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The Disappearance of Leah Roberts
17 Plays8 days ago
In this episode, we explore the mysterious disappearance of Leah Roberts, a free-spirited young woman who set off on a solo journey to Washington State in 2000 after enduring immense personal loss and becoming inspired by The Dharma Bums. Days later, her abandoned Jeep was discovered at the bottom of an embankment in Whatcom County, but Leah had vanished, leaving behind eerie clues that led investigators to question whether the crash had been staged. More than two decades later, with evidence of possible foul play and no answers, Leah’s case remains one of the Pacific Northwest’s most haunting unsolved mysteries.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Beneath the Evergreens'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Beneath the Evergreens, where murder, mysteries, and mayhem lurk in the shadows of the Pacific Northwest. I'm Jess. And I'm Anna. From haunted forests and unsolved disappearances, to true crime cases very deep in the moss and the mist. We're digging into the dark secrets hiding under the evergreens. Each episode will explore real cases, eerie encounters, and the legends that keep the Pacific Northwest up at night. So grab your flashlight, lock your doors, and join us Beneath the Evergreens.
Casual Vibes and Road Trip Stories
00:00:50
Speaker
episode 34 oh the big three four wow look at us like a lot how's your friday anna it's actually a pretty good friday this it is it's been a long week but i'm excited to be here same i love friday night stories me too i feel like it just like The sounds really weird. Like relaxes me. Like, let me hear about the most gruesome thing you can think of. I'll just unwind. And I'll unwind and really glide into my weekend for sure. Right now fun fact, we're in person and my dogs are accosting.
00:01:29
Speaker
Anna? I have one pump's head on my lap and the other one is munching on dry food next to my, yeah like but on my other side. So I apologize if you hear any dog sounds in the background, but you know, the fur babies, is you just got to let them do what they want to do. Exactly. Exactly. She's so very happy right here. She is.
00:01:49
Speaker
Oh man. So how do you feel about road trips, Anna? Um, I like a road trip to a point. yeah You get me longer than like five-ish hours and I'm not a happy camper, but like under five hours. Love it. Love it. Yeah. I'm the same way. To me, a road trip is where you stop frequently or, or maybe you do like one long stretch stop and like a destination and then do another long stretch. But five hours is about that. Yeah. What's the longest road trip you've ever done? Hmm.
00:02:20
Speaker
I think it's 14 hours. 12 to 14 hours. Oh, man. Yeah. so And it was a continuous. We didn't stop. So it was from Washington to California. And it was brutal because we also did it overnight. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. that's a That's a choice. yeah Yeah. Well, when you have a... bit So...
00:02:39
Speaker
When you have a baby and you're like trying to do the holidays and it's like a baby baby, like, okay, think it's cheaper for us to drive, but then you don't want to drive during the day while the baby's awake because then it's going to be literally miserable for everyone. So you have to do it overnight and then It's just miserable for the parents. And then you try to like continue to live the next day, even though you didn't sleep at all. ah Oh my God. feel like we're unlocking some trauma right now. Yes. it was this crazy. glinching your eye The manicness is starting to come out.
00:03:10
Speaker
but what's the longest you've ever done i think it was roughly 10 hours yeah yeah you're from myrtle beach to like central pennsylvania yeah that's like the last hour of those really long rides it unlocks whoever you're with it unlocks the next level of your relationship yes i feel like that's how you know if you're like compatible with someone yes yes it' Like, my my husband, before we got married, we went on this road trip in, like, Texas, New Mexico, like, Southwest. Yeah. um And by the end, we were, like, making up games and, like, had some funny stories. He's not very good with, like, making sure we have enough gas. and We were, like, coasted into a gas station. I was so pissed off. but um At least you made it. yeah Yeah. I mean, it was a good enough road trip that I ended up marrying him later. So, all in all, I
Leah Roberts' Mysterious Disappearance
00:03:58
Speaker
think it was good. Yes. That will definitely...
00:04:00
Speaker
break make or break a relationship definitely see people's true colors yes would you ever go on a road trip just on a whim and like not tell anyone and just get in a car and go absolutely not i'm way too anxiety for that well the story i'm going to tell you today is about somebody who just got in the car and drove and was never seen again and that's exactly why i would always tell someone before i go somewhere yes yes oh my gosh this sounds like my worst nightmare Well, our story today is about Leah Roberts. Have you ever heard this story? No, I have not.
