LOST IN SEARCH OF LOVE

MOTHER, STEPFATHER CALLED SUSPECTS IN GIRL'S DEATH

Author: By Judith Gaines, Globe Staff

Date: FRIDAY, March 5, 1999

Page: B1

Section: Metro

Nancy was looking for love, blood love. She was hungry to know her birth mother better.

But her days with her birth mother, Marie, and her stepfather, Richard Lackey, became ``a living hell,'' said Megan Whitaker, who lived next-door to the Lackeys' North Billerica apartment.

``They tormented her,'' Whitaker said. ``They used to lock her in the cellar. I'd hear her banging on the walls to let her out, night after night.''

``When they'd been drinking, they got ugly,'' said Paul Lackey, Nancy's stepbrother, who also lived in the six-unit apartment in an old industrial section of town. ``Nancy took it pretty hard.''

Only a few months after she arrived, Nancy disappeared. Last Oct. 24 -- almost a decade later -- Nancy's skeletal remains were found near the Chelmsford Car Wash, which her stepfather managed. Police believe she was killed in January 1990.

The identification of Nancy's bones, revealed by police last week, awakened a sleeping murder case. For her adoptive family, it brought back powerful, poignant memories.

It also sent investigators on the trail of a story of hope, of a young girl's desire to know her biological family better that somehow went horribly awry.

Police in Hopkinsville, Ky., where Marie and Richard Lackey now live, say the two are suspects in her death. No charges have been filed.

The Lackeys have told investigators they do not know how Nancy died. When she disappeared from their home in January 1990, they say they assumed she had returned to her adoptive parents, Donna and Robert Launt, in Maryland.

The Lackeys have had a troubled past.

Richard Lackey, who is Nancy's paternal uncle as well as her stepfather, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of his fiancee, Janeal L. Bason, 21, of Tewksbury, in 1968. According to Lackey's court testimony, he and Bason were on the way to the wedding of Marie and his brother, Arthur, when they began to argue and then stopped in a wooded area.

In a fit of rage, Richard grabbed Bason around the throat, he said, and she fell and hit her head on concrete slabs. He buried her body in a shallow grave and covered it with debris. He served 8 years in prison for second-degree manslaughter.

Marie's marriage to Arthur Lackey, who was Nancy's father, was short-lived. Arthur, now dead, left the home shortly after he learned his wife was pregnant with Nancy. Until she was 4 years old, Nancy was raised mainly by her mother, who had three other children by two other fathers, including Arthur's brother, Richard. Marie and Richard married in 1990.

All the children were abused, according to Paul Lackey, the oldest of the siblings, and all were removed by the state from their home. They were placed in four different foster homes.

When she was 5 years old, Nancy went to live with the Launts, a Saugus couple with three other children. Three years later, they adopted her. The Launts moved to Arizona and Colorado and then settled in Fort Washington, Md.

``At first, Nancy was so badly damaged emotionally that she didn't discuss her past at all'' and had difficulty connecting to the world around her, said Donna Launt. But slowly, as Nancy relaxed in a more secure and loving environment, she began to adjust.

Launt remembered Nancy as a very pretty, friendly girl with long blond hair, blue eyes, and a slim figure. ``She could have put on a sack and walked down a fashion runway. If she wanted to be a model, she could have done it,'' Launt said.

Nancy was just an average student but she was a hard worker with a ``can do'' attitude. She liked to draw and write poems and was especially gifted at taking care of animals.

Like many children who have been abused, Launt added, Nancy was unusually afraid of punishment and physical pain. She also took her anger out in sneaky ways when she was upset.

But in general all was well in the Launt household until Richard, Marie, and Paul Lackey came to visit Nancy in Maryland in October 1988. Nancy had a fine time with them and told the Launts she believed her mother wouldn't abuse her again.

Barely a week after the visit, Nancy arranged a special birthday party for Donna Launt. She wanted to assure her adoptive mother that she loved her as well as her biological mother. Nancy scrawled ``Mom, I love you!'' on a big banner over the Launts' kitchen table.

But Nancy also felt she should go live with her biological mother and spend more time with her siblings.

Launt said she could leave in two years when she turned 18. She didn't want to wait. In the spring of 1989, Nancy dropped out of school and -- without telling her adoptive parents -- headed for Massachusetts to move in with her mother, stepfather, and her brother, Paul. The Launts reported her missing in June.

Paul remembered the thrill when the family met Nancy at the train station. ``We were all excited and happy,'' he said. ``I was so glad to have my sister back. . . . All I ever wanted was to have my sisters and brother with me.''

Nancy didn't get a job but tried to be helpful around the house, Paul said. Marie worked as a nursing home aide and Richard managed the Chelmsford Car Wash.

When his parents weren't drinking, ``they were nice,'' Paul said. ``But when they drank, their personalities changed. It wasn't pleasant.''

The night before Nancy disappeared, her best friend, Robin Reslow, remembered that Marie had been yelling in the street and banging on Nancy's boyfriend's door. ``She was calling her a slut and telling her to come out. The mother was wild, like a crazy person,'' Reslow said.

``I called Nancy at Michael's and said `Your mother's raving like a lunatic. Do you want me to come over there?' She said, `No, I'll just talk to you tomorrow.' ''

``That was the last time I ever talked to her,'' Reslow said.

When she realized Nancy had vanished, she knew something was wrong. ``She wouldn't have left without telling me, or writing to me,'' Reslow said. But when she asked the Lackeys about Nancy's disappearance, ``They acted so nonchalant, like they didn't even care that she was gone. They said maybe she had gone to Maryland.''

The following morning Paul learned that his sister had vanished. ``I thought she'd had enough of all the yelling and screaming and had run away,'' he said.

Police are appealing to anyone with information about the case to call them.

When Nancy's skeleton was found, she was wearing only a silver herringbone necklace that her brother Paul had given to her. Like Janeal Bason, Nancy was buried unclothed, in a shallow grave.