Crime Junkie - MISSING: Leah Roberts

Episode Date: August 13, 2018

After friends and family can't get ahold of her for days in a row, they decide that college student Leah Roberts is missing. Two weeks later, her car is found, and her loved ones are ready to have answers... But will they get the answers they crave? For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-leah-roberts/    

Hi, Crime Junkie family. I'm Ashley and I'm Britt and thank you guys for coming back for a new episode. Don't forget if this just isn't enough for you and you need an extra fix of true crime, you can always go to our Patreon. It's patreon.com slash crime junkie. There are three different levels and at every single level you get more and more episodes. Oh, there's so much backlog. Yeah, and you guys, I don't think a lot of people know this. You don't have to listen to it on your computer. Like Patreon is amazing. You can get a link and put it in your podcast app or at least most podcast apps and your episodes will download automatically on your phone the way that this one did today. Oh, so amazing.

It is. I'm a patron of some of my favorite podcasts and it is literally the most convenient, easiest way for me to get extra content from stuff. I love. So we encourage you guys to do that. Help support our show. Again, we've said this before. We're raising money through Patreon to start a second show in addition to Crime Junkie that I think you guys are going to love. So go help support us. Help us do that at patreon.com slash crime junkie. Today, I want to tell you about a missing person's case that has stuck with me for a long time. And it's one that I frequently look up information on just to see if there's been any updates because there are some key clues that supposedly were being processed back in 2011, but no results have ever been released. And I'm wondering if this could be one of the first missing person cases that gets solved using the same genealogical

testing that they're using to solve murders now. Oh my God, that would be amazing. Yeah. And I'm really confident that there could be some kind of breakthrough. So it's super important now more than ever, like set your Google alerts and watch this case. And I'm talking about the case of Leah Roberts in North Carolina, or at least the story starts in North Carolina. Leah was attending North Carolina State when at the age of 20, her mother suddenly passed away of heart disease. It was a terrible tragedy for Leah and the whole family. So Leah ended up taking some time off of school. When she did end up returning to college in 1998, she actually ended up having a terrible car accident. So bad that it was almost fatal. She walked away with a punctured

lung and a broken leg. Oh my God. Yeah. And when I say broken leg, it was a fracture so severe that she had to have a metal rod placed in her leg. After she recovered from that and went back to school again, Leah had this attitude of just wanting to live life to the fullest. She knew it was short. She had seen her mother get robbed of life. She was almost robbed of it herself. So she spent some time studying abroad in Spain and then she actually applied for a study, like a work study thing in Costa Rica. But right before she leaves for this work study, her father passes away too of a respiratory disease. Oh my God. Yeah. Like this girl could not get a break. But Leah decides that she needs to go to this work study thing anyways. She goes

just a few weeks after her father passed away and she had lost so much that I think she really needed to do something for herself. And her trip really did change her. Well, her trip and all of her life experiences I think leading up to the trip. When she got back, she told a lot of people that she didn't view life the same. She didn't want to live like everyone else. She didn't want to be like everyone else. I mean, I try not to think too hard about it, but I kind of even agree with her. Like I went to college just like everybody else. I got a job just like everybody else. I spent a third or more of my life working so I can pay bills and live in a house and buy things. And at the end of the day, it's just like, why? Like there has to be more. I mean, when you really

sit down and think about it, I mean, it's like kind of a screwy like head thing. It's a rat race. I get it. Yeah. And like there has to be something more meaningful. Like what is the reason we're all here? So I think this is the kind of thing that she was thinking. And she started to drift from her usual friends and make new friends that kind of had the same ideas as her. And they all like to read the same stuff. They were all talking about the same stuff. And one of the things that they were all very into was Jack Kerouac. And he's a novelist who talks about just hitting the road, traveling, exploring and finding himself. So this really resonated with her in this time in her life. Now, although Leah had changed, this change wasn't concerning to her friends and family.

