and Al was gone a lot doing military trainings and other work for the military. For the most part, it was just Harley and Letitia at the house when Al was away. But sometimes Gannon and Elena would come over, and eventually they all moved to Charleston together.

Harley testified that she moved often during her childhood because of Leticia's wants. Charleston was a city that Leticia wanted to teach in, and Al was also able to find a job there, so it worked out. But after just a year or so, Leticia decided that she didn't like Charleston, and she wanted to move back to Myrtle Beach.

Getting a glimpse at the years prior to Gannon's murder is just showing me personally how selfish Letitia is and always has been. Harley was in her early teen years back then and seemed to have no real stability considering she was just picked up and moved constantly, solely based on Letitia's wishes. It almost seems like she had no real roots.

Eventually, Al got orders to go to Alaska for the military, but Letitia did not want to live in Alaska because she thought it was too cold and she didn't want to teach there. So, once again, selfish as always. Letitia and Harley stayed in their home in Myrtle Beach and went back and forth to Myrtle Beach and Alaska, sometimes even up to a couple of months at a time.

Harley explained to the prosecutor that during that time she was attending online school and ended up graduating from high school two years early. She is obviously a very smart girl, but I kind of wonder if she was homeschooling simply so she could go back and forth to Alaska. Eventually, they moved to Colorado in early 2019 after Leticia came up with the idea. This was after the incident where Leticia claimed Al's co-worker was harassing her, which, remember, caused him to switch jobs.

Once again, Letitia was being selfish, which has basically been a main theme this entire trial. During all of this testimony of her daughter, Letitia seems to be looking bored as ever.

Harley explained that Leticia and her drove to Colorado together with all of their family's belongings, and then the kids came following that. A few weeks later, Al made his way to Colorado. This was the first time that everyone was living together for long periods of time, and Harley said that it started to feel like a family there, since everybody was finally now living together.

But apparently, that also meant that Al and Letitia were fighting quite often. Harley explained that during those fights, she would take Gannon and Lena into her room and let them watch TV. She said that she would turn the volume up because she didn't want them hearing them argue, and they were super young at the time, so I'm sure all of the yelling and the screaming was very confusing and not a great way for the kids to grow up.

But as if that wasn't enough, Letitia couldn't seem to let her child be a child. She would drag Harley into all of these arguments and would ask Harley her opinion on things and if they were true. And it's never a child's job to mediate or choose sides to determine what's true or not true in arguments, no less adult arguments with your parents.

But again, nothing surprises me with Letitia, so I am not even shocked that she forced her young daughter to be in the middle of these arguments and forced her to grow up way faster than she should have. Harley then testified about January 2020, the same month that Gannon went missing. In January 2020, Letitia and Al were planning on taking a cruise for a couple of days. Letitia hired a babysitter, which was kind of weird for Harley because she was 17 at the time and had watched the kids overnight previously.

Harley had never met this sitter prior to the cruise, and she never saw her again after. Al's mom also came to visit after the cruise for a few days before leaving, and then Al left on the 25th for military training in Oklahoma.

On the 26th of January was when Letitia took Lena and Gannon hiking at the Garden of the Gods. Harley told the prosecutor that she was actually supposed to go hiking with them on that day. However, she got called into work at Massage Envy for a shift after somebody had called out.

Letitia texted Harley that they were going to leave the hike and go home early due to Gannon having an accident in his pants. Now as a side note with what a monster Letitia is, it makes me think that Gannon was likely shamed for having an accident, even though his stomach was hurting and he was just a child. She definitely doesn't seem like the type of woman or mom to be understanding when things don't go according to her plan.

So Harley wasn't surprised about Gannon having an accident either, because this was something apparently that had happened on more than one occasion.

Later that night at 9.54 p.m., Letitia texted Harley telling her not to panic and that Gannon turned on a candle downstairs, set the downstairs on fire, and that she had to get the dogs and Lena out and then run back downstairs and jump on him with a cover to put it out. And in her message, she had text, I kept jumping on it. Harley explained to the prosecutor that she initially thought Letitia was talking about the fire being on her dog Chance,

Letitia told Harley he is fine, he is scared, saying sorry, freaking out. The two continued texting back and forth, and Harley testified that Gannon didn't often light candles, nor did he often hang out in the basement alone, so obviously it was kind of confusing and odd for her to hear.

Letitia also said that her arm was burned from jumping on Gannon. Gannon himself wasn't on fire, but she claimed that the cover on him was on fire. That night, Harley got off work just after 10.15 p.m. and got home about 20 to 30 minutes later. When she got home, she said that Letitia and Lena were in the living room and that Gannon was downstairs, but she didn't see any burns on Letitia.

Letitia explained that she thought that Gannon was playing on his Nintendo Switch when he shouldn't have been, and that that's when the candle got knocked over. But that was a different story than she had texted her previously about Gannon being asleep when the fire was started.

Harley also said that Al wasn't the type of person to get mad over things like this. That completely contradicts everything Letitia has said about Al getting super angry about things. Letitia told Harley they ran outside and that they were in the street while she called her fireman friend to confirm that they could be in the house despite the fumes.

Allegedly, Gannon was screaming things at this point, that he hates his life and other things during this time. And when that was discussed during Harley's testimony, Harley said that didn't sound like Gannon at all, and he had never done that before. Also, they lived in a neighborhood, so I can't imagine a 10-year-old would be screaming that he hates his life and no neighbors would come out and hear it and come out to check on everything going on. It just doesn't make sense.

So after being at home for a little bit, Letitia suggested they go downstairs to say goodnight to Gannon. Harley again said that this wasn't something that normally happened. So the two of them went downstairs, but Harley claims that Letitia was the only one who actually went into Gannon's room while she stayed in the doorway. She couldn't remember if Gannon said anything when Letitia told him goodnight.

Now, I just want to talk about this for a moment because Letitia, in my opinion, in this moment while she's communicating with Harley, is painting a picture of Gannon being unstable, possibly an accident. First, the candle gets knocked over and the story about how the candle gets knocked over is completely conflicted and contradicted. Then she says Gannon is screaming obscenities in the front yard, saying how much he hates his life, all of these things, as though he is...

an out of control young child, almost teenager. To me, when I first heard all this testimony and tell me what you think in the comment section, it felt like Letitia was either trying to set the stage for an accident, and I'm using air quotes when I say that, or that Gannon was going to do something to take his own life. And just follow me here as we continue. So as Harley's testifying, she says that the next morning she went to work.

She got a text from Gannon's phone, and it was Letitia saying she left her phone at home and to text Gannon's phone if she needed anything. Harley said it was very unusual because Letitia never left her phone at home. And let's be real, most people don't. Most everyone takes their phones everywhere they go and have them on their hands at all times.

So when Harley got home from work that evening, Gannon wasn't there, and Letitia told her that he was at a friend's house. Lena was outside with her bike, which was unusual per their typical afternoon routine. Letitia sent Harley to the store with Lena to get that supplies for the fire cleanup in the basement.

So she went to the Dollar Tree and bought elastics, extra strength deodorizer, baking soda, baby oil, trash bags, and cotton rounds. She also got a few other things that weren't cleaning supplies.

A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Harley said that when she and Lena got back, Gannon wasn't home like he was supposed to be. And this was really weird to her because Gannon had always been really good with time. Letitia was strict with all three kids coming home on time, so it was weird that Gannon was not home yet.

They were also supposed to go get sushi for dinner, so they got in the car and drove to Gannon's friend's house to check for him. Harley said that when Gannon wasn't there, Letitia started getting worried. Harley continued to search for Gannon out and about while Letitia stayed home to wait. And again, let's be real, at that point, she had to have been cleaning up her mess while Harley was gone.

Harley being gone searching bought Letitia time. And if you ask me, her being able to take active steps to cover her tracks like that shows that she was not insane. She was calculated. And this was planned. This is all my opinion.

Before the police showed up that night, Letitia had Harley look in Gannon's backpack, and she found Swisher Sweet Cigars, but Harley again says that that was not like Gannon, and if it was his, she thought that he would hide it a little better than right on top. Again, I think that she was planning things, and that this time she was trying to make Gannon look like a little delinquent child.

The next morning, which was the 28th, Letitia told Harley not to open the door for people, and also that she was going out to see if people were looking for Gannon. There were a series of texts and instructions sent to Harley from Letitia throughout the day. Lots of, don't open the doors, where is Albert, what's he doing, and what's going on there.

And at one point during the day, around 3:45 p.m., Letitia practically went MIA. Her Life360 app was off on her phone, and according to Harley, that had never happened before. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Life360, it's a tracking app, and a lot of families use it to keep track of one another. Letitia also wouldn't tell Harley where she was, which was really unusual.

