For those who liked the Maura Murray and Brianna Mailtland case, Leah Roberts' disappearance may be of interest. The car, which had a mysterious accident, played a quite important role in it. Before that, the young woman went on a journey that she did not tell anyone. Sounds intriguing? This is just the beginning, I invite you to read!
In the years leading up to the woman's disappearance, her parents had died and she was seriously injured in a car accident. According to her friends and siblings, it caused her to reflect on spiritual matters and question the direction in which her life was taking. So Leah Roberts dropped out of North Carolina State University just a few months before graduating. The note Roberts left before her mysterious disappearance suggested that she was drawing inspiration from the works of Jack Kerouac. She was particularly influenced by the novel "Dharma Bums", the action of which takes place near the place where her car was found. She also left money with her roommate to cover her monthly housing expenses, which might suggest that she was planning on returning in about four weeks.
Investigators focused on potentially conflicting evidence found in Roberts' car. Documents inside suggested she arrived around the scene a few days before the crashed car was discovered. It was suspected that no one was in the vehicle at the time it crashed. This could suggest that the car was destroyed on purpose. What really happened?
Leah Roberts was born in 1976 as the youngest of three children to a family living in the suburbs of Durham, North Carolina. When she was seventeen, her father was diagnosed with chronic lung disease. Roberts then enrolled at a university in nearby Raleigh. It was 1995. When Leah was twenty years old and a sophomore, her mother suddenly died of heart disease.
In the fall of 1998, Roberts returned to school after a long break but had a serious car accident that punctured her lung and ruptured her femur. The surgeons placed a metal bar next to the femur to help it recover faster. The victim's sister, Kara, later recalled that when Leah saw the truck she had hit, she was sure she was going to die. After she recovered, she felt like she was born again. The girl took some time off in college and decided that she wanted to live life to the fullest.
In the spring of 1999, just three weeks before his scheduled trip to Costa Rica, Father Roberts died. The woman, however, decided not to give up her plans. As Leah was leaving the country and her parents died, Kara was given power of attorney to the bank accounts where the money inherited from her parents was deposited.
Roberts dropped out of school just before graduating in Spanish and anthropology. Kara and her brother Heath tried to persuade her to hold out for the next six months but failed to convince their sister. Instead, Leah learned to play the guitar, developed an interest in photography, and adopted a cat she named Bea. The woman began to spend time in local cafes, writing poems about the meaning of life and making new friends along the way. She often talked to Jeannine Quiller with her roommate, Nicole Bennett, and her roommate about the journey west. It was an idea inspired by the writer Jack Kerouac, one of the leading representatives of the beatnik movement.
On the morning of March 9, 2000, Leah spoke to Kara on the phone about her plans for the future. No details were agreed upon, but in the end, the sisters agreed to see each other in the near future. Later in the early afternoon, Leah and Nicole agreed to look after the children the next day. The roommate left for work, and when she returned she found neither the white Jeep Cherokee 1993 that belonged to Roberts nor herself. The woman didn't really care, because Roberts had come and gone a lot at different times since she had dropped out of college. She also did not have to go to work because she used the money from her parents' inheritance.
The next day, however, Leah did not come, contrary to what had been agreed, to look after the children and did not show up at home until the end of the day. The next day, March 11, Roberts was still absent and her friends and family tried unsuccessfully to contact her. On Monday, March 13, Kara reported her sister to the police.
On March 14, Kara and Nicole (Roberts' roommate) searched the woman's room. Many of her clothes were missing, which suggested a departure and a long absence. The cat was also not found, so Leah was assumed to have taken it with her. The 23-year-old left a note: “I'm not suicidal. On the contrary, she assured her relatives. Along with the note, she left some cash (the equivalent of her share of the monthly rent and fees). It was a sign that encouraged family and friends a little. The woman on the note drew the Cheshire Cat with its signature smile. This character comes from the book "Alice in Wonderland".
Since Kara still had power of attorney over her sister's bank accounts, she was able to check the transaction history. She discovered that Roberts had withdrawn several thousand dollars on the afternoon of March 9 and then used her debit card to pay for a motel room near Memphis, Tennessee. The location of the points where the woman was making subsequent payments suggested that Leah was traveling west on Interstate 40 and then north on Interstate 5 when she reached the west end of I-40 in California.
