FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The moment Allison Kessler went to police after discovering a GPS tracking device had been illegally attached to her car, was the moment all communication with her son’s father stopped. Is that when the father realized he may have gone too far with his incessant texts and threats?
Police in Fort Lauderdale say John Stacey, 47, killed his 4-year-old son and then turned the gun on himself on May 20, the same day police in Plantation opened a criminal investigation into Stacey over the tracking device.
Stacey and his son’s body were found in a downtown Fort Lauderdale condominium Stacey rented late Friday night. Police went to do a wellness check after the child, Greyson Kessler, wasn’t taken to school for the past two days.
Records show Stacey had come under suspicion of tracking Kessler by illegally by placing the GPS tracker under the belly of the Lexus. Kessler discovered it Thursday when a serviceman who was rotating her tires asked if she knew the device was attached to her car with magnets.
She certainly had a hunch after Stacey suggested he was following her location, such as him mentioning that he knew she had been to the Broward County courthouse and other places recently, court and police records say.
Plantation Police aren’t saying if they contacted Stacey after Kessler left the police department about 3:40 p.m. May 20. And it is not clear if the GPS device still was tracking when Kessler drove from the mechanic to the police.
According to the police report, officers were going to investigate Stacey on stalking, unlawfully installing a tracking device on Kessler’s car and possibly domestic violence-related charges.
The tracking device, an Optimus 2, is a pretty common lower-end model of tracking devices that fetches for about $50 online.