That evening at 7.21 p.m., Harley was home alone with Lena when detectives came to the door. Letitia was very clear with Harley not to open the door. Her phone rang and it was a no-caller caller ID. A voicemail was left by a detective saying that they wanted to talk to her. She immediately forwarded the voicemail to Letitia. Harley didn't open the door to speak with detectives. Her mom had told her not to. Well, at some point, Letitia told Harley to leave.

Her car was parked in the garage, and Letitia wanted Harley to leave Lena home. Harley said that she didn't want to, so Letitia told her to take Lena to one of her friend's houses, which I just need to pause here really quickly. One of her kids was missing at this time while she was trying to get away with murder, yet she wanted a little girl to be left home alone. If anything, that would put more eyes on her. Are you serious?

So when Harley opened the garage, detectives came out from the side and wanted to talk to her. Harley said that she told them that she was going to Starbucks, since that's what Letitia told her to say. During this time, Letitia was texting Harley asking if any other family had asked where she was. She also texted her, I have to get an attorney fast, while explaining that she was being set up.

By this point, Harley was still at the house, but Lena had been taken to the police station per Al's request. Harley let the detectives in the house and they were talking to her. But Letitia was having none of it. She kept saying things like, why are they talking to you? You're an underage minor and tell them you're uncomfortable with these men. She even went as far as telling Harley that she should call 911 if they didn't leave and to tell the dispatcher that they were making her stay there.

Now, if you remember last week's testimony, while all of this was happening, Letitia kept FaceTiming and talking to that detective named Jessica, freaking out about the detectives talking to Harley. So I find it interesting that she wasn't coming home to save her daughter that she was claiming to be so worried about. She was clearly preoccupied with being in her unspecified location.

At 10.23 p.m., Letitia FaceTimed Harley and told her to meet her at the hotel that they'd be staying at. Harley went to the hotel and waited for quite a while before Letitia showed up.

According to Harley, they never actually stayed at the hotel, though. Instead, they left Letitia's SUV at the hotel and drove back to the house together in Harley's car, a Volkswagen Jetta. Harley said that during this time, Letitia was acting extremely paranoid. They went back to the house and texted until about 2 a.m., while Harley was in her room and Letitia was in hers.

Harley was supposed to work the next morning, which was the 29th. Her work was near the hotel, so she planned to take Leticia there to get her car. Leticia needed to go to the airport first to drop off her rental keys, though. She was clearly still paranoid because Harley said that on the way there, Leticia told her not to speed because they were being followed. Harley said that she went to work after and had to leave early because Leticia's sister called her and told her that she was in the hospital.

While Harley was going to the hospital with her friend Janine, Letitia called her and told her to pick her up at Taco Bell. So obviously this was super weird for Harley, but Harley hasn't seemed to be one that really questioned her mom. It kind of seems like whatever her mom said, she did.

After she picked her up, Harley said Letitia was talking about a bunch of random things in the backseat. The two of them ended up staying at Janine's house that night. The next day, Harley and Letitia went to Marshall's to get clothes. While she was checking out, the police came up to Harley, took her phone, and placed her in handcuffs on the way out. Letitia was outside in handcuffs when Harley got out there and was basically screaming at Harley not to speak. While they were there, they also took Harley's car.

With no phone, no car, she told the prosecutor that they went into a store and used their phone to call family. Leticia's mom, aunt, and brother were flying in that night so that all five of them could stay together, and they stayed at the hotel together. The next day, they rented the van with family to move all of the stuff out of the family home.

Harley testified that police were looking through everything being brought out, all the suitcases, pages of books, and just anything that they brought to the car. They also were not allowed to take anything that was considered a tech device. On their way out of the neighborhood, Leticia decided to do an interview with KKTV, despite family telling her that it was a bad idea. She called Harley in at the end, and let's go back and listen to that part of the interview. Such a kind heart.

I know you just said that you can't say anything about the investigation, so you can just say so again if you can't answer this. But is there anything we can hear about the hike? Was there a hike? We don't, that just seems like rumors right now. You know what? Could we bring my daughter up here? Because she can go and say that, you know, she came home from work after the hike and she can verify that Gannon was at our home. Okay, yeah, that's fine with me. If she doesn't want to, that's okay, but you're allowed to ask her. Is that an okay so far? Yes. I need Harley.

I need Hartley because they want you to verify was Gannon at home after the hike because you didn't go to the hike but you came home from work. Did you say yes? No, just answer the question. Yes, you came home from work and you can verify Gannon was at home. I told her she didn't have to be too in-depth because she is still a child but I want to make sure that someone knows that there's another person to verify that Gannon. Sure.

Does she need to hold this? No. Yes, so I came home later that evening. I was at work and I couldn't verify that he was there that night. So there was a hike that you guys went on, but then you guys came home. Yes. Where'd you guys go hiking? Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods, okay. And then we ate Burger King afterwards, so, you know. There you go. Yeah. And then it just was, I'm going to go to a friend's house.

And then it was just, I'm off to go to plans at a friend's house. Unfortunately, I'm not able to comment on that anymore. And for that reason, it's because some things have been turned and twisted. And that was one of those stories you were talking about where people say things. We had to hear things like, who would let their child go out at dark? And things like that. And that's just why I don't want to answer that. If I had to give... I'm not going to say that part. That's okay. Never mind. I can take that out. I understand that it gets tricky with people's stuff.

Do you feel like I asked you what I need to do? Do you feel like this is going to help kind of turn the tide of what feels like a witch hunt, in my opinion? Am I on camera now? You are still. Okay. I think that a lot of people can see that I'm not missing and see that I am being cooperative. But to me, it's okay that they think those things because the way someone thinks about me,

I don't have a problem with that. My main thing is I would never want someone to think that I would hurt Gannon or any of the children in our home because that's just not the case. I've spent my whole entire life working so hard in education. There was even things online that was talking about my education license and I shouldn't even be a teacher. And they just didn't know that. Like we moved on a military move.

and I didn't finish out my contract so I gave up my license in that state. It had nothing to do with any criminal activity, you know, or any of those things and it just got blown out of proportion on my professional status, you know. Do you feel like these are just internet detectives who think they know what they're doing?

It definitely is. And you know, here's the thing that kind of saddens me. It's like, if you're going to talk about someone like that and have a witch hunt out for them, why would you even care about doing those things? Because this is a child. You're telling me that you're just as mean, you're just as hateful to talk about someone else like that. That's how I feel. Like, we just should not, we should all come together and wait until the end and see what happens because Ganon's going to come home. Any message for Ganon?

The message for Gannon I have is, Gannon, when you get here, you'll be able to truly tell what happened. And then I really hope I get a sincere apology from everyone who has made all those things, especially from my husband. The next morning, which was February 1st, was move day. That is when they switched out the vans. Harley stayed in the hotel while that was happening because it was very cold outside.

Harley said she didn't know where they were moving. The location kept changing, and Letitia kept asking her where she wanted to live, which just confused her. Seems smart to have a teenager choose where to move to on the day of. Wouldn't you agree? Like, why are you asking her this? During the beginning of the drive, Letitia apparently kept talking about Al going against her. Harley explained that Letitia packing up and leaving Al had happened before. Essentially, she wasn't too shocked by what was happening.

On multiple different occasions, Letitia got mad at Al and had Harley pack up all of her clothes and get in the car. One time they drove from Colorado to Kansas, but they always went back when things got worked out. Again, just a horrible environment for a young girl. Initially, Harley thought that they'd go back to Colorado once Al and Letitia talked things out. That was until they got closer to Myrtle Beach.

Along the way, they made numerous stops. They stopped in Trinidad, Colorado, so Letitia could pick up a new phone. While there, Letitia said, Texas is a good place to live, leading Harley to believe that they were going to move to Texas at first.

While driving, Letitia was constantly on the phone talking about the situation with Gannon. She spent lots of time talking to her sister on the phone about how she was set up and how there was a video that would surface to prove her innocence. Harley told the prosecutor that she didn't question her during the drive, adding, "...I didn't question her a whole lot. I would be told that I'm disrespectful or I'm talking back, and sometimes she would backhand me to my face."

Harley saying that was honestly even more of an eye-opener of how Letitia was and the impact it's had on those around her. I really wish they would have spent more time asking follow-up questions to that so that the jury could get to know more about the dynamic.

So that night they stayed at a hotel in Armarillo, Texas. The next night they stayed in another area of Texas and the day after that, which was February 3rd, they stayed in Pensacola, Florida. At every stop, Harley would take the dogs in first. Leticia would reserve the room for one person and then Harley would be waiting on her with the dogs after she checked in. This was because Leticia did not want to pay for the dogs.

