Stauch

pre-trial review (01/25-01/31/2020)

The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office has presented a theory that Letecia Stauch murdered her stepson in the basement of the family's El Paso County home between approximately 2:15pm and 3:15pm on Monday, January 27, 2020.

To be clear, Letecia Stauch is the defendant. Albert Stauch was her husband. Harley Hunt was the defendant’s 17-year old daughter. Gannon Stauch (homicide victim) was Albert’s 11-year old son and Laina Stauch was Albert's 8-year old daughter.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 2020

Albert goes to Denver and spends the night.
Letecia searches the internet for things like “find me a rich guy who.wants me to take care of his kids” and "I wonder if my husbands ex wife is sending me a valentines card since I.raise.her.kids". She was also looking for work in Florida or California as a flight attendant, and she was calculating the cost of moving away from Colorado. Stauch was curious about renting a two bedroom apartment.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2020

Albert flies commercially from Colorado to Oklahoma with a layover in Texas.
Letecia, Laina, and Gannon go on a hike at Garden of the Gods and then to Burger King.
Harley Hunt was at work Sunday evening but claims that she did see Gannon alive and allegedly well when she arrived home from work. Massage Envy closes at 10pm.
Gannon allegedly sets a carpet on fire with a candle.
Letecia makes an “accidental” video somewhere around 11pm while berating her stepson, making him "pinky promise'' that he had not done "it" on purpose.

MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2020

4:37am - Letecia texts her employer falsely stating that her stepfather died tragically over the weekend and that she would therefore not be coming to work.
Morning - Letecia texts Albert stating Gannon had been awake most of the night with stomach problems.
Morning - Letecia excuses Gannon's absence from school.
8:13am - Letecia snaps a photo of Gannon in his bed.
9:56am - Letecia's phone is locked, but not turned off.
10:16am - Letecia and Gannon leave the home in Albert's red Nissan Frontier truck.
10:37am - A text message is sent from Gannon's phone to Harley's phone that reads, "Tecia left phone at home if you need her text me".
11:22am - Letecia is seen making a purchase at a Petco on the north end of Colorado Springs (22 miles from home). Gannon is not visible on camera.
12:06pm - A text message is sent from Albert's phone to Gannon's phone that reads, "Hey buddy".
1:21pm - A text message is sent from Gannon's phone to Albert's phone that reads, "Can I play Zelda at least". Albert responds, "Not today".
1:22pm - Letecia is once again seen making a purchase at the same Petco location. Gannon is not visible on the footage.
1:43pm - A search is made using Gannon's phone, "Can my parent find my cell phone.if its off".
2:19pm - Letecia arrives home.
2:45pm - Letecia's phone is unlocked.
3:11pm - Laina returns home from school and is sent outside.
3:55pm - A text message is sent from Albert's phone to Gannon's phone that reads, "Hey buddy". This message is not opened until 7:40pm. No reply.
4:42pm - Harley arrives at the residence and picks Laina up.
4:52pm - Letecia sends Harley a text message requesting carpet powder, trash bags, and baking soda.
5:14pm - Harley purchases these and other seemingly unrelated items at a local store. Harley also purchases vinegar.
6:55pm - Letecia dials 9-1-1 and reports Gannon as a potential runaway, saying he was expected home by 6pm. He left at 3:15pm and did not come home. Stauch was then referred to the El Paso County non-emergency number.
7:32pm - Gannon is entered into state and national databases as a runaway.
10:09pm - Officers respond to 6627 Mandan Drive in order to investigate and perform a limited search with Letecia's permission.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2020

