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- If That's What Heaven's Made Of... -
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Wednesday, April 06, 2005
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Andy Griggs sings a song, I'm not sure the exact title of it, but something to the effect of "If That's What Heaven's Made Of, I Ain't Afraid To Die". This is such a great song and reminds me a lot of the Lunsford family.
Background: March 18th, 2005. Went with my mom to her first appt. It was scheduled for 1:00pm, and I wasn't sure if they would even let us back there, but I wanted to be there to see what it was going to be about- what they do, how they do it, side effects, etc... Her first treatment was scheduled to be about 4 hours long. In the meantime, a victim had called me and asked if I would accompany her to injunction court at 3:00. I told her I would make every attempt, but wasn't sure due to my mom's chemo. I ended up being able to meet her, which was good because it's a small world and I knew her ex-husband, who's truely a jerk! During court, my cell phone vibrated...I ended up turning it off, it was Chris, and I knew whatever it was would have to wait. As I was exiting the courtroom one of the girls from the State Attorney's office came up to me with a sticky note. Call Chris Prus ASAP--URGENT. I started to panic. All that went through my mind was something happened to my mom during chemo. I stayed with my victim and her attorney for a couple of minutes, which seemed like forever and finally exited the courthouse where I could get service on my cell phone. Chris told me the news. The man they were looking for for questioning in the Jessica dissapearance had confessed. He was at the scene roping it off as a crime scene (which is across the street, about 150 yards away from the Lunsford home). I knew I had to get to the Lunsford's house, but I also had to get someone to watch the boys. I called my Uncle Bruce, who was with my mom and grandma, and asked if he would watch the boys. He said he would---well, as it turns out, I had a lot to do before taking them to my grandma's, so I didn't even get to the Lunsford's house until dark, maybe 7:00.
I knew it would happen, I just didn't know when. As things were starting to add up with this Couey guy, I still had this thought in the back of my mind that this guy could just be a psycho who wants attention from a murder (yes, it does happen) and may truely have nothing to do with this crime. I walked into the Lunsford home and was greeted by Mark and Archie. I could help but cry, which is very unusual for me. (Not the crying part, but actually crying with (for) a victim.) Mark said, "Kelly, why the red nose? She's home now...that's all we asked right, is that she come home?". Well, yeah I guess...but it wasn't supposed to turn out this way. A million thoughts went through my mind. Melissa and I sat with the family, took food, flowers, cards and Easter baskets from well wishers who were dropping them off all night. Shortly after midnight we left, in hopes that we would have more answers Saturday. We did.
Chris came home Saturday morning at about 4:00 and told me they found her. I felt so sad, but incredibly relieved as this was the start of something new and huge. Details started to emerge of the heinous murder of Jessica as the day and weekend unfolded. I went back out the the Lunsford house at about 7:00 Saturday morning and sat with them for the day. Again, we brushed away media, gawkers, onlookers and tourists (yes, tourists!). More food, flowers, cards and people rolled in. It was an amazing sight. At the intersection of their street and a main road a memorial had been set up. There were pictures, angels, flowers, bears, dolphins, etc... You name it, it was there.
As the week went on, things started getting even more tedious for Archie, Ruth and Mark. They were being told information about Jessie's murder that no parent, nor stranger would ever want to hear. They were being forced to make room for family and friends, yet still managed to keep their composure and do a wonderful job with the media.
The next week was spent making funeral arrangements for Jessie. Her viewing (closed casket) was Thursday. Funeral, private, for family and friends was held on Good Friday. The pallbearers were the deputies and detectives that worked with the Lunsfords since day one. Sgt. Dave Wyllie (in charge of doing all of Mark, Archie and Ruth's polygraphs); Detectives Gary Atchison and Scott Grace (obtained the confession from Couey and were the unfortunate ones, along with Special Agent Scott Bolin, who heard the grim, nauseating details about Jessica's murder); Deputies Chris Prus and Steve Conley (followed up on more than 3,000 leads that came in regarding the case, also kept in close contact with Ruth and Archie); and Deputy Juan Santiago (first deputy to respond to the missing child call on February 24th, 2005). The Lunsford family picked this group because they knew each of these individuals because of the impact they made on the family. It was one of the most touching things I've ever seen.
The public memorial service was filmed live on every major network in the Tampa area. It was very nice, with songs like "Amazing Grace", "Ships in Heaven" by Blackhawk, "Don't Stop Dancing" by Creed and "Fly" by Celine Dion. That was all the room we had for songs, because we also had a slide show of pictures of Jessie. It was sad but also a beautiful ending to a tragic month.
I've said the before, but the thing that bothers me most about this whole thing, aside the obvious, was that the father and grandparents were truely victims...all the while being looked at as criminals. That is the first thing I thought when I walked through their door on that Friday night. I apologized to them over and over, on behalf of our office, for what they had to go through, the interviews, the interrogations (if you've never seen a real life interrogations you never want to...you too will feel like a suspect!!!!), the polygraphs. In the back of their minds, working with law enforcement was the only thing they could do to get their daughter/granddaughter back and that was their goal, no matter what they had to go through.
Our sheriff had a tremendous amount of pressure on him to get this little girl back. One person said to him, the second day she was missing, Sheriff, don't give up. You're the last hope this little girl has to see her family again. It gives you chills and it stuck with him until the end, which is one reason he took this so incredibly hard. At the memorial on Saturday when the Sheriff spoke (and got a standing ovation, by the way) he said in closing, that he would trust them with his 9 year old and they are just like family to him. He continued with, "Archie, Ruth and Mark, I love you guys, and I'm sorry I didn't bring her home alive" in a tearful close to a beautiful ceremony.
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1 Comments:
Kell, I feel like I went through this, too...as an outsider of course but I found myself becoming attached to the case, having empathy for Jessica's parents and you. I just about lost it during the false alarm. I knew you were going crazy with worry at times, but you totally kept your composure around the family...until the end. Sometimes the adreneline, relief, empathy, exhaustion and sorrow has no where to go but out of your eyes as tears. Well done, Kelly. You and Chris did your best with what you could do...helping the victims. I know the littlest victim was the main concern but I agree with what Mark said: she came home. I hope this story doesn't go away. I pray some good will come out of it.
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