So when they got to Pensacola, Florida, they checked into the hotel after midnight and Harley went right to sleep.

When asked, she told the prosecutor she wouldn't have known if her mom left in the middle of the night because she was a very deep sleeper. Now, Harley had spoken about being a deep sleeper earlier in her testimony, saying that she wouldn't have heard her mom moving stuff around in a storage room if she was sleeping. Harley also claims that she never went to the back of the van to get clothing. She said that they had some stuff up front with them and that at no point during the trip did she have to go to the back of the van.

There was also a cage between the front and the back, so she couldn't really see back there anyways. She said that there was not a foul odor also at any point during the trip. When the prosecutor asked if she knew why he was asking her about odors, she said it was because Gannon was back there. And when they asked how she knew that, she said that they told her once that there was evidence of him being back there. And the next question had kind of a confusing answer.

The prosecutor asked Harley how she knew Gannon's body was found in Florida. She said that when the FBI arrested her mom, they came to the house and told her. Leticia was arrested prior to Gannon's body ever being found, though, so that was kind of a weird answer to the question. The prosecution directly asked Harley if she threw the suitcase over the bridge with her mom. She replied that she did not. She then talked about the morning they woke up in Pensacola, Florida.

She said that during breakfast, Letitia seemed sad. Letitia told her it was just everything that was going on. After breakfast, they then drove to Orlando. They had a hotel booked for a few days, but they left early because Letitia was worried that the police were following her. They didn't have the money to keep staying in hotels, so that's when they went to Myrtle Beach. They parked the van at a hotel and then stayed at a friend's house.

On the morning of Letitia's arrest, Harley was supposed to have a meeting with her military recruiter. However, when she went in, that's when she was told that Letitia was arrested. She was then interviewed by the FBI. Now, Gannon's body had not been discovered yet, and Harley still believed that Letitia was innocent. However, she was very forthcoming with them. She told them about the Dollar Tree cleaning supply run and the information about Gannon's disappearance.

Once Gannon's body was discovered, Harley said it was very weird. She knew they were in Florida, but she wanted to believe that it was a coincidence, and she still believed her mom. Just a young girl in denial that her mother could do this. Harley explained that she stopped believing her mom this past November. That's how long she believed her until, which is a pretty big thing. Harley said she didn't know what it meant to plead not guilty by reason of insanity until November of last year.

Harley stated she'd never been to Australia or Saudi Arabia with Letitia, and Letitia had never been there either. She also said that Letitia had never changed personalities around her, never referred to herself as other people, never had been treated for mental illness, never had been an inpatient for psych or anything else that would deem her insane. So Harley believes, and she said this, that Letitia was sane and knew the capacity from right to wrong.

She knew how to check in at hotels and be very careful to follow all of the driving rules on the way to Myrtle Beach, too. The final subject was about Harley's involvement. Last year, Harley was worried about being charged as an accessory to murder. The prosecution was willing to listen to her side before charging her, so she flew out to Colorado to give a statement.

That was the last thing before the court took an afternoon break before cross-examination. Today,

An official message from Medicare.

The cross-examination was less than an hour, and the defense really tried to come in strong and sway her. Harley said that she was six years old when her mom and dad split up. Harley admitted that Letitia was often in her closet crying, texting, or doing other things, but that she was never crying for no reason. I mean, the defense was coming in pretty hot, since when does crying in a closet make you insane?

The defense asked Harley about a time Letitia was in the hospital in Charleston, telling her that she needed to go live with her friend Amy Bolton. Amy and Harley were worried and broke into Letitia's phone to find out where she was. At that point, Harley thought Letitia was in the hospital for cancer, but she's been told so many different things. The defense was basically trying to push the narrative that Letitia was there for mental illness. The defense also spoke about Letitia wrecking Harley's Jeep.

The defense questioned Harley on whether or not Letitia told Harley she wrecked it because she thought she saw Chance, who had already died at that point, sitting next to her. But Harley denied Letitia ever saying that. And I can honestly imagine Letitia telling her attorneys all of these stories to make her sound insane because she's just absolutely ridiculous. The defense then questioned Harley about Letitia's fear of being kidnapped.

They had code words, but Harley thought that was normal parents being concerned for their child kind of thing. Leticia also claimed to have had safe spots to meet Harley, but Harley denied that being true. The defense was focusing on a lot of questions that Harley did not have the answers for. However, she did have answers for when Leticia claimed that she was about to take her own life in front of her. Apparently, one time in Alaska, Leticia told Harley it was the last dinner between the two of them and that she had already taken pills.

Obviously, this freaked Harley out, but then the next day was completely normal. And apparently this was the second time that that had happened, which I just have to say, how manipulative as a mother to be telling your daughter this is the last dinner we're ever going to have, I'm taking my own life, say goodbye, and then just the next morning have a normal day and go on like business as usual. It's unbelievable. So there were more questions that Harley didn't have the answer to.

If you remember earlier, Harley and Janine picked up Letitia from Taco Bell, and she was talking a lot in the back seat. The defense tried to paint a picture of her talking points being odd and jumping from topic to topic. But Harley again told them that all of the points surrounded Gannon being missing and her being accused. So technically, they weren't these hop, skip, jump thoughts. They were all pretty consistent. Harley said that when they got to Texas is when they then decided to go to Florida.

Harley said she spoke with the defense before the FBI, but mostly talked about her childhood with her mom. The defense asked Harley if she manipulates the truth for her benefit, and she told them she does not. Harley then spoke about her living arrangements. After the arrest leading up to now, Harley has lived with Dee Dee. Her Aunt Brenda had gotten her a car, but then took it after a disagreement.

Due to the challenge of getting to and from nursing school, Harley set up a GoFundMe. On that site, she mentioned losing both of her parents. The defense was really nitpicking her, saying she lost both parents, but Harley remained firm in the fact that she did lose her mom.

In the redirect, Harley got really emotional about feeling manipulated and lied to in regards to Gannon, but also her dad's death. Because remember, she only learned the truth of that a week ago. When asked what she'd explained to a jury about driving across the country with a body in a suitcase, she said that the thought never even came across her mind. That she just never thought that her mom would do that. Saying, I didn't see her to be a person who would do that. I never even questioned it. It just never came up.

Harley stated that she did not see nor clean up any blood either. And the final question was asking if she loved her mother. Her response, or lack thereof, was heartbreaking. You can tell that she is going through so much at such a young age and it is really taking a toll on her.

The most frustrating part was seeing the lack of emotion or genuine care from Letitia. While her child was sitting in a courtroom gutted over the things that she had done, Letitia was stoic, stone-faced, and rumored to again have been flipping the bird secretly, you know, just kind of brushing her face and putting it up. Letitia was only for herself, but that's something that we've learned throughout this entire trial, and I'm sure it's only going to continue.

Harley's testimony was insightful. It was mind-blowing and absolutely heart-wrenching. There are a lot of mixed opinions out there on whether she knows more than she's saying. Personally, if she does know more, I think there might be some sort of trauma block given how horrible Letitia has been to her not only emotionally but occasionally physically and mentally manipulative and

We didn't hear a ton about their relationship, but we heard enough to know that Letitia was someone who always got her way, and everyone seemed to always cater to her crap. Overall, I think Harley did a great job and was really helpful with her insight on Letitia. I just hope that she's able to go on and be successful and have a good life despite what she was put through as a child at just 17 years old.

After her testimony, court concluded early for the day, with plans to resume on Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning came bright and early. The first witness of the day was Lieutenant John Sarkisian, who works for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. John has been working for the Sheriff's Office for almost 22 years. In January of 2020, when Gannon went missing, John was working in the Special Operations Division. He was basically the head of the SWAT team.

When Gannon went missing, John was assigned as the incident commander for the search efforts. Incident command is a system that is designed to essentially tell everyone where they're supposed to be and what their jobs are. It's broken into different branches, such as law enforcement, fire, financial, food, gas, and more. So John was the overseer of all of that. And John said that this was the biggest thing that he had seen in his time working at the sheriff's office.

John said that the search and rescue and the National Guard came in and helped bring in people and resources to search. They also had volunteers with drones, Douglas County and other people, and police agencies pulling together to help. John said that the search efforts initially started in Gannon's neighborhood of the Lorson Ranch area, then moved north from there. From February 12th to February 20th, they searched Perry Park. Perry Park is close to an hour north of Lorson Ranch, where Gannon lived.

