Nov. 18, 2025
MURDERED: Jessica Lunsford | Homosassa, Florida 2005 Part 02
[Part 2 of 2]
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_12]: Listener, I want to give you a special warning for this episode.
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[SPEAKER_12]: 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_12]: There are details in this case that left me feeling shaken.
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[SPEAKER_12]: There's no way around it.
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[SPEAKER_12]: 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_12]: 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_12]: Let's get on with it.
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[SPEAKER_11]: Welcome, listener.
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[SPEAKER_11]: I'm glad you're here.
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[SPEAKER_11]: Take a seat.
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[SPEAKER_11]: Next to the fire.
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[SPEAKER_14]: Welcome to Obscura.
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[SPEAKER_14]: Where we shine a light on the dark.
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[SPEAKER_16]: What's up people?
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[SPEAKER_16]: Joe Winkow here, your favorite Hawaiian guy.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Right now I'm here at this cemetery in Citrus County, Florida.
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[SPEAKER_16]: I'm visiting the grave of this girl who was murdered back in 2005.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Her name was Jessica Lundsford.
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[SPEAKER_16]: I write about her story online a really long time ago and I wanted to visit her grave and leave a flower by her grave.
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[SPEAKER_16]: because I felt really sorry for what happened to her.
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[SPEAKER_16]: It's really horrible what she went through and what her family went through when everything happened and I found her grave.
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[SPEAKER_16]: It's right here and let me show it to you.
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[SPEAKER_16]: So here it is.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Her grave.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Jessica Marie Lundsford.
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[SPEAKER_16]: She would have been my age if she was still alive today, but because of some monster she
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[SPEAKER_16]: She's now forever going to be nine years old.
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[SPEAKER_16]: It's not fair what happened to her.
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[SPEAKER_16]: It's not fair that her family lost her either.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Rest in peace.
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[SPEAKER_16]: Jessica Marie Lundsford.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Art III, the girl who feared the dark.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Early, on March 19th, Jessica's body was found buried in the ground, next to Kui's trailer.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The team spent five hours excavating an area of dirt on the east side of the trailer.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's body was covered with two black garbage bags.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The bags were tied closed in a nodded fashion, Jessica once furthered and possibly small, right indexed in middle finger, hooked acusably through the trash bags.
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[SPEAKER_12]: There was a child in those trash bags.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Just a kid, a small girl who had every hope in the world.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Listener, a girl who had a loving family.
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[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, from bandage to bicycles to burps and bruises, she was right on board.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Who slept with her stuffed dolphin to fend off the dark?
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[SPEAKER_12]: That darkness came to consume her.
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[SPEAKER_12]: There were ligatures, made of speaker wire, wrapped in knot at around her small wrists.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She died holding her stuffed toy purple dolphin.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The medical examiner cut the ligatures from Jessica's wrists, which were submitted to FDLE for analysis.
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[SPEAKER_12]: It was a grim scene, hard in members in their field, are reported to have openly wept.
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[SPEAKER_12]: This was the kind of case that haunts you.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Listener, well, after retirement, the one that you see when you close your eyes in the shower, are left your granddaughter up for a helicopter ride.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The medical examiner took Jessica's fingerprints, as well as oral, vaginal, and anal swabs.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Law enforcement removed the cause of war from Kui's bedroom.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Infotographs developed of latent prints found on the cause of war, a comparison of Jessica's known prints to the photographs of the prints located in the closet, or a match.
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[SPEAKER_12]: In addition, Kennedy rolled a set of prints from Kui.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He also obtained buical swabs from Kui.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Gene Secord and John Kooey were both jailed in the Citrus County jail and late March 2005.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey housed in the cell next to Secord.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He talked to Secord about religion.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Secord asked Kooey if he believed in God so much.
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[SPEAKER_12]: How could he have done something as he did?
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey responded, it's in the past, man.
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[SPEAKER_12]: We can't live in the past.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Forget about it.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Further, Kooey said, if my sister would have loved me,
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[SPEAKER_12]: I wouldn't have done all this.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Dr. Stephen Cogswell, medical examiner, or former autopsy of Jessica Winsford, Cogswell noted that Jessica's Bonnie had two garbage bags tied around her.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The bags were arranged around her Bonnie, as though she stepped into one open bag, squatted down.
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[SPEAKER_12]: And it was not at above her.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The outside bag, quote, was pulled down overhead and not quite underneath her buttocks, but in a lower area.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Based upon the state of decomposition that Jessica's body showed, dogs well determined she had been dead approximately three weeks before her body was found.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Due to the mild climate at the time and all the rain, Jessica's body was not as decomposed as it could have been in other areas of Florida.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's body was, quote, at the stage of decomposition, going from blood into decay.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She did not have signs of external injuries or bruising.
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[SPEAKER_12]: There was a considerable amount of decomposition fluid in the tranche bags.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica soft tissues liquefied and drained away from her body, and the skin itself.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Everything inside the trash bags was saturated with decompositional fluids.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Her body was essentially within a semi-liquid environment.
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[SPEAKER_12]: As a result, trace evidence from her body settled at the bottom of the trash bag,
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[SPEAKER_12]: The sexual assault examination indicated Jessica had shallow lacirations and abrasions to her vagina, indicative of sexual assault.
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[SPEAKER_12]: These injuries occurred within a few hours of her death.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She would have had, quote, a fair amount of bleeding from these injuries.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's gastrointestinal tract was empty, indicating she had not had a meal in quite a while.
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[SPEAKER_12]: This is when a terrible discovery was made.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica Lonesford had been buried alive.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Her fingers were poking through the trash bag because she had been thrashing desperately attempting to escape.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The girl who had been so afraid of the dark was made to step into a trash bag, holding her stuffed dolphin, had another placed over her head.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She was then placed into an
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[SPEAKER_12]: Dr. Cogwell concluded Jessica's death was a homicide.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Her cause of death was suffocation.
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[SPEAKER_07]: He lived directly across the street for me.
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[SPEAKER_07]: He broke in my own, took my daughter to his house.
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[SPEAKER_07]: He kept her there for three days.
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[SPEAKER_07]: As he raked her, he kept her in a closet.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Time to speak her word.
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[SPEAKER_07]: Place the room to trash bags, tight it shut up, place the room to hall a line, and burn.
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[SPEAKER_12]: When confronted with this evidence, could we told investigators, quote, he didn't know why he did what he did, and then he wished he could take it back, but he couldn't.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Could we immediately offer it that he had been doing a lot of drugs at the time?
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[SPEAKER_12]: He then told Officer Reed, he saw Jessica playing in her yard.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He thought she was about six years old when he saw her.
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[SPEAKER_12]: On the night, Kui took Jessica.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He went to burglarize her home.
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[SPEAKER_12]: According to him, he saw Jessica in quote, acted on impulse and took her.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He told Jessica, quote, I'm going to take you to your father.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She asked if she could take her dolphin, and Kui told her that she could if she kept quiet.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Who he said he kept Jessica in his home for three days.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She was either lying on the bed with him or was in the closet.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I'm not going to repeat some of the things he said she willingly did to him because there's no willing for nine-year-old or anyone in that situation for that matter.
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[SPEAKER_12]: So, that is going to be left out.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kui said his sister knew Jessica was in their home.
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[SPEAKER_12]: At one point Matt Dittrich was in Kui's bedroom when Jessica was there.
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[SPEAKER_12]: On the first day, Jessica was with him.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kui told Reed he engaged in sexual activity with her, and that Jessica blood.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kui panicked when police came with dogs on the third day of her captivity.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He tied her hands and feet.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kui told Jessica he was going to take her home.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She climbed out of his window.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He told her to get into the garbage bags, quote, because he didn't want people seeing her going across the street.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica stepped into one bag, and then Kui covered her with the other.
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[SPEAKER_12]: It previously dug a hole on this property.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He took Jessica out of his room through a window and a small escape ladder, he had created ahead of time.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He placed her in the hole and covered her with dirt, she was still alive at this point.
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[SPEAKER_12]: At this point in the interview, John Kui complained about the way other inmates talked about him.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Well, I don't appreciate people talking about me like this.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I didn't mean to do what I did.
