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As deputies visited, was Jessica still alive?

Court documents indicate deputies may have questioned occupants of the home before the 9-year-old was slain and before John Couey fled the state.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published April 8, 2005

HOMOSASSA - Shortly after Jessica Lunsford was reported missing from her home, deputies twice visited a single-wide mobile home about 100 yards away.

They interviewed the residents, but found nothing to lead them to the 9-year-old girl.

Court documents made available Thursday indicate Jessica may have been alive and in the mobile home, even as deputies knocked on the door.

The source of that information is John Evander Couey, the convicted sex offender accused of murdering Jessica.

After his arrest, the 46-year-old Couey spoke with investigators and denied "that anyone else in the house was aware that he had kidnapped the child, or that she was being held in the house," according to court documents.

"... But Couey's timeline of the events after he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford leaves open the possibility that she was alive, and in the house, at the time of the first, and possibly the second, interview," the documents said.

Rumors that Jessica may have been alive with Couey for days before her death have circulated for weeks and have been reported by news organizations, including CNN. But Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy has repeatedly declined to discuss the investigation or release the time of Jessica's death.

Couey, who has since pleaded not guilty in Jessica's death, was a registered sex offender who lived in a mobile home at 6647 Snowbird Court, in sight of the Lunsford home.

Authorities did not realize Couey was living in the mobile home until they did a countywide search of sex offenders and predators and found Couey wasn't at his registered address.

Couey was arrested on March 17 in Georgia. The next day, local authorities arrested four other people who were staying with Couey in the mobile home.

Arrested on charges of resisting or obstructing an officer without violence were Couey's half-sister, Dorothy Marie Dixon, 47; her daughter, Madie Catherine Secord, 27; and Dixon's boyfriend, Matthew Oley Dittrich, 31. Secord's husband, Gene, also lived at the mobile home and was arrested on unrelated charges.

Investigators accused Dittrich and Secord of withholding information when deputies interviewed them shortly after Jessica vanished from her family's home late Feb. 23 or early Feb. 24.

At the time, investigators had no reason to suspect anyone at the mobile home was involved in Jessica's disappearance, according to court documents.

Deputies stopped at the home as they canvassed the neighborhood. Dittrich gave his name, but authorities say he didn't tell deputies Couey was staying in the mobile home because he knew Couey was wanted on a misdemeanor violation of probation.

Soon after the first interview, investigators returned to the house.

This time, they spoke to Dittrich and Dixon, but detectives had not yet learned of Couey and had no cause to search the house. Detectives say Couey later told them he was hiding in the house during that interview.

Ultimately, prosecutors decided to drop charges against Couey's housemates.

In court documents made available Thursday, prosecutors offered their reasons for dropping charges April 1 against Dixon, Secord and Dittrich.

"Florida does not have a statute which makes it a crime to lie to a police officer in all situations, nor is there a law which requires a person to disclose the whereabouts of a registered sex offender," they wrote in a memo.

Dawsy declined to comment on the investigation Thursday, but in a written statement faxed to the Times, he said he was angry that Couey's housemates would not face charges.

"I believe these individuals truly obstructed this agency's criminal investigation into Jessica's death," he wrote.

Dawsy was candid with reporters when Dixon, Secord and Dittrich were arrested, calling Couey's housemates "a bunch of cracked-out individuals" and "just a bunch of druggies."

In the weeks since Jessica's body was found, Dawsy has gone to Tallahassee to urge legislators to change sex offender laws to make it a felony offense to harbor a sex offender without notifying law enforcement.

Legislation is in the works, sponsored in the state Senate by Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, and in the state House of Representatives by a former Citrus sheriff, Rep. Charles Dean, R-Inverness.

In addition to penalizing those who harbor sex offenders, proposals would mandate the use of Global Positioning System technology to track sex offenders and predators.

"I believe this decision brings true focus to the legislation being considered now up in Tallahassee, and that is, holding people accountable for their actions," Dawsy said Thursday.

Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 352 860-7312 or vansickle@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 8, 2005, 00:43:12]