Did video capture a Lehigh Acres cold case killing?

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. Jaqulyne Steele wonders if surveillance video captured the moment bullets ended her son’s life.

It’s one of a number of things she still thinks about regarding her son’s killing.

“One thing that bothered me was that they let him lay so long on the concrete uncovered,” she said. “I understand it was like 12 hours and I thought that was just inhumane.”

Out of 95 killings investigated by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office within the past five years, Tehran Leaphart’s June 2015 death is one of 26 that remain unsolved.

In Fort Myers, only 24 of the city’s 74 murders were solved within the past five years.

WINK News is bringing attention to some of these cases in hope that renewed interest will result in new clues.

Leaphart, a father of 15 children, was killed in his brother’s driveway at the corner of Bolt Lane and Wilson Road after neighbors said they heard five gunshots and a vehicle speed by.

Detectives are awaiting DNA evidence results and have witnesses, Steele said, but no details about the case were confirmed by the sheriff’s office.

Another potential clue are text messages on Leaphart’s phone, Steele said.

“It seemed to me that somebody wanted to find him and they kept calling his phone to find out where he was and he told him where he was, they came there and shot him,” she said.

Surveillance cameras were installed on the home, and Steele believes its footage could’ve captured her son’s final moments.

“I think they had enough evidence that they could’ve, you know, to tell him they had suspects too,” she said. “And months go by and I hear nothing?”

For now, Steele holds on to hope that she’ll receive an answer.

“He was my baby and he was my children’s brother and he was a father and he mattered to us,” she said.

Anyone with information on Leaphart’s killing is asked to contact Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS.