Letecia Stauch and Gannon Stauch. Quincy Brown (center). (Images by Letecia Stauch and Gannon Stauch: El Paso County Sheriff’s Office; photo by Brown: Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers)
An FBI special agent testified Wednesday that an allegedly murderous stepmother tried to blame her stepson’s disappearance on a wanted sex offender, whose unrelated case was made public on local news. In truth, however, there was no indication that this man, Quincy Brown, had anything to do with victim Gannon Stauch, 11, who disappeared on January 27, 2020, FBI Special Agent Amber Cronan said.
Prosecutors in Colorado Springs, Colo., point to the child’s stepmother, Letecia Stauch, 39, who they say stabbed Gannon 18 times, shot him in the head once (missing two times), cleaned up the crime scene and moved her body into a suitcase in Pensacola, Florida, where she pushed the remains onto a deck railing. Gannon’s disappearance, which happened while his father Al Stauch was out of town on National Guard work, sparked a search that lasted until bridge workers encountered the suitcase – and remains – on March 17, 2020.
The defense argues that Letecia Stauch was insane, suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Prosecutors say she knew what she was doing and was legally sane when she allegedly committed the murder. They argue she was manipulative, lying to her then-husband, Al Stauch, and even her blood relatives.
To bolster the case, the state showed lengthy wiretapped phone calls between Al and Letecia Stauch. Gannon’s father repeatedly expressed his frustration with his then-wife’s changing stories. For example, she can be heard on audio saying that she first told him that Gannon ran away. She hadn’t told him about Brown or the blood found in Gannon’s room, he said. He noted that she did not mention Brown in her initial report to police.
“You called the police and told them he got away, not that Quincy Brown took him away,” Al Stauch said, audibly annoyed. “What the f—, ‘Tecia?”
Cronan testified that Brown was locally on a most wanted list in the Colorado Springs area. The prosecutor noted media coverage of his case by outlets like KKTV and The Colorado Gazette. Quincy Brown’s name as a sex offender suspect appears in local coverage during and even before Gannon’s disappearance.
Cronan testified, however, that Brown was not even in the country anymore. Characterizing defendant Stauch’s statements during the phone call, the agent described her as often attempting to manipulate and also taking the subject on tangents.
Although Al Stauch said at the time that he believed Brown had the child, he pressed his then-wife on her shifting accounts.
“You’re lying. You’re lying now and I’m calling you,” he said at one point.
For example, when discussing the blood in Gannon’s room, the defendant Stauch argued that if there was any blood in Gannon’s room, it would be from when he cut his foot. She said she had already told him. Al Stauch said she was lying based on the fact that there was enough blood to seep through the carpet. Although he said he had no proof at the time that it was Gannon’s blood, he assumed it belonged to his missing son.
They also discussed a burn.
“You can’t bleed that much from a burn,” Al Stauch said. “You can’t bleed that much from a burn. You can’t bleed that much from a cut in the foot of a two-by-four.
As prosecutors previously said, Letecia Stauch recorded herself on January 26, 2020. In the audio, she asked Gannon about the candle wax spill. She expressed her concern about a damaged carpet.
Gannon, who looked obviously distressed, had been hurt.
“I’m just worried about my burns,” he said.
Letecia Stauch silenced him.
In the audio released on Wednesday, the defendant expressed her exasperation at her then-husband who repeatedly questioned her.
“You have asked me the exact same question 15 times and I am giving you the exact same answer. I don’t know,” she said.
Al Stauch said she didn’t tell him the same story. It was a different story each time, he said.
Cronan testified that the couple at the time was referring to an extended-stay hotel in the northern part of Colorado Springs. Letecia Stauch had stayed with her family. The officer, however, said the accused was actually in South Carolina, where she was eventually arrested. And yet the defendant Stauch, the officer said, implied she was still in Colorado Springs.
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