JESSICA LUNSFORD - 9 yo (2005) - Tallahassee FL

Florida prison officials say the man who kidnapped, raped and buried alive 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford has died of natural causes.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said John Evander Couey, 51, died Wednesday at a Jacksonville hospital.

She said Couey had been ill for some time. She declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.

Jessica was kidnapped and killed in Citrus County in 2005. Couey was sentenced to death in 2007.

John Couey, the Florida man who had been found guilty in the murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, died today in a prison hospital from natural causes. Privacy laws do not allow any further information to be released by the Florida Department of Corrections.


Convicted child killer and rapist John Couey. (Getty Images)

Couey was found guilty in 2007 of kidnapping, raping, and the burying alive 9-year-old girl Jessica Lunsford. The girl was taken from her family's home in Homosassa, Florida by Couey, who was a registered sex offender. Her body was found three weeks later, buried in the yard of Couey's half-sister.

Police say Couey kept Lunsford alive for several days, and found the girl's blood on a mattress in the home where Couey was living. Police also say they found the girl buried with a stuffed dolphin, a toy won for her by her father at the state fair.

A jury found Couey guilty, and a judge later sentenced him to death.

Speaking to the press, Lunsford grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, said, "I am not shedding any tears. I don't feel sorry for him. I think God said, 'John Couey, it's time to go.' I don't feel sorry for him that he had to suffer. He didn't have any mercy on my granddaughter when he murdered her. I'm glad we didn't have to wait years and years for his appeals and execution, and the taxpayers no longer have to pay for him. I'm glad that God took a hand in it."

A Florida death-row inmate convicted of abducting and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005 has died, prison officials said Wednesday.

John Evander Couey, 51, died at 11:15 a.m. ET of natural causes, a Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman told CNN. He had been taken to a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital from Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida.

Because of privacy laws, no further information could be released by the Department of Corrections.

A source close to the case told CNN that Couey’s death was not unexpected and he had been ill for some time.

“I never dreamed it would happen like this,“ Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford, told CNN. He said he never thought he would live long enough to see Couey put to death because of the lengthy appeals process.

He said he was sad when he heard the news of Couey’s death. “To me, death is sad,“ he said. “But her death, Jessie’s death, has been redeemed ... I’m relieved. I’m glad it’s over with.“

Couey was sentenced to die in August 2007 for abducting and raping Lunsford, then killing her by burying her alive. The girl was snatched from her bed in her family’s Homosassa, Florida, home the evening of February 23, 2005, by Couey, a registered sex offender. Her body was found three weeks later, buried at the home of Couey’s half-sister, who lived within sight of the Lunsford home.

The girl’s body was wrapped in plastic garbage bags, and her hands were bound with speaker wire. She was clutching a stuffed dolphin—a toy won for her at a state fair by her father, and which Couey allowed her to bring with her when she was abducted.

“I am not shedding any tears,“ the girl’s grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, said on Wednesday. “I don’t feel sorry for him. I think God said, ‘John Couey, it’s time to go.‘ “

“I don’t feel sorry for him that he had to suffer,“ she said. “He didn’t have any mercy on my granddaughter when he murdered her. I’m glad we didn’t have to wait years and years for his appeals and execution, and the taxpayers no longer have to pay for him. I’m glad that God took a hand in it.“

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy, who led the investigation into the girl’s death, told reporters he wished Couey could have faced the death sentence handed down by the jury.

“I know he didn’t suffer the way Jessie did when he killed her,“ Dawsy said. “I’m sorry I won’t get to look him in the eyes as he died, but I’m relieved to know he’ll never hurt another child again.“

Authorities believe Lunsford was kept for several days before she was killed. Her blood was found on a mattress in the home where Couey was living, her fingerprints also were discovered at the location.

During the search for the girl, as authorities and hundreds of volunteers combed Citrus County, north of Tampa, police twice visited that home.

“Couey’s timeline after he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford leaves open the possibility that she was alive, and in the house, at the time of the first and possibly the second interview,“ according to a prosecution memo in the case.

In sentencing Couey, Judge Ric Howard noted Couey became fearful of police dogs being used in the area in the search for the girl. He told Lunsford he was planning to take her home, but did not want her to be seen, and so persuaded her to get into a trash bag. He then knotted another trash bag over her head, placed her in a hole and shoveled dirt on top of her.

Jurors convicted Couey of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child under 12 in March 2007.