00:04:33
Speaker
Well, she seems like a really cool girl. I feel like we would be friends. I feel like we would be friends for sure. but When you see her pictures, she kind of looks like, not in a bad way, but she kind of looks like a fairy.
00:04:44
Speaker
Oh. Like she's she's kind of like, just has this smile that's Gorgeous and beautiful, but also has this like hint of mischief, if you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:55
Speaker
I think she she just looks so happy, like just happy to be wherever she is Yes. Yes. Leah Roberts. She was born on July 23rd, 1976 in Durham, North Carolina. So we're starting way outside of the Pacific Northwest. She was the youngest of three children growing up alongside her sister, Kara, and her brother, Heath.
00:05:14
Speaker
So Heath was the oldest and Kara. And by all accounts, Leah was super adventurous. She was definitely the free spirit of the bunch, which as the youngest, I feel like usually they are. 100%. Yeah. one hundred percent they yeah Yeah, I feel they just don't have the pressure of the older ones. They're just like living their best life. Yeah, they're they're doing whatever they want. Their parents are already broken by the first two, so they just get to do all of the things. But she was a very vivacious and effervescent person, I think. And I think you can see that in her pictures. You can just tell she's like fun-loving. She's a one-of-a-kind type of person. Absolutely.
00:05:48
Speaker
Well, at age 17, Leah's life began to shift somewhat because her father was diagnosed with a chronic lung disease. And they didn't know how long he was going to live for. So wow that is traumatic at any age, but especially at that 17. Yeah. i feel like you're emotionally already going through so much and changing. And then that's pretty devastating. Absolutely.
00:06:13
Speaker
But despite this, she decided that she was still going to go to
Leah's Life Challenges and Bohemian Turn
00:06:16
Speaker
college. She decided to go close to home. So North Carolina State University in 1995. And she studied Spanish. So she majored in Spanish, which I think is also really cool.
00:06:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I think it also speaks to your free spirit, fun loving to major in another language. Yes. Well, okay. I had a friend in college that majored in Spanish, but he just did that to stand out on med school applications. like Okay. Okay. That also works. Yeah. Yeah. So when I hear Spanish, like he was not the most fun loving person I've ever met. Okay. of it Let's reframe this. Maybe, maybe not everyone, but for her, it definitely was a mark of people yeah wanting to travel to other countries is why she was essentially doing that.
00:07:01
Speaker
And during her time in college, she was played soccer and again was just this outgoing person, fun loving. She was known as kind of the, not necessarily the party girl that that goes to excess, but someone that's fun to have around. Yeah.
00:07:14
Speaker
But then the following year after she started college, Leah's mother unexpectedly died of heart disease. Oh, my God. That is so awful. Yeah. again such a young age and such a huge person in your life to lose. That's just it's a lot. So obviously she was deeply affected. um She took time away from school about a year. She eventually returned in 1998. But shortly afterwards, she was involved in a severe car accident.
00:07:43
Speaker
oh my gosh Yeah, so so severe that she actually shattered her femur. oh They had to put in a metal rod to help with her leg. It had to be implanted in her leg. And she also punctured her lung.
00:07:56
Speaker
Poor girl. yeah Yeah, she also often told her siblings that she thought she was going to die, like right before she got hit. yeah She didn't think she was going to recover. And so she was taking life as like a born... um I've been born again. She wasn't going to take...
00:08:12
Speaker
she wasn't just going to live to die. She was going to live her life fully kind of a, yeah kind of a situation. It reframed her perspective a lot. And then as she physically recovered, you know, she had this profound emotional impact. She's again, she's born again. She's trying to just have a second chance of life and, and,
00:08:32
Speaker
it just changed her a little bit. Like people couldn't really figure out how it fully changed her, but she kind of started merging more towards this bohemian lifestyle. Okay. Yeah. ah Where she, before she was more serious, she was going to finish college. She was going to do all of these things, but then something shifted. Like her, her siblings could tell something shifted. And then in 1999, when she's finally recovering, she's settling back down in college. and She's planning to participate in a field program in Costa Rica on her senior year, like her last semester of senior year.
00:09:05
Speaker
But just before shery she's supposed to go on this trip, her father dies. Oh, my gosh. She just can't catch a break. She can't. Super sudden. There was no warning. But, I mean, obviously, he did have this chronic illness. But it was like he was fine one day. The next, he was gone.
