Posted on 12/12/2009 9:38:40 AM PST by Born Conservative
Rebecca Perez remembers Cody Lee as a young, sensitive boy who adored his mother and was overprotective of his younger brother.
Perez, of Knoxville, Tenn., said she was devastated when she heard the news Wednesday night that Cody Lee, 16, allegedly killed his great-grandfather, Herbert Lee Sr., 80, inside a home at 443 Meeker Outlet Road in Lake Township.
“Cody was a wonderful little boy and he loved his mommy,” Perez said on Friday in a telephone interview. “I remember when he was a little guy, he visited his grandparents and they had nothing but nasty things to say about Cody’s mother.”
Cody’s mother, Deanna Feichter Ely, who was known by her friends as Dee, died in what the Knoxville News Sentinel reported was an accidental shooting in April 2004.
Deanna had relocated to Knoxville, Tenn., after she separated from Cody’s father, Scott Lee, sometime in the late 1990s.
The separation caused turmoil among the two families, Perez said.
Perez said she resided in Shavertown, across the street from the Feichter family, before she moved to Knoxville in 2002. She is a close, personal friend to Deanna’s mother, Vicki Brown, and helped raised Deanna when she was a child.
Deanna and Scott Lee were high school sweethearts, Perez said.
“Dee was pregnant with Cody I believe at the end of her junior year in high school,” Perez said. “Cody was about a year old when Dee and Scott were married.”
Perez said she hosted the wedding in her Shavertown home.
“Dee was young and inexperienced but she loved Cody with all her heart,” Perez said.
Before Deanna and Scott Lee were married, Deanna’s mother, Vicki, relocated to Tennessee to be near family, Perez said.
After Deanna and Scott Lee separated, Deanna and her young child moved to Knoxville to be near Vicki. While in Knoxville, Deanna remarried and gave birth to a boy, Tyler James, Cody’s younger brother.
Perez said Cody was “shuffled” back and forth between Deanna and Scott Lee, who remained in Lake Township.
When Deanna was killed, Perez said she remembered Cody sitting by himself at his mother’s funeral.
“It looked like Cody was lost,” Perez recalled. “Cody wanted to be with her but he had to live with his father Scott.”
Perez said she lost touch with Cody when he relocated to Lake Township to live with Scott Lee and his great-grandfather. She heard from family and friends that remain in the area that Cody was not happy about where he was living or how he was being treated.
“Cody was the kind of kid, if you gave him hugs and some guidance, he was fine,” Perez said. “This just blows me away. I could kick myself for not keeping in touch. The Lees are a tight-knit family.
“Our prayers go out to Cody,” Perez said.
A person who answered the door at the Meeker Outlet Road home on Friday said the Lee family is not responding to requests for interviews.
Cody, jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on a criminal homicide charge, declined an interview request on Friday.
State police at Wyoming and Luzerne County detectives allege Cody killed his great-grandfather with a single shot to the head from a rifle just after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Cody planned to kill his father, Scott Lee, who managed to wrestle the rifle away from his son, according to arrest records.
Investigators allege Cody showed his intent to kill his great-grandfather and father to another student during classes at Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School on Wednesday.
Lake-Lehman school officials canceled classes on Thursday as a precaution.
School District Solicitor John Audi said the absentee rate was about normal for a Friday when classes resumed.
“Students have been told on Friday that if they want to discuss anything or about this incident, they can talk to a guidance counselor anonymously,” Audi said.
Cody Lee is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 17 before District Judge James Tupper in Kingston Township.
Update thread.
This kid sure had a crappy life. That certainly doesn’t excuse his actions, but does give some insight into what was going on with him. It appears that the shooting of his mother was accidental?
ping
He is 16 years old, old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Now not only are the victims’ lives over, but so is his as well, regardless of whether he gets death or life. In other words, he screwed up. It's not anyone else’s fault but his.
If he thinks his life was crappy before, wait until he gets a lonely cellmate.
It was a family friend who said he was a good kid. The mom was shot in the head and killed 7 years ago by her 14 year old brother. WTF indeed.
I agree.
Cue new signup to show up and say, “He was a good man.”
“Charlie” was such a nice kid..........(Manson)
Yeah, these little POS kids that are killers are always sweet and sensitive. sarc/
In a real world the authorities would let him clutch a warm cuddly Teddy as he dropped through the trap. In that way we could all celebrate the fact he was a “good kid!”
His divorced mother was shot by his fourteen-year-old uncle, according to an earlier report.
Was it accidental? Evidently that was what the authorities decided, whether rightly or not. But it must have been traumatic.
No excuse for shooting “grandpa” and trying to shoot his father. But there were obviously some strange things going on it that family, on one side or the other. Who knows?
And apparently he didn’t get along with his father’s side of the family. Doesn’t sound like they treated him well, and I’m sure that getting bounced back and forth between mother and father in his earlier years didn’t help things. My impression is that he was the proverbial ticking time bomb.
Shot in the head with a rifle? Sounds fishy that the mother’s shooting would be accidental.
All the same things Col. Hasan’s family said about him too.
Just don’t know what else to say......
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