A teacher in Alabama, who was named the 2019 Teacher of the Year, has died by apparent suicide two days after being arrested for having sex with teen students.
Leslie Gillespie, 44, was found dead at her Hillsboro home on Saturday morning, May 29, from what authorities said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The English teacher, who was a staff member at R.A. Hubbard High School in Lawrence County, had been booked on Thursday evening, May 27, on rape and sodomy charges.
According to court records obtained by WAFF, the alleged incident happened in September 2020. One student told investigators that he and another male pupil went to her classroom after school hours, where she performed sex acts on them.
The boys were 15 and 16 at the time.
She was arrested on charges of Second-degree rape; Second-degree sodomy; and a School employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19.
She was immediately placed on leave by the school.
Gillespie was released on $60,000 bail later on Thursday evening.
But at 11:30 AM Saturday morning, deputies from Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office were called to her home, where they discovered her body.
“It appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” county coroner Scott Norwood said, according to AL.com.
Her body has been sent to Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsy and the official cause of death.
