The tv show "Disappeared" will be profiling the Leah Robert's disappearance on their next episode. Should be interesting. It airs Monday at 8 pm central time on the Investigation Discovery channel.

Ack! This is the one show currently on air that makes me wish I still had cable.

I'm really glad they are profiling this case.

I wish I had ID. I know that my TV would be on that channel 24/7.

I do not have ID either. (sigh) I had it free one weekend and I was like a kid at a candy store.

I wish I had ID. I know that my TV would be on that channel 24/7.

ID is awesome and "Disappeared" is the best true crime show since UM. There have been several old UM cases already profiled on Disappeared.

ID is awesome and "Disappeared" is the best true crime show since UM. There have been several old UM cases already profiled on Disappeared.
I have set this series up as a series recording so i don't miss new episodes. I also like sins and secrets, and stolen voices, buried secrets.

Does this show air in Canada anywhere?

I have set this series up as a series recording so i don't miss new episodes. I also like sins and secrets, and stolen voices, buried secrets.

I like "Nightmare Next Door" a lot too. "Stolen voices, buried secrets" is good but I just can't get used to the narration by the "dead" people. Kind of strange.

Thanks for the heads up crystaldawn. I'm glad that Disappeared is on TV because it continues to aid a lot of missing adult cases.

Funny enough, I thought the Leah Roberts case would be perfect for Disappeared.

I hope they also profile Leonard Dirikson's disappearance at some point.

Is this the one where the Jeep Cherokee was off the roadside with blankets covering the windows like she was protecting from the weather??

For everyone that has ID, Disappeared can be found on Discovery Channel "On Demand"

Does this show air in Canada anywhere?


Hey there, this might hopefully help out a little. Although of course airdates might vary and are probably only listed within a US schedule, it does look like Disappeared does air on ID Canada:

http://investigationdiscovery.ca/Article.aspx?aid=27690

Is this the one where the Jeep Cherokee was off the roadside with blankets covering the windows like she was protecting from the weather??



Yes thats the one.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/roberts_leah.html

"Stolen voices, buried secrets" is good but I just can't get used to the narration by the "dead" people. Kind of strange.

I know what you mean. It's a little off-putting to me.

We just started getting ID. I watch it all the time. I saw this episode last night. I thought there was some interesting info I had not seen before. I can't believe they never checked under the hood the first time around! The whole time I was thinking this was a set up. Someone sent that Jeep into the ravine with no one in it and that is what they ended up finding out. LE really bungled that one!

The narration in Stolen voices creeps me out to. Looks like they are saving the Crystal Todd episode for season finale. It is def the best narration in the commercials to me.

For those of you who weren't able to watch it I will tell a bit about the show as it gave some very interesting new info about the case. UM may have covered some of this in the beginning as Leah quits school with just a few credits shy of a degree, starts act differently and pulls away from her core group of friends. They mention the letter and money left for her roommate. They can tell by her bank statement she is driving cross country and I believe the last placed she used her card was in Oregon when she purchased gas for the last time. Her sister then gets a letter from the Sheriff's office in Bellingham, Washington asking her to call them right away. They tell her about her car being found (3000 miles from her home in NC). They do find a ticket stub for 3/13 for a movie in Bellingham and proceed to ask around and see if anyone remembers her. No one from the movie theatre remembered her but a witness says he spoke with her at the only sit down restaurant in the mall. He says she seems pleasant and told him a little about herself. He also says there was a man sitting on the other side of her at the bar and he says Leah left the restaurant alone. Police find this second witness that talked with her at the restaurant. He claims she left with a man named "Barry" and even is able to make a composite sketch. Police find absolutely zero on this man and are starting to doubt the second witnesses statement about him. Police are also starting to think that no one was in the car when it wrecked because of lack of blood or evidence of the seat belt being pulled. Then 7 years later the cold case detectives take another look at the Jeep and for the first time apparently look under the hood. This part is pretty technical so I'll just state it how they did. They said that someone had tampered with the Jeep. They said the cover on the starter relay had been removed allowing someone to start the car by turning on the key and pushing the starter relay allowing the car to accelerate on its own. They said the car would have to have been going at a significant speed to go over the ravine and the person who tampered with it would have to have a lot of mechanical knowledge. The 2nd witness at the restaurant had mechanical as well as military experience so police think he would have the knowledge to do it. They processed the car again and found some fingerprints under the hood. It took them a long time to get dna and fingerprint samples from the 2nd witness (who now lives in Canada) but they did determine he was not a match of the fingerprints found under the hood. They have also found some male dna on something left in Leah's Jeep so are in the process of determining if the 2nd suspect is a match or not.

