It's been more than three years since Letecia Stauch reported her 11-year-old stepson Gannon Stauch missing. She contacted the police on January 27, 2020, saying that Gannon didn't come home after visiting a friend. But there was no friend, and police believe the 36-year-old stepmother killed the child the same day in their Colorado Springs, Colorado, home. The details about the gruesome death are coming to light as Stauch's murder trial is beginning.
Investigators initially believed Gannon was a runaway, but a week later, they determined he was missing. For nearly two months, police, family, and concerned residents searched for Gannon, ultimately discovering his body in Florida, People reported. Police arrested Stauch in early March 2020 in connection with Gannon's death. Today, her lawyers claim that mental illness motivated the crime.
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Gannon died a horrific death.
On Monday, attorneys made opening statements during Stauch's murder trial. District Attorney Michael Allen began the prosecution's case by stating that the motive behind the killing would come down to whether Stauch was sane at the time of the killing, and they intend to prove that she was, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
According to Allen, Stauch allegedly stabbed the young boy 18 times, and after he fought back, she reportedly shot him three times. The prosecution added that Stauch put the boy's body in a suitcase in the trunk of her car and took him to Florida, where she reportedly threw the suitcase over a bridge and into a river.
Stauch reportedly tried to clean up the scene soon after Gannon's death.
An arrest affidavit noted that Stauch allegedly told her 17-year-old daughter to buy trash bags, baking soda, and carpet powder before calling 911 to report Gannon missing, per People. Investigators believe she purchased the items to clean up the blood in the home.
"Evidence recovered from the residence and inside Gannon's bedroom supports that a violent event occurred in the bedroom," the affidavit reads, "which caused bloodshed, including blood spatter on the walls, and enough blood loss to stain his mattress, soak through the carpet, the carpet pad, and stain the concrete below his bed."
Al Stauch, Letecia Stauch's husband, grew suspicious of her story.
As Letecia Stauch began to talk about the day Gannon disappeared and seemingly had different stories, Al Stauch felt something was off. He took the stand Tuesday and said he began to record phone conversations between the couple that were used in court. He claimed she had a history of lying to manipulate the couple's relationship, Law and Crime reported.
She also reportedly told him that Gannon threatened her with a knife, a claim he vehemently denied.
"Absolutely never witnessed that, period," Al Stauch said of his son's alleged displeasure with his stepmom.
Why would Letecia Stauch want to kill her stepson?
According to the defense, she had no reason to kill Gannon, the Denver Post reported. Attorney Will Cook addressed the jury in his opening statements, claiming that Letecia Stauch attacked Gannon because she was "out of her mind."
Cook showed the courtroom a seemingly happy photo of her and Gannon taken the day before his death.
"There is no motive," Cook said. "There is no reason. It doesn't make sense. It's insane. A smiling photo, and the next day, Gannon is gone. No reason for it."
Allen countered and told the jury that Stauch attempted to clean up the crime scene and that lying to investigators about Gannon's whereabouts shows that she was of sound mind at the time of the child's death, The Post reported.
"All of her decisions, all of her deliberate actions, betray her claims of insanity," Allen said. "She knew that what she had done to Gannon was wrong."
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The stepmother was reportedly the victim of abuse.
Multiple news outlets reported that Letecia Stauch claimed several of her mother's boyfriends sexually abused her as a child, which the defense says caused her to develop dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder. The Post reported that her attorneys claim she was not herself the day Gannon died because of severe mental illness and should not be held culpable.
"The person she was killing that day, attacking, it wasn't Gannon," Cook said. "It wasn't Gannon to her. She didn't wake up that day and go, 'I'm going to kill my stepson.' No. She was killing the demons … from the dark depths of her childhood and her life."
Letecia Stauch has formally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If she is convicted of that, she would be taken to a mental health facility instead of prison and could eventually be released. She faces 12 charges in connection with Gannon's death and could spend the rest of her life in prison if she is convicted but declared sane at the time of the crime.