00:09:19
Speaker
So second major loss. And then also she has a severe accident all within like a five-year time span. Oh my gosh. Which is a lot. And then you're going to school too. Yeah.
00:09:31
Speaker
And like, I mean- Yeah. Like college is like no joke, right? Like it's not, it's not, it's going to make or break you. And then you're also going just through so much in college. yeah You're learning who you are. You're also probably drinking to excess and trying to figure out what that balance is like. Yeah. You're like, yeah, you're just learning so much in and out of school, like that yeah on top of all this personal trauma, like it's a lot.
00:09:54
Speaker
I mean, Yeah, I mean, I'm out of college and I feel like I got a good handle on myself and losing both my parents and being in a horrible car accident in the span of a couple of years. like It would would wreck me. Got me. Yes. So obviously this is a second major loss. She's really grappling with grief and guilt.
00:10:10
Speaker
um She's also, you know, she had just planned this field program to Costa Rica before this too. Oh yeah. So she's also got this guilt of like, okay, do i go to Costa Rica and enjoy myself or like, do I stay home?
00:10:23
Speaker
And grieve, how do I do this? But she decided that she was actually going to go Her parents would want her to go have fun. And then ah her her siblings were also, yes, go do what you need to do. And before she went to Costa Rica, she actually granted her sister, Cara, power of attorney over all of her bank accounts. Because okay Leah was left quite a bit of money when her dad and mom, when her dad died, essentially the estate was split between the three kids. And it was sufficient enough for them to live.
00:10:53
Speaker
pretty freely on yeah which i think also helped kind of make the decision of like okay i can go to costa rica and just kind of let my hair down and i don't have to worry about money yeah my sister's got my back so while in costa rica the friends that she was with said she never really cried she really took costa rica as like a healing experience and dove into the culture. I mean, obviously she's majoring in Spanish. So she's, she knows the language. She's getting immersed in the culture and they just, no one saw Leah really grieve.
00:11:24
Speaker
But then when she got back, it was almost like she really took this bohemian lifestyle and just fully committed while in Costa Rica. Okay. She had three weeks left ah until she graduated and she dropped out.
00:11:37
Speaker
Three weeks? Three weeks. Oh my gosh. Could you? like no i would just just do the three weeks. You know what I mean? like You paid all this money. You spent all of this time. yeah Three weeks is such a short amount of time. Also, like there's barely anything to do at that point, right? like I know. you one test, maybe?
00:11:53
Speaker
Maybe. At this point, just coast. But she decided to drop out. Her siblings were... Not thrilled with this, but what what are they going to do? She's an adult.
00:12:07
Speaker
She's got her own finances. like she just She's going to do what she's going to do. Then after she dropped out, she started spending really long hours at this local coffee shop coffee shop called Joe's Joe Coffee or something along those lines. While there, she started making friends with like eclectic kind of artists that would also frequent this particular coffee shop. This seems like the... um that coffee shop in town where all of the cerebral people go like the college kids that are super smart or like, yeah, like slam poetry nights, like that type of vibe. Yes.
00:12:40
Speaker
And so these are the type of people she's surrounding herself with. And at this time, she also gets particularly inspired by an author named Jack Kerouac. Have ever heard of this author? No, have not.
00:12:52
Speaker
So he was in he was a veteran of, I believe it was World War II. And when he got back, he was profoundly changed. possibly like PTSD, but he really was also a bohemian lifestyle. He really got into like Buddhism, okay that type of like Zen Buddhism, that type of religion, and also not being tethered to a place. So he just wanted to kind of live his life to the fullest and just Just be untethered. And so he wrote this novel called Dharma bun Bums. And in this particular book, he it's a it's kind of like a spoken word or like journal entry type-esque book where he talked about his experience of like jumping trains and riding trains with homeless people and living on beaches and just just living...
00:13:45
Speaker
day by day by day. yeah and eventually he got to Desolation Peak where he became a fire lookout Oh, okay, cool. and so he was, he was by himself for months on end. Yeah.
00:13:57
Speaker
Looking for fires and he kind of came to himself and Dharma bum goes about like essentially Buddhist principles merging with life on the road and just following a spiritual journey and exploration and connecting with nature and really removing all of the comforts that is America and just roughing it essentially and trying to find yourself. gotcha
The Start of Leah's Last Road Trip
00:14:21
Speaker
She was obsessed. Yeah.
