Thread by @FierroNicole

STAUCH HEARING: Made it to El Paso County. Waiting for the court room to open for today’s hearing. I will post all live updates here today. @KDVR

Looking at the witness list for this preliminary hearing, it says that Letecia's daughter, Harley, could be called up.

@KDVR Made it in the courtroom, Gannon's biological family is here.

@KDVR We just heard that Letecia will be appearing via webex.

@KDVR #LeteciaStauch just appeared via webex in cell.

COURT IS IN SESSION: follow this thread for live tweets. I will reply here with updates. @KDVR

Typically defendants are present, in person, for preliminary hearings. Defense says #LeteciaStauch does not want to be present that’s why she’s appearing via webex.

“I have confidence in my defense counsel” - #LeteciaStauch said as she acknowledges that she's waiving the right to be there in person. Judge is explaining that he will be reviewing the evidence in this case and it could have an impact in whether or not she will be granted bond.

#LeteciaStauch says she understands and does not want to be here in person. Judge says he's going to make her appear on webex again tomorrow to tell him if she changes her mind and wants to come. She immediately left the room after telling the judge she understands.

DA @4thJudicialDA said #LeteciaStauch not showing up simply because she doesn't want to be here makes it harder for witnesses to point to her and say she did it. He's asking that we just set a trial date because of this and waive this hearing.

Judge heard arguments from both sides on this. He says he thinks #LeteciaStauch waived her "presence" at the proceedings but she has clearly said she does not want to waive the proceedings themselves. Judge wants to move on with presenting the evidence.

Prosecution calling up the first witness Jason Yoder. They are going to be showing a lot of pictures for evidence they said.

Yoder is a Sgt. with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office. Got call and responded to the discovery of a body under the Highway 90 bridge in a suitcase on March 17th.

Yoder said a highway inspector found the suitcase while inspecting the Escambia River bridge. The inspector opened the suitcase and found a body wrapped in blankets. Yoder said the body appeared to be a small child.

Yoder said clothes on the body lead them to identify it as a male, they guessed it was someone 9 to 14-years-old. Said there was an imprint in the ground consistent with someone dropping the suitcase off of the bridge by an emergency pull-off area.

Yoder said they went on the missing persons database and saw pictures of Gannon. Noticed similar dental, height and weight features.

TRIGGER WARNING: Yoder tells court he observed injuries to the body: fractured skull, gunshot wound in lower left jaw, what looked like stab wounds to left chest, right back. Cuts on hands and arms consistent with defensive wounds. Autopsy report says 18 sharp force injuries.

No mask can hide the pain in Gannon's biological family's eyes right now hearing this.

First exhibit brought up on the screen is the missing flyer for #GannonStauch. Loved ones are wiping tears from their eyes right now hearing what this witness saw and seeing his picture.

Family members are embracing one another and bowing their heads to avoid looking at the screen right now as court views pictures of the suitcase body was found in under Florida bridge. @KDVR

We are seeing a picture of a pillow and blankets found in the suitcase along with the body. There are little blue sharks on them.

Yoder said the doctor conducting the autopsy found the gunshot wound itself could have been fatal. Did not determine if the gunshot and blunt force trauma was before or after death.

Autopsy says cause of death was gunshot wound and blunt trauma to the head.

Based on Yoder's experience, he says he would guess the body may have been in suitcase over a month before found.

WITNESS TWO: Kevin Clark, employed with @4thJudicialDA. At time of Gannon's disappearance, worked for CSPD.

@4thJudicialDA Clark has experience in investigating cell phone information and GPS trackers. He was granted to go work with sheriff’s office and FBI in February 2020 to support with this case.

Pulling up a number of exhibits showing maps tracking location of VW Tiguan on January 28th, 2020, #Leteciastauch registered vehicle locations. Hearing we will see a hotel receipt too.

Clark talks about on January 28th, a neighbor's surveillance shows the Volkswagen Tiguan leaving the home. This was the footage I exclusively shared with you first back in 2020. A car tracker also shows the car heading to the airport after leaving the home at 8:13 am.

