THE stepmother charged with murdering a missing Colorado boy said that the pool of blood found in his bedroom was from his nosebleed.
Leticia Stauch claimed the “saucer-sized pool of blood” her husband Albert Stauch said he found in their home came from little Gannon Stauch’s repetitive nosebleeds.
Blood was also found inside their garage, which she says was from the 11-year-old cutting his foot just days before he vanished.
“[Albert] was taken around and shown different places of blood inside the house,” she told CrimeOnline.
“There was some in the garage. But there are accidents all the time, nosebleeds.
“Gannon walked around sometimes with blood on his arm from nosebleeds.”
The boy’s sock and a bloody 2×4 board were allegedly found in the woods near Douglas County, Colorado, but she claimed the bloody wood is a result of several accidents that happened inside the garage.
Stauch said her family frequently loaded leftover boards Albert used for his woodworking hobby into their pickup truck.
Since the boards weren’t secured on the truck, she asserted they could have easily flown out of the back as she was driving.
The accused murderer claimed the same thing could have happened with Gannon’s sock.
An official from the El Paso Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to The Sun that Gannon's case was upgraded to missing and endangered on January 30.
Police said they weren't able to confirm specific details of the investigation as it is still ongoing.
Gannon was last seen on January 27 when he left home to walk to a friend’s house in Colorado Springs.
However, nearly a month passed before the youngster was reported missing by his stepmother, who claimed he left home to see an unknown friend between 3:15pm and 4pm that day.
CCTV footage allegedly showed Gannon looking sluggish as he entered Staunch’s pickup truck, according to a neighbor whose security cameras captured the last known image of the boy.
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The footage, taken just five hours before he disappeared, doesn’t show the boy in her truck when she returned home.
El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder announced at a news conference Monday that little Gannon was pronounced dead, according to CNN.
Stauch was arrested Monday morning in South Carolina in connection with Gannon’s death.
She made her first court appearance via video link Tuesday morning in Myrtle Beach, where she apparently smiled as she told the courtroom she "didn't run" from police.
In addition to first-degree murder, Stauch faces charges of child abuse resulting in death, tampering with a dead body, and tampering with physical evidence.
She is being held without bond in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina while awaiting extradition to Colorado.
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