LAUREN DEIS - 14 yo (2010) - Pittsburgh/Sheraden PA

Pittsburgh police investigating the death of 14-year-old Lauren Deis
served a search warrant Wednesday at a residence in Sheraden just blocks
from where the girl's body was found Tuesday outside of Langley High
School.

Lauren, an East Liberty resident, was last seen by her family July 6
and by friends in Sheraden on July 7, according to postings on a
Facebook page.



Her body was found about 6 a.m. Tuesday, wrapped in garbage bags and
placed outside trash bins adjacent to the entrance of Langley.

She had been stabbed at least a dozen times before she was left at
the school, the Allegheny County medical examiner said in confirming the
girl's identity.

Police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said the investigation was ongoing. No
arrests had been made, but police were at the home, a small frame house
on the 3000 block of Glenmawr Street, around 10 a.m. Wednesday and
removed several items. Later, the home was sealed by the Allegheny
County Medical Examiner, who stuck a bright red flier across the door
jamb that threatened anyone who tried to enter the home with
prosecution.

A child's car seat and a couple of beer cans sat on the front porch,
along with a notebook containing a someone's economics homework.

Residents nearby also heard a car being towed out of the back of the
home early Wednesday morning, and awoke to find the white car normally
parked there gone.

But police would not say how the home or its residents were connected
to Lauren's death. Neighbors said that a woman lived there with her new
husband -- the two married earlier this year -- and her three boys: a
2-year-old, a 7- or 8-year-old and a teenager. The boys were
well-behaved and were never unsupervised, they said.

Next-door neighbor Bill Helterbran said there were also a handful of
other people that were in and out of the home, "young, old, adults,
kids." He didn't know if they were friends or relatives.

Barb Hendrick, who lives two doors down, said police asked her if she
heard any commotion or screaming coming from the home. But she said the
home was always filled with ordinary noise -- a child crying, a
television blaring or her scolding one of her three boys -- and that she
might not have taken notice if there was something unusual.

"She's always hollering at them," she said. "You really can't say if
there was screaming."

Lauren's sister, Rachel, 16, said her sister had a number of friends
in Sheraden.

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials said Lauren was not a student in
the district, although she had written in a Facebook posting that she
was a sophomore in high school.

Rachel Deis left a message earlier this month on Facebook when Lauren
did not return to their home in East Liberty.

Rachel and other relatives declined further comment. On the Facebook
page, Rachel wrote:

"If anyone has seen my sister Lauren Deis hit up my inbox or call 911
she is missing she was last seen on the west end && lauren if
yur read this i love yu .. yur all i have left yur my other half please
come home or at least call me i hope yur okayy ill b praying to hear
from yu ?"

In a later posting, after learning of her sister's death, Rachel
vowed that Lauren's killer would not get away with it.

Lauren's MySpace page indicated she last logged into the site July 5.
Using the handle "bUlL3tPr00f," she posted a picture of herself
nuzzling a small white dog.

Police believe Lauren was killed several days before her body was
found, but they added that the body likely was dumped outside the school
just hours before it was discovered. The medical examiner's office said
the girl had multiple stab wounds to the torso and neck.

Detectives have been reviewing surveillance video from the school and
nearby cameras.

Cmdr. Stangrecki said it was too early to comment on whether she had
been sexually assaulted. He would not comment on whether her body was
clothed when it was found.

Officials now know the identity of a body discovered near a Pittsburgh
high school; but the search for the person who killed the teenager is
still underway.

Maintenance workers found the body of Lauren Deis, 14, wrapped in
garbage bags near Langley High School early Tuesday morning.

Deis was not a student at Langley High School; but authorities say she
had been missing for nearly a week.

Allegheny County Medical Examiner Dr. Karl Williams theorizes that Deis
was apparently killed somewhere else and her body dumped outside the
school.

"She suffered multiple, more than a dozen stab wounds – really only one
of them that was fatal in the chest, but there are a lot of different
stab wounds," Dr. Williams added.