What I found strange is I don't remember them even mentioning in this show the man who phoned stating he had seen Leah soon after the accident seeming disoriented. Why in the world would they leave that out? :confused:

I watched it too.

I am torn between a voluntary disappearance and foul play. I know that is me being somewhat of a Captain Obvious but I could equally see Leah running the Jeep off the embankment just as easily as I could see some random murderer doing it. Leah obviously wanted to go out and explore and not tell anyone beforehand. If she would leave North Carolina without alerting family, then I find it plausible she faked her disappearance.

On the other hand, the guy from the cafe is a bit suspicious with his description (and composite) of an alleged suspect. Plus I am not sure Leah would know how to mess with the starter to make the Jeep go over the cliff. But if the Jeep was "rigged" to go over the cliff, then why were blankets hung in the windows? Was it a ruse by a killer to make police think she had been sleeping in the car after it crashed? Or was Leah really sleeping there? Or, perhaps, Leah is the one who hung the blankets in the window as a ruse.

I am speculating here, but I can't help but wonder if Leah was "exploring" her sexuality a bit. The segment never mentioned a boyfriend at all, and I wonder if she might have been a closet lesbian. I am not trying to be cute here, but am wondering if it could be a possibility. Did anyone else get this vibe?

I watched it too.

I am torn between a voluntary disappearance and foul play. I know that is me being somewhat of a Captain Obvious but I could equally see Leah running the Jeep off the embankment just as easily as I could see some random murderer doing it. Leah obviously wanted to go out and explore and not tell anyone beforehand. If she would leave North Carolina without alerting family, then I find it plausible she faked her disappearance.

On the other hand, the guy from the cafe is a bit suspicious with his description (and composite) of an alleged suspect. Plus I am not sure Leah would know how to mess with the starter to make the Jeep go over the cliff. But if the Jeep was "rigged" to go over the cliff, then why were blankets hung in the windows? Was it a ruse by a killer to make police think she had been sleeping in the car after it crashed? Or was Leah really sleeping there? Or, perhaps, Leah is the one who hung the blankets in the window as a ruse.

I am speculating here, but I can't help but wonder if Leah was "exploring" her sexuality a bit. The segment never mentioned a boyfriend at all, and I wonder if she might have been a closet lesbian. I am not trying to be cute here, but am wondering if it could be a possibility. Did anyone else get this vibe?


I have pretty much been thinking about all the same things you posted. I agree any of them cold be reasonable theories as to what might have happened.

:(


I watched it Mon. night and I was kinda saddened by the way the investigator was saying that when Leah's body is ever found, they'd know by the metal rod that was put in her leg years earlier. It makes me sad because this was one of the few missing person cases on UM where I had had hope that Leah was out there still alive, albeit with amnesia, but alive.

@ Thouissat, I never thought about the lesbian angle but it's a possibility.

I must say I'm loving Disappeared. They profiled another UM case about the missing bride-to-be whose name escapes me at the moment.

Thanks, Crystaldawn, for the recap. I've been watching Disappeared since the first episode last year. About 50% of the cases are ones that I'm familiar with (like the Leah Roberts case), while the others have been completely new to me.

This is a pretty minor detail, but didn't the UM profile of Leah say she took her cat with her when she left? They didn't mention the cat at all on Disappeared.

I forgot to watch this show on Monday night. It will be aired on Monday again. I also do remember UM mentioning a cat.

Yes she did have a pet with her. I kept waiting for them to mention it but they never did.

Yes she did have a pet with her. I kept waiting for them to mention it but they never did.

When I watched the UM segment on Leah, I always wondered what happened to her cat. The Charley Project website actually mentions the fact that her cat was not found at the scene of the crash, which tells me she was killed elsewhere and foul play was in fact involved, or she took her cat with her and started a new life somewhere.

