Evening prayers, a kiss goodnight, a warm, seemingly safe bed, and her favorite pink pajamas made the evening of February 23, 2005 appear ideal for 9 year-old Jessica Lunsford. Everything was right with the world. Until it wasn’t.
The heartbreaking disappearance of Jessica Lunsford while sleeping in her own bed caused one question to haunt her family and authorities alike: Why? Why was a known sexual offender roaming free? Why did an innocent child have to suffer? Chillingly enough, not even the murderer himself could answer the question of ‘why?’
Tucked Into Bed, Safe and Sound
In 2005, nine year-old Jessica Lunsford lived in Homosassa, Florida with her grandparents and her father, Mark Lunsford. CBS News records that Lusford’s father was divorced from her mother, Angela, when Jessica was an infant.
Buster Thompson of the Citrus County Chronicle relays that Lunsford was a loveable child who treasured a stuffed purple dolphin and pink pajamas.
On February 23, 2005, Lunsford said her prayers, received a kiss from her grandmother, Ruth, and settled down for the night.
Nothing appeared out of sorts until the following morning when Mark Lunsford heard his daughter’s alarm clock ringing incessantly. Upon arriving at Lunsford’s room, he realized why she hadn’t turned it off: she wasn’t there.
“She appeared to disappear in thin air,” Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said.
There was no evidence of anyone having broken into the family’s Sonata Avenue mobile home. She was just gone.
Mark Lunsford explained to CBS News that though there was no sign of a struggle, he knew his daughter would not have left of her own accord.
According to the Citrus County Chronicle, the whole community leapt into action. Lunsford’s father combed the neighborhood, calling out for his daughter while law enforcement, helicopters, police dogs, and a mounted posse scoured the area. The start of a harrowing and heartbreaking search had begun.
Not Far From Home
News of little Jessica Lunsford’s frightening abduction spread throughout the entire nation. Authorities were inundated with thousands of responses from folks as they attempted to locate the child. The FBI and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children partnered with local law enforcement while volunteers searched the surrounding areas daily.
Through a joint effort, $115,000 of reward money was accumulated. “She became everyone’s daughter, she became everyone’s friend,” Melissa Bowermaster, head of Dawsy’s Victim Advocate Unit is reported in the Citrus County Chronicle to have said.
“Everybody felt so helpless and so hurt they just wanted to do whatever they could.”
The responses from Lunsford’s family were devastating. Her grandmother said she kept hoping that her granddaughter would simply emerge from the woods near their mobile home.
Mark Lunsford was recorded to have made this statement to reporters:
“I don’t care who you are, drop her off at the corner. Call me. I’ll come and get her. She belongs at home.”
“Deliver Me Home” fliers distributed by the postal service echoed the same sentiment.
According to CBS News, nothing, not even a tornado, could convince the devoted community to cease their five day-long search for answers.
As the investigation wore on, attention returned to the area around the Lunsford trailer. It was this return to home base that pulled one highly-disturbed man into the spotlight: John Evander Couey.
The Stranger Next Door
According to the Citrus County Chronicle, “some interviews that didn’t add up” were to thank for bringing the name of one of the Lunsfords’ neighbors to the table. Forty six year-old John Couey was a stranger to the Lunsfords.
Couey had skipped town just after Lunsford went missing. Sheriff Dawsy surmised that he must have become aware that the authorities wished to question him. As it was, the man who’d become the main suspect in Lunsford’s disappearance was already on the authorities’ radar.
He was wanted for probation violation and failure to notify law enforcement about his change of address.
A day after a warrant was put out for his arrest, law enforcement located Couey in Augusta, Georgia where he willingly confessed to kidnapping and murdering Jessica Lunsford.
It was during his divulgence of the details that the unsettling location of the child’s body was revealed.
Subsequently, early the morning of March 19th, authorities began digging a mere 100 yards from the Lunsford’s home.
Home at Long Last
According to David Schoetz of ABC News, the account of little Jessica’s murder was so disturbing, the circuit judge had to pause on multiple occasions to school his features as he read it aloud at the sentencing. The details were indeed sickening.
Crime Museum records that Couey kept Lunsford locked in a closet for a couple of days during a period of ongoing abuse. He then secured the child’s wrists with speaker wire before trapping her within two plastic trash bags and burying her alive in a 2 foot hole.
ABC News relays that Couey began plotting Lunsford’s abduction when he caught sight of her playing outside her family’s trailer. One can only speculate about how far he truly intended to take things as the urge to make her disappear was likely brought on by panic when he realized that the police were after him.
