Accused

by Brittany Ducker

  She hollered that she and Gouker were going to go for a walk and Trey should get into bed as she walked toward the back door of the home. The kids were aware of their nightly routine and by that point they were going through their usual motions just like any other school night. They generally took showers at nine and were in bed by ten. It was almost ten o’clock when Amanda and Gouker went out the back door and settled onto the back porch listening to the radio.

  Amanda watched as Gouker reached up to unscrew the three motion detection lights. She didn’t think much of his actions at the time. They wanted a little privacy and the slightest movement set off the lights, which would then illuminate the entire porch and backyard.

  As Gouker unscrewed the last of the lights and settled back into the chair next to Amanda, both were startled by a slight movement at the back door as it was slowly pushed open. Amanda watched as Trey started out the door then, looking to the left, spotted her and Gouker.

  Trey had redressed himself in street clothes following his shower. He wore dark jeans and a dark t-shirt with his favorite black tennis shoes on his feet. He froze and locked eyes with his mother before silently slipping back into the house. Amanda raised her eyebrows and rose, following him back inside.

  She yelled up from the bottom of the stairs that Trey should get into bed immediately.

  Trey responded that he would and told her he loved her.

  Amanda turned and headed back out to the porch where Gouker sat waiting. She shared that she thought Trey was trying to be sneaky.

  Gouker shrugged his shoulders. The pair stayed on the porch for a little longer. It had been a hot day but the evening was cooling down into a lovely night. They listened to the radio and relaxed, eventually deciding to retire to Amanda’s room around eleven o’clock. Once they climbed into bed, they were intimate. Leaning back on the pillow, Gouker exhaled and said that he needed cigarettes. He asked her to drive to a nearby gas station’s convenience store with him.

  Amanda threw her clothes back on and they dashed out the door, climbing into her car and leaving the kids sleeping inside the house. They drove to a gas station about a mile away and both strolled inside. Although it was late at night, the area was anything but deserted. That particular part of town housed several late-night establishments. There was a strip club adjacent to the station and, even on a weeknight, cars cluttered the parking lot.

  Although he generally smoked anything he could get his hands on, with a little money lining his pocket Gouker chose a more expensive pack and they left the store. At the time, they paid no mind to the surveillance video that was rolling as they made their purchases.

  Within minutes of leaving the station, Gouker and Amanda were safely back home, where they entered the house and went back into her bedroom. Gouker was not sated by their earlier romp and he reached across Amanda to the nightstand next to her bed and grabbed her phone. Hitting the record button, he made a quick video of their second tryst of the evening and he then watched it play back, appearing to be impressed by his own prowess. By that time, it was nearly one o’clock in the morning and Gouker rolled over. Within minutes Amanda heard him snoring.

  She propped herself up with a pillow and grabbed the remote control. As she flipped through the channels, she tried to ignore Gouker’s snoring on the pillow next to her. Finally fed up with the noise, Amanda powered off the television and went to sleep for the night. Since she had quit her job, she did not have to be up as early as usual and she hoped she would have a good night’s sleep and get the work stress out of her mind. She must have known she could trust Trey to wake himself up and prepare for school the following morning.

  It was not unusual for Trey to get himself off to school in the morning without Amanda’s help. He normally woke up around 6:30 A.M. and was out the door to his bus stop within minutes. The bus stop was located just a short distance down the street and he was easily able to walk there and catch his bus. Normally, Amanda got up as Trey was walking out the back door. She would then take a quick shower before getting her daughter ready for school. On the morning of the eleventh, she was exhausted from the evening before, between the cookout and Gouker staying over. She had only had a few hours of sleep when she heard some movement in the bathroom early that morning.

  Assuming that it was Trey getting ready for school, Amanda didn’t bother to get up and check. The bathroom was adjacent to her bedroom and she often heard Trey banging around in there in the mornings before he left for school. She concluded that the sound was Trey and she rolled over and fell back to sleep. When her alarm went off shortly afterward, Amanda started to stir and pulled back the covers from the bed.

  Gouker patted her as he rose from bed and headed out into the entryway, assuring her that he would get her daughter ready for school. Amanda’s daughter’s bus always came at 8:15 A.M. and it picked her up in front of the house. A few minutes after eight o’clock, she dashed into the room and planted a quick peck on Amanda’s cheek.

  Within minutes Gouker was back in the bedroom and Amanda was busy taking a quick shower to get ready for the day ahead. It was set to be another nice Spring day and Gouker suggested that they visit McNeely Lake Park. This was something they did often together and Amanda had hinted over the previous few days that a visit to the park was long overdue. Feeding the ducks had always been a relaxing pastime for her and she must have thought that it would put her in a good mood. They were soon en route to the park.

  McNeely Lake was about a ten minute drive from their home. It wasn’t a huge body of water, but it was large enough that there were always ducks and geese around. When the kids were little, she would often take them there with bread chunks to feed the ducks. It was also a great spot for fishing and for years it had been a place children and families would congregate to swim, fish and play on the jungle gym. It was a popular location for picnics and cookouts. They spent a few hours walking around the area and talking about their future together.