I know what you mean. It's a little off-putting to me.

Sorry for the very late comment. I think the Series "Stolen Voice, Buries Secrets" is trying to be like the novel The Lovely Bones where the murder victim is the narrator.

I agree it's a bit creepy!

Hey there, this might hopefully help out a little. Although of course airdates might vary and are probably only listed within a US schedule, it does look like Disappeared does air on ID Canada:

http://investigationdiscovery.ca/Article.aspx?aid=27690

Thanks! Unfortunately it doesn't look like my current cable provider has ID (though there is another company that does!)

They have X files too! I want!

I just saw this episode. They revealed some very interesting facts.

It's on the forbidden site under: "soul searcher"

I recommend everyone to take a look.

I was just reading some missing persons cases on The Charley Project. I thought it interesting that this young lady,Dianne Reeves went missing in the general area as Leah Roberts, her vehicle was also found in a very similar way and in the same county. I immediately thought of Leah and had to look her case up to see how close the areas were that the vehicles were found in. It really has me wondering if there is a connection.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reeves_diane.html

bump

I am speculating here, but I can't help but wonder if Leah was "exploring" her sexuality a bit. The segment never mentioned a boyfriend at all, and I wonder if she might have been a closet lesbian. I am not trying to be cute here, but am wondering if it could be a possibility. Did anyone else get this vibe?



@ Thouissat, I never thought about the lesbian angle but it's a possibility.



Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get what her sexual orientation has to do with anything. What is this "lesbian angle"?

Darn it! Am I the only one that noticed a similarity in the two cases???:confused:

I'm pretty stumped on this one. Just watched the Disappeared episode. I don't know if this guy at the restaurant was involved or not, but they didn't have anything on him. Just that he was the last known person to see her alive.

I gotta give props to the sister for nailing which restaurant Leah visited.

Robbery seems unlikely given the huge wad of cash and possesions in the car.

I was pretty amazed she drove from NC to OR in 3 days.

I know they played up the whole soul searching angle quite a bit, but I'm not sure how going to a movie theater fits into that.

I think it is possible the cat may have been picked up as a stray and the person that did so wasn't aware of the significance.

At first I thought she crashed and got out of the car, but injuries eventually took their toll and she succumbed in the woods or nearby. Now I don't know.

Bumping for Leah.

I thought it was interesting that she saw "American Beauty" in the theater. That is a kind of soul searching movie, about a man who questions his entire life and starts changing everything. Just a food for thought.

She made that drive in 3 days. Could she have been sleep deprived and that caused the crash? If that was the case, she would have been seriously injured. I don't see her as just walking away from that one.

She was known to be a very friendly girl who made friends in coffee shops. I think she could have met someone who took advantage of her, and they could have gotten rid of her jeep in this way to make it look like an accident.

It's a truly sad case. I hope her family has answers someday soon.

She was known to be a very friendly girl who made friends in coffee shops.

I was very surprised to see her episode (of Disappeared) started in a coffee shop I've been to a thousand times. She probably went to the bookstore I used to work at right by it.

Its a really sad case... I think its very unlikely that she intentionally vanished to start a new life.

Its a really sad case... I think its very unlikely that she intentionally vanished to start a new life.

I agree. I do think that she needed some time for self-reflection. It seems as if she had gone through a tremendous amount of turmoil in the last known years of her life.

I'm split 50/50 on suicide vs. tragic accident. I understand the note she left said that she wasn't suicidal, but just the opposite. However, I have known suicidal people who have made the same comments. (Actually, when a person is acting all sorts of irrational and insisting they aren't suicidal is exactly when I start to worry about them.)

The whole thing with her car just throws me. If she perished in an accident, you'd think there would be a body. Or blood. Or something. Yet there is nothing....

I was just reading some missing persons cases on The Charley Project. I thought it interesting that this young lady,Dianne Reeves went missing in the general area as Leah Roberts, her vehicle was also found in a very similar way and in the same county. I immediately thought of Leah and had to look her case up to see how close the areas were that the vehicles were found in. It really has me wondering if there is a connection.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reeves_diane.html

I see the similarity, but there is over a decade between the 2 cases