8:30am - Letecia rents a Kia Rio and picks it up at the Colorado Springs airport. She leaves the black Volkswagen Tiguan in the parking lot of the airport.
Letecia gives Harley the directive “pull your car in the garage” via text message.
8:50am - Albert's plane arrives and Letecia picks him up from the Colorado Springs Airport in the rental car. She does not disclose the exact location of the Tiguan, telling him instead that it was parked near a local school.
4:04pm - Authorities ask for Gannon's toothbrush in order to get a sample of his DNA.
4:19pm - Letecia uses her phone to search the internet, "they are asking for our sons toothbrush but said nothing is wrong".
4:31pm - Letecia has a text conversation with Albert. She thinks detectives are "hiding something" because they asked for Gannon's toothbrush.
7:02pm - She retrieves the Tiguan from the airport.
8:08pm - The Tiguan sits idle at a nearby supermarket for about ten minutes.
9:15pm - Letecia arrives at Hwy 105/S. Perry Park Road in Palmer Lake. Her iPhone was disconnected from the cellular network. She spent about fifteen minutes in the area.
10:26pm - Harley leaves the Stauch residence and uses her Volkswagen Jetta to meet Letecia in the area of Powers and Carefree (parking lot of Harley's work).
10:45pm - Letecia makes a statement to detective Bethel via text message that reads, "What do you want from me? Because I have nothing. One of your very own leaked to me what you guys were doing. I did nothing and/or am being set up. I'm not really even sure other that being told that by another blue with El Paso. I was told I couldn't go home to sleep and on top of that men were sent to a home with a minor female and she was forced to stay there not even to leave for food. Every conversation that is said even at this moment I can hear inside. What do you want from me?" Detective Bethel responds with, "Come in to talk to me. I would just like information to find Gannon."

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2020

9:00am - Letecia returns the rental car to the airport and is picked up by her daughter in the white Volkswagen Jetta.
11:30am - Letecia stops on her way to the police station in order to wash the Tiguan. She was already running an hour and a half late for the appointment.
12:00pm - Letecia arrives two hours late for a voluntary meeting with detectives and brings handwritten notes. She admits that Gannon did not run away. She then falsely claims to have been held at gunpoint and sexually assaulted by a dark stranger named "Eguardo" in the basement of the home. She says that he was a man that she had hired to fix the burnt carpet. Letecia tells investigators that she provided her attacker with a suitcase and a cardboard box before he kidnapped Gannon. Letecia admits to cleaning up the alleged crime scene. She refuses to participate in a SANE Exam. Authorities seize her cell phone and the Tiguan. They detain her while they apply for a warrant to obtain DNA and she begins stuffing used tissues in her pants and claims to be having a panic attack with chest pains and shortness of breath. Paramedics transport her to a local hospital. Letecia once again declines to participate in an evidence collection exam and signs herself out of the hospital’s care after making a “miraculous recovery”. She makes a phone call from the waiting room. Letecia is picked up by an unknown person and is reunited with her daughter a few blocks away.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020

1:45pm - Letecia and Harley are detained at a Marshall's department store in order to search and/or seize Harley's white Volkswagen Jetta.
Letecia's aunt Brenda secures a Nissan Altima by rental contract, and law enforcement applies for a warrant to track its location via external GPS device.
Gannon's case is upgraded from a runaway child to missing endangered.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

Letecia gives Spencer Wilson of KKTV an impromptu television interview outside the family's Lorson Ranch home; after loading a moving van full of items, and before the property was sealed off as a crime scene.
Letecia then utilizes the rented Altima in order to return to the Palmer Lake area one final time before skipping town.

Friday, January 31, 2020

The Television Interview

Letecia Stauch seemed to feign both outrage and innocence while speaking about her stepson in the past tense. The tell was most likely unintentional.

1. Notice that Letecia gets Spencer Wilson of KKTV to move forward to his next question by claiming that she's not allowed to talk about the case WHEN WHAT SHE REALLY MEANS IS "I can't answer that question, about the last time Gannon was seen, because I already told detectives two days ago that he didn't actually run away... instead, I was sexually assaulted and he was kidnapped."

2. When she says, "I'm not missing" WHAT SHE REALLY MEANS IS "I just loaded up a moving van and I'm about to skip town, after I stop in Palmer Lake one more time."

3. And when she says, "I am being cooperative" WHAT SHE REALLY MEANS IS "I narrowly escaped a police interview by faking a panic attack and then fled from police at the hospital before they could get a DNA sample."

KKTV: You are?

LETECIA: I am Tecia Stauch, which is Gannon’s stepmother.

KKTV: You’ve been a part of the investigation since the very first time. You were the last person to see him. Is that right?

LETECIA: Correct.

KKTV: What did you see when you last saw him?

LETECIA: Well, I’m not allowed to talk about anything with the case. I would more so be willing to talk about how the community needs to have faith and continue to work together and not make these false accusations like the things that have been said that I’ve disappeared from the community, that I haven’t been there to help, but there’s lots of reasons behind that.

KKTV: Reasons like death threats, right?

LETECIA: Right. Death threats are one of them. My family’s getting lots of death threats. We’ve counted over twenty some death threats already. Two, my husband’s ex wife is living in our home. And of course I’m not coming home to do these things and to help with the family when I was kinda, like, told I couldn’t. And then many other things that happened with the El Paso County Police Department. You know, and in doing the investigation I was told that I wasn’t complying. Can I elaborate on that?

