COLORADO SPRINGS, Co – “Al Stauch, Gannon’s father, capital F-a-t-h-e-r” is how the victim impact statement began after all others had their say. He then read a few words from his new wife, Melissa, before reading a poem. The poem is titled Invictus and written by William Ernest Henley. It’s the same poem he quoted at Gannon’s memorial in Colorado Springs in August 2020. Below is those words Gannon’s Father shared “to say [he] alone controls [his] actions and reactions.”

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,   
  Black as the Pit from pole to pole,   
I thank whatever gods may be   
  For my unconquerable soul.   

In the fell clutch of circumstance 
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.   
Under the bludgeonings of chance   
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.   

Beyond this place of wrath and tears   
  Looms but the Horror of the shade, 
And yet the menace of the years   
  Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.   

It matters not how strait the gate,   
  How charged with punishments the scroll,   
I am the master of my fate:
  I am the captain of my soul.

A Father’s Words to the Court

“Gannon was born severely premature and barely filled my two hands the first time I held him. At the end of his life, after his bad was cremated into a pile of ashes he was ultimately no bigger than the first time I held him.” This is the image Gannon’s Father begins his speech with, that of an 11-year-old boy being reduced to nothing more than a tiny pile of ash.

For those who followed the trial, they are aware that the prosecution began their case in chief with 2 days of testimony from Stauch. Trial watchers heard the steps taken by Stauch from the moment he learned of Gannon’s disappearance. Watchers heard hours of recorded phone calls between Stauch and his son’s murderer.

This testimony not only opened the trial with high emotions, it went a long way to show not only the lengths a father will got to bring home his son, but to also ease any doubt of Stauch’s innocence in the death of his son anyone may have been harboring. Stauch addressed these doubts in open court. “I’ve been questioned, compared to my abusive father, and ridiculed for my approach to finding Gannon,” Stauch said. “I hope now that the world has seen that I was assigned the most arduous task of finding Gannon in the only place possible for him to have been, in the mind of a killer. Were my efforts fruitful? I believe so. But, from the moment I did not see the Volkswagon Tiguan at French Elementary on that Tuesday evening, a clear direction for finding Gannon pointed directly and precisely at [Letecia]…It was only by the grace of God that Gannon’s precious body was finally found.”

Just feet from the woman Stauch once married, the woman who murdered his son, what words does he have from her. Stauch spoke of Gannon’s last words and asks what they were. Stauch spoke of the woman she once was, a “beautiful, extremely intelligent woman.” He addressed the woman she became, a “murderous, narcissistic, and arrogantly flippant human being.” But it’s the simple question of a parent that stands out. “Why couldn’t you just let him be a momma’s boy? That’s all he wanted to be. He just loved his momma.”

A Father’s Words to His Son

Before he finished addressing the court, Stauch took a moment to address Gannon. “Gannon,” he said through tears, “I never in my wildest dream ever thought you’d be in danger buddy, o I would not have left you at home with what turned out to be your murderer and the last person to ever see you on this earth.”

Directly to the court, Gannon’s Father directs his final words, “From a proud and broken father, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”

More From the Sentencing of Letecia Stauch

The Judge Gets the Final Word: The Sentencing of Letecia Stauch

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The post Gannon’s Father Opens with A Poem appeared first on .

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – One day 2 of the Letecia Stauch trial, the prosecution played an almost 2-hour audio of a phone call between the defendant and her now ex-husband, Al Stauch. This call was recorded before the body of Gannon Stauch was found, and in cooperation with investigators.

Throughout the audio, Letecia is talking all over the place.  She jumps around and backtracks. Al keeps calm and composed throughout the conversation. With the help of investigators, he is able to keep the conversation flowing, while letting Letecia say what it is she’s going to say. He occasionally steps in with questions he, and investigators, are trying to get answers to.

The Narrative, According to Letecia

The conversation starts with Letecia going over her narrative of the evening before Gannon went missing, Sunday, January 26, 2020. According to her, Gannon had a stomachache and struggled to have a bowel movement. He then took a bathe and went to bed. She went upstairs and out of nowhere the alarm goes off. She put the alarm code in but hears, “Fire. Fire. Fire.” Looking around, she doesn’t see a fire. After getting Laina, Gannon’s sister, and the dogs in the car, Letecia goes to the basement.

A frantic scene is described, and she is unable to give a clear time for when the incident took place. “Within fifteen minutes of the ADT alert,” she tells him when asked. Letecia and Gannon get upstairs and out of the house. “I’m running. He’s running behind me.” The get into the car, Gannon in the passenger seat.

“He’s beside me screaming, crying. Laina is in the backseat with the dog.” She drove around the block then went back to the house.  Laina is put in the parents’ bed and then she goes to take care of Gannon.

