Dateline NBC: Raven Leigertwood
Dateline featured the story of Veno and Raven Leigertwood this past week–an interesting story indeed. It’s a true mystery, yet unsolved, so what is the truth? What happened to Veno Leigertwood?
If there was ever a tough case to watch on video and wonder what the truth is, this is it. Why? Because the story is complex. Veno Leigertwood was gunned down outside his home early on a Saturday morning when he was on his way to give a presentation to a college class. A witness reported seeing two suspects go into an alley, and come out after gun shots were fired 15 minutes later–the same alley where Veno’s body was found, but they have never been identified. And worse, Veno’s family is pointing the finger squarely at Veno’s wife, Raven.
Raven’s behavior is interesting. She talks very controlling in the first clip we see of her on Dateline. “You…don’t…think…it’s possible… for…someone…this…good…to have this happen to them.” Is she thinking on her feet, censoring what she is saying? Why? Notice the stark pauses between words? It’s telling that she is not talking freely and without thought.
She also flagged me when she talked about the morning Veno was gunned down. Her account of events that morning is oddly missing details. She is very scattered in what she recalls, which I find odd. The story doesn’t coherently go from hearing foot steps to looking out the window, to wondering what was going on. She jumps from footsteps to the police inside her house. Did they break in or did she let them in? Why does she skip the details here? In my opinion, we do not have a normal memory progression recollection. She also is extremely emotionally flat. Why is she so flat? Was this common for Raven?
Yet when I see her cry on the news clip after Veno was killed, while I don’t see tears, I do see genuine stress or sadness. It could be either, however. I can’t tell by that clip alone. I wish I could see that entire clip. That would be helpful.
Furthermore, Raven says, “In the beginning, my immediate thought was, this was an accident, it has to be. Someone didn’t mean to do this.” I find that statement very odd. Is that how you would feel it someone killed your husband with a semi-automatic gun? It was an accident??
She further says, “You can’t focus on anything but trying to prove everybody wrong.” What? That doesn’t make sense to me. Did she show classic signs of denial or not? I’d like to find out.
And later she tells Veno’s family maybe someone killed him because of bad debt. What? Why would she say that?
Another point made by the police that is was not common for Veno to leave the house on a Saturday at 6:30, so either this was a random event, yet not a robbery, or someone tipped someone off that he would be leaving that morning.
Also, Veno’s cell phone was missing. This is interesting. Why would they take JUST his cell phone?
When Raven is asked if she didn’t want to go back to work during the economic downturn, I don’t believe her when says it wasn’t a problem. She said, “Going back to work (shoulder shrug) really wasn’t….ah…a…problem.” I believe Veno’s mother that is was an issue for her, but would that cause her to kill Veno, I don’t know.
Later in show, Raven also is questioned by Dateline that she told different people different stories of what she was doing that morning. This definitely raises my eyebrows. Honest people don’t get these details mixed up. They are clear as day and never changed. This is a whopper of a red flag. If this is true, then that cements it for me, and I don’t believe Raven’s story.
Raven raises my eyebrows to say the least. She is high on my radar of “want to see more” because it is possible that she did have some involvement in Veno’s death, but didn’t actually do the deed, if you will. In these situations, people can convince themselves they are innocent and are not lying, which makes clues a lot harder to come by. So, I would like to see more, but I am clearly suspicious of some involvement outside of pulling the trigger.
If anyone finds any video footage of Raven shortly after Veno’s death, I would love to see it!