KKTV: Please do.

LETECIA: Yes, so, I asked for an attorney during the interview and I was denied that by them. I was held, because they were blocking the door, and I was told I couldn’t leave and that if I would have touched them they would have probably, you know, said I still wasn’t complying or said I was, you know, trying to run away or something. But during the interview, I asked several times, could I stop the interview, could I get an attorney. Could I stop the interview, could I get an attorney. I was denied. I was told I couldn’t get nothing to drink, I couldn’t go to the bathroom. I mean, it was continuously that my constitutional rights were violated.

KKTV: And that’s why you say that they said then, you weren’t cooperating with the investigation?

LETECIA: That’s why they said that I wasn’t cooperating at that time, correct.

KKTV: And why did you ask for an attorney at the time?

LETECIA: Well, I asked for an attorney at that time, because there was one individual… there was two really good detectives, and so I’m not, you know, gonna talk bad about detectives, but the tactics they started to get when I would answer questions. They try to… you know, they’re detectives, they’re supposed to twist, the one main goal is to find Gannon. But during that time, some of those things made me feel uncomfortable, the way they were saying things, so I immediately stopped and felt like an attorney would help me with some of the vocabulary and things like that, that I needed help with and understanding some of the things that they were asking.

KKTV: I’m gonna shift gears to what has become a huge online presence of people, obviously trying to do the right thing, help find Gannon, but at the same time, sometimes it just feels like rumor mongering. Have you seen any of those comments yourself?

LETECIA: We have, and see, that’s one of the main things we haven’t been around in the public eye, because I didn’t want to expose my family to it if all these things were going on. You know, there was comments about Gannon getting pushed off the hike, and there was comments about this, and that’s just not true. I took care of Gannon for the last two years in our home, because his mother didn’t wanna do it. And I would never, never ever hurt this child. And I know there’s some questions out there about ‘okay, so tell me what happened’. That’s up to the investigations when they end up letting you guys know, but I’ve cooperated with them. Even to the point that we were held with a gun. And my daughter, a 17-year old who serves our country in the United States Air Force, who has never committed a crime or done anything wrong in her life, was put in handcuffs over the keys that was in her purse so they could take her car.

KKTV: And they weren’t in there?

LETECIA: They weren’t even in her car, I mean her purse. They were in my pocket.

KKTV: And you originally didn’t even know it was law enforcement?

LETECIA: I didn’t know it was a law enforcement officer, because when he came out, I guess he was putting his jacket on and it wasn’t necessarily his fault, he was adjusting and happened to catch me. But I saw the gun and I panicked originally, and kinda thought ‘oh gosh, like, who is this guy?’ and then once I realized it was the sheriff’s office, I was totally okay, but they still had a gun and told me they were gonna shoot me. But I was really concerned about my daughter asking why she was being detained in handcuffs and things like that when that shouldn’t even happen for a child. That shouldn’t happen for someone who was standing inside of a store shopping because we couldn’t have any clothes because all of our clothes were here. If we came here and got clothes, you know, we would be harassed. So she went to purchase some underwear and things like that and was put in the handcuffs in the store, you know, and then brought out with men with guns and there was… that’s just not okay. You know, they could have approached me and said ‘Hi, I’m with El Paso County, can I please get this’ instead of the way that it happened.

At this point, the reporter pauses to check his equipment before asking Letecia about the way people are reacting online to rumors about her.

LETECIA: Oh, oh yes, wow. The rumors have gotten so bad. I pretty much have been told at least ten different ways that these people have these conspiracy theories. I guess they watch a lot of law shows and maybe they have all these theories on how Gannon is dead. And that’s what they’re saying. So I’m like ‘why are you saying that Gannon is dead?’ He is not dead. We are gonna find Gannon. And that’s the main goal that we all have, my family has, just because you haven’t seen us, we have that same goal. We have been out searching. My aunt has been out searching. My family has been out searching. We all have been doing that together so that we can protect each other.

KKTV: How does it feel when not only you have a lost child who you are in care of, but then people blaming you for that child not being here?

LETECIA: You know, I’m just ready for Gannon to come home. Most importantly for him to see his family, but second, I am going to be so ecstatic when I’m able to say to people that I hope they have a really sincere apology for all these theories that have came out online. For all the things they said that I have done or people have done. And I just want everyone to know that we’re gonna find Gannon, and I love him so much, I’ve helped taken care of him for so long.