They also spent some time on Highway 105 in the middle of the search. However, that wasn't as long of a search because based on information, they were only searching certain areas along the highway.

Perry Park has areas that were heavily wooded and areas that were not heavily wooded. However, in January, there was a lot of snowfall, so the search and rescue people were using probing poles to help in their search. During the search at Perry Park, the probing poles were used to determine if things were the ground, dirt, or not. If it wasn't the ground and it was soft, then they would then use shovels to dig.

The FBI also had a couple of canine dogs helping with the search as well as that drone footage. A plane was used by the National Guard to get aerial footage of Lorsen Ranch. So John was focused on searching South Perry Park Road due to a tracker on Letitia's car pinging in that area and showing the car slowing down for a while. On February 15th, he was the one that found the 2x2 and half particle board on the side of the road.

John noticed the board had blood on it and then passed it off to the FBI for evidence. The prosecution showed the board on the screen in the courtroom before bringing it out so that the jury could get a good look at it in person.

After John's testimony, the next witness was Kevin Clark with the district attorney's office. Kevin had gotten the phone records from the phone Letitia had bought with Harley in Trinidad as well as Gannon and Harley's phone records. Part of that phone data was the Life 360 location data. Letitia's phone showed that she had traveled up to Perry Park area on the evening of January 28th and again on the evening of January 31st.

There was that bloody particle board found in the family garage, so Kevin compared that board to the one that John had found in Perry Park. Next on the witness stand was Commander Mitch Mihalko, who works for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Mitch has only been a commander since 2021, but has been with the Sheriff's Office for 20 years.

In January of 2020, he was a lieutenant in the violent crimes part of the investigation division. This included homicide, you know, attacks of the sexual nature, missing people, cold cases, and pretty much anything else deemed violent. On January 28th, Mitch had received the brief on Gannon's case. It described Gannon as 11 years old, lightly clothed in the winter, hadn't shown up to any of his friends' houses, and had never ran away prior, and also took medication.

Mitch was confused why Gannon was considered a runaway, and that's when he contacted Detective Hubbell in the Major Crimes Unit to assign detectives. This quickly became the largest investigation that he had ever been a part of. Mitch testified that as the investigation continued, Letitia started becoming the focus. Mitch had watched part of Letitia's four-hour interview with Detective Bethel, and he noticed the inconsistencies in her stories.

So what started as a missing child slash runaway case had become an abduction now, and these stories that Letitia told about being attacked and hurt in a sexual way, which were two very, very different things. Mitch knew that Letitia was very hard to get a hold of, too, based on how hard it was to get her in for an interview.

He also knew that there was a lot of communication between Letitia and Al on that phone. Having that information, he decided to seize her phone at the end of her interview to avoid her being able to leave and destroy any evidence on her phone. Mitch described the logistics of a phone being seized. Once it is seized, it's either turned off or it's placed in a Faraday bag so that it cannot be messed with. Before investigators can actually search the phone, though, they have to get a warrant.

However, the Faraday bag blocks cell signals so no one can access the phone. Mitch talked about the evidence found in the home and said that every lead they followed had something to do with the house. On February 5th, law enforcement found blood stains in Gannon's room. So on February 7th, they applied for a warrant to seize the home. They changed the locks and disabled the garage.

Go to ssa.gov slash extra help.

Paid for by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Mitch then talked about no body homicides, the evidence and Latisha's behavior. In your experience as a detective and in in command, if a if you have a homicide with no body, does that provide? Does that create some difficulties in investigation? Absolutely it does. In what way?

Now, without a no-body homicide, it's very difficult to present probable cause that a homicide occurred. And so for the investigators, it takes a lot more time and effort to show beyond – or to show a magistrate that there is probable cause that the death of someone occurred. MR.

Could there be a reasonable explanation that the person is just missing and not actually dead unless you have a body? That is a possibility. So that's one of the hurdles in a no-body homicide investigation that you have to overcome because it could just be someone that was missing, period. In your experience, both as a detective and then in command level, is there a lot of evidence that you can derive from a body that's missing

Had some violence carried out on it. Yes, there's obviously physical evidence. The method of death potentially a generalized timeline and depending upon what evidence is found on scene that could produce multiple leads. When you respond out to a homicide scene in a body is still on scene is a very typical to find bodily fluids on the scene.

Is distinctly possible, yes. Like blood? Mm-hmm. You have to say yes or no for the court? Yes, I'm sorry. Potentially body tissue even? Yes. Are those things helpful to drive where an investigation goes and how it develops?

Yes, it does help us with determining method and dependent upon the scene. That evidence can also help lead us to potential directions and suspects. Did you, in fact, ever go to 6627 Main Dan Drive yourself? I did. Did you see things inside that house that led you to believe based on your training and experience?

That a something violent had occurred inside that home. Yes, I did. What were those things? We saw blood patterning, bloodstain patterning, bloodstain, blood staining within the room of Gannon Stubb.

When you say blood patterning, are you talking about bloodstain pattern? Yes. Where was that generally located? On a wall, and I don't remember which direction of the wall, but on a wall that was near where Gannon's bed was previously located.

Did you also have a chance to observe where blood had seeped through carpet and puddled onto the concrete underfloor? Yes, I did. Did it appear that there had been a fairly large amount of blood that had seeped through that and stained that floor? Yes, it appeared that there was a significant event there. Having that sort of seeping through and puddling, is that consistent with other murder scenes that you've been on? Yes. Okay.

In an ideal world, if you know that a crime has been committed inside of a house, do you prefer to seize that and prevent people from going into a scene right at the very get-go? Yes. Why is that? Because anyone moving in or out may inadvertently move evidence around or transfer pieces of evidence from one place to another.

So we've already talked about the phone call coming in on January 27th, and then the scene is not locked down until February 7th. So we're talking a number of days. Did you have concerns with that span of time from a command level and from your experience about that scene being compromised at all?

From the from the time as the investigation unfolded, I believe that the investigative teams were acting appropriately and in searching for the evidence that was necessary. But as as additional information came to light that caused us to have to go back. So as of February 7th, we we.

determined and realized that the scene itself needed to be locked down, which is what we did. As this case developed and days after days rolled along, did it become less likely that Gannon was going to show up alive? Yes.

Were you developing investigative leads that were acted on and evidence being found like on the S curve like we heard from Lieutenant Sarkeesian? Yes, and please remember, I mean, this was a team of investigators that was not only following leads that were generated with the defendant as a potential suspect, but we had

hundreds, if not a thousand plus tips that detectives also had to vet and determine if there was direction that we need to take on those as well. During the pendency of the investigation phase of this particular case, were there daily meetings starting with the sheriff's office and then did that evolve eventually to the FBI's building? Yes, those meetings were sometimes once, sometimes twice per day.

Were they were a lot of people involved in those meetings? The key investigators again at the same time we still had investigators in the field, but the key investigators were there and most of the information was was disseminated that same day to the rest of the team. Yes, and then was information that was passed along in those meetings acted on each day by different investigative teams both locally and then eventually nationally. Yes.

You mentioned earlier you had concerns about the defendant's behavior and that sort of informed you as to why you wanted to seize her phone on January 29th. In your experience and training, was she cooperating with the investigation? No. Was she acting as a typical parent or step-parent would in a missing kid case? Definitely not.

When we're talking about was she acting normal based on your training experience, did you have the opportunity to observe her at different times? I did. Well,

Mainly during interview, and so during the interview on the 29th of January was the 1st time that I actually. Was able to observe the defendant and then I did observe some of her interactions with media and we were also very closely monitoring social media at the same time.

okay and so when i am asking you questions like um was she acting normal compared to other missing kid cases um was she acting in a way that caused you any concern during the times that you could observe her um that she was not sane that she was not sane right that she was insane no did it ever get anywhere close to that in the observation periods that you had of her no what what it appeared to me was uh um as as the information developed it appeared to me

that the defendant was very cognizant of what was occurring and took specific steps, almost being methodical in misdirecting and redirecting investigative efforts. Did those efforts, in fact, cause the investigation to be manipulated, especially early on, away from the crime scene? Absolutely, yes.

Next on the stand was a crime scene investigator, Alyssa Beresford. She talked about bloodstain pattern analysis, which was actually very interesting to hear. She did a great job explaining it all before going into her role in Gannon's investigation. Her explanation really helped people to understand what happened. So let me just play this for you here.

