LOSING LEIGHANNE

This was the most horrible thing I have ever expereinced...

On Saturday March 14, 1998, LeighAnne's mother contacted me and asked me if I had talked to LeighAnne any that day, I told her no that I had talked with her about 4:45 on Friday the day before. Elayne (her mom) informed me that LeighAnne's step son "Little Russ" had dropped off her kids Michael age 6 and Heather age 5, and he was driving her car. She said he didn't even wait to see if anyone was home, and when she asked the kids they said their parents were gone to buy lottery tickets with some friends. I told Elayne that didn't sound right, because thy only had a few friends, that they went places with and they didn't buy lottery tickets. I knew LeighAnne would not leave her children with him or allow him to drive her car. Elayne felt she was jumping the gun so she said to hold off and let her talk to the kids some more. In about 15 minures she called me back and said things were concerning her that the kids were saying that when they got home Friday night Little Russ and his friend Bob had shot a coyote in their yard and they saw their mama running and their daddy holding it on the ground and then Little Russ put them to bed and told them that their mama and daddy were gone in the woods to bury the coyote. I knew this was not true because LeighAnne was very sick and Russell would not have allowed her to have gone into the woods, she could not even keep her balance, she had been out of work for 3 days with severe vertigo.
I was at the police department working on the schedule when Elayne called me, so I told her to hold on, I would send a unit to check things out. I went into dispatch and sent one of our investigators and a county unit down to her house to check things out, and I put out an APB on LeighAnne's car. The investigator I sent was filling in for me in the dispatch room, so I had to take his place until I could call someone else in. I couldn't leave. After the officers arrived they found LeighAnne's car at the house, but her husband Russell's truck was gone. I was calling everyone I knew to see if they had seen either one of them. As soon as I got relief me and my daughter headed to LeighAnne's house. By the time we got there many units had already arrived. I called my ex-husband, who was also an Enterprise Police officer and told him I knew she was dead and asked him to meet me at her house, I felt this because for nine months I was having horrible premonitions where I had a horrible feeling come over me and felt that someone I knew and loved was going to die. I have a spiritual gift, call Spirit of Discernment. During these "feelings" I could see dirty muddy water and could see a beautiful angelic being in it, but never could see the face, it would always happen around my family or at work when I was with LeighAnne. I shared this with my ex husband, my kids and with LeighAnne. They all knew that these types of things had happened to me in the past and took them very serious. One day while I was with LeighAnne, I had a "feeling", almost like what I experience now as a petite mal seizure, and she told me that I was mumbling something about "she's as pretty as a mermaid". I knew that Saturday that my "feelings" had been concerning LeighAnne. We waited for a search warrant to check the inside of the house, but they were not there. We all set up a command post, leaving someone to guard the house and watch for any sight or movement that night. A search in the area failed to turn up any thing. But I noticed that they had strung up crime scene tape, they wouldn't tell me why.... later I found out they had found some blood, and some insulation with blood in it in LeighAnne's yard, of course everyone was protecting me.

