0:00

What's. Up you guys! I'm Haley

0:02

and I'm Andrea and this is

0:04

inhuman. A True crime podcast. And.

0:27

I am just realizing that my coffee

0:29

is sitting in our our little baby

0:31

jail because I was sitting in there

0:34

with my son earlier and I was

0:36

like where's my coffee at Still sitting.

0:38

And baby Jail. So. You want to go? grab?

0:41

My. It's okay, To

0:45

day I have on a disappearance

0:47

case for you. But before we

0:49

get into today's case, I have

0:51

two other case updates that I

0:53

wanted to share from recent cases

0:55

and so. And. They're

0:58

both like positive update so we like that I

1:00

them We love to hear that. Yeah.

1:03

So the first one is from last

1:05

week's episode actually the recently sold murder

1:07

of You've on Main Key and at

1:09

the time that we recorded last week,

1:11

there hadn't been any updates about the

1:13

killer marry Josephine Bailey since December twenty

1:15

twenty three. So it was basically like

1:18

she had been arrested. And.

1:20

She. Was in jail but we didn't

1:22

know like what was going on. but

1:25

she actually had a hearing this week

1:27

on Monday and her arraignment has been

1:29

scheduled for February twenty eighth so she

1:32

has entered a plea I it will

1:34

likely com at the arraignment bite she

1:36

is things are moving and shoutout to

1:39

one of our listeners who messaged me

1:41

on Instagram about this update because she

1:43

lives in the area and she sent

1:46

me like a public records were upset

1:48

Website with information cause codename google Marry

1:50

Josephine. Bailey like. Nothing. Exams

1:52

are yeah A by on are you

1:55

know? no updates come up by. I

1:57

was able to find the information through

1:59

that webs. That one of our listeners that

2:01

so shoutout you for sending nine of. But.

2:05

Yeah, it's good to see that things are moving

2:07

along. Yeah Cari because it's

2:09

like oh yea finally And then

2:11

it was like oh nothing's really

2:13

happened Saw yeah I feel that

2:15

very open ended but. Deadly. Move

2:17

in and the writer I but it's moving in. Love

2:19

that. Yup. Now and

2:22

then. The second up the is about

2:24

episode two seventy, the murder of Caitlin

2:26

our cat. And when we left off

2:28

in the episode, the man who had

2:30

murdered key and two other women had

2:32

been arrested in July Twenty twenty one

2:34

on probation violation and then he ended

2:36

up confessing to all three murders And

2:39

he wasn't. He was like, not really

2:41

on the radar. Of. Investigators

2:43

for Kate's murder, her mom

2:45

Lois Dunkin. Had suspected

2:47

him because he was actually the

2:50

first person on the scene by.

2:53

On. Investigators had

2:55

basically said. Like while he'd decide

2:57

and pulled over and. They talk to him

2:59

and didn't have any reason to suspect him. so he

3:01

was like. Not. Considered a

3:04

suspect that he ended up being arrested

3:06

on that probation violation and he confessed

3:08

to the murders of came along with

3:10

thirteen year old Stella Gonzales and twenty.

3:13

One year old Althea Oakley. Wow.

3:16

Yeah. And when we recorded episode

3:19

his attorney had recently tried to

3:21

get his confession thrown out that

3:23

the judge said now you will

3:25

not be thrown out and but

3:27

he wasn't pleading guilty and he

3:29

was scheduled to go to trial

3:31

at some point this year. By.

3:33

In January. Twenty Twenty Four. In

3:35

case you're listening to this like

3:37

next year that a later of

3:39

yeah, He ended up pleading guilty.

3:42

To. Be five Murder and rape.

3:44

Charges that he was facing. Down.

3:47

So. And he pleaded guilty to everything

3:49

and he was sentenced to sixty two years

3:52

in prison and will be required to serve

3:54

a minimum. Forty Five Years. And he's

3:56

currently Fifty Five years old. So in

3:58

Forty Five years old, the. Hundred he

4:00

that get now Yeah. The

4:04

District Attorney Sam Bragman said quote he was

4:06

than the rest of his life in prison

4:08

where he can't hurt anyone else. We hope

4:10

this brings some sense of closure to the

4:12

families of the victims who have waited so

4:14

long for justice. So fucking

4:16

heartbreaking. Guy. I know

4:18

he just got to live his life for

4:20

yeah, many years. Yeah, because I case haven't

4:22

And like the late, the late eighties or

4:25

like mid eighties, I'm on my yet. Nineteen

4:27

Eighty Nine. Okay, Yeah. So

4:30

yeah it it had been.

4:33

Thirty. Two years. Wow.

4:36

South. And east. I'm so glad that. He.

4:38

Confess I know and carry our

4:40

cat Caitlin. Sister said after the

4:43

sentencing I want Apodaca to go

4:45

to sleep every single night thinking

4:47

about my little sister in. A

4:49

graveyard rotting beneath a stone that speaks

4:51

to our families love and loss. As

4:54

powerful I or goose. And.

4:58

At the hearing Apodaca who of course

5:00

they always have opportunity to say something

5:03

so he did and he told the

5:05

families of the victims that he quote

5:07

has cried rivers of tears for. His

5:09

victim. Shut. The fuck up

5:12

Literally I had the exact if

5:14

even say that don't say it

5:16

like that river that just sounds

5:18

so manipulative, so disgusting. And as

5:20

a slave know yield sign for

5:22

fully. I killed your daughter and

5:24

your sister. But you know, so

5:26

time for me because I've been

5:28

just distraught over it. Yeah

5:30

late now though. Killed three people and

5:33

then went years without being high and

5:35

not having. To sit, pay for what you

5:37

dead by now? Yeah. oh

5:40

and finally the albuquerque police chief

5:42

harold medina who also actually new

5:44

atheists family and was the one

5:46

who told them that he had

5:48

been arrested said quote these heinous

5:50

crimes haunted three families for more

5:52

than thirty years leaving behind a

5:54

week of pain and suffering i

5:56

hope all the families can now

5:59

move forward and find closure in

6:01

a long-awaited resolution to their nightmare.