Howard, at Couey’s sentencing, brought many in the courtroom to tears as he discussed how the girl died slowly as her oxygen ran out. A medical examiner testified she could have been alive as much as five minutes, or even longer, before she lost consciousness, Howard said.

“He caused a slow, suffering, conscious death,“ Howard said of Couey. “Her only source of comfort during this horrific experience was her purple dolphin.“ Another horrific detail the judge noted: The girl was able to poke several fingers through the innermost trash bag covering her before she died.

The judge also noted that Couey made “crude, vulgar and repulsive” comments to police after his arrest regarding his sexual assault of the girl, and the judge quoted Couey as saying the media was blowing the case out of proportion—“This kind of thing happens every day.“

Lunsford’s slaying sparked national outrage and led to stricter Florida laws regarding registration and supervision of released sexual predators, following a push led largely by her father, Mark Lunsford.

Although Lunsford’s death was one of several that contributed to the passage of a federal child-protection law dealing with sex offender registration and other matters related to child sex offenses, Mark Lunsford said at the time of Couey’s sentencing the law does not go far enough.

On Wednesday, Mark Lunsford told CNN he is a Christian and he believes he will see his daughter again.

In a jailhouse phone call before his sentencing, Couey told a woman described as his aunt he expected the death penalty.

“I kick myself in the butt a hundred times a day,“ he said. “Stupidity ... Just trying to figure out, I’m just asking myself, ‘Why was you so stupid?‘ “

“Well, none of us are perfect,“ the woman said, “and the drugs didn’t help any.“

“No, that was a big problem,“ Couey said. “Drugs, alcohol.“

Speaking after Couey’s sentencing, Mark Lunsford referenced Couey’s earlier comments in which he said that when he got to heaven, he would apologize to his victim.

“I have bad news,“ Mark Lunsford said. “I don’t think you’re going to make it there.“ He called on Couey to drop his appeals. “You want to do something for her, give your life for the one you took.“

From: WFLA NewsChannel 8 Reporter Samara Sodos ~

By SAMARA SODOS, ssodos@wfla.com
Published: October 1, 2009
     
It's not often these days a reporter covers a story from beginning to end.

Perhaps in the case of Jessica Lunsford – the 9-year-old girl abducted, raped and buried alive - there is no end. At least not for the family. But with Wednesday's death of Jessica's convicted killer, John Couey, there is some finality. It's made me think about the roller coaster emotions involved in covering this case and how it's changed me as a person.

Jessica lived in a mobile home with her dad and grandparents in a rural Homosassa neighborhood.

I remember my first days out in Citrus County in February 2005 as I witnessed an entire community search for this adorable girl who vanished overnight from her bedroom. Missing was her purple dolphin stuffed animal, recently won at the Florida State Fair by her father.

As time passed, and the search continued, the stress showed on the family members, who were suspects themselves.

When Sheriff Jeff Dawsy announced a new suspect, an unregistered sex offender who lived in a trailer down the street, we all started to have a bad feeling.

In the end, they caught Couey in Georgia. He confessed: some of it truth, some of it lies. But he told detectives where he buried Jessica's body, right outside his trailer. When it became public, some reporters were so upset to learn they had actually walked over the area where she was buried for all this time. For three weeks. Where cadaver dogs and deputies searched.

One of our News Channel 8 reporters nearly broke down on the air talking about it.

Later, we would learn more gruesome details: She had been raped, her hands were bound, she clutched the stuffed purple dolphin as she was buried alive in trash bags.

When the national media swarmed on the Lunsfords - a quiet, religious family - they were broken and bewildered but stood strong.

Mark Lunsford was a single dad who shared his unbearable heartache with the world as he cruised through the county on his motorcycle. Mark never failed to tell it like it was, and that's when we started to see a strength in him, a strength he would eventually use to change laws in order to prevent this from happening to other children.

Mark's resolve only grew, as twists and turns complicated Couey's legal drama. A judge tossed his lengthy confession because detectives never responded to Couey's repeated requests for a lawyer.

The first trial attempted in Lake County failed when everyone realized it was hopeless to find an impartial jury so close to Citrus County. So two years after Jessica's murder, the month-long trial started in Miami. News Channel 8 and the Tampa Tribune each rented condos. News Channel 8's condo happened to be in the same complex shared by prosecutors and defense attorneys. This made for some interesting encounters.

