Leah Hickman ////// 635 | Forensic Files

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oh it never seems to get any easier does it it doesn't get any easier telling these stories nor does it get any easier
to hear them we listen and we ask ourselves so many questions along the way questions like why her or why
him what would I have done in this situation and of course course could this have been
avoided sometimes the why her or him is answered in the story The what would I have done part
well that's up to you and could this have been avoided I'll fill you in the answer is
almost always yes the overwhelming majority of these cas PES simply boils down to very bad and horrible person does
something very wrong and horribly bad to a good person but even with answers it doesn't
get any easier for 7 years we have been researching writing and telling these true crime
stories and all of us have certainly learned some very profound things along the
way but often we still can't make any sense out of this violence or ever get over the Innocence
Lost Innocence Lost is really the most honest way to summarize this week's True Crime Story the victim was a 21-year-old
college girl a young woman that was well-liked hardworking and just straight up a very
good person almost too innocent to be 21 years of age she didn't seek trouble and
she didn't start trouble she was close with her family and friends she got good grades and even though she was a young
independent woman she still checked in with Mom and Dad she looked to her older sister for
God guidance after leaving her parents' home and going off to college she regularly told her parents
her sibling and friends what she was up to where she was going and with whom she'd be going
with no problems here right you would think that would be the case but we've been doing this long
enough to know that the wolf is always at the door today's True Crime Story is about a
young woman who should have had the world at her feet she was packing up and preparing to
head home for the holidays until she became lost and stolen away forever Innocence Lost and it doesn't
get any easier this is a tragic Cold Case story story of Leah Hickman and this is true
crime [Music] garage 21-year-old Leah Hickman was a journalism student at Marshall
University Marshall is located in Huntington West Virginia and in 2020 had more than
11,000 students now this week's True Crime Story however takes place back in 2007 our first real true sign of trouble
here Captain is when Leah Hickman goes missing in December of 2007 now at the time Leah shared an
apartment located on 8th Avenue in Huntington with her older half sister Jessica Vickers Jessica was Leah's
mother's daughter from her first marriage when our story kicks off in 2007 Leah's father Ron or Ronnie was
separated from Leah's mother Leah was close with her half-sister as they not only lived together but also spent a lot
of time together as we will see when we get into the timeline leading up to The Disappearance but she was also close
with her father and close with her mother as well Leah is described as a pretty regular college student but I
thought she was much more impressive than just a regular college student who tries hard Leah was outgoing she had a
lot of friends she was studious cared greatly about her grades and education she was driven and focused she worked
hard both at work and at school Leah worked at the Dress Barn the thing here Captain the thing that makes this case
to me a real shocker is just how truly innocent Leah was like we said in the trailer she didn't look for trouble she
didn't get into trouble she didn't party a lot like many of the 20 and 21 year old college students Not only was she
close with her half sister Jessica she was close with her father and her mother as well
21-year-old Marshall University student Leah Hickman Leah Hickman was reported missing on December 16th 2007 and this
is a pretty thorough report when the missing person's report is filed in this case considering that we have four
persons present when the report is filed present we have Leah's mother Sher Russell Leah's half sister Jessica
Vickers Leah's best friend Caitlyn starky and another friend who is not named in the reports she's reported
missing to the hington Police Department on Sunday December 16th 2007 being reported on this day however the alarm
was actually raised the previous day on the 15th this when her half sister and roommate Jessica Vickers went to the
apartment that the two shared looking for her sister this is going to be leading into the winter break leading
into the winter break for Marshall University and its students but also we have Leah's half sister and roommate
Jessica Vickers who was planning to go and stay with her boyfriend for what is an indeterminate amount of time I don't
know how many nights she was intending to stay there there was some talk that Jessica may be going home for the
holidays as well so while we have this these two living together in this apartment in Huntington West Virginia we
also have the fact that both of them are getting ready to leave and take a break
not just from school for Leah but also take a break from their apartment for a period of time as well and like we said
Leah was reported missing on the 16th but alarms were already raised on the 15th and like Nick was saying we have
four individuals that end up making this phone call so they they did their due diligence to try to track her down
themselves and were unsuccessful yeah the trouble Starts Here captain on the 15th when Jessica vicker's
roommate half sister to Leah is sent to the apartment looking for her sister and
she's sent there at the request of their mother now there when she gets there Jessica has already gone and stayed the
previous night at her boyfriend's home when she gets to the apartment that they shared there she finds Leah's car parked
out front of the apartment this is typical behavior from my understanding and I'm going to do do my best as we go
