JEREMY LIPSCOMB SKOCZ | 18yo Neighbor Boy Kidnap, Sexual Battery, 1st Degree Murder of 4yo Shelby Marie Cox | Sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole | Lot of 2 ALS

JEREMY LIPSCOMB SKOCZ | 18-Year-Old Neighbor Boy Kidnap, Sexual Battery, 1^st Degree Murder of 4yo Shelby Marie Cox | Sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole | Lot of 2 ALS

Teen says he killed girl (Published Nov. 19, 1995 | Updated Oct. 4, 2005)

The uncertainty is over for the family of Shelby Marie Cox. The sorrow begins. The body of the 4-year-old girl missing since Monday was found early Saturday morning stuffed inside a green duffel bag hidden in a cabinet in a neighbor's storage shed. She had been smothered. At the sight of the child's body being wheeled out on a gurney, residents' worst fears were realized. "My God," said Wayne Ayres, a father of three, "she's been here all the time." Dana Hutchison, his wife, Tana, and daughter, Tiffany, embraced and began to sob. "It's hard to accept something like this," Dana Hutchison said. "Yesterday (Friday), we still had hope she was alive. It's just a terrible, terrible tragedy."

The nationwide search for Shelby ended almost where it began: next door to her family's mobile home. Police found the body where Jeremy Lipscomb Skocz (b. March 11, 1977 | age 46) her then 18-year-old neighbor, said it would be. Skocz, who has been living with his biological father next door to the Cox family since May, has been charged with first-degree murder. Police said Skocz did not cry or show emotion after confessing. Investigators followed a circular trail back to Skocz, the quiet teenager who hugged Heather Cox, Shelby's mother, after the girl's disappearance, then pretended to join the search. Joseph Butler, an Intercession City 18-year-old who described himself as a close friend of Skocz's, said he and Skocz more than once searched the shed where Shelby's body was found. "She wasn't there," Butler said. "I don't know where she was, but she wasn't in there." Police know now from Skocz's confession that Shelby's body was wrapped in blankets and stashed in a bathroom closet for three days before it was moved to the shed behind the mobile home belonging to Skocz's biological father, Eugene "Bear" Lipscomb, and his stepmother, Marie. Investigators found Shelby's pants and underwear in a bag in the Lipscomb home. The medical examiner is performing an autopsy to determine whether the girl had been sexually molested. It could take two weeks before the results are available.

Investigators were drawn to Skocz early in the search. Police were suspicious of Skocz's actions on the day of Shelby's disappearance, especially when he seemed to go out of his way to convince Shelby's mother that the child was not at his house. Two days after Shelby's disappearance, Skocz was given a polygraph test. It indicated he was being deceptive. The investigation came back to Skocz after other leads proved futile. "We went over everything and it led back to the kid," said Ed Bodigheimer, FBI supervisor of Orlando office. "There were unanswered questions about him that had to be resolved." On Friday, Skocz was given another lie detector test by FBI agents, using questions formulated by the FBI's Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit. Around 7 p.m. Friday, Skocz confessed to killing Shelby Cox with a strange story about how she walked into the Lipscomb bathroom while he was showering. Skocz told detectives he had been watching his siblings while his mother was away from home. He said he was taking a shower when the little girl walked into the bathroom.

When he tried to take the girl out of the bathroom, his towel fell off and Shelby began to cry. Skocz said he was afraid of what the other children would think. He said he put clothing over the girl's face to keep her from screaming. Then, Skocz said, he placed the child face down in a bathtub and drowned her. According to a charging affidavit, Skocz said the girl was still breathing so he taped her mouth with duct tape, bound her hands and placed her face down in the full bathtub until she stopped moving.ⁱ

Skocz's attorneys argued that he was not fully responsible because he was mentally III, had brain damage and had endured a traumatic early childhood as the son of a drug- addicted prostitute. A jury initially recommended that a judge sentence Skocz to death. But he was granted a second sentencing hearing before a different jury, which deadlocked 6-6 on death versus life in prison. In May 1998, a judge sentenced him to life without a chance of parole.

Heather Cox and Marion Boburka, mother and grandmother respectively of Shelby Marie Cox, have been strong proponents for missing and exploited children and their families since 4-year-old Shelby disappeared on November 13, 1995. She was playing on the family porch with her older sister and friends. After a 5-day search, Shelby's battered body was found in a neighbor's shed, killed by an 18-year-old boy who later confessed. "Shelby was a joyous child," Heather writes, "who saw the wonders of this world and embraced every one of them. She saw the magic in the clouds, the wonder of a rainbow, the beauty of a flower in bloom. She was full of spunk and mischievousness and laughter. To say we miss her doesn't even come close to how deep our feelings are. Instead, we fight for the children, for Shelby's peers, so that people will learn, and then Shelby's life and death will not have been in vain."ⁱⁱ

• VIDEO: Shelby's Story | https://youtu.be/3iuT9Ij93NM

Archiving Protocol:

• Handled with White Gloves ab initio
• Photo Pages/Sheet Protectors: Heavyweight Clear Sheet Protectors, Acid Free & Archival Safe, 8.5” x 11”, Top Load
• White Backing Board – Acid Free

Shipping/Packaging: Rigid Mailer 9.5” x 12.5”. White, self seal, stay flat, kraft cardboard, no bend. Each rigid mailer is made of heavy cardboard, which has strong resistance to bending and tearing. Thicker that the USPS mailers. Shipping cost never more than it absolutely has to be to get it from me to you.