One day my Jeep wouldn't start and one of Couey's attorneys pitied me and let me hang out in his condo while I waited for my tow. (Imagine me trying to spark up casual conversation.) Living in the WFLA condo with two male photojournalists was like a warped version of "Three's Company."

What I recall most from the trial was the judge attempting to communicate in Spanglish with potential jurors (which was very entertaining); John Couey drawing pictures with colored pencils (perhaps an effort to appear mentally retarded, something his attorneys tried to later prove); and Mark Lunsford intensely staring at Couey as if he were trying to light him on fire with his eyes.

It was also the first and only time I ever became visibly emotional during a live report. After viewing autopsy photos of Jessica holding the purple stuffed dolphin, I broke a little talking about it on the air.

I like to think I am a tough bird.

Apparently, I am human after all.

When the trial was over, many of the reporters covering the case ran into the detectives and prosecutors out celebrating in Coral Gables.

Not usually two groups to mix - we did that night - and it was a delightful evening.

Outside of a quickly dropped lawsuit Mark Lunsford filed against the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and a few letters Couey wrote from prison, we hadn't heard much about this case until Wednesday, when Couey died of cancer. When Lunsford called me to tell me the news, I asked him how he felt about it.

"Don't be a reporter right now, Sam," he said to me. "Be a person."

I told him I knew he was upset, but I had a job to do.

But something struck me, as it did later that evening standing quietly in his daughter's room - which remains almost exactly as it was since the day she disappeared. Sometimes certain powerful stories break personal barriers - the barriers that protect feelings.

This story always made me question so much - about how something so horrendous could happen to an innocent, joyful girl, in the final moments of her life. I wasn't able to understand it then, and to be honest, I never will. But I did have the honor of meeting and knowing the Lunsford family, the attorneys, the investigators, the sheriff, and some wonderful people in Citrus County.

And that made me more of a person.

The person Mark Lunsford was looking for when he called to tell me his daughter's murderer was dead.

Jeff Smith, awake in bed, was haunted by the picture he saw hours before while reading the newspaper over breakfast.There,
under the headline “Sheriff: Man confesses to slaying girl,” was a
photo of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, of Homosassa, Fla.,
flashing a smile brighter than Cinderella’s castle, and wearing a pink
floppy hat.Jessica was pure innocence.“She could have
been my daughter, your daughter,” Smith told me recently while sitting
in his office at Madison Jr./Sr. High School. “She could have been any
of the girls in my gym class. Man, I really struggled with that.“She was as happy as she could be, and a few brutal hours later, her life was terminated.”He had to put his thoughts on paper. Smith, boys basketball coach at Madison High School for 13 years, loves writing poetry.He
wrote “The Girl in the Bucket Hat” in March 2005 after learning Jessica
had been abducted, raped, put in a trash bag, then buried in a
four-foot hole.When law enforcement officials dug up her body
three weeks after her father reported her missing, her purple stuffed
dolphin was in her arms, her father said.I handed Smith a copy of his poem:“You’re the girl in the bucket hat,A smile as bright as dayBut today the world has darkened”He stopped reading.“It tears me up,” he said. “I can’t shake her out of my head.”Four
years later, Smith is thinking about Jessica again. John Couey, 51, the
serial child predator who murdered Jessica, died Sept. 30 in prison.He
had been on death row for her abduction, rape, and murder. He had been
imprisoned in the Florida State Prison at Starke, Fla. Prison officials
would not elaborate as to specifics about Couey’s illness and death,
but they did say Couey had been ill for some time.News of his death opened up the same wounds for Smith.“They flooded back to me,” he said of his emotions.Smith said he’s “grateful” Couey is dead, strong words considering his religious beliefs.“I
know I shouldn’t feel this way,” he said, “but he terminated a kid.
Justice was served. He didn’t deserve to live. Now he has to make it
right with the Lord.”Smith, who has written more than 100 poems,
mostly about his two children and his basketball players, hopes to
relay his poem to Jessica’s parents, Angela Bryant and Mark Lunsford.Bryant, a Waynesville native, lives in Morrow and Lunsford, raised in Trotwood and Springfield, resides in Florida.Smith hopes his poem can provide a few words of encouragement.“Hopefully,”
Smith said, “they will reach a place where they have some peace. I
don’t think a parent ever truly gets over it. God will help them
through it.”

Jessica looks so much like Zahra Baker it is eerie.