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Authorities now searching for Gannon Stauch in southern Douglas County

Posted at 2:31 PM, Feb 12, 2020
and last updated 2020-02-12 16:31:45-05

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Authorities are now searching in southern Douglas County for the missing Colorado Springs boy Gannon Stauch, officials said Wednesday.

Stauch, 11, was last seen Jan. 27 at his home in the Lorson Ranch area on the southeast side of Colorado Springs. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday said the search for Stauch continued and that one of the search areas included northern El Paso County and southern Douglas County.

More information was not released on Wednesday, and few leads have surfaced in the case.

Last week, Roderrick Dayton, a neighbor of Stauch’s, shared surveillance video from his home that captured footage of what he says shows Stauch and his stepmother, Leticia Stauch, getting into a red truck in the driveway of their Colorado Springs home on Monday, Jan. 27 – the day the boy went missing.

Later, the video, Drayton said, shows the truck returning hours later but with only the stepmother appearing to get out.

Drayton told Denver7 he went back to review his surveillance camera video from that day as the search for Stauch intensified over the past week.

Leticia Stauch reported the boy missing just before 7 p.m. on Jan. 27, and told police at the time that she had last seen him between 3:15 and 4 p.m. that day, when he left to play at a friend’s house down the street.

Drayton said the surveillance video shows what he says is Gannon and his stepmother getting into the truck at 10:13 a.m. that day and Leticia returning, apparently alone, at 2:19 p.m.

Drayton said he gave the videos to police to aid in their investigation.

Stauch's mother, Landen Hiott, and his father, Albert Stauch, pleaded for any credible leads in the case, in a YouTube video on the sheriff office's page last week.

"This week has been awful. It's been more than a roller coaster ride," Hiott said. "It's been more than an emotional mess. I don't have answers for my feelings, other than I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll never hear his voice, that I'll never hear him run and say, 'Mommy!'

"If you're too afraid because you know something — a kid just doesn't disappear and no one sees him. It's not how this work. So if you have anything that's credible — if you're afraid, don't worry about it. Imagine my son, how afraid he is. Imagine how afraid Gannon is."