So bloodstain pattern analysis is based off of a series of different pattern types. And what I mean by that is different mechanisms can produce different appearing bloodstains. And based upon the appearance of those bloodstains, the size, shape, location, distribution, orientation, it can tell me different things about what may have caused those bloodstains to be deposited.

okay and so tell the to the jury about i guess some of those different types for instance a transfer blood stain what does that mean so a transfer stain is going to be when a bloody object comes into contact with an object that does not have blood on it therefore transferring that blood from one thing to another so if somebody had blood on their hand and touched the table and wiped it would that be a transfer stain correct

What about expirated bloodstain pattern? So expiration refers to blood in an airway. It is

Indicative, or you can tell that it's expiration if there are air bubbles within the blood, if there is maybe a little bit of extra. Liquid to it, like spit saliva, maybe nasal mucus, but you have to have an injury to the airway in order to classify it as an expiration stain.

So correct me in my terminology here, but if there's like an arterial bleed where blood is spurting, what kind of stain would that potentially cause? That would be a spurt stain. Okay, so tell the jury about that. So arterial arteries are very unique because they're very pressurized and they're very high volume of blood, which means that if an artery is nicked or severed, we're going to have a very high volume of blood that's ejected under pressure.

So this is going to create a very unique blood stain. Typically, what we're seeing are very large circular or elliptical stains with a lot of volume in them. If somebody has a heavily bleeding head wound and is laying, say, on the floor here and it's seeping onto the floor, what kind of stain would that be?

Um, depending upon the surface of the floor, it would either be a blood pool where the blood is just flowing out and it's, um, only gravity is acting upon it. Um, or if it's a porous surface like carpet, it's going to be a saturation stain. So if you think of, you've got a spill on your counter and you take a paper towel and wipe it up and that liquid, um, seeps into the paper towel, that's saturating the paper towel.

Can you have both a saturation stain and a pooling stain in one single event? Yes. Meaning that blood seeped, saturated through carpet and then seeped into a pool area? Correct. How useful is bloodstain pattern analysis in a criminal investigation? Bloodstain pattern analysis is typically used when we don't know what happened. Because there's information that can be gained from bloodstain patterns,

Um, we typically employ it when we need to know what the story was, or if what our witnesses are telling us doesn't match up to what we're seeing on scene. Um, bloodstain pattern analysis can be used to determine what kind of mechanisms created the bloodstain patterns, maybe a sequence of events, or even the location of that blood source or injury within the scene. What about, um,

can you determine to some level the amount of energy used that caused a blood pattern to exist? Not necessarily in degrees of velocity or force. Okay. What are some limitations with bloodstain pattern analysis?

Well, we can only work with what we see in front of us. So if all of the bloodstain patterns aren't there, then we won't have the full picture and we won't be able to tell the full story. Some other limitations are mostly documentation in the sense of if we don't have good photographs, if we don't have good diagramming, then for an analyst, it's going to be very difficult to try and go through all of that and make determinations.

On top of that, depending upon what investigative question is trying to be answered, we may want DNA analysis to be done on those bloodstains so that we can link the pattern or mechanism with an individual.

When you are looking at a potential blood stain pattern for analysis, can you sometimes see that there's been some effort to clean a particular area, potentially clean blood stain patterns? Yes. What do you see when you're that tells you those types of things?

In most cases, it just doesn't make sense. But the blood itself, once it's dried, is actually very hard to clean up. It doesn't just wipe up very easily. And so that blood becomes more dilute, more transparent, lighter in color as you attempt to clean it up. And the well-defined edges of those bloodstain patterns start to blur.

So that's an indication that it's been altered in some form.

If say, we're talking about a wall and there's a high volume of blood on a wall. And then water or some cleaning agent is added to that blood stain. Well, that caused the blood stain to actually run down the wall. It can can it cause it to run behind light sockets or switches or anything like that? Absolutely. Can it cause it to eventually pull on a flat surface below that particular wall if enough liquid is supplied? Yes.

Can you actually sometimes see any wiping marks or what would appear to be white marks on bloodstains? You can, yes. Are there any other things that can sort of go along those same ideas of indicative of cleaning a bloodstain pattern? Not necessarily. That, I think, pretty much covers it. And it wasn't a trick question. I just truly didn't know. You talked about...

in the limitations portion of it that if information is missing. Does cleaning a blood scene remove information that would have been helpful if it had existed at the time that you show up? Absolutely.

On February 5th, Alyssa was called to the Stalcom to analyze bloodstains in Gannon's bedroom on two walls, on the baseboards, and the floor. She took 10 swabs that day, and it took her an hour and a half to identify all of the bloodstains because it was a dynamic event and wasn't just contained to one room.

She said to have blood at that scale, there has to be some movement in that scene. A bloody object being swung was present in that room. And then she said that whatever happened in Gannon's room was violent. Alyssa explained photos of the bloodstains that were analyzed. This photograph is an overall photograph of the bedroom after all of the stains have been identified.

So you can see in this photograph, there's those little black rectangles. Those are each going to identify a minimum of one spatter stain. And by spatter stain, I mean a circular or elliptical stain that is produced by some external force being applied to liquid blood, whether that's on a surface or from an injury itself.

So this kind of shows the magnitude of those spatter stains. It reached fairly far. We have a height of five to six feet tall and it spanned on the, I believe that's the east wall, at least six feet down the wall. So this isn't just one area. There's some movement involved with this.

So, let's let's dig into this photo just a little bit. There's the white on that. I'm sorry the yellow.

That stretches through both walls on that South and then East wall as well. What is that yellow stuff there? That is road mapping tape. So that is part of our road mapping documentation. And that allows a blood stain pattern analyst to look at a stain, reference the scale tape and say the stain was approximately five feet high.

Are all of the blood stains that you looked at for this particular case, with the exception of the window, all contained below and with inside of that yellow border road mapping tape? There is one additional stain that is, if I may, may I stand? Yeah, absolutely. Just make sure when you stand up because you're away from the microphone that the furthest juror can hear you.

So there is a stain that is just past the reaches of the scale tape and it's going to be on the baseboard kind of over here on the lower left hand corner of the photograph. And I'm going to have you stay there for just a moment. All of those white rectangular stickers, are those your evidence stickers that you place that are below and inside of that yellow road mapping tape? Yes. What about the white things that we see above the road mapping tape?

Those are wall decorations that were there prior to my arrival. So those have nothing to do with your analysis of this scene, correct? Okay. You mentioned the height and I'm going to use the word enormity. Did that surprise you for this particular scene? It did. Why?

At that point, we really had no indication of what the cause of death could be. So, something like this is a lot more or lack of a better word violent than I expected to see. Did this indicate to you that there had been a significant bloodletting that occurred in this bedroom? Yes.

Did these stains lend themselves to one pattern? We talked about the other patterns earlier. Did these lend to one pattern or were there multiple different patterns potentially? So because of the cleaning that was involved, we really couldn't say that it was from a specific pattern.

If you think of a photograph, which is made up of a lot of tiny little pixels, right? If you have all of the pixels together, you can see what the picture is and what it means.

An official message from Medicare.

Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If you only have 50 pixels and they're randomly spread across a photograph, you're not going to be able to tell what may actually be in that photo. Were there some of these blood stains that showed potentially different directionality? Yes. Can you show us a couple of examples of that just so that we understand what you're talking about?

And then again, just tell me what exhibit number would be best to for you to point to for that. Exhibit 572. okay. So let's publish 572. Okay. So we've got 572 displayed on the screen behind you. And again, if it's might be best to just stand up and point to different things so that the jury can see what it is you're talking about. What is it that we're looking at in 572? So, in this photograph, there are.

Three or four tiny little spatter stains. So these are going to be this one here down at the bottom. We have two near the scale sticker and then one a little bit farther out.

Now for spatter stains, especially elliptical spatter stains, we can usually tell directionality based off of what we call the tail. So as blood hits a surface, it's going to elongate and then kind of what's left over is going to create what looks like a tail. And that's going to tell us the direction it was moving. In this specific photograph, we have a couple of different directionalities.

So, this lower stain is going to have a downward directionality. You can see it comes to a point there at the bottom of the state, the stain that's going to be the tail.

This stain up here closest to the scale sticker has an upward directionality and it's upward from left to right. And we can tell that by the tail that's at the upper corner of the stain. When we have these types of photographs and bloodstain patterns existing in a scene where there's different directionalities,

What does that tell you as an expert in bloodstain pattern analysis? That tells me that there's probably more than one event that's happening to produce these stains. Was there evidence in this particular scene that there had been efforts to clean up the blood staining that was on the walls and baseboard? Yes. Can you point us to some photographs in those photos that are in front of you that will help us understand what you mean by that?

