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1991 Pratt, Megan L.A. September 1991; Brooksville 3 YO
Topic Started: Sep 24 2006, 03:21 AM (865 Views)
100PercentFound
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http://www.geocities.com/ForMeganPratt/

(click website to see the story about this poor child)

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By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

More is learned about the pasts of Megan Pratt's mother and stepfather. He says Megan is buried near Brooksville.

BROOKSVILLE -- Is it best to tell the truth?

Patty Russell had her doubts on Thursday after her fiance, Jesse Schober, lost his job of 13 months as a mechanic at Love Chevrolet in West Columbia, S.C.

Schober's boss heard on the local news that Schober, 34, had admitted to killing his 3-year-old stepdaughter and burying her body in the woods west of Brooksville more than a decade ago.

"He'll never find a job," said Russell, 38.

She said they did not realize that Hernando detectives were after Schober for the death of Megan LeeAnn Pratt, a little girl who vanished in 1991. They thought detectives wanted to hold Megan's mom, Vickie Schober, responsible, Russell said. The couple has long fought with Vickie Schober.

"It will be bittersweet if he gets in trouble and she walks away," Russell said.

Lt. Joe Paez of the Sheriff's Office said both Jesse and Vickie Schober could face charges, but so far do not. He said Jesse Schober admitted to the physical abuse that led to Megan's death. However, neither Jesse nor Vickie sought medical help for Megan after she was hurt, Paez said.

Rather, they bundled her in a sleeping bag, carried her to the woods, set her on fire and covered her with soil, authorities said.

Detectives are not saying exactly how Megan died.

The State Attorney's Office is awaiting a full review of the evidence before deciding whether to pursue charges.

For two weeks, authorities have searched a field for Megan's shallow grave but so far have found nothing.

It started after Megan's grandmother, Sarah Mowery of Aynor, S.C., called in January and said she believed Megan had been killed.

That tip led detectives into the Schobers' lives.

The couple moved into a trailer off a dirt road near Brooksville around Christmas 1990. Vickie brought two children who had different fathers -- a boy, Jimmy, and Megan, who was about 2 years old, friends said.

Megan was born in South Carolina in July 1988. Her birth certificate had no first or middle name, only the last name Pratt.

Pratt was the name of a man Vickie had dated, James Pratt of Roanoke, Va. He fathered her first child, Jimmy, who is now 15, friends said.

But Vickie told others that Megan was the daughter of Ray Mowery Jr., another man she had dated before meeting Jesse Schober.

The Schobers lived together in South Carolina and Wisconsin, where Vickie was investigated for child abuse, authorities said. From there, they moved to Brooksville.

They were evicted from their trailer off Pointview in September 1991, the same year Megan is believed to have died.

The Schobers lived in several different Hernando County homes over the next few years. They had two children together -- Michael, now 12, and Jessica, now 10.

The couple also had several brushes with the law.

In 1993, Jesse Schober, 5 feet 10 with blue eyes and brown hair, pleaded guilty to dealing in stolen property and received two years' probation. The next year, he was arrested for domestic battery, but the charges were dismissed.

Vickie, 5 feet 7 with blue eyes and brown hair, was charged with domestic battery on the same night as Jesse in May 1994. The charges were later dismissed.

About 1995, Jesse and Vickie moved back to South Carolina. Within weeks, they split up, friends said.

Jesse Schober had violated his probation by moving without notifying his parole officer. He also tested positive for marijuana.

To help him out, Schober's boss at the time, the owner of an auto repair shop in Myrtle Beach, S.C., wrote a letter to his probation officer.

He said Schober was an outstanding employee.

"There is no denying that Jesse has apparently made mistakes in his past, but I am convinced he desires to and is trying to pick up his life," Larry Dodd wrote in 1996.

He said Jesse was a team player who never missed a day of work and was well-liked by customers.

Jesse told him if he could get probation and the divorce from Vickie behind him, Dodd wrote, he could "start over the right way."

"We all feel he deserves that chance, and we will be right here to support him," he wrote.