00:14:22
Speaker
She talked about this all the time. Her goal was to go to desolation peak and do essentially the same thing that he did okay live off the land, like forsake everything. So she's been talking about this lot. She doesn't, she doesn't know what to do. She's really, she's just at a crossroads. She's trying to find herself. She's also processing the loss of both of her parents. She doesn't know who she really is.
00:14:45
Speaker
Bohemian lifestyle. She's talking to people at Joe's coffee. She meets a girl and the girl's like, what is stopping you? Just go. She's Leah's like, well, maybe, maybe, maybe she ends up buying a guitar.
00:14:58
Speaker
She gets a kitten names at bay. And she, but all while she's, you know, writing poetry, taking photography, guitar, journal entering, like living off her parents' money. She's not, she doesn't have a job. She's just like, yeah, just out kind of untethered, essentially like Jack Kerouac. Yeah. She listens to this friend and says, you know what? I am just going to go.
00:15:21
Speaker
So, May 9th, 2000, she sets her plan into motion. She doesn't tell anyone. Her roommate shows up at her house, doesn't see her car there, thinking she's probably at Joe's Coffee Shack, whatever.
00:15:37
Speaker
But Leah never shows back up. Oh my gosh. And so she starts getting a little concerned. She goes into her room to see if everything's okay. She notices that, you know, the kitten's gone. Her guitar is gone.
00:15:48
Speaker
Her camera's gone. She wants to be a photographer. Yeah. She notices that some of her clothes are gone. Not everything, but some clothes are gone. And so the roommate calls her sister, Kara.
00:15:59
Speaker
care kind of freaks out like what are you talking about my sister's just not here yeah care comes over and she notices on the desk there's this note that says i'm not suicidal i'm the opposite remember jack kerouac
00:16:14
Speaker
also on the same piece of paper was the smile of what looks to be the cheshire cat from alice in wonderland hu And this seems to be like a central point to this story about her like leaving that this was not a suicide trip. This was like her goodbye but note, but also on this other piece of paper was like other scribblings.
00:16:36
Speaker
Oh, so like it could have been like notes or something. And then when you look at some of the like photos or how they portray Leah, she she strikes me as a person where her room isn't necessarily organized, kind of like myself where there's shit everywhere. yeah And when she sees a piece of paper, she's just writing on it and filling it up, whether it's doodles or like words or whatever.
00:16:56
Speaker
i feel like that was kind of it. I think there was a note... within the same piece of paper, there was also things like cash to cover the rest of the, the next month, the next month's rent. Gotcha. And then there's also like, Hey, give my computer to my brother. Also tell Kara I'm fine. Cause she's going to worry. So it definitely wasn't a suicide note. It was definitely like doodling. And then maybe like a last minute, like I'm going to go now on the whim before I can back out. And I'm just going to write a quick little note to everyone, let them know I'm fine. And I'm just going to get out.
00:17:30
Speaker
So because Kara still had power of attorney over her accounts, yeah she was able to look in and she saw that Leah was withdrew $3,000 cash before she left. Okay.
00:17:43
Speaker
But they were able and then she started her road trip across the United States with the goal of getting to the Pacific Northwest.
Discovery of Leah's Jeep and Investigation Begins
00:17:52
Speaker
Okay. So she's stopping in Tennessee. Then she's stopping in Texas. Then she's making her way through Colorado, California, California.
00:17:59
Speaker
And then up through Oregon. In Oregon, she was actually seen on camera at a gas station. oh okay. And this is the last time that she was actually seen on camera is in Washington state. And then it appears she made it up into Washington. Gotcha. Gotcha.
00:18:15
Speaker
Um, Leah was definitely confirmed to be traveling alone. And within days, she arrived in Washington state on March 18th, 2000, just days after her journey began, her white Jeep Cherokee was discovered at the bottom of a steep embankment in what, whatcom County. Oh my God. So essentially Bellingham. Yeah. So how the how the Jeep was found is essentially two runners were running down this road in the morning. it's It's a logging road. Not a lot of people know about it. It's kind of off the beaten path. gotcha These people live in the area. They just wanted to go for a run. They know this is a beautiful space. So they were running. They noticed this car at the bottom of the steep ravine.