Clark says surveillance video shows #leteciastauch going to a car rental kiosk at the airport that morning at 8:41 am. Internet searches from 7:17 look for cheap rental cars in Colorado Springs. She picks up a white Kia Rio.

Clark says she picks up Al in rental car and heads back to their home.

Clark says same day at 7pm, defendant returns rental car to airport, gets in her WV Tiguan.

Cell phone data shows she put her phone into airplane mode at 7:26 pm.

Location data shows there was 30 minute pause in traveling in the Falcon area while the phone went into airplane mode. Crews ended up searching there and didn't find anything of evidentiary value.

GPS location shows her driving patterns after she left airport around 7 pm. She put her phone on airplane mode once she was in Falcon area around 7:30. After 9 pm shows her in Douglas County, phone still in airplane mode.

Maps show her path from Falcon out east, heading west to county line road in Palmer Lake area. This whole time, about 2 hours, her phone is in airplane mode. At 9:51 pm, her phone connects to WiFi at Hilton hotel in Briargate and then to a Starbucks Wifi at Briargate Shops.

For 55 minutes after connecting to Wifi, she connects with her daughter Harley.

At 10:50 pm, WV Tiguan starts traveling again. Before that, she was texting and there was a FaceTime with daughter Harley. At 11:30 pm, the car parks in a Massage Envy parking lot where Harley was working at the time. Searches show Letecia's phone was searching for amber alerts

Records from Harley's phone show she was not at Massage Envy when Letecia's car parked. Around Midnight, Harley's picks Letecia up in her car. Letecia's car is left in the parking lot overnight as they go home.

Next day, Wednesday, Sheriff's office takes Letecia's phone and car. They also take Harley's car. Letecia's aunt flew into town Thursday and rented a car. Letecia had access to the car. Teams were watching Letecia's movements.

Court took first break of the day. @4thJudicialDA Michael Allen will do an interview after the judge has made his ruling for these proceedings, not before that. We are about to resume and I will continue to live tweet.

BACK FROM BREAK: Clark says on Friday, January 31st, GPS tracker shows Letecia in a rental car. She does a news interview.

At this point, #LeteciaStauch had family fly into town. Her mother, stepbrother and stepsister came as well as her aunt who let her use her rental cars while the sheriff's office seized Letecia's car and phone.

Saturday, #LeteciaStauch rents a van from location by Garden of the Gods early morning. Early afternoon, defendant purchases a Verizon cell phone at a Walmart. Map shows defendant traveling from Colorado Springs, to Florida, to South Carolina.

Clark says on this trip of more than 1,000 miles, #LeteciaStauch daughter Harley accompanied her in the van. Surveillance video along the route shows both Letecia and her daughter on that trip. Credit card data, new phone and toll road data shows them on the trip as well.

Just after midnight on Feb 4th, 2020 they arrive in Pensacola, Florida. The night before, a reservation was made for the hotel.

Feb 4th 2020 - map focuses on GPS and phone activity in Pensacola, FL. Map shows car at Candlewood suites were defendant rented a room. At 4:15 am, van is tracked less than two miles from bridge where body was found. Hotel is approximately 3.3 miles from where the body was found

Clark says only two people involved in this investigation are #LeteciaStauch and her daughter Harley Hunt.

Receipt from stay at Candlewood Suites on Feb 4th has Letecia's name on it. Shows her rewards program log-in, she was a platinum member. Shows departure data was Feb 4th 2020, only staying a few hours before heading to Orlando and then South Carolina.

WITNESS 3: Sgt. Patrick Younkin with El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Was on Duty and responded to a call for a runaway juvenile January 27th, 2020. Runaways are given a non-urgent priority, they were busy that night.

Sgt. Younkin got consent and searched the home on night of reported runaway. Searched, closets attached garage and storage room. Made contact with Letecia on two occasions during search: first, in attached garage and second, lower level of residence. Had body worn camera.

We are hearing and seeing #LeteciaStauch on police body worn camera during the search. We hear her consenting to the search.