6:05

So the good thing is with this plea

6:07

deal, the families won't have to endure a

6:09

trial or go through any of that, and

6:12

he will be spending the rest of

6:14

his life in prison. He didn't get a lighter

6:16

sentence or anything. Thankfully,

6:19

that case is finally concluded, and

6:23

it obviously doesn't make anything any easier for

6:25

the families, but at least now they have

6:28

answers, and they can kind of close that

6:30

chapter without having to think about going to

6:32

trial or going to parole hearings or anything

6:34

like that. Yeah, I mean, obviously,

6:36

absolutely nothing will ever bring their loved

6:38

ones back or give them that true

6:41

sense of peace, but at least

6:43

they know who did it, and that,

6:45

because just the question hanging over your

6:47

head every day, like that

6:50

is just mind-numbing, you

6:52

know? Unimaginable. Yeah,

6:54

truly. So yeah,

6:57

that is two little case

6:59

updates for some of our previous cases,

7:02

and today, like I said, we're covering

7:04

a disappearance, and it's a very bizarre one,

7:06

and it's unsolved, and I really don't know what

7:09

to think about it, so let's just

7:11

get into it. Sounds good. Leah

7:15

Roberts had been through a lot. Her

7:18

parents had both passed away, and she had

7:20

survived serious injuries from a car accident. She

7:23

dropped out of college and spent her days writing

7:26

poetry, but when she left home in

7:28

March 2000, she left money

7:30

for her housemate to cover expenses while she was

7:32

away, indicating that she was planning

7:34

to return. Nine

7:36

days later, her car would be found at the

7:38

bottom of an abankment across the country,

7:40

and to this day, she remains

7:43

missing. What? Yeah,

7:46

so Leah Toby Roberts was born on July 23rd, 1976,

7:49

in Durham, North Carolina, and

7:52

her parents, Nancy and Stancil

7:54

Roberts, had three children, and

7:56

she was the youngest. So

7:58

Leah and her older sister, Cara, and

8:00

her older brother Heath lived a

8:03

relatively normal childhood by all accounts.

8:07

Unfortunately when Leah was 17 years old

8:09

right before she was set to begin

8:11

studying at North Carolina State University her

8:14

father was diagnosed with a chronic lung

8:16

illness and so that

8:18

really put a lot of stress

8:20

on the family. But North Carolina State

8:22

was not far from Durham just about 25 miles so

8:25

Leah went

8:28

to school and you know was

8:30

gonna keep studying she was studying Spanish and

8:32

anthropology but she also did continue to feel

8:34

the strain of her father's illness on her

8:37

family. Yeah absolutely I

8:39

mean especially if he was you

8:41

know the main source

8:44

of income for the family I

8:46

mean that puts them on everybody and just you

8:48

know having it be your parent I mean that's...

8:51

Yeah seeing your father go through that.

8:53

Yeah. Two

8:55

years later tragedy struck again when

8:57

Leah's mother suddenly and unexpectedly died

8:59

from heart disease. Oh my

9:02

gosh. Yeah. So

9:06

at this time Leah took some time off school

9:08

and then she returned to the university in the

9:10

fall of 1998 at 21 years old. But then

9:12

tragedy struck yet again

9:17

and Leah was involved in a serious

9:20

car accident that left her with some

9:22

really nasty injuries. So she

9:24

had a shattered femur that

9:26

required surgery and a metal

9:29

rod to heal. That sounds

9:31

really painful that's like the biggest bone

9:33

in your body. Yeah and then on

9:35

top of that she also had a

9:37

punctured lung. So these were some really

9:39

like pretty serious injuries and it was

9:41

a near-death experience. The car accident was

9:43

pretty serious and she later told her

9:45

sister Kara that when she saw the

9:48

truck that she hit basically a

9:50

truck like pulled out in front of her and she

9:52

couldn't stop in time she

9:54

was sure that she was about to die. Oh my

9:56

gosh. That's so scary. And

9:59

after her recovery she she felt like she

10:01

was born again and had a second chance

10:03

at life. So she decided that she wanted

10:05

to take some more time off school and

10:07

kind of live life

10:09

to the fullest. And she

10:11

decided that she was going to participate in a

10:13

field program in Costa Rica in the spring of

10:15

1999. She

10:17

loved to travel. She had studied for a

10:19

semester in Spain. And like I said, she

10:22

was studying Spanish. So she was really excited

10:24

to participate in this field program in Costa

10:26

Rica. Three weeks before she

10:28

was set to leave for the program, though,

10:30

her father passed away from his chronic illness.

10:35

But she didn't want to let anything hold her

10:37

back. And she decided she was still going to go

10:39

on the trip, which I commend her

10:41

for because, you know, as

10:44

much as it's sad that

10:46

her father passed away, I'm sure he

10:48

would have wanted her to like continue

10:50

to live her best life. And so

10:53

staying home. It's not going

10:55

to bring him back sadly, you know? So you

10:57

have to just, yeah. And it keeps your mind

10:59

off of it to some degree, you know, just

11:01

living your life like, yeah, that you want to

11:03

live her life to the fullest. Exactly.

