The Tragic Story of Sarah Haley Foxwell

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by tpksstories

by tpksstories

On December 22, 2009, an 11-year-oldgirl disappeared from her Wicomico County, Maryland home in themiddle of the night. Her body was discovered on Christmas day aftera massive search.

Christmas will be the tragic reminderwhen Sarah Haley Foxwell tragically disappeared, according toWicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis: "This was the most difficultcase in my 35 years of law enforcement."

"We knew immediately that thiswas not a parental kidnapping," Lewis said. "We knewthis was a kidnapping in the middle of the night of a little girlfrom her bedroom wearing pajamas. And we knew we had to work quicklyto try to locate her, if we were going to find her alive."

Police got an early break in the casefrom the 6-year-old sister, Emma, Thomas Legs, who dated Sarah'saunt, and the girls knew him as "Mr. Tommy."

"We knew early on that ThomasLeggs was our suspect because the 6-year-old sister Emma was in thebedroom with her," Lewis said. "She was awakened tothe suspect Thomas Leggs who was in the bedroom. She was familiar tohim."

A briefing ofLeggs' information detailed Leggs' criminal history.

"We immediately queried him inour system and found out he was a registered sex offender in bothMaryland and Delaware," Lewis said. "Within hours wehad deputies knocking on his door in eastern Wicomico County. Helived just a couple of miles from her home."

When questioned by law enforcement,Leggs denied involvement and a race-against-the-clock ensued to findSarah across the region and the country.

"We had individuals here fromthe Dakotas who had come in," Lewis said. "Mantrackerswith special dogs were brought in to try to track down little Sarah.We never gave up hope. We were very hopeful that we would find her."

Thousands of citizens turned up on thecold, gray Christmas day to aid in te search of the 11-year-old girl.

"The citizens in this countypulled together like none of us had seen in the past," Lewissaid.

But cellphone data from Leggs' phonenarrowed the search when Sarah's body was found by a Maryland StatePolice trooper in the wooded area east of Delmar in the afternoon onChristmas day. Raped and brutally murdered, Leggs still denied anyinvolvement in the girl's disappearance.

"Thomas Leggs and his defenseteam were presented with DNA results that we had recovered fromlittle Sarah linking the suspect exclusively to the crime and it wasthen, and only then, did he admit his guilt," Lewis said."Up until then he had proclaimed his innocence the entiretime."

Lewis didn't hold back on whatpunishment he believed Leggs had coming.

"I said back then and I'll sayit again: if there was ever anyone who deserved the death penalty, itwas Thomas Leggs," Lewis said. "I screamed thedeath penalty back in 2009. But Maryland had already placed amoratorium on the death penalty and our governor had said hedisagreed with administering the death penalty in the state ofMaryland."

In the end, Leggs was given twoconsecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Maryland Department of Corrections has not revealed where Leggs isserving time.