On body worn camera you hear her saying Gannon said he was going to his friends house to play video games. She says something about cleaning a mess he made on the carpet downstairs.

Sgt. Yunkin starts going through a car in the garage. Letecia comes in there says he’s never hid in the car before. We see what looks like a suitcase in the car captured on body worn camera. @KDVR

In Gannon's bedroom Letecia talks about how he is "very fashion." She talks about how Gannon has "tons of clothes." She says she's not the person that talks to Gannon's friends and parents. She says Al, Gannon's father, is the one that says yes and no to playdates.

Sgt. is now answering questions about search. Nothing indicated to him at the time that something violent would have occurred. He was searching for a boy.

#LeteciaStauch attorney is now asking the Sgt. questions. He asked if he saw a suitcase int he car. Sgt. said he doesn’t know if there was a suitcase in there, specifically, he didn’t look in a suitcase.

Sgt. went back on January 29th to execute a search warrant. Found a dry, red liquid substance on one of the stairs leading to garage and on the garage floor.

WITNESS FOUR: Deputy John Sarkisian with El Paso County Sheriff's Office. He was asked to run command for the search efforts for Gannon.

Sarkisian said used all of the search tools they had, from sonar to horses and prodding poles. Some days they had hundreds of searches. Snow was pretty thick at the time.

On Perry Park Road, there is an "s-curve" in the road and crews focused a search there.

We are now seeing pictures from that s-curve. K-9 alerted to this area. Sarkisian checked barbed wire and noticed a flat, plywood, board that had snow on top of it. Didn't appear to be moved.

Sarkisian said the board appeared to have blood on it. Looks like it in the evidence picture we are seeing too. Test confirmed it was Gannon's blood.

Breaking for lunch now, back at 1:20 pm.

DA says at the pace we are going, we are likely to wrap up witnesses and evidence today.

COURT RESUMES AFTER LUNCH: State is calling up fifth witness, Sgt. Rosario Hubbell with El Paso County Sheriff's office.

We are seeing two pictures from Letecia's phone from around 8 am on January 27th. Pictures show Gannon in his bed.

In these pictures Gannon is in his bed. Sgt. says, based on this photograph, he believes Gannon is alive in pictures.

Now we are seeing this picture Letecia took on her phone of Gannon in bed compared to the photos of evidence in the suitcase in Florida. The bedding matches. Appears it is the same bedding that the body was found wrapped in. @KDVR

Hubbell says bedding they received from Florida is consistent with bedding in the picture of Gannon #LeteciaStauch took on her phone on January 27th.

Hubbell says when detectives searched the home that night, and took body camera footage, the bedding appeared to have been changed.

On Feb. 3rd, 2020, detectives went back to search the house again. They had reason to believe there was foul play and their mission was to look for blood evidence.

They brought the metro crime lab that day (our cameras were there capturing this at the time) Hubbell says they searched for blood with a "Blue-Star" solution that will light up right away when blood mixes with chemical in low light conditions.

In picture on screen now, we are looking at Gannon's room during investigation. There are yellow borders on the walls in the corner. Hubbell says the borders are pointing to blood spatter marks found and marked by the crime lab.

Carpet is pulled out, they said that's because there was a stain on the carpet that soaked through all the way down to the concrete. Hubbell says a sample of that stain was identified as Gannon's blood. This carpet and corner was where we previously saw his bed.

Hubbell said it was apparent the carpet had been clean. The padding underneath the carpet and the concrete was not cleaned.

Next picture shows corner of mattress in Gannon's room. Stain on mattress tested and found positive for blood.

Blood also found on outlet that was next to bed. Tested positive for blood, matched Gannon's DNA.

Hubbell says "blue-star" blood testing showed a trail from Gannon's room to the garage, goes through storage room and stairs along the way.

Hubbell says there was a lot of wood and woodworking tools in the garage. A lot of planks laid down on garage floor, wide enough for a call to pull out and over.