They just wanted her to be happy. What was concerning though, was what happened in March of 2000. On Thursday, March 9th, Leah's older sister calls her house just chat. And there's nothing out of the ordinary. When they hang up, Leah's sister Cara had every intention of talking to Leah again very soon. Now that same exact day, Leah made plans with her roommate Nicole to babysit on Friday. Well, Friday comes and Friday goes. And Leah doesn't show up. And when Nicole gets back to their house, Leah isn't there either. And at first, this isn't super concerning right away. They would sometimes go for a couple of days without seeing each other. So it wasn't weird that her car wasn't there. I mean, they were in college, they were young, they lived their own

lives. I mean, when I was with my roommate in college, there would be a couple of days where like I wouldn't see her, but she had worked in school and I had worked in school and that was not weird. And in 2000, there wasn't texting. So it's not even like she could be like, Hey, you didn't show up tonight. Where are you? No response. There was none of that. When Nicole does start to worry is two days later, when other friends of Leah's start to call the house asking for her. Now they're saying that she also missed pre scheduled plans with them. And by this point, it's Sunday, March 12. And Nicole decides to call Leah's sister to see if maybe she's seen her or anyone in the family knows where she might be. And when she says that she hasn't, she asks her

sister, Kara, like, what should I do now? And at first, Kara doesn't want to panic. So they start this phone tree. They call everyone they know, all of Leah's friends, trying to see if anyone's been in contact with her or if anyone's even seen her car over the last couple of days. But they get nothing. When Kara comes over to Leah's house to look around, her room shows signs of someone leaving voluntarily. Like her bags are missing. Some of her clothes are missing. But even though Kara thinks she may have left on her own, she still doesn't feel good about the way Leah did it. Like she again didn't say a word to anyone. So Kara ends up going and filing a missing person report with the police anyways, even though Leah's an adult, even though it looks like she left on

her own, something is not sitting right with her sister. When she files the report on Monday, the 13th, there wasn't much for the police to do. They had no clues about where she might be or why she left in the first place. So Kara keeps trying to find answers herself. She goes back to Leah's house and pokes around her room again. And this time, on a cluttered dresser, she finds a note. And it's this piece of paper that's folded in half. And on the front was this hand-drawn picture of a Cheshire cat grin, like the one from Alice in Wonderland. And I sent you this picture. How creepy is it? It's like, I, I cannot get over it. Like I, I literally texted you and I was like, uh, what is this? I know. So her sister says that this image actually has some kind of significance. So

Leah have loved Alice in Wonderland. And she says that the actual Cheshire cat, she's like, I think it, it really was more than just like a character she loved. I think it was significant in like what she was doing. The Cheshire cat is appearing and disappearing. And when he disappears and reappears, he shows up somewhere else and he's smiling. And she's like, I think that what Leo is saying is like, I'm just, I'm going to go away for a while and I'm going to be gone. You won't know where I am, but I will come back. Now this is on the front of this letter. When Kara opens the letter, there was a stack of cash left for her roommate and a note saying that this is to cover the bills when I'm gone. And there was about enough to cover one month of expenses. So

Kara's initial thought is that Leah is going to be back pretty soon. But as she goes on to read the note, it gets more cryptic. Now what I'm about to read is from unsolved mysteries and they're notoriously like not a hundred percent on point. So I don't know if this was the exact wording or if it was fabricated, but according to that show, this is what it read. Remember everyone is together in thoughts and prayers and time passes quickly. Have faith in me, yourself and everyone. And then on the side, it said, I'm not suicidal. I am the opposite. Remember Jack Kerouac. That's super cryptic. Yeah. So I think she knew her sister would be concerned. Again, she had had a lot of tragedy in her life very quickly. So it was everyone's kind of initial

reaction to be like, are we sure that she wasn't going to harm herself, but everyone they talked to. And even the note that she left said that she wasn't in any kind of suicidal state of mind, that she just wanted to go find herself. And this is kind of backed up because when Kara shows Nicole this letter, Nicole says, you know what, this actually fits. Apparently just a couple of weeks earlier, Leah had brought up the idea to Nicole of just like taking off on a road trip across the country. And Nicole was like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea, but I have a job and I have school and I like have bills. I can't even afford to take off and go across the country. But Leah could at the time she had no job or responsibilities. And she had a small

