Nov. 11, 2025
MURDERED: Jessica Lunsford | Homosassa, Florida 2005 Part 01
On February 24th, 2005, nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford vanished from her bedroom in Homosassa, Florida—taken through an unlocked door while her family slept. The girl who was afraid of the dark, who couldn't sleep without her stuffed purple dolphin, was about to become the center of one of the most heartbreaking cases in American true crime history.
Jessica was a cheerful third-grader who loved singing, helping others, and spending time with her dachshund, Corky. She lived with her father Mark and grandparents Ruth and Archie in a small community where neighbors knew each other. The night she disappeared, she'd just returned from church, been tucked into bed by her grandmother, and fell asleep clutching her favorite toy. By morning, both Jessica and her dolphin were gone.
This case matters because it exposed critical failures in sex offender monitoring and directly resulted in Jessica's Law—legislation that now protects children across the United States with mandatory minimum sentences and lifetime electronic monitoring for predators.
Content Warning: This episode contains detailed discussion of child abduction, sexual assault, and murder. It includes graphic details about the victim's captivity and death. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
In This Episode:
- The Investigation: How law enforcement conducted a massive three-week search involving hundreds of volunteers, bloodhounds, helicopters, and multiple agencies—while Jessica was hidden just 65 yards from her home the entire time.
- The Perpetrator: John Evander Couey, a registered sex offender with a history of violence who was living with his sister next door to Jessica, and how systemic failures allowed him to reoffend.
- The Aftermath: The heartbreaking discovery, Couey's confession, his death before execution, and how Jessica's death led to the creation of Jessica's Law and Jessie's Place Children's Advocacy Center—saving countless children through strengthened protections.
Resources: If you or someone you know needs support, please contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or visit www.missingkids.org. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) provides 24/7 support at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). Jessie's Place in Citrus County continues Jessica's legacy by providing free services to abused and traumatized children—learn more about their vital work and how to support them.
This episode was meticulously researched using court documents, police reports, forensic testimony, and news archives from the investigation and trial. All facts have been verified against primary sources.
Support Obscura: Obscura is an independent production dedicated to uncovering forgotten cases with unflinching detail. Join our Black Label community on Patreon for bonus episodes, extended cuts, ad-free listening, and exclusive research materials at https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast.
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_08]: Listener, I want to give you a special warning for this episode.
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[SPEAKER_08]: It's one of those episodes that doesn't comfortably fit as a blank label, but is far more detailed and graphic than your average obscure.
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[SPEAKER_08]: There are details in this case that left me feeling shaken.
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[SPEAKER_08]: There's no way around it.
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[SPEAKER_08]: If you are particularly sensitive to crimes involving children, yes, I know I just released one last episode, but I'll just tell you, this one's different.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Then you may want to skip this one, or when we get to the details, you know, have your finger close to that fast forward or mute button.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Let's get on with it.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Welcome, listener.
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[SPEAKER_07]: I'm glad you're here.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Take a seat.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Next to the fire.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Obscura, where we shine a light on the dark.
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[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you hear our cries as you try to sleep at night.
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[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you see the tears run down her face when she asked you to the home.
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[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you spend the rest of your life in fear of death.
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[SPEAKER_05]: You will never hurt another child again.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Judge Howard speaking for myself, for my community and the nation, I plead with you to accept the recommendation of the jury for death as presented to you by the jury tend to too, and a vote of 12 for four guilty verdicts, and to remember the words of a wise old black man
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[SPEAKER_05]: in terror abuse.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It's just too heavy in your honor.
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[SPEAKER_05]: It's too heavy for mercy.
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[SPEAKER_08]: February 24, 2005, it was uncharacteristically raining for that time of year for Homo Sassaflora, the week that the bad man stole away a nine-year-old girl, the rain fell hard, with little relief between each storm, as if the heavens themselves cried out an anguish.
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[SPEAKER_08]: for what was yet to come.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Jessica Lunsford may sleep in one John Cooley, snuck into the third greater's home, through an unlocked door.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Listener, there will be no mystery here.
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[SPEAKER_08]: obscure, it's not that type of podcast, and ever will be, I don't work in mysteries.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I work in snapshots of anguish that reverberate through time, despite complaints and
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[SPEAKER_08]: I'll always prefer a different approach.
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[SPEAKER_08]: No, the person I would go on to snatch a nine-year-old child away from her friends and family.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Away from all the small comforts in her life, from her toys to her favorite cartoons, her time spent at church, and hopping around joyfully on the couch.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Away from her future was John Evander Kui, who was born prematurely on August 19th, 1958, in Florida, to a teen mother who delivered him shortly after Kui's father, pushed her from a moving automobile, likely causing brain damage to the unborn child in the process.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He had a deformity of his ears upon birth, and through his young childhood, until sometime around the age of 8 or 9, when his own gene had them fixed for him, he having been ruthlessly teased by other children, in part because of his floppy ears.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Well, no floppy ears as a mother did not know how to take care of him and refuse to learn.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Not cradling his head when holding him, allowing it to loll around.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Laughing upon being corrected by relatives and feeding him sugar water, rather than milk or formula, he and his sister, Dorothy, lived with his uncaring mother and his alcoholic and abusive stepfather, Bobby Lindsay, until Kui reached the age of five or six.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was constantly and quite violently abused by Lindsay.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Relatives observed bruises all over his body as a child.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The abuse included Lindsey, holding Kui's head underwater in a swimming pond at a age seven, saying he, quote, needed to teach him a lesson, tying Kui at age three to the bed for wedding it, and upon finding that Kui's mother had untied him, slamming his head repeatedly between the door and door jam, potentially causing more temporal lobe damage, hanging him from a
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[SPEAKER_08]: throwing him up in the air and allowing him to fall hard to the floor, then kicking him violently under the bed, causing Kui's head to hit the bed frame, and resulting in his mother crawling under the bed to prevent further injury.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Listen to her.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Before we go on, I want to remind you that I cover a killer's backstory, because it's always worth noting these traumatic histories that crop up, and are always worth identifying.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Clearly, they're a major factor in the makeup of most victimizers, but that is not to say that this offers them forgiveness for their acts, at least in this narrator's eyes.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I too, and the victim of severe childhood abuse.
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[SPEAKER_08]: And, from the sounds of it, my experience is comparable to what Mr. Koo he went through.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I've dealt with my own share of PTSD, anxiety, depression, even memory loss.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Guess what?
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[SPEAKER_08]: It didn't give me a license to hurt or kill people.
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[SPEAKER_08]: And when I've made mistakes of the emotional variety growing up, I made sure to apologize for those errors as I matured.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I never took it for granted that I was owed forgiveness.
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[SPEAKER_08]: No, listen, our child abuse doesn't hand wave your actions.
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[SPEAKER_08]: As a society, we draw lines in the sand.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Harmers of children are one of those lines that I think we all can agree.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Then once you cross it, you can never take that step back.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Some actions are so heinous that a person can find themselves damned and ostracized by society for the rest of their living days.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Call me unsympathetic.
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[SPEAKER_08]: But I've always believed that these actions are always owned.
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[SPEAKER_08]: No matter the extent of abuse in your history, our mental illness that you have, the need to harm comes from within, it's a desire that is reflective of something more than nurture.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Now, that A.J.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kooey and his sister were passed off to his Aunt Jean.
