Police say woman who left pregnant friend to die is still at large

WHERE TO CALLAnyone with information on the whereabouts of Francis Leming can call Lt. Tony Pyle or Detective Adam Kilgore at 706-629-1234.

photo Calhoun, Ga., police are still looking for Francis Leming, who is accused of abandoning her friend as she was dying of an overdose. About a month ago, Leming's mother promised investigators that her daughter would turn herself in by June 21.

A woman accused of abandoning her pregnant, dying friend remains at large more than a month after her friend's death.

Calhoun, Ga., police Lt. Tony Pyle said investigators think Francis Leming fled the state after 24-year-old Haley LeAnn Stanley was found dead in her car June 11. Leming is wanted on charges of reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter.

Pyle said the department received an anonymous tip that Leming is in Ohio, but they do not know where.

Though police are still waiting for the results of a Georgia Bureau of Investigation toxicology report, detectives believe Stanley died June 9 of a heroin overdose. She had been in the Riverview Apartments with Leming and David Bastin. When the other two realized that Stanley was going to die, police say, Bastin put Stanley in the passenger seat of her own car, drove her to an abandoned parking lot and left her to die.

"They didn't want her in the apartment overdosing," Pyle said, "so they took her away. ... If these two individuals would have just taken her to the hospital or called an ambulance, they would not have been charged. That was their crime: abandoning her."

Police arrested Bastin on suspicion of reckless conduct and involuntary manslaughter on June 13, and he remained at the Gordon County Jail on Monday in lieu of a $30,000 bond.

After Stanley's death, according to a Calhoun police news release, Leming's mother promised investigators that her daughter would turn herself in by June 21.

"She neglected to make good on that," Pyle said Monday, more than a month after Stanley's death.

Stanley was 19 weeks' pregnant when she died. Her aunt said she already acted like a mother toward young family members, sometimes sat on a bookstore floor reading parenting guides that she couldn't afford and kept baby names on a sheet of paper stuffed in the visor above the passenger seat of her car.

Pyle said police are not sure how long Stanley had been friends with Bastin and Leming. Neighbors in the Riverview Apartments said they had seen Stanley hanging around for a couple weeks before her death.

Investigators are still talking to Leming's mother in hopes of tracking down their suspect.

"I don't want to say she's not being cooperative, but this is her daughter," Pyle said. "I think she is attempting to help us find her daughter, but I'm not even sure if she knows at this point exactly where she's at."

Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or at tjett@timesfreepress.com.

Upcoming Events