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[SPEAKER_12]: And I didn't mean to kill her when asked what his biggest regret was.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He said, quote, my regret is that I've lost everything.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I'm the one in jail, listener.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I want to take a moment to give a clear summary of what actually happened.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I mentioned it before, but I left some details out of what Kui said he and Jessica had done cool together, but it was so insulting to Jessica's memory and frankly absurd that I will never read that out loud.
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[SPEAKER_12]: This is not going to be through the lens of John Kooey's confession.
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[SPEAKER_12]: That way you can have a full objective understanding of the events that transpired, without anything being colored by someone trying to minimize their guilt.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Observant listeners would notice that Kooey even contradicted himself during his confession.
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[SPEAKER_12]: So, listener.
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[SPEAKER_12]: John Kui observed Jessica playing outside her home.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Later that night, he went to Jessica's home and entered her room.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He found her in bed, told her he'd take her to her father.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Took her to his trailer where he kept her for three days.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He admitted to sexually assaulting and raping her multiple times, and that this caused enough trauma for Jessica to bleed, and as examiners found later, caused laceration.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He then hid her in his closet whenever police was searching for her, and panicked when he heard the police stalks.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He dug a hole in which to bury her, and
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[SPEAKER_12]: created an escape ladder for in case he needed to bug out.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Later, he told her he would take her back to her house, but did not want anyone to see them.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He tricked her into climbing into a plastic trash bag, tied it around her, then placed another one over the top of her head and across the top of her body.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He buried her alive with her purple dolphin in the hole he had previously dug.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He successfully hid her in his trailer without his family detecting her presence.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He dug the hole to a depth of an excess of 12 inches of soil found to be covering her body.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He avoided detection.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He obtained necessary garbage bags.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He convinced her to step into that first bag.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He secured her fate with the second bag.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He put Jessica in the hole and then filled that grave with
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[SPEAKER_12]: This was a determined, albeit savage, manner of planned murder, and absolutely no pretense of anything else, no amount of childhood abuse or semi-literacy can explain away what he did, that he meticulously planned everything.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Friends and relatives of Jessica Marie once heard, who spent much of her early wife in North Carolina, gathered to honor the memory of the slain nine year old, described by family members as a cheerful child who enjoyed singing and helping others.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica was remembered during a candle-wide vigil, intended by more than 100 supporters outside the boardwalk.
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[SPEAKER_12]: A restaurant where a father, Mark Winsford, had previously worked.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica lived in Gaston County for most of her childhood before relocating the Florida with her father, about 18 months prior to her death.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Following her disappearance, residents of her former community organized fundraisers, including barbecue sales, to assist the family.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Authorities later reported that John of Andrew Kooey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica, after taking a polygraph test in Georgia.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Her body was discovered more than three weeks after she went missing from her Florida home.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey was subsequently charged with
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[SPEAKER_12]: sexual battery on a child under the age of 12 in battery.
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[SPEAKER_12]: He was also booked on a probation violation and failure to register a change of address as a convicted sex offender.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Upon searching his laptop, authorities found child sexual abuse material.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Family members in North Carolina describe Jessica, a student at Sherwood Elementary School, as a kind and outgoing child.
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[SPEAKER_12]: They said the community's response brought them a measure of comfort, and the wake of her horrifying death.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Quote, they just blessed my heart that people show up to white a candle, and remember instead of her, said Susan Lundsford, Jessica's aunt.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Relatives also express concern about systemic failures that allowed Kui, a registered sex offender to reoffend, quote, with this man, the system failed, said John Bowles, Jessica's cousin.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Another relative, Darling and Lundsford, urged the public to advocate for stronger protection, for children, quote, don't let Jessica's death be in vain, taking active voice to protect these kids because they cannot help themselves.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's father contemplated suing the county.
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[SPEAKER_07]: You didn't lose your kid.
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[SPEAKER_13]: Clearly upset while recalling the horrible death of his daughter, Mark Lunsford insisted on talking only about an upcoming fundraiser for a child advocacy center named for Jessica and refused to answer questions about his notice to sue the sheriff and state law enforcement.
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[SPEAKER_09]: Well, I know that law enforcement needs child advocacy centers to be able to do prosecution against sex offenders and predators.
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[SPEAKER_09]: And I have to stay focused on that.
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[SPEAKER_07]: We are going to vigorously defend our agencies against this baseless allegation made by the ones
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[SPEAKER_13]: that we failed to do our job."
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[SPEAKER_13]: But Kuiz confession may be the basis for the lawsuit.
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[SPEAKER_13]: In it, Kuiz says officers did not thoroughly search his home, where he says Jessica had been hidden and was likely still alive.
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[SPEAKER_13]: He said, quote, if they deputies would have came in, they would have caught her in my closet.
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[SPEAKER_13]: They didn't search.
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[SPEAKER_13]: An autosie showed Jessica likely was buried alive, but could not determine how long she had lived after her kidnapping.
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[SPEAKER_03]: In the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, and in 4 Miami-Date County, change a venue from 5th Circuit Citrus County.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The State of Florida versus Johnny Vander-Cooley, case number 25 CF-298A, verdict count 1.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find us follows as to the defendant in this case.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree of as charged in the indictment.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all the 7th day of March, AD, 2007 at Miami Day County Florida, Pedro Yagruna, 4%.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Vertic Count II.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of burglary of a dwelling with a battery as charged in the indictment
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[SPEAKER_03]: verdict count three.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of kidnapping as charged in the indictment.
17:38.886 --> 17:41.190
[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all, the verdict count four.
17:41.690 --> 17:44.615
[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
17:45.176 --> 17:51.206
[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of sexual battery on a child under 12 years of age, as charged in the indictment.
17:51.526 --> 17:52.508
[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all.
17:53.180 --> 18:08.939
[SPEAKER_12]: On August 24th, 2007, at precisely 2 p.m., John Kuhi was sentenced, among those present was Jessica's father and grandparents, Archie and Ruth Lundzford, who sat together as law enforcement officials, filled the remaining seats.
18:09.500 --> 18:16.048
[SPEAKER_12]: Sheriff Jeff Dozzi, who had led the investigation, watched solemnly as Justice was carried out.
18:16.467 --> 18:25.599
[SPEAKER_18]: In the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of the state of Florida, and in for Miami-Dade County, change venue from the 5th Circuit, citrus county.
18:26.139 --> 18:31.987
[SPEAKER_18]: State of Florida versus Johnny Vander Kooley, case number 2005 CF-298.
18:32.087 --> 18:45.023
[SPEAKER_18]: I'm a majority of the jury by a vote of 10 to 2, advise and recommend to the court that it impose the death penalty upon Johnny Vander Kooley for the murder of Jessica Marie Lundsford.
18:45.745 --> 18:54.076
[SPEAKER_12]: The courtroom in Citrus County was silent, as Circuit Judge Richard Howard delivered the final words that sealed Kuiz fate.
18:54.597 --> 18:58.101
[SPEAKER_12]: The 49-year-old man would die by lethal injection.
18:58.842 --> 19:02.828
[SPEAKER_12]: Kuiz defense attorney had made one final attempt to spare their client's life.
19:03.389 --> 19:07.534
[SPEAKER_12]: In a motion submitted earlier in the month, they pleaded for mercy.
19:07.514 --> 19:23.410
[SPEAKER_12]: arguing that Kui's crime was borne out of impulse and stupidity, they described his troubled childhood, the abuse he had suffered, and his mental deficiencies, insisting that a wife sentence, not death, was the only punishment that would be justified.
19:23.971 --> 19:28.876
[SPEAKER_12]: For Jessica's family, the judges ruling brought a measure of justice they had long prayed for.
19:28.936 --> 19:33.741
[SPEAKER_12]: Her father, Mark Lundsford, stood before reporters.
19:33.721 --> 19:43.458
[SPEAKER_12]: His voice edged with anger and grief, quote, I think he needs to stand up and be a man now, and take his death penalty, and I hope he rocks in hell.
19:44.079 --> 19:46.543
[SPEAKER_12]: But even Kui seemed to know what was coming.
19:47.365 --> 19:54.397
[SPEAKER_12]: From his jail cell, and a recorded conversation with his aunt, on August 3rd, it already accepted his fate.
19:55.078 --> 19:58.885
[SPEAKER_12]: quote, I kicked myself in the butt a hundred times a day.
19:58.865 --> 19:59.706
[SPEAKER_12]: stupidity.
20:00.187 --> 20:03.531
[SPEAKER_12]: I just keep asking myself, why were you so stupid?
20:04.031 --> 20:08.277
[SPEAKER_12]: We all know what he's going to do to he said we're forging to judge Howard.
20:08.857 --> 20:10.820
[SPEAKER_12]: But you know, God's in control of everything.
20:11.080 --> 20:13.643
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I just want to work about it.
20:13.663 --> 20:14.184
[SPEAKER_04]: That's right.
20:15.105 --> 20:16.106
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't let it bother me.
20:16.347 --> 20:19.911
[SPEAKER_15]: No, because you know, from the time we're born in this world.
20:20.262 --> 20:21.164
[SPEAKER_15]: We're born to die.
20:21.425 --> 20:21.826
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know.
20:22.106 --> 20:23.309
[SPEAKER_15]: And so when God gets there.
20:23.329 --> 20:23.991
[SPEAKER_04]: God goes somewhere.
20:24.151 --> 20:25.193
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah.
20:25.253 --> 20:26.216
[SPEAKER_15]: When God gets ready.
20:26.376 --> 20:26.957
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
20:26.997 --> 20:28.220
[SPEAKER_04]: Meanwhile, I won't be leaving by.
20:28.280 --> 20:29.884
[SPEAKER_04]: I might have no good in it anyway.
20:29.904 --> 20:32.871
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, do we all know what you're doing too?
20:32.891 --> 20:33.432
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah.
20:33.452 --> 20:34.194
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, maybe too.
20:34.294 --> 20:36.499
[SPEAKER_15]: But you know, God's in control of everything.
20:36.682 --> 20:40.586
[SPEAKER_12]: He knew the sentence that awaited him, and he knew why it was going to come.
20:41.306 --> 20:44.849
[SPEAKER_12]: John Kooey would never receive the justice that he so deserved.
20:45.650 --> 20:52.677
[SPEAKER_12]: In 2007, at age 51, he died of natural causes inside a Jacksonville Ford hospital.
20:53.758 --> 20:55.579
[SPEAKER_12]: One could only hope that hell awaits.
20:56.420 --> 21:05.068
[SPEAKER_17]: So from the first headline, whom she was missing, Ruth cut it up and tenderly placed it
21:05.521 --> 21:10.393
[SPEAKER_17]: years like 2005, filled its binder, going from the search for Jesse.
21:10.895 --> 21:11.797
[SPEAKER_05]: Jesse is home now.
21:12.338 --> 21:13.321
[SPEAKER_17]: To find in her killer.
21:13.982 --> 21:18.795
[SPEAKER_05]: If you realize that if they had found him that we would have been the culprits.
21:19.416 --> 21:22.163
[SPEAKER_17]: To finally be enabled to put her granddaughter to rest.
21:22.463 --> 21:26.828
[SPEAKER_05]: When they lifted the bloons up, you know, all these bloons were together.
21:27.709 --> 21:33.515
[SPEAKER_05]: And all on some mark looked up there and he said, there's one going off all by itself.
21:33.756 --> 21:34.396
[SPEAKER_05]: That's Jesse.
21:36.459 --> 21:37.520
[SPEAKER_05]: This was at the trial.
21:37.540 --> 21:41.985
[SPEAKER_17]: 2007 was full too, with the trial of the killer.
21:42.685 --> 21:45.889
[SPEAKER_17]: So that's all about the prosecution is so.
21:46.156 --> 21:48.439
[SPEAKER_17]: and John Kooey's eventual sentencing to death.
21:48.920 --> 21:50.322
[SPEAKER_05]: You were thinking, well, this is it.
21:50.342 --> 21:51.143
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the end.
21:51.884 --> 21:52.825
[SPEAKER_05]: Matter wasn't the end.
21:52.885 --> 21:54.628
[SPEAKER_05]: It just kept going.
21:54.688 --> 21:55.048
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going.
21:55.569 --> 21:58.193
[SPEAKER_17]: 2009 had just started when there was some good news.
21:58.393 --> 21:59.835
[SPEAKER_17]: Outside Ruth's bedroom window.
22:00.416 --> 22:04.321
[SPEAKER_17]: The trailer, where Kooey lived and murder Jessica, was burned to the ground.
22:04.822 --> 22:09.008
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm standing there and saying, what took you so long, Lord?
22:09.308 --> 22:15.834
[SPEAKER_17]: and a little over halfway through, really, only a few pages into this year's book, Ruth put one final page in.
22:19.037 --> 22:19.218
[SPEAKER_17]: Ha ha ha.
22:19.238 --> 22:21.360
[SPEAKER_17]: Jesse's killer dies.
22:22.281 --> 22:24.283
[SPEAKER_17]: Ruth would have been a different headline.
22:24.303 --> 22:26.625
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, maybe I would write how Louie you're in here, so.
22:27.846 --> 22:32.290
[SPEAKER_12]: This year, Mark 20 years since Jessica Lundsford was taken from this world.
22:32.891 --> 22:38.016
[SPEAKER_02]: Underneath the trees at Faith Baptist Church, Jessica Lundsford's smile shines.
22:38.401 --> 22:48.954
[SPEAKER_06]: when a child's life is lost, people will create things to make some kind of good happen for that child.
22:48.974 --> 22:51.377
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's a legacy begins.
22:52.178 --> 22:56.103
[SPEAKER_02]: Legacy, that's an important word for Mark Lonesford, Jessica's father.
22:56.583 --> 23:01.810
[SPEAKER_02]: When I called you, you said, I don't want to talk about the crime, I want to talk about the legacy.
23:02.390 --> 23:03.852
[SPEAKER_02]: And that 20 years.
23:04.608 --> 23:09.794
[SPEAKER_02]: how has Jesse's legacy impacted the entire country, the entire world?
23:10.475 --> 23:13.078
[SPEAKER_06]: It's to me, it's very large.
23:13.098 --> 23:17.003
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe other people may not be such a big deal, but to me, it's very large.
23:17.023 --> 23:22.089
[SPEAKER_06]: And after 20 years, we deserve something to be happy about.
23:22.109 --> 23:26.634
[SPEAKER_02]: A neighbor who was also confronted to work at her school, kidnapped and murdered nine-year-old Jessica.
23:27.175 --> 23:29.097
[SPEAKER_02]: He had failed to register as a sex offender.
23:29.431 --> 23:37.661
[SPEAKER_02]: Our cameras were there every day in 2005, during the family's three week long search for Jessica and their fight for justice after.
23:38.001 --> 23:39.523
[SPEAKER_10]: What happens when the cameras go away?
23:42.026 --> 23:43.027
[SPEAKER_10]: These are your kids too.
23:43.327 --> 23:57.784
[SPEAKER_06]: I can remember saying that and I think that that was a powerful statement because for the next 10 years I was still in cameras and other states in DC out of the country.
23:57.950 --> 24:01.455
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if you don't know her name, her story has likely impacted you.
24:01.876 --> 24:05.782
[SPEAKER_02]: Florida passed the Jessica Lungsford Act shortly after her death.
24:05.802 --> 24:13.113
[SPEAKER_02]: It changed Florida's sexual offender and predator registration laws, including stronger background checks for people contracted to work for schools.
24:13.313 --> 24:16.878
[SPEAKER_02]: How many states has some version of Jesse?
24:16.918 --> 24:17.199
[SPEAKER_06]: 46.
24:17.399 --> 24:20.564
[SPEAKER_06]: I think about the others that are being helped.
24:20.584 --> 24:22.827
[SPEAKER_06]: The other parents is just going to help the children.
24:23.026 --> 24:25.250
[SPEAKER_02]: The other side of her legacy is Jesse's place.
24:25.310 --> 24:25.551
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
24:25.992 --> 24:32.484
[SPEAKER_06]: These child advocacy centers are meant to be a comfort zone for the child.
24:33.045 --> 24:36.832
[SPEAKER_06]: Because without them, they got to take them to the sheriff's department for investigation.
24:36.872 --> 24:38.154
[SPEAKER_06]: They got to go to hospitals.
24:38.194 --> 24:39.396
[SPEAKER_06]: They got to go to therapy.
24:39.737 --> 24:41.240
[SPEAKER_06]: They can do everything in one spot.
24:42.061 --> 24:44.005
[SPEAKER_06]: Somewhere where the child can learn to be comfortable.
24:44.221 --> 24:47.886
[SPEAKER_02]: Jessica's legacy also lives on at Citrus County Sheriff's Office.