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[SPEAKER_08]: At this age, Kooey was still unable to speak plainly.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Others being unable to understand him at all until Aunt Jean worked with him for hours on end to teach him to speak.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He was quite small for his age,
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[SPEAKER_08]: Most other children were mean to him, beating him up and harassing him until his cousins could intervene.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Despite his father's abuse and beatings in harassment from other children, who he was never aggressive or mean, a quiet reserved little boy, he was shy and prone to cowering around others.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui and his sister were both placed in special education classes at school.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The reason for Kui being his mental defects in brain injuries was sisters cause simply being her poor treatment.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui could still not learn well and fell well behind.
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[SPEAKER_08]: On Jeanne, unsuccessfully attempted to get help for Kui.
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[SPEAKER_08]: taking him to HRS, but being turned down into a juvenile judge who also declined to help unless Kui committed a crime or was a danger to himself during this time frame, and later became known that Uncle John and Kui's maternal grandfather would sexually abuse both Kui and his sister at a young age.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui witnessed the assaults on his sister and felt guilty, powerless to stop them.
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[SPEAKER_08]: One time, we're living with Anne Jeane and cousin Suzy.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was found in a fetal position, at his Anne Jeane's bed.
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[SPEAKER_08]: With his Aunt's night gown cut into small pieces, Kui told Anne Jeane that his mind had told him to do it.
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[SPEAKER_08]: This was evidence of auditory hallucinations at a young age.
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[SPEAKER_08]: And on Jeane attempted to teach him to resist those things.
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[SPEAKER_08]: When Kui was ten years old, he climbed on top of his sleeping cousin Susie, and was caught trying to remove her underwear.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Despite the incident, Susie was not afraid of Kui, understanding that his thought patterns were different, and that he would always be a child mentally, but because of the incident, Kui was again moved.
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[SPEAKER_08]: This time, to live with another aunt, Guineau, who placed Kui in a boy's ranch.
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[SPEAKER_08]: It was around this time that John Kui received his first brain scans.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The damage to the right side of his brain strongly affects the regulation of sexual behavior, known for causing a change for preference in sex, E.G.
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[SPEAKER_08]: from adults to children, with, quote, inappropriate object choice,
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[SPEAKER_08]: known as clover-busy syndrome, studies of weight-life pedophilia showing the same type of metabolic asymmetrical abnormalities present in Kui's brain.
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[SPEAKER_08]: His MMPI scores indicated a biological mental illness.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Psychosis, the lusional thinking, problems with his thinking and judgment, it brain malfunctioned causing hallucinations and disturbance of mood caused by biological changes in his brain.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Rather than mere situational problems, it's total IQ score was 78.
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[SPEAKER_08]: This rating classified him as borderline impaired.
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[SPEAKER_08]: which is below the average range of intelligence, but above the threshold for intellectual disability.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Basically, he was sort of a dumb guy with floppy ears.
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[SPEAKER_08]: By who he's early 20s, he experienced an increase in auditory hallucinations and was prone to mumbling to himself in public.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He experienced severe PTSD and used drugs in alcohol to self-medicate and cope.
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[SPEAKER_08]: With his drug use of choice being crack cocaine, Kui suffered from thaw insertion, feeling like others were putting thoughts into his brain.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He dealt with manic episodes depriving him of sleep, which became more increased, more continuous, and enhanced throughout the years.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Kui worked as a truck driver.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He quickly became a repeat offender with arrests for burglary, carrying a weapon without a permit, and in decent exposure, cropping up from time to time.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Part two, the search for Jessica One's Ferd.
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[SPEAKER_05]: I have to yourself in like this app to just do this hard to find the region, to do even except find that one.
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[SPEAKER_05]: We were more than father and daughter, we were best friends.
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[SPEAKER_05]: As a single father, I learned a lot of things about my children that only a single parent could understand.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Me and Jesse used to argue about who loved each other the most.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And one day I told her, I said, you know, I love you this much.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And that means I love you all the way around.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And she looked up at me.
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[SPEAKER_05]: And she said, Daddy, I love you this much, and nothing will come between us.
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[SPEAKER_08]: In February 2005, Ruth and Archie Lundsford lived with her son, Mark, his daughter Jessica, and her pet docks and corkie, on Saltsonata Avenue, in Homosasa, Florida, Jesse occasionally played with corkie in the yard, on February 23rd, Jesse attended school, ran errands with her grandparents, and went to church with Sharon Armstrong.
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[SPEAKER_01]: On February 24th, 2005, the lunchford family changed forever.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 9-year-old Jessica Lunchford was missing, like a page from a drama Grandmother Ruth Lunchford fell helpless.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I used to sit there and look out that window, and I'd take him on dressy.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Walked over there and wooded.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It was more wooded than the dress now, and I'd take him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Walked over there and wooded.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was a time that you'd want to forget.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But Ruth decided it was something they would always have to face.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, this isn't no good.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We got to do something else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Ruth decided that every horrible headline, every word describing this family's heartache, would go into a scrapbook.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's not an easy thing to do because, um, this is my granddaughter and we're very, very close.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Armstrong brought Jesse to church every Wednesday night at the Faith Baptist Church, and also tutored her in her studies.
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[SPEAKER_08]: After Armstrong brought Jesse home in 9 p.m., Jesse prepared for bed.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth tucked Jesse into bed.
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[SPEAKER_08]: And she had always done about 10 p.m., Jesse slept with her favorite stuffed animal.
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[SPEAKER_08]: A purple dolphin.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The next morning, Mark Lundsford, Wolk Ruth and said Jesse was not in her bed.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth called 911.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth noticed the screener and door had been cut.
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[SPEAKER_08]: She wondered to herself, if the door had been unlocked that night.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Although Jesse and her stuffed purple dolphin were missing, nothing else had been disturbed.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Mark Lunsford was raising Jessica while living with his parents.
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[SPEAKER_08]: On February 23rd, Lunsford went home after working a 15-hour shift.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Jesse was already home from church.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Mark watched television as Jesse jumped around on the couch excitedly.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He left to spend the night at his girlfriend's house.
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[SPEAKER_08]: After arriving home at 5.45 a.m., he heard the sound of Jesse's alarm.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He got ready for work, but strangely, he still heard the alarm going off.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He opened Jesse's bedroom door, and saw that Jesse and her dolphin toy were missing.
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[SPEAKER_08]: She had never been gone at that hour of the morning.
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[SPEAKER_06]: She's gone, baby.
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[SPEAKER_06]: We don't know where she's at.
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[SPEAKER_06]: That's where I'm going to blow up on.
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[SPEAKER_06]: I'm about to do the side note because of me.
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[SPEAKER_06]: I know that's what they've come to me and said.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And I told the thing, no way.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And they keep saying, and saying, and I keep telling them, my dad wouldn't do anything.
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[SPEAKER_04]: When he tried to get up and leave, they man handled him.
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[SPEAKER_04]: They grabbed him, put him up against the wall, put his arms behind his back.
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[SPEAKER_04]: He's true, he told me that.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_04]: But wait a minute, we were arrested.
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[SPEAKER_04]: And why were we the bad guys?
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[SPEAKER_04]: Was I a bad guy because I had long hair?
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[SPEAKER_04]: And because I saw a smoke pop.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I told people, everybody was in question and I apologize to Ruth and Archie for putting them through the agony we put them through, but we really weren't representing them.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We weren't representing Mark, we were trying to find a little girl.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Deputy Juan Santiago, Citrus County Sheriff's Office, responded to one's first home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Santiago searched the inside and outside area, a helicopter, canine unit, and numerous agencies assisting the search for Jesse.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Volunteers in several law enforcement agencies searched in a nearby forest, in the surrounding area around her home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: On February 24th, Detective Daniel Holder processed the once-for-home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: He noticed a six-inch by six-inch L-shaped cut in the screen door.
