5. The Sexual Offender’s Solutions and Education Network

In the maelstrom of all this controversy, citizens such as Shirley Lowery came up with unique theories as to what happened to poor Jessica. Lowery believed that Mark Lunsford and John Couey may have known each other and may have acted as accomplices in Jessica’s death. Ironically, Lowery would not have put much stock in the credibility of child pornography being on his computer, as she was confused as to what the big deal was over “kiddie porn”: “Child porn is a puzzler,” Lowery once wrote, “sending people to prison for something they see in their own homes seems un-American”

Shirley Lowery’s son, Anthony Craig Oliver, is a sex offender who was convicted on three counts of sexually abusing his daughter. Lowery, who also grew up in an abusive home, but decided that it was in her best interest to keep “her mouth shut” because “virtue has little meaning to a child who likes a roof over their head and food to put in their belly.” Lowery, for many years, was the head of SOSEN (Sexual Offenders Solutions and Education Network) until she was ousted by board members. Her crusade is to enlighten the world about how inhumanely sex offenders are treated in this country and at large. Lowery believes that sex-offender laws are unduly harsh and that they brand a person as an outcast for life once that person is registered on a sex offender list.

Lowery’s animus is aimed primarily at the likes of John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted and later Mark Lunsford himself. Through her mix of conspiratorial paranoia and personal vendetta, Lowery constructed her perception of events as they occurred, implying the complicity of Couey’s roommates. She goes on to question the truth of Couey’s confession, saying that he had blurred the time frame of his kidnapping so many times that it seemed incredible. Lowery was trying to imply that Couey was making up this story because he was either under pressure to do so or had agreed to take the rap for the murder to shelter others from prosecution.

In typical fashion, Lowery does not stop there, however. She goes on to imply that the polygraph test was purposefully withheld from the court and that Jessica had been held a very short amount of time, which would undermine Couey’s confession. Explosively, she goes on to point the finger at Mark Lunsford as the killer and relegates Couey to the role of accomplice in disposing of the corpse.

Granted, there was a great deal of misinformation in the national media at the time. Tabloid type reporters like Geraldo Rivera would run with the most sensational facts and exaggerate them for maximum effect, like when Geraldo claimed that Couey continually raped Jessica and then stuffed her in a closet. (According to Couey, it was only one instance of rape.) In an open letter to Geraldo Rivera, Lowery challenged the reporter’s knowledge of the case and proposed her theory on the crime, even indicating how Geraldo with his “free love” sexual forays could have easily ended up on a sexual registry, the likes of which Lunsford would later champion:

Dear Geraldo,

If you are going to do a show on Jessica Lunsford’s death, how about getting some facts?

“He raped her and raped her and stuck her in a closet when the cops came nosing around and then he got her out of the closet and raped and raped her some more and all these people should have a surgically implanted chip so that we know exactly where they are at any given time and would not have to worry” Those are your words.

How many people killed Jessica?

When did you decide that Couey was guilty?

How much do you remember any of those free love, pot smoking days? You were out humping your life away and quite proud of it. If your little groupies started talking you would officially become one of the incurable. Of course, you wouldn’t kill a kid. There are about 600,000 other sex offenders who would not kill a kid but they are being punished for the crime.

In the trial the prosecutor brought up the polygraph results and stated that Couey did not want to know the results. You and I both know that is a trick used by attorneys to get information in without telling the results. I WANT TO KNOW THE RESULTS!! I would bet my shirt that the results were inconclusive. There is no other explanation for this song and dance routine. Be a reporter. Get the facts.

He raped her and raped her, hid her in a closet when the police came around and then raped her and raped her” When did he do all of this?

I know he confessed to having her 7 days. He also confessed to having her 5 days. The medical examiners report says that she was taken after 2AM and was dead before dawn on the same day. This means that she was held a very short time and was already buried when the search began. Why didn’t anyone notice the disturbed ground?

I believe that Mark Lunsford killed this child and Couey watched him bury her. Then Lunsford reported her missing, took the time to delete the child porn from his computer and then joined the search.

