Lancaster Online
June 14, 2015
Before the terrible things happened, the Scheetz family and the Thomas family were friends.
Lisa Scheetz and her three daughters were frequent visitors at Leeton and Donna Thomas’ home, just a five-minute walk around a corner from the home the Scheetzes lived in on Spring Valley Road in a rural area of East Drumore Township.
Social media accounts show the two families’ children sitting together on a sofa. In a few photos, Lisa Scheetz, 44, is seen hugging one of the Thomases’ sons, who she calls “my little dimple dumpling,” during a breakfast out at a restaurant. In another photo on Mrs. Thomas’ Facebook account, one of the Scheetz daughters, in her pajamas, is curled up with a pillow.
But by 2014, the families’ friendship came to an end, when Scheetz told police that two of her daughters had told her that Leeton Thomas had sexual contact with them.
Thomas was charged with felony sexual molestation charges, and released on $5,000 bail.
Early Thursday morning, Thomas broke into the Scheetzes’ basement apartment and stabbed Lisa and her oldest daughter, Hailey, 16, to death and critically injured Scheetz’s 15-year-old daughter. Authorities say that Thomas killed them in retaliation or to silence them for accusing him of sex crimes.
Thomas, whose nickname is “Pie” and who will be 38 Saturday, came to Lancaster from Jamaica, where he and his wife met, said Donna Thomas’ grandmother, Beulah Absher, of Quarryville.
The two have three children and also were raising a child from Donna Thomas’ first marriage, she said. For a time, Thomas had worked as a handyman.
Thomas suffered some health problems in 2013. On her Facebook account, his wife posted images from Thomas’ MRIs, showing some kind of mass on his brain.