KKTV: Can you talk to me a little bit about him? I don’t know him.

LETECIA: Gannon is so kind, and he loves to play video games. That’s one of his favorite things. He loves Sonic and Mario. And you know, he’s always helpful, he was always so helpful with the dogs, around the house, we have two cute little dogs, and he was always like a person I could say ‘Gannon can you go do this?’ and he would do it right away. You know, sometimes with kids we have to remind them and things like that, and that’s okay, but he was so sweet and able to help anyone, he could notice when you’re sick and say ‘are you okay?’ and such a kind heart.

KKTV: 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.

LETECIA: You know what? Could we bring my daughter over 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.

Harley Hunt, Letecia Stauch’s teenage daughter, came on camera to confirm that Letecia, Gannon and Laina (Gannon’s little sister) went hiking on the afternoon of Sunday, January 26th while Harley was at work, and that she had seen Gannon alive that night, after she returned home from work.

Letecia had taken the two younger children hiking at Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs, and then to a Burger King, before heading home on the evening of Sunday, January 26, 2020.

KKTV: Do you feel like I asked you what I need to? Do you feel like this is gonna help kinda turn the tide of what feels like a witch hunt in my opinion?

LETECIA: I think that a lot of people can see that I’m not missing and see that I am being cooperative. And, 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 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.

KKTV: Do you feel like these are just internet detectives who think they know what they’re doing?

LETECIA: It definitely is. And you know, here’s the thing that kinda saddens me, it’s like, if you’re gonna talk about someone like that and have a witch hunt out for them, why would you even care, like, 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 Gannon’s gonna come home.

KKTV: Any message for Gannon?

LETECIA: 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 up all those things, especially from my husband.

“We just wanted to add a message to Gannon from my family. It’s that we love you, we miss you, and we know that you’ll come home soon. And Gannon, I can’t wait until you can come home and let everyone know that you’re okay. We love you.”

Spencer Wilson of KKTV interviews Letecia Stauch. She was the last person to see Gannon.

February 2020

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2020

Letecia Stauch secures a Budget van and begins travel from Colorado Springs to South Carolina with her daughter. She purchased a new cell phone in Trinidad for the trip.

SIDEBAR #1: We're a little confused here, because Spencer Wilson said there was a moving van with Letecia's people - aunt, daughter, mom, unknown young man - in the street while he conducted the infamous interview with Letecia's back turned toward the camera. Were there two moving vans?

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Lorson Ranch neighbor, Roderrick Drayton, two doors down from the Stauch home, comes forward with camera footage from his home surveillance system.
According to Fox21 News, "By February 3, 2020, over 1,860 hours of investigative work had been done, and 2,400 staff hours were put into search efforts."

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2020

Detectives believe that Gannon's body was dumped under the Escambia River Bridge very early in the morning. Letecia and Harley checked themselves into a Florida hotel that was located approximately three miles away from the bridge where Gannon's body would eventually be found. The pair checked back out of the hotel after only a few hours. They also drove to Orlando before making it to their final destination in South Carolina.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020

Letecia continues her social media meltdown, mostly on facebook and the nextdoor app.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Letecia Stauch releases an exclusive written public statement through mainstream media outlet Fox31 about Gannon's disappearance.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Letecia explains to Albert during a wiretapped phone call that Gannon's skin bubbled due to burns from the candle and he wiped some of the blood from those injuries on his wall.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2020

Letecia provides her husband with more false versions of his son's disappearance wherein she implicates a known sex offender (Quincy Brown) and his alleged accomplice (Terence) during a wiretapped phone conversation. She also changes the location and jurisdiction of Gannon’s reported abduction to Douglas County and references a bicycle accident that allegedly caused an injury to Gannon's head.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2020

Letecia admits to Albert in another phone call that she was lying the day before and explains the blood found in the corner of Gannon's bedroom will likely be a mixture of hers and Gannon's because the alleged attacker penetrated them both anally with an object. She also states she was tied up at some point, experienced a few trauma blackouts, and that her attacker was still present in the home but was hiding from police during the first visit from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities find particleboard with evidence of Gannon's blood just north of the county line between El Paso and Douglas Counties off Hwy 105 near Palmer Lake.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Letecia has a phone call between herself and an unknown informant wherein Stauch absolutely trashes her stepchildren's mother. The call was recorded and the audio was later released by a YouTube channel called "Dad With A Phone" or DWAP.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Letecia tells Crime Online that she wants to meet crime reporter Leigh Egan in person at a Starbuck's in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in order to provide her with certified results of an independent polygraph examination.

