MISSING: Leah Roberts

And I'm Britt.

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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 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@patreon.com. Crimejunkie I want to tell you about a missing persons 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 spend 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? 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 head thing.

It's a rat race. I get it.

Yeah. And there has to be something more meaningful. 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 liked 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 Carawack. 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 9, Leah's older sister calls her house just to chat, and there's nothing out of the ordinary. When they hang up, Leah's sister Kara 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've.

I mean, when I was with my roommate in college, there would be a couple of days where 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 prescheduled plans with them. And by this point, it's Sunday, March twelveth, 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 Bret, I sent you this picture.

How creepy is like, I cannot get over it. I literally texted you and I was, uh. What is this?

I know. So her sister says that this image actually has some kind of significance. So Leah has loved Alice in Wonderland, and she says that the actual Cheshire cat, she's like, I think it really was more than just like a character she loved. I think it was significant in 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 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's gonna 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 not 100% 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. Remember Jack Carawack?

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,