WESTON, W.Va. — The prosecution believes they have a number of significant holes in the story that Lena Lunsford-Conaway told police about Aliayah Lunsford’s disappearance on September 24, 2011.
The defense, led by attorney Tom Dyer, is arguing that without a body, there’s no actual evidence the crime took place other than testimony from the witness identified as DC.
State Police Sgt. Shannon Loudin was the second member of law enforcement to take the stand in the trial, recounting the opening days after Aliayah Lunsford’s disappearance was reported.
Loudin recounted discrepancies, including that Lena Lunsford told police she had been looking for Aliayah around 9:30 Saturday morning, September 24. But Loudin said video surveillance shows the Lunsford van leaving their Bendale home at 9:13 and going directly out of town.
At 11:27 a.m., the Lunsford van returned to their Bendale home. At 11:31 a.m., Lunsford called 911.
DC told the court on Monday that the Lunsford family was in the van with Lena Lunsford, en route to a small community called Vadis.
She claims that’s where Lena Lunsford buried the remains of then three-year-old Aliayah Lunsford.
Loudin interviewed two of Lunsford’s other children during the initial investigation phase, telling the court he felt the children’s stories felt rehearsed and emotionless.
As the investigation progressed, Loudin said he was part of a number of follow-up’s on leads and tips provided to law enforcement. Each one was disproved, including a wild claim that Aliayah Lunsford had been seen at Disney World.
But Loudin believed the information he received from DC in October 2016 might have panned out. Loudin told the court that DC and another witness, known as KC, were able to separately bring investigators to the same location where they claimed Aliayah Lunsford’s body had been left in 2011.
It was Sgt. Loudin who served the warrant for Lunsford-Conaway’s arrest in Florida in November 2016. He recalled her reaction upon seeing him.
“She said, ‘Oh my God. Did you find Aliayah? Am I in trouble?'” Loudin told the court.
But the defense took an opportunity to cross-examine Loudin, suggesting that there remains no evidence that Lena Lunsford killed Aliayah Lunsford, no evidence that — if dead — Aliayah died from a blow to the head, and that the wooden bed slat was never taken into evidence.
It was also revealed that Aliayah had been suffering from the flu at the time of her disappearance. Dyer also suggested that it was possible that medication provided to Aliayah could have caused death, even at one point suggesting that Lena Lunsford had “found a dead three-year-old.”
Dyer walked that back though, saying that was part of the State’s theory about how the events of September 23 and September 24 occurred.
Additionally, Dyer claimed that, without a body or remains, there isn’t much proof that a crime occurred.
Sgt. Shannon Loudin testified that there was a “slim chance” of police finding Lunsford’s body in the Vadis area, due to the time that had passed since the original allegation.
He suggested, if anything, they might find bones and hair. Cadaver dogs searched the area in 2016.
Court recessed for a one-hour lunch at noon.
Alex Wiederspiel and Brittany Murray contributed to this report.