News

Dad Shares Unthinkable Guilt After Stepmom Is Charged With Missing Boy’s Murder

NewsPublished Mar 4, 2020
By Kaitlin Stanford
Gannon Stauch9News/YouTube

More than a month after 11-year-old Gannon Stauch was reported missing from Colorado Springs, Colorado, police have announced they finally have a suspect. On Monday, the boy's stepmother, Letecia Stauch, was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on murder charges in connection with the boy's disappearance. The arrest follows weeks of suspicion into the stepmother's possible role in the incident.

It was Letecia who first reported her stepson missing January 27.

At the time, she told police that she last saw the boy leaving home in the afternoon to visit a friend. But just one week later, surveillance footage taken from a neighbor's home seemed to prove otherwise.

According to the neighbor, Roderrick Drayton, the video appears to show Letecia getting into a red pickup truck parked in the driveway of the Stauch home. Moments later, Gannon walks toward it slowly before climbing in.

"I caught Gannon getting into her vehicle at 10:13 Monday morning," Drayton shared with ABC News.

When the truck returned around 2:19 p.m., Gannon was nowhere to be seen -- and never appears on the video after that.

On Monday, El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder called Letecia's arrest part of a "rapidly developing and highly complex investigation."

Even though police have not recovered a body, Letecia was charged with first-degree murder of a child under the age of 12 by a person in a position of trust, as well as second-degree child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a deceased human body, and tampering with physical evidence, Elder told reporters, according to Denver 7.

She is being held without bond at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Horry County, South Carolina, and will soon be extradited to Colorado Springs.

Gannon's parents, meanwhile, are beside themselves with grief.

His mother, Landen Hiott, father Albert (who is married to Letecia), and sister Laina appeared in a video put out in February by the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

In it, his mother admitted just how torturous it has been, not knowing what happened to their boy.

"This week has been awful," Hiott said. "It's been more than a roller coaster ride. It's been more than an emotional mess. I don't have answers for my feelings, other than I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll never hear his voice, that I'll never hear him run and say, 'Mommy!'"

Following the news of his presumed death and Letecia's arrest, Gannon's father issued a heartfelt letter that shared his pain.

It was read aloud to reporters by Jacqueline Kirby, spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

It described the day that Gannon was born, September 29, 2008, and how the day made the proud father's heart "stop." According to the letter, his heart stopped again March 2, 2020, after he learned that cops believe his son to be dead.

"My little boy is not coming home," the letter read.

To make matters even worse, the father shared his anguish over learning that his wife was believed to be behind the crime.

"The person who committed this heinous, horrible crime, is the one that I gave more to (than) anyone else on this planet, and that is a burden that I will carry with me for a very long time," ithe letter continued.

Letecia Stauch's behavior had drawn suspicion from the start of the investigation, as her claims never seemed to add up.

Gannon's family just hopes that if she is behind this, she won't get away with murder.

“Justice will be served because my boy does not deserve this,” Hiott said during Monday's news conference. “Please hold off questions until we know that this person, this stepmom that I even trusted, that she will pay 100% for this thing that she [did]. Because I want to live on this Earth knowing that justice will be served for my little boy.”

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