inheritance from her parents death that allowed her to be able to take off like that and still be able to pay her bills back in North Carolina. Even though this note says not to worry, Kara is like any big sister. I mean, Brett, we are both big sisters and I will. Oh my God, like do not get between me and my siblings. I will cut you. Yeah, I will always worry about my siblings, even when they're doing fine. It's just like ingrained in me. 100%. I would especially be worrying if my sister was like, Hey, I'm fine. I'm just leaving like by like, oh, I would be like eaten. Oh, you take me with you. Yeah. And Kara is the exact same way. She's like very much. Oh, hell no, I'm still going to make sure you're okay. And luckily she actually has some of the

information that would normally be in one of our if I go missing folders, because when Leah went overseas, Kara was actually given power of attorney over her stuff. So she still had access to all of her banking records. And she was actually able to go in and see her transactions. From what she can tell, it looked like Leah had actually left the very same day that she had talked to Kara on the phone that Thursday, she had gone to the bank that afternoon and withdrawn $3,000 in cash. And from there, she watched her debit card and it looks like she just traveled west. Now, Kara knows for sure that on March 10th, Leah was in Tennessee. Then by March 13th, she was in Oregon because those are where her debit card was used for gas each time. The transaction in Oregon was just a day or

two before Kara went looking. So from all she could tell her sister was okay and clearly on some journey of self discovery or a journey of funsies, like it didn't matter. And although she didn't love it, she knew that Leah was an adult who clearly left on her own and she assumed that she needed to kind of sit back and eventually Leah would contact her. And again, from the note in the money that she left at the very least, everything seemed like Leah should be home in a month. What Kara didn't know though, is that she should have kept checking Leah's transactions. If she would have, she would have seen that that transaction on the 13th was the last one Leah would ever make. So Sunday, March 19th rolls around and this is actually Kara's birthday. And she thinks surely

there will be some kind of contact from Leah on her birthday. Instead, she gets contacted by someone very unexpected. When she comes home that day, there's a note in her door from the police saying that she should call the sheriff's office out in Bellingham, Washington, because her sister's car had been found. What? When Kara calls the sheriff there, this is what she learns. Apparently, just one day earlier on March 18th, a local man and his wife were running the trails in a pine forest. When all of a sudden they spot some clothes hanging from a tree. They move closer to the side of the road to investigate and down this ravine off the side of the road in a ditch, they see a vehicle and they actually go down there and look at this and the site is even more spooky. There

are clothes everywhere, blankets and pillows covering the windows, but also there are some very like private personal items like passport, a checkbook, just laying around like no one would have left a site like this. So the couple calls this into police. When police get there and they see the North Carolina license plate, they call into North Carolina and the North Carolina Raleigh Durham police are the ones who actually linked it to the missing person's report from Kara. And so they're the ones who go and leave the note on Kara's door. So when Kara gets this, she is sick to her stomach. And after she talks to police and realize they found the car, but they did not find Leah, her and her brother Heath immediately go out to assist with the search. And what they learned

about the crash when they get there is extremely disturbing. So it appeared from everything that they could tell from the way it went off that the vehicle was going uphill at about 30 or 40 miles per hour when it went off the side of the road. And this accident site was, even though it was the Bellingham Sheriff's Office, this area was like 30 miles outside of Bellingham. When it went off of the road, the vehicle was tossed like end over end, just like rolling down the site of this hill. It was a very severe accident. But for this very severe accident, there didn't seem to be any sign of injury. And moreover, there didn't seem to be any sign that anyone was ever in the car. What? Yeah. So the seat belt hadn't been like extended the way they would normally

