Six weeks before her slaying, 13-year-old Jayden Glomb told a friend she had discovered something terrifying about her stepfather, a police report states.
On May 12, Jaydenβs body was discovered in a desert area less than two miles from her home, with blood around her nose and mouth and a ligature mark around her throat. Her cause of death was asphyxiation.
Jaydenβs stepfather, Joshua Lelevier, is facing charges of first-degree murder and abandonment of a dead body in connection with her death.
Last month, a Pima County grand jury indicted Lelevier on an additional six felonies related to an image and video that police found of Jayden undressing and using the bathroom, according to court documents.
Although a Tucson police search warrant said detectives found holes in the wall of the den leading to holes in the bathroom, the heavily redacted 350-page Tucson police report released this week into Jaydenβs death makes no mention of the holes or the photo and video investigators found.
In the months leading up to her death, Jayden told several friends about her troubled relationship with Lelevier, including the March incident in which she told one girl that she was βsuper scaredβ after discovering something about Lelevier.
Because of the redactions in the report, itβs unclear what Joshua had been caught doing.
The friend showed police screenshots of conversations with Jayden, in which Jayden said she was βterrified.β Her friend told Jayden what Lelevier was doing was βdisgustingβ and that Jayden needed to confront him or tell her mother.
The friend also told police about an earlier incident in which she was spending the night at Jaydenβs house and the girls were watching a movie in Jaydenβs bedroom.
Jayden had fallen asleep but the friend saw the doorknob to her room βwiggling back and forth, and the door started shaking,β according to the report.
β(The friend) said she heard Joshua βcussingβ under his breath outside the door,β the report said.
When the friend woke Jayden up to tell her what was happening, Jayden said βit was probably just (Lelevier) trying to open the door.β
Friends interviewed
Detectives interviewed several of Jaydenβs other friends. Some said she had told them that Lelevier didnβt like her and was too hard on her, the report said. One of her friends told police that Jayden had said Lelevier was βvery rudeβ and βabusive toward her,β the report said.
Another friend spoke with Jayden five days before her death and told police that she seemed depressed and was upset about Lelevier, who would βground her and get her in trouble a lot.β The boy told police he thought Jaydenβs relationship with Lelevier was actually worse than she said.
In the days following the discovery of Jaydenβs body, Lelevier made multiple calls to police that led to the collection of new evidence that implicated him in her death, the report shows.
The day Jaydenβs body was found, police photographed the tire treads on both of the Leleviersβ vehicles to compare them to tread marks at the crime scene, but left the cars at the home.
On May 17, Lelevier called police to tell them he found one of the vehicleβs spare key β which had been missing from the house for months β outside, the report shows.
Evidence technicians struggled to find the key that Lelevier said he spotted while picking up cigarette butts and towed the car when they left the house.
A forensic exam revealed blood on the cargo door of the familyβs SUV, which DNA evidence linked to Jayden.
Five days later, Lelevier called the Pima County Sheriffβs Department to say heβd been assaulted outside of his home in the middle of the night by a person he couldnβt describe.
Lelevier said he had been choked and lost consciousness, but deputies noted he had no injuries consistent with strangulation, according to the report.
A friend of Jaydenβs mother, Jessica Lelevier, who was spending the night on the living room couch told police that although sheβs a light sleeper, she didnβt hear Lelevier go outside but heard him come back into the house, according to the report.
The woman also thought it was unusual that the Leleviersβ dogs, who were also sleeping in the living room, didnβt react when Lelevier left the house, saying theyβre noisy dogs and that if they had heard something, they would have reacted.
The woman told police she thought Joshua was βcreepyβ and she believed he had an underlying anger problem, according to the report.
The day of Joshua Lelevierβs arrest, Jessica Lelevier told police he had recently become more agitated with the children and was yelling more.
After Jaydenβs body was found, Jessica Lelevier became concerned when she noticed that Joshua Lelevier was missing two pairs of shoes and said he bought new shoes when he was out of town, which she didnβt believe because he doesnβt go clothes shopping.
βShe thought she was being paranoid, then said she hoped she was being paranoid,β the report says.
Joshua Lelevier was taken into custody the same day. A week later, Jessica Lelevier filed for divorce.