The defendant, prior to arrest, ordered a Standard Fake Polygraph Test Certificate and submitted a list of questions and answers regarding Gannon's murder. She wanted to present the fake certificate as proof that she had taken and passed an independent polygraph exam.

The company refused to provide her with the certificate and chose to keep the money. They gave investigators any and all information they had available:

Do you intend to answer these questions regarding your stepson truthfully? YES.

Is your birthday August 4, 1983? YES.

Did you participate in any way in causing harm to your stepson? NO.

Did your stepson return with you to your home? YES.

Did you participate in any way in causing the death of your stepson? NO.

What else do we know?

We know there was blood evidence linked to Gannon that was found on a piece of particleboard in Douglas County. We know there was also blood evidence linked to Gannon found on Letecia’s shoe during one of the searches of the Stauch home. And we know there was blood evidence linked to Gannon on the bumper of Letecia’s main vehicle and the garage floor. We know there was a significant amount of blood evidence found in the basement as well.

We know that Letecia Stauch spent 10.7 hours on facebook and messenger between the day her husband left town (Saturday, January 25) and the day police confiscated her cell phone and vehicle (Wednesday, January 29). We know that she’s been caught weaving a large web of lies to friends, family, law enforcement professionals, crime reporters, and total strangers.

Her ridiculous stories and excuses have changed dramatically over time, all leading toward her desired status as a victim in the case rather than the lone perpetrator.

We know that Letecia went to Palmer Lake in the Tiguan on the evening of Tuesday, January 28, 2020 and then she traveled to Palmer Lake again in the Nissan Altima during the late afternoon of Friday, January 31. We also know that she claims the particleboard must have flown out of the back of Albert’s truck in the same area.

We know investigators believe that Letecia most likely killed Gannon in the basement of their home and then stored his body in the trunk of the Tiguan overnight. They believe the Tiguan was moved the following morning and stored at the Colorado Springs Airport until she drove it to Palmer Lake that night in order to dispose of Gannon’s body. But we also know law enforcement stated that his remains had most likely been scattered by weather and/or wildlife.

February 27, 2020 - October 31, 2020

Letecia Stauch's first interview with Crime Online was published on February 27th.

On Friday, February 28, an affidavit of probable cause was submitted to the court. It listed four major violations: murder in the first degree - child under twelve - position of trust, child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a deceased human body, and tampering with physical evidence. An arrest warrant was issued, and those documents were sealed.

Letecia Stauch's second interview with Crime Online was published on February 29th.

Letecia was arrested on Monday, March 2 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She was held without bond and extradited to Colorado Springs. They were delayed en route when the prisoner “slipped her cuffs” and physically attacked a deputy outside Abilene, Kansas in Dickinson County.

The group arrived at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on Thursday, March 5, 2020 and Albert Stauch filed for divorce the same day. No additional charges were filed in Kansas.

The initial advisory hearing was televised on March 11. Spencer Wilson of KKTV was in the courtroom although Letecia most likely did not recognize him. Gannon's divorced parents were seated next to each other, directly behind the prosecutor's table.

The decomposing remains of Gannon Stauch were subsequently discovered more than 1300 miles away from home on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Gannon's lifeless body was stuffed inside a suitcase and then discarded in Florida, just off Highway 90 near the Escambia River Bridge.

Charges were upgraded after it was revealed to investigators that Gannon had been shot, stabbed, and beaten before he was stuffed inside the suitcase. He had multiple defensive wounds. There were three bullets found in the suitcase - one in his skull and two in a pillow. The .9mm that was used in this crime was found in the master bedroom, sitting out in the open, on top of a dresser. Evidence of Letecia's DNA (as well as Albert's and an unknown male's) was found on the weapon.

Authorities held a press conference on Friday, March 20. Michael Allen, lead prosecutor, offered a prepared statement and answered very few direct questions.

“Today I’ve filed new formal charges in the case against Letecia Stauch. Those charges are murder in the first degree - after deliberation, a class one felony that carries a potential sentence of life in prison without parole. In addition to that, I’ve filed eight counts of ‘crime of violence’ for the alleged use of a firearm, a blunt instrument, a knife or other sharp object, and for causing the death of Gannon Stauch. These new charges are added to the original charges.” Michael Allen underscored the importance of an active gag order in the case. He then added, “I will not compromise the integrity of this investigation." He also added, “We will not try this case in the media.”