see in an accident, which means that whoever was driving or in the car, if there was a person in the car, they weren't wearing their seat belt. So the next thing you would expect to see is like damage to the steering wheel or damage to the windshield, like from somebody's head. But neither one of those have the kind of damage you would expect to see. And most glaring of all of this horrible accident, there's no blood anywhere. And there are no like foot tracks, no signs of any activity leading away from the crash site. So from all accounts, it looks like this crash happened without a person in the car, which seems impossible because again, this car was accelerating uphill. So giant mystery. So even though the signs are pointing to the fact that nobody was in the car,

they again can't figure out how that would have happened. So they start checking with hospitals. Somebody in this car had to have been in bad shape. So they go around asking all the hospitals, if there's someone that was fitting Leah's description, like around the time that she would have been in Bellingham. And there's absolutely nothing. So the police just like all they have to latch on to is this car. And they really think that the answer lays within this car. Now, what they know is that Leah paid for gas in Oregon on March 13. Then her car was found five days later. Whatever happened between or after those times is a mystery. But getting answers to that might lead them to Leah. So that's what they focus all of their efforts on. Police and crime

scene texts continue to process the car and inside they find some crucial clues. The first one is they find this little box and inside the box is a movie ticket to the movie American Beauty. And she had gone to see this on the 13th at a mall in Bellingham, Washington. Now they also find that gas receipt from Oregon, that same transaction that Kara had seen on her debit card, like banking statement. So that was actually from the same morning. So what they know is that she got gas that morning and then drove like five or six hours to Bellingham. And they figure if she was on the road all morning and then went to a movie, she likely would have stayed in Bellingham for at least a couple of hours before she hit the road again. Yeah, right. So like they're hoping maybe

that she would have had some interaction with some of the locals. So they start making missing person flyers and posting them everywhere. And they start at the movie theater where they know that she was and they hadn't seen her. So they work their way out from there. Near the movie theater is that mall that it's kind of connected to. And while they're putting up fires everywhere, Kara sees one of the only sit down restaurants there. And she says that it totally looked like a place her sister would have gone in. So she goes in to ask if anyone working there recognized her sister. And sure enough, they did. The person working there said that Leah came in alone that day and ate at the bar. And she was sitting between two guys, but she didn't come with them. And he

said they just didn't have any more information that he's like, I didn't really have any interaction with her like, yeah, I gave her food, but she was by herself. And that's it. Luckily, though, someone important saw the flyers and they call in with another tip. And it was a guy who was actually sitting next to Leah in the restaurant that day. And he says, Listen, yeah, I sat next to her, but I really didn't have any interaction with her. But as police continue to question him, he does say that there was a man on the other side of her that she was actually talking to the whole time. So they end up getting a hold of this guy number two, I'll call him. And I assume that they did this through some kind of credit card transaction with the restaurant, or maybe he

was like a super regular. And they didn't say exactly, but however they get to him, they do. And he admits sitting next to her and even having a conversation with her. And he said that they were talking about Jack Kerouac. So they're even more convinced that this isn't just like a fluke, this definitely was Leah. But he adds something new to the story. He said that after they chatted and after she was done with her meal, she ended up leaving with a man named Barry. And he gives a super detailed description of this Barry guy so much so that they bring in a sketch artist and they produce a sketch, which I will post on our Instagram. And Brett, you're looking at it right now. Do you want to kind of describe it for people? I mean, it's, it's, it's such a general

sketch. Like honestly, I think I texted you it looks like my brother-in-law. Yeah, it's a young guy. I would say he looks like he's in his like late 20s, early 30s. He's got like a gauge in his ear. It's like, again, very specific, but like strong, like jaw, like kind of bigger features. So you, you say it's generic. I think this guy would be recognizable. They don't say at all how this guy knew that this person's name was Barry or if this guy had any interaction with him. Like the one thing as, as all the research I was doing and as the story goes on, they never identify these guys by name, the guy who initially called in and the guy who she apparently had this conversation with. So like, I just keep calling them guy number one and guy number two. Right. So police have this

