Shooting victim’s survival celebrated yearly by officer

A photo shows Springfield police Officer Jeffrey Steinmetz and Clark County Coroner Dr. Dirk Wood downcast and haggard.

A step in front of them, coroner’s Investigator Debbie Shaffer carries the lifeless, blanketed body of 2½-year-old Leslie Payne.

Said Shaffer then: “I just didn’t want her to be alone.”

Like Leslie’s mother, Anna, the toddler was killed by shots from the .22-caliber pistol with which her father, Lester, also killed himself.

One-year-old Elizabeth Payne survived, but with ominous swelling in her brain.

Recalled Elizabeth’s aunt, Jeanie Leibold, “They actually said it would be a good idea to hold up her mother’s funeral so that ... they could bury her with her mother.”

When the girl emerged from her coma two months later, her maternal grandmother, the late Ruth Rose, declared: “She’s going to be the same lovable girl she was.”

There are some differences, of course, Mrs. Leibold said.

“But she’s far better than they ever thought she’d be.” The words “vegetative state” had been spoken, along with warnings she might neither walk or talk again.

Thursday in Leibold home near Reid Golf Course, Elizabeth did both and carried on in what might be called her persistent optimistic state.

“She’s always in a good mood,” said 16-year-old neighbor Emily Gakle, as she helped Elizabeth press chocolate kisses into peanut butter cookies fresh from the oven.

In the 11 years Elizabeth has lived with her “Uncle Dad” and “Aunt Mom” since her grandparents’ passing, she’s never awakened in a bad mood, she’s never been grouchy,” Mrs. Leibold said.

Elizabeth loves her Life Skills classes at Shawnee High School, enjoys classic rock and is giddy over the name of her new niece, Gracie Elizabeth.

Each Christmas, she also receives a small gift from police Lt. Brad Moos, the first on the scene 14 years ago.

That next Christmas “I was thinking of my daughter when I began to think” about Elizabeth, he said.

Moos said police and firefighters often wonder about how people are doing.

Although “we all deal with it in different ways,” he said, “every officer” reaches out and celebrates small miracles along with the families involved.

“To have someone turn out happy and healthy,” he said, “isn’t that all you can ask for?”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.