  Gouker had brought his football. He told Amanda that he wanted to teach her to throw a perfect spiral with the ball and they spent about an hour tossing it around. Times like this reminded Amanda why she kept going back to Gouker. When things were good, they were really good. They liked doing the same things and when he was in a good mood they could have a great time together and she would put the bad times out of her mind. He talked about wanting to make a home for them together. At that moment, Amanda pictured a future with Gouker and she wanted to make a life with him, a life where they both felt right at home.

  As they left the park that afternoon, Gouker noticed a cute little house with a “For Rent” sign in the yard. They walked around the home, which seemed to be vacant, and even peeked in a few windows. Amanda watched as Gouker telephoned the number listed on the sign. He walked away from her as he spoke with the person on the other end of the line. He was able to convince the realtor to come and show them the house.

  It had three small bedrooms. As they walked through the cozy little house, Amanda listened as Gouker told the realtor that they had two children who would be living in the home with them. Thinking this was odd, Amanda immediately began questioning him when they left the potential rental home after their walk-through, asking why he had said they only had two children and where would Little Josh be living.

  Gouker appeared to catch himself. Was it a slip of the tongue? Until Amanda’s question, he didn’t seem to realize what he had said. He insisted that it was just a mistake and that the realtor didn’t need to know everything about them.21

  Amanda shrugged it off. She could sense Gouker beginning to puff up and it just wasn’t worth the argument. They got into the car and headed back to the house. The day had flown by and Amanda knew the kids should be home soon.

  After Gouker and Amanda arrived home, she was bending over near the couch and was shocked to notice Trey’s school bag lying next to the sofa on the floor. Glancing quickly at the clock, she realized that it was almost three o’clock. The school day was over, b
ut it was too early for Trey to have arrived home on the bus and to have left his book bag. He shouldn’t have been home for at least another hour. She felt her heart beat a little faster. Something wasn’t right. She grabbed her phone and dialed Trey, listening anxiously as the phone rang several times before going to voicemail.

  She expressed her worry to Gouker, who suggested that maybe Trey had cut school. But Amanda knew that wasn’t something a good student like Trey would do.

  She picked up the phone again and called him several times in a row. There was still no answer. Every minute was like agony and by the time her daughter arrived home, Amanda was truly worried. She started calling Trey’s friends to see if anyone had seen him or if he had been on the bus that day. She started walking around the neighborhood looking for Trey.

  By that point, Amanda appeared to be in a full-blown panic. Trey had never done anything like this. It was so uncharacteristic of him not to answer his cell phone. He was always prompt in answering it, especially because he must have known how Amanda could worry. With each house that she visited, her heart pounded more. No one had seen Trey.

  As she dashed around frantically, her phone buzzed. Thinking it could be her son, she quickly looked down as her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t Trey. It was Amanda’s cousin, wanting to let her know that a body had been found at the high school and he was heading that way.

  Amanda reached down and grabbed her daughter by the hand. She dashed two doors down to Gouker’s cousin’s house, leaving her daughter in Cassi’s care. Little Josh rushed up to Amanda and his father, wondering what was happening. He had not seen Trey either but he could tell by the look on Amanda’s face that something was desperately wrong. With Gouker and Little Josh in tow, Amanda sprinted down the street toward the high school. A crowd had already gathered and almost immediately she spotted Trey’s dad, Terry, approaching.

  They stood in the midst of the crowd and waited. No one was giving any answers but Amanda saw that the area where the body had been found was cordoned off with yellow tape. Amanda stared as one of the detectives strode purposefully toward Terry. They spoke for a few moments. Trey’s father was getting even more upset. Amanda strained to watch as Terry walked toward the hilltop with the detective at his side. She focused on Trey’s father’s agonized face for what seemed like an eternity and gasped for breath at what happened next. Terry’s face tightened and he fell to his knees.

  Suddenly, Amanda heard a scream. It was her own.

  Chapter 6

  Dark Reality

  The next few hours were an absolute blur for Trey’s family and friends. Homicide detectives secured a warrant to search Amanda’s residence. Some of the injuries to Trey appeared to have come from a blunt object, while the head wound could have been caused by a sharp object. The type of murder weapon that was used was unclear.

  The warrant allowed officers to search the house, the garage and surrounding grounds for any type of weapon that could have caused Trey’s injuries. During this time, officers spoke with Amanda and other members of the household. All the while, crime scene technicians pored over every square inch of the home, ultimately tagging and collecting three baseball bats from Trey’s bedroom, a sword and a knife from the garage.

  Both Amanda and Gouker submitted to a DNA swab for comparison to the items seized from the home and the crime scene. The officers were there throughout the evening. It was a parent’s worst nightmare. The Louisville Metro Police Department homicide detectives launched an investigation. Louisville was no stranger to violent homicides, but homicides against children were rare. Officers were dedicated to solving this case as quickly as possible.