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[SPEAKER_08]: By the door handle, the home was vacuumed and laying prints were taken.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The area around the residents was searched.
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[SPEAKER_08]: including three outbuilding, and the underside of the mobile home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Detectives looked for any signs of hiding places or disturbed dirt.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The search had taken a somber turn by that Tuesday.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The search teams moved through the torrential rain, waiting through knee deep water and some occasions.
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[SPEAKER_08]: After days of scouring the country's side with hundreds of volunteers, law enforcement scaled back their efforts, now concentrating closely on the area surrounding her family's home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Bloodhounds and search teams moved carefully through the nearby woods.
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[SPEAKER_08]: fields and marshes, stretching less than a mile from Jessica's home.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Sheriff spokeswoman Gail Tierney explained that, despite the intensity of the hunt, investigators still had no real leads as the local search narrowed, help arrive from the National Center for Missing and Expoided Children.
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[SPEAKER_08]: 20 specialists join the investigation, bringing expertise in cases just like this one.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Mark once were to spoke to the press, fighting back tears he pleaded for his daughter's safe return, and sent a message directly to whoever might have taken her.
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[SPEAKER_08]: quote, just drop her off, now come get her.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I know whoever has got Jesse.
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[SPEAKER_08]: They have to have a heart.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Despite exhaustion and worry, he found comfort in the kindness of strangers, quote, it's been overwhelming.
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[SPEAKER_08]: The people that have shown up and makes me feel good to know Everyone's trying to help us out.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Authorities stressed that there was still no evidence Jessica had been abducted.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Though her father was certain she hadn't left willingly.
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[SPEAKER_08]: quote, she just didn't go with strangers.
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[SPEAKER_08]: She's not like that.
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[SPEAKER_08]: Sheriff Jeff Dawsey confirmed that nothing suspicious had turned up on the family's computer, both Mark Lundsford and his father, had passed voice stress and polygraph tests administered by the FBI.
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[SPEAKER_08]: quote, none of the answers questions set any alarms off, though the massive search had quieted, hope had not.
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[SPEAKER_08]: In the fields
18:54.757 --> 19:02.857
[SPEAKER_08]: The team's continued to move slowly, calling her name, still believing that somewhere, Jessica might hear them.
19:03.418 --> 19:10.555
[SPEAKER_08]: Jessica once works farther, continued to plea with officers, that his daughter wasn't simply a runaway.
19:10.535 --> 19:17.846
[SPEAKER_08]: He pointed out that she was nine years old, was afraid of the dark, wouldn't go to sleep without her stuff to dolphin.
19:18.387 --> 19:21.071
[SPEAKER_08]: That sometimes she slept with the lights on.
19:21.672 --> 19:26.940
[SPEAKER_08]: The experts that were brought in felt that law enforcement should focus on locals.
19:26.920 --> 19:31.686
[SPEAKER_08]: That's when John Kooey ended up on their radar as a person of interest.
19:32.247 --> 19:33.688
[SPEAKER_08]: He didn't show up right away.
19:33.708 --> 19:37.193
[SPEAKER_08]: He had failed to register as a sex offender in the area.
19:37.753 --> 19:46.564
[SPEAKER_08]: Around this time, Ronda Heminger Evan of the Citrus County Sheriff's Department was asked if she felt that Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped.
19:47.005 --> 19:51.831
[SPEAKER_08]: She was quoted saying,
19:51.811 --> 19:55.115
[SPEAKER_08]: That is probably what is most frustrating about this case right now.
19:55.716 --> 20:08.290
[SPEAKER_08]: When we can get going in a good direction, when we know if she is left home on her own or if we know she was taken from the home, that is going to be a break for us to help a single down our leads.
20:08.931 --> 20:21.666
[SPEAKER_08]: Dorothy Dixon, who he sister, lived with Kui or boyfriend, Matt Ditchridge, her daughter
20:21.646 --> 20:32.740
[SPEAKER_08]: On snowboard court, in Homosasa, 65 yards from Jessica's home, on February 23rd, Dixon, Dittrick and Kui went to the yard.
20:33.481 --> 20:37.566
[SPEAKER_08]: An area where Dittrick and friend Bobby Thompson worked on Diesel Ricks.
20:38.147 --> 20:40.370
[SPEAKER_08]: The group stayed at the yard until dark.
20:40.870 --> 20:43.073
[SPEAKER_08]: They drank and smoked crack cocaine.
20:43.834 --> 20:49.341
[SPEAKER_08]: After returning home, Dixon, Dittrick and Kui left at 10 p.m.
20:49.321 --> 20:53.453
[SPEAKER_08]: They returned to Thompson's and checked on Marty, Thompson's girlfriend.
20:53.954 --> 20:56.461
[SPEAKER_08]: There was experiencing problems with her pregnancy.
20:57.103 --> 21:01.054
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon checked on her while Ditchrick and Kui charge your car battery.
21:01.936 --> 21:05.085
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon's car broke down on the drive home.
21:05.065 --> 21:16.786
[SPEAKER_08]: Marty's son, Matt, brought them home at 1 a.m. Ditcher, Condixon, went into their room, mocked the door, and turned on the television, which routinely stayed on all night.
21:17.387 --> 21:20.592
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon was not aware of anyone leaving the house during the night.
21:21.173 --> 21:26.162
[SPEAKER_08]: On February 24, Dixon noticed police activities in the neighborhood.
21:26.142 --> 21:30.067
[SPEAKER_08]: Ditcherk ate lunch with his mother, and then retrieved Dixon's car.
21:30.908 --> 21:34.894
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon and Ditcherk went to Thompson's place while Kui stayed behind.
21:35.835 --> 21:37.317
[SPEAKER_08]: They went to Thompson's daily.
21:37.998 --> 21:44.166
[SPEAKER_08]: Occasionally Kui went with them, with the exception of lunchtime, Ditcherk was with Dixon all day.
21:44.847 --> 21:49.433
[SPEAKER_08]: During this time period between February 23 to March 7th,
21:49.413 --> 21:53.540
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon never noticed any unusual activity coming from Kui's room.
21:53.560 --> 21:59.651
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Dixon gave permission to police to search her home, take her car.
22:00.292 --> 22:01.875
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui had left a week earlier.
22:02.456 --> 22:06.122
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon gave Kui $200 to buy a bus ticket.
22:06.102 --> 22:09.810
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui called Dixon and told her he was living in Savannah, Georgia.
22:10.411 --> 22:13.377
[SPEAKER_08]: No one stayed in Kui's bedroom after he left.
22:14.018 --> 22:17.525
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon told officers that Jessica had never been in her home.
22:18.086 --> 22:21.293
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon had noticed a ladder outside of Kui's window.
22:21.273 --> 22:28.269
[SPEAKER_08]: There was no cable television service into the trailer, nor was she aware of Kui installing an antenna to his room.
22:28.871 --> 22:39.636
[SPEAKER_08]: Police then asked Dixon and Gene Secord, if they could speak with Maddie Secord, a deputy actor, if she had seen Jesse, and asked to search the property.
22:39.616 --> 22:42.821
[SPEAKER_08]: She gave consent, and he searched the outside area.
22:43.442 --> 22:47.949
[SPEAKER_08]: Secor'd spent most of her time resting, and she was in the midst of a high risk pregnancy.
