VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – It’s been one year since Lanoix Andrade was killed, but her toys still scatter her father’s living room floor and her empty highchair sits next to him as he eats dinner alone.
“I can’t sleep most nights,” Fabio Andrade said in a new statement. “When I do, I sleep in your bed and hope to smell your shampoo on your pillow or have a dream where I can see you and hug you again.”
Virginia Beach Police found Lanoix dead and her mother, Leandra Andrade, unconscious at the Cutty Sark Motel on Atlantic Avenue on Aug. 1, 2022. Police responded to the hotel room after Leandra Andrade’s friend in Washington D.C. reported she’d received concerning text messages from the 39-year-old mother. Leandra Andrade also made an Instagram post talking about her daughter in the past tense.
The medical examiner determined that Lanoix died of antihistamine toxicity and ruled her death a homicide. Leandra Andrade is charged with second degree murder in her daughter’s death, and is scheduled to go to trial next March.
10 On Your Side’s investigative team dug into the case and discovered that Fabio Andrade filed an emergency motion for temporary custody of Lanoix in March 2022. He told the judge he believed his estranged wife was in “mental distress” and that she was a danger to herself and their child.
“When Papi closed your casket, I promised to be strong and to fight for your justice,” Fabio Andrade said in a new statement. “You were murdered because the system failed us once again, and I am determined to make sure the system does not fail us again.”