While authorities have not yet made any arrests in the case, Pittsburgh
police served a search warrant at a house along Glen Mawr Street in
Sheraden – not far from where officials found Deis' body.

Investigators removed several items from the property, including a Chevy
Malibu from the garage. The Allegheny County medical examiner also
sealed the house.

Officials, however, have not confirmed whether any of the items are
connected to the murder.

Tushon Brown served just half of his maximum 15-year prison stint on
rape and other charges because he had good behavior, took responsibility
for his crimes and underwent a battery of tests that the state's parole
board said showed he was at low risk to reoffend.

Tushon Brown

He participated in prison rehabilitation and drug treatment programs,
spent time in a halfway house and agreed to outpatient sex offender
treatment, probation and parole records show.

Yet less than a year after his release, Mr. Brown, 35, was charged
again, this time with a crime more gruesome than the last -- the rape
and fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old girl. City police said Friday he
would be returning to Pittsburgh for arraignment from Goldsboro, N.C.,
where he was being held on a parole violation from the earlier sex
assault case.

While Lauren Deis' friends and neighbors voiced their outrage through
comments on a Facebook page, officials said Mr. Brown fulfilled a
string of parole requirements for his release from prison.

Though he wouldn't disclose the specifics of Mr. Brown's treatment,
citing privacy concerns, state Board of Probation and Parole spokesman
Leo Dunn said he completed a list of programs prescribed for him while
in prison, which could have included anything from drug and alcohol
treatment to mental health, parenting or educational programs.

He showed "positive institutional behavior" while at SCI Graterford
and later at the state penitentiary on the North Side, according to the
board's decision to grant him parole, and accepted responsibility for
his offenses. He also completed a "risk and needs assessment" indicating
his level of risk to the community, in which officials asked an inmate a
series of questions and probed his background for signs of whether he
might reoffend, Mr. Dunn said.

He also underwent what a Department of Corrections spokeswoman
described as "intensive drug and alcohol treatment" before entering a
halfway house through Renewal Inc. in the city. Employees there could
not be reached for comment about what programs and treatment he
underwent there.

"Outpatient sex offender treatment is a special condition of your
parole supervision until the treatment source and or parole supervision
staff determine it is no longer necessary," the parole board wrote,
adding that Mr. Brown was to attend a community support group and submit
to an evaluation to determine whether he needed further drug or alcohol
treatment, among other restrictions listed in the board's decision.

Further details about what sex offender treatment he underwent were
unavailable.

On Aug. 31, 2009 he was released to Renewal and it was unclear how
long he stayed. He was living at his home on Glen Mawr Street in
Sheraden on July 7, when he told police he met Ms. Deis near Langley
High School while "looking for sex."

Police said he told them they returned to his home where he stabbed
her to death. Mr. Brown told detectives he offered the girl $200 for sex
and she agreed, but the encounter quickly turned violent.

After he made sure she was dead, he carried her body to his basement,
telling police he was "thinking about life in prison." He tried to
erase evidence of the attack, police said, and then sexually assaulted
the body.

He left the body at Langley High School, where it was discovered
Tuesday. Also that day the probation and parole board declared Mr. Brown
in violation of his parole, which lasts until 2016.

Mr. Brown was charged with criminal homicide, statutory sexual
assault, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and failing to
comply with registration of sexual offenders.

His prison time was for a 2002 conviction stemming from an incident
the year before in Whitehall. He pleaded guilty to voluntary deviate
sexual intercourse, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, burglary and
numerous other charges.

The state's Megan's Law website, which catalogs sex offenders and
where they live, lists Mr. Brown's last residence as in Wilkinsburg. The
law required him to register his address each year and report changes
to state police within two days, which police said he failed to do.

On Friday, state Auditor General Jack Wagner again criticized the
site, saying "many individuals listed on the website don't have accurate
information."

"What needs to happen periodically, state police, local and county
agencies should come together to determine if, in fact, people convicted
of sexual crimes are living where they said they live," he said. "If
not, they should be returned to jail."