22:48.490 --> 22:53.639
[SPEAKER_08]: Maddie secured told officers, she bought Kui a bus ticket in her name on March 4th.
22:54.400 --> 22:57.164
[SPEAKER_08]: The Secor'd's went to Disney World for the next few days.
22:58.126 --> 23:03.835
[SPEAKER_08]: Upon returning, Kui asked her to take him to the bus stop, first trip to Georgia.
23:03.916 --> 23:11.023
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 12, 2005, Kui was located by Savannah Police at the request of Citrus County authorities.
23:11.843 --> 23:18.049
[SPEAKER_08]: In question by Officer Michael Wav, up the department, he was not under arrest at this time.
23:18.710 --> 23:22.894
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui presented a Georgia ID card to the detective Michael Wav.
23:23.515 --> 23:25.556
[SPEAKER_08]: Wav read Kui his Miranda rights.
23:26.217 --> 23:31.442
[SPEAKER_08]: During the interview, Kui told Wav that he arrived in Georgia on March 10.
23:31.422 --> 23:35.509
[SPEAKER_08]: He had previously been living with his sister, men as knees.
23:35.810 --> 23:39.955
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui said he did not know anything about a missing girl in Citrus County.
23:40.716 --> 23:42.057
[SPEAKER_08]: He only saw it on the news.
23:42.758 --> 23:46.483
[SPEAKER_08]: He'd been in the once-words neighborhood, only when he was picking up trailer parts.
23:47.243 --> 23:49.126
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was interviewed a second time.
23:49.806 --> 23:54.492
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui told Detective Love, he had spoken to his sister since his arrival in Georgia.
23:55.153 --> 23:59.037
[SPEAKER_08]: He did not know Jessica once-furt or anything about her being missing.
23:59.798 --> 24:04.804
[SPEAKER_08]: He told officers that he was not in the habit of snatching up little kids.
24:05.088 --> 24:08.371
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was released again after the Supreme Court interview.
24:09.232 --> 24:15.539
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Detective Love was unsuccessful and attempt to locate Kui a second time.
24:16.340 --> 24:23.427
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Detective Martin Kennedy, photographed and processed Kui's trailer on Snowboard Court.
24:24.048 --> 24:33.778
[SPEAKER_08]: He collected several items which included a blood-stained mattress, blood-stained green pillows, a blue pillow, a pair of jeans from the floor.
24:33.961 --> 24:38.858
[SPEAKER_08]: a shirt from the closet and a letter located inside a briefcase.
24:39.243 --> 24:44.910
[SPEAKER_08]: Christian Lehman, forensic analyst, examined the mattress in the pillows.
24:44.930 --> 24:52.080
[SPEAKER_08]: Every item found in his room would be processed for evidence, but soon, how isn't going to be necessary?
24:52.680 --> 25:07.680
[SPEAKER_08]: Because while Detective Martin scoured the room for evidence, on the way was the excavation team, and what they would find would change the small community right down to the wall in Florida forever.
25:12.790 --> 25:15.234
[SPEAKER_08]: That's it for this episode, listener.
25:15.274 --> 25:23.229
[SPEAKER_08]: If you'd like to hear more, you can get early access for the price of way less than a cup of coffee these days.
25:23.930 --> 25:28.318
[SPEAKER_08]: Just head to patreon.com so I should obscure a crime podcast.
25:28.670 --> 25:32.775
[SPEAKER_08]: If you're already a patron, well, you can already enjoy the next episode.
25:33.576 --> 25:40.023
[SPEAKER_08]: Anyway, the next episode is when things get dark as I warned at the start of this episode.
25:40.884 --> 25:52.838
[SPEAKER_08]: I put that warning at the start of this one because I didn't want people to get invested in this first episode and then get shocked and caught off guard by how bad things are about to get.
25:53.037 --> 26:00.892
[SPEAKER_08]: Like I said, this next episode is bordering on black label in terms of the details that you're about to hear.
26:00.952 --> 26:05.380
[SPEAKER_08]: Not so much in terms of audio or anything like that.
26:06.302 --> 26:10.810
[SPEAKER_08]: Anyway, I thank you for listening and keep the fire burning.
00:00.031 --> 00:04.701
[SPEAKER_08]: Listener, I want to give you a special warning for this episode.
00:04.761 --> 00:15.643
[SPEAKER_08]: It's one of those episodes that doesn't comfortably fit as a blank label, but is far more detailed and graphic than your average obscure.
00:15.623 --> 00:19.348
[SPEAKER_08]: There are details in this case that left me feeling shaken.
00:19.368 --> 00:20.950
[SPEAKER_08]: There's no way around it.
00:21.390 --> 00:32.384
[SPEAKER_08]: If you are particularly sensitive to crimes involving children, yes, I know I just released one last episode, but I'll just tell you, this one's different.
00:32.885 --> 00:44.820
[SPEAKER_08]: Then you may want to skip this one, or when we get to the details, you know, have your finger close to that fast forward or mute button.
00:44.800 --> 00:45.842
[SPEAKER_08]: Let's get on with it.
00:48.186 --> 00:48.947
[SPEAKER_07]: Welcome, listener.
00:49.849 --> 00:50.770
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm glad you're here.
00:51.812 --> 00:52.313
[SPEAKER_07]: Take a seat.
00:53.114 --> 00:53.915
[SPEAKER_07]: Next to the fire.
00:57.502 --> 01:04.834
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Obscura, where we shine a light on the dark.
01:26.296 --> 01:34.432
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you hear our cries as you try to sleep at night.
01:35.434 --> 01:39.703
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you see the tears run down her face when she asked you to the home.
01:41.827 --> 01:44.512
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you spend the rest of your life in fear of death.
01:45.434 --> 01:47.899
[SPEAKER_05]: You will never hurt another child again.
01:49.702 --> 02:12.216
[SPEAKER_05]: Judge Howard speaking for myself, for my community and the nation, I plead with you to accept the recommendation of the jury for death as presented to you by the jury tend to too, and a vote of 12 for four guilty verdicts, and to remember the words of a wise old black man
02:14.221 --> 02:15.182
[SPEAKER_05]: in terror abuse.
02:15.943 --> 02:17.886
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just too heavy in your honor.
02:18.447 --> 02:20.890
[SPEAKER_05]: It's too heavy for mercy.
02:20.910 --> 02:41.038
[SPEAKER_08]: February 24, 2005, it was uncharacteristically raining for that time of year for Homo Sassaflora, the week that the bad man stole away a nine-year-old girl, the rain fell hard, with little relief between each storm, as if the heavens themselves cried out an anguish.
02:41.018 --> 02:42.340
[SPEAKER_08]: for what was yet to come.
02:43.121 --> 02:49.632
[SPEAKER_08]: Jessica Lunsford may sleep in one John Cooley, snuck into the third greater's home, through an unlocked door.
02:50.273 --> 02:52.737
[SPEAKER_08]: Listener, there will be no mystery here.
02:52.797 --> 02:58.826
[SPEAKER_08]: obscure, it's not that type of podcast, and ever will be, I don't work in mysteries.
02:59.347 --> 03:06.098
[SPEAKER_08]: I work in snapshots of anguish that reverberate through time, despite complaints and
03:06.162 --> 03:08.006
[SPEAKER_08]: I'll always prefer a different approach.
03:08.527 --> 03:13.779
[SPEAKER_08]: No, the person I would go on to snatch a nine-year-old child away from her friends and family.