After purchasing fuel shortly after midnight on March 13 in Brooks, Oregon, activity on the woman's account ceased. To understand why her sister traveled to the Pacific Northwest, Kara and Susie Smith, Roberts' best friend, went to a coffee shop in Durham, where she often spent time. There they met Jeannine Quiller, with whom Leah discussed Kerouac's work. Both were huge fans of the 1958 novel "Dharma Bums". This book was a kind of continuation of the most famous work of the beatnik, that is, "On the way". Kerouac worked for a time at the summit of Desolation Peak in the Washington State Cascade, looking for fires in the area. The writer was taken by the beauty of this mountain landscape and Roberts wanted to see these views with her own eyes. Kara was relieved to discover her sister's likely destination, though no new transactions were recorded in her bank account.
Kara expected Leah to call her on March 18 to wish her sister a birthday. However, this did not happen. Instead, the woman received a message from the Durham County Sheriff's Office. She was ordered to call the Whatcom County Sheriff in Bellingham, Washington. The woman found out that earlier that day her sister's Jeep was discovered deep in the woods, but the owner of the vehicle was not found.
Early in the morning in Washington state, a pair of runners noticed garments on the side of the road next to a bend at the top of the slope. Some clothes were tied to trees and branches by the road. In the woods below, at the bottom of a steep embankment, runners spotted a severely damaged missing Jeep.
Based on the route the car traveled and the degree of damage to the vehicle and nearby trees, investigators determined that the Jeep was traveling at over 60 km / h when it ran off the road and pulled down a hill. It was found that the car rolled over several times, but no traces of blood or other signs were found that would indicate that the driver was injured. There were no cracks in the windshield or damage to the seat belts, which are likely to have occurred with the driver and possible passengers inside. Police deduced that no one was possibly in the Jeep when it crashed, which might indicate that the accident had been staged.
On the other hand, there were blankets and pillows hanging in the windows, which could indicate that the vehicle served as a shelter after it crashed. Roberts' passport, her checkbook, driver's license, clothes, guitar, CDs, and other items were scattered around the area. Cat food and a small transporter were also found in the Jeep, confirming that Leah took Bea on the journey, although the cat was never found. Valuables such as jewelry and $ 2,500 cash were also left at the scene of the accident. For this reason, it can be assumed that if there was a crime in this situation, robbery was not the goal of the perpetrators.
Kara and Heath decided to fly to Bellingham to help investigators. The women saw the scene of the accident and, with the help of the sheriff's office, created a leaflet about the missing person that was circulated around the city. They also visited places Leah might have visited. They questioned owners and customers if any of them had seen Roberts. Among the missing items, a travel souvenir box was found, which was an important clue. The clue was a ticket to an afternoon screening of "American Beauty". The screening took place on March 13 at a cinema in a local mall. This suggested that Leah might have spent several hours in the city after arriving at Bellingham. She got there after a few hours' drive from a station in Oregon, where she bought fuel.
There was the only restaurant in the mall near the cinema. Heath and Kara believed Leah might have eaten there. The detectives managed to reach two clients who remembered Leah Roberts well. The men sat on either side of her that day at the counter, talking about Kerouac and the woman's plans. One new acquaintance claimed that the missing girl had gone out with another man whom she called Barry. Based on the description, the police made a memory portrait of the mysterious man. The other man, nor any other customer who was at the restaurant at the time, however, confirmed that they saw Barry at the time.
In the police garage where the Jeep was towed away, the police continued to investigate the potential tracks. The FBI has also joined the investigation as Leah has crossed state lines. Two pieces of evidence suggested Leah may have been a victim of a crime. First, the amount of money found in her pants suggested that the woman had spent very little at Bellingham. Less than what you would expect if she had been in the city for a few days. Second, Roberts's mother's engagement ring was found under the rug. Her friends in North Carolina said she was very fond of him because he associated him with her late mother. Leah is said to never have taken it off voluntarily.
Heath and Kara returned to North Carolina after four days. Investigators, on the other hand, verified the scenario according to which the 23-year-old could be injured in an accident and then set off. For two April weeks, police searched the area where Leah might be, with the help of dogs and helicopters. However, no trace of a woman was found. Security camera footage from the gas station Leah stopped at in Oregon. In the video, the woman was alone and acting rather normal, although she looked at the parking lot a few times. Unfortunately, the monitoring did not show this area, so it was not possible to establish whether any suspects might have appeared there.
While the facts of the case were featured on the popular TV show Unsolved Mysteries and Disappeared, few leads have surfaced. Unfortunately, this mysterious matter has not been solved to this day.
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