586. Okay, so we're going to put 586 on the board behind you.

Okay, so just for orientation purposes, this is the power outlet that's lower closer to the floor on that east wall in Gannon's bedroom. Correct. All right. So what are we looking at here that shows you there's some indication that cleaning had occurred in this bedroom? There's actually two things within this photograph. The first we can see a visible blood stain right here in the center.

The edges of this stain are very blurred, meaning it's not well defined. It's been altered in some way. So it's probably been cleaned at the same time. We have this line here kind of in between the socket and the sticker scale.

That is a diluted bloodstain. If you think of when you're moving your furniture after you've been walking around for a while, and all of a sudden you realize how dirty your carpet is because you're looking at the nice clean carpet versus the dirty carpet. Same theory. We have the section of wall that was covered by the plate. That is clean and the line that defines that diluted bloodstain right next to it.

Is there also some potential blood staining sort of on the outlet in the screw area that would hold the plate on there in that picture as well? There is. Does that also potentially lead to a conclusion that cleaning had occurred? Yes. Okay. The where were.

Well, 1st of all, we can see texture of the wall here correct? Yes, is the walls both the South and the East wall similarly textured as what we see in people's 586. yes. Where the majority of the blood spots or stains. In the recesses of that wall texture, that's hard to say there actually was a fair amount of stains that were on the top of the surface, but there were some that were caught within the crevices. Okay.

Some point did you go back out to this particular scene with a person by the name of Tom Griffin? I did. What was that for?

Mr Griffin 1, it was doing a blessing pattern and analysis on this case and wanted to examine the blood scenes further. So I went out to assist with his examination and any further documentation that he required. Do you know whether or not he actually admin. Prepared and submitted an expert report in this case. I do. Okay. You are may approach with people's exhibit 679. You may.

Show you what's been marked as people that 679. I'm going to rely on your intuition here. Can you tell what people's exhibit 679 is? Yes, how can you tell that based upon the barcode label that I prepared and attached to this packaging? Is this an item that you actually seized or collected? While you were out there on February 5th, I think it was no, this is not.

I'm sorry, what date was it that you collected that item? I collected this on February 13th, 13. thank you. Is this a sheet that was collected? It is. A sheet from where this was a bed sheet that was collected from the bedroom closet in the Southeast basement bedroom. Is this the same bedroom that we've been talking about? Yes. Why did you collect that sheet?

We were given an indication that there was shark print bedsheets that we were missing the set. And so it was something that was important. And so we found the bedsheet within the laundry basket and collected it. Subsequent to the time that you collected this item, has that bag or evidence collection bag been opened by somebody else? Yes. How do you know that?

Based upon the additional evidence seals, I can see that it's been opened a couple of times. Okay, to know that the item that's inside that bag is the same item that you collected back on that date in February. Would you need to open that bag? Yes. Okay. There are some plastic gloves to your right and there should be scissors there as well. Is my own gloves because those are going to be extremely large.

Is that the bed sheet that you collected on that day? Yes. Is it in the same or substantially the same condition today as the day that you collected it? It is at this time. I move for admission of people's exhibit 679. Defense 679 will be admitted. Go ahead. And so was the purpose of collecting this item just to compare it to potentially other betting that may be found at a later date or what was the purpose? That would be a question better asked for the detectives. Okay.

I collected it for anything that needed to be done in the future. Okay. So a detective just says, Hey, get that. And you do it. Yes. Okay. Can I have just a moment? You may. One final thing. Did you find any shell casings in that bedroom? No. Did you find any knife or sharp objects that could have been used to stab somebody? No. So I have your honor.

Alyssa clarified for the jury that a lot of the information was cleaned away so she couldn't tell a chronological order of events in the murder. However, the stains were consistent with gunshots, sharp force, blunt force, or a combination. Next on the stand was Tom Griffin, who is a private forensic consultant who specializes in crime scene investigation, reconstruction, and also bloodstain analysis. On February 18, 2020, Mitch requested that Tom join the case.

His primary job was to look into whether examination of the photos and the scene could help identify possible events or mechanisms. On February 22nd, he received over 350 photos of the scene in the Stalcombe. Initially, he concluded that the stains were small, mostly splatter, and that without any further examination, he couldn't say more on events or mechanisms. On February 26th, Tom went to the house with the FBI.

While he walked through the whole house, he mostly focused on Gannon's room. His job was to identify possible mechanisms of what caused there to be blood on the walls, baseboard, and floor in Gannon's room. Tom said he wanted to stay objective, so he compared what he saw in person to the photos that he had received. All of the stains were about one millimeter or less, which is the width of an edge of a dime. So super, super tiny.

Tom said that there were bloodstains on the wall above and below the height of the bed. He said that Alyssa had already put 54 labels between the two walls in Gannon's room, some above and below that bed. Tom said that along the baseboards he noticed the appearance of diluted blood, which would be consistent with some type of cleanup or removal. On February 26th, he gave his preliminary result given all of the evidence. He said he'd look at one or a combo of three possibilities.

Those were a shooting with a penetrating wound with no bullet exit, blunt force trauma like beating or stomping, or action with a sharp object which wasn't necessarily a knife. The autopsy we know came back showing blunt force trauma to the head, a penetrating gunshot wound to the jaw or face, and sharp injuries to his body everywhere else.

Based on the evidence and bloodstain analysis, Tom said Gannon was on or near the floor for at least one or two of the events that led to the blood spatter.

During cross-examination, Tom clarified that a minimum of two events caused the blood splatter. The next witness was Detective Pete Woods from Myrtle Beach Police Department. He's been working there for 16 years, but prior to that, he was with the New York Police Department for 20 years. He is known and highly regarded in Myrtle Beach. On March 2, 2020, at 9 a.m., he was briefed on a warrant out for Letitia Stauk. The warrant was out of El Paso County.

The plan was to arrest Letitia after she dropped Harley off at the Myrtle Beach Air Force recruiting station for her appointment. Letitia was under surveillance from Thursday to Sunday, and the arrest was taking place on Monday. As soon as she drove off from the recruiting station, they pulled her over in a minivan. Letitia immediately pulled over, got out, and was compliant.

Pete said that the arrest took less than a minute. The van was processed that very night. In the van was a pink suitcase and a white suitcase, or a tub. In the pink suitcase was a blue blanket that looked to have blood on it, which I wonder if that was Gannon's blanket. It is often said that sometimes people who murder take trophies or a souvenir from the crime, so maybe that's why she chose to take it with her. Why not dump it like she had done everything else?

The next witness was John Price, who was a detective for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Detective Price was a homicide detective during the time Gannon was missing. He was assigned to be at the searches of the cars and the house, and he did end up tracking some of the physical evidence.

He brought things in that were found in Harley's car. In her car was her passport, social security card, a passport photo, and a school document from South Carolina. There was also items that were Letitia's, including her passport, a passport photo, a library card, two social security cards belonging to Letitia, one with her marital name, her and Al's marriage license, her birth certificate, and her CPR certification form, plus some other documents.

Now, I'm just going to share my opinion here. When I first heard that their passports were found plus passport photos, once you submit for a passport and get it back, there's no need to have the extra photo. And I wonder if that photo, the passport photo they found, matched the same photo that was in the passport. I highly doubt it because I think...

that the reason Letitia had all the documentation she did including the licenses the certificates all these things and they both had passport photos loose photos is because I think she was planning to run and I think she was going to try to change their identities I think that's why she had the marriage certificate all of these licenses and so forth and had recently gotten passport photos taken and I think that they were going to flee tell me what you think but that's my opinion

The last person to speak on Tuesday was Special Agent Amber Cronin with the FBI. She was working with Al during the recorded phone calls with Letitia. She said that they briefed him before each call and then passed notes during the call and told him what to say or not to say. The last thing that happened on Tuesday was part of a phone call being played. This was a call between Al and Letitia, and Amber was in the room during that call.

During the call, Letitia continued to deny having anything to do with Gannon's disappearance. She was wanting Al to get a lie detector test, and he told her that he would take one only if she took one. Then she asked him if he was going to protect her from Quincy Brown, and told him, and I quote, "...he will beat me, he will hurt me, and I keep telling you this and you will not catch the gist."

An official message from Medicare.

Letitia told Al that the bike accident was not true, but confirmed that the Quincy Brown story was true. And again, if you need to get caught up on all these versions of her stories, just go back a few videos to the first video in this playlist where it says, I think the thumbnail says, worse than Casey Anthony with a question mark, and it breaks down all of the stories Letitia told.

So after that phone call was played, court adjourned for the day with plans to be back on Wednesday morning. Wednesday trial 11 started off by continuing the phone call from the previous day between Al and Letitia. The call was pretty much more of the same, with Letitia continuing to deny any involvement in Gann's disappearance. Al did his best to press her for more information, but it was obvious that he was never going to get the truth out of her.