24:48.006 --> 24:52.693
[SPEAKER_01]: When I think back 20 years ago, we lost some innocence I would think in Citrus County.
24:52.953 --> 24:57.360
[SPEAKER_02]: Citrus County Sheriff David Vincent showed me their new Tree of Life Memorial for her.
24:57.640 --> 25:01.526
[SPEAKER_02]: It also highlights the importance of every single department in this case.
25:02.087 --> 25:10.819
[SPEAKER_01]: When we move forward with things like the Tree of Life that's behind me here, it's just making sure that no one ever forgets of why we put safeguards in place and why we want to protect children.
25:11.002 --> 25:15.050
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though Jessica is not physically here, Lonsford knows she's always with him.
25:15.390 --> 25:19.939
[SPEAKER_02]: He's 17-year-old son, shares a birthday with her, and Lonsford says he can still fill her presence.
25:20.500 --> 25:26.491
[SPEAKER_06]: And then there's times that you talk to yourself, and then in your own voice, you talk back with an answer.
25:27.773 --> 25:30.097
[SPEAKER_06]: That's God or the ones you lost.
25:30.819 --> 25:31.941
[SPEAKER_06]: They're giving you the answer.
25:33.263 --> 25:34.225
[SPEAKER_12]: They're trying to help you.
25:34.762 --> 25:40.768
[SPEAKER_12]: I would admit that as a father of a seven-month-old girl, this was a difficult episode to create.
25:41.468 --> 25:45.372
[SPEAKER_12]: I found myself wiping away tears on more than one occasion.
25:45.932 --> 26:02.608
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's law named in memory of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford is a title given to a 2005 Florida law and a similar measures adopted in other states, created to protect children from sexual predators and to prevent repeat offenses.
26:02.588 --> 26:13.045
[SPEAKER_12]: The law imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, and a lifetime of electronic monitoring for those who harm victims under the age of 12.
26:13.686 --> 26:19.095
[SPEAKER_12]: Frankly, listen, I think being launched into the sun with a catapult would be more effective.
26:19.496 --> 26:20.938
[SPEAKER_12]: But, what do I know?
26:21.599 --> 26:23.803
[SPEAKER_12]: Founded on August 2006,
26:23.783 --> 26:34.903
[SPEAKER_12]: The Citrus County Children's Advocacy Center, known as Jesse's Place, was created in response to a deep need within the community to better protect its most vulnerable children.
26:35.544 --> 26:47.445
[SPEAKER_12]: The center emerged from the grassroots efforts of local child advocates who were determined to honor the memory of Jessica Lunsford by ensuring that no child in Citrus County
26:47.425 --> 26:49.909
[SPEAKER_12]: Whatever again, suffer as she did.
26:49.929 --> 27:01.890
[SPEAKER_12]: This mission is clear to provide a safe, compassionate space where abused, neglected, traumatized children can find protection, justice, and healing.
27:02.471 --> 27:09.383
[SPEAKER_12]: Today, Jesse's place fulfills that mission as a fully integrated child advocacy center.
27:09.363 --> 27:22.445
[SPEAKER_12]: Within its warm child friendly facility, the investigative work of law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families is brought together and supported through collaborations with professionals from multiple disciplines.
27:23.186 --> 27:34.425
[SPEAKER_12]: Children receive specialized forensic interviews in medical examinations, while their families are offered advocacy services in trauma-focused evidence-based therapy.
27:34.405 --> 27:37.569
[SPEAKER_12]: to help them heal and begin the long journey towards recovery.
27:38.130 --> 27:43.677
[SPEAKER_12]: Every service is provided with care and it's always free of charge.
27:44.378 --> 27:50.186
[SPEAKER_12]: And all of this could have been done without the legacy of Jessica Lunsford.
27:50.727 --> 28:01.341
[SPEAKER_12]: She's so moved the community that they established all of this along adapted across the nation and advocacy center full of experts
28:01.321 --> 28:03.768
[SPEAKER_12]: that has saved countless children.
28:04.349 --> 28:07.779
[SPEAKER_12]: In its broad justice to those that would act to harm them.
28:07.839 --> 28:10.065
[SPEAKER_12]: Rest in peace, Jessica.
28:11.148 --> 28:13.795
[SPEAKER_12]: I hope wherever you are, it's bright and sunny.
00:00.723 --> 00:05.254
[SPEAKER_12]: Listener, I want to give you a special warning for this episode.
00:05.314 --> 00:16.200
[SPEAKER_12]: 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.
00:16.180 --> 00:19.885
[SPEAKER_12]: There are details in this case that left me feeling shaken.
00:20.385 --> 00:21.507
[SPEAKER_12]: There's no way around it.
00:21.947 --> 00:32.941
[SPEAKER_12]: 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.
00:33.422 --> 00:45.377
[SPEAKER_12]: 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.
00:45.357 --> 00:46.359
[SPEAKER_12]: Let's get on with it.
00:50.267 --> 00:51.029
[SPEAKER_11]: Welcome, listener.
00:51.931 --> 00:52.873
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm glad you're here.
00:53.895 --> 00:54.396
[SPEAKER_11]: Take a seat.
00:55.198 --> 00:56.000
[SPEAKER_11]: Next to the fire.
00:59.587 --> 01:00.549
[SPEAKER_14]: Welcome to Obscura.
01:01.712 --> 01:03.636
[SPEAKER_14]: Where we shine a light on the dark.
01:28.979 --> 01:29.940
[SPEAKER_16]: What's up people?
01:30.481 --> 01:32.964
[SPEAKER_16]: Joe Winkow here, your favorite Hawaiian guy.
01:32.984 --> 01:37.930
[SPEAKER_16]: Right now I'm here at this cemetery in Citrus County, Florida.
01:38.511 --> 01:43.537
[SPEAKER_16]: I'm visiting the grave of this girl who was murdered back in 2005.
01:44.258 --> 01:46.060
[SPEAKER_16]: Her name was Jessica Lundsford.
01:46.581 --> 01:54.210
[SPEAKER_16]: I write about her story online a really long time ago and I wanted to visit her grave and leave a flower by her grave.
01:54.190 --> 01:56.372
[SPEAKER_16]: because I felt really sorry for what happened to her.
01:56.793 --> 02:03.580
[SPEAKER_16]: It's really horrible what she went through and what her family went through when everything happened and I found her grave.
02:03.660 --> 02:06.803
[SPEAKER_16]: It's right here and let me show it to you.
02:07.984 --> 02:08.925
[SPEAKER_16]: So here it is.
02:09.786 --> 02:10.347
[SPEAKER_16]: Her grave.
02:11.768 --> 02:13.070
[SPEAKER_16]: Jessica Marie Lundsford.
02:14.832 --> 02:21.919
[SPEAKER_16]: She would have been my age if she was still alive today, but because of some monster she
02:22.810 --> 02:24.858
[SPEAKER_16]: She's now forever going to be nine years old.
02:24.898 --> 02:27.569
[SPEAKER_16]: It's not fair what happened to her.
02:27.629 --> 02:29.958
[SPEAKER_16]: It's not fair that her family lost her either.
02:30.018 --> 02:31.885
[SPEAKER_16]: Rest in peace.
02:32.347 --> 02:33.833
[SPEAKER_16]: Jessica Marie Lundsford.
02:34.538 --> 02:37.763
[SPEAKER_12]: Art III, the girl who feared the dark.
02:38.665 --> 02:45.196
[SPEAKER_12]: Early, on March 19th, Jessica's body was found buried in the ground, next to Kui's trailer.
02:46.017 --> 02:51.426
[SPEAKER_12]: The team spent five hours excavating an area of dirt on the east side of the trailer.
02:52.248 --> 02:56.074
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's body was covered with two black garbage bags.
02:56.054 --> 03:08.056
[SPEAKER_12]: The bags were tied closed in a nodded fashion, Jessica once furthered and possibly small, right indexed in middle finger, hooked acusably through the trash bags.
03:08.677 --> 03:10.600
[SPEAKER_12]: There was a child in those trash bags.
03:11.161 --> 03:15.309
[SPEAKER_12]: Just a kid, a small girl who had every hope in the world.
03:15.810 --> 03:19.176
[SPEAKER_12]: Listener, a girl who had a loving family.