On April 2, the probable cause affidavit was leaked to the media by Sherie Farstveet who would later be accused of abusing professional access to sealed court filings. She has since pleaded guilty to one count of attempted official misconduct in Adams County and is no longer employed by the City of Brighton. She paid $299.50 in court fines and fees.

Shortly after the document was leaked and then released by the court ahead of schedule, Letecia Stauch caught a new case - solicitation to commit escape (May 18, 2020).

Letecia Stauch's first competency examination was ordered on June 5, 2020.

Then, having been held against her will for approximately five months, Letecia sent a four-page letter to the judge. It was dated August 12, 2020. Her original defense team had advised her to not contact the judge directly because any correspondence would inevitably become part of the public record, but she composed and mailed the letter anyhow, without regard for its potentially hazardous consequences.

She’s compared herself to the national flag in its good character and called herself all sorts of interesting things: brave, loyal, innocent, mentally ill with independently documented bi-polar and schizophrenia with a touch of PTSD, OCD, and DID, a victim of coercion, a victim of physical abuse, a victim of mental abuse, a victim of false accusations and of wrongful incarceration, a soldier for Christ, a doctor of education, a good wife and solid mother, a professional poker player, a school teacher, a posh fashionista and budding entrepreneur, a blood-drinking vampire in training named Janelle, and a troubled but sweet young lady named Taylor.

Letecia Stauch has quite obviously come undone, and she’s scattered the strangest bits of fractured data around to a variety of disparate and potentially unreliable sources thinking that some hapless crime reporter might come along and stitch all her broken pieces back together again.

“I’m going to win one heck of a civil lawsuit against CJC for the amendment violations,” said Letecia in one of the many letters that she has written to strangers. Stauch was corresponding with a content creator from YouTube called WTAF (Wicked Truths) when she threatened civil litigation against the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center. She said, “I am a victim of a broken system run by man that ignores the supreme law of the land.”

In a recorded phone call with a different pen-pal, Letecia Stauch explained that she had given her husband a deadline of August 20, 2020 in order to come clean and tell the whole truth. She made it known that she was going to start snitching on him and “Edgar” piece by piece, outlet by outlet, with solid evidence of their complicity, because she was no longer willing to take the fall for them. She claimed that the man she codenamed Edgar should be in jail for manslaughter, kidnapping and tampering, and that her husband should be in jail for manslaughter. Edgar is a local businessman (real estate broker near Palmer Lake) who allegedly plays high stakes poker and/or hires people to deliver suitcases to Florida. Letecia alleged that she and Albert met this man on their anniversary cruise in January of 2020, and she claimed that her husband owed this man a great deal of money. She alleged that Albert's excessive gambling debt is why Gannon was kidnapped and killed. Letecia Stauch has, of course, changed her story several more times since then.

Letecia thinks Edgar has been using his trusted servants inside the jail to make threats of poison in her peanut butter.

In another letter, Stauch claimed to have made some sort of quantum leap from December 2019 to October 2020, saying that she doesn't remember anything that may or may not have happened during that specific period of time - to mean that she was not mentally present for the anniversary cruise, nor the murder, nor the first part of her incarceration - a convenient sort of amnesia.

Letecia Stauch was deemed competent to stand trial on September 8, 2020 and a second examination was ordered on December 22, 2020..

Probable Cause

The probable cause affidavit was leaked to the media by Sherie Farstveet who would later be charged with abusing professional access to sealed court filings. She has since pleaded guilty to one count of attempted official misconduct in Adams County and is no longer employed by the City of Brighton. She paid $299.50 in court fines and fees.

PC Affidavit

2021

JANUARY 2021: Letecia Stauch was once again deemed competent to stand trial (January 19th).

FEBRUARY & MARCH 2021: Letecia Stauch has a closed door conflict hearing with her public defenders and Judge William Bain, 4th Judicial Chief Judge. She does not get new counsel, and the judge sends the case back to the original court for an Arguello advisement because she would rather represent herself than continue to work with public defenders.

She follows up with a letter to each of the judges (March 8th) outlining her conflict with public defenders once she is officially representing herself. The alleged conflicts were supposed to be considered private and protected information, but Letecia wanted the world to know about her struggle so she cleverly snuck her version of the story into the public record by sending the information directly to her original judge.