Getting Couey to confess would not have been difficult. He was going to be convicted anyway. He asked for help in 1996 and was ignored. Perhaps this was the way to get it as well as a bed, meals and a roof over his head.

I need to reread the medical examiner’s report. There was nothing about DNA that would have been left behind when she was raped. Nothing was said about a link to Couey. In fact, I am not even sure the medical examiner mentioned rape in his report.

Lowery was also suspicious about the silence surrounding Jessica’s mother:

During this entire incident Jessica’s mother never spoke out. Was this out of fear of Mark Lunsford? Was this fear what kept her from having a relationship with her daughter?

Angela Bryant, mother of Jessica Lunsford, had once accused Lunsford of violence, but the charges were dropped when she did not show for court. Why didn’t she appear? Who knows? The pattern seems to have held throughout Lunsford’s life and at least one of Mark Lunsford’s other girlfriends would agree with Lowery that Lunsford would resort to violence and claims that Lunsford is apt to use force and physical threats to settle situations. On June 1, 2005 word surfaced that Mechelle Willis of Homosassa, Florida filed for an order of protection against former boyfriend, Mark Lunsford. Documents state that there were acts of intimidation, threats left on her cell phone and attempts to run her off the highway. Due to her fear of Lunsford, she asked the court to restrict him from coming within 500 feet of her home and her place of work. Willis also stated that Lunsford drove by her “cussing” at her and a friend. He went by her house with about 15 bikers trying to scare me; according to Willis’ injunction petition, Lunsford would “drive by her home [at] all hours of the night,” flashing the lights of his truck. Lunsford also allegedly appeared at a hair salon where she works. Furthermore, One Mother’s Day, the Citrus County Sheriff’s office was called to stop Lunsford from throwing all of Willis’ “stuff outside.” Willis also claims that Lunsford tried to make her “wreck” as she was driving down Route 44. Finally, the confrontations with Lunsford escalated to violence, according to Willis, when she was talking to a work friend about “job information”. Lunsford flashed his lights at the two from across the road. Willis’ friend asked Lunsford what he wanted. Suddenly a car pulled up, according to Willis’ statements; the cars unloaded and her friend was hit in the back with a “board that had nails in it.” Evidence of the situation was the marks on her friend’s back from the board and nails. Court records in Citrus County also indicate that Mark Lunsford has a pattern of behavior that involves domestic violence.

Then there were non-violent cases of traffic infractions and a paternity and child support case involving a Teresa May Davis that was wrapped up in January of 2009. In short, the court records and personal testimony did not paint the picture of the stand-up, lone martyred father leading the vanguard of reform to save our nation’s children. In fact, it all seemed to describe something else entirely. This only fueled suspicions about Lunsford, especially for Lowery.

In fact, Lowery went as far as to wonder if this Michelle Willis, the object of Lunsford’s alleged harassment, was the girlfriend with whom he was staying the night of Jessica’s disappearance. Lowery believes that Willis, if she were the girl with whom Lunsford had stayed the night of Jessica’s disappearance, she could provide valuable insight into that night, the abduction and entire veil of mystery that seemed to shroud the case:

Is this the same girlfriend who was his alibi the night Jessica disappeared? The women in Lunsford [‘s life], the former wife and the former girlfriend, hold the key to some important information.

Shirley Lowery went on to create an entire scenario in which Couey was painted out to be a mere victim in a whole larger plot. She had inklings that there was some sort of twisted connection between Jessica and Couey; that her father, mark Lunsford was responsible for her death – directly or indirectly – and that during the failed search for Jessica’s corpse a story was concocted to pin the blame on Couey. Lowery and others believe Couey took the fall for his family and friends because he knew he was dying of cancer. During the interrogation by Grace and Atchison he mentions what he thought was a huge hernia that kept him from working bulging out of his stomach. Some theorized that was a huge lump of cancer, the disease which supposedly killed him in Jacksonville State Hospital. In this theory, Couey was a patsy for a larger group – perhaps involved in drugs or child sex.