00:18:54
Speaker
But what triggered the man to notice, it was a man and a woman that found her, was that there was a shirt tied essentially where the Jeep went off the road. Oh, like like someone like needing help or like I put it there? Or like a marker of like, this is where my car went off. Maybe someone left and was like, I need to go get help. And now I'll just tie this here so I know oh yeah where to go. And then they look down because they're like, that's weird that someone would tie a shirt here. They look down and they see other...
00:19:23
Speaker
clothing in the area they go down to the the jeep there's no one in the jeep but it's clear something it definitely crashed yeah so they thought it was kind of weird so they call the police the police show up and although every the crash looked very severe in fact they think that the car was going 40 miles an hour when it went off the cliff oh my god There was no evidence that anyone was inside the vehicle. There was no blood.
00:19:48
Speaker
There was no signs of like tampering the the wheel to make sure it was moving forward. There was no brick on the gas pedal or something. It just looked like it was moving. It went down.
00:20:01
Speaker
There was no one inside. Yeah. ah It deepened when the police started looking around and there was no footprints in the area. There was also, like I said, no blood. The cat was gone, but they found a cat carrier.
00:20:17
Speaker
There was also, it looked like someone was living in the car. oh what? like Like there was a sleeping bag in the back. It looked like someone had been living in there. There was um towels and blankets.
00:20:29
Speaker
You know, when you open the door, you put a blanket in and you close the door and you've got like a shade. Yeah. They've got, it's got that on it. Oh, interesting. Okay. And, So it was really weird. And then they find in the glove box of the Jeep a passport that belongs to Leah Roberts.
00:20:47
Speaker
And they're thinking that, okay, now this is a little concerning. Her sister had reported her missing because on um in May was also her sister Kara's birthday.
00:21:01
Speaker
Okay. So they're thinking that she left on this road trip. She went no contact, but they're, she's, they're very close to the sibling. So Kara's like, she's going to call me for my birthday. I know she's going to be okay. For sure.
00:21:12
Speaker
When she didn't, that is when she turned in the missing persons report. And that is when the, this turned into an actual missing persons. And like, did she commit suicide? Did something else happen to her? That rhetoric starts to take place. Gotcha.
00:21:27
Speaker
um So extensive searches of the dense wooded terrain area yielded no trace of her. So there's no footprints anywhere. There's no clothing. There's no remains. They do... Um, heat sensing they're, they're flying helicopters over. They're doing heat maps to see if there's like humans anywhere. yeah They've got dogs out and there's just, there's nothing.
00:21:49
Speaker
They also bring out metal detectors for that rod in her leg. Oh, seeing if they can ping on that, but there's nothing out there. Um, so they're just kind of puzzled. So they pull the car out of the ravine. They take it to the police station and they start going through her belongings and And when they start going through her belongings, they find her wallet with $2,400 of cash still inside.
00:22:13
Speaker
Oh, my God. Her ID is still in there. They find clothes, her guitar. Like I said, her passport. Her passport. But most importantly, they found her mother's engagement ring. So this is something that Leah never separated from. She was always wearing it. huh They found it underneath the car mat as if she was trying to hide it.
00:22:34
Speaker
Oh. And do you remember those old school car mats that had the, the they probably still have them like this, but they have those spikes on the bottom? Yeah. yeah Essentially so that that mat is not moving. Yeah. It was like it someone had to lift it up, put it in the middle, and then put it back down.
00:22:47
Speaker
Oh, as if she was, I mean, hiding it. Yeah. Like she was in some kind of bad situation. Yeah. I'm going to find it. Oh yeah. And the cat carrier was still there. There was cat food still in the car, but that there was no signs of the cat in the woods or in the the vehicle kill itself.
00:23:02
Speaker
hu um Like I said, blankets and pillows had been placed inside of the broken windows of the jeep. They're thinking that someone was had stayed in there or returned to the vehicle crash at some point. And then clothing was also tied to the trees around, which was kind of an eerie detail.
00:23:19
Speaker
You can't really explain why that was going on. And despite all of these clues, there was no sign no obvious signs of a struggle or abduction at the scene. But one thing that was found in the car was also a a box of like a living scrapbook, if you will.