03:19.561 --> 03:26.586
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, from bandage to bicycles to burps and bruises, she was right on board.
03:27.268 --> 03:30.921
[SPEAKER_12]: Who slept with her stuffed dolphin to fend off the dark?
03:31.002 --> 03:33.486
[SPEAKER_12]: That darkness came to consume her.
03:33.526 --> 03:39.514
[SPEAKER_12]: There were ligatures, made of speaker wire, wrapped in knot at around her small wrists.
03:40.275 --> 03:43.039
[SPEAKER_12]: She died holding her stuffed toy purple dolphin.
03:43.640 --> 03:50.850
[SPEAKER_12]: The medical examiner cut the ligatures from Jessica's wrists, which were submitted to FDLE for analysis.
03:50.915 --> 03:56.840
[SPEAKER_12]: It was a grim scene, hard in members in their field, are reported to have openly wept.
03:57.361 --> 03:59.303
[SPEAKER_12]: This was the kind of case that haunts you.
03:59.823 --> 04:08.371
[SPEAKER_12]: Listener, well, after retirement, the one that you see when you close your eyes in the shower, are left your granddaughter up for a helicopter ride.
04:09.091 --> 04:14.336
[SPEAKER_12]: The medical examiner took Jessica's fingerprints, as well as oral, vaginal, and anal swabs.
04:15.137 --> 04:18.660
[SPEAKER_12]: Law enforcement removed the cause of war from Kui's bedroom.
04:18.640 --> 04:29.083
[SPEAKER_12]: Infotographs developed of latent prints found on the cause of war, a comparison of Jessica's known prints to the photographs of the prints located in the closet, or a match.
04:29.805 --> 04:33.153
[SPEAKER_12]: In addition, Kennedy rolled a set of prints from Kui.
04:33.714 --> 04:36.480
[SPEAKER_12]: He also obtained buical swabs from Kui.
04:36.460 --> 04:42.347
[SPEAKER_12]: Gene Secord and John Kooey were both jailed in the Citrus County jail and late March 2005.
04:43.268 --> 04:45.351
[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey housed in the cell next to Secord.
04:45.911 --> 04:47.613
[SPEAKER_12]: He talked to Secord about religion.
04:48.254 --> 04:51.498
[SPEAKER_12]: Secord asked Kooey if he believed in God so much.
04:52.079 --> 04:53.841
[SPEAKER_12]: How could he have done something as he did?
04:54.442 --> 04:56.945
[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey responded, it's in the past, man.
04:57.546 --> 04:58.827
[SPEAKER_12]: We can't live in the past.
04:59.308 --> 05:00.049
[SPEAKER_12]: Forget about it.
05:00.489 --> 05:04.594
[SPEAKER_12]: Further, Kooey said, if my sister would have loved me,
05:04.574 --> 05:05.777
[SPEAKER_12]: I wouldn't have done all this.
05:06.498 --> 05:17.022
[SPEAKER_12]: Dr. Stephen Cogswell, medical examiner, or former autopsy of Jessica Winsford, Cogswell noted that Jessica's Bonnie had two garbage bags tied around her.
05:17.583 --> 05:24.338
[SPEAKER_12]: The bags were arranged around her Bonnie, as though she stepped into one open bag, squatted down.
05:24.318 --> 05:26.000
[SPEAKER_12]: And it was not at above her.
05:26.541 --> 05:34.392
[SPEAKER_12]: The outside bag, quote, was pulled down overhead and not quite underneath her buttocks, but in a lower area.
05:34.892 --> 05:43.764
[SPEAKER_12]: Based upon the state of decomposition that Jessica's body showed, dogs well determined she had been dead approximately three weeks before her body was found.
05:44.485 --> 05:53.177
[SPEAKER_12]: Due to the mild climate at the time and all the rain, Jessica's body was not as decomposed as it could have been in other areas of Florida.
05:53.157 --> 05:59.343
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's body was, quote, at the stage of decomposition, going from blood into decay.
05:59.965 --> 06:03.319
[SPEAKER_12]: She did not have signs of external injuries or bruising.
06:03.400 --> 06:07.345
[SPEAKER_12]: There was a considerable amount of decomposition fluid in the tranche bags.
06:08.166 --> 06:13.352
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica soft tissues liquefied and drained away from her body, and the skin itself.
06:14.033 --> 06:18.359
[SPEAKER_12]: Everything inside the trash bags was saturated with decompositional fluids.
06:19.059 --> 06:22.784
[SPEAKER_12]: Her body was essentially within a semi-liquid environment.
06:23.505 --> 06:31.635
[SPEAKER_12]: As a result, trace evidence from her body settled at the bottom of the trash bag,
06:31.615 --> 06:40.946
[SPEAKER_12]: The sexual assault examination indicated Jessica had shallow lacirations and abrasions to her vagina, indicative of sexual assault.
06:41.687 --> 06:44.570
[SPEAKER_12]: These injuries occurred within a few hours of her death.
06:45.211 --> 06:48.735
[SPEAKER_12]: She would have had, quote, a fair amount of bleeding from these injuries.
06:49.536 --> 06:56.003
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's gastrointestinal tract was empty, indicating she had not had a meal in quite a while.
06:55.983 --> 06:58.687
[SPEAKER_12]: This is when a terrible discovery was made.
06:59.288 --> 07:01.972
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica Lonesford had been buried alive.
07:02.572 --> 07:09.002
[SPEAKER_12]: Her fingers were poking through the trash bag because she had been thrashing desperately attempting to escape.
07:09.502 --> 07:19.356
[SPEAKER_12]: The girl who had been so afraid of the dark was made to step into a trash bag, holding her stuffed dolphin, had another placed over her head.
07:19.977 --> 07:25.365
[SPEAKER_12]: She was then placed into an
07:25.345 --> 07:28.691
[SPEAKER_12]: Dr. Cogwell concluded Jessica's death was a homicide.
07:29.492 --> 07:31.436
[SPEAKER_12]: Her cause of death was suffocation.
07:32.538 --> 07:34.381
[SPEAKER_07]: He lived directly across the street for me.
07:35.663 --> 07:38.187
[SPEAKER_07]: He broke in my own, took my daughter to his house.
07:39.550 --> 07:41.233
[SPEAKER_07]: He kept her there for three days.
07:43.617 --> 07:46.201
[SPEAKER_07]: As he raked her, he kept her in a closet.
07:46.863 --> 07:48.265
[SPEAKER_07]: Time to speak her word.
07:50.405 --> 07:57.799
[SPEAKER_07]: Place the room to trash bags, tight it shut up, place the room to hall a line, and burn.
07:58.960 --> 08:08.197
[SPEAKER_12]: When confronted with this evidence, could we told investigators, quote, he didn't know why he did what he did, and then he wished he could take it back, but he couldn't.
08:08.738 --> 08:12.284
[SPEAKER_12]: Could we immediately offer it that he had been doing a lot of drugs at the time?
08:12.785 --> 08:16.752
[SPEAKER_12]: He then told Officer Reed, he saw Jessica playing in her yard.
08:17.353 --> 08:20.479
[SPEAKER_12]: He thought she was about six years old when he saw her.
08:20.459 --> 08:22.422
[SPEAKER_12]: On the night, Kui took Jessica.
08:22.942 --> 08:24.424
[SPEAKER_12]: He went to burglarize her home.
08:24.485 --> 08:30.273
[SPEAKER_12]: According to him, he saw Jessica in quote, acted on impulse and took her.
08:30.693 --> 08:34.058
[SPEAKER_12]: He told Jessica, quote, I'm going to take you to your father.
08:34.478 --> 08:39.345
[SPEAKER_12]: She asked if she could take her dolphin, and Kui told her that she could if she kept quiet.
08:39.325 --> 08:42.372
[SPEAKER_12]: Who he said he kept Jessica in his home for three days.
08:42.973 --> 08:46.661
[SPEAKER_12]: She was either lying on the bed with him or was in the closet.
08:47.303 --> 08:58.768
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm not going to repeat some of the things he said she willingly did to him because there's no willing for nine-year-old or anyone in that situation for that matter.
08:58.748 --> 09:01.691
[SPEAKER_12]: So, that is going to be left out.
09:02.252 --> 09:05.635
[SPEAKER_12]: Kui said his sister knew Jessica was in their home.