Lowery discusses these same facts that miffed investigators as they questioned Couey: the fact that there were half a dozen people in a single-wide trailer, living with a known sex offender, and no one picked up on anything; the fact that Jessica seemed compliant and that the crime scene was tailor-made for Couey to walk in and out with the girl without interference; and that the search was raging on around her without her notifying anyone. She brings up one interesting fact no one had previously thought of: did little Jessica see her father on the television making pleas for her return and do nothing? If so, that is a something to be considered. Furthermore, wouldn’t that have moved her to try to alert investigators, escape … something?

Either way, this is Lowery’s theory:

There is no doubt that young Jessica Lunsford is dead. How is it that on the one night John Couey went on a rampage the door had been left unlocked at the Lunsford home?

Couey was staying at the home of other people. Did they go about their regular routine while a small child was held prisoner and raped?

John Couey left town when word of Jessica’s disappearance surfaced. What sex offender would not do the same if this happened in their neighborhood? Certainly someone who was not in compliance would waste no time getting out of the area,

John Couey was found, subjected to intensive questioning and a polygraph. Did none of the officials from the three police departments involved realize that the questioning must stop when the accused asks for an attorney?

What happened during those crucial days? Was the time used to build a case around an innocent man? In sex offender treatment programs the offender is required to admit guilt when there is none. To do otherwise is a parole violation and means a trip back to prison.

The housemates learned of Jessica’s disappearance later that morning, when dozens of law enforcement officers swarmed around the Lunsford home. Couey didn’t leave the house for several days because he was worried deputies would find out he hadn’t shown for a probation meeting, she said, adding that her brother usually stayed inside his bedroom with the door closed.

We don’t know how she encountered Couey but I feel no resistance and no fear on Jessica’s part. She was not the 70 pound child that was described on posters. Instead, she was 90+ pounds and a well-developed young lady… She would have had to be very quiet to get past Dorothy, Matt, Madie, Gene and Joshua who were all at home in the single wide mobile home across the way.

The following morning all of these people awoke to the sound of helicopters. These residents rushed around, trying to figure out what was happening and all 3 TV sets were turned on. Jessica hid in the closet keeping the door ajar just a crack so she could watch the search on TV. Later all of the residents left and she continued to hide and watch the search on TV.

We don’t know how long she watched. It would be interesting to know if she saw her dad telling the story of he and Jessica being abandoned and alone and how he had become the sole caretaker.

Jessica was not tortured and her death comes across more as an assisted suicide than a murder. There were no drugs or alcohol in her system and only her wrists were bound. She had not strained to try and free her arms. She could have easily kicked through the plastic bags but she did not. There were no tears, rips or even stretch marks. It looks as if she stepped into the bags of her own accord, squatted down and waited for death. There was no hand stretching upward as if asking foe [sic] help.

Did she and this crazy nab have some sort of pact. There is mention of a couple of letters found at the site where she was found. Handwriting samples were taken from Couey.

I don’t have a huge issue with child porn unless it is linked to another crime. Most of that stuff is 30 years old or older and kids who were victimized are no longer kids.

Revealing every tiny detail about the victim is also a requirement even when there was no victim. Embellishment is viewed as a sign of progress. It is easy to see how such a man made a confession.

Lowery also posits that if she is correct, then the conspiracy would have to include many more people than just the Couey clan, the Lunsfords and the rest of the ragged crew in Couey’s trailer would be implicated. Also, it would require the complicity of the police and investigators. She implies this “conspiracy” could have taken place after the fact and as the story developed in the national media, various people had various interests they had to protect. The police had to save reputations; Lunsford was the new hero for the unprotected children of America; even the media had to protect the positions it had held:

Such a conspiracy could not have been pulled off without the help of many people. Hopefully there is one within that circle of secrecy who has the courage to speak out. It is politically advantageous that Jessica was murdered by a registered sex offender but this dead child does not deserve to be a political pawn. Come forward with the truth now or carry it with you to the pits of hell.

