Remembering Sarah Foxwell - Thomas Leggs, Jr.
The Sarah Foxwell case came to a tragic end on Christmas morning, just a couple weeks ago. The 11-year-old child was taken out of her bedroom she shared with her 6-year-old sister in the middle of the night allegedly by a convicted sex offender, Thomas Leggs. Police say Leggs knew the family, because he dated Sarah’s aunt, who is also her legal guardian. Police believe Sarah was snatched around 1 a.m. on December 22, 2009. Sarah’s 6-year-old sister told police she woke up to “Mr. Tommy” in their bedroom talking to Sarah. Investigators were called at 10:02 a.m. and based on the information they compiled, police were able to arrest Leggs and charge him with abduction and burglary within two hours. Sarah’s aunt told investigators that she had not seen Leggs since 32 days before the abduction. On Christmas morning, thousands of volunteers including parents and children gave up opening gifts to search for Sarah. Sheriff Lewis of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s office told me that one little boy even emptied his piggy bank, put it in a baggie and handed it to the Sheriff to donate it to the fund to find the child.
Sadly, Sarah’s body was found on the Maryland-Delaware line later that day. Her autopsy is complete, and the Sheriff told me Sarah has many causes of death all relating back to homicide, but he is not ready to release any more details about the struggle the child went through. Leggs is not only a sex offender in two states, Maryland and Delaware, but he is also facing charges out of Ocean City, Maryland from an incident stemming from September 11, 2009 where police say a woman woke up in the middle of the night to a naked Leggs standing at the end of her bed masturbating. If Leggs is in fact guilty and responsible for Sarah’s death, and Sheriff Lewis thinks he is, there is an obvious escalation in sexual attacks from the alleged September 11, 2009 incident to the time when Sarah was abducted, either before or in between police fear there may be other victims who may not have come forward.
The interesting part to this case is out of the 172 convicted sex offenders living in Wicomico County, Leggs is considered high-risk, and Sheriff Lewis says he was actually one of the offenders they checked on often – but didn’t have to. According to the law, Leggs only had to register two times a year with the Wicomico County Sheriff’s office, and the sheriff’s office wasn’t required to check on him – but they did. Sheriff Lewis says in 2009 alone, they visited Legg’s residence he shared with his parents seven times. They found Leggs living in an 8×14 portable shed in the back yard, and he was doing cabinetry work with his family’s business. Investigators have also found Legg’s sister and her three children were living on the property with Leggs and the parents. This information has launched a new investigation to see if those children are victims as well.
We need to reach out to the public right now, and we need to know if there are other victims. We encourage you to come forward. Please contact the Wicomico County Sheriff’s office at: (410) 548-4891
If you would like to send an anonymous e-mail to the ask Michelle section of this site, I am happy to pass it along to investigators without revealing your information. As for the rest of the public, you need to know who is living in your neighborhoods. I encourage you to visit Family Watch Dog to find out the registered sex offenders living in your towns.
Tags: abduction, amber alert, child, christmas day, Delaware, family watch dog, held without bond, homicide, maryland, sarah foxwell, sex offender, sister, thomas leggs, volunteers
It’s tragic what happened to Sarah…its gripped this community into a whole different arena. I hope familys the parents inparticular really take a look at who they let into their lives. Don’t let Sarah’s death go in vain. God Bless her family may he look down on you in this time of sorrow…I can only IMAGINE your pain….
This is good info..thanks