Mr. Brown's wife, Jessica Walters, whom he married in March, couldn't
be reached for comment Friday. He shared the Sheraden home with her and
her three children. Court records show he had at least two children by
two different women, neither of whom could be located for comment.

Ms. Deis' funeral arrangements are pending through John A. Freyvogel
Sons Funeral Home in Oakland.

We ordinary citizens know that sex offenders cannot be cured by completing a bunch of stupid programs. If the parole boards needed proof of that they have it now at the expense of Lauren's life but I expect they will continue to let these people out just the same. Serving only part of a sentence for good behavior in prison should not apply for violent or sexual crimes. As for Jessica Walters who has 3 children and married this scum, she ought to be charged with endangering her children and they need to be taken away and placed with a loving family. But I suppose she will suffer no consequences and will be left to place her children in harms way again, which she will.

Many of us ~ family, friends, and Pittsburgh Public (like myself) are appauld at the media for exploiting Lauren as a prostitute. She was 14 years old - She was just a little girl! She had her whole life ahead of her!

If you wish to leave comments please check out the Facebook page:

JUSTICE FOR LAUREN DEIS @ https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142307035780677&v=wall&ref=notif

From the NewsRoom Private Message Box:

Hi: Can you please post the new Lauren Deis Memorial Website at www.laurendeis.com -
thank you so much.

Sender email address: info@laurendeis.com

A 35-year-old convicted rapist who is wanted in connection to the death
of 14-year-old girl is expected back in Pittsburgh any day.Fourteen-year-old
Lauren Deis was killed and her body was dumped outside Langley High
School.Tushon Brown was arrested near Goldsboro, N.C., just days
after Lauren's body was found early Tuesday morning.Police said
he admitted to killing the teenager inside his Sheraden home after he
paid her for sex.He claims she attacked him when he tried to take
the money back, police said.

Stylepgh wrote:Many of us ~ family, friends, and Pittsburgh Public (like myself) are appalled at the media for exploiting Lauren as a prostitute. She was 14 years old - She was just a little girl! She had her whole life ahead of her!

If you wish to leave comments please check out the Facebook page:

JUSTICE FOR LAUREN DEIS @ https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142307035780677&v=wall&ref=notif

---Welcome to J4C Stylepgh! Keep in mind that the only accusations regarding the "sex for hire" story that the media is reporting are coming from the previously convicted sex offender. More than likely he's just setting up his defense to avoid the death penalty.

"Keep in mind that the only accusations regarding the "sex for hire" story that the media is reporting are coming from the previously convicted sex offender. More than likely he's just setting up his defense to avoid the death penalty." ......

I'm sorry if I take this the wrong way - I don't know where you live, but I DO live in Pittsburgh...I see this story everyday on the news, I talk to her family and her friends .....so please don't tell me what I am supposed to think or what I am to keep in mind.

I don't give 2 craps what he is trying to do....journalism should be based on facts and the tv stations here (in PITTSBURGH) are portraying her to be a woman and a prostitute....based on his LIES! SHE WAS 14...She was a CHILD! HE RAPED HER and THEN KILLED HER!

There is a candle virgil for her on JULY 24th @ 7:30 on the steps at Langley High School ...if you lived in Pittsburgh, you would have known about that!

Stylepgh wrote:"Keep in mind that the only accusations regarding the "sex for hire" story that the media is reporting are coming from the previously convicted sex offender. More than likely he's just setting up his defense to avoid the death penalty." ......

I'm sorry if I take this the wrong way - I don't know where you live, but I DO live in Pittsburgh...I see this story everyday on the news, I talk to her family and her friends .....so please don't tell me what I am supposed to think or what I am to keep in mind.

I don't give 2 craps what he is trying to do....journalism should be based on facts and the TV stations here (in PITTSBURGH) are portraying her to be a woman and a prostitute....based on his LIES! SHE WAS 14...She was a CHILD! HE RAPED HER and THEN KILLED HER!

