“Why, Tecia?” shrieked Dakota Lowry moments after he reluctantly sat in the witness chair. The prosecution introduced him as the half-brother of Letecia Stauch, who is on trial for the murder of her stepson, 11-year-old Gannon. Her defense attorneys do not deny that Letecia Stauch brutally snuffed out the life of young Gannon. They argued it was not Gannon she was killing; rather the demons of her abusive childhood. Stauch pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), blaming dissociative personality disorder, or DID, for the heinous crime. In the past, DID has been called multiple personality disorder. The NGRI plea came after a stretch of pretrial courtroom drama. Stauch initially fired her public defenders, announced she would represent herself, then shifted course to new attorneys, Josh Tolini and Will Cook.
Later came the insanity plea, which caused another delay in the trial. Stauch was arrested on March 2, 2020. It took more than three years to bring this case to trial. The twists and turns in this case are enough to give the most seasoned crime reporter whiplash. Stauch has been found competent to stand trial twice, but the NGRI defense made it necessary for a new evaluation, performed at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. Psychologists who evaluated Stauch concluded that she was faking symptoms of DID, so her defense attorneys hired renowned psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Lewis to examine her. Dr. Lewis is an expert in DID, and has interviewed notorious killers like Ted Bundy and Mark David Chapman. She was featured in the HBO documentary Crazy, Not Insane. Dr. Lewis determined Stauch was indeed suffering from DID.
Detectives believe that Gannon’s last day of life was on January 27, 2020, the same day his stepmother reported him missing. Letecia Stauch claimed Gannon stayed home from school with stomach issues, but later went to a friend’s house and never returned home. Forensics told a different story, and Stauch’s countless inconsistencies during interviews with authorities, a bizarre interview with a news reporter in Colorado Springs, and several recorded conversations with her then-husband, Albert Stauch, pointed a very suspicious finger at her. She was arrested 35 days later in South Carolina.
Law enforcement decided to drive her back to Colorado in a rented van. Stauch wiggled out of her handcuffs and clocked one of the deputies in the face with a can of Monster Energy Drink. It happened on the heels of a tedious hours-long interview at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office on January 29. During the more than four hours of questioning, Stauch claimed that she was raped by a construction worker who came to repair burned carpet and that he, a man named Eguardo, kidnapped Gannon and stole a suitcase. Stauch complained of anxiety and chest pains, and paramedics were called. She also ate a Hot Pocket, wet her pants, snoozed on the couch for a quick nap, and became argumentative with the detective. She was transported to Memorial Hospital but slipped out before an exam to check for evidence of her alleged sexual assault.
According to detectives, Stauch tossed a suitcase with Gannon’s body stuffed inside, over a bridge in Pace, Florida on her way to South Carolina. Construction workers doing routine maintenance found the suitcase in a marshy area on March 17, 2020, 49 days after he was murdered. An autopsy revealed that Gannon was stabbed 18 times, had four blunt force injuries to his skull that caused a fracture, and was shot in the jaw. The bullet severed his spinal cord. Two more bullets were found in the pillow that was shoved in the suitcase along with some blankets. Gannon was wearing the clothes he died in. Bridge worker Macon Ponder testified in El Paso County court on April 6, saying the first thing he saw after unzipping the suitcase was “two little feet that had football socks on them.” Ponder said he knew before opening the suitcase that there was something dead in it because of the odor. Gannon was in a fetal position.
Medical examiner Dr. Susan Ignacio described Gannon’s injuries while showing photographs of the decomposing child. The pictures were shocking and difficult to look at, but necessary to underscore the savage nature of this crime. Those images provoked feelings ranging from horror to heartbreak; the latter stemming from Dr. Ignacio’s testimony that some of the wounds on Gannon’s arms and hands were defensive. He fought back. It was revealed that Gannon had Tylenol and hydrocodone, which is a controlled substance, in his system at the time of death. She said it is unusual to find hydrocodone in a child. Gannon’s father, Albert, briefly testified that he had a prescription for the drug after cutting the tip off of his finger during a woodworking accident, but said he didn’t take many of the pills. The prescription was in his nightstand drawer, and only he and likely the defendant knew the pills were there.
The assistant principal at Timberview Middle School, Leslie Hicks, testified about interactions with Stauch, who had just accepted a resource teacher position with the school days before Gannon’s murder. Stauch texted Hicks twice in the wee hours of Monday, January 27, which read, “I’m sorry for the time of night message, but my stepfather passed away someone hit him with a car while he was walking. I can update you at a later time.”
