Thomas Edwin Loden Jr Wiki – Thomas Edwin Loden Jr Biography
The man who raped and killed a 16-year-old girl in Mississippi has been executed. Thomas Edwin Loden Jr was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night, becoming the second inmate to be executed in the state in 10 years. The 58-year-old had been on death row since 2001, when he pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual assault against Leesa Marie Gray.
Her waitress was stranded with a flat tire in June 2000 when Loden forced her into her truck.Loden told investigators that he spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her. The following afternoon, court records say that “Loden was discovered lying on the side of a road with the words ‘I’m sorry’ etched across his chest and apparent self-inflicted lacerations to his wrists.”
Thomas Edwin Loden Jr Age
Thomas Edwin Loden Jr is 58 years old.
Incident Detail
Loden said he was “deeply sorry.” before he began injecting at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. “For the past 20 years, I have tried to do a good deed every day to make up for the life I took from this world,” Loden said. “I know these are mere words and they cannot erase the damage I have done. If today brings you nothing else, I hope you have peace and closure.”
He concluded his last words by saying “I love you” in Japanese, authorities said. Ms. Gray had been working as a waitress at her uncle’s restaurant in northeast Mississippi during the summer before her senior year of high school. On June 22, 2000, she left work after dark and got a flat tire.
Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter with relatives in the area, stopped by around 10:45 p.m. m. and started talking to her about her apartment. “Don’t worry. I’m a Marine. We do this kind of thing,” she said.
Loden told investigators that he became angry after Ms. Gray allegedly said that she would never want to be a Marine, and he ordered her into her truck. He spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her, he told investigators.
The following afternoon, court records say that “Loden was discovered lying on the side of a road with the words ‘I’m sorry’ etched across his chest and apparent self-inflicted lacerations to his wrists.” Ms Gray’s mother, Wanda Farris, described her daughter as a “carefree, always smiling” teenager who aspired to become a primary school teacher. “She wasn’t perfect, now mind you,” she said. “But she tried hard to do the right thing.”
Read Also: Who was Nathan M. Hillman? Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Cause of Death