11:07

But a friend who visited her on the

11:09

trip said that she was worried about Leah

11:11

because quote, she did not seem to be

11:13

affected at all about her father's death. Which

11:17

I understand, but I also feel like, you

11:19

know, first of all, this was a chronic

11:21

illness, so I'm sure she like knew

11:23

to some extent that this was coming. And, you

11:25

know, maybe that was just her way of grieving

11:27

to like almost avoid

11:29

it and, and that's

11:31

an unfair assessment coming from

11:33

somebody. I mean, I'm

11:36

sure they were close friends, whatever, but like

11:38

to say that, I don't know, that just

11:40

seems unfair. I think she minute like,

11:42

like it will. Yeah.

11:46

Yeah. I don't think she meant, I don't

11:48

think she meant anything bad by it. She

11:50

was just saying she was kind of worried

11:52

about her. Okay. Yeah. I mean,

11:54

cause you know, she's been probably

11:56

mourning his loss for years. Yeah.

12:00

since he was diagnosed. But

12:02

Leah was making the most of the time she

12:04

spent in Costa Rica. According to an episode of

12:06

Disappeared, she was living her life with a new

12:09

worldview and she basically was starting to reject the

12:11

idea that she had to live life like everyone

12:13

else did. She was kind of like, I can

12:15

live the life that I want to live.

12:17

Yeah. Also

12:20

of note, and this will seem random, but it

12:22

will be important later, because she was

12:24

leaving the country and she wanted to

12:26

plan in case of an emergency, but

12:29

both of her parents were

12:31

now no longer alive. She

12:33

granted power of attorney over

12:35

her bank accounts and finances

12:37

to her sister Cara. Okay,

12:40

that's understandable. Just keep that in the back

12:42

of your mind for later. Okay. Later in

12:44

1999, after she completed the program

12:48

and returned to North Carolina,

12:50

she was almost done with her

12:52

Spanish and anthology degrees, like three

12:54

months away from graduation. And she

12:57

decided to drop out of school. No. So both

12:59

of her siblings tried to persuade

13:02

her to just like stick it out. They're

13:04

like, there's so close, but she, I

13:07

know, but she refused. She had made up her mind. She

13:09

was like, no, I don't want to do this anymore. I

13:11

want to live my life. And that's

13:13

understandable too. So she dropped

13:15

out of school and she started taking up hobbies that

13:17

made her happy. She

13:19

learned to play guitar. She took up

13:22

photography and she liked to hang out at

13:24

a local coffee house called Cup O'

13:26

Joe. And she loved writing poetry. And

13:29

while spending time at the coffee shop, she met a

13:31

friend named Janine and they

13:34

were obsessed with the author

13:36

Jack Kerouac. So

13:39

they were always talking about Kerouac's

13:42

writing and books. And they also kind

13:45

of started talking about going on a

13:47

road trip to the West Coast to

13:49

live their life, to

13:51

live the life of Kerouac. So

13:53

they didn't have any set plans, but they

13:56

were looking forward to making the

13:58

trip. Okay. Now is this. author

14:00

is he like a fictional

14:02

author like dark

14:05

I will I will talk

14:07

about him in a minute okay okay because I

14:09

feel like that's probably telling to some degree yeah

14:12

no we'll talk about him in a minute okay Leah

14:16

also adopted a kitten that she named

14:18

Bee and she was just

14:20

like living life she actually had gotten

14:22

an inherent inheritance after her father passed

14:24

away so that allowed her to live for

14:27

a little while without working and she kind of figured

14:29

out what she wanted to do with life okay

14:31

I mean that's fair on

14:35

March 9th 2000 Leah spoke with her sister

14:37

Kara on the phone about getting together

14:40

soon and while they didn't have a set

14:42

plan or like a set date Kara

14:45

later recalled that it seemed like there was no question

14:47

they would be seeing each other soon Leah

14:50

and her roommate Nicole planned to do some babysitting

14:52

the next day and they talked about that on

14:54

the 9th and Nicole went

14:56

to work and when she came home

14:59

Leah's 1993 Jeep Cherokee wasn't there

15:02

but that wasn't odd because Leah wasn't working

15:04

so she was always coming and going from

15:06

their house and Nicole said that there would

15:08

be times where they wouldn't see each other

15:10

for a couple days just because their schedules were

15:13

like conflicting I get

15:15

that I feel like I've had roommates like that yeah

15:18

and Leah wasn't home that night when Nicole

15:21

went to bed but she wasn't too concerned

15:24

then the next day Leah never showed up for

15:26

the babysitting job that they had agreed to do together so

15:28

Nicole was like that's kind of weird starting

15:30

to get a little bit worried but also

15:33

wasn't like too too concerned yet because again

15:35

Leah was kind of like

15:37

this free spirit and she would go and do

15:39

her own thing and it wouldn't be abnormal to

15:41

go a few days without seeing each other so

15:43

she was like you know maybe I'll see her

15:45

tomorrow okay but by the evening of March

15:47

11th Nicole knew something was

15:50

up because friends and family who had

15:52

plans with Leah or had been trying to

15:54

contact her were calling their house to look

15:56

for her and Nicole hadn't seen or heard

15:58

from her and neither had her sister. They're Kara.

16:02

Don't. Love though on March twelfth, Nicole

16:04

called Kara around noon and they spent

16:07

the next twenty. Four hours basically calling

16:09

everyone who knew Leah to see if anyone

16:11

had heard from her or had seen her.

16:15

But they had no luck. No one knew

16:18

where earlier was. So on the morning of

16:20

March on the morning, a Monday March Thirteenth.

16:22

Three full days after Leo was last

16:24

seen, Kara and Nicole reportedly a missing

16:26

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you need a company you can trust. With

17:43

still no sign of Leah and not being

17:46

able to reach her, Kara and Nicole went

17:48

into her bedroom at the house to see

17:50

if they could find any indication of where

17:52

she might be. First.

17:55

Of all they found in know in the realm. And.