through this story to describe the apartment the layout and how it's situated on the street because I believe
that that is very important to this case so you have street parking right in front and on the side
of this apartment the apartment building itself is located on a corner and it's on 8th
Avenue she parked right in front of the apartment on the street however there is
a small parking area that is designated for the apartment's occupants and residents right behind the building
itself but from my understanding that it is that Leah typically would park on the
street in front of the apartment and this seems to be her preferred parking space so when Jessica Vickers gets to
the apartment on that Saturday looking for her sister the first thing she's going to notice is Leah's bright yellow
yellow Chevy Cavalier parked in street parking right in front of the apartment she gets into the apartment quickly
discovers Leah's purse and car keys inside of the apartment the back door there's a back door to this apartment
which leads to a stairwell so this just doesn't go out and exit the building it's a back door from the apartment that
goes to a stairwell a twostory stairwell well I guess would be a three-story stairwell I apologize that's a common
space that anybody that has an apartment inside this building can access that door from their apartment to the
stairwell Jessica says that she found this door to be unlocked and in fact many of the reports out there say that
the door was slightly open again let me describe this apartment a little bit more thoroughly here Captain because
this is the key I believe to understanding this week's case I believe that damn near everything about the
apartment also would tell us that our suspect pool in this case is probably not that large right with this case in
all cases we cover we'll be posting some of the pictures so you can see this apartment building more in detail on
social media it's a all brick apartment with multiple apartment units in this building the address was 4038 Avenue
Huntington West Virginia and as we said it's located at an intersection this is 8th Avenue and 4th Street like the
captain said it's a red brick building it's brick from head to toe out front where Leo would typically Park facing
8th Avenue you have a twostory open porch and if you're looking from the street there you can see a door uh once
you go up a a few steps you can see a door and you can see a big large window for each one of the four apartment units
so this building has four apartment units in it you have two on the second floor two on
the ground level floor two on the right two on the left it looks to be rather spacious for apartments now from my
understanding and from what I've been told because there are no pictures available online that I could find of
the interior of the layout anyway of this building so that door that you would see from 8th Avenue if you go in
that door there is a shared space where you would then go and access your front door to your apartment then remember at
the very back of the building we also have four doors from each one of the four apartments that goes into that
enclosed stairwell which again is another common space why do we need this these two
different ins and outs to each apartment well you have this really nice front porch area if you're on the second floor
you have a balcony that oversees that front porch and then once you're inside you you access that common area you can
go into your your front door from there your back door to your apartment goes to
that stairwell that stairwell is key because that stair will lead to the basement and in the basement level you
have a shared space with washers and dryers so that's the laundry area for the four apartments in this building now
this is not from my understanding Captain it's not part of a larger apartment complex this is simply a one
building unit I'm sorry this is simply one building with four apartment units inside of it the other thing that's key
to this case two is the other residents because at the time there's practically nobody else living in this building you
have Leah and her sister are living in one unit you have the man that owns the building itself he lives in one unit and
the other two units were unoccupied at the time and from some Reports most reports it's a little confusing because
some reports state that there was repairs going on inside the building other reports state that there were
Renovations going on in the two empty units but both can be true one could be described as repairs where it's the same
thing that's going on and they're actually renovating those other units from my understanding Captain the man
that owned the building he's the only other resident that shares a unit in this building with Leah and her sister
but he's out of town he's in Florida or someplace warm and sunny for the winter and so much so that we have the police
on record stating that yes we checked this other dude out that lived there that owned the building and he was gone
had been gone for days and had a rock solid Alibi he was many many miles away in another state well I'm glad you bring
that up because since the owner lives part-time in another state he has maintenance workers and there was
maintenance being done on the apartment during that time period that Leo went missing yes I've seen reports that state
that his brother was in charge of overseeing things while he was gone I don't know if that meant that the
brother was living there or staying nights there my guess is probably not but also that doesn't mean that his
brother was responsible for actually doing the repairs it might just be hey if you get a call you need to call one
of my maintenance workers yes my understanding the way that it's described is that he was overseeing the
building and that this was a regular thing he would oversee the building when his brother would be gone for these