03:14.400 --> 03:24.542
[SPEAKER_08]: Away from all the small comforts in her life, from her toys to her favorite cartoons, her time spent at church, and hopping around joyfully on the couch.
03:24.522 --> 03:44.488
[SPEAKER_08]: Away from her future was John Evander Kui, who was born prematurely on August 19th, 1958, in Florida, to a teen mother who delivered him shortly after Kui's father, pushed her from a moving automobile, likely causing brain damage to the unborn child in the process.
03:44.755 --> 04:00.654
[SPEAKER_08]: He had a deformity of his ears upon birth, and through his young childhood, until sometime around the age of 8 or 9, when his own gene had them fixed for him, he having been ruthlessly teased by other children, in part because of his floppy ears.
04:01.315 --> 04:07.242
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, no floppy ears as a mother did not know how to take care of him and refuse to learn.
04:07.642 --> 04:11.927
[SPEAKER_08]: Not cradling his head when holding him, allowing it to loll around.
04:11.907 --> 04:28.986
[SPEAKER_08]: Laughing upon being corrected by relatives and feeding him sugar water, rather than milk or formula, he and his sister, Dorothy, lived with his uncaring mother and his alcoholic and abusive stepfather, Bobby Lindsay, until Kui reached the age of five or six.
04:29.466 --> 04:32.930
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was constantly and quite violently abused by Lindsay.
04:33.411 --> 04:37.155
[SPEAKER_08]: Relatives observed bruises all over his body as a child.
04:37.135 --> 05:05.725
[SPEAKER_08]: The abuse included Lindsey, holding Kui's head underwater in a swimming pond at a age seven, saying he, quote, needed to teach him a lesson, tying Kui at age three to the bed for wedding it, and upon finding that Kui's mother had untied him, slamming his head repeatedly between the door and door jam, potentially causing more temporal lobe damage, hanging him from a
05:05.705 --> 05:18.902
[SPEAKER_08]: throwing him up in the air and allowing him to fall hard to the floor, then kicking him violently under the bed, causing Kui's head to hit the bed frame, and resulting in his mother crawling under the bed to prevent further injury.
05:19.644 --> 05:20.727
[SPEAKER_08]: Listen to her.
05:20.707 --> 05:31.063
[SPEAKER_08]: Before we go on, I want to remind you that I cover a killer's backstory, because it's always worth noting these traumatic histories that crop up, and are always worth identifying.
05:31.484 --> 05:42.581
[SPEAKER_08]: Clearly, they're a major factor in the makeup of most victimizers, but that is not to say that this offers them forgiveness for their acts, at least in this narrator's eyes.
05:43.202 --> 05:46.427
[SPEAKER_08]: I too, and the victim of severe childhood abuse.
05:46.407 --> 05:51.858
[SPEAKER_08]: And, from the sounds of it, my experience is comparable to what Mr. Koo he went through.
05:51.898 --> 05:57.809
[SPEAKER_08]: I've dealt with my own share of PTSD, anxiety, depression, even memory loss.
05:58.230 --> 05:58.791
[SPEAKER_08]: Guess what?
05:59.192 --> 06:02.138
[SPEAKER_08]: It didn't give me a license to hurt or kill people.
06:02.118 --> 06:09.177
[SPEAKER_08]: And when I've made mistakes of the emotional variety growing up, I made sure to apologize for those errors as I matured.
06:09.678 --> 06:12.907
[SPEAKER_08]: I never took it for granted that I was owed forgiveness.
06:13.549 --> 06:18.422
[SPEAKER_08]: No, listen, our child abuse doesn't hand wave your actions.
06:18.402 --> 06:21.107
[SPEAKER_08]: As a society, we draw lines in the sand.
06:21.628 --> 06:25.415
[SPEAKER_08]: Harmers of children are one of those lines that I think we all can agree.
06:25.876 --> 06:29.162
[SPEAKER_08]: Then once you cross it, you can never take that step back.
06:29.723 --> 06:36.917
[SPEAKER_08]: Some actions are so heinous that a person can find themselves damned and ostracized by society for the rest of their living days.
06:37.498 --> 06:39.702
[SPEAKER_08]: Call me unsympathetic.
06:39.682 --> 06:42.648
[SPEAKER_08]: But I've always believed that these actions are always owned.
06:42.668 --> 06:54.872
[SPEAKER_08]: No matter the extent of abuse in your history, our mental illness that you have, the need to harm comes from within, it's a desire that is reflective of something more than nurture.
06:54.852 --> 06:56.475
[SPEAKER_08]: Now, that A.J.
06:56.996 --> 06:59.901
[SPEAKER_08]: Kooey and his sister were passed off to his Aunt Jean.
07:00.563 --> 07:03.849
[SPEAKER_08]: At this age, Kooey was still unable to speak plainly.
07:03.889 --> 07:11.443
[SPEAKER_08]: Others being unable to understand him at all until Aunt Jean worked with him for hours on end to teach him to speak.
07:12.004 --> 07:16.793
[SPEAKER_08]: He was quite small for his age,
07:16.773 --> 07:23.725
[SPEAKER_08]: Most other children were mean to him, beating him up and harassing him until his cousins could intervene.
07:24.306 --> 07:36.688
[SPEAKER_08]: Despite his father's abuse and beatings in harassment from other children, who he was never aggressive or mean, a quiet reserved little boy, he was shy and prone to cowering around others.
07:36.871 --> 07:41.397
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui and his sister were both placed in special education classes at school.
07:41.878 --> 07:48.727
[SPEAKER_08]: The reason for Kui being his mental defects in brain injuries was sisters cause simply being her poor treatment.
07:49.428 --> 07:53.594
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui could still not learn well and fell well behind.
07:53.634 --> 07:58.120
[SPEAKER_08]: On Jeanne, unsuccessfully attempted to get help for Kui.
07:58.100 --> 08:18.409
[SPEAKER_08]: taking him to HRS, but being turned down into a juvenile judge who also declined to help unless Kui committed a crime or was a danger to himself during this time frame, and later became known that Uncle John and Kui's maternal grandfather would sexually abuse both Kui and his sister at a young age.
08:18.990 --> 08:24.478
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui witnessed the assaults on his sister and felt guilty, powerless to stop them.
08:24.458 --> 08:27.822
[SPEAKER_08]: One time, we're living with Anne Jeane and cousin Suzy.
08:28.283 --> 08:31.887
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was found in a fetal position, at his Anne Jeane's bed.
08:31.948 --> 08:39.617
[SPEAKER_08]: With his Aunt's night gown cut into small pieces, Kui told Anne Jeane that his mind had told him to do it.
08:39.657 --> 08:43.582
[SPEAKER_08]: This was evidence of auditory hallucinations at a young age.
08:44.123 --> 08:47.968
[SPEAKER_08]: And on Jeane attempted to teach him to resist those things.
08:47.948 --> 08:55.738
[SPEAKER_08]: When Kui was ten years old, he climbed on top of his sleeping cousin Susie, and was caught trying to remove her underwear.
08:56.319 --> 09:10.598
[SPEAKER_08]: Despite the incident, Susie was not afraid of Kui, understanding that his thought patterns were different, and that he would always be a child mentally, but because of the incident, Kui was again moved.
09:10.578 --> 09:15.463
[SPEAKER_08]: This time, to live with another aunt, Guineau, who placed Kui in a boy's ranch.
09:16.003 --> 09:20.588
[SPEAKER_08]: It was around this time that John Kui received his first brain scans.