17:58

This know. some things that

18:00

made sense, but also some things that were kind

18:03

of like ominous.

18:06

So first of all, the note

18:09

read, I'm not suicidal, I'm the

18:11

opposite. Remember, Jack Kerouac. So

18:13

that made them kind of think like, okay,

18:15

maybe she wanted to live the life of

18:17

this author, which again, I'll talk about him in

18:19

a minute. Okay. Yeah,

18:22

so that was like indicative that she

18:25

was planning to return and with the

18:27

money, it said, while I'm gone, remember,

18:32

everyone is together in thoughts and prayers

18:34

and time passes quickly. Have faith in

18:36

me, yourself, everyone. So

18:39

like, again, it sounds like she's like

18:41

planning to return. And she also offered

18:43

her room and laptop to others while

18:45

she was gone. She

18:48

said that there was, there were cookies

18:50

in the freezer. She said,

18:54

told Nicole to give everyone her love and

18:56

tell Kara not to worry. And then

19:00

she also explained in

19:02

the note that she had no choice. So

19:04

again, it just seems like she purposely

19:06

left and was planning to come back.

19:09

Yeah, there was another odd thing in the

19:12

note on it was a

19:14

drawing of the Cheshire Cat's grin. Now

19:18

Kara said that Leah loved Alice

19:20

in Wonderland. And she believed that

19:22

the drawing was quote, meant to

19:24

convey her intent to spontaneously disappear

19:27

and eventually reappear just like the

19:29

Cheshire Cat comes and goes mysteriously.

19:31

That's fair. I like that.

19:34

That theory, like the little

19:36

symbolism with it. Yeah. And I

19:39

used to like just randomly doodle that

19:41

same smile,

19:43

the Cheshire Cat's smile. Yeah. I

19:45

love it. I mean, if

19:47

it was like way out of her character, I'd

19:50

be like, wow, you know, like, yeah, no, but

19:52

it didn't seem, it didn't

19:54

seem super, super like, unlike her.

19:56

Right. Karen Nicole also noticed that several

19:59

of Leah's quotes clothes were missing like

20:01

a good chunk of her like clothes

20:03

and belongings so that suggested that she

20:05

had packed and I'm planning yeah

20:09

exactly she had been planning

20:11

to to leave purposefully right

20:14

her cat B was also missing indicating that

20:16

she had taken her with her oh

20:19

okay so by all accounts it

20:21

seemed like Leah had left on her own accord

20:23

but that she was planning to come back I

20:26

wonder why though if she was planning to take

20:28

this journey with her friend

20:30

why did she go without

20:32

her so they had

20:34

like just vaguely talked about going together

20:37

okay and they

20:39

were friends but they weren't like super

20:41

good friends so I think that it

20:43

kind of yeah it kind

20:45

of just like seems like you know she

20:48

just made this decision that spontaneously

20:50

that she wanted to go

20:52

okay now thankfully Kara still had

20:54

power of attorney over Leah's bank accounts

20:57

from when she went to Costa Rica so

20:59

she was able to look at her

21:01

financial records her like credit card

21:04

purchases her bank account to see

21:06

if she could tell where she was that's

21:09

awesome yeah so Kara

21:11

found that Leah had withdrawn several thousand

21:13

dollars on the afternoon of the ninth

21:15

the last day that she was seen

21:19

then Leah's debit card was used to

21:21

pay for a motel in Memphis Tennessee

21:24

and then was also used to purchase

21:26

gas and food along I-40 and then

21:29

I-5 when she reached the end of I-40 in

21:31

California so this route indicated

21:34

that she had been traveling West and she

21:37

made it to Oregon in three

21:39

days from North Carolina so

21:41

she was like hauling yeah I'm

21:43

not taking any breaks which is

21:46

I don't know for me is alarming so I'm like are you

21:48

dry like are you okay are you driving safe

21:51

through the night yeah are

21:54

you like how are you staying away if

21:57

you like punishing energy drinks and caffeine pills

21:59

or something Yeah, who knows? But

22:02

the last purchase made on Leah's card was

22:04

just after midnight on March 13th, which

22:07

was the day that she was like officially reported

22:09

missing. And this purchase was

22:11

at a gas station in Brooks, Oregon. And

22:14

there's actually security footage from that

22:16

gas station. And there's a screenshot

22:18

of that footage that I'll share.

22:20

But everything seems normal.

22:22

Leah doesn't look distressed or injured.

22:25

She was seen peering outside several times

22:28

throughout the course of the footage while

22:30

she was making her purchase. But

22:32

you can't see what she was looking at because

22:34

there were no cameras in the parking lot. Okay,

22:37

so just casually looking not like paranoid.

22:40

No, not like super paranoid, but

22:43

definitely like peering more than

22:45

just like, you know, briefly looking outside.

22:47

She was like, it seemed like she was

22:49

looking at something, but it wasn't

22:51

like a super paranoid, like, you

22:54

know, distraught type of looking.

22:56

Okay. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if

22:58

she was just like looking to check on

23:00

her car or, you know, like I do

23:03

something like that. Yeah, exactly. Like it could

23:05

have really been anything. But people do point

23:07

to that of like, maybe there was somebody

23:09

with her or something like that, or

23:12

following her. That's what I thought. But yeah,

23:14

I mean, it could have been. But

23:17

yeah, we don't know. And after

23:19

that, there were no transactions on any

23:21

of Leah's cards and no more no

23:23

more money was withdrawn from her accounts.

23:25

But remember, she had withdrawn several thousand

23:27

dollars. So she did have cash with

23:29

her. Okay. Kara was determined to find

23:31

where her sister was, where she was

23:34

going and what her plans were. So she

23:37

went and explored several of the coffee shops

23:39

that Leah had been frequenting in the last

23:42

couple of months before her disappearance. And at

23:44

Cup of Joe, she met Janine,

23:47

the friend who of Leah's who

23:49

also loved the author Jack Kerouac.