09:06.136 --> 09:10.581
[SPEAKER_12]: At one point Matt Dittrich was in Kui's bedroom when Jessica was there.
09:11.201 --> 09:13.584
[SPEAKER_12]: On the first day, Jessica was with him.
09:14.004 --> 09:19.230
[SPEAKER_12]: Kui told Reed he engaged in sexual activity with her, and that Jessica blood.
09:19.750 --> 09:24.295
[SPEAKER_12]: Kui panicked when police came with dogs on the third day of her captivity.
09:24.856 --> 09:26.798
[SPEAKER_12]: He tied her hands and feet.
09:26.778 --> 09:29.143
[SPEAKER_12]: Kui told Jessica he was going to take her home.
09:29.183 --> 09:31.328
[SPEAKER_12]: She climbed out of his window.
09:31.368 --> 09:38.083
[SPEAKER_12]: He told her to get into the garbage bags, quote, because he didn't want people seeing her going across the street.
09:38.524 --> 09:42.433
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica stepped into one bag, and then Kui covered her with the other.
09:43.014 --> 09:45.580
[SPEAKER_12]: It previously dug a hole on this property.
09:45.560 --> 09:52.132
[SPEAKER_12]: He took Jessica out of his room through a window and a small escape ladder, he had created ahead of time.
09:52.773 --> 09:58.262
[SPEAKER_12]: He placed her in the hole and covered her with dirt, she was still alive at this point.
09:58.803 --> 10:03.932
[SPEAKER_12]: At this point in the interview, John Kui complained about the way other inmates talked about him.
10:04.493 --> 10:07.859
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, I don't appreciate people talking about me like this.
10:08.561 --> 10:10.504
[SPEAKER_12]: I didn't mean to do what I did.
10:10.484 --> 10:14.413
[SPEAKER_12]: And I didn't mean to kill her when asked what his biggest regret was.
10:14.915 --> 10:19.205
[SPEAKER_12]: He said, quote, my regret is that I've lost everything.
10:19.245 --> 10:21.931
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm the one in jail, listener.
10:22.513 --> 10:27.244
[SPEAKER_12]: I want to take a moment to give a clear summary of what actually happened.
10:27.224 --> 10:44.153
[SPEAKER_12]: I mentioned it before, but I left some details out of what Kui said he and Jessica had done cool together, but it was so insulting to Jessica's memory and frankly absurd that I will never read that out loud.
10:44.133 --> 10:47.920
[SPEAKER_12]: This is not going to be through the lens of John Kooey's confession.
10:48.421 --> 10:57.859
[SPEAKER_12]: That way you can have a full objective understanding of the events that transpired, without anything being colored by someone trying to minimize their guilt.
10:57.879 --> 11:03.770
[SPEAKER_12]: Observant listeners would notice that Kooey even contradicted himself during his confession.
11:03.811 --> 11:06.175
[SPEAKER_12]: So, listener.
11:06.155 --> 11:09.222
[SPEAKER_12]: John Kui observed Jessica playing outside her home.
11:09.904 --> 11:13.512
[SPEAKER_12]: Later that night, he went to Jessica's home and entered her room.
11:14.253 --> 11:17.802
[SPEAKER_12]: He found her in bed, told her he'd take her to her father.
11:18.543 --> 11:22.392
[SPEAKER_12]: Took her to his trailer where he kept her for three days.
11:22.574 --> 11:35.150
[SPEAKER_12]: He admitted to sexually assaulting and raping her multiple times, and that this caused enough trauma for Jessica to bleed, and as examiners found later, caused laceration.
11:35.770 --> 11:41.758
[SPEAKER_12]: He then hid her in his closet whenever police was searching for her, and panicked when he heard the police stalks.
11:42.359 --> 11:45.122
[SPEAKER_12]: He dug a hole in which to bury her, and
11:45.102 --> 11:49.387
[SPEAKER_12]: created an escape ladder for in case he needed to bug out.
11:49.927 --> 11:55.353
[SPEAKER_12]: Later, he told her he would take her back to her house, but did not want anyone to see them.
11:55.814 --> 12:04.864
[SPEAKER_12]: He tricked her into climbing into a plastic trash bag, tied it around her, then placed another one over the top of her head and across the top of her body.
12:05.404 --> 12:13.253
[SPEAKER_12]: He buried her alive with her purple dolphin in the hole he had previously dug.
12:13.233 --> 12:18.059
[SPEAKER_12]: He successfully hid her in his trailer without his family detecting her presence.
12:18.500 --> 12:24.728
[SPEAKER_12]: He dug the hole to a depth of an excess of 12 inches of soil found to be covering her body.
12:25.128 --> 12:26.390
[SPEAKER_12]: He avoided detection.
12:27.011 --> 12:29.154
[SPEAKER_12]: He obtained necessary garbage bags.
12:29.714 --> 12:32.118
[SPEAKER_12]: He convinced her to step into that first bag.
12:32.578 --> 12:34.661
[SPEAKER_12]: He secured her fate with the second bag.
12:35.202 --> 12:41.670
[SPEAKER_12]: He put Jessica in the hole and then filled that grave with
12:41.650 --> 13:04.637
[SPEAKER_12]: This was a determined, albeit savage, manner of planned murder, and absolutely no pretense of anything else, no amount of childhood abuse or semi-literacy can explain away what he did, that he meticulously planned everything.
13:05.309 --> 13:21.006
[SPEAKER_12]: Friends and relatives of Jessica Marie once heard, who spent much of her early wife in North Carolina, gathered to honor the memory of the slain nine year old, described by family members as a cheerful child who enjoyed singing and helping others.
13:20.986 --> 13:27.999
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica was remembered during a candle-wide vigil, intended by more than 100 supporters outside the boardwalk.
13:28.420 --> 13:32.548
[SPEAKER_12]: A restaurant where a father, Mark Winsford, had previously worked.
13:33.089 --> 13:41.965
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica lived in Gaston County for most of her childhood before relocating the Florida with her father, about 18 months prior to her death.
13:41.945 --> 13:51.153
[SPEAKER_12]: Following her disappearance, residents of her former community organized fundraisers, including barbecue sales, to assist the family.
13:51.593 --> 14:01.282
[SPEAKER_12]: Authorities later reported that John of Andrew Kooey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica, after taking a polygraph test in Georgia.
14:01.842 --> 14:06.386
[SPEAKER_12]: Her body was discovered more than three weeks after she went missing from her Florida home.
14:06.907 --> 14:10.990
[SPEAKER_12]: Kooey was subsequently charged with
14:11.122 --> 14:15.192
[SPEAKER_12]: sexual battery on a child under the age of 12 in battery.
14:15.813 --> 14:22.950
[SPEAKER_12]: He was also booked on a probation violation and failure to register a change of address as a convicted sex offender.
14:23.391 --> 14:28.624
[SPEAKER_12]: Upon searching his laptop, authorities found child sexual abuse material.
14:28.604 --> 14:36.517
[SPEAKER_12]: Family members in North Carolina describe Jessica, a student at Sherwood Elementary School, as a kind and outgoing child.
14:37.298 --> 14:42.687
[SPEAKER_12]: They said the community's response brought them a measure of comfort, and the wake of her horrifying death.
14:43.188 --> 14:52.182
[SPEAKER_12]: Quote, they just blessed my heart that people show up to white a candle, and remember instead of her, said Susan Lundsford, Jessica's aunt.
14:52.162 --> 15:07.183
[SPEAKER_12]: Relatives also express concern about systemic failures that allowed Kui, a registered sex offender to reoffend, quote, with this man, the system failed, said John Bowles, Jessica's cousin.
15:07.163 --> 15:21.311
[SPEAKER_12]: Another relative, Darling and Lundsford, urged the public to advocate for stronger protection, for children, quote, don't let Jessica's death be in vain, taking active voice to protect these kids because they cannot help themselves.
15:21.873 --> 15:24.959
[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's father contemplated suing the county.
15:26.642 --> 15:28.125
[SPEAKER_07]: You didn't lose your kid.
15:28.814 --> 15:48.392
[SPEAKER_13]: Clearly upset while recalling the horrible death of his daughter, Mark Lunsford insisted on talking only about an upcoming fundraiser for a child advocacy center named for Jessica and refused to answer questions about his notice to sue the sheriff and state law enforcement.