Even the mainstream media of the time seemed to agree with certain of the less fantastic aspects of Lowery’s thinking. The very mainstream Bill O’Reilly, for instance, was convinced that Couey could not have acted alone and that the bureaucrats were “stonewalling” evidence that held up finding out the truth. Bill O’Reilly of Fox News claimed to have gotten a letter from Couey himself stating that others in the trailer knew something was going on. Using the same logic as Lowery, the talk show host stated that he did not believe Couey, frail and merely 50 pounds heavier than Jessica, could have lifted her through that window without some sort of commotion. “There’s another person involved,” O’Reilly stated frankly, pointing to Couey’s letter. He went on to say “I don’t think John Couey could have lifted that girl into that trailer … I do not believe that man had the physical strength to lift that 9-year-old girl up that ladder, through that window and into that closet without that little girl screaming her head off and somebody hearing something.” O’Reilly believed the case should have gone Federal, thus taking the case out of the hands of Florida prosecutors such as Brad King and Pete Magrino, who, he indicated, were “stonewalling” evidence such as the letter. He believed also that the investigation had been botched and that small-town politics in Citrus County were ruining any chance of uncovering the whole truth. No one could seem to believe that Jessica was not hoisted up through the window, but that she, as Couey stated, had followed his commands to climb the ladder and go into the room.

When contacted by e-mail on 9/14/2009, Lowery was initially enthusiastic about sharing her theory about Couey’s involvement in the crime. She seemed to indicate a belief that the crime was being manipulated in order to push legislation through:

This is an interesting request. There are many unanswered questions but nobody cared. I wrote on it a lot but got a lot of hate mail but I don’t like loose ends. Suppose Couey had not been convicted? All of those laws they had made early on would not have been appropriate.

… I kept hoping Couey’s attorney would hear about me and contact. I have a burning question. Why was Lunsford released from the Army a year early? Lunsford attorney contacted me several times to threaten me with a lawsuit. The problem was that I had all my facts correct.

That has been awhile. The depositions are on my crashed computer but I might be able to revive them. You must have something I wrote. Just give me an idea what you are trying to do.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Lowery was interested in the fact that Mark Lunsford had enlisted in the army for three years and was discharged – albeit honorably – after just two. Lunsford was unusually evasive about his discharge from the Army. In a sworn deposition in 2007, Lunsford displayed his sensitivity to this matter:

Q:What happened that you got out early?

A: I don’t really see what that’s got to do with anything.

Q: Are you refusing to answer that question?

A: I don’t have a comment for that question.

Lunsford was then asked twice more if he was avoiding answering the question and he did just that. Whatever happened to precipitate his premature departure from the armed services, Lunsford did not want it as a matter of public record.

By the 16th, Lowery began to reveal her hubris: paranoia. The enthusiasm she had for having an ally in her efforts to tie up the “loose ends” of this case had been tempered and eventually transformed into a sneering contempt, a paranoia stemming from not being able to identify her new ally:

Ah! You are a comedian! What are you planning to do with the Couey information? My theory also has holes and your pretense of buying it all with no questions or discussion is a bit far-fetched.

I am giving you months of research and you are giving me the run around. I don’t want to play anymore without an identity I can verify. Lunsford’s IQ isn’t much higher than Couey’s.

Lowery and her theories never gained mainstream credibility. This was mostly due to the fact that she was unable or unwilling to share this information that she claims to have stored away on her crashed computer.