23:52

And according to Unsolved Mysteries, quote, Leah

23:55

found comfort in the writings of Jack

23:57

Kerouac, the beat generation author who wrote

23:59

about the free spirited road trips he took

24:01

across America. Leah's

24:03

favorite was called the Durham Bums, and

24:05

it's a short story that encourages the

24:08

reader to leave behind the materialism of

24:10

modern life. Part of

24:12

that book takes place at a forest

24:14

fire lookout on Desolation Peak near Mount

24:17

Baker in Washington state. Interesting.

24:20

So that would kind of explain this trip

24:23

that she spontaneously wanted to take.

24:26

And Janine told Kara that Leah had

24:28

expressed wanting to see that area for

24:30

herself. So Janine said, quote,

24:32

from the last conversation that we had, we

24:34

were talking about. Dharma

24:37

Bums. Did I say Durham Bums earlier?

24:39

I might have said Durham Bums. It's

24:42

Dharma Bums. Yeah, I think you did say Durham

24:45

because I don't remember hearing Durham, North

24:47

Carolina. Look very similar.

24:49

Yeah. Yeah. But Dharma

24:51

Bums. So she said

24:53

we were talking about Dharma Bums and

24:55

about how Kerouac was up on Desolation

24:58

Peak in Washington, just taking in all

25:00

the beauty around him. And Janine

25:03

would also later say, quote, I totally knew that

25:05

she was going to take off and go to

25:07

the mountains because she wanted to go where Jack

25:09

Kerouac had gone. She wanted to

25:11

go on the road and be a free spirit,

25:15

figure herself out. So

25:18

again, this kind of explains it

25:21

all and also was kind of a relief

25:23

for Kara because she was like, okay, Leah

25:25

had a plan. Yeah, exactly. She wanted

25:30

to go see the mountains. She

25:32

wanted to go see Desolation

25:34

Peak. So she spontaneously decided to

25:36

take off and go see

25:38

but by everything that they saw, it

25:41

seemed like she was planning to come back. Yeah,

25:44

that's the part. Yeah.

25:46

And so Kara was just hopeful that eventually

25:49

Leah would contact her. On

25:51

March 18, 2000, it was Kara's 26th birthday and she was sure

25:56

that she would call her to wish her a happy birthday.

26:00

But unfortunately, that never happened and

26:02

instead, Cara got a call from

26:04

the Durham County Sheriff's Office. The

26:07

deputy told her to call the police in

26:09

Bellingham, Washington because there was an update related

26:11

to her sister. It

26:14

was the early morning of March 18th when

26:16

a couple was jogging along a road in

26:18

Mount Baker's Nokwalme National Forest. They

26:21

were running along Canyon Creek Road, a

26:23

road that led to some isolated residences

26:25

and logging camps in the National Forest,

26:27

and this was not far from the

26:29

US-Canada border. As

26:32

the couple were out for their morning jog, they started

26:34

noticing random articles of clothing on the side of the

26:36

road and some of it was on the ground, but

26:38

some was like tied in

26:41

tree branches along the road. Then,

26:44

as they followed the clothing path, they

26:47

noticed that a car was crashed at

26:49

the bottom of a steep embankment. When

26:54

Cara called the Whatcom County

26:57

Sheriff's Office, they informed her

26:59

that Leah's 1993 Jeep

27:02

Wrangler had been found earlier that day

27:04

in a remote forest crashed at the

27:06

bottom of an embankment. But

27:10

while Leah's car had been found, she was nowhere

27:12

to be seen. And

27:15

was there any sign of

27:17

like blood or anything like

27:20

that? Okay, I have

27:22

so many questions. So the

27:24

car itself was severely damaged because it

27:26

had basically gone down a steep slope

27:28

through trees and crashed at the bottom.

27:33

Based on the damage to the Jeep and the

27:35

trees surrounding it, it was determined that the car

27:37

had been traveling at 40 miles an

27:39

hour when it went off the road. And

27:43

everything inside the car had been tossed

27:45

around, which was again consistent with like

27:48

a multiple rollover crash. Okay,

27:51

So Sergeant Kevin McFadden Said, quote,: with the

27:53

speed that the vehicle was traveling and the

27:55

amount of damage to the vehicle, you would

27:57

anticipate some type of injury to the. I'd

28:00

at least some type of evidence to

28:02

indicate contact the image that the person

28:04

inside had. That. The person had been

28:06

inside. The vehicle. But.

28:09

Inside the car there was. No sign

28:11

of blood or any other

28:13

injury, Okay, So was

28:15

there like a rock in the

28:17

floorboard? like a boulder, not a

28:19

boulder sunlight of weight of a

28:21

but something that would have held

28:23

the gas settle down know and

28:25

there were no other signs of

28:27

like shatter marks in the glasses

28:29

if somebody had slammed into it.

28:31

The seat belts weren't stretched so

28:33

to investigators that seem that no

28:35

one had been inside the car

28:37

when it crashed indicating that this

28:39

was either staged or planned to

28:41

look like. Someone had driven off

28:43

the road. Yeah I

28:45

saw nose and can however.

28:48

Bizarrely, Blankets and

28:50

pillows were inside the jeep basically

28:52

hung up over the like broken

28:55

windows, indicating that it had been

28:57

used as a shelter after the

29:00

crash. Several

29:02

the his belongings were found scattered

29:04

around the words outside of the

29:06

crash site and this included her

29:08

passport, driver license, her checkbook, clothes,

29:11

A guitar for Cds. They.

