The Kidnapping of Leslie Buck (Connecticut)

In the spring of 2002, several urgent 9-1-1 calls came into the Stonington, Connecticut police department from the same caller just two days apart. First, there was a report of a violent kidnapping, and then, the untimely death of the very same victim. 

When investigators arrived at the scene of Leslie Buck’s suspicious death fresh off the arrest of the person who kidnapped her, the circumstances didn’t quite add up. In the days ahead, questions about what happened to Leslie would grow more complex and far more unsettling. What began as a shocking crime would soon spiral into a mystery with far more questions than answers

Kidnapping and Escape

When Charles Buck walked into his home at 77 Masons Island Road in Mystic, Connecticut on the night of May 2, 2002, he expected to find his wife 57-year old Leslie Buck home already. According to court records, Leslie was at an Alpha Delta Kappa meeting earlier in the night, which was an honorary sorority for teachers. Leslie was a long-time second grade teacher at Deans Mill School in Stonington.

The meeting was supposed to end at 8:15 and Charles, who I’m going to call Charlie from here on out, he knew that Leslie planned to stop into her mother’s house on the way home to drop off a piece of cake she’d saved from the meeting. But it was almost 10:30 p.m. and Leslie still wasn’t back.

The first call Charlie made that night was to his mother-in-law to see if Leslie was still at her house. Not finding her there, he called a friend of Leslie’s who also attended the meeting that night, but no Leslie. At 10:30 p.m. Charlie called local police for the first time to see if there had been any accidents. The dispatcher told him it had been a quiet night since the start of her shift at 6 p.m. 

A little while later, Charlie called dispatch again. He told this new dispatcher that he’d called around and spoke to other people who went to the meeting that night, but he still couldn’t find his wife. He told the dispatcher he was getting kind of worried, and when asked if he wanted to file a missing persons report, Charlie said yes.

Stonington Police Officer Timothy Thornton responded to the Buck’s home to take the report and left shortly after. At 11:07 p.m. Charlie dialed 9-1-1 once more. He told the dispatcher they’d better send Officer Thornton back over. Leslie was home, but she was not okay. She’d just been kidnapped.

As Charlie spoke to the dispatcher, you can hear a female voice in the background, clearly distressed. She says at one point, “Oh my God, I told you I never liked him.”

And then Leslie Buck took the phone and described for herself what she’d just survived. The harrowing ordeal began around 8:30 p.m. when Leslie returned home from the meeting.

She pulled her Buick into the garage and when she stepped out of the car, she heard someone say her name. Leslie barely had a moment for the voice to register when she was struck in the neck. She turned to face her attacker and immediately placed his face: It was the Buck’s handyman and former neighbor, 64-year old Russell Kirby.

Leslie struggled with Russell as he punched her in the stomach and pushed her on the floor. He managed to overpower her and swiftly bound her hands and legs. He then got Leslie into her own vehicle and drove off.

Leslie said that Russell brought her to his house and forced her to lay on the couch. After some time, he got her back into the car and proceeded to drive around the backroads of Ledyard, Groton, and Stonington until the car started acting up. 

As Leslie described it, Russell pulled over to check what the issue was. Russell had loosened Leslie’s restraints by that point, so when he was outside of the car she seized her opportunity to escape. Leslie slid into the driver’s seat, started up the Buick with a spare key from her purse, and drove off.

The dispatcher asked Leslie if she needed an ambulance and it’s difficult to discern, but Leslie then responded, “I don’t think so, but I got bad chest pains.” 

The dispatcher asked for Russell’s address, which Charlie and Leslie both said they didn’t know. And then Leslie said her assailant told her why he did this: He wanted money. $10,000.

An officer soon arrived at the Buck residence as the dispatcher collected more information about Russell Kirby.

Leslie was taken to the hospital for treatment that same night. According to court records, her injuries included an abrasion to the back of her neck from the stun gun, contusions and swelling to her wrists and hands, and abrasions to her legs. She was not kept for extended observation (as might be necessary or expected in instances of head injuries) and returned home with Charlie around 4 a.m.

Almost simultaneously, police were knocking on the door of the person Leslie had identified as her kidnapper. An officer asked Russell Kirby if he knew why police were there and Russell responded in the affirmative. According to the officer, Russell admitted to the kidnapping and said he did it for the money, not to hurt Leslie.

Russell was arrested around 4:30 a.m. that Friday morning, May 3rd and was charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary, attempted larceny and second-degree assault.

When investigators searched Leslie’s car that Russell had used in the kidnapping, they found a duffel bag filled with a bunch of questionable items: a hickory log, three pieces of rope, electrical tape, gloves, a Colt .45 handgun, an ammunition magazine with seven live rounds, bottles with a liquid in them later determined to be a martini (complete with olives), and two stun guns, although only one of them was operable. At Russell’s house, police found another 120,000-volt stun gun, a cleaning box for a Colt .45 and other objects.

The investigation into the alleged kidnapping and assault was only just beginning, but according to reporting by Penelope Overton and Sudhun Thanawala for the Hartford Courant, Leslie reported to work that morning, only hours after she left the hospital. She told her fellow teachers and administrators that she was tired and sore but she wanted to be in the classroom, where she felt most comfortable.

When she left work later that afternoon, a colleague wished Leslie a good weekend. “Things could only go up,” he said to her. But that’s not what happened at all.

Leslie Buck’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you listen to podcasts.