When Lunsford was found, there was dirt under her nails and holes in the garbage bag, evidence that she was alive long enough in this nightmarish state to try and escape.
It was determined that she could have survived five minutes before succumbing to asphyxiation. The Citrus County Chronicle adds the heart wrenching detail that she was still clutching her stuffed dolphin when found.
“His actions crushed the very breath and life out of Jessica Marie Lunsford,” Dawsy is recorded to have said. “It kind of infuriated me as to how we may have missed her.” His statement to the family was even more heartfelt: “I’m so sorry I didn’t bring back hope to your lives. I love you guys.”
At last, little Jessica had been found. “Everyone heard me say, time after time, that she would be home,” Mark Lunsford said to reporters. “She’s home now.”
CBS News states that Couey lived with three others in the home close to where Lunsford’s body was found. It was discovered that Couey had admitted his crime to his roommates. As a result, they were subsequently arrested due to their failure to speak up.
A Trial of Monstrous Emotions
Trial proceedings began. According to the Citrus County Chronicle, Couey had the audacity to plead ‘not guilty’ at the start. The claim that Couey was not provided with a lawyer at the time of his confession resulted in the dismissal of the statement and also slowed down the progress toward justice.
It proved impossible for authorities to gather an impartial jury in Lunsford’s hometown, so the trial was held in Miami. Dawsy relayed that his 21 year-old son was ‘so traumatized’ by Couey that the sheriff brought him to the trial, hoping that seeing the man in custody would provide a measure of comfort. Witnesses assembled, the hearings commenced on March 1, 2007.
ABC News reported that Couey’s assigned defender posed his client’s mental state as grounds to avoid the death penalty. Couey blamed his actions on his battle with alcohol and drugs, but neither mental feebleness nor claims to being a victim of addiction helped him to escape his sentence.
The judge ruled that the murderer was fully eligible for capital punishment. It appeared that this monster would finally get what he deserved.
Additionally, Mark Lunsford was asked if he planned to witness the execution of Couey. His teasing response was ‘that he was going to apply for the job of executioner.’ And who could blame him? “Justice was served for this little girl, but what about the rest of them, what about the ones who survive?” Lunsford reportedly asked. “Killing a child is the worst, but who has it the worst? The child that dies or the child that survives?” The sad truth? There was no way to heal the situation, no way, not even through Couey’s execution, to bring little Jessica back.
A Bittersweet Band Aid, But Not a Cure
Though Mark Lunsford had expressed his readiness to watch Couey die for his heinous crimes, he was never given the chance. The Citrus County Chronicle reports that Couey succumbed to anal cancer on September 30, 2009. Lunsford’s father expressed little disappointment over this form of death for his daughter’s killer, stating that it was likely as traumatic as administration of capital punishment. According to Crime Museum, Ruth Lunsford’s reaction to Couey’s passing was far more animated, stating “that if she were physically able to, she would be parading around the street in happiness.”
The Citrus County Chronicle records that a more tangible expression of Mark Lunsford’s bitterness over his daughter’s unjust demise came by way of a threat to sue Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement for the manner in which they’d handled his daughter’s case. Additionally, a resolution was reached as he and Dawsy reached an agreement that helped preserve the investigator’s position and reputation.
In spite of the desperately depressing nature of Lunsford’s murder, her father and community fought to ensure that her death was not in vain.
“Jessie’s Place,” the first child advocacy agency in Citrus County was made possible through community support in 2008. The result?
The assignment of thousands of previously unheard underage victims of abuse to investigators who were dedicated to chasing down justice.
“Jessica’s Law”
ABC News records “Jessica’s Law” as another positive outcome of a seemingly unredeemable situation. The law was accepted by multiple states and requires minimum sentencing for sexual offenders of victims under 12 years old. Additionally, the law also requires electronic tracking for the remainder of the offenders’ lives.
Effective as these results of the tragedy were, they served as a band aid and not a cure. “It was the case that we live with, I live with on a daily basis,” Dawsy is recorded to have said. “There is not a day that doesn’t go by that I don’t think of it.” The crime was brutal, senseless, and impossible to understand. As it was, not even Couey fully understood how he’d been capable of such a heinous crime. ABC News explains that he made this numbing statement during a phone conversation while behind bars: “I kick myself in the butt a hundred times a day… I just keep asking myself, ‘Why were you so stupid?'”
It is a question that the Lunsfords and every heart that little Jessica touched will be asking for the rest of their lives.