29:14

Also found cat food and a small

29:16

cat carrier. And

29:19

there were there was the twenty

29:21

five hundred dollars in cash. So.

29:23

You know, five hundred less than the

29:26

three thousand that she had withdrawn and

29:28

other valuables like jewelry left behind so

29:30

didn't look like somebody. Had by com

29:33

and robbed. The. Car.

29:36

He yeah I'm so confused because

29:38

light. Is. She. Like

29:41

okay so maybe she rector car on

29:43

accident or on purpose or I don't

29:45

know he said was a Jeep Wrangler.

29:49

So. It could have been. A

29:51

manual success of maybe it yeah to

29:54

gear and prominent had a ban on.

29:56

And. Then she just been like camping out

29:59

in Aca. The sounds like he was

30:01

trying to live like this dude and

30:03

he like was all about living off

30:05

grid and yeah but where is she

30:07

and white She latter for money behind

30:09

ya all of her valuables. Crazy.

30:13

Very. Bizarre. So after the

30:15

discovery of Li of Car, Kara and

30:17

her brother, he's traveled to Bellingham, Washington

30:20

to help. In the investigation. So.

30:22

They still hadn't heard from their sister and

30:24

they were extremely concerned for her safety given

30:27

the state of the car and the fact

30:29

that all of her belongings were left behind.

30:31

At. The time he's told W R

30:33

L news. Quote My worst fear is.

30:36

She's. Not okay. Obviously that's a possibility

30:38

and something we'd rather not consider.

30:40

But. We feel our best chance of finding out

30:42

if she's alright. Is getting help

30:44

from the public. So they

30:47

were asking for anybody with any information

30:49

and they are also looking through all

30:51

of the as belongings from the crash

30:53

site and they found a box of

30:55

mementos from. The road trip that she had been taking.

30:58

This. Included a movie ticket stub from

31:00

Bellingham, Washington which was like the main

31:02

town not far from the crash site.

31:05

And this was a ticket stub for. March.

31:08

Thirteen. And. So that

31:10

indicated that she had made it there and

31:12

she had purchased this ticket. Stub to go

31:14

see a movie. So. To Kara,

31:16

he's and investigators the suggested that she

31:18

had driven the five to six hours

31:20

straight from where she last stopped in

31:22

Oregon. And. She had

31:25

made it to Bellingham and then spent a

31:27

couple of hours in Bellingham. Before the

31:29

movie. And so because of

31:31

this they started looking around and there

31:34

was one sit down restaurant there so

31:36

they figured she probably ate there. So.

31:39

They were and started talking to patrons

31:41

of the restaurant and they were able

31:43

to talk to to man who had

31:45

eaten at that restaurant on the thirteenth

31:47

who had seen and spoken with Leah.

31:50

So. They told these two men both told

31:52

investigators that Leah had talked to them

31:54

about Jack Kerouac. And her plans to go

31:56

see the mountains. One. Of the

31:58

man told police. That Leah. had left the

32:01

restaurant with another man who she

32:03

called Barry. And this

32:05

man provided a very detailed description

32:07

of Barry, but

32:09

the other man that was at the restaurant

32:11

could not confirm this account. And

32:13

neither could anyone else that was in the restaurant

32:15

at the time. So it's kind of weird why

32:17

this guy said that. Are

32:20

you Barry? Right.

32:23

Very bizarre. Um, but you

32:25

know, the other man did say, she

32:28

didn't leave with him and we

32:30

know she was there. She ate there

32:32

and she was talking to them about her plan.

32:34

So like clearly she was still on this

32:37

same idea of what she wanted to do.

32:40

Okay. So after this, the state police

32:42

and the FBI were working together to

32:44

determine what had happened to Leah. Initially

32:47

they were working on the theory that she had

32:49

been injured in the accident and had wandered off

32:52

not knowing who she was, but

32:55

that still didn't make sense because there wasn't

32:57

like clear indication that anybody had been in

32:59

the car. But then again, it

33:01

wasn't a hundred percent determined that she couldn't

33:03

have been in the car. Like maybe

33:05

the way that she was sitting

33:08

in the car, like she didn't hit

33:10

her head or she didn't hit anything that

33:12

like drew blood. So like while it was

33:14

very bizarre that there were no signs of

33:16

injuries from inside the car, it wasn't a

33:18

hundred percent, like for sure determined

33:20

that she hadn't been inside. Okay.

33:24

Now very concerning to

33:26

her friends was that under one of

33:29

the floor mats in the car was

33:31

her mother's engagement ring, which according to

33:33

everyone who knew her, she wore

33:35

constantly and treasured deeply. So

33:39

her friends told investigators that she

33:41

never would have taken it off

33:43

voluntarily. Nicole said, quote, as long as I've

33:45

known Leah, she has worn her mother's engagement

33:47

ring. It was her most prized possession. And

33:49

when we discovered that the ring had been

33:51

found in the car, it was

33:54

definitely for me, a bad sign. So

33:57

her friends believe that maybe she had like

33:59

hit her. and didn't remember

34:01

who she was and they were like

34:03

that's the only explanation we can come up with

34:05

that would indicate why she Would have like taken

34:07

that ring off And that's

34:10

a really good. I mean, that's a

34:12

really good theory considering Everything else

34:14

like why why the money was there why

34:16

her most prized possessions were there Like

34:19

it sounds like she just maybe took off with

34:21

her cat. But even that like the

34:23

cat Can't carry her down

34:25

now to run away definitely,

34:27

but Yeah, it that

34:30

was kind of what they were going off

34:32

of so for two weeks after the car

34:34

was found Extensive searches were done

34:37

in the area surrounding the crash site.