According to Letecia, Gannon had knocked over a candle he had lit to cover the “smell of poop”. He then knocked it over when he thought she was coming downstairs because he was playing his Nintendo Switch when he wasn’t supposed to be. In doing so, he burned his arm.

Letecia admits that she “should have looked closer at his arms.” She describes “bubbly spots” on both sides of Gannon’s arms but didn’t see anything that “thrown a flag that it was an emergency.”  She didn’t have any pain medication for him but did apply Aloe.

Gannon is panicked and scared of being grounded. She gives him water and tries to calm him down, telling him not to worry. Her narrative then goes back to the stomach issues. She tells Al that Gannon wanted to stay home from school the next day. He was “afraid of pooping in his pants.”

The Day Gannon Goes Missing

Gannon home from school on Monday, they went out to run errands. On the way out, she approached a guy in the neighborhood to fix the carpet. She gave him the garage code to let himself in. Gannon was with her, so She didn’t think there was a threat in doing. She only wanted to get the carpet fixed so “the boy” wouldn’t be so upset.

From there, they went to Petco where she got outfits for the 2 doges and planned to go to Play It Again Sports. They detoured to check out a bike she wanted to get to surprise Al with. After getting lost trying to find the house in the listing, they went back to Petco. They had to get back home for Laina and never made it to Play It Again Sports.

Gannon and Leticia got home between 2:30 and 2:45 p.m. Gannon goes straight downstairs to his room. She notices that the alarm was changed from “alarm away” to “alarm safe” but didn’t think much of it. She called ADT and they said it does that if there’s alarm in the house. Since there was no sensor on the garage door, she assumed it happened when the carpet guy let himself in.

Gannon asks to go play with a friend; he’ll be back later. Letecia goes upstairs with hopes to use her Peleton. She is getting ready when she hears a noise. She shouts for Gannon, nothing. There’s another loud noise and thought it was the carpet guy. She walks downstairs and sees a guy. The next thing [she] knows, [she’s] out.

“When I woke up there was no blood anywhere.” The details, according to Letecia, are a blur because of hitting her head but can remember “bits and pieces”. She hears Gannon speaking to the man, who Letecia theorizes may have already been in the house. She believes he may have possibly spent the night before inside the house.

Gannon is described as being “very calm”. She thinks to herself, “There’s a piece missing. Gannon knew something about something” and remembers Gannon saying he (Gannon) would be back later. Nowhere in the story given here did Letecia mention a rape as she does in other accounts of the events.

During this time, she sent Harley (Letecia’s daughter) to take Laina to the Dollar tree with a list of supplies to pick up. She then went back downstairs and tried to plead with the man, who had Gannon wrapped in his arms.

“Did You Kill Gannon?”

At this time, Letecia breaks from her narrative and questions Al. “Why do you act like you got me on some trial,” she asks him.

To that, Al asks, “Did you kill Gannon.” A back and forth between Al and Letecia transpires.

“The answer to that,” she responds, “is no. I can’t believe you asked me this.”

“This is the fourth story. I just don’t know what the hell is going on. I don’t believe you killed him but did something bad happen to him and you panicked?”

“If an accident happened, I know what to do. You go to the people and tell them it was an accident. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“None of this makes sense,” a frustrated Al says. “He would have been found by now.”

Turning the subject to herself, Letecia asks, “Why are you not with your wife and daughter?”

“Because of this conversation. I’m confused. Did Gannon die and you freaked out? Did you kill Gannon? Did Gannon die on your watch? Did Harley kill Gannon?”

To all the questions, Letecia responds, “No.”

“There’s a blank somewhere and you have not filled in the blank,” Al says. “These stories don’t sound legit to me. They just don’t add up.” That’s where the call ends.

This call took place approximately 3 weeks after Gannon disappeared.

Further Reading:

Trial to Start for Leticia Stauch, Woman Charged with Killing Her Stepson https://truthanddeliberation.com/2023/04/03/trial-to-start-for-leticia-stauch-woman-charged-with-killing-her-stepson/

Father of Murdered Child Testifies
https://truthanddeliberation.com/2023/04/05/father-of-murdered-child-testifies/

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The post State’s Exhibit #35, The Phone Call appeared first on .

Colorado Springs, Colo. – Eugene “Al” Stauch, father of murder victim Gannon Stauch, took the stand on Tuesday, April 5, opening the State’s case. Al was married to Leticia Stauch, the woman on trial for killing her stepson in January 2020.