09:20.948 --> 09:31.199
[SPEAKER_08]: The damage to the right side of his brain strongly affects the regulation of sexual behavior, known for causing a change for preference in sex, E.G.
09:31.719 --> 09:37.665
[SPEAKER_08]: from adults to children, with, quote, inappropriate object choice,
09:37.645 --> 09:48.041
[SPEAKER_08]: known as clover-busy syndrome, studies of weight-life pedophilia showing the same type of metabolic asymmetrical abnormalities present in Kui's brain.
09:48.502 --> 09:53.730
[SPEAKER_08]: His MMPI scores indicated a biological mental illness.
09:53.710 --> 10:06.767
[SPEAKER_08]: Psychosis, the lusional thinking, problems with his thinking and judgment, it brain malfunctioned causing hallucinations and disturbance of mood caused by biological changes in his brain.
10:07.428 --> 10:12.215
[SPEAKER_08]: Rather than mere situational problems, it's total IQ score was 78.
10:12.455 --> 10:16.360
[SPEAKER_08]: This rating classified him as borderline impaired.
10:16.340 --> 10:23.006
[SPEAKER_08]: which is below the average range of intelligence, but above the threshold for intellectual disability.
10:23.447 --> 10:26.570
[SPEAKER_08]: Basically, he was sort of a dumb guy with floppy ears.
10:27.130 --> 10:35.198
[SPEAKER_08]: By who he's early 20s, he experienced an increase in auditory hallucinations and was prone to mumbling to himself in public.
10:35.879 --> 10:42.145
[SPEAKER_08]: He experienced severe PTSD and used drugs in alcohol to self-medicate and cope.
10:42.125 --> 10:51.278
[SPEAKER_08]: With his drug use of choice being crack cocaine, Kui suffered from thaw insertion, feeling like others were putting thoughts into his brain.
10:51.759 --> 10:59.971
[SPEAKER_08]: He dealt with manic episodes depriving him of sleep, which became more increased, more continuous, and enhanced throughout the years.
11:00.632 --> 11:02.715
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui worked as a truck driver.
11:02.695 --> 11:12.829
[SPEAKER_08]: He quickly became a repeat offender with arrests for burglary, carrying a weapon without a permit, and in decent exposure, cropping up from time to time.
11:13.510 --> 11:16.935
[SPEAKER_08]: Part two, the search for Jessica One's Ferd.
11:17.556 --> 11:23.404
[SPEAKER_05]: I have to yourself in like this app to just do this hard to find the region, to do even except find that one.
11:30.691 --> 11:33.374
[SPEAKER_05]: We were more than father and daughter, we were best friends.
11:34.515 --> 11:41.542
[SPEAKER_05]: As a single father, I learned a lot of things about my children that only a single parent could understand.
11:43.545 --> 11:47.689
[SPEAKER_05]: Me and Jesse used to argue about who loved each other the most.
11:49.531 --> 11:53.735
[SPEAKER_05]: And one day I told her, I said, you know, I love you this much.
11:53.755 --> 11:55.597
[SPEAKER_05]: And that means I love you all the way around.
11:56.899 --> 11:58.200
[SPEAKER_05]: And she looked up at me.
12:01.589 --> 12:06.992
[SPEAKER_05]: And she said, Daddy, I love you this much, and nothing will come between us.
12:13.520 --> 12:38.852
[SPEAKER_08]: In February 2005, Ruth and Archie Lundsford lived with her son, Mark, his daughter Jessica, and her pet docks and corkie, on Saltsonata Avenue, in Homosasa, Florida, Jesse occasionally played with corkie in the yard, on February 23rd, Jesse attended school, ran errands with her grandparents, and went to church with Sharon Armstrong.
12:38.832 --> 12:43.457
[SPEAKER_01]: On February 24th, 2005, the lunchford family changed forever.
12:43.477 --> 12:49.904
[SPEAKER_01]: 9-year-old Jessica Lunchford was missing, like a page from a drama Grandmother Ruth Lunchford fell helpless.
12:50.384 --> 12:53.948
[SPEAKER_02]: I used to sit there and look out that window, and I'd take him on dressy.
12:54.809 --> 12:55.730
[SPEAKER_02]: Walked over there and wooded.
12:55.750 --> 12:58.893
[SPEAKER_02]: It was more wooded than the dress now, and I'd take him.
12:58.913 --> 12:59.754
[SPEAKER_02]: Walked over there and wooded.
13:00.234 --> 13:01.956
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a time that you'd want to forget.
13:03.698 --> 13:08.603
[SPEAKER_01]: But Ruth decided it was something they would always have to face.
13:09.578 --> 13:12.284
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, this isn't no good.
13:12.304 --> 13:14.369
[SPEAKER_02]: We got to do something else.
13:14.690 --> 13:20.944
[SPEAKER_01]: Ruth decided that every horrible headline, every word describing this family's heartache, would go into a scrapbook.
13:21.344 --> 13:28.701
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not an easy thing to do because, um, this is my granddaughter and we're very, very close.
13:28.985 --> 13:35.965
[SPEAKER_08]: Armstrong brought Jesse to church every Wednesday night at the Faith Baptist Church, and also tutored her in her studies.
13:36.646 --> 13:40.959
[SPEAKER_08]: After Armstrong brought Jesse home in 9 p.m., Jesse prepared for bed.
13:40.999 --> 13:44.007
[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth tucked Jesse into bed.
13:43.987 --> 13:49.033
[SPEAKER_08]: And she had always done about 10 p.m., Jesse slept with her favorite stuffed animal.
13:49.754 --> 13:50.676
[SPEAKER_08]: A purple dolphin.
13:51.316 --> 13:56.523
[SPEAKER_08]: The next morning, Mark Lundsford, Wolk Ruth and said Jesse was not in her bed.
13:57.184 --> 13:58.005
[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth called 911.
13:59.126 --> 14:02.250
[SPEAKER_08]: Ruth noticed the screener and door had been cut.
14:02.851 --> 14:06.095
[SPEAKER_08]: She wondered to herself, if the door had been unlocked that night.
14:06.856 --> 14:12.103
[SPEAKER_08]: Although Jesse and her stuffed purple dolphin were missing, nothing else had been disturbed.
14:12.337 --> 14:16.105
[SPEAKER_08]: Mark Lunsford was raising Jessica while living with his parents.
14:17.067 --> 14:22.298
[SPEAKER_08]: On February 23rd, Lunsford went home after working a 15-hour shift.
14:22.318 --> 14:24.062
[SPEAKER_08]: Jesse was already home from church.
14:24.623 --> 14:28.552
[SPEAKER_08]: Mark watched television as Jesse jumped around on the couch excitedly.
14:28.592 --> 14:31.999
[SPEAKER_08]: He left to spend the night at his girlfriend's house.
14:31.979 --> 14:36.763
[SPEAKER_08]: After arriving home at 5.45 a.m., he heard the sound of Jesse's alarm.
14:37.184 --> 14:42.228
[SPEAKER_08]: He got ready for work, but strangely, he still heard the alarm going off.
14:42.769 --> 14:47.413
[SPEAKER_08]: He opened Jesse's bedroom door, and saw that Jesse and her dolphin toy were missing.
14:47.933 --> 14:50.035
[SPEAKER_08]: She had never been gone at that hour of the morning.
14:51.397 --> 14:52.658
[SPEAKER_06]: She's gone, baby.
14:52.678 --> 15:00.805
[SPEAKER_06]: We don't know where she's at.