Stauch's public defenders withdrew themselves and Letecia represented herself for a brief time, then she was reassigned those same public defenders so that she could fire them and replace them with two private attorneys, a private investigator, and the full support of the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel - at state expense, of course, because she's indigent.

APRIL 2021: Letecia Stauch skips the final divorce hearing (04/30/2021). All she wants is a publishing deal and her Poshmark account. Albert Stauch calls his own sort of presser outside the courthouse and uses traditional media to ask the public for financial assistance after his divorce hearing. He says that between the murder case and the divorce proceedings, he's accumulated $75,000 in debt.

SEPTEMBER 2021: Letecia Stauch waives her appearance at the proof evident presumption great and preliminary hearing (PEPG) which was held on the 9th and 10th. This is a bond hearing wherein the prosecution delivers only enough evidence in order to prove that Letecia Stauch is most likely guilty of the offenses with which she is charged. It's a careful step to ensure the defendant is being held constitutionally. She was represented in the courtroom by private attorneys Josh Tolini and Will Cook. After a presentation of the initial evidence against her, she was not offered a bond.

SIDEBAR #2: We were also a little confused after the preliminary hearing, because the witness who talked about Gannon's cause of death (Sgt. Yoder) said his cause of death was a gunshot wound and blunt trauma to the head, but that same witness also said that they couldn't be sure whether those injuries happened before or after Gannon's death.

NOVEMBER 2021: Letecia Stauch pleads not guilty but her attorneys make it known that there is some sort of question regarding her sanity after her stepson was killed. 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen gives a short presser after the hearing, explaining that her sanity is now in question, but only after the fact, so that's not the same as Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. Trial is tentatively set for March 2022 although Mr. Allen knows that some sort of new issue regarding mental health testing is about to come up which will most likely cause further delay.

Letecia Stauch's Forensic Psychiatrist

The defense has retained Dr. Dorothy Lewis to perform the second sanity evaluation and offer expert witness testimony in Colorado's case against Letecia Stauch. The first sanity evaluation, performed by doctors at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP), stated that Ms. Stauch was feigning the symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The controversial nature of this second doctor's forensic work was the subject of Alex Gibney's 2020 documentary film CRAZY, not INSANE.

2022

FEBRUARY 2022 - Attorneys on behalf of Letecia Stauch petition the court to change the plea from Not Guilty to Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) and file a motion requesting a bench trial rather than a jury trial.

July 28, 2022 hearing (Crime Curious @ WebEx)

August 25, 2022 hearing (WebEx was unavailable)

September 15, 2022 hearing (Crime Curious @ the courthouse)

October 13, 2022 hearing (Crime Curious @ the courthouse)

The following post was made after the 9/15/2023 hearing.

Letecia Stauch’s first sanity examination, not to be confused with her previous competency evaluations, was conducted by doctors at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) who are experts in the field of forensic psychology. These mental health professionals will be called to testify when Stauch’s homicide case finally goes to trial. Their official report showed that Stauch is most likely feigning symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

The defense has since requested that a second sanity evaluation be conducted by Dorothy Lewis, a provocative and controversial expert witness who has worked with the likes of Ted Bundy and Arthur Shawcross along with handfuls of other high-profile serial killers, most of whom were facing the death penalty in their cases. Letecia Stauch is not facing capital punishment, as the death penalty was abolished in the state of Colorado shortly after the brutal murder of Gannon Stauch.

Dorothy Lewis is the subject of an award winning 2020 HBO documentary film which was directed by Alex Gibney and called “CRAZY, not INSANE” wherein she describes the three main ingredients in any recipe for murder. They are brain damage and dysfunction, a history of chronic trauma in childhood, and psychotic thinking (with paranoia in particular). She seems to believe that violent offenders can eventually be rehabilitated through complex mental health treatment and has frequently been accused of viewing most murder suspects as victims in their own right.

It is the doctor’s current intention to conduct an MRI and a 72-hour EEG in order to determine and document any potential brain damage and dysfunction. She would also like to perform a full psychological examination and review Letecia Stauch’s first evaluation from the state mental hospital along with the defendant’s entire medical history. However, Stauch’s defense team is having a difficult time scheduling the EEG as this testing is outside the normal scope of a sanity examination, and attorneys for the defense have therefore asked Judge Werner to intervene and order the accommodations.