00:23:36
Speaker
So there's receipts. There's some postcards in there. And most importantly, there is a ticket to a movie theater at the Bella's Fair Mall in Bellingham, Washington. okay The showtime was at 2.10 p.m. on March 13th, and it was for American Beauty. So they know she was there around this time. Let's go canvas them all and see if we can learn something.
00:23:58
Speaker
So they start canvassing the Bella's fair mall and they were actually able to find the last known restaurant that Leah ate at in the mall. While there, a man did sit and sit next to Leah. He is anonymous to this day, but he stated that he fell into conversation with Leah because she was sitting at essentially like this bar area, you know, like Denny's or whatever you have that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:24:21
Speaker
he sat next to her they fell in a conversation she starts mentioning how she's in love with jack kerouac she's trying to go on a spiritual journey like he did she's alone by herself and she's going through the world and living out of her car essentially oh my god which kind of just speaks to i think leah's nonchalance and like bohemian lifestyle but also maybe a little bit of her naivete if you will And like the like Southern hospitality. When I was in the South, I remember being really off put by people like talking to me, like line, like to check out somewhere.
00:24:54
Speaker
I don't know you, sir. Why are you chatting to me? Why are you talking to me? so i can kind of see, yeah, like the like night night of a day, like just ah being in a different culture. Like I feel like maybe the Seattle freeze wasn't quite a thing back then, but like I feel like in the Pacific Northwest, we're not quite as just overall friendly as they are in the South.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah. We're not trying to make eye contact with you. We're not trying to talk to you necessarily. um i think it's a real thing. I think also, bet Leah was kind of lonely. Oh yeah. Being by yourself that long. I bet she was like looking for someone to talk to. know She's like very much a social butterfly too. Yeah. And I'm just saying anyone that's going to walk up to you at a bar, at a restaurant, in a mall and get into conversations with us is not a person that I'm going to tell I'm by myself. Yeah.
00:25:41
Speaker
But also like here, right? Maybe that is like a more normal thing. Maybe, maybe that's, yeah. i And the people that would endeavor to have those conversations, I also feel like, i don't know. I think I'm looking too far into it, but it just strikes me as bizarre that she's telling him her life story and then now she's she's gone. Yeah, no, I don't think it's a good look and definitely not something I'd recommend anyone else do.
00:26:06
Speaker
Yes, but then this man says that They were talking and then this man walked into the restaurant and she acknowledged this man as Barry. And they walk off together. oh interesting. And he never sees her again.
00:26:21
Speaker
But in this very brief moment of them, him walking in and Leah being there, he gives a very detailed description of the man.
00:26:33
Speaker
the, the face, the nose position, the gauges in his ears and how big the gauges in his ears were like oh incredibly detailed, Like he had thought about this guy for a while. Like he's thought about this guy for a while, which means one of two things. Either one, you made this guy up in your head. Yes. Or he struck you as so bizarre that it just stuck with you. Yes. For so long. Yeah.
00:26:57
Speaker
But again, this happened on the 13th of March and they didn't start interrogate or like investigating or or trying to find where Leah was until...
00:27:09
Speaker
the 18th, but they're probably not talking to this guy until the 21st, 22nd least. Yeah. And to have that vivid of a description of a man, I feel like that's hard to pull off. I'm trying to think of,
00:27:25
Speaker
know, someone I briefly saw three days ago, and I don't think I can pull off ah that big of a description, unless there was something that was like, that guy's weird. Yeah. And unfortunately, that's kind of where this the case stalls.
Reopening the Cold Case
00:27:41
Speaker
That's it Until years later, where some new detectives were reassigned to the case. Okay. Detective Jamie Collins and Detective Alan Smith are assigned to this case, like I said, in the mid 2000s.
00:27:55
Speaker
If you were to receive a cold case, where are you going to start? The very beginning, like going back to square one. Exactly. That is exactly what Jamie and Alan did. They literally pretended like they just found the car. They just found the scene. They're starting from, they're trying to be as unprejudiced as possible.
00:28:13
Speaker
And big props to Kara because Kara did not claim Leah's car. Oh, she actually in in like enforced that the car stay in police custody until the case is solved. Gotcha. Nice. Which first of all i didn't know you could do.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah. And second of all, for her to like make sure that happens is pretty incredible because what this, what happened is because of this, the police had, could re go over the vehicle. Okay. For a second time. See if there was like any fingerprints missed any DNA that was potentially missed. Also, this is the early two thousands now, or mid two thousands. We have DNA advances. Right. And so what Jamie and Alan, the detectives found is that yes, the car was searched and things were gone through. But one thing puzzled them is that the engine compartment had never been examined.
