Naman Shrestha
When a 6-year-old Taylor Syring was announced dead due to drowning at the beach, a wave of grief took over the family as well as the entire community. However, when the police interrogated the victim’s stepmother, Laura Lee Day, who was the only one present with him at the time of the drowning, the criminal past of Laura started unraveling, putting her under suspicion of deliberately killing Taylor. The entire case is covered in a detailed manner in the episode titled ‘Wave of Deceit: Laura Lee Day’ of ABC News ’20/20,’ which also includes an exclusive interview with the convict herself.
Laura Lee Day Was With Taylor Syring When He Drowned at the Beach
Born in the 1960s, Laura Lee Day (née Feist) grew up to be a popular bikini model and won several contests. In 1997, she decided to move to Corpus Christi, Texas, with a British native named Phil Day, with whom she got married and had a child named Cameron. At some point, she owned an adult content business and sold images online. Over the years, cracks began to appear in the marriage. After 2010, she began to take a shine on David Syring, a fuel driver she met at the company where she worked as a sales rep. In the summer of 2011, when she found out that his marriage with Kelly was shaky as well, they started having an affair.
After their divorces were finalized, Laura and David tied the knot in Vegas in August 2012. The latter had a child named Taylor Syring from his previous marriage, but Laura made the kid feel right at home whenever he visited them. On October 5, 2012, Laura and her stepson, Taylor, went to the beach for a picnic upon the latter’s request, according to Laura. She claimed that after she picked up her stepson, the two drove home and picked up bathing suits and towels before heading to the beach. Stopping at a less-crowded spot, the two sat on the beach while Taylor wanted to swim in the water.
She agreed to his request and removed his life jacket as it was causing a rash. The next thing she knew, he ended up drowning. As per her claims, as soon as she spotted him floating on the water, she panicked and drove the 6-year-old to the hospital. Unfortunately, her stepson was declared dead in the hospital. Despite being a diver who had a certification in CPR, she admitted that she did not do that to resuscitate Taylor as she was in a state of panic. This made her highly suspicious in the eyes of the police. Moreover, they found it strange that she didn’t even call 911 and stop by the nearest fire station. Three days after the tragic incident, the authorities arrested her on a child endangerment charge, capital murder, and injury to a child. She paid off her bond and was out of prison within 24 hours, but not for long.
Laura Day Was Involved in a Series of Crimes Before Meeting David Syring
On December 4, 2012, when she violated her bond by stepping into a mall with her husband, her bond was revoked, and she was sent back to jail. When the investigators dug deeper, they tied Laura Lee to a May 1982 murder in Laguna Beach. At that time, 17-year-old Laura was known by her maiden name of Laura Lee Feist and used to date a college student named James “Jim” Kendall. When he told her that he wanted to part ways, she shot him to death and also shot herself in the chest. Later, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sent away to the California Youth Facility to serve time. She was released on parole after serving five years. During her time in prison, she met a younger inmate named Charles Norsby, and they got married in Tijuana, Mexico.
Laura then relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, in the early 1990s. There, she bagged a job in a suburban hospital as a counselor, thanks to the psychology degree she received in prison. As she found the job stressful, she quit and began to work as a dancer at a nightclub in South Baltimore. Soon, she married another man and called herself Laura Lee Marsden, but without getting a divorce from her previous marriage. This landed her in deep trouble with the law as she was convicted of one count of bigamy and sentenced to six months probation. After a couple of years, in 1996, under the name of Laura Lee Bush, she was found guilty of setting ablaze her brand-new Mitsubishi in an attempt to collect insurance money by reporting it stolen. For this, she was given a six-month sentence.
In light of all this evidence against Laura Lee Day, the police pushed to find more incriminating evidence against her related to the death of her stepson, Taylor. When a witness testified that on the fateful day, Laura had smiled at him while driving off the beach, the authorities had enough evidence to charge her with capital murder and child endangerment in January 2013. A few months later, her trial began on June 5, 2013. After a few days, the jury came to a decision and returned with a guilty verdict, convicting Laura of first-degree capital murder. This time, she wasn’t given a lenient sentence as she received a life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole.
Laura Lee Day is Serving Her Life Sentence at a Texas Prison
Despite being behind bars, Laura stayed in touch with her husband, David Syring. The two continued talking to each other through letters, but when David realized that he had been wrong about his wife all along and believed her to be responsible for the death of his son, he stopped writing back to her. It didn’t take long for her to find another partner. Owing to a penpal website, she met William Erwin, with whom she talked two or three times every day. At some point, Laura and David finalized their divorce as well. Despite serving more than a decade of her life sentence, she still claims to be innocent and maintains that Taylor’s death was a mere accident. Currently, she is behind bars at the William P. Hobby Unit at 742 FM 712 in Marlin, Texa, hoping to be granted a second trial.
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