The FBI recorded it and were present during all of the conversations between Al and Letitia. The prosecution played another hour long phone call of Al accusing Letitia of lying to him and she can be heard yelling like a crazy person, denying everything that he says. The absolute truth, I don't want no more Quincy lied on the road, Quincy bike accident, Quincy hiding in the house, okay? Quincy's secret messages, ransom, I don't want no more of that, okay?

This is driving me freaking nuts, okay? I just want the truth and then I-- No, you-- Hey, listen to me for a second. I want the truth right now and then I'll be willing to meet you. And at the end of the call, Al puts FBI agent Amber Cronin on the phone, but Letitia says she'll call right back and hangs up. When Letitia calls back, she talks to Agent Cronin and goes through the story once again of the intruder in the home, the attack, and how Gannon was kidnapped, all of these things.

Letitia also continues to change her story in almost every single call, and she yells at Al about how she's upset that he isn't supporting her and how people just don't believe her, which it really blows my mind that she really thought her husband would stick by her when it's so obvious that she is the one who had something to do with Gannon's disappearance. The next phone call was yet another between Al and Letitia, and it really was just Letitia repeating more and more of her lies.

- They were treated in that situation.

Yes, exactly. And a father, don't tell me how a father is supposed to feel. You're talking about what you said is most important to you, which is things. You said that. Okay? I'm talking about what's most important to me. What's most important to a father is his son. The most important thing to a father is his children. I want my son back, and you have the information, and you won't give it to me. You won't tell me what you freaking heard when he was bleeding to death. And Al was fed up at that point.

And at the end of the call, he yelled at her, this is the worst effing story yet. I'm done with this. Hearing Al tell Letitia off was honestly a great place for Court to take a break for lunch. And it was just kind of like the final like, oh, tell her off. And then, OK, let's break and let's reset our minds.

After lunch, Agent Cronin finished her testimony about the phone calls, and next on the stand was former FBI Special Agent Jonathan Grusing. He worked as a special agent in Denver, Colorado for almost 25 years. He testified that he was brought in to give Al advice on how to interact with Letitia going forward to get the most information out of her.

He believed that if they didn't outwardly accuse Letitia of killing Gannon, then she would probably continue to talk to Al and the investigators and hopefully give them more information. So Agent Grusing stated that Letitia would give small hints during her conversations with Al, even though her story was always changing, and he was working to decipher the subtle clues in the conversations. In the phone calls, Letitia would constantly shift blame to other people, including Al and even Gannon's mom, Landon.

In the next call, Al called Leticia and told her that he found out that the information about Quincy Brown was a lie. She insisted, though, that he is the one who attacked her and kidnapped Gannon. But it was discovered that Quincy Brown is actually just a local who is on the offender list. But his family said that Quincy had been in Mexico for the past two years and wasn't even in Colorado at the time of Gannon's disappearance.

So my question is, did Letitia just look up different people on the registry in the area and pick a random name to make her story more plausible? Agent Grusing told Al that he needed to tell Letitia that she was a good person and a good parent and that this was going to help keep her talking. During the calls, Letitia had her head in her hands on the table, probably humiliated because like the jig is up lady.

Al asked Letitia about the blood found in the corner of Gannon's bedroom, and he told her, "'What I think is that you did it. What I know is that you're involved somehow, and that you dumped his body somewhere.'"

The day ended pretty abruptly, and you could tell everyone in the court was worn out from listening to hours and hours of Letitia lying in these calls. I mean, the last couple of days could be pretty much summarized as Letitia tells more lies, because that is really all the calls consisted of, besides the occasional sprinkle of clues like Agent Grusing mentioned.

Luckily, the jury and the court takes breaks on Thursdays during the trial, so they were able to take a break on Thursday, reset, and then jump back into testimony first thing on Friday.

Friday marked day 12 and the last day of the week in week three of the trial. The morning started out with FBI agent John Grusing picking back up where we left off on Wednesday. Agent Grusing explained that after the recorded phone calls between Al and Letitia, he would analyze things that she said to be able to better coach Al on how to handle the next conversation and hopefully get more information from her.

He said that in his professional opinion, the way she spoke about herself and the fact that she was only worried about her own feelings, rather than finding Gannon, shows that she's extremely self-absorbed. Which, amen, Mr. Grissing, I think we can all agree to that.

When Al spoke to Letitia about injuries that Gannon received, Letitia would only refer to him as using he and him, rather than by his name. Agent Grusing said that this indicates her trying to depersonify his word, that was his word, not mine, him to herself and to Al, almost trying to disassociate.

In the next call, Letitia told Al that she couldn't tell him what happened to Gannon unless they were together. Al argued that her helping find out what happened to Gannon shouldn't be conditional, that regardless if they were together or not, she should be helping find out what happened to him. At one point, she kind of tells on herself a little bit for keeping track of the investigation and things that she's heard about the searches in the media. Acres upon acres upon acres when I didn't even go to those acres.

How do we find it? If none of those things, if it was none of the places that I went,

make you open up your eyes and say that I'm not involved someone else is yeah you're absolutely right I like back to your first question I believe so she said why would they be searching in places I never even went which um I don't know Leticia you're the one who said you didn't have to do anything to do with it so if that were true it would make sense to look at places other than that and other than just where you've been but I mean hello you're kind of telling on yourself

So Agent Grusing said that Leticia's description of the alleged Eduardo character also kept changing. First, she said that he was Hispanic, then possibly Puerto Rican, or maybe even Black. He said that if Leticia really had a significant interaction with him, such as an attack in her home, then she should have been able to give a much clearer description.

On the next recording, Letitia told Al that he needed to hold on a minute to talk about the case because she needed to drop off her friend's children that were in the car with her. Al didn't believe there was anyone in the car because he didn't hear anyone in the background at all during the conversation.

Letitia started saying that she was almost to her friend's house, was passing a church, and then even started having a conversation with the supposed children when they got out of the car. However, Agent Grusing said that based on their knowledge of the call, she never passed a church, and there were never any other sounds in the car other than from her, and no sound of car doors opening or closing.

So pretty much, she was just talking to herself for no reason, which she's just lying to lie at this point. And I think the funniest part of that conversation was when Letitia said, I told you what happened is beyond your wildest dreams. And yeah, it is beyond any of our wildest dreams because it's all a load of crap.

Anyways, in the next portion of the call, a new Letitia character is unlocked in yet another version of events. She tells Al this time that she wants to tell him the real truth now, and that when she and Gannon left the neighborhood, she noticed somebody was following them. She tried to lose them, and she thought she did, but then she saw a very pregnant woman on the side of the road. She decided to pick the woman up and give her a ride because she's just such a helpful person.

Letitia said that the woman turned out not to be actually pregnant, and she pulled out something from under her shirt that was making it appear to have been pregnant, but it actually had money stuffed inside of it. Like, a fake belly, and the fake belly was stuffed with money. I mean, you couldn't rip this out of a Lifetime movie if you wanted to.

The woman then apparently told Letitia that she was going to help her in a money laundering operation at a Mexican restaurant. Then the woman forced Letitia into the Petco for some reason by threatening her with a gun. And that's why she kept checking on Gannon out in the parking lot, because she was afraid something would happen to him out there with this lady. So after this new spiel, Al pretty much told her that she was full of crap and hung up on her.

The next exhibit was the interview between Agent Grusing and Letitia after she was arrested. Letitia was confused about why she was arrested and said that she would have just come in to talk if they had asked her to. He told her that they had problems getting her into interviews in the past, so Agent Grusing said that this was the only way to ensure that she would come in. She told him that she wanted to help find Gannon, but she needed help too, and it would be more help than he could give her.

She said that she and all of her family would need new identities and protection because of the people involved in supposedly posing a risk to everybody and how if she talked about what had happened, it would put everybody's life in jeopardy. Gruzing said that the FBI would be able to provide that, but he said it seemed like she was giving him so many tasks and conditions to make it so that she could have some sort of excuse not to talk.

He asked her questions to try to get a feel for her mental health at the time and her own perspective on her mental health because he knew that she could probably use that as a factor later in trial, which, hi, we know she did.

She never made mention of any mental health problems that she had. She blabbered on and on about how good of a mother and caretaker she was to all of the children and how she had to step up for everything and everyone because of Landon. Gannon's mom apparently didn't take care of him and Al was gone at work all the time. Again, all according to Letitia.

She continued talking about her feeling like she didn't get enough credit for taking care of the kids, and that was just a constant theme in the interview. Agent Grusing said that while asking questions about her childhood and Gannon's childhood, he was assessing her ability to recall information and her answers indicated that she was able to remember and recall specific things very well.