extensive periods of time and he operated as you know a property manager mostly when his brother was gone and
like you said yes there are reports of repairs reports of Renovations maintenance so there were other people
that would be in and out of this apartment building around the same time let's dive into a detailed timeline of
Leah's disappearance let's start with Sunday December 9th so roughly about a week before she goes missing we have
Leah Hickman's final week of school which started off routinely okay this is this is a routine thing for her and her
sister we have Leah and her sister Jessica they would go I found this to be very interesting and I think that it
pointed out to me how close these two likely were which makes this set this story even more
heartbreaking but not only do they live together they have a weekly breakfast that they regularly did together at Bob
Evans and this takes place on that Sunday December 9th they would typically go and drink hot chocolate Leah would
usually order pie while they were there and she had some of her favorites maybe get a cheesecake or A Slice of
Cheesecake while she was there so on that Sunday business as usual the Two Sisters go out for a nice breakfast
together at Bob Evans the next day December 10th we have classes that resumed at Marshall
University and the students were in the process of taking finals this week let's
fast forward a little bit to December 13th this is that Thursday that day was a trip for Leah to
go visit her mother Sher Russell she went to visit her mom as she would regularly but I guess this was
somewhat of a a less routine visit because it was for her to check up on her mother I guess her mother had some
health test recently and they were all kind of worried about what the results of those tests would be on this Thursday
Leah also spoke with her best friend Caitlyn starky they discussed making plans for Friday night that leads us to
Friday December 14th according to Jessica Vickers Leah's half sister she says that she woke Leah up on that
Friday morning this in preparation for a trip together to the Huntington Mall the
sisters ate breakfast and then headed out for Christmas shopping they were going to do some Christmas shopping
together the sister Jessica she reports that they arrived at the the mall promptly around 900
a.m. about 2 hours later around 11:00 a.m. they left the mall and returned back to their apartment Jessica said
that the trip back was special as she would go on to describe for the papers a recent email that Leah had sent Jessica
praised her sister for improvements in her writing skills so they're having this moment they went Christmas shopping
together and they're having a bit of a bonding moment she says or recalls on the way home from the mall that Friday
morning that will take us up to 1:30 p.m. this is when Leah calls her mother her mother is busy cleaning at the time
they did speak briefly Leah spoke to her mom about coming home that evening even
though she had scheduled work the following day her mother convinces her to meet her at the Huntington Mall later
that evening now around 300 p.m. Leah calls her father Ron Hickman he's at work and he would later describ the
phone call this conversation as Leah checking in unfortunately this would be their last telephone conversation at
3:30 Jessica returned home for lunch she packs up a few things for a weekend stay at her boyfriend's she said
that when she's there at the apartment she sees Leah Leah is in the kitchen washing dishes she said that they spoke
briefly Leah seemed excited about her grades she was getting good grades at the time and so she was excited about
putting in the hard work getting good grades she was looking forward to the holiday season they also discussed their
upcoming Sunday morning breakfast at Bob Evans and then Jessica leaves this is when we really need to start focusing in
on the timeline here because the alarm is raised on that Saturday and Leah is reported missing on that Sunday it's
really at this time when we start start backing into events and known events of Leah it's around this time that we're
going to see that she likely whatever happened to Leah went down that evening and she was probably actually missing
starting Friday evening Friday night so let's start with 5:30 p.m. this is when Leah goes to a local
McDonald's it's my understanding captain that this McDonald's is a six-minute round trip so roughly 3 there 3 minutes
back to go pick up some fast food for quick dinner that night yeah there's actually a map of this and it's it's
very close a couple blocks away I've also been told that this McDonald's is no longer in existence so if you are
trolling on a map or if you're driving in the area looking for the closest McDonald's to this
403 8th Avenue Apartment the one that we are discussing right now is no longer there I could be wrong but I believe
that the building is still there but it's not a McDonald's obviously so Leah talked to her friend and it's always
just reported as friend I believe that this is Caitlyn starky that they're talking about and I think that I've seen
this in one of the reports that it was in fact Caitlyn starky who we've already brought up so she talks to her friend
via VIA her cell phone so Leah has her own cell phone she's talking to her friend about
cleaning supplies and plans that she she planned to spend some time cleaning that
evening and this would be the last conversation between Leah and her friend yeah what a sad situation around the
same time we have Leah's mother and her stepson who arrive at the Huntington Mall remember Leah is
supposed to be meeting them at this mall the plan was for Leah to call when she arrived at the mall but
unfortunately the stepson forgot his cell phone in the car Leah had her mother's phone because of a bad battery
Leah never arrived at the mall so between 6:30 p.m. and 700 p.m. that night the mother stepson Duo they leave