15:48.440 --> 15:57.932
[SPEAKER_09]: Well, I know that law enforcement needs child advocacy centers to be able to do prosecution against sex offenders and predators.
15:58.572 --> 16:00.775
[SPEAKER_09]: And I have to stay focused on that.
16:01.096 --> 16:11.308
[SPEAKER_07]: We are going to vigorously defend our agencies against this baseless allegation made by the ones
16:11.288 --> 16:13.130
[SPEAKER_13]: that we failed to do our job."
16:13.150 --> 16:15.833
[SPEAKER_13]: But Kuiz confession may be the basis for the lawsuit.
16:16.313 --> 16:23.281
[SPEAKER_13]: In it, Kuiz says officers did not thoroughly search his home, where he says Jessica had been hidden and was likely still alive.
16:23.561 --> 16:28.746
[SPEAKER_13]: He said, quote, if they deputies would have came in, they would have caught her in my closet.
16:29.006 --> 16:29.927
[SPEAKER_13]: They didn't search.
16:30.448 --> 16:37.195
[SPEAKER_13]: An autosie showed Jessica likely was buried alive, but could not determine how long she had lived after her kidnapping.
16:38.272 --> 16:47.407
[SPEAKER_03]: In the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, and in 4 Miami-Date County, change a venue from 5th Circuit Citrus County.
16:48.008 --> 16:55.941
[SPEAKER_03]: The State of Florida versus Johnny Vander-Cooley, case number 25 CF-298A, verdict count 1.
16:56.863 --> 17:00.769
[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find us follows as to the defendant in this case.
17:00.749 --> 17:06.617
[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree of as charged in the indictment.
17:07.418 --> 17:15.710
[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all the 7th day of March, AD, 2007 at Miami Day County Florida, Pedro Yagruna, 4%.
17:17.853 --> 17:18.854
[SPEAKER_03]: Vertic Count II.
17:19.535 --> 17:23.521
[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
17:23.541 --> 17:28.528
[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of burglary of a dwelling with a battery as charged in the indictment
17:29.791 --> 17:30.893
[SPEAKER_03]: verdict count three.
17:31.474 --> 17:34.479
[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
17:35.060 --> 17:38.365
[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of kidnapping as charged in the indictment.
17:38.886 --> 17:41.190
[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all, the verdict count four.
17:41.690 --> 17:44.615
[SPEAKER_03]: We the jury find as follows as to the defendant in this case.
17:45.176 --> 17:51.206
[SPEAKER_03]: The defendant is guilty of sexual battery on a child under 12 years of age, as charged in the indictment.
17:51.526 --> 17:52.508
[SPEAKER_03]: So say we all.
17:53.180 --> 18:08.939
[SPEAKER_12]: On August 24th, 2007, at precisely 2 p.m., John Kuhi was sentenced, among those present was Jessica's father and grandparents, Archie and Ruth Lundzford, who sat together as law enforcement officials, filled the remaining seats.
18:09.500 --> 18:16.048
[SPEAKER_12]: Sheriff Jeff Dozzi, who had led the investigation, watched solemnly as Justice was carried out.
18:16.467 --> 18:25.599
[SPEAKER_18]: In the circuit court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of the state of Florida, and in for Miami-Dade County, change venue from the 5th Circuit, citrus county.
18:26.139 --> 18:31.987
[SPEAKER_18]: State of Florida versus Johnny Vander Kooley, case number 2005 CF-298.
18:32.087 --> 18:45.023
[SPEAKER_18]: I'm a majority of the jury by a vote of 10 to 2, advise and recommend to the court that it impose the death penalty upon Johnny Vander Kooley for the murder of Jessica Marie Lundsford.
18:45.745 --> 18:54.076
[SPEAKER_12]: The courtroom in Citrus County was silent, as Circuit Judge Richard Howard delivered the final words that sealed Kuiz fate.
18:54.597 --> 18:58.101
[SPEAKER_12]: The 49-year-old man would die by lethal injection.
18:58.842 --> 19:02.828
[SPEAKER_12]: Kuiz defense attorney had made one final attempt to spare their client's life.
19:03.389 --> 19:07.534
[SPEAKER_12]: In a motion submitted earlier in the month, they pleaded for mercy.
19:07.514 --> 19:23.410
[SPEAKER_12]: arguing that Kui's crime was borne out of impulse and stupidity, they described his troubled childhood, the abuse he had suffered, and his mental deficiencies, insisting that a wife sentence, not death, was the only punishment that would be justified.
19:23.971 --> 19:28.876
[SPEAKER_12]: For Jessica's family, the judges ruling brought a measure of justice they had long prayed for.
19:28.936 --> 19:33.741
[SPEAKER_12]: Her father, Mark Lundsford, stood before reporters.
19:33.721 --> 19:43.458
[SPEAKER_12]: His voice edged with anger and grief, quote, I think he needs to stand up and be a man now, and take his death penalty, and I hope he rocks in hell.
19:44.079 --> 19:46.543
[SPEAKER_12]: But even Kui seemed to know what was coming.
19:47.365 --> 19:54.397
[SPEAKER_12]: From his jail cell, and a recorded conversation with his aunt, on August 3rd, it already accepted his fate.
19:55.078 --> 19:58.885
[SPEAKER_12]: quote, I kicked myself in the butt a hundred times a day.
19:58.865 --> 19:59.706
[SPEAKER_12]: stupidity.
20:00.187 --> 20:03.531
[SPEAKER_12]: I just keep asking myself, why were you so stupid?
20:04.031 --> 20:08.277
[SPEAKER_12]: We all know what he's going to do to he said we're forging to judge Howard.
20:08.857 --> 20:10.820
[SPEAKER_12]: But you know, God's in control of everything.
20:11.080 --> 20:13.643
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I just want to work about it.
20:13.663 --> 20:14.184
[SPEAKER_04]: That's right.
20:15.105 --> 20:16.106
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't let it bother me.
20:16.347 --> 20:19.911
[SPEAKER_15]: No, because you know, from the time we're born in this world.
20:20.262 --> 20:21.164
[SPEAKER_15]: We're born to die.
20:21.425 --> 20:21.826
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know.
20:22.106 --> 20:23.309
[SPEAKER_15]: And so when God gets there.
20:23.329 --> 20:23.991
[SPEAKER_04]: God goes somewhere.
20:24.151 --> 20:25.193
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah.
20:25.253 --> 20:26.216
[SPEAKER_15]: When God gets ready.
20:26.376 --> 20:26.957
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
20:26.997 --> 20:28.220
[SPEAKER_04]: Meanwhile, I won't be leaving by.
20:28.280 --> 20:29.884
[SPEAKER_04]: I might have no good in it anyway.
20:29.904 --> 20:32.871
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, do we all know what you're doing too?
20:32.891 --> 20:33.432
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah.
20:33.452 --> 20:34.194
[SPEAKER_15]: Well, maybe too.
20:34.294 --> 20:36.499
[SPEAKER_15]: But you know, God's in control of everything.
20:36.682 --> 20:40.586
[SPEAKER_12]: He knew the sentence that awaited him, and he knew why it was going to come.
20:41.306 --> 20:44.849
[SPEAKER_12]: John Kooey would never receive the justice that he so deserved.
20:45.650 --> 20:52.677
[SPEAKER_12]: In 2007, at age 51, he died of natural causes inside a Jacksonville Ford hospital.
20:53.758 --> 20:55.579
[SPEAKER_12]: One could only hope that hell awaits.
20:56.420 --> 21:05.068
[SPEAKER_17]: So from the first headline, whom she was missing, Ruth cut it up and tenderly placed it
21:05.521 --> 21:10.393
[SPEAKER_17]: years like 2005, filled its binder, going from the search for Jesse.
21:10.895 --> 21:11.797
[SPEAKER_05]: Jesse is home now.
21:12.338 --> 21:13.321
[SPEAKER_17]: To find in her killer.
21:13.982 --> 21:18.795
[SPEAKER_05]: If you realize that if they had found him that we would have been the culprits.
21:19.416 --> 21:22.163
[SPEAKER_17]: To finally be enabled to put her granddaughter to rest.
21:22.463 --> 21:26.828
[SPEAKER_05]: When they lifted the bloons up, you know, all these bloons were together.
21:27.709 --> 21:33.515
[SPEAKER_05]: And all on some mark looked up there and he said, there's one going off all by itself.