sketch, but something isn't sitting right with them because guy number one didn't say anything about her leaving with some guy named Barry. In fact, some guy named Barry never even came up. Now, all that police will tell us is they think this Barry character is completely fabricated. And I assume they reached this conclusion after looking into both guy number one and guy number two and somehow guy number two comes out looking fishier because just from the story we have, I have no reason to trust guy number one over guy number two, but they have openly said that they think guy number two is lying. But over and over again, he has stuck to his story. He says that he never had contact with Leah after that lunch. And he keeps saying that this Barry guy is involved. Now about

this time in the story brings us to March 30th. This is 12 days after her Jeep was found and 13 weeks after she went missing. And the police continue to process all of the contents in her car. And from the looks of it, it seems she left everything behind. So it's very unlikely that she would have just walked away from this car. And one of the things she left behind was all of that money that she took out of the bank. So she can't purchase anything. There's no sense in leaving cash behind. I mean, even if you didn't want to be traced, you took out $3,000. And in one of her pants pockets, they found 2,400 of that. Even more concerning to police and to her friends and family is that under her car floorboard, they found Leah's most sacred possession in the world.

It was her mother's ring. Now it's not just weird to people that it was not stolen or left behind. What's weird is that they said she would never, in a million years for any reason, take that ring off ever. It was her mother's. It was like she wore it every single day, rain, shine, shower. It was an heirloom. Yes, exactly. And they're like, I can't, she didn't take it off at home. I can't think of a reason she would have taken it off and left it in her car intentionally. So I mean, and I can't think of a reason she would either. I mean, unless she left it behind knowing that somebody, this would be assigned to someone that something sinister happened. I would say or hoping that it would be a clue. I don't, I don't know.

Or if somebody took it off of her, it seems kind of crazy that they wouldn't keep it. I mean, unless they knew it was like a very distinct ring that possibly could get traced back to them. They like had no use to pawn it or anything like that. Maybe they took it off of her thinking that she, if like, if they were getting rid of a body that it would be like detected by a metal detector, I don't know. But it was becoming painfully clear to everyone that knew Leah well that something sinister had in fact happened to her. Police decide that the next step is to bring out searchers and track dogs, helicopters, like the whole nine yards and search around the crash site looking for any sign of Leah or anyone who might have been driving her car, but they don't find a

single sign of anyone. And this is kind of unrelated, but something that sticks out to me, like even more than the ring is they make a point to say that she had pillows and blankets, like covering her windows. And I saw a picture of this and it looked like they weren't just like covering them to keep the sunlight out. It looked like the windows weren't there. So I don't know if the windows were blown out or rolled down. Wow. I mean, I have a thousand questions with someone homeless sleeping in her car, but you would think if they were, if they were, they would have gone through her stuff, found the money, found the ring, taken some clothes. It just seems like such a weird thing for police to mention, but not really have any theories on the expound on. Yeah.

Why? Yeah. Because I mean, unless maybe she was sleeping in her car and she just left it like that, I have no idea, but it's something that kind of like itches my brain. And if any of our listeners have theories, I would love to hear them. So after this, when they don't find anything at the crash site, Leah's case begins to go cold. Police and sheriff's office ask Cara what they want her to do with the car. And Cara is such a good crime junkie, because instead of selling it or telling them to get rid of it, she tells them, I want you to save it, keep it there, because I have no idea what kind of tests are going to be available in the future. And she's like, I've heard of cases getting solved years later with old evidence. And I don't want to

ever regret like taking that back. So just keep it. And this is such a good call because it's that car that would be the thing that ends up giving us evidence years later. So years go by and that Jeep just sits there and Leah's family waits. And in December of 2006, this is almost seven years after Leah's disappearance, the original detective ends up retiring and he passes along his case files. And when the new detective gets it, he says there's just something about Leah's case that he cannot shake. And he decides to take a really deep dive to see if there's anything that can shake loose, anything that was overlooked or anything that he could retest with like new technology. One thing that really stuck out to this new investigator was how was that car