the mall and this is when mother decides to call her daughter from the car because she's concerned that her
daughter didn't show up and the call goes straight to voicemail so the mother continued to call Leah Hickman over and
over again through the 11 p.m hour but gets the same result each time going to voicemail every single time and she said
that she just initially feared that Leah was mad that maybe Leah had made the trip to the mall gets there tries to
call but because the cell phone is left in the car doesn't get a hold of anybody
and thinks that oh they got their wires crossed or she got stood up or whatever happened and people weren't where they
were supposed to be and maybe Leah got upset that she had to make the trip for nothing yeah I'm not going to fault her
for not understanding technology but the technology at the time she would have been able to see if Leah called just to
be clear they get back to the car Leah's mom is using her son's cell phone to call technically her own cell phone this
part is very tricky about the story here Captain because this is the only report
that says that Leah has her mom's cell phone other reports state that Leah had her own cell phone but I guess both
reports can be right she could have her cell phone and she could have her mother's cell phone I'm going to just go
out on a limb here if she tried to call her own cell phone let's say Leo was borrowing that cell phone she tried to
call goes straight to voicemail that's a red flag we don't know if she showed up
to the mall so that's a red flag now we're calling it's going straight to voicemail she probably tried calling
Leah's phone as well and if there was a battery issue obviously that would go to
voicemail as well but as a parent I would think that this is red flag after red flag and I'd be getting pretty
worried there are some people online who have stated they don't understand why the mother didn't drive out to the
apartment that night I don't know I don't get the vibe that we're frantically calling over and over and
over again I get the vibe that it's more of I'll give her a call here at 7 I'll give her a call at 8 uh maybe 9 9:30 a
handful of times she is a grown woman she's 21 years of age and we also don't know their
relationship could could it be a situation where we have mom who says I just figured she was mad that could be
something that's fairly normal Maybe maybe they've had plans that got busted up before and and Leah didn't take it
too well but what we do know that happened is is the phone calls take place but also that same night Captain
we have Leah Hickman who has plans they're kind of loose plans Loosey Goosey plans here with her friend
Caitlyn starky right and Leah does not arrive for those plans as well from my understanding on that Thursday the day
earlier when starky and Leah Hickman spoke Caitlyn starky works at a local nightclub Leah had said hey on Friday
night you know I'm going to I'm going to be doing some cleaning I'm going to be packing up some clothes to go home for
the winter break but I'm probably not coming home until or not going home until the following day so regardless of
what I got going on this Friday I'll swing by where you work and drop in and see you briefly Friday night that
doesn't happen and so the friend Caitlyn tries reaching out to Leah as well and of course she's getting the same result
she's getting Leah Hickman's [Music] voicemail this holiday season give a gift to your loved that makes them feel
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that's better help hp.com [Music] garage all right we are back ladies and gents cheers everybody cheers to you
captain and happy holidays to everybody out there when we left off we have family and friends who are trying to get
in touch with Leah Hickman they are unsuccessful trying to get in touch with her now we do have Leah Hickman who is
on social media at the time she was on the old MySpace back in 2007 and it is reported that Leah Hickman
last logged on to her Myspace page sometime on that Friday unfortunately for these reports no specific time is
given I do want to Circle back to the McDonald's visit because there's a couple things here we had pointed out
that it's about a three minute drive to McDonald's and a three-minute drive coming back one of the reports out there
and I think that this is probably the more likely report because it's a similar report it's just a little more
detailed it says at 540 p.m. Leah's on the phone with her friend on a cell phone call to her friend saying that she
is going to McDonald's to get some food get some dinner for that night this is the last phone call that is made from
Leah's phone and what what again is difficult is we have the report of well she was borrowing her mother's phone so
is this the last it's reported as this is the last made call from her phone her phone not her mom's phone so the mom's
phone thing is all very weird to me now what's interesting though is we do know that Leah made it to the McDonald's and
she made it home successfully from the McDonald's because later police would find the McDonald's bag food consumed
and the receipt for the purchase and the receipt time is 5:40 p.m. so that goes along with the idea that she's on the
phone with her friend at that same time while she's going through the drive-thru
we know that she makes it home and she was home at least a long enough period of time to consume the food and throw it
away but to me this is the most important time period because let's say a little bit before 6 is when I think
whatever happen happen and that's when you need to start looking at the Inner Circle their Alibis for around that time
period I'd say around that time period to an hour to a twoh hour window and look at the Inner Circle and then start
looking at her Outer Circle of Friends the difficult thing here for law enforcement is always going to be one