James Lowry, Stauch’s stepfather, was indeed hit by a car and died…more than 15 years from the time of the text. Lowry died on July 18, 2004, which was his son, Dakota’s, seventh birthday. It was not the only time during the trial that James Lowry was mentioned. The prosecution and defense questioned Dakota Lowry about his father’s death, drinking problem, and domestic violence.
Stauch’s attorney accused her stepfather and a string of her mother’s boyfriends of physically and sexually abusing her during opening statements. Dakota testified that Letecia left the family home a couple of years after his birth. There is a 14-year age difference between the two. He also said Letecia left knives for him during visits for protection against James Lowry, who once gave Dakota so much alcohol as a toddler that he passed out.
This case is peppered with bizarre episodes. According to investigators, the attack on the deputy during extradition from South Carolina wasn’t the first time Letecia Stauch tried to escape. She’s accused of hatching a plot to bust out a jail window with a broom handle and crawl through it to freedom. She was observed chasing what seemed to be invisible butterflies.
Stauch filed a lawsuit against El Paso County, alleging violations of her kosher diet and medical neglect in the jail. Judge Gregory Werner had to sign an order directing the use of all force reasonably necessary to get Stauch into the courtroom for trial because she previously refused to appear several times. The judge scolded her on April 14 after District Attorney Michael Allen said he obtained pictures of Stauch “flipping the bird” at witnesses and members of Gannon’s family. He threatened to have her removed from the courtroom if the behavior continued, but that might be exactly what she wants since the judge had to sign an order for her to be there in the first place.
Judge Werner was also the recipient of a four-page handwritten letter from Stauch on February 21, 2021, after she decided to act as her own defense. On page three of the letter, which is public record, Stauch mentions a biological son three times, and indicates she does not want to expose “any info on my son’s father.” She also insists she would not enter an insanity defense “because it’s my understanding that you actually did do it.” Less than a year later, after deciding not to represent herself and getting new attorneys, Stauch changed her plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity.
Dakota Lowry fought back tears as he recalled Stauch struggling with a big green suitcase as they transferred her belongings from one van to another. He testified that the suitcase appeared heavy and offered to help move it, but she refused. He asked what was in it, and she replied, “Softball stuff.”
Stauch and her daughter, Harley Hunt, drove the van to Pace, Florida, with the Gannon’s body concealed in a green suitcase.
The courtroom waited with anticipation after Hunt was called to testify. After a few moments, the 20-year-old hesitated as she was sworn in. Hunt hadn’t seen her mother in person since Stauch was arrested in Myrtle Beach on March 2, 2020. The emotion Hunt felt was palpable. She was often tearful throughout the questioning which lasted all day. The prosecution asked Hunt point-blank if she helped her mother through the suitcase over the bridge in Florida. “No, I did not,” she replied. Hunt said she had no idea that Gannon’s body was in the back of the van and that she didn’t smell anything unusual during the days they were on the road.
There was a possibility that Hunt could be charged as an accessory to murder, so she traveled to Colorado in August to meet with prosecutors. Hunt was given a proffer letter, a written agreement that allows a witness to give information without having it used against them. It is also called “Queen for a Day.” Hunt said she spoke with prosecutors because “it was the right thing to do.” When asked if her mother was athletic and able to lift a suitcase with Gannon’s body inside, Hunt said “Yes.” She answered questions about her childhood, which was sometimes chaotic. Her father, Chance Hunt, died in 2014 while in Ohio on a construction job, but she said Stauch did not tell her the truth about it. Harley Hunt claims she only found out that her father overdosed on drugs a week ago by reading about it on the internet, and that she was led to believe that someone robbed and killed him.
During cross-examination, Stauch’s attorney asked Hunt if she remembered her mother crashing her Jeep because she thought she saw Hunt’s dead father sitting next to her. Hunt recalled the accident, but not the details about the vision of her deceased father.
The defense pounced on Hunt for a “Go Fund Me” she set up in January, asking the public for help raising $5000 to buy a car. “You will at times manipulate the truth for your benefit,” attorney Josh Tolini stated, pointing to wording in the fundraiser that she “lost” both of her parents, which could imply they were dead and motivate people to give more money. Hunt broke down and said she did lose them; “I was left with literally nothing.”
Hunt went on to say she felt manipulated and lied to. On redirect, the prosecution asked Hunt if she still loved her mother. The question caught her off guard. She sobbed and didn’t answer.
The gut-wrenching details about the vicious murder of Gannon Stauch leave one question that might never be answered. It is the one asked in Dakota Lowry’s outburst in court; “Why, Tecia?”
Jenesis Productions 
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