34:39

These were done on foot. They included helicopters

34:43

and Sent tracking

34:45

dogs, but there was

34:47

no sign of Leah anywhere Now

34:51

about a week after the car was

34:54

discovered a man called in a

34:56

tip saying that he had seen Leah wandering

35:00

Around a gas station in Everett, Washington

35:03

So this was not too far from

35:05

Bellingham. It was closer to Seattle But

35:08

this man claimed that Leah seemed

35:11

disoriented and confused But

35:14

after sharing this information the tipster

35:16

basically seemed to panic and hung

35:18

up without identifying himself or giving

35:21

any further information So this is

35:23

really really bizarre to investigators, but they

35:26

did say that the tip was considered

35:28

credible Okay

35:31

But unfortunately it didn't

35:33

leave anywhere and no one

35:35

else could validate this sighting

35:38

I guess right and after

35:40

this Leah's case went cold pretty quickly Now

35:44

there have been several theories over the years

35:46

that have developed of course Investigators

35:50

believe that Leah

35:52

may have crashed the car when

35:54

she was heading toward Mount Baker Highway and

35:57

Then she got out and may have

35:59

been picked up by a motorist. They

36:02

believe, as we were just saying, she may

36:04

have been disoriented because of a head injury from

36:06

the crash. There's also a

36:08

theory that she may have been the victim of

36:10

foul play and that the accident was staged to

36:12

make it look like she had crashed and gotten

36:14

hurt. Oh yeah. They

36:18

also searched all local hospitals to see if

36:20

there were any reports of a woman

36:22

coming in that was like disoriented in days,

36:24

but there weren't any. Some

36:26

speculate that she could be living somewhere today

36:29

with no memory of who she is. And

36:31

then some theorize that she willingly

36:33

left her life to start a

36:35

new one. But

36:38

Kara does not believe that and she

36:40

said, quote, I can understand Leah's needing

36:42

to get away and find some peace

36:44

within herself. But considering the loss that

36:46

our families experienced, it's difficult for me

36:48

to think that she would leave us open

36:50

for another loss like this. Yeah,

36:53

I have to agree there. I mean, I don't know her at

36:55

all, but, and I

36:58

totally think she needed this journey

37:00

to kind of like, you know,

37:02

rediscover herself, figure out like what

37:04

she wants out of life. But

37:06

I don't, I don't feel like she would put

37:08

her family through that. I don't know. I just

37:11

like willingly and like knowingly, like maybe

37:13

if she did have a head injury,

37:16

obviously then she doesn't even know, but right.

37:18

No, I don't think she left willingly either.

37:35

In 2001 Leah's case was featured in

37:38

Unsolved Mysteries, which led to some more

37:40

tips and sightings coming in, but nothing

37:42

ever panned out. In 2005, for

37:45

the fourth anniversary of

37:47

Leah's disappearance, a cross country caravan was organized to

37:49

follow Leah's route from North Carolina

37:51

to Bellingham. Kara

37:53

had been working with a woman named

37:55

Monica Kaisen, who had frequently

37:58

helped families find their missing missing

38:00

loved ones after cases went cold. And

38:03

Monica specializes in keeping cases alive

38:05

in the media. So

38:07

to bring awareness for Leah's

38:10

case during the anniversary, she

38:12

organized this caravan. And both

38:14

Monica and Kara appeared on Larry King Live

38:17

in 2005 to bring

38:19

even more awareness. But unfortunately,

38:21

this didn't lead to any more advancements

38:23

in the case. That's

38:27

disappointing. In 2006, the

38:30

original detective on the case,

38:33

Mark Joseph, passed his now cold

38:35

case files onto two younger detectives, hoping

38:37

that fresh eyes might see something

38:39

new. One of the

38:41

detectives noticed that the car and its

38:43

contents had never been fully processed for

38:46

evidence in the original investigation. So

38:48

they were like, let's finish this processing because

38:51

maybe we'll find something. Now,

38:53

part of this was to check the actual mechanics

38:55

of the car. And when they

38:57

pulled open the hood, they found that

39:00

something had happened with the starter motor

39:02

in the car that basically allowed the

39:04

car to accelerate without having to hold

39:06

down the gas pedal. So

39:09

I actually asked my husband about this because

39:11

he is a big car guy. He literally

39:13

rebuilt his entire car engine. And I was

39:15

like, this doesn't make sense to me,

39:17

so I need some more information here. Yeah.

39:20

So he explained, and this

39:22

is in very simple terms,

39:24

and he's not an expert in

39:27

crashes, but he does know

39:29

a lot about cars. So

39:31

he explained that tampering with the

39:33

starter motor could potentially allow someone

39:35

to leave the car in gear

39:38

and activate the starter motor from

39:40

outside without having to turn the

39:42

key. Oh. So

39:45

basically, this could get the car rolling.

39:48

So he said this wouldn't keep

39:50

it going. Right. And it

39:52

wouldn't activate it enough to get it going that

39:55

fast, but it would get it rolling. And if

39:57

they were able to get it rolling down the

39:59

hill, Yeah, it could easily

40:01

gain that speed. Sound at the bottom of

40:04

it could easily gain that speed. So, it

40:07

could do that without anyone being inside, which

40:09

would explain why there

40:11

was no indication of an injury. Right.

40:15

And would Leah know how to do

40:17

that? So that's the

40:19

question. Now, this,

40:22

of course, confirmed the early

40:25

theory that investigators had that no one had been inside

40:27

the car. And this

40:29

led detectives back to the man

40:31

who was the customer at the

40:34

restaurant that recalled seeing Leah

40:36

with the man named Barry. Barry.

40:39

Okay. Now, apparently, they

40:41

identified this man and he was

40:43

a mechanic. So he would be

40:45

somebody who would know how to do this. Hmm.