the neighborhood you know Act of random violence and also that she went to college and so her interactions with how
many students were she was she in class with how many students did she have interaction with on a weekly basis well
and it looks to me Captain that from her 8th Avenue apartment to the Huntington Mall we're talking about an 18 to 20
minute drive and pay attention to our timeline here we're saying 5:40 she's got a receipt timestamp from the
McDonald's restaurant that is three a three minutes drive from her apartment the timeline states that between 6:30
and 700 p.m. her mom and Stepbrother are leaving the mall they've left the mall and they've started to call Leah at this
time to figure out what happened you know did oh we're sorry we screwed things up we left the phone in the car
where are you that sort of thing those calls are going to voicemail you have to believe given the time frame it would
take her to get to the mall she likely was going to be leaving her apartment rather soon right to make it to the mall
in time to meet up with her mother yeah she she returned home but if everything had gone as planned it would stand a
reason that she would have left the apartment so I think you have to be right here that something happened
between 5:40 p.m. you know you would say 6:30 7:00 when they start to call Leah but you could probably push that back to
610 6:15 we have a really short window of time where something happened something went down that stopped and
prevented Leah from going about her business yeah and and real quick and I don't know if you can answer that
off the top of your head or if you can find it in your notes real quick but so we roughly have this a little bit before
6:00 a little bit after 6:00 that's the time window of when we think something happened when is it that her half sister
gets to the apartment it's the following day right that's correct that's correct
and it's like early late morning early afternoon we don't have an exact time for it but we we can narrow it down to
that part so without sounding too suspicious of family members here right because that's a that's a a tight rope
that I do not enjoy balancing on but I've always wanted to know more about that I'm using air quotes here that
phone call or those phone calls going from mother to daughter from step brother to step sister the Call's trying
to get in touch with Leah I'm not saying that they didn't happen but what I'm saying is with this being such a crucial
part in our timeline I am very curious I was very curious to see what cell phone
information and Technology the Huntington Police Department accessed in this case to verify statements given to
the police you could easily check to see if those phone calls were made if those
phone calls weren't made we got a whole different set of circumstances here well
one also could argue that were still in the infant stages of social media 2007 we were definitely in the beginning
stages so I wouldn't put it past law enforcement to not check that information because a lot of people at
that time that were on MySpace were using that as a a text message device so is it possible that she was
communicating with somebody through Myspace and not through her her cell phone or
through her mother's cell phone and listen to what goes on that day so on the Saturday December 15th we have the
sister who comes back to the apartment looking for Leah we don't have an exact time of when she arrives there again
it's reported as the morning time she arrives at the apartment this is when she finds her sister's purse and keys
and car are all where she would expect them to be however her sister is nowhere to be found at the apartment
and then she finds this back door unlocked in a jar that goes to the stairwell at 1:01 p.m. Jessica the half
sister post a message on Leah's Myspace page that reads Oh Sister where are you triple question mark whatever time she
arrives there that morning she has enough time to investigate the situation the apartment and such and then have
enough time to sit St and worry and then make this post onto her Myspace page that says Oh Sister where are you I know
that sometimes it's uncomfortable for people to take a look at the family I don't think so I think that's out of
respect for their loved one that they have lost if somebody in my family was murdered or missing look at us look at
the family first rule Us in or out and then you can move on with the investigation and I would hope that my
family members would be as Cooperative as they could be with law enforcement so they could start looking in the correct
direction I find this post to be kind of silly and suspicious oh sister can you can you read it again so
we have it for forba him again oh sister where are you triple question mark just
seems a little strange to me where you could just put hey we're looking for you or hey answer your phone
or something like that but this o sister seems a little bizarre to me again if she's extremely concerned if she's
panicking she's probably not really worried about choice of words here right the other thing too when I read it it
almost sounds like frustration like oh I've looked high and low for the last coup couple of hours for my sister this
doesn't make any sense it almost sounds a little frustrated I think the big red flag here goes down at 5 or goes up if
you will at 5:00 p.m. on that Saturday this is when she does not show up when Leah does not show up for her scheduled
work shift at the dress bar right she was only supposed to be working about 4 five hours that night now keep in mind
this is middle of December going into the holiday you know approaching Christmas holiday shopping is a priority
for most people at this time so this would be a busy shift this would be a a busy store she doesn't arrive for this
shift and she's worked there for five or six months at this point later supervisors and managers went on record
saying it was completely out of the norm for Leah to not show up for work number