The week before Gannon disappeared, Al’s mother was in town. That Saturday, January 25, 2020, Al, Gannon, and the family went out to dinner. When they got home, Gannon and his father were standing at the top of the stairs leading down to Gannon’s bedroom in the basement.  Al was getting ready to leave with his mom.  Al gave Gannon a hug and ran his hands through his hair, something he always did. He told Gannon that he loved him and “you’re always gonna be in my heart, and I’m always gonna be in your heart. I’ll see you when I get home.” “Okay, Daddy,” Gannon responded. “I love you. I’m gonna go finish watching Pokémon.”  That was the last time Al saw his son alive.

“When did you first learn something happened to [Gannon],” Prosecutor Michael Allen asks the father. Al, a soldier in the Army National Guard, was out of town at the time of the disappearance of his son. The defendant, Letecia Stauch, told him that Gannon had stayed home that day with stomach, something Al said was not ordinary. Al had back-and-forth conversations (through texts) with Letecia during which she told him about Gannon not coming home “yet” from a friend’s house. Gannon was late.

A Father’s Rush to Get Home

At this time, Al called numerous friends’ parent, none of them had seen Gannon. Letecia informed him that she had called 911, and that’s when he grew worried.  Al arranged to take an emergency flight home. A friend drove him to Oklahoma City and he flew out the next day on Tuesday, January 28, 2020.

Despite having a vehicle of her own, Letecia rented a vehicle at the airport to drive Al home in. Letecia told Al that she had one of her coworkers drive her to the airport after she parked her own vehicle at French Elementary School, where she worked at the time. She told Al that they would be doing a lot of driving around searching and she didn’t want to put mileage on her leased vehicle.  This seemed odd to Al since it’s not something one would think about during a time of an emergency.

The day Al returned home, January 28, he and Letecia went to a gas station after receiving a tip that Gannon had possibly been seen there. After watching footage of the boy alleged to possibly be Gannon, he realized it wasn’t him. He continued to drive around, searching different places for his son.

Meeting With Detectives

Al, Letecia with him, met for the first time with detectives at a Starbucks. At that time, he gave Gannon’s phone to detectives for them to process. Together, they worked through the story of Gannon going missing an what he (Al) had done as a result. Letecia’s story to the detectives centered around Gannon going to a friend’s house, and not coming home.

Later that day, Al would go for his first interview at the sheriff’s office. Letecia would not be with him this time. During this first interview, Al said he was vague about the details of his and Letecia’s relationship. At this point, he didn’t yet suspect her to be involved in the disappearance. After the interview, he went home to check on the girls before going back out looking for Gannon.

Things Don’t Add Up

During his search, Al decided to go to French Elementary School to look for Letecia’s vehicle. After driving around, 3 times, unable to locate the vehicle, he freaked out. This is when he first realized that she had lied to him. She had told him that she parked her car at the school, but never said anything about moving it. At this moment, he began to question Gannon’s disappearance.

After not locating Letecia’s vehicle, Al called Detective Bethel who told him to return to the sheriff’s office. That’s when he had his second interview with detectives. When asked what he thought he was going to find if he found the car, he responded “My hope was to find Gannon. That was the whole point of search, to find Gannon.”

The next day, Wednesday, January 29, Al was sleeping on the couch when he received a text from Letecia who was in their bedroom. She asked him to come the bedroom and talk to her. This is the first time he would hear the rape story. Letecia told Al that on the day Gannon disappeared, she was raped and beat up; Gannon had also been beat up and taken. The attack happened in Gannon’s bedroom, and she had cleaned up the mess. According to Al, Letecia’s demeanor while telling the story was frantic and all over the place, but she did not cry.

Al thought to himself that this story was “bullshit.” He asked her to stay in the room and he would be right back.  His mother and siter had slept in Gannon’s room the night before. He told them they had to get their stuff and get out of the bedroom because it may be a crime scene. He then notified authorities.

Letecia Moves Out

Letecia moved out of the house the same week Gannon disappeared. On January 31, after several call and texts, Letecia came back to the house with her daughter, mother, and brother. Al, Landon (Gannon’s mother), Al’s brother, sister, a daughter, and a deputy were already at the house. The only time Al would be in the same room as Letecia he had the deputy with him.  Letecia gathered her things. Al never saw the green suitcase (in which Gannon’s body was later found) leave the house.

After this day, Al would not see his estranged wife again until he saw her in the courtroom. The only communications between them would be through text, e-mail, and phone calls. Her story of what happened the day Gannon disappeared would change several times, involving different people including men named “Eguardo” and “Quincy Brown”.

Further Reading

To read more about this story and the trial of Letecia Stauch, https://truthanddeliberation.com/2023/04/03/trial-to-start-for-leticia-stauch-woman-charged-with-killing-her-stepson/

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