In the next portion of the interview, Agent Grusing said that when he asked Letitia about the fire in the home, she would stray away and talk about irrelevant details when he got to important areas of the timeline. He asked her to describe in detail what she saw during the fire, like the height of the flames, the color, etc., and she constantly changed the severity of Gannon's supposed burns. They talk about how typically candles don't start fires by simply being knocked over, because the melted wax usually puts out the flame before it burns.

before a full-blown fire engulfs. He asked her why she sent a text to her school at 4 a.m. saying that her stepdad had died in an accident, and she said that she actually sent that message a week prior to a different school that she was working at. When he tries to go over the timeline with her to prove that she did send those messages and when, she just kept saying that it was a week before and that she sent them because she didn't want to go back to teach anymore.

Agent Grusing said he wanted to get to a place in the interview where he could talk more directly and ask Letitia about her involvement. He told her if she allowed anyone to come in and hurt Gannon, she was just as guilty.

To get her more comfortable talking, he told her that she was a good person, and sometimes good people do bad things. Letitia says that she can't just come out and tell him what happened without protection, and says that she's been giving hints to what has happened the entire time. She told Agent Grusing that she told the police that Gannon wasn't in Colorado on February 19th, and that he wasn't even in the U.S.,

It's thought that she said this because she figured that the suitcase she threw over the bridge in Florida would have already made its way into the Gulf of Mexico by then.

She said that the bike and Quincy Brown's story was just because she was mad at Al, which, wow, why would you say that story because you're mad at your spouse? You are a psycho. Imagine admitting to lying to someone whose son is missing just because you're mad at them. Agent Grusing told Letitia that there is an 11-year-old boy who is being held against his will, and her refusing to give information about where he is or what happened makes her just as guilty as the people who have him. He brings up search history on her phone that says...

I don't like my stepson and the search of what happens if someone swallows poison, but then tells him that she didn't make those searches, which seriously, this woman's searches are the weirdest things in her phone and she is just beyond. We saw last week that her Google search history is pretty much a play-by-play of her life. It is so bizarre. In this clip, we can hear just how much Letitia contradicts herself. Right.

You're taking all these trips up to Palmer Lake, multiple trips, different cars, renting a car. Okay. How are you not involved in that? First off, I didn't ever get the drive to rent a car anywhere because immediately once we – let me go and correct on this now. Once we got the rental car or whatever –

The National Guard was there. Everybody was in the house. We went and Albert's truck the whole entire day going to come and go and all these places. So I never drove the rental car anywhere. And it's already been corrected from budget about the rental car situation.

I had to get that corrected yesterday. I never even drove it anywhere because I didn't get to. So whatever GPS you get from the rental car, it never was driven by me anywhere but literally up the street, back. I didn't hardly drive it anywhere. There was no rental car driven to any kind of places at all.

The only time I went anywhere in her car might have been maybe 40, 50 miles. I don't know, no more than 100 miles, counting there and back. And I was just driving it through the day because I didn't have, I went back to get my car. First, she says she never drove the rental car at all. But in the same breath, she says she drove it maybe 40 to 100 miles, which, which is it, Leticia? I feel so bad for that agent because you can tell he's growing more and more frustrated with her stories.

When he asks her to just tell him if Gannon is alive, she cuts him off and says, hold on, let me finish, and I'll tell you in a second. Like this is some sort of game. It's a yes or no question. Agent Grusing explains to her that he knows that there are only two people who know the truth, her and Gannon, and she is the only one there who could help him.

I've been working for 14 years with a guy named Scott Kimball. He's our informant that went around killing the girls. You remember me telling you about him before? Oh, yeah. When we first started. Not our best day because I have dads out there who still wonder if their daughters are alive. Scott taught me one thing very well. There's only two people who can tell a story when someone either goes missing. Because one of these girls, Jennifer, is still missing, like I said. We're pretty sure she's dead because it's been 14 years since anybody's seen her.

But Scott told me, John, only two guys, only two people can testify to what happened between me and Jennifer. And that's me, and that's Jennifer. And you're never going to find her. He said that to you? He did. Wow. So I've got to answer to his dad for the rest of my life. And I'll probably be answering to his dad after I retire because dad has my cell phone, dad calls me on her birthday, on the day she went missing, on Father's Day. How was he able to say that to you? Because he's like, there's no other way to say it.

When I take a guess, and that's a guess that he came back home, that's because people that looked on the videos said he probably did. I don't have the information you have, and I hear you do that to Al by saying, oh, so that's what you think. Before court took a break, there was one more clip where she says that she actually has no idea if Gannon is okay or not, but that she would have never hurt Gannon because she loves him. If I don't be that way, then no one's going to help me. I don't know.

I didn't hurt Gannon. I didn't. That's fine, but right now you're the only one who's with me. But I didn't hurt Gannon. But how are you going to get past these charges without help? How does that work? Without help? Without you telling me. Like, again, it'd be like someone, I told you the story about Jennifer. If somebody knew where Jennifer was and they're not telling me or Bob Markham, but they're... I didn't say I knew where Gannon was. You said you know he's okay. No, I said as a parent, I'm never going to sit here and say, look at you and say...

I'm sure that that comment really stung for Al and Gannon's family to hear. If she actually loved him, no one would be in this situation in the first place, and Gannon would still be alive.

There is more to this already three-hour-long interview that we will hear more of next week, and I'm really interested to see how Letitia reacts when she finds out that Gannon has been found and all of her lies are finally unraveling right in front of her.

So that was the end of week three. There was so much important testimony, even though it was crammed between hours and hours of listening to Letitia rant on the phone and in her interviews, which I don't know about you guys, but I could go my entire life without listening to another recording of Letitia's lies after this is over. Just when it seems like we know everything there is to know, the more weird and tragic this story becomes.

Next week is rumored to possibly have testimony from some mental health professionals, who will be able to shed a light on Letitia's mental state and possibly even some testimony about Letitia and Al's personal life in regards to their relationship. Like I said before, many of the Facebook groups contain a lot of rumors, but there is talk about Al's infidelity and how that could have potentially sent Letitia over the edge.

Clearly, we can't take anything she says at this point seriously, but it could still be interesting to see how she's going to try and twist everything and what her defense has up their sleeves. They really haven't had too much to say these last three weeks, so I'm sure that they're going to push a sob story as much as possible towards the end of the trial.

People who have allegedly spoken with Letitia while she's been arrested say that she supposedly is under the delusion that Al still loves her, even though it's been discovered that Al is remarried and even has a baby with his new wife.

So if she really thinks that after killing his son, him getting remarried, and starting a new life at all indicates he still loves her, then she's more delusional than I thought. Which, let me know what you guys think. Let me know what you guys thought about the trial this week and what you think might happen next week. Hopefully someone's been counting because I think we're up to like five versions of events from Letitia at this point. I can't even keep track.

And personally, next week, I'm hoping for less of Letitia's ramblings and more actual evidence of the truth so that we get closer to justice for Gannon.

And then as always, the video version of this will be available on Saturday morning on my YouTube channel so that you can see the actual courtroom footage, some of the audio, the video that was played, photos, things of that nature. So if you want more visuals to go along with it, make sure you pop over to YouTube and you can rewatch it over there. All right, guys, thanks so much for tuning into another special bonus episode of Serialistly as we continue to cover the Letitia Stouck trial.

As always, I will keep you updated with this, so make sure to check back again next Thursday for another bonus episode as we continue coverage on this trial. Please don't forget, if you enjoyed this episode, to give it a rating, a review. Make sure you're following along on the podcast, if you're not already, so that you get notified of other bonus episodes that we might drop outside of the normal Monday release schedule.

But aside from that, I will see you on Monday with a brand new episode of Serialistly. And guys, you are not going to want to miss this one because I have a very, very special guest joining me and it is going to be great. All right, guys, thanks so much. I will see you on Monday. It is your true crime BFF signing off. An official message from Medicare.

6: Letecia Stauch Week 3 Trial Recap: Daughter Testifies & Caught in Even More Lies | Gannon Stauch Case

Serialously with Annie Elise

Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

PodQuest PodQuest Podcast Discovery Engine

6: Letecia Stauch Week 3 Trial Recap: Daughter Testifies & Caught in Even More Lies | Gannon Stauch Case 01:48:49 Share

Serialously with Annie Elise

Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

PodQuest PodQuest Podcast Discovery Engine

6: Letecia Stauch Week 3 Trial Recap: Daughter Testifies & Caught in Even More Lies | Gannon Stauch Case