  As the investigation progressed, Amanda stayed inside her house and seemed to want to be left alone. Gouker continued to stay there and as Amanda become more and more withdrawn, Gouker became increasingly controlling and violent toward her. His actions began under the guise of helping her through her grief and quickly morphed into emotional abuse and complete control. Amanda did not realize at the time but Gouker arranged to have all her voice-mails and calls forwarded to his phone. When her friends and loved ones attempted to visit her home to offer support, Gouker told them to leave and even went so far as to tell some of the visitors not to return, ever.

  As the days passed and Trey’s family tried to deal with their grief, the homicide detectives continued to investigate the case. On May 19, Detective Scott Russ pulled into Amanda’s driveway around 7:00 P.M. with Detective Roy Stalvey accompanying him. He needed to speak with Amanda again. While Terry was available anytime the police contacted him, they had less contact with Amanda. It was a slight cause of concern for the detectives and Detective Russ wanted to speak with Trey’s mother face-to-face. As he knocked on the door, it swung open and Amanda stood in the home’s entryway.

  She had been expecting them. Detective Russ had called earlier in the day and suggested that he would likely stop by later to ask her more questions. As they entered the home, they watched Gouker walk around the corner and he stood directly before them at Amanda’s side.

  The detective believed people close to Trey and his family possibly knew more than they were disclosing and he wanted to speak with Amanda further to see if there was anything she could add to their investigation. By this point, several people acquainted with Gouker had informed police that he was controlling Amanda and that he was also mean and abusive. With that in mind, they asked Gouker to leave so they could speak with Amanda alone. Although he was not happy about it, Gouker did what they requested. He told Amanda that he would walk to Cassi’s house and would see her later that night. Detective Russ asked Gouker to stay at his cousin’s until he saw that their cruiser was gone. Once Gouker strode out the door, the detectives settled into chairs in the living room and prepared to talk privately with Amanda.

  Until that point, Amanda probably had not imagined that Gouker could be involved in Trey’s murder. When Trey was mistreated at the bus stop, it was Gouker who went there with him and warned those bothering him that he should be left alone. He stood up for her son and he slept nightly with her. She must have had trouble believing that he could be involved in killing one of the people she loved most in the world.

  Amanda told the officers about how a group of kids had approached Trey at the bus stop and stole his cell phone a few weeks prior to his death. The following day when he exited the school bus, the group was there again and they were forcibly taking cell phones from kids in the area. She was not sure how he got it back, but he did. She appeared to accept Gouker’s assertion that the apartment complex kids were involved.

  Detectives had already followed up on that lead and they quickly determined that it was a dead end. Several of the young men from the apartments were incarcerated at the detention center in downtown Louisville. Detectives interviewed several of them at the detention center and it was clear they had alibis at the time of Trey’s death and that they knew nothing about the murder.

  The detectives instead wanted to know more about the dynamics in the home and they started asking questions about Joshua Gouker and his son.1

  “…And Josh Junior?” the detective asked.

  “[He’s] Joshua’s son with Angie Young. She committed suicide last year,” Amanda answered.

  “Where does he normally stay?”

  “He normally stays with us. Josh and I went nine years without communication, so the past six months, we are getting to know each other again.”

  “Right,” the detective said.

  “So he spends, Little Josh goes pretty much with Cassi for now.”

  “How long has that been going on?”

  Amanda hesitated. She knew that Child Protective Services and the court believed that Little Josh was living at her home and she was reluctant to tell the officer differently, “Um…”

  “Since the incident happened or since before that?”

  “Um, no, before this,” she relented.

  Amanda continued to reveal information about the fa
mily. Little Josh, she disclosed, had returned to school that morning for the first time since Trey’s death. Amanda’s daughter was devastated at the loss of her brother and Amanda was allowing her to miss school that day. Her daughter was staying with her paternal grandmother while Amanda dealt with her own feelings of grief. She must have hoped that her daughter would return to school the following day, so that she could try to ease back into normal day-to-day activities.

  “What about Trey and [Little] Josh’s relationship?” Detective Russ asked, leaning forward in his chair.

  She sighed and said, “They were good even when Josh was in prison and I lived in Preston Oaks and so did Little Josh’s mom. Our kids grew up together. They always knew each other. They never had a bad relationship. They were good to each other. They were friends. They were good friends regardless of being stepbrothers, because in their minds they didn’t realize they were stepbrothers when they were little kids.”2

  Detective Russ nodded, “So what about Trey and [Big] Josh? Was there any kind of discipline stuff there?”

  Amanda was quick to respond in the negative, “No, I have never disciplined Josh’s son and he has never disciplined my son, ever.”

  “Well, what about your and [Big] Josh’s relationship? I’ve heard it can get physical sometimes?”

  “We have a very passionate relationship. When it’s good, it’s fantastic.”

  “Right.”

  “And when it’s bad, it’s bad…He’s never physically hurt me but he has emotionally and I do the same thing to him. He makes me angry and I go after his heart, stuff to make him hurt.”