026 - The Disappearance of Leah Roberts

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2017

⏱️ 64 minutes

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Summary

Twenty-Three year old Leah Roberts had lived a difficult life and suffered multiple tragedies. By the time she was twenty-two she had lost both of her parents and been involved in a near fatal car accident. Desperate for a way to deal with her grief, and in order to find herself and her true dreams, she embarked on a secret trip.

On March 9th, 2000, she left her home in North Carolina, heading for Desolation Peak in Washington state. She was on the trail of her favorite author, Jack Kerouac, and though she had two older siblings and a close knit group of friends, she chose to tell no one. Her sister, Kara, reported her missing on Monday, March 13th, and five days later received startling news. Leah's white jeep cherokee had been found in Whatcom County, WA. It was at the bottom of an embankment, smashed up and abandoned. Worse yet, there were no signs of Leah anywhere.

A massive search was conducted, and an investigation launched but Leah was never found nor was any trace of her, outside of her jeep. Over the next seventeen years, Police would continue to be baffled and perplexed by this incredibly unusual disappearance. Did Leah Roberts choose to run off in hopes of starting a new life? Was she overcome by her grief and made the desperate choice to end her life? Was Leah severely injured in the crash and died somewhere in the wilds of the Washington wilderness? Or, was Leah a victim of foul play and not even present when her jeep went rolling over a cliff?

Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines and attempts to unravel the curious details and mystifying riddles of this mind boggling disappearance.

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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Echoes of Time v2" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/leah-roberts

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Lea Roberts was a beautiful young woman with a sharp mind and a bright future.
0:13.8	Described by many as a woman with an old soul, she had a deeply introspective philosophy,
0:19.5	and at the same time, managed to be outgoing and kind to those around her.
0:24.8	The youngest of three children, Lea had a lot to live up to, following in the footsteps
0:29.8	of her older brother and sister.
0:32.2	Sadly, Lea's life would be permanently altered by tragedy when she lost her mother to
0:37.4	heart disease.
0:39.3	It was a devastating blow to the family, and resulted in Lea taking a break from her studies
0:44.2	at North Carolina State University.
0:47.4	It was during this break that Lea was involved in a horrible car accident which nearly took
0:52.1	her life, and resulted in a punctured lung and a shattered right femur, requiring a metal
0:57.8	rod to be placed inside of her leg.
1:01.6	While for many, the combination of the loss of their mother and the terrible accident
1:05.6	would have been too overwhelming, Lea came out of it feeling reborn.
1:10.2	She confided in her sister that she thought for certain she was going to die, and that
1:14.3	when she lived, she felt she'd been given a new lease on life.
1:18.6	She no longer wanted to waste a second of it when it could all be gone so fast.
1:23.4	She began expanding her world more and more, and signed up for a field study course in
1:27.6	Costa Rica in 1999.
1:30.6	Tragically, just three months before her trip, Lea's father passed away after a long battle
1:36.0	with a chronic lung disorder.
1:38.2	For many, this would have been yet another unbearable blow, but Lea pushed through and continued
	...

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