Was My Teacher Murdered?

In May 2002, a first-grade teacher named Leslie Buck was kidnapped near her home in Mystic, Connecticut. A man named Russell Kirby attacked her in her garage, tied her up, and forced her into her own car. She managed to escape and drove home — but the very next day, she was found dead.

Leslie had just come home from a party with teacher friends when Kirby struck. He hit her on the head, shocked her with a stun gun, and tied her hands and feet with rope. Kirby was a handyman and a friend of her husband, Charlie Buck.

Kirby drove around for hours demanding nearly $10,000. Leslie stayed calm and formed a plan. When Kirby pulled over and untied her hands, she climbed into the front seat, used a spare key, and sped away home.

Even though she was bruised and shaken, Leslie went back to teach her class the very next morning. She wanted her students and friends to know what had happened to her. She also confided to a coworker that Charlie had a girlfriend, and said, 'If I should die in the next couple of days, I want to be buried with all my money.'

The very next day, Leslie was found dead at the bottom of her stairs. Charlie called 911 and said she had fallen. But many detectives, doctors, and people who knew the couple did not believe it was an accident.

Leslie was a beloved teacher at Dean's Mill School. She remembered every student's name, attended their important events, and stood up for any child she felt was being treated unfairly. Her brother Dick Edmonston said she was warm, bookish, and deeply devoted to her family.

Charlie Buck had a reputation for chasing other women and spending money carelessly. By early 2002, he had given a local bartender named Carol Perez more than $200,000 in gifts, including a house and a car. Leslie had discovered the affair, and Charlie reportedly feared she would take everything in a divorce.

Detectives grew suspicious of Charlie right away. A hospital staff member saw Charlie grab Leslie's arm and yank her hard as they left the ER — not in a caring way. When Charlie called 911 the night Leslie died, he described a cut on her forehead in detail that investigators said would have been nearly impossible to see at the scene.

Police believed Leslie may have been struck with a heavy wire tool Charlie kept at home, which he called 'the Equalizer.' After Leslie's death, that tool vanished. Medical experts hired by the police concluded she had been hit on the head and strangled, but Charlie's defense said she died of a sudden heart problem.

Charlie was arrested in January 2009 — seven years after Leslie's death. Three judges heard the case instead of a jury. In December 2010, Charlie was acquitted, meaning the judges found him not guilty. The detectives who spent years on the case were devastated by the outcome.

Charlie lived in Mystic until 2016, when he fell from a rooftop and died at the same hospital where Leslie was treated after her kidnapping. No one was ever convicted of killing Leslie Buck. The author of this story, who had Leslie as her first-grade teacher, spent over a year digging through police records and interviewing witnesses — and still has no final answer.

What she did find was the memory of a teacher who truly cared. A poem found in Leslie's desk after she died spoke about children who are different, who 'don't fit,' and who 'dance to a different drum.' For everyone who knew her, that poem said everything. Leslie Buck wasn't just a case to be solved — she was a person who deserved to be remembered.