one number two she would call if she was just going to be a minute or two late right so when she doesn't show up and
there's no communication at all this is the big major red flag here and I'm sure
that this was for the family as well because look if you return to the apartment there's a high
probability that there's been many times that sister returns to the apartment and
the other sister is not there there's probably been even a one or two times that maybe she gets back to the
apartment and her sister's car is there but her sister is not there right and so
you look around you're trying to call everything's going to voicemail again it may just be frustration oh well she's
she's probably with one of her friends somebody probably picked her up and damn it she left this back door unlocked I
wish she would pick up her phone so we could figure it out but then boom she doesn't go to work and now you're
starting to go well she's probably not with a friend she's probably not just out doing something now it appears that
she's missing yeah it's probably time for the family to hit the panic button well and during the course of this time
period this is going to take us into that Sunday now what we do know that happens is that Leah's mother Sher
Russell attempted to place a missing person's Report with the West Virginia State Police they encouraged her to make
the report with on the more local level in Huntington so it's on that Sunday where we have mom sister and two friends
all present when the missing person's report is filed this is what you want to happen right in these cases we see so
many times where there's a a huge delay in reporting that somebody's missing or there's a not much of a we give a damn
factor from the police but this is this is about as close as you can get it I would prefer that she had been
officially reported missing that Saturday night but it takes place that Sunday so again it's relatively quickly
the police clearly they care they're in there taking the report report and to top that off you have four individuals
that are rather close to our missing person that are there to answer questions and flesh out a timeline for
police right there when the report is being taken absolutely over the course of the next few days we're going to have
police doing everything that we would expect them to be doing they're going to be inter interviewing people closest to
Leah they're going to be canvasing the area around the apartment probably checking in even with the university and
with Leah's work at the Dress Barn talking to all persons involved we do get the Dress Barn that announces a
$10,000 reward for information about Leah Hickman's whereabouts this comes out on that Wednesday so things are
getting Bleak right things are getting dark where they were once concerned for a missing person now they're starting to
fear the worst has happened unfortunately it looks like a lot of those suspicions were conf firmed
on Friday December 21st and this is when the Huntington Police find the body of a
white female in the laundry room area of Leah Hickman's apartment building of course the authorities at the time at
this discovery believe that it is in fact Leah's body but until she is conclusively identified they are not
making that announcement to the public yeah this it kind of upsets me a little bit about law enforcement and and hear
me out on this what I've learned and again I'm not even the second smartest guy in this room but what we've learned
through these cases look at the John B Ramsey case you show up it's a missing person report you check that house
thoroughly and they could have done that and they they would have I think they would have had a little more
information and could have been more on top of this situation if they would have
found her body on December 16th I can understand anyway why it went down the way that it did but it's very
disappointing because it's obvious that she was killed in that building somewhere right to me the concealing the
body inside the building itself is whoever killed her had a big problem and that big problem was hiding the body
hiding the body was a big problem because you got to get it out of the building you got to transport it for
whatever reason whoever is responsible decided that their best bet or the safest way for them to try to
conceal this crime is to conceal the body inside the building itself so this makes it sound like right when you when
you first hear this statement that I just read to you it makes it sound like wow the cops and the family and and the
friends they didn't do a very good job her body's found in the laundry room well it's a little more I shouldn't even
say a little it's quite more complicated than that yes yes and and this is where
I give them a little bit of a pass but again like I said I think if I'm law enforcement and I'm showing up just
knowing what I know from doing this podcast I am searching high and low in that residence so I've received a very
good description of this basement because I think that this is one of the keys to this case so in the basement you
have a crawl space which this crawl space is located in the front portion of that basement so the portion that is
closest to 8th Avenue then in the larger portion which is open it's an open area
accessible to all that live in the apartment building for washing machines and dryers so people can do their
laundry there in the basement this crawl space is accessed through a door so there's
these doors on this front wall of the basement one of the doors is a crawl space and now this again I already
pointed out that this is a spacious this is a big building that these apartments
appear to be quite spacious the information I have Captain is that the cross space was about onethird of that
basement area and 2/3 of the basement was that laundry area so we're talking about a good amount of space as far as a
crawl space goes but the crawl space is in the front towards 8th Avenue and there it's about the door itself is