By that time, Jesse had met someone new: Patty Russell. She had two teenage children and was going through a divorce.

They fell in love.

"The best thing that woman (Vickie) could have done was throw him away," Russell said. "We have a wonderful relationship, the kind you're lucky to get once in your life."

Jesse rarely saw his two children, who lived with Vickie, Russell said.

"Vickie moves constantly," Russell said.

Russell had gotten conflicting stories about Megan over the years and asked her fiance for the truth. He told her, and she called Sarah Mowery.

Mowery and Vickie Schober had never gotten along.

Vickie had children with two of Mowery's sons.

She had long wondered what happened to Megan and called investigators when she heard about her death.

Mowery said she also is worried about her other grandchild, 2-year-old Matthew.

She said her son Joe Mowery is in Wisconsin trying to get custody of the boy, but has not been allowed to leave the state.

"There's nothing I can do for Megan," Mowery said. "I'm pushing every button for Matthew. He doesn't need to go through the same thing. He needs to be kept away from her."

Mowery said she was grateful Jesse Schober told his story, but it is perturbed he hasn't been arrested.

"I just can't hardly believe he's still left out there to be free," Mowery said.

Vickie Schober was arrested in Wisconsin in February for failing to appear in court in Pinellas County on welfare fraud charges. From jail, she declined to be interviewed Thursday.

Mowery is waiting to see what happens.

"I pray that God have mercy on both their souls," said Mowery, a 57-year-old grandmother who works at Hardee's. "I'm glad God is the judge instead of me."

-- Jamie Jones can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to jjones@sptimes.com.




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Megan Lee Ann Pratt


Above Images: Pratt, circa 1991


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: September 1991 from Brooksville, Florida
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date of Birth: July 1988
Age: 3 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Megan's middle name may be spelled "LeeAnn" by some agencies.


Details of Disappearance

Pratt was last seen sometime in September 1991 at her home west of Brooksville, Florida. She lived with her stepfather, Jesse James Schober, and her mother, Vicki Ann Schober. After her disappearance, Jesse and Vicki told others that Pratt had been killed in a car accident. Later that year, they were evicted from their mobile home and left Florida. They eventually divorced and Pratt's mother married someone else.
Pratt's disappearance did not draw official notice until 2002, when Pratt's paternal grandmother contacted the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and asked them to find her. She had looked for records of the child's supposed accidental death and could not find any. Investigators interviewed Pratt's mother and stepfather, who gave conflicting accounts of what happened to Pratt. An acquaintance of theirs told police that Pratt was dead and buried in the woods. Authorities were initially unable to file charges without Pratt's body.

A cold case squad was assigned to Pratt's case. They interviewed people who knew the Schoebers, and social workers who had had contact with them, over a period of months. Vicki and Jesse were arrested and charged with Pratt's murder in August 2003. Vicki pleaded no contest to aggravated child abuse and agreed to testify against Jesse in return for a six-year sentence; there was no evidence to tie her to her daughter's death, but she admitted she was responsible because she did not seek medical help for the child after she was injured. She stated that Jesse became enraged by Pratt's splashing in the bathtub and hit her head on the side of the tub, and the child was knocked unconscious and died several days later. Jesse put her body in a sleeping bag and burned and buried the remains in the woods west of Brooksville.

Jesse had been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Pratt's disappearance, but in January 2005 he reached a plea deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison; he is expected to serve about fourteen or fifteen years. If convicted of the original charge, Jesse could have been sentenced to sixty years in prison. He lead authorities to the spot where he says he disposed of Pratt's body, but nothing was found there.

Pratt's remains have not been found, but foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.



Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Hernando County Sheriff's Office
352-754-6830



Source Information
The St. Petersburg Times
The Toledo Blade
Hernando Today



Updated 3 times since October 12, 2004.

Last updated August 9, 2005.

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http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011...sheriff-nugent/

Three cases that stick with Sheriff Nugent
By TONY HOLT | Hernando Today
Published: January 1, 2011
Updated: 01/01/2011 04:20 pm

He was asked what cases shook him the most. He didn't even have to think about it.

Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent has dealt with cop shootings, fugitives on the loose, child murderers and stalled cold cases.

There are three investigations etched in his memory. One was a murder that nearly turned into a double-murder. One was a case where a body was found, but no arrest was made. The other included two arrests, but no body.

The first one took place seven years before Nugent became sheriff. The victim's name in that case might be one of the most-recognized in Hernando County history.

Jennifer Odom – She got off the school bus around 3 p.m. Feb. 19, 1993 near Dade City. Her bus stop was 200 yards from her house. She didn't make it.

Six days later her body was discovered off Old Spring Lake Highway a few miles north of the Hernando County line.

Two years later, her missing book bag and clarinet case was discovered 12 miles northwest in the woods near Weeki Wachee.

It's been nearly 18 years and Jennifer's killer still hasn't been arrested.

"I was on the periphery of it, but was out at the scenes and had forensics working for me then," said Nugent. "That is one of those cases that will always be there with me. It will always be in the back of my mind."

The first 48 hours are critical. Detectives didn't get the case until nearly all trace DNA evidence was gone. An autopsy showed Jennifer was killed within a day of her abduction.

Nugent said samples have been sent and resent to the FBI, including once last year.

It's the only unsolved child homicide in Hernando County.

"Money is not an object when you're chasing someone who's killed a kid," said the retiring sheriff. "We'd go to the far ends of the earth to track that person down and we still will."

Michael Altieri – It was two weeks before Christmas 2001 and Daniel Lee Wingard was roaming the neighborhood with a knife.

His ex-girlfriend wasn't home. He remained hell-bent on committing murder.

He knew his next-door neighbors didn't approve of him. He blamed them for his recent break-up. He knocked on the front door.

Silvana Altieri spotted him and yelled at her husband to answer. Wingard said a friend of theirs was in an accident.

The ruse worked. Michael opened the door. Wingard lunged with the knife and stabbed the victim in the stomach.

Michael tried to fight him, but was losing blood. Wingard slashed Silvana's face with the blade and then pulled the couple's 12-year-old girl by the hair and dragged her out of the house.

Deputies arrived at the scene and the search began. The girl was saved and Wingard was arrested.

"We flooded the place," said Nugent of the search. "That's one where we go, 'Holy (expletive deleted). What is he going to do with this poor girl?'"

Michael didn't survive.

Wingard entered a guilty plea in court and was sentenced to life in prison.

The Altieri family remains appreciative to Nugent and the agency he led for 10 years.

"When I won my primary and when I won the general (election), they sent me huge plants each time," he said. "That one sticks with you."

Megan Lee Ann Pratt – Megan, 3, was last seen alive in September 1991.

She lived with her mother, Vicki Ann Schober, and stepfather, Jesse James Schober, in a trailer off Pointec Road.

The girl's grandmother, Sarah Mowery, was the engine behind the investigation. Her daughter, Vicki Ann Grossberndt, had told her Megan was killed in a car accident.

Mowery suspected it was a lie. She was right.

"The grandmother (who lived in South Carolina) had gotten a hold of us," recalled Nugent. "She wanted to find her grandchild. The mother and stepfather kept blowing her off and ultimately, we made a murder case on (them)."

Mowery made that call in January 2002.

Jesse Schober, who later divorced his wife, eventually told authorities he had struck Megan while she was taking a bath. She was knocked unconscious after her head smashed against the side of the tub. No ambulance was called. She died a day later.

Megan's body was eventually moved to the closet where it lay for a few more days.

Schober put her body in a bag after the smell had filled the house, took it outside and set it on fire, according to reports.

He told detectives he buried the remains.

A forensics unit went to work and dug up everything they could at the property. Megan's body was never found.

In spite of a lack of evidence, arrests were made in August 2003.

Grossberndt pleaded no contest to aggravated child abuse and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Schober pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years.

Nugent will always remember Mowery and the emotional toll the case had on him and his detectives.

"We got a conviction with no body," he said. "We poured our heart and soul into that one."
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