Cassandra Laky Of Buroheadsville Case Study
On January 13, 1984, 7-year-old Cassandra Laky of Broheadsville, Pennsylvania was abducted from her grandmother Mary Blair's Chestnuthill Township home.
Cassandra's mother, Susan Laky, testified that she saw her daughter about five hours after the abduction at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg, where she had been taken by state police. She stated her daughter's face "was two to three times its normal size. Her upper lip was swollen to such a degree it almost touched her nose and her lower lip was down to her jaw line." She said areas of the girl's face, head and neck were raw and there were "fingerprints and big bruises along the top of her shoulders. The inside of her mouth was cut, a tooth was missing and there were bruises on the back and sides of her head. Her hands were bruised and cut." She said the fingerprints and bruises on her daughter's neck and shoulders "were very visible, and it looked like she was strangled." …show more content…
Mrs.
Laky said the girl was allowed to return home and it took a few weeks before the girl started to recover.
Cassandra, a bubbly blonde, testified that two men rushed into her grandmother's home and "one tied me and my grandmom up with silver ducttape." The girl said the men wanted money and the keys to the car. She said one of the men "picked me up under the arms" and she was carried to her grandmother's car, where she was placed in the trunk. Cassandra continued to say that she heard two car doors close and felt the car move. "They took me someplace, and one got out of the car and one drove away. I was still in the trunk."
The girl stated that when the car stopped a second time, one of the men, "still wearing a ski mask," carried her from the trunk "across the street and put me in an outhouse. He started to choke me," she said. She said he placed his fingers over her mouth and nose and banged her head against the
floor.
"I blacked out, and he wasn't there when I woke up. I was still in the outhouse and was in something - inside a hole, and my hands were all bloody." The child said she stayed and waited and then managed to get out of the structure and began walking "without shoes or a coat."
"I didn't know where I was." She said she walked for two or three minutes and was "found by someone."
Under cross examination by Fareri and Public Defender William Sayer, representing Rodney Beers, the girl said she did not recognize voices of either of the two men, although they were known by her mother and father, and one was married into the family. She said she had been in the trunk about seven minutes when the car made its first stop and about eight minutes more until she was removed from the trunk.
Beers confessed that he and Walter "Snuffy" Smith had been drinking at the Crossroads Tavern, left in Smith's vehicle and decided "we're going to do it." Cassandra was left inside an outhouse on an abandoned property on Dorshimer Road in Gilbert. Beers had confessed that he knew that Smith had planned to kill the girl if the demand for a ransom of $100,000 was not met within a day.
Cassandra Laky is now living in Italy with her husband and two children.
Cassandra's mother, Susan Laky, testified that she saw her daughter about five hours after the abduction at Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg, where she had been taken by state police. She stated her daughter's face "was two to three times its normal size. Her upper lip was swollen to such a degree it almost touched her nose and her lower lip was down to her jaw line." She said areas of the girl's face, head and neck were raw and there were "fingerprints and big bruises along the top of her shoulders. The inside of her mouth was cut, a tooth was missing and there were bruises on the back and sides of her head. Her hands were bruised and cut." She said the fingerprints and bruises on her daughter's neck and shoulders "were very visible, and it looked like she was strangled." …show more content…
Mrs.
Laky said the girl was allowed to return home and it took a few weeks before the girl started to recover.
Cassandra, a bubbly blonde, testified that two men rushed into her grandmother's home and "one tied me and my grandmom up with silver ducttape." The girl said the men wanted money and the keys to the car. She said one of the men "picked me up under the arms" and she was carried to her grandmother's car, where she was placed in the trunk. Cassandra continued to say that she heard two car doors close and felt the car move. "They took me someplace, and one got out of the car and one drove away. I was still in the trunk."
The girl stated that when the car stopped a second time, one of the men, "still wearing a ski mask," carried her from the trunk "across the street and put me in an outhouse. He started to choke me," she said. She said he placed his fingers over her mouth and nose and banged her head against the
floor.
"I blacked out, and he wasn't there when I woke up. I was still in the outhouse and was in something - inside a hole, and my hands were all bloody." The child said she stayed and waited and then managed to get out of the structure and began walking "without shoes or a coat."
"I didn't know where I was." She said she walked for two or three minutes and was "found by someone."
Under cross examination by Fareri and Public Defender William Sayer, representing Rodney Beers, the girl said she did not recognize voices of either of the two men, although they were known by her mother and father, and one was married into the family. She said she had been in the trunk about seven minutes when the car made its first stop and about eight minutes more until she was removed from the trunk.
Beers confessed that he and Walter "Snuffy" Smith had been drinking at the Crossroads Tavern, left in Smith's vehicle and decided "we're going to do it." Cassandra was left inside an outhouse on an abandoned property on Dorshimer Road in Gilbert. Beers had confessed that he knew that Smith had planned to kill the girl if the demand for a ransom of $100,000 was not met within a day.
Cassandra Laky is now living in Italy with her husband and two children.