Mark Lunsford, Father of Murdered Jessica Lunsford Plan to Sue Citrus County Sheriff’s Office

The parents of 9 year old murdered Jessica Lunsford, Mark Lunsford and Angela Wright, plan to sue the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office for negligence in the handling of the case. Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped, raped and murdered only after being buried alive by a sex offender, John Couey.

The notice claims the sheriff’s office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners were negligent during the investigation into the girl’s disappearance and alleges that such negligence possibly contributed to her death, according to MyFoxTampaBay.com.

Jessica was murdered by John Couey in 2005. It took a month for authorities to find her body. Couey was sentenced to death last year for the gruesome killing.

“I know you have a lot of questions, and you deserve the answers, and so does the public,” Mark Lunsford told reporters outside his home Thursday. (FOX News)

The reaction by the attorneys of Citrus County is not shocking. What are they going to say but they are surprised and the suit is baseless.  The fact that law enforcement never searched the residence where Couey was staying is irrelevant I guess. While the parents of murdered Jessica Lunsford are suing, maybe they might want to include the prosecutors office as well for not bring conspiracy murder charges against the rest of the individuals who were at the residence where John Couey raped and murdered Jessica.

At a news conference just before Lunsford’s, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said he was surprised by the lawsuit.

“I was surprised and disappointed,” he said. “We truly believe that this litigation is baseless. There is nothing there. A lot of you followed this case and saw the efforts put forth by the men and women of this organization, the Florida Department of Law enforcement, FBI and countless other agencies. And I think everybody in my family at the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and also my community have to know that Commissioner Bailey [FDLE] and I are going to vigorously defend our agencies against this baseless allegation made by the Lunsfords that we failed to do our job.”

Time Line of Jessica Lundsford Kidnapping to Conviction of Couey

Lunsford Prepares To Sue Sheriff’s Office

Lunsford refuses to talk about lawsuit

Well its always the fault of the convicted felon, however, knowing now that Jessica was alive for a period of time following the kidnapping, Police do have some explaining.

Dawsy calls the litigation baseless and says if anyone’s to blame for Jessica’s death, it’s John Couey.

“John Couey abducted her, sexually assaulted her, murdered her by burying her alive. We found him, we convicted him and we had him sentenced to death. He’ll never hurt another child.”