This will be decided after the next hearing in this case, an evidentiary hearing which is scheduled for October 13, 2022 at 1:30pm. Dorothy Lewis is expected to offer limited testimony at that time via WebEx in order to answer three main questions for the judge before he makes his decision. Those questions are:

What is the exact purpose of the EEG? What might it prove?
Is there another avenue?
How does not having the EEG impact any potential diagnosis?

Once the second sanity examination is complete, which according to the defense is expected to take two weeks from start to finish, the doctor will need another thirty days to prepare her official evaluation report. Then, once the second sanity report is submitted, Judge Werner will immediately set the case for trial and announce the dates.

And in the meantime, Letecia Stauch has filed a federal lawsuit against the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center, its food services contractor (Trinity Food Services), its medical services contractor (Wellpath), Deputy L. Stengle, and Deputy R. Snipe. The lawsuit alleges constitutional rights violations. She claims they have denied a kosher diet and appropriate medical care which has caused harm and placed her in imminent danger. She is acting as her own attorney in the case and is seeking injunction, policy change, and financial restitution.

The following post was made before the 10/13/22 hearing.

WHAT TO EXPECT

First and foremost, we expect that Letecia Stauch will appear in person and on time.

The judge has ordered her to appear and he has authorized deputies to utilize whatever physical force may become reasonably necessary in order to ensure that Stauch appears in person, on time.

Secondly, we can expect to hear limited testimony from the defense team's proposed psychiatrist (Dr. Dorothy Lewis), a representative of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP), and a representative of the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center (CJC).

Judge Werner needs more information before entering his official ruling on an open motion from the defense. They've asked him to order a specific form of testing that is outside the normal scope of examination with regard to sanity evaluations.

CMHIP performed Stauch's first examination and reported that the defendant is most likely feigning symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Dorothy Lewis believes that she might be able to prove otherwise, but only if she is allowed to perform the neurological testing.

***********************

POSTSCRIPT

We did not hear any testimony during the October 13, 2022 hearing, because the defense withdrew their motion prior to the start of the hearing. They've made arrangements to conduct the examination inside the county jail (without the MRI & EEG).

The entire evaluation process will be audio and video recorded. Those recordings can and will be used against the defendant at trial and sentencing.

Letecia Stauch's second sanity evaluation was scheduled to take place between October 31st and November 4th, and Dr. Dorothy Lewis has agreed to submit her official report to the court no later than December 1, 2022.

And then...

Josh Tolini apparently contracted COVID-19 and was ill during the scheduled evaluation, so Dorothy Lewis had to change her travel plans and perform the examination at a later date.

THE THIRD & FINAL DEADLINE FOR DR. LEWIS TO TURN IN HER COMPLETED REPORT TO THE COURT IS THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2023 AT 5PM. During the 3/9/23 pre-trial readiness conference, Judge Werner said, "It is not a suggestion. It is not a guideline. It is not a hope. It is a deadline."

Speedy trial is currently tolled. The toll will be lifted once the second sanity report is filed, and then we're back on the speedy trial clock.

A jury trial, not a bench trial as previously requested by the defense, is scheduled to begin with jury selection on March 20, 2023 in Colorado Springs.

The trial will be available on WebEx and the judge granted permission to record and/or restream the WebEx. Jury selection will be audio only, and bench conferences are off limits.

*****

Did you know the 2006 version of Letecia wanted to teach law? Here's proof.

"I plan to teach law in the future and also volunteer to help local kids with their education and family problems."

Voltaire himself could not have written such terrible irony into existence.

livestream links for trial

True Crime with JuleZ Wolf

JuleZ Wolf has followed this case from the beginning and has a vested interest in its completion. She has traveled to every location that was mentioned in the affidavit and in the courtroom. She traded letters with Letecia during the first year of her incarceration and is finally starting to share some of that information with the public, now that she is sure it won't interfere with the investigation.

Law & Crime

True Crime with JuleZ Wolf

the above screenshot came from

"Trial by Virtual Jury"

Sleuth Mom

True Crime with JuleZ Wolf

Sleuth Mom

Sleuth Mom has been actively involved in the case against Letecia Stauch from the onset, even to the point of contacting Letecia before her arrest under a sock account in order to gather intelligence. Sleuth Mom is close with the biological mother of Gannon Stauch, Landen Hiott, and has therefore covered this case quite extensively. Sleuth Mom is a member of The Curious Trapdoor: Gannon Stauch facebook group.

current charges

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pre-trial review (01/25-01/31/2020)