We are seeing in a picture the "blue-star" solution illuminated in a picture in the garage near the stairs. Hubbell says that shows there was blood found there. Swabs tested show it was positive for blood and matched Gannon's DNA.

Next picture shows a set of woman’s Nike tennis shoes that were collected. Hubbell says the right shoe was swabbed. Tested positive for blood and matched Gannon's DNA. @KDVR

Hubbell says #LeteciaStauch DNA was found in the inside of the sneakers with Gannon's blood on it. He later found out they were her shoes.

Next picture is of master bedroom. Hubbell found a gun on top of the dresser. We are now looking at a picture of a hand gun, taken on the dresser. It is a 9mm hand gun. #LeteciaStauch DNA found on the gun. Some of Al's DNA too but major portion of DNA on trigger was Letecia's.

Hubbell said Florida sent back three projectiles (bullets) -- one from the body's head, two from the pillow. Examiner said they were consistent with the bullets that would come from the handgun found in the Stauch house master bedroom.

Defense is now asking Hubbell questions. He confirms there was three DNA profiles found on swabs of gun: two males and one female.

Blue-star testing will light up for a short period of time on a positive hit - around 15-30 minutes Hubbell says.

In the report, defense brings up that Hubbell shared concern that he contaminated the room when he touched a carpet with an ungloved hands. He felt the carpet, noticed it was "crunchy" and had them pull it up. Says he wanted to set an example for his team, to own up to mistakes

WITNESS SIX: FBI Special Agent Andrew Cohen. Said he was the lead case agent.

Cohen said he found no evidence that pointed to Al Stauch being involved in #GannonStauch disappearance. Al is Gannon's dad. He was in Oklahoma for training.

Cohen says he found no evidence that pointed to Gannon's biological mother, Landen Hiott, being involved in Gannon's disappearance or murder.

Cohen says when pictures of Gannon in bed on #LeteciaStauch phone were taken, Gannon's sister and step sister were not home. He says just Gannon and Letecia were home at the time.

Cohen says Harley accompanied Letecia and was in the car for the 1,300 plus trip, going through the area in Florida where Gannon's body was found. He does not see evidence she was involved in the murder, just that she accompanied on that trip.

Cohen is talking about that neighbor's surveillance footage @KDVR first exclusively obtained. He confirms Letecia and Gannon are seen going into a red pick-up truck. Going in, he says Gannon does not appear to be injured.

Cohen says Gannon was most likely killed in his bedroom based on all of the blood evidence.

Cohen says the wood board found on side of the road, attempted clean up of blood in the home and body being taken to Florida are all signs #LeteciaStauch tried to hide what she had done.

Defense is asking Cohen if there was any attempt to identify the four unidentified DNA profiles found on the gun that killed Gannon. He doesn't think so.

Cohen said #LeteciaStauch certainly appeared to be lying to authorities during search and investigation. Says she has a history of fabricating things in the past too.

Cohen agrees with defense that most abductions of children typically happen with biological parents. Less than 10 percent happen with a step parent. Cohen said earlier, he found nothing that shows Gannon's biological parents were involved in abduction or murder.

Prosecution rests at this time. Defense doesn't have evidence to present. Judge is thinking about next steps.

Judge says they were able to get in touch with the jail. They can get Letecia back on camera at 3:45 pm today to confirm she also wants to waive her right to come in person for the preliminary hearing for additional charges, when she attempted to escape custody.

Judge will not issue a ruling today. He will set a date and he wants to speak with Stauch first, it is going to take some time to set up.

We are now hearing from #LeteciaStauch via webex again. She is also waiving her right to appear for her second preliminary hearing, on additional charges, for trying to escape. She says she's not choosing to be here due to COVID reasons.

Judge says he will share his ruling on Sept 23rd at 9 am. Judge says he took pages of notes. The law requires he makes certain findings before making a decision and this is a serious case with serious charges. He says he wants to make the right decision.

According to judge, bond status for #LeteciaStauch will not change, "at least for now."

To clarify, COVID or quarantines had no impact on her decision not to show up in person.