Mysterious death of LeeAnn Hartleben: Mom, 38, found unresponsive in bathtub, family calls situation 'shady'
KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA: LeeAnn Hartleben, 38, was found unresponsive in her bathtub by John Tolson in July 2020, and his subsequent 911 call had him telling the dispatcher, "My friend, she's laying in the tub, she won't wake up.” He goes on to detail that he thought that she had fallen, and states, "There's blood coming out of her nose, so I can't get her to wake up." He had gone on to claim that the deceased had been drinking and that she fell in the kitchen.
He also stated that Hartleben, a mother of two, was breathing very loudly and that he could not “get her to wake up.” Soon after, the paramedics rushed to her cottage and airlifted her to the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia. "She was still breathing but she was brain dead," Hartleben’s cousin Trisha Cahoon had said upon being informed that the deceased was being kept on a ventilator in the ICU. The case only got twisted from here with the injuries that Hartleben had sustained being completely inconsistent with what Tolson had described in the phone call.
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Was LeeAnn Hartleben’s death an accident or murder?
"The first thing that came to my mind was that she got COVID," Cahoon said, according to a report by People. "And her mother was like, 'No, [it's because of] blunt force trauma.'" Hartleben's mother and family had been informed that her injuries were inconsistent with what was described over the phone. Notably, she also had bruises on her arms and neck. Cahoon’s shock knew no bounds when she was informed that her cousin’s injuries "did not come from a standing position.” "The doctor said unless she was on a 20-foot building and fell, this is blunt force trauma to her head," she added. Three days after she had been admitted, Hartleben died on July 25, 2020.
Family’s calls for justice
Cahoon remained suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her cousin’s death, saying something was "shady" about the situation. An investigation had begun immediately and Tolson, who made the 911 call and had been dating Hartleben for a month at that point, was deemed to be a person of interest. However, the cousin of the deceased pointed out the authorities' lack of effort and said, "They were saying there was no crime, there was no crime committed…That she was drunk, fell, and hit her head, and there you go. And she succumbed to her injuries.”
She went on to add, "And we were like, 'There was a crime.' We said, 'Please come investigate. Please do something. There's spots that look like blood.'" Unsatisfied by the law enforcement’s findings, the family hired a P.I. and things took a dark turn immediately. The PI and Cahoon had gone to Hartleben’s house and videotaped all the bloodstains, including those that were made visible with a chemical agent — but she remarked that the bathtub, where the body was found, had no blood in it. Soon enough, a YouTube page was formed and the findings were posted, with each post gaining traction.
Social media had begun to pressurize law enforcement into addressing the issue and soon enough, Andrew Womble, DA, had issued a statement saying that an autopsy report was awaited before any further action. The family, who still wanted closure as to how Hartleben died, had marched to the Kitty Hawk police station and started the #JUSTICEforLeeAnn campaign.
Was LeeAnn Hartleben killed by John Tolson?
John Tolson was eventually arrested in October 2020, after being charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty. The trial is set to begin on March 6.
Cahoon had stated that the pair had begun to have issues and that Tolson was “possessive.”
They had been living together for a few weeks when Hartleben had thrown his stuff out to the front porch and ended the relationship, which Cahoon says "angered" Tolson. This may possibly imply that she believes he is the killer. “I love her. LeeAnn was like my sister and she would have done that for me,” Cahoon said. “LeeAnn was a good person. She didn't deserve that at all."