accelerating up a hill with no one in it. Now, when he looks at the case file, like really looks at it, there is a key part of the car that was never processed. What? And that part is under the hood, which to me is freaking crazy. Like you have this mystery of how is this car accelerating, but you never actually look at the mechanics of the car? Like what Yahoo was in charge that day? Right, definitely. So this investigator goes out to Washington and sure enough, when they pop the hood on this baby, the cover on the starter relay was removed, which would have allowed the car to accelerate with no one in it. Now, it would have taken someone with mechanical knowledge to be able to do that. And you know who had experienced as a mechanic? Guy number two from the bar, who by the

way, left the country shortly after this investigation about Leah and he now lives in Canada, or at least at the time. I'm sorry, what? Yeah, or at least in 2011, I know he lived in Canada. I again, don't know his name, so I can't like Google stock him now. But under the hood, so we know someone messed with it. They also find fingerprints. So they have some fingerprints, know that some kind of mechanic messed with this. They also find some male DNA on some of Leah's clothing. So they ask Canadian authorities if they can have access to this guy, and they get his fingerprints, but they don't match. What? Right. Now, I don't necessarily think that this rules him out because there were no other fingerprints of like unknown males in the rest of the car, like on the steering wheel or

anything like that. So whoever did that could have worn gloves. They could have wiped everything down. It's also very likely that she took her car to the shop like before she went missing. And a person actually worked like a mechanic opened her hood and was actually working on her car. They're not wearing gloves. So it's not necessarily like a sinister thing to have a fingerprint there. It could be very mundane. Right. But we still have this DNA. Now, in 2011, they said they were still waiting for DNA, like the results to come in and for it to be compared to guy number two. It is 2018. And there's no way we're still waiting. Like that's the last thing I ever heard. But I can't find anything on guy number two being cleared or still being in the

mix. Like did something go wrong with the testing? Was he not a hundred percent matched but not totally ruled out? Like I have a zillion questions. Totally. But I have to assume that it's still silent because they haven't really furthered the investigation at all. Like maybe this guy number two really had nothing to do with it. And if that's the case, is there really a berry that we should be looking for? Like again, I kind of go back to how did we rule out for sure guy number one? Was it just because he called in and seemed more reliable? And how many times have we heard of cases where like the person wants to get involved or he came forward to point the finger at guy number two? I mean, I'm sure again, I'm sure they did some extensive research on him.

But there's just so many questions. I cannot believe there hasn't been an update on this DNA since 2011. I know. And what I would love is for this DNA that they found to be submitted to like those genealogical sites, the way that Parabon has been doing. Oh, yes. Right. So if we find out that the DNA in our clothing can be linked back to a certain family or a certain specific person and start asking questions about why their DNA is on the clothing in her car, we might be able to work backwards. So it's 2018. They're still looking for Leah. They say if she's out there, she actually will be easier to find than most because you know, one of the theories I said of the reason someone might have taken that ring off of her body was to avoid metal detectors. Well,

what I bet a stranger who may have taken Leah didn't know was that she was in that car accident. And she still has that metal rod in her femur. So a lot of the times when they're doing searches for her like out in the woods in these ravines, they're not looking for a body. They're using metal detectors. Yeah. It's 18 years later. They're looking for this metal rod. So we either need to find her and hope that it leads to the person who took her, or we need to figure out a way to use this DNA and go backwards and find the person who took her and hope we can find Leah one day. Y'all science for the win. Thank you all for tuning in for another episode. If you need extra fixes, don't forget that you can find us on social media. We're crime junkie podcast on Instagram

and crime junkie pod on Twitter. And for bonus episodes and more information about what we do, check out patreon.com slash crime junkie. Yeah, don't forget you can get all of those episodes right on your phone the same way you're getting this one. And there's like a ton of content now. There is. Yeah, you can get like multiple episodes for $5. And we're also doing an AMA. We will see you guys back next week for a brand new crime story. This episode of crime junkie was written and hosted by me, edited by David Flowers, mixed and mastered by Britt Prewott. And all of our music, including our theme comes from Justin Daniel. Crime junkie is an audio Chuck production. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?