Suvechha Sarkar
Leesa Nascimento was a kind-hearted woman who was loved by everyone who knew her. However, everything changed when she suddenly went missing and her remains were discovered in July 2010 in a lake in Sugar Land, Texas. The unimaginable crime left the community completely shocked and her family grief-stricken. Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Killer Beside Me: Flowers in the Lake’ delves deeper into the case and how the investigation revealed the killer to be someone who already knew her. It also features emotional interviews with her loved ones and the officials who ensured that justice was served.
Leesa Nascimento Went Missing Before Her Remains Were Found in a Lake
Leesa Nascimento was born sometime in 1961, bringing immense joy to the lives of her parents. A few years later, her parents got a divorce, and her mother remarried. That brought her 6-year-old stepbrother, Ernie Basham, into her life, and they quickly bonded. After entering adulthood, Leesa met her partner, Karl, and they soon tied the knot around 2002 or 2003. However, a few years later, Ernie explained that she had shared the problems in her marriage with him, and she was going through a messy divorce. After it was finalized, Leesa channeled her energy into converting her hobby for arranging flowers into her career as a Florist. In 2008, she opened her flower shop, Artful Occasions, which was located at Sugar Creek Shopping Center in Sugar Land, Texas.
Leesa was quite close with her co-workers, Lena Salazar and Lorenza Andre Sam. Everything was going well until her life turned upside down on July 6, 2010. Around 10 am, Leesa told Lena she was not feeling well and decided to return home. However, when she didn’t come to work the following day, Lena called her but got no response. Ultimately, her family was informed, and Ernie arrived at her house only to find her purse and keys present with no sign of his sister. Moreover, her vehicle and its keys were absent, so he called 911 to report her missing on July 7, 2010. Upon arriving at the house, officials found no signs of forced entry or struggle but noted that her alarm was off. The search for Leesa continued until July 9, 2010, when a landscaper made the horrific discovery of human remains floating in a lake behind her flower shop.
When detectives arrived at the scene, they found it was a female whose remains were wrapped in a carpet, and she had been shot in the head. She was identified as Leesa by Ernie and Lena from her clothing and watch, which she was wearing on the day she went missing. At her house, officials found a damp rag in the kitchen with a strong bleach odor. They also noted an area under the kitchen table was unusually cleaner than the surroundings. Upon testing, they reportedly discovered the presence of blood in the rag and the clean spot, suggesting a cleanup. Furthermore, a broken piece of ceramic and a bathrobe found at her home matched the bathrobe rope and another broken ceramic piece that were found where her remains were discovered. The autopsy determined Leesa’s cause of death to be from the gunshot wound to the head, which was made from a .25 caliber bullet.
A Missing Diamond Bracelet Led Detectives to Their First Major Break
During the initial investigation, detectives first questioned Leesa’s stepbrother, Ernie. He reportedly informed them about her alleged nasty divorce with Karl and expressed his suspicions. However, Ernie and Karl were ruled out as suspects because there was no evidence against them. Following that, Leesa’s stepbrother informed the officials that she had reportedly called him once in a panic in May 2010 when she found her diamond bracelet missing. He added that when Ernie came to her house to help her find it, she had expressed suspicion about her employee, Lorenza, stealing it. They discovered that Lorenza also helped her mow her lawn and had access to her house. When Lena was questioned, she reportedly revealed that six weeks before the murder, he was fired by Leesa based on her suspicions that he was stealing from her.
Lena informed them that Lorenza allegedly said Leesa owed him money and that he would make her pay. As investigators began searching pawn shops, they found Leesa’s bracelet in one of them, which Lorenza reportedly pawned in June 2010. They next went to his apartment complex, only to find that he was behind on rent, but on July 7, 2010, he had reportedly paid with $500 cash. His neighbor informed the police that he got a call from Lorenza instructing him to collect a trash bag full of jewelry from his room. When a search warrant was reportedly executed for the room, they discovered cleaning supplies, some of Leesa’s jewelry, her ID card, and credit cards. Although Lorenza left the area, a call from the Louisiana police department led the detectives to a remote camping area in Binville Parish, Louisiana, on July 10, 2010.
Trail of Evidence and a Cross-State Manhunt Led to the Arrest of Leesa’s Killer
At Binville Parish, officials reportedly found Leesa’s abandoned car along with receipts dating back to the day she went missing. They discovered Leesa’s blood in the backseat along with gloves. They also found a Fanta bottle in the car pocket, alongside the receipt of its purchase dated July 7, 2010. When they traced it back to the store, its CCTV footage revealed that Lorenza purchased it. Moreover, the DNA in the gloves and on the bottle was a match to Lorenza. The detectives were shocked to find one of his girlfriend’s items, Adriane Gipson, in the car. When questioned, she claimed that she dropped Lorenza at Leesa’s home on July 6 and then drove away to eventually move to Houston, Texas, because she allegedly wanted to break up with him. Officers obtained his number from her, and he agreed to meet with them. However, Lorenza reportedly took off without meeting them when the day finally arrived.
When Adriane was questioned again, she confessed that on July 8, 2010, Lorenza came to her relative’s house while driving Leesa’s car. He then asked her to follow him as he drove the vehicle to Binville Parish and abandoned it there. She informed them that she picked him up and dropped him at a hotel in Lafayette, Louisiana. Adriane claimed that during their last conversation, when she asked him about Leesa, he allegedly confessed to killing her. When detectives reached the hotel, they discovered that he was working for a company called Osha, offshore in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He was arrested there in July 2010 and was extradited to Texas. Upon questioning, Lorenza claimed that he and Leesa were on good terms and he denied any involvement in her murder. Ultimately, he was formally charged with capital murder.
Lorenza is Currently Incarcerated at a Texas Prison Facility
The jury trial of Lorenza for the murder of Leesa began in July 2013. The prosecution reportedly presented overwhelming physical evidence before the court. It included his fingerprints on the Fanta bottle found in Leesa’s abandoned car, the CCTV footage that captured him buying the same bottle, and her missing jewellery that he pawned. Besides that, the prosecution reportedly presented around 45 witnesses before the jury, including forensic experts, detectives, and her family members. Lorenza’s call record also tied him to the timeline of the murder and the vehicle abandonment. Despite that, he pleaded not guilty to the charge of capital murder.
According to official records, the prosecution did not seek the death penalty for his charge. After deliberation, when he was finally convicted on July 30, 2013, he automatically faced the sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He later appealed his conviction based on two grounds, claiming that the evidence presented by the state was legally insufficient to support a charge of capital murder and that his trial counsel was ineffective. However, the Appellate Court denied it on October 20, 2016. As of writing, Lorenza is serving his time at the William P. “Bill” Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas.
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