15:01.628 --> 15:03.853
[SPEAKER_06]: That's where I'm going to blow up on.
15:04.775 --> 15:06.959
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm about to do the side note because of me.
15:07.460 --> 15:09.926
[SPEAKER_06]: I know that's what they've come to me and said.
15:10.467 --> 15:12.511
[SPEAKER_06]: And I told the thing, no way.
15:15.117 --> 15:21.510
[SPEAKER_06]: And they keep saying, and saying, and I keep telling them, my dad wouldn't do anything.
15:24.646 --> 15:27.971
[SPEAKER_04]: When he tried to get up and leave, they man handled him.
15:27.991 --> 15:31.637
[SPEAKER_04]: They grabbed him, put him up against the wall, put his arms behind his back.
15:32.638 --> 15:34.040
[SPEAKER_04]: He's true, he told me that.
15:34.701 --> 15:34.821
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
15:34.962 --> 15:36.704
[SPEAKER_04]: But wait a minute, we were arrested.
15:38.587 --> 15:41.912
[SPEAKER_04]: And why were we the bad guys?
15:41.932 --> 15:43.554
[SPEAKER_04]: Was I a bad guy because I had long hair?
15:43.795 --> 15:45.237
[SPEAKER_04]: And because I saw a smoke pop.
15:47.073 --> 15:55.563
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I told people, everybody was in question and I apologize to Ruth and Archie for putting them through the agony we put them through, but we really weren't representing them.
15:55.603 --> 15:58.246
[SPEAKER_03]: We weren't representing Mark, we were trying to find a little girl.
16:01.370 --> 16:07.177
[SPEAKER_08]: Deputy Juan Santiago, Citrus County Sheriff's Office, responded to one's first home.
16:07.778 --> 16:17.029
[SPEAKER_08]: Santiago searched the inside and outside area, a helicopter, canine unit, and numerous agencies assisting the search for Jesse.
16:17.009 --> 16:24.160
[SPEAKER_08]: Volunteers in several law enforcement agencies searched in a nearby forest, in the surrounding area around her home.
16:24.882 --> 16:30.090
[SPEAKER_08]: On February 24th, Detective Daniel Holder processed the once-for-home.
16:30.611 --> 16:34.797
[SPEAKER_08]: He noticed a six-inch by six-inch L-shaped cut in the screen door.
16:35.278 --> 16:39.365
[SPEAKER_08]: By the door handle, the home was vacuumed and laying prints were taken.
16:39.405 --> 16:42.730
[SPEAKER_08]: The area around the residents was searched.
16:42.710 --> 16:46.578
[SPEAKER_08]: including three outbuilding, and the underside of the mobile home.
16:47.059 --> 16:50.826
[SPEAKER_08]: Detectives looked for any signs of hiding places or disturbed dirt.
16:51.327 --> 16:54.353
[SPEAKER_08]: The search had taken a somber turn by that Tuesday.
16:54.814 --> 17:00.786
[SPEAKER_08]: The search teams moved through the torrential rain, waiting through knee deep water and some occasions.
17:00.952 --> 17:12.260
[SPEAKER_08]: After days of scouring the country's side with hundreds of volunteers, law enforcement scaled back their efforts, now concentrating closely on the area surrounding her family's home.
17:12.902 --> 17:16.952
[SPEAKER_08]: Bloodhounds and search teams moved carefully through the nearby woods.
17:16.932 --> 17:21.460
[SPEAKER_08]: fields and marshes, stretching less than a mile from Jessica's home.
17:22.021 --> 17:36.628
[SPEAKER_08]: Sheriff spokeswoman Gail Tierney explained that, despite the intensity of the hunt, investigators still had no real leads as the local search narrowed, help arrive from the National Center for Missing and Expoided Children.
17:36.608 --> 17:42.638
[SPEAKER_08]: 20 specialists join the investigation, bringing expertise in cases just like this one.
17:43.219 --> 17:54.077
[SPEAKER_08]: Mark once were to spoke to the press, fighting back tears he pleaded for his daughter's safe return, and sent a message directly to whoever might have taken her.
17:54.310 --> 17:58.018
[SPEAKER_08]: quote, just drop her off, now come get her.
17:58.820 --> 18:00.423
[SPEAKER_08]: I know whoever has got Jesse.
18:01.044 --> 18:02.207
[SPEAKER_08]: They have to have a heart.
18:02.808 --> 18:10.885
[SPEAKER_08]: Despite exhaustion and worry, he found comfort in the kindness of strangers, quote, it's been overwhelming.
18:10.865 --> 18:16.741
[SPEAKER_08]: The people that have shown up and makes me feel good to know Everyone's trying to help us out.
18:17.383 --> 18:22.156
[SPEAKER_08]: Authorities stressed that there was still no evidence Jessica had been abducted.
18:22.196 --> 18:26.528
[SPEAKER_08]: Though her father was certain she hadn't left willingly.
18:26.508 --> 18:29.231
[SPEAKER_08]: quote, she just didn't go with strangers.
18:29.771 --> 18:30.852
[SPEAKER_08]: She's not like that.
18:31.533 --> 18:43.025
[SPEAKER_08]: Sheriff Jeff Dawsey confirmed that nothing suspicious had turned up on the family's computer, both Mark Lundsford and his father, had passed voice stress and polygraph tests administered by the FBI.
18:43.485 --> 18:51.213
[SPEAKER_08]: quote, none of the answers questions set any alarms off, though the massive search had quieted, hope had not.
18:51.974 --> 18:54.777
[SPEAKER_08]: In the fields
18:54.757 --> 19:02.857
[SPEAKER_08]: The team's continued to move slowly, calling her name, still believing that somewhere, Jessica might hear them.
19:03.418 --> 19:10.555
[SPEAKER_08]: Jessica once works farther, continued to plea with officers, that his daughter wasn't simply a runaway.
19:10.535 --> 19:17.846
[SPEAKER_08]: He pointed out that she was nine years old, was afraid of the dark, wouldn't go to sleep without her stuff to dolphin.
19:18.387 --> 19:21.071
[SPEAKER_08]: That sometimes she slept with the lights on.
19:21.672 --> 19:26.940
[SPEAKER_08]: The experts that were brought in felt that law enforcement should focus on locals.
19:26.920 --> 19:31.686
[SPEAKER_08]: That's when John Kooey ended up on their radar as a person of interest.
19:32.247 --> 19:33.688
[SPEAKER_08]: He didn't show up right away.
19:33.708 --> 19:37.193
[SPEAKER_08]: He had failed to register as a sex offender in the area.
19:37.753 --> 19:46.564
[SPEAKER_08]: Around this time, Ronda Heminger Evan of the Citrus County Sheriff's Department was asked if she felt that Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped.
19:47.005 --> 19:51.831
[SPEAKER_08]: She was quoted saying,
19:51.811 --> 19:55.115
[SPEAKER_08]: That is probably what is most frustrating about this case right now.
19:55.716 --> 20:08.290
[SPEAKER_08]: When we can get going in a good direction, when we know if she is left home on her own or if we know she was taken from the home, that is going to be a break for us to help a single down our leads.
20:08.931 --> 20:21.666
[SPEAKER_08]: Dorothy Dixon, who he sister, lived with Kui or boyfriend, Matt Ditchridge, her daughter
20:21.646 --> 20:32.740
[SPEAKER_08]: On snowboard court, in Homosasa, 65 yards from Jessica's home, on February 23rd, Dixon, Dittrick and Kui went to the yard.