about 40 to 48 in above the basement floor we have an opening that's only about 28 in by 36 Ines so not not a very
big opening but also you have it goes back for several feet I've been told that it goes back anywhere from 15 to 30
feet from that little door so what what is on record is that they opened that door and looked in those doors that were
at the front of that basement at least one or two times before she was eventually discovered in one of the
crawl spaces everyone saying the same thing if you opened up the door and you looked in you would not have been able
to see her from the door in fact the the space itself probably looked like it was
empty and it was not until after a week's time pass from the Friday that they start worrying about
Leah that her body is discovered because somebody eventually got into the space and went back in and crawled to it
somebody whoever placed her in that crawl space Not only placed her there to hide her but she was wrapped up in
plastic and then concealed all the way to the very front of that crawl space closest to the 8th Avenue but furthest
from the crawl space door right and basically everything I've heard is they weren't able to see her until they
actually lit up that crawl space and so in their defense you know you go in that
room and you look around and even look into the crawl space you're not going to see her until you you're able to shine
some light onto that area but this creates for an interesting aspect of the crime itself right one it's been said by
many people that you wouldn't know that that space even exist unless you had some good information extensive
information and knowledge about the building itself what we have here Captain is you you sit there and we've
told so many of these stories we've reviewed so many of these cases my mind first went to to where I'm sure your
mind went to she went to McDonald's some creep Soler decided to follow her figured out how to get in the apartment
and then did something terrible and and then fled the scene however you factor in the aspect of well she's concealed in
an area where everybody's saying that you had to have extensive knowledge of the building to to know to even put her
there that a a more random suspect and random attack seems much less L yeah I I think it seems less likely but it's not
out of the realm of possibility that somebody goes into her apartment murders her in her apartment and then freaks out
and says well now I got to do something to conceal the body which makes not a lot of sense to me no if it's a random
person because why wouldn't you just leave the body there yeah they would just leave yeah and so unless the attack
took place in the laundry area which is a possibility because like you said she's coming home she's going to eat her
food maybe she's going to toss something in the dryer real quick or maybe she's going to do a load of laundry real quick
that that's one of the things I'd like to know do they find any of her laundry in the laundry room well and that's the
problem with this case there's been very little information that's been put out and and it's now unfortunately coming up
on 15 years the 15year anniversary of this sad day of when she was noticed to be missing is coming up this week here's
a couple things couple details that we know one she told her friend she told at least one other person that she would be
doing laundry that evening right two when the apartment is found empty the following day she already has one
bag one piece of luggage that is packed up so she was going to return home leave
the apartment visit mom and dad and keep in mind they live separate so she's probably making more than one stop and
she's going to be gone for several days several nights was the original idea and
I know that when I'm going away on a trip or a vacation or anything like that I'm usually the day before I leave I'm
busy doing some laundry because I need to get clothes together for the upcoming days or week that's ahead and so we know
that she said she was going to be doing some laundry there's a chance that she was given that the back door was found
unlocked and and a jar and later the sister Jessica she's telling police and and family and friends look it was not
uncommon for us because it's cumbersome right you're trying to take baskets of laundry down two flights of stairs to
the basement to do your laundry there and she said it was very common for us to leave the door unlocked but also
leave it so it's just open enough that you could kick it open with your foot when you're coming back up the steps
with all of your clothes right so so there's everything's in place to be setting the table for her to be doing
laundry that evening one thing that's a little weird to me though it seems like okay maybe she threw some clothes in
before she went to McDonald's and that's why she had to come back and didn't just
eat on the way to the mall that she needed to change her clothes or needed to get something out of the dryer when
she returned to the apartment so maybe she she gets back and boom she's in the laundry room rather quickly but the
other thing that's interesting here is that's such a small window of time for when she was supposed to be to the
mall so if everybody's telling us the truth and if everything was supposed to play out the way that it didn't play out
right she she should have been leaving her apartment relatively soon after she got back from that visit to the
McDonald's and but it's difficult because she's 21 years old and is it possible I've done this before hey I'm
going to see my family tomorrow or in a couple days or whenever I'm going to go spend some time with him I don't need to
go on this mall trip or I've changed my mind I don't want to go right but but again makes a lot of sense then you're
attacked in the laundry room and then that laundry room is connected to this other room that has the crawl space and