There is a candle vigil for her on JULY 24th @ 7:30 on the steps at Langley High School ...if you lived in Pittsburgh, you would have known about that!

---No, Stylepgh, I do not live in Pittsburgh nor am I exposed to this sensational story at the frequency that you are. I was not trying to tell you what or how to feel, I was only reminding our readers that these are only accusations coming from the perp. Nobody, to my knowledge, outside of this dirtbag has made any allegations of this about Lauren. You are correct, journalism is (or at least, should be) based on facts. The fact in this story is that the accused has made an allegation about the victim. IMHO, he lured her to her death and this is his way of justifying what he did and setting up a court defense for himself so that he doesn't have to sit in the wooden chair and meet Ol' Sparky.

Pittsburgh area J4C'ers: To express your outrage why not join Stylepgh and many, many others at the Langley High School this coming Saturday evening at 7:30.

Stylepgh wrote:"Keep in mind that the only accusations regarding the "sex for hire" story that the media is reporting are coming from the previously convicted sex offender. More than likely he's just setting up his defense to avoid the death penalty." ......

I'm sorry if I take this the wrong way - I don't know where you live, but I DO live in Pittsburgh...I see this story everyday on the news, I talk to her family and her friends .....so please don't tell me what I am supposed to think or what I am to keep in mind.

I don't give 2 craps what he is trying to do....journalism should be based on facts and the tv stations here (in PITTSBURGH) are portraying her to be a woman and a prostitute....based on his LIES! SHE WAS 14...She was a CHILD! HE RAPED HER and THEN KILLED HER!

There is a candle virgil for her on JULY 24th @ 7:30 on the steps at Langley High School ...if you lived in Pittsburgh, you would have known about that!

Stylepgh, I won't say welcome to our forum because I was upset to read your post to Tom. You owe him an apology. I don't know why what he wrote upset you but yes, you certainly did take it the wrong way. In the spirit of sympathy and agreement with your earlier post he was merely saying that nobody is going to believe she was a prostitute just because her murderer, a convicted rapist said she was. Get off your high horse and read things properly. Actually, you even acknowledge you took Tom's post the wrong way and went ahead and lumped him anyway. Get a grip.

kiwimom wrote:

Stylepgh wrote:"Keep in mind that the only accusations regarding the "sex for hire" story that the media is reporting are coming from the previously convicted sex offender. More than likely he's just setting up his defense to avoid the death penalty." ......

I'm sorry if I take this the wrong way - I don't know where you live, but I DO live in Pittsburgh...I see this story everyday on the news, I talk to her family and her friends .....so please don't tell me what I am supposed to think or what I am to keep in mind.

I don't give 2 craps what he is trying to do....journalism should be based on facts and the tv stations here (in PITTSBURGH) are portraying her to be a woman and a prostitute....based on his LIES! SHE WAS 14...She was a CHILD! HE RAPED HER and THEN KILLED HER!

There is a candle virgil for her on JULY 24th @ 7:30 on the steps at Langley High School ...if you lived in Pittsburgh, you would have known about that!

Stylepgh, I won't say welcome to our forum because I was upset to read your post to Tom. You owe him an apology. I don't know why what he wrote upset you but yes, you certainly did take it the wrong way. In the spirit of sympathy and agreement with your earlier post he was merely saying that nobody is going to believe she was a prostitute just because her murderer, a convicted rapist said she was. Get off your high horse and read things properly. Actually, you even acknowledge you took Tom's post the wrong way and went ahead and lumped him anyway. Get a grip.

Thank you Kiwi. If the media is portraying this child in a way the poster doesn't like then she should take it to the media.

