When the body of a young woman is discovered in an Illinois cornfield, it takes decades for her to be identified.

The investigation continues into the present as investigators seek out the person, likely a serial killer,

responsible for her death in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host Leah, crime analyst by day, and true crime storyteller by night.

And as always, I'm your co-ist Scott.

A quick heads up. This episode contains discussion of sexually motivated homicide.

Please listen with care.

Yulalia Chavez, who preferred to go by Leah and was often called Wally by family, was last seen alive in September of 1986.

She was 27 years old at the time, and it had been a while since she'd had a fixed address.

Not one to linger long in one place, she lived on the road, crisscrossing the U.S., possibly, according

to the FBI, as she followed a band. Leah had been traveling like that, carrying her belongings

in a large hikers backpack for years, ever since she'd left her home in Palo Alto a decade beforehand

when she'd been in her late teens. As a child in Palo Alto, she'd lived with

her adoptive parents, Maurice and Sonia Wilkimer, who had adopted her, along with her biological

sister from Costa Rica when Leah had been two and a half years old. Okay. The girl's adoptive mom,

Sonia, had been a professional photographer, and their adoptive dad, Maurice,

had been a U.S. Foreign Service employee, which was what had brought the Wilkimer family to Panama

where they'd been living when they'd adopted the girls. Later, they returned to the U.S. settling

with her adopted daughters and their biological son in Palo Alto, California. Leah was an artistic child with a creative side that was often on display.

She enjoyed drawing, making her own jewelry, and even her own clothing, anything that allowed

her creativity to shine through.

When she was about 13 years old, her adoptive dad, Maurice, died, leaving her adoptive mom, Sonia, to raise the three

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