00:29:07
Speaker
What? They never popped the hood. Are you kidding me? Which is insane to me. They have this crash. They could not determine how it actually happened. And they didn't pop the hood. They did not pop the hood.
00:29:19
Speaker
Oh my God. Yes. And so while they're popping the hood to say, hmm, I wonder if we missed something, they found critical new evidence. The cover to the starter relay had been fully removed from the vehicle. Okay.
00:29:36
Speaker
Indicating that the Jeep could have been started and accelerated without a driver inside. So something within this relay was cut and then removed so that the car once started would accelerate without a driver inside. Okay.
00:29:50
Speaker
Which is essentially the question that they were asking for originally. Yeah. Which also speaks to whoever did this must have had some sort of mechanical background. Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:30:01
Speaker
To be able to work this. This seems so ridiculous that it took this long to find that you just didn't pop the hood. Yeah. I like, I would be devastated if I was Kara, I would feel like this was a grave injustice. Absolutely.
00:30:16
Speaker
Anyway, so after they pop the hood and they find this, they're like, oh, shit, this is this is a big deal. We got to figure out maybe someone who has mechanical experience, like what's going on here. So also with after they pop the hood, they find fingerprints underneath the hood that don't match Leah's.
00:30:33
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. Okay. But again, this could have been an oil change. This could have been something else. so But it is, you know, it's crucial evidence. But unfortunately, so much time has passed.
00:30:44
Speaker
They're not going to be able to retrace Leah's steps to see when was the last time she got her oil changed. Let's bounce that. Like, yeah, we're not going to be able to track that type of stuff down. Some other evidence they that they found is some of the clothes that were in the vehicle had male DNA.
00:31:02
Speaker
Oh, on them. And they could test it, but they had nothing to test it against and nothing's popping at this point. And then, you know, despite the fingerprint being found, they had no links. So then they go back to all of the interviews that came in. There was one particular phone call that caught their interest that went under the radar under the in the first investigation. And there was a call a couple weeks after leo was reported missing. And it came out of Everett, Washington. Okay. A man was on the phone and said his wife was freaking out because that missing girl that's on TV referencing Leah is outside this gas station and she's acting really weird.
00:31:44
Speaker
When the investigator or when the police on the other end of the phone asked for the man's name, he got freaked out and just hung up the phone. um But they gave such a good description that they were somewhat positive that this could have been a sighting of Leah.
00:32:01
Speaker
which lends to the fact of like, okay, did she hit her head or something? And she became like, she got amnesia or like, yeah, someone found her and she wasn't fully in her state of mind. So they took her to Everett and I'm sorry, but I think Everett is a pretty big human trafficking area yeah as well. I mean, Tacoma too. And they're all kind of interlinked together, but I mean, Everett is a couple hours away from scaling him. yeah,
00:32:27
Speaker
Someone had to take her there. You can't just walk there. Absolutely. And they didn't find any links to that. So then they go back to the man that they found in the restaurant that had such a good description of this Barry character. And they go back to him and they they start trying to track him down. Well, this man...
00:32:47
Speaker
was part of the United States forces. Specifically, he was a mechanic, a Humvee mechanic. So essentially a car mechanic while in in the military. Okay. And he works as a mechanic after the fact.
00:33:01
Speaker
Interesting. And then shortly after being interviewed about Leah's disappearance, he moved to Canada. Very interesting. Very interesting and convenient. Okay. And since he is now in another country, they just can't subpoena him and like bring him into custody and do the normal...
00:33:22
Speaker
normal spiels that officers usually do, but they do have some sort of ah a relationship with this guy and eventually coax him to come down to Washington. He gives a couple different lie detector tests as well as gives DNA evidence so that they can test it against the DNA that's found on the clothes in Leah's car, but he's anonymous. So I'm guessing nothing populated with that. And I'm also
00:33:49
Speaker
guessing that nothing came up because he never got arrested or there was no polygraph yeah stuff. But again, this was so long ago and there's really no evidence to anything. Yeah. So how are they just going to hold this guy? ah Which is if this guy did it, it makes me sick to my stomach.
