Gannon Stauch's stepmom drove to pick up his dad with his body in back of her car hours after murder

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO: Chilling new details have emerged in the murder case of Gannon Stauch alleging that the boy’s stepmother stuffed his body in the back of her car and then drove to pick up his father from the airport one day after she reported him missing.

An affidavit filed in the case has claimed that Letecia Stauch allegedly killed the 11-year-old and put his lifeless body in the back of her car in a suitcase. A day later after the alleged crime, she drove the same car with Gannon’s remains inside it to pick up his father Albert Stauch from the airport. 

Letecia is currently in jail on counts of first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a deceased human body and tampering with evidence. She faces charges of murder of a child under 12 years of age by a person in a position of trust.

The affidavit obtained by The Sun claimed that on January 27 at around 6:55 pm Letecia called 911 to report that Gannon had not returned after going to a friend’s house. After she complained to the authorities, the minor boy was initially categorized as a runaway. However, authorities later upgraded his case to that of a missing or endangered person.

After finding these details into the case, police now believe that this call was placed a few hours after the 36-year-old hammered Gannon to death in his bedroom and then cleaned up the crime scene. The affidavit has also stated that the officials now think that Letecia killed the boy shortly after 2 pm on January 27.

An earlier report has claimed that it “was a violent crime.” "Physical evidence recovered from the residence and inside Gannon's bedroom supports that a violent event occurred in his bedroom, which caused bloodshed, including blood spatter on the walls, and enough blood loss to stain his mattress, soak through the carpet, the carpet pad, and stain the concrete below his bed," the affidavit stated.

The detective also alleges in the affidavit that after the crime, the mother asked Gannon’s younger sister Laina to play outside when she returned from school a short time later, while she sent her own daughter to the Dollar Store.

She also messaged her daughter, Harley, asking for “carpet cleaner, trash bags, and baking soda” while she was at the store. However, it was not clear whether the girls knew what happened to their brother. The affidavit has also stated that Gannon’s sister, Laina, has given an interview to police, and Harley has not yet done so.

Police also believe that Letecia had stuffed the boy’s remains in the suitcase and put that in her Volkswagen Tiguan when his sisters were out. She then used the same car the following morning to drive and pick up Gannon's father from the airport.

The affidavit also claimed that after taking the car, Letecia first stopped at a long-term parking lot at the airport, leaving the body in the vehicle as she picked up a rental to drive her husband home. Later that day, she drove back to the airport in the rental car to get her car back from the airport.

According to the affidavit, her car was then caught on camera as she drove down a less-traveled section of a local highway. Police believe that Letecia disposed of the body on the side of that highway. It was also reported that her daughter Harley meanwhile left the house around 10:30 and picked up her mother.

However, it is still not clear what the alleged murderer achieved doing that if that is the case.

The same night after hiding Gannon's body, Letecia has allegedly sent a very forward text message to one of the investigators on the case with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. In the text, she wrote: “What do you want from me? Because I have nothing. One of your very own leaked to me what you guys were doing. I did nothing/ or am being set up.

“I’m not really even sure other than being told that by another blue with El Paso. I was told I couldn’t go home to sleep and on top of that men were sent to a home with a minor female and she was forced to stay there not to even have good. Every conversation that said even at this moment, I can hear inside. What do you want from me?"

The next morning, when the accused had to show up for an interview with deputies, she came two hours late as she reportedly went to get her car washed, and the vehicle was still wet when she came for the interrogation.

“Letecia lied to investigators on multiple occasions, has unexplained abnormal behavior such as obtaining a rental car, disconnecting her cell phone from the cellular network, the false reporting of an alleged rape, abnormal patterns of travel, a continuously evolving story with material changes in facts and circumstances and has since left the state of Colorado,” the affidavit stated.