6. Sex Rings, Suicides, the GOP and even the Illuminati

Lowery’s theories seemed tame compared to others that were floated out in the wake of Jessica’s death. An author named Kiya on the Illuminati Pedophile Ring website claimed that there was a wider, darker conspiracy involved. Essentially, Couey, with his low IQ, was a perfect pawn for manipulation by a larger sinister group. This author also emphasized the symbolism and numerology that, to her, indicated the involvement of a Satanic group at work: the police ignored obvious clues that Jessica was in the Couey trailer; the trailer was surrounded by woods in a sort of grotto; Jessica was buried alive as part of the ceremony; Jessica was dressed in pink to emphasize the purity of the female sacrifice; the fact that Jessica did not resist at all. Kiya then goes on to discuss the numerology involved. 3 and 7 are magical numbers to Occultists. Couey abducted Jessica at 3 in the morning on February 24th, the day before the Satanic holiday of Walpurgis Day. Couey was convicted on the 7th day of the 3rd month of the year and was sentenced 7 days after that.

Another source on the web, anonymous, went even further with such claims. This source claims that Jessica’s body was not near the trailer during the entire time of the search, which would explain the futility of the search, but the theory then spins off into science fiction. This source again claims that Couey was manipulated but this time by a larger, even more sinister group of New World Order Mind Control agents who use Manchurian operatives to perpetuate ancient blood rituals. This individual even goes on to analyze pictures of Couey and his sister, claiming that Couey had ear implants that controlled him and his sister had a device implanted in her forehead.

Ralph G. Kershaw, a Washington D.C. journalist, believes that the Couey case indicates a much greater politic controversy than even Lowery thought. Kershaw points out that Citrus County officials clearly stated that there high-level interference in the case and that “others were involved” that they could not name directly. Local authorities did, however, blame the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee for some of the interference. Kershaw points to the fact that no Meagan’s Law notification was enacted while John Couey was travelling to Georgia under the cover of a false identity without any interference from authorities. More explosively, the journalist indicates that Couey not only went to Savannah (where he was arrested and released) and then Augusta (where he was arrested and turned over to Detectives Grace and Atchison) but he also spent time in Valdosta. This, Kershaw believes, is significant because it is where Raymond C. Lemme was found brutally murdered in 2003 (later deemed a suicide). Lemme was investigating such things as election rigging, contract fraud, kickbacks, money laundering through the Florida turnpike system and the use of illegal workers as contract workers. During this time, Lemme stumbled upon an illegal sex ring where underage Mexican boys and girls where stored in barns and sheds for use as sex slaves for those who were willing to pay. This investigation was directly shut down by Jeb Bush and Lemme later turned up dead. John Couey, according to Kershaw, was one of those who patronized this underage sex ring service.

But how did John Couey, the degenerate and destitute drug addict from Citrus County, become involved in such a complex and high-level underground ring? Dan Hayworth and Roger Schmid imply that Couey could have been involved as a “nickel man,” the kind of person who does such things as supplying social security numbers to workers who need them. These two writers traced a connection between this sex ring, illegal immigrant workers and the Coggins Farm Supply of Lake Park, eight miles from Valdosta. George Coggins was a huge supporter of Senator Saxby Chambliss and George Bush’s Federal AgJobs Bill, which failed to crack down on the use of illegal aliens as contract workers.

Couey did have a clear if not mysterious connection to Georgia. During his interrogation, he was asked why he went to Georgia and he said that he had met a man who would give him work. He was vague about exactly where he was going and what kind of work it was, but he was definitely in search of work and relocation. Interestingly, he was following the path of an underage sex ring that began in Naples, Florida went through Augusta and Savannah, Georgia and then spread out as far as the Carolinas. This sex-ring was run by a man nicknamed “El Flaco”, whose real name was Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez. This ring would bring under-age girls from Mexico, Nicaragua and other countries without documentation, and they would be shuttled around the Southeast and forced to turn anywhere from thirty to sixty tricks a day. One girl did 163 tricks in one week. At times, they would be brought out to the rural Carolinas where field workers would line up and wait their turn to have sex with the girls who serviced one after the other. “El Flaco” and his crew kept all the money.