40:49

Interesting. They also

40:51

found that there was a fingerprint

40:55

under the hood of the car. So they

40:58

traced this man down and he had unfortunately

41:00

moved to Canada between when Leah disappeared and

41:02

when the detectives were like looking for him.

41:04

So it took years to actually get his

41:07

fingerprints to be able to compare. And

41:10

unfortunately, when they did compare, the

41:13

fingerprints turned out to not be a match. Okay.

41:16

Well, that's good. They could at least

41:18

in that aspect regard rule him out.

41:22

Right. So also through this, like, re-look

41:24

at the case, they found that there

41:26

was traced DNA or they found traced

41:28

DNA on an article of Leah's clothing.

41:32

Now because this was traced DNA, this

41:34

was not detectable with the technology back

41:36

in Hmm. So

41:39

that's why it wasn't found then. But

41:41

now in 2010, they

41:44

were able to find it and they were able to

41:46

identify that this was male DNA. Okay.

41:49

I was going to ask where they like,

41:51

did they identify what the DNA was? Like

41:53

was it hair, fingerprints, DNA? Okay. Yeah,

41:56

they didn't say. Unfortunately, the latest

41:59

update about this DNA was in 2011 and

42:01

it was just to say that they were

42:03

still waiting to find a match and as

42:05

of 2024 there are no further

42:07

updates on the DNA but it

42:10

does seem like there is some

42:12

DNA and potentially other evidence that

42:15

was collected that investigators are hopeful may

42:17

one day lead to a match. Yeah

42:21

in 2010 it was reported that the

42:23

case was still ongoing and that police

42:25

were still asking for any for help

42:28

from anyone with information to come forward. So

42:31

at that point it was the 10th anniversary and they were

42:33

saying you know we're still working on this. So

42:37

heartbreaking. Yeah over

42:40

the years there have been more searches of

42:42

the area including with cadaver dogs. They also

42:45

used metal detectors because remember Leah had that

42:47

metal rod in her leg so they were

42:49

like you know had she been buried

42:51

or like succumbed to the elements

42:53

or animals that metal rod would still be

42:56

there but that was never

42:58

found and no sign of Leah has

43:00

ever been seen and to this day

43:02

she remains a missing person. And the

43:05

neat thing about when you have hardware

43:07

in your body like that there's a

43:10

like a serial not a serial number is that

43:12

what it's called a serial number? Yeah a serial

43:14

number yeah. So yeah they have serial numbers so

43:16

yeah they're traceable so if they were to ever

43:19

you know come across that they'd be able to.

43:21

Yeah yeah so

43:25

that's basically the case. It

43:27

does seem like that DNA could potentially

43:29

lead somewhere one day if she

43:31

did meet with foul play but it's

43:34

just so bizarre because as we've kind of

43:36

talked about there's the fact that the car

43:39

crashed on its own so somebody had to

43:41

have done that. Whether like

43:44

it could have been Leah if she figured out how

43:46

to do that like I asked my husband and he

43:48

said you know like it's not super simple but if

43:50

you watched a couple of well this was

43:53

2000 so maybe not you can do it but

43:55

like if you read a book about it you might be able to

43:57

figure it out. So

43:59

maybe she had a had done that,

44:01

or maybe she had met with

44:03

foul play and somebody else staged

44:06

the accident. Yeah. There's

44:09

also the really weird call about the

44:11

tipster from Everett

44:13

who saw her disoriented. Like

44:15

why did he hang up so abruptly? Does he know

44:18

more than he's letting on? But then again,

44:20

maybe he wasn't being truthful. And so

44:23

that's why he just hung up. But

44:26

it's hard to say. So many

44:28

questions and not many answers. Yeah.

44:32

Leah Roberts is currently classified

44:34

as endangered missing. At

44:36

the time of her disappearance, she had blonde hair

44:39

and blue eyes and was about 5'6 and

44:41

130 pounds. She has a

44:43

surgical scar on her right hip and a metal rod

44:45

in her leg. She has

44:48

pierced ears and dimples. Today,

44:50

she would be 47 years old and

44:53

the case is still active and ongoing.

44:55

So anyone with any information can contact

44:57

the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office at 360-676-6650.

44:59

I don't want to speculate too much

45:02

because we

45:08

just don't know. And it is such a

45:10

bizarre case. And I just feel

45:12

so much for her

45:15

family that she was

45:17

just going on this trip and wanting to

45:19

kind of experience life.

45:21

And clearly something happened, whether

45:24

it was intentional and

45:26

she got hurt, which I really don't think it

45:28

was intentional. If she

45:30

did, was inside the car when

45:33

it crashed and she got hurt, but

45:35

no like blood. And then she was

45:37

disoriented. If she met with

45:39

foul play before the car even crashed and

45:41

then it was staged. It is

45:43

just so bizarre. There are so many questions

45:46

in this case and I feel so much

45:48

for her family. I know

45:50

after everything they've already been through, I mean,

45:53

they lost both their parents and now their

45:55

sister, like, I mean, you

45:57

know, they just don't know where she is. So right now,

46:00

It just feels like she's just out

46:02

there and never there's no resolution.

46:04

Yeah Yeah,

46:06

so awful but yeah,

46:09

I will share Leah's picture and you

46:11

know share all of this information because

46:14

This case, you know, it's not closed

46:16

and I definitely think there could be

46:18

answers either Somebody knows something or that

46:20

DNA will come back as a match.

46:22

I mean we've seen cases in recent

46:24

years come back with Matches

46:27

and stuff. So You

46:29

never know but that is the case

46:31

of the disappearance of Leah Roberts I

46:34

truly hope that one day her family will have

46:36

answers. Yeah. Yeah, that's

46:38

all I have for you guys today though Thank you

46:40

so much for listening and until next

46:43

time keep it human. Bye

46:45

guys