At daybreak Sunday morning my whole family went back to her house and joined search parties, I watched the ABI bag evidence from all over her yard. Nothing turned up all day. Early Monday morning we decided that the my kids would go back to school, my ex would re-join the search parties, and I would go to work. I kept telling them ya'll need to check in water. I was the 911 director, LeighAnne was a dispatcher, and had been for 16 years... the whole communications department was so upset, she was a friend to many, and my best friend for 13 years. I felt I needed to be strong for the rest of the dispatchers, LeighAnne would expect me to do this. I tried to work but I just couldn't, I could not keep my mind on any issue. I called everyone I could think of to see if maybe someone had seen her. The guys behind the scenes knew more than they were telling me, and I knew this. At 12:30 I went in and ask the two dispatchers to please go take a lunch break and leave me alone in the radio room, I seldom worked in there anymore, unless I had to cover for a dispatcher in an emergency. I felt a strong need to be in there. About 3 minutes before their return, 911 rang, the call was the State Hiway Department advising me that one of their workmen had found a body while checking the bridge out near Kinston, I KNEW IT WAS LEIGHANNE. I had to walk down the hall and into the Chief's office, where all the units had met to re-group, and give them this news. I carried on as if this was any other call, knowing in the back of my mind that this was my Best Friend I was sending help to, although it was too late. A little after 3:00 I was called down to the Captain's office and when I got there all the dispatchers had been called in... my ex-husband and children were in there, and the chief was sitting behind the desk, there was an empty chair in front of the desk. I remember walking in there and smiling and speaking to everyone as if we were gonna have a meeting. I was asked to sit in the chair. I thought if I didn't sit in that chair, I would not have to hear what I knew was coming. But, it was true, it was LeighAnne, they had recovered her body and she was safe and dry now...although she was at the funeral home. They still had not found her husband's body. I left and went to LeighAnne's mama's house, where we received news later that they had found him as well in the same creek.

On Friday the 20th of March we had a grave side funeral for LeighAnne and Russell. Her children did not attend, someone tapped the whole thing for them for later. The procession was so beautiful, as there were police cars, rescue squads, and firetrucks everywhere. LeighAnne had been a dispatcher for years, her parents started the rescue squad in Enterprise some 40 year prior, and Russell had been a fireman for years with the city as well.

I was LeighAnne's best friend for 13 years, out of those years there were only 5 days that I didn't talk to her and that is when she was on her honeymoon. I am her children's God-mother, and she was my children's God-mother. Her step son and the other man responsible for the deaths are sitting in prison. The other guy was found guilty for attempted murder, go figure, and will serve maybe 5 more years. Her step-son plead guilty and was sentenced to life without the possiblility of parole. He has escaped twice already.

We have been able to determine that LeighAnne's children witnessed the entire horrible event. We now know that her step son was mad cause they told him he had to get a job, he was 18 years old, he was on meth. And that they had planned on killing them on Friday the 13th of February, they had already dug the graves a mile from the house. But I had to get LeighAnne to work that night for a call-in, and that messed up his plans..oh but, March one month later had a Friday the 13th.. One week before the shooting it flooded. So Friday March 13th when they pulled into the yard, and got out of the car, Little Russ and his friend Jeremy were waiting in the dark, they opened fire on them, LeighAnne took off running, after pushing the kids back into the car, Jeremy shot her in the back of the head and she feel face first on the ground. Little Russ shot his dad multiple times in the chest, and he fell to the ground, then he walked over to LeighAnne would already had multiple wounds, and shot her in the back of the head, "just to make sure". Jeremy freaked out and pulled the kids out of the car and was going to shot them, and at the last minute Little Russ said no. He took them inside and put them to bed, and told them they were shooting coyotes, and that mom and dad had gone to bury them. They waited for the kids to go to sleep, then wrapped them in insulation, and loaded them into Russ's truck, and took them to the "graves" but the flood had washed them in , they didn't have time to re-dig. So they just got out on a county road and drove till they found a bridge and dumped them into the creek. They returned back to the house, and waited till morning. They took the kids with them to get ice cream to eat while they washed the blood out of the bed of the truck. Jeremy had made arrangements with his brother in Texas, to meet them at a mall as soon as they could get there. So, Little Russ used LeighAnne's car to go take the kids to her mom, while Jeremy packed the truck. As they were on their way. Jeremy's brother got suspicious and called the police department, and told that he thought his brother had done something wrong...so there were undercover units at the mall we they arrived, and they were taken into custody, and returned to Alabama.
I miss her in ways that I can't even put into words... and until this year I had decided I would never have a friend again. I don't understand why everyone's heart isn't completely broken like mine. I have always depended on God. He has healed my heart.

LEIGHANNE....I LOVE YOU and your babies are fine, they are beautiful and are growing.. your mom put them into counseling immediately and they are gonna be ok.