While being deposed, Gene Secord was asked where Couey was going to go with the bus ticket his sister bought him and why he chose his destination. Secord explained: “ Because he lives in Georgia or wherever. Or that’s where he goes all the time. … So that’s where he wanted to go back to because he said he can get work there and have a place to live. … Because that’s where he lives, I guess, you know? I mean whenever he’s not with Troy and Madie, he’s in Georgia. … But he didn’t have no money, so Madie bought him a bus ticket.” The question that follows is what kind of work does a homeless man without proper identification or any money of his own – not to mention no education, a rap sheet including sexual offenses and a borderline mentally retarded IQ – find work hundreds of miles away? It would be a stretch to think that Couey was going to be gainfully and legally employed “on the books.” So, could there be some credence to what Kershaw, Schmid and Hayworth theorized?

None of these theories held much weight in the light of Couey’s forthright confession and desire to die. Couey would later simply sit through the court proceedings, coloring pictures as the trial went on around him, seemingly ambivalent to his fate, even secretly wishing for death to end the voices he heard, and the “pictures” he saw in his head and the force of the “demons” inside of him. The public became even more outraged at the “devil” who sat there, mistaking his demeanor for arrogance; some mistook it for a ploy to bolster his mental retardation defense. In fact, it was that Couey was merely following through on his promise to let judgment fall on him and take his life. He did not hold out any hope that he could control himself, nor did he feel that he could benefit from therapy at this stage in his life and illness.

The presiding judge ultimately decided that Couey’s constitutional rights were violated when a lawyer was not provided for him during the interrogation. “Mr. Couey had invoked his right to counsel and never reinitiated the interview or interrogation process,” presiding Judge Howard ruled, thus negating the two-day interrogation by Grace and Atchison. Before leaving the country to work for Halliburton, Grace defended his methods and swore that if Couey had asked for a lawyer, one would have been provided. The judge also ruled that Orlando police should not have been able to question Couey about the murder of 15-yearl-old Regina Armstrong, who disappeared from the Orlando area while Couey was residing there. Couey was, as usual, especially candid with Detective Joel Wright, who was asking him questions about the Armstrong case. “I wish I could help you,” Couey told the detective, “but I can’t … If I did it I would tell you. They can only kill me once.”

The whole time Couey was in the Citrus County Jail, with Gene Secord (in the cell next to him on an unrelated charge of nonsupport of his child) Couey continued to unofficially confess to his crimes and to help to build the case of capital murder against him. A corrections officer named John Read was on duty while Couey was at the Citrus County jail. Couey talked about his case with Read several times and never once claimed to be innocent. He told Read he had seen Jessica playing in her yard and that he thought she was younger than she actually was, about six years old. Couey told Read how he had gone to burglarize the Lunsford home but when he saw Jessica, his impulse took over and he snatched Jessica. He admitted to having sex with her and how she bled when they did. Couey revealed his dilemma to Read: that he could not kill Jessica directly with his own hands; so, he decided simply to put her in the garbage bags and bury her and to let nature take its course. That was the heart of the devil’s logic: I couldn’t kill her but I could let her die.

In March of 2006, two corrections officers, Sherry Johnson and Kenneth Slanker, were on duty while Couey was in custody. Couey overheard the two talking about putting children in child care and Johnson said she would be wary of doing so because something might happen like what happened to Jessica. Couey showed his ironic sensitivity when he told the guards, “I don‘t appreciate people talking about me like this, I didn‘t mean to do what I did, and I didn‘t mean to kill her.”

Intentions aside, Couey was charged in 2005 with Murder in the First for the murder of Jessica Lunsford, Burglary of Dwelling with Battery and Kidnapping for walking into the Lunsford home and taking the child away with him, and the charge that would draw the most ire from Floridians and the country as a whole: Sexual Battery Upon a Person Under Twelve “by causing his penis to unite with or penetrate the vagina of Jessica Lunsford”. Couey created his own doom in the end. He did not garner any hope or sympathy, nor did he grasp at any legal straws to try to “mitigate” what he had done and – just perhaps – save his own life. No, he wanted to die. His only defense for avoiding Death Row in the Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida was a law that would not allow the state to execute the mentally retarded. Though Couey could not have cared less, he was subject to a battery of tests to determine whether or not he was legally and officially “retarded.”