Kiwi - Always...Thanks

A registered sex offender is back in western
Pennsylvania to face charges in the stabbing death of a 14-year-old girl
whose body was found near a Pittsburgh high school. Thirty-five-year-old
Tushon Brown was arrested last week at a beauty salon where his mother
worked in Goldsboro, N.C. He was being sought in the death of Lauren
Deis, who had been missing for several days from her home in the East
Liberty section of the city when her body was found wrapped in trash
bags near Langley High School on July 13. Brown pleaded
guilty to rape in 2002 and was on Pennsylvania's sex-offender registry.
He is facing charges of criminal homicide, statutory sexual assault,
failure to comply with registration of sexual offenders, tampering with
evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Monaca Cunningham spent nearly 10 years worrying that Toushon Brown,
the man who sexually assaulted her at knife point, would get out of
prison.

"It always haunts you. It never goes away," said Cunningham, 28, of
Akron, Ohio. "I woke up many nights thinking, what if he got out --
would he come to find me? What's going through his mind? Did he reform?
Did he change, or did he become a bigger monster?"

Cunningham learned Tuesday that Brown was paroled in August -- nearly
halfway through a sentence for rape -- and is accused of raping and
sexually mutilating Lauren Deis, 14, of East Liberty in his Sheraden home.

Police say Brown confessed to meeting Deis on July 7 and offering her
$200 for sex. He told police they argued and he killed the teenager in
self-defense, and six days later dumped her body near Langley High
School. It's not clear whether Brown has an attorney to represent him at
a July 30 preliminary hearing.

Cunningham wishes she could have told the
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole.

"I thought if he got out early, I would have had a chance to go in
front of a parole board, or they would have to notify victims,"
Cunningham said. "I would have written a statement. I had absolutely no
say in anything."

Crime victims get paperwork to register with the parole board and the
Pennsylvania Office of the Victim Advocate, so that officials can
notify them when defendants are up for parole or about to be released,
said Mike Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney
Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Cunningham doesn't remember getting that
paperwork, and state officials could not confirm whether she registered.

Zappala released two letters that his deputy wrote to state
corrections officials, vehemently opposing Brown's parole. The letters
chillingly predicted he would strike again.

"I believe that Tushon Brown is extremely dangerous and will commit
other sex crimes if released on parole," Deputy District Attorney Janet
Necessary wrote in July 2008.

A spokesman for the parole board has said Brown met all of the
conditions for an early release, including participating in
rehabilitative programs. Officials there did not respond to a request
for comment.

In August 2002, Brown pleaded guilty to charges including rape,
involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated assault and burglary
from the attack on Cunningham and another Whitehall woman. Common Pleas
Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole sentenced Brown to seven to 15 years in
prison. His parole happened five months after he served his minimum sentence.

In November 2000, two months before he assaulted Cunningham, Brown
forced a Whitehall woman into her apartment at knife point, ordered her
to undress and raped her. He threatened to "cut her into pieces" if she
told police, according to a police complaint.

Cunningham said she, Brown and the rape victim were students at the
International Culinary Academy, Downtown, and lived in the same
apartment complex. She said she awoke Jan. 24, 2001, to find Brown
standing over her bed. He cut off her pants with a knife and began
molesting her. Her roommate was asleep on the bedroom floor. Cunningham
said she recognized Brown's face as he left the apartment.

Police linked Brown to both assaults with DNA evidence.

The assault "messed me up so bad in the head," Cunningham said, that
she dropped out of school and returned home to Ohio. After a stint in
the Army, she worked as a cook and recently began rehabilitating rental properties.

In her letters, Necessary argued that Brown's "actions in the
premeditated scheme to rape the young student demonstrate his
dangerousness. He is a predator in every sense of the word. The fact
that he also assaulted other females shows that this was not an isolated incident."

Cunningham believes that, given the opportunity, Brown might have
killed her. She wonders whether Deis would be alive if she had been able
to petition the parole board.

"I would have explained to them he doesn't belong on the streets.
It's very disturbing to me to know I could have possibly prevented this."