20:33.481 --> 20:37.566
[SPEAKER_08]: An area where Dittrick and friend Bobby Thompson worked on Diesel Ricks.
20:38.147 --> 20:40.370
[SPEAKER_08]: The group stayed at the yard until dark.
20:40.870 --> 20:43.073
[SPEAKER_08]: They drank and smoked crack cocaine.
20:43.834 --> 20:49.341
[SPEAKER_08]: After returning home, Dixon, Dittrick and Kui left at 10 p.m.
20:49.321 --> 20:53.453
[SPEAKER_08]: They returned to Thompson's and checked on Marty, Thompson's girlfriend.
20:53.954 --> 20:56.461
[SPEAKER_08]: There was experiencing problems with her pregnancy.
20:57.103 --> 21:01.054
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon checked on her while Ditchrick and Kui charge your car battery.
21:01.936 --> 21:05.085
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon's car broke down on the drive home.
21:05.065 --> 21:16.786
[SPEAKER_08]: Marty's son, Matt, brought them home at 1 a.m. Ditcher, Condixon, went into their room, mocked the door, and turned on the television, which routinely stayed on all night.
21:17.387 --> 21:20.592
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon was not aware of anyone leaving the house during the night.
21:21.173 --> 21:26.162
[SPEAKER_08]: On February 24, Dixon noticed police activities in the neighborhood.
21:26.142 --> 21:30.067
[SPEAKER_08]: Ditcherk ate lunch with his mother, and then retrieved Dixon's car.
21:30.908 --> 21:34.894
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon and Ditcherk went to Thompson's place while Kui stayed behind.
21:35.835 --> 21:37.317
[SPEAKER_08]: They went to Thompson's daily.
21:37.998 --> 21:44.166
[SPEAKER_08]: Occasionally Kui went with them, with the exception of lunchtime, Ditcherk was with Dixon all day.
21:44.847 --> 21:49.433
[SPEAKER_08]: During this time period between February 23 to March 7th,
21:49.413 --> 21:53.540
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon never noticed any unusual activity coming from Kui's room.
21:53.560 --> 21:59.651
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Dixon gave permission to police to search her home, take her car.
22:00.292 --> 22:01.875
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui had left a week earlier.
22:02.456 --> 22:06.122
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon gave Kui $200 to buy a bus ticket.
22:06.102 --> 22:09.810
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui called Dixon and told her he was living in Savannah, Georgia.
22:10.411 --> 22:13.377
[SPEAKER_08]: No one stayed in Kui's bedroom after he left.
22:14.018 --> 22:17.525
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon told officers that Jessica had never been in her home.
22:18.086 --> 22:21.293
[SPEAKER_08]: Dixon had noticed a ladder outside of Kui's window.
22:21.273 --> 22:28.269
[SPEAKER_08]: There was no cable television service into the trailer, nor was she aware of Kui installing an antenna to his room.
22:28.871 --> 22:39.636
[SPEAKER_08]: Police then asked Dixon and Gene Secord, if they could speak with Maddie Secord, a deputy actor, if she had seen Jesse, and asked to search the property.
22:39.616 --> 22:42.821
[SPEAKER_08]: She gave consent, and he searched the outside area.
22:43.442 --> 22:47.949
[SPEAKER_08]: Secor'd spent most of her time resting, and she was in the midst of a high risk pregnancy.
22:48.490 --> 22:53.639
[SPEAKER_08]: Maddie secured told officers, she bought Kui a bus ticket in her name on March 4th.
22:54.400 --> 22:57.164
[SPEAKER_08]: The Secor'd's went to Disney World for the next few days.
22:58.126 --> 23:03.835
[SPEAKER_08]: Upon returning, Kui asked her to take him to the bus stop, first trip to Georgia.
23:03.916 --> 23:11.023
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 12, 2005, Kui was located by Savannah Police at the request of Citrus County authorities.
23:11.843 --> 23:18.049
[SPEAKER_08]: In question by Officer Michael Wav, up the department, he was not under arrest at this time.
23:18.710 --> 23:22.894
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui presented a Georgia ID card to the detective Michael Wav.
23:23.515 --> 23:25.556
[SPEAKER_08]: Wav read Kui his Miranda rights.
23:26.217 --> 23:31.442
[SPEAKER_08]: During the interview, Kui told Wav that he arrived in Georgia on March 10.
23:31.422 --> 23:35.509
[SPEAKER_08]: He had previously been living with his sister, men as knees.
23:35.810 --> 23:39.955
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui said he did not know anything about a missing girl in Citrus County.
23:40.716 --> 23:42.057
[SPEAKER_08]: He only saw it on the news.
23:42.758 --> 23:46.483
[SPEAKER_08]: He'd been in the once-words neighborhood, only when he was picking up trailer parts.
23:47.243 --> 23:49.126
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was interviewed a second time.
23:49.806 --> 23:54.492
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui told Detective Love, he had spoken to his sister since his arrival in Georgia.
23:55.153 --> 23:59.037
[SPEAKER_08]: He did not know Jessica once-furt or anything about her being missing.
23:59.798 --> 24:04.804
[SPEAKER_08]: He told officers that he was not in the habit of snatching up little kids.
24:05.088 --> 24:08.371
[SPEAKER_08]: Kui was released again after the Supreme Court interview.
24:09.232 --> 24:15.539
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Detective Love was unsuccessful and attempt to locate Kui a second time.
24:16.340 --> 24:23.427
[SPEAKER_08]: On March 14, Detective Martin Kennedy, photographed and processed Kui's trailer on Snowboard Court.
24:24.048 --> 24:33.778
[SPEAKER_08]: He collected several items which included a blood-stained mattress, blood-stained green pillows, a blue pillow, a pair of jeans from the floor.
24:33.961 --> 24:38.858
[SPEAKER_08]: a shirt from the closet and a letter located inside a briefcase.
24:39.243 --> 24:44.910
[SPEAKER_08]: Christian Lehman, forensic analyst, examined the mattress in the pillows.
24:44.930 --> 24:52.080
[SPEAKER_08]: Every item found in his room would be processed for evidence, but soon, how isn't going to be necessary?
24:52.680 --> 25:07.680
[SPEAKER_08]: Because while Detective Martin scoured the room for evidence, on the way was the excavation team, and what they would find would change the small community right down to the wall in Florida forever.
25:12.790 --> 25:15.234
[SPEAKER_08]: That's it for this episode, listener.
25:15.274 --> 25:23.229
[SPEAKER_08]: If you'd like to hear more, you can get early access for the price of way less than a cup of coffee these days.
25:23.930 --> 25:28.318
[SPEAKER_08]: Just head to patreon.com so I should obscure a crime podcast.
25:28.670 --> 25:32.775
[SPEAKER_08]: If you're already a patron, well, you can already enjoy the next episode.
25:33.576 --> 25:40.023
[SPEAKER_08]: Anyway, the next episode is when things get dark as I warned at the start of this episode.
25:40.884 --> 25:52.838
[SPEAKER_08]: I put that warning at the start of this one because I didn't want people to get invested in this first episode and then get shocked and caught off guard by how bad things are about to get.
25:53.037 --> 26:00.892
[SPEAKER_08]: Like I said, this next episode is bordering on black label in terms of the details that you're about to hear.
26:00.952 --> 26:05.380
[SPEAKER_08]: Not so much in terms of audio or anything like that.
26:06.302 --> 26:10.810
[SPEAKER_08]: Anyway, I thank you for listening and keep the fire burning.
