Family Marks Birthday of Slain Teller

On Monica Leech’s birthday earlier this month, her two children, parents and husband gathered at her grave to remember.

Leech, a 39-year-old bank teller in Thousand Oaks, was shot execution-style during a robbery April 28.

Five months later, the two men responsible are still at large.

“I can say that this is still a very active investigation by both the FBI and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department,” said Gary Auer, supervising agent for the FBI in Ventura County.

And there have been bold pledges by sheriff’s investigators that the case is going to be solved.

That belief is shared by the family, said Alfred Cavaletto, Leech’s father.

“We’re very optimistic about this,” said Cavaletto from the family’s Somis ranch. “We’re very religious and that is what we’ve been living on. Something is going to happen. There’s a good reward out there and the investigators are all working real hard.”

The city and a banking-industry coalition have offered a $160,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Leech’s assailant.

Despite their hope, Leech’s family has not spoken with investigators about the case.

“No, we’ve never talked to an investigator,” Cavaletto said. “We figure they’re doing their job. We know that just from a few things we’ve heard that it is still one of their top priorities. . . . My feeling is that they know something and got somebody for a suspect, but they want to make damn sure that they have everything in place before they make any arrests.”

Investigators would not say if that is the case. Leech was inexplicably shot during the takeover robbery of Western Financial Bank.

Two masked men stormed the bank and ordered the employees into a back room near the safe. Leech and another employee had their hands cuffed behind them, and the employees were ordered to their knees. One of the robbers fired a bullet into the back of Leech’s head.

The two robbers escaped in a white sport-utility vehicle.

The robbery and Leech’s brutal slaying shocked residents and law enforcement officials and devastated her family.

“Yes, we had a tough time there,” said her father. “But we’re doing better.”

The wounds of their loss are occasionally reopened. Her birthday was one of those days. Leech would have turned 40 on Sept. 15.

“That was a hard day for everybody,” her father said.

Leech’s 11-year-old daughter, Stephanie Mince; her son, 13-year-old Andrew Mince; her father and mother, Elaine Cavaletto; and her husband, Floyd Leech, visited her grave.

Her children now live with their father, Jeff Mince, who was divorced from Leech. Their stepfather still sees the children occasionally. And Leech’s parents see the children most weekends, Alfred Cavaletto said.

Her death has brought her family closer together, Cavaletto said. Friends have offered their support.

“We’ve all really closed ranks,” he said.

It is the kind of support he said his family would need when the men responsible are finally brought to justice as they believe will happen.

“We’re kind of dreading that when it happens,” Cavaletto said. “All the attention and having to go through it all again will be tough. We’re just simple farmers and something like this is kind of strange to go through.”