The mother of 14-year-old Lauren
Deis, who was stabbed and left dead outside Langley High School last
week, has been arrested on charges of hitting the girl's older sister.Lisa
Deis, of Highland Park, was picked up Thursday at her home and charged
with aggravated assault, Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Tom Stangrecki said.Deis was released on a non-monetary bond and has a hearing set for July 28 in Municipal Court downtown.The
criminal complaint says that Deis' 16-year-old daughter told police her
mother was drinking and throwing things around their apartment and hit
her in the face with a small piece of metal furniture after she told the
woman to stop her activity.
The teenager called police and she had a laceration under one eye when they arrived, the complaint said.Tushon Brown, 35, of Sheraden, is charged with homicide in connection with Lauren Deis' death.

A community shows an outpouring of emotion for a teenager who was murdered in Sheraden.Friends
gathered for a vigil Saturday evening to honor the memory of Lauren
Deis, 14, who was raped and killed earlier this month.A friend who organized the vigil said she did it for people who didn't get a chance to go to her funeral.Girls wrote final messages to Lauren on balloons."The main thing I am going to remember is her laugh. Her laugh was the most perfect thing in the world," said Jennifer Tennant.People that knew her, and people who did not, were outside Langley High School, where her body was found.The neighborhood was shattered by what happened."She met up with a savage end that no one deserves, especially not a child."One person who attended, and who had never met Lauren, drove from Akron, Ohio."I
would feel wrong by not being here. She deserves everybody to be here. I
feel I am somewhat connected to her," said Monoca Cunningham.Ten years ago, Monoca was sexually assaulted by Tushon Brown. He was paroled for that attack in August.He was recently arrested for Lauren's murder."It
is a rough road. It definitely reopens a lot of old wounds. At this
point in my life, I have to put it behind me and realize that there are
more important things to fight for."Monoca also wrote Lauren a message on a balloon.People put flowers by her pictures and let the balloons go.Besides the vigil, there will be a prayer service for Lauren Deis Tuesday night at the Sheraden Senior Center.

From a FB friend...

GUILTY!!!

"Tushon Brown will spend the REST OF HIS LIFE in prison! "

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_732269.html

Sheraden man pleads guilty to murder of 14-year-old girl

The Sheraden man who fatally stabbed 14-year-old Lauren Deis after having sex with her will spend the rest of his life in prison under a plea deal reached today.

Tushon Brown, 35, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in exchange for a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

Brown admitted he killed Deis in July and later left her body by a Dumpster outside Langley High School.

Deis’ mother, Lisa Deis, cried as she read a statement to Brown during the hearing.

“My daughter was just 14 when you stole her life away,” Lisa Deis said. “You had the nerve to tell detectives lies about my daughter. My daughter’s mistake was to trust you.”

Lisa Deis recounted a letter left by Brown’s daughter at Lauren Deis’ memorial.

“I love you Lauren. We’re so ashamed and embarrassed of our father. But don’t worry, you’re an angel now and he’ll never be able to get out,” Lisa Deis quoted from the letter.

Brown stared straight ahead for most of the hearing.

“I apologize to the family of Lauren and her friends. I am ashamed. I’m sorry. You have every right to feel the way you do,” Brown said.

Deputy District Attorney Mark V. Tranquilli recounted the final grisly minutes of Lauren Deis’ life at the hearing. According to court documents, Brown told detectives:

He left his home on the afternoon of July 7 and walked to the area of Langley High School, where he approached Deis, struck up a conversation with her and offered her $200 for sex.

They walked back to his home on Glen Mawr Street where he lived with his wife of four months and her two young sons. He said he and Deis went to a second-floor bedroom and had sex.

He said he took his money back because he was not satisfied with the sex. She then grabbed a kitchen knife that was in the bedroom and attacked him. He said he hit her with a computer desk, knocked the knife away and stabbed her in the stomach.

Brown claimed she regained control of the knife before he hit her with the desk, knocking the knife away, and he then stabbed her a second time. She regained control of the knife again and attacked him before he disarmed her and then stabbed her in the throat.

He said he then dragged her corpse to the basement and later had sex with her again.

Brown said he attempted to cut off her leg so that he could stuff her body into a clothing bin but then put it in a basement closet where it remained until July 13 when he put it in his car and drove it to the high school.