Slain hunter's family struggles with loss while awaiting justice

EAST STROUDSBURG — Leah McLaren has her 2-year-old son, Sean, kiss his father's picture every night before going to bed.

As he grows older, Sean will not know his father, Lee Van Luvender.

All Sean will have are pictures showing a tall, slim man with a shaved head and serene face. And family stories about that man and who he was.

On the morning of Dec. 4, someone robbed Lee Van Luvender, 22, of the chance to see his son grow up.

Van Luvender, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, was found lying dead beside his Jeep off Hypsie Gap Road, between Upper Tunkhannock Creek and State Game Lands, in Tunkhannock Township. He had been shot several times.

Police have reported no new information in their efforts to determine who killed Van Luvender and why.

"My son is going to grow up without an amazing father," said McLaren, 25, wiping away tears as she sat in her living room in East Stroudsburg, surrounded by pictures of her with Van Luvender and Sean.

McLaren and Van Luvender, a toll booth operator who wanted a state Game Commission job, were engaged to be married at the time of his murder.

"I don't know who would do this," she said. "Lee never got into any trouble and he never had any enemies. Whoever killed him didn't kill just one person, but a lot of people. This has changed everyone who knew and loved Lee."

The couple first laid eyes on each other in 2001 at a Bartonsville pool hall. Van Luvender at the time was attending Pocono Mountain High School East and McLaren was an East Stroudsburg High School South graduate.

"I was sitting down and he was shooting pool with a friend," McLaren recalled with a fond smile. "We were doing the eye contact thing. My friend gave him my phone number without me knowing and told him I would call him.

"It was the second time we saw each other at the pool hall that we actually met," she said. "I was walking past him when he asked me, 'What happened to my phone call?' And that's how it started."

The two became friends and eventually fell in love.

Van Luvender, a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, had two great loves — his family and hunting. He found solitude in the outdoors. McLaren, however, did not share what Van Luvender called his "obsession" for hunting.

"He took me hunting once (in Smithfield Township)," she said, laughing. "I was wearing these boots that didn't fit well. I stepped wrong, twisted one ankle and complained the whole time. I never went hunting again after that."

The couple's happiness was complete when their son, Sean, was born at 9 pounds, 2 ounces on Oct. 29, 2005.

"Lee was so excited to be a father," McLaren said. "When he saw Sean for the very first time and held him, he turned to me and said, 'I love you. He's beautiful.'"

McLaren awoke on the morning of Dec. 3, not knowing that would be the last day she would see her fiancé and the father of her child alive. "We'd had an argument," she said. "The last thing he said to me later that night was, 'You'll always be my baby. I'll always be here. You can't get rid of me that easily.'

"He said, 'I love you,' and then kissed the baby," she said, staring off into space. "He always did that before he left the house. And then, he went to work the night shift at his job."

McLaren spoke to Van Luvender one last time by phone the following morning, when he was at his mother's Bartonsville home after finishing his shift. He then left his mother's to go hunting.

Shortly after 10 a.m. that day was when another hunter found Van Luvender's body in Tunkhannock Township.

"I called his cell number several times that day to find out where he was and when he would be back home, but it kept going right to his voice mail," McLaren said.

McLaren was out on the road shortly after 5:30 p.m. when she got a cell phone call from her mother, who sounded upset and told her Van Luvender had been found. "I raced home and my mom met me at the door," she said. "I said, 'Just tell me he's OK.' My mom said, 'I can't do that,' and started crying.

"That's when I just fell to the ground in the snow," she said. "Sean was at the door with my mom. I wanted to get up and clean myself off so he wouldn't have to see me like that, but I just couldn't do it. My dad came to the door and took him back inside."

McLaren spent the following days as though in a bad dream that wouldn't end.

"I kept thinking, 'It's all a mistake, it couldn't have been Lee they found,'" she said. "I kept thinking about my son. That first week after hearing Lee was dead, I just laid on the couch, doing nothing. It was extremely difficult to focus on anything."

McLaren's family temporarily took over caring for the baby, cleaning and cooking. Even now, weeks after Van Luvender's murder, it's still hard finding the energy to do anything, whereas before she always kept herself occupied.

"For me, I don't think the real grieving will begin until after they find whoever did this," she said. "I don't think a monster who would do something like this would turn himself in."

The pain of loss echoes in Van Luvender's mother, Charlene Sebring, who keeps her son's cremated ashes and spent Christmas with him in spirit.

"With Lee gone, I'm not living," Sebring said. "I'm existing, but I'm not living. Part of me, the part that counts, died with Lee. I wait every day for that phone call from police telling me they've found who killed Lee."

Van Luvender's stepfather, Todd Sebring, said, "The death penalty or life in jail for whoever did this might be justice under the law, but it's not justice in my mind. Nothing is going to bring Lee back."

Also grieving is Van Luvender's father, musician Tom Van Luvender of Brodheadsville. Tom Van Luvender and Charlene Sebring divorced when their son was 15, and Sebring gained full custody of all three children, later remarrying.

But, Tom Van Luvender said he and his son still tried to maintain a relationship with each other. He said the last time they were able to see each other was around the start of fall, when Tom Van Luvender's band, Bootleg, performed live at Werry's Pub in Marshalls Creek.

"I was home in my kitchen when my older daughter called and told me Lee had been found dead," he said. "Losing your child is the worst thing I could imagine happening to anyone. I just don't want to believe he's gone. It's been very, very hard."

With time continuing to pass and still no word from police, McLaren struggles not to lose hope.

"We're starting to get scared," she said. "Someday, I'll have to tell my son what happened to his father. I don't want to have to tell him the person or people who did this got away."

The family is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect(s). Anyone with information is asked to call police at (570) 895-2400.

Meanwhile, McLaren's family has set up a trust fun for her son. The Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg is hosting a concert on Friday, Jan. 4, to honor Lee Van Luvender's memory.

Artimus Pyle, the original drummer for the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (of whom Van Luvender was a fan), will perform with Street Survivors, a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. The concert starts at 8 p.m. with opening performances by his father's band.

Tickets are on sale for $18. Proceeds will benefit baby Sean Van Luvender's trust fund.

Tickets are on sale through www.shermantheater.com or the box office at (570) 420-2808.

Those unable to attend the concert can send donations to: Sean Van Luvender, c/o East Stroudsburg Savings Association, 75 Washington St., East Stroudsburg, PA 18301.