21:33.756 --> 21:34.396
[SPEAKER_05]: That's Jesse.
21:36.459 --> 21:37.520
[SPEAKER_05]: This was at the trial.
21:37.540 --> 21:41.985
[SPEAKER_17]: 2007 was full too, with the trial of the killer.
21:42.685 --> 21:45.889
[SPEAKER_17]: So that's all about the prosecution is so.
21:46.156 --> 21:48.439
[SPEAKER_17]: and John Kooey's eventual sentencing to death.
21:48.920 --> 21:50.322
[SPEAKER_05]: You were thinking, well, this is it.
21:50.342 --> 21:51.143
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the end.
21:51.884 --> 21:52.825
[SPEAKER_05]: Matter wasn't the end.
21:52.885 --> 21:54.628
[SPEAKER_05]: It just kept going.
21:54.688 --> 21:55.048
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going.
21:55.569 --> 21:58.193
[SPEAKER_17]: 2009 had just started when there was some good news.
21:58.393 --> 21:59.835
[SPEAKER_17]: Outside Ruth's bedroom window.
22:00.416 --> 22:04.321
[SPEAKER_17]: The trailer, where Kooey lived and murder Jessica, was burned to the ground.
22:04.822 --> 22:09.008
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm standing there and saying, what took you so long, Lord?
22:09.308 --> 22:15.834
[SPEAKER_17]: and a little over halfway through, really, only a few pages into this year's book, Ruth put one final page in.
22:19.037 --> 22:19.218
[SPEAKER_17]: Ha ha ha.
22:19.238 --> 22:21.360
[SPEAKER_17]: Jesse's killer dies.
22:22.281 --> 22:24.283
[SPEAKER_17]: Ruth would have been a different headline.
22:24.303 --> 22:26.625
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, maybe I would write how Louie you're in here, so.
22:27.846 --> 22:32.290
[SPEAKER_12]: This year, Mark 20 years since Jessica Lundsford was taken from this world.
22:32.891 --> 22:38.016
[SPEAKER_02]: Underneath the trees at Faith Baptist Church, Jessica Lundsford's smile shines.
22:38.401 --> 22:48.954
[SPEAKER_06]: when a child's life is lost, people will create things to make some kind of good happen for that child.
22:48.974 --> 22:51.377
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's a legacy begins.
22:52.178 --> 22:56.103
[SPEAKER_02]: Legacy, that's an important word for Mark Lonesford, Jessica's father.
22:56.583 --> 23:01.810
[SPEAKER_02]: When I called you, you said, I don't want to talk about the crime, I want to talk about the legacy.
23:02.390 --> 23:03.852
[SPEAKER_02]: And that 20 years.
23:04.608 --> 23:09.794
[SPEAKER_02]: how has Jesse's legacy impacted the entire country, the entire world?
23:10.475 --> 23:13.078
[SPEAKER_06]: It's to me, it's very large.
23:13.098 --> 23:17.003
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe other people may not be such a big deal, but to me, it's very large.
23:17.023 --> 23:22.089
[SPEAKER_06]: And after 20 years, we deserve something to be happy about.
23:22.109 --> 23:26.634
[SPEAKER_02]: A neighbor who was also confronted to work at her school, kidnapped and murdered nine-year-old Jessica.
23:27.175 --> 23:29.097
[SPEAKER_02]: He had failed to register as a sex offender.
23:29.431 --> 23:37.661
[SPEAKER_02]: Our cameras were there every day in 2005, during the family's three week long search for Jessica and their fight for justice after.
23:38.001 --> 23:39.523
[SPEAKER_10]: What happens when the cameras go away?
23:42.026 --> 23:43.027
[SPEAKER_10]: These are your kids too.
23:43.327 --> 23:57.784
[SPEAKER_06]: I can remember saying that and I think that that was a powerful statement because for the next 10 years I was still in cameras and other states in DC out of the country.
23:57.950 --> 24:01.455
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if you don't know her name, her story has likely impacted you.
24:01.876 --> 24:05.782
[SPEAKER_02]: Florida passed the Jessica Lungsford Act shortly after her death.
24:05.802 --> 24:13.113
[SPEAKER_02]: It changed Florida's sexual offender and predator registration laws, including stronger background checks for people contracted to work for schools.
24:13.313 --> 24:16.878
[SPEAKER_02]: How many states has some version of Jesse?
24:16.918 --> 24:17.199
[SPEAKER_06]: 46.
24:17.399 --> 24:20.564
[SPEAKER_06]: I think about the others that are being helped.
24:20.584 --> 24:22.827
[SPEAKER_06]: The other parents is just going to help the children.
24:23.026 --> 24:25.250
[SPEAKER_02]: The other side of her legacy is Jesse's place.
24:25.310 --> 24:25.551
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
24:25.992 --> 24:32.484
[SPEAKER_06]: These child advocacy centers are meant to be a comfort zone for the child.
24:33.045 --> 24:36.832
[SPEAKER_06]: Because without them, they got to take them to the sheriff's department for investigation.
24:36.872 --> 24:38.154
[SPEAKER_06]: They got to go to hospitals.
24:38.194 --> 24:39.396
[SPEAKER_06]: They got to go to therapy.
24:39.737 --> 24:41.240
[SPEAKER_06]: They can do everything in one spot.
24:42.061 --> 24:44.005
[SPEAKER_06]: Somewhere where the child can learn to be comfortable.
24:44.221 --> 24:47.886
[SPEAKER_02]: Jessica's legacy also lives on at Citrus County Sheriff's Office.
24:48.006 --> 24:52.693
[SPEAKER_01]: When I think back 20 years ago, we lost some innocence I would think in Citrus County.
24:52.953 --> 24:57.360
[SPEAKER_02]: Citrus County Sheriff David Vincent showed me their new Tree of Life Memorial for her.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It also highlights the importance of every single department in this case.
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[SPEAKER_01]: When we move forward with things like the Tree of Life that's behind me here, it's just making sure that no one ever forgets of why we put safeguards in place and why we want to protect children.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Even though Jessica is not physically here, Lonsford knows she's always with him.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He's 17-year-old son, shares a birthday with her, and Lonsford says he can still fill her presence.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And then there's times that you talk to yourself, and then in your own voice, you talk back with an answer.
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[SPEAKER_06]: That's God or the ones you lost.
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[SPEAKER_06]: They're giving you the answer.
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[SPEAKER_12]: They're trying to help you.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I would admit that as a father of a seven-month-old girl, this was a difficult episode to create.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I found myself wiping away tears on more than one occasion.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Jessica's law named in memory of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford is a title given to a 2005 Florida law and a similar measures adopted in other states, created to protect children from sexual predators and to prevent repeat offenses.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The law imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, and a lifetime of electronic monitoring for those who harm victims under the age of 12.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Frankly, listen, I think being launched into the sun with a catapult would be more effective.
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[SPEAKER_12]: But, what do I know?
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[SPEAKER_12]: Founded on August 2006,
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[SPEAKER_12]: The Citrus County Children's Advocacy Center, known as Jesse's Place, was created in response to a deep need within the community to better protect its most vulnerable children.
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[SPEAKER_12]: The center emerged from the grassroots efforts of local child advocates who were determined to honor the memory of Jessica Lunsford by ensuring that no child in Citrus County
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[SPEAKER_12]: Whatever again, suffer as she did.
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[SPEAKER_12]: This mission is clear to provide a safe, compassionate space where abused, neglected, traumatized children can find protection, justice, and healing.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Today, Jesse's place fulfills that mission as a fully integrated child advocacy center.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Within its warm child friendly facility, the investigative work of law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families is brought together and supported through collaborations with professionals from multiple disciplines.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Children receive specialized forensic interviews in medical examinations, while their families are offered advocacy services in trauma-focused evidence-based therapy.
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[SPEAKER_12]: to help them heal and begin the long journey towards recovery.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Every service is provided with care and it's always free of charge.
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[SPEAKER_12]: And all of this could have been done without the legacy of Jessica Lunsford.
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[SPEAKER_12]: She's so moved the community that they established all of this along adapted across the nation and advocacy center full of experts
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[SPEAKER_12]: that has saved countless children.
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[SPEAKER_12]: In its broad justice to those that would act to harm them.
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[SPEAKER_12]: Rest in peace, Jessica.
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[SPEAKER_12]: I hope wherever you are, it's bright and sunny.