00:34:04
Speaker
So they've kept him anonymous. He goes back to Canada and he has stated that he will never come back to to the United States again because they're just going to pin him on this. And he is adamant that they destroy his DNA, but they're keeping it on file, which I also understand if I'm suspected of a crime and I'm innocent, I...
00:34:24
Speaker
Yeah. Don't necessarily want you holding onto my DNA. Exactly. Because, you know, sometimes you can't fully trust the police, which is unfortunate, but I mean, it is what it is. yeah I feel like this one of those things where it looks suspicious depending on what lens you're looking at it through, but it can very quickly go to like, no, I do the same thing in that situation. Yeah. Exactly. So this is essentially where the case is today. We've got three theories.
Theories and Ongoing Search for Leah
00:34:50
Speaker
Theory one is that Leah crashed her car, hit her head, even though there's no evidence of that. She leaves her car and she is somewhere in the woods.
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah. And she has perished because she hit her head. She got lost in the woods, hypothermia, et cetera, et cetera. Second is that she intentionally disappeared. She followed Jack Kerouac. Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker
She wanted to live off the land and she wanted to just go into the unknown and, and just disassociate from everyone around her. i guess the problem with that to me though, $2,400 of cash.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah. Like what does she have to like live on? And why wouldn't you take your cat carrier or your cat food? Yeah. Or like some clothes, like a sleeping bag. Yeah. Like nothing. And also this is nowhere near that desolation peak where she wanted to go. This is like 70 miles away. So she's, oh she's not near where, where people think that she was heading to.
00:35:47
Speaker
Gotcha. And so i don't know, that one's kind of questionable to me. And then the third is that someone somewhere ran into her, found out that she was by herself yeah and then something happened.
00:36:01
Speaker
Whether that's human trafficking or whether she was murdered or something along those lines, no one really knows. But as of right now, Leah is still on the missing persons list. Her sister is still trying to gain support and and attention to this case to see if someone will come across. they do Every year they do this drive from North Carolina up through Washington with this foundation where they'll stop in towns where there's missing people just to to garner support. So her family hasn't given up.
00:36:31
Speaker
But that is essentially where the case stays today. That is so sad. u huh If you were to guess, what are you what would your hunches be?
00:36:44
Speaker
My gut is telling me the last one. like She told the wrong person that she was alone. so the wrong person found out that she was alone somehow and just staged everything.
00:36:56
Speaker
i
00:37:00
Speaker
I wish that i wish it I could believe that she just got up and left. But yeah if she even left her mom's engagement ring and her engagement, the the placement of the engagement ring being underneath. Yes. It's like she she knew something was wrong.
00:37:17
Speaker
I'm sorry. I don't think she's going leave. If her if she's going to take her cat on a road trip. Yeah. a across That's a big, that's ah a cat particularly. That is a interesting thing to do. Like you got to have your litter box in the car essentially. yeah Like that's a huge commitment. So if she's willing to take her cat from North Carolina all the way to Washington with her, she's going to bring the cat carrier and the cat food. Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
so Yeah. So i just, I think something did happen and
00:37:50
Speaker
I just wish we knew what it was. But yeah, to this day there was there's no evidence of like that medical rod being found in the woods and there's just nothing. I hate that so much. i was I don't like the unanswered ones. Me either. I want something. I want something. And then i guess the PSA is if you are going on a road trip, share your location. yeah i mean, if you don't want to share your location, peace with that. But at least know like relative times of when you're going to be stopping in a town so that people can like check in with you. you got to be a little communicative because –
00:38:26
Speaker
You could be end up like this where these two remaining siblings are looking for their sister. They have no answers. Their parents have died all within just a couple years of each other. Now they're just yeah left reeling wondering what's going on. Yeah.
00:38:42
Speaker
So if you know anything about this case or maybe you have a tip that you want to call in, please contact the Watklin County Sheriff's Department at 360-778-6663 or, i mean, just even call 911 at this point. Just leave your tips wherever you can. um You can remain anonymous if you need to, but yeah, let's get this case solved if you have if you have information.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah. Well, that's it for today's dive into the dark corners of the Pacific Northwest. If you love the stories or shivered a little, be sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss what's lurking beneath the evergreens next time.
00:39:22
Speaker
Thanks for joining us on Beneath the Evergreens. We appreciate you diving into the mysteries with us. Until next time, keep your eyes open and your doors locked.