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Slain teen 'loved life,' mom says before killer's execution
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Wanda Farris sits beside a picture of her daughter, 16-year-old Leesa Gray, that hangs inside Comer's Restaurant in Dorsey Miss., Thursday Dec. 8, 2022. Gray was kidnapped, raped and murdered by death row inmate Eddie Loden in the summer of 2000. Loden will be put to death by the state of Mississippi on Wednesday. - photo by Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Leesa Gray was a 16-year-old girl who found joy in her church youth group, sang in the school chorus and quietly stood up for teenagers who were bullied by their peers, according to friends and family. “She was pretty happy-go-lucky, always smiling,” recalled Leesa's mother, Wanda Farris.