that's where you're ultimately placed but what do we know from when they found her I mean she's wrapped in this plastic
and and she is strangled to death right well and that's another thing that's interesting to this investigation as
well is later the police would be telling us that we we being law enforcement they are pretty convinced
they know who is responsible or the the persons responsible in this case and so they even though this was a
a case that was getting some national attention this case was getting some some national attention in the time
frame that she was missing when she was still missing even though they had the the national attention you know missing
school girl college girl goes missing and it's certainly a big story in West Virginia because they thought
that they knew who was responsible or and I think this is probably the the better thing to say here because this is
where my suspicions go I think that they had narrowed it down to a very small suspect pool right and I think the
apartment tells us and dictates why that is and we'll get into that in just a second but they actually refused to give
any information they did confirm that it was the body of Leah Hickman that they had found but they didn't give any
information for several days I don't think it was until the second week or middle of January the following month
that they tell that they come out and hold a press conference and say look she was strangled to death and there was no
sexual assault that took place in this case that she was strangled to death and somebody tried to conceal her her body I
think that they probably kept that out of the papers in the beginning hoping that because of the situation like we
you and I just discussed some creep following her home from McDonald's or some creep accessing the
apartment somehow and and finding Leah there and it being a random attack I think they wanted to leave some of those
details to themselves in case they had someone coming out of the woodwork that really had nothing to do with it
somebody that comes off the streets and says yeah I killed that college girl yeah I agree and disagree with you on
the the Crux of this case lies in that laundry room I agree on one level because I think what this layout of the
laundry room and the layout of this apartment tells us is that this person would have to have a certain level of
physicality to take a body wrap it in plastic one if I'm law enforcement where the F did this plastic come from right
did it come from in the building did it come from out of the building to me that
you know points to you maybe a maintenance worker I mean if you Google student killed and then Google gives you
some suggestions one of the things is it will say uh student strangled by roommate okay if I'm law enforcement I'm
looking into that angle student murdered by maintenance worker looking into that
angle student murdered by homeless man looking into that angle and and then the other one that becomes a little more
difficult is student killed by stalker and like I said when you're on campus you have a lot of interactions with
multiple people and is there somebody that was just you know infatuated with Leah that we just don't know about the
other thing that we don't know about and this is not throwing shade at Leah at all but she's home alone and she knows
that her she knows that her half sister is going to be spending the night with the boyfriend and is there somebody that
she was having a relationship with that was kind of on the on the DL and that's why I would want to know what the
communication was through my space it could be as simple as some guy she was talking to online says hey yeah we
should hang out well I'm going to be going home soon hey well why don't you swing by you know cuz nobody's home and
and I don't really have plans that would make sense on some level of why she' break plans with her mother and why she
would break plans to go see her friend that night well and that is exactly right Captain the devil is in the
details the devil is hiding in those details or may be now as far as the Myspace thing goes it could simply have
been to log on and just check her page again without us having a timestamp for that and here's a concern I have I'm not
going to lie I wonder if we're not being provided at time time stamp because maybe they don't know and I'll get into
my questions about the investigation here in a minute but it could it just be she logged in that morning that Friday
morning and and the MySpace login has nothing to do with anything but that's also why I think law enforcement says a
suspect or possible suspects because again the physicality you have to then if this attack even if it took place in
the laundry room you have to then move that body to a separate room and then you have to lift that body up into a
cross space and then you have to be able to push that body back far enough that people aren't going to be able to see it
unless it's illuminated yes there's lots of difficulties with putting the body where it was later
discovered there's a lot and that's why I wanted to get detailed information about that the opening to the crawl
space the crawl space itself and the basement because we review her missing persons poster and they have Leah listed
at 52 to 53 120 to 130 lbs so to lift that weight 40 to 48 in and that's an approximate
mhm I spoke to several people that's the approximation that I was given on the distance between the base floor and the
opening for that crawl space now the people I spoke with they agreed that 40 Ines some people in that group thought
it could have been higher that the opening would have been higher up off of the floor right 40 in is the very
minimum amount that I was given many believe that it was at least 48 in from the floor to possibly even 5T from the
floor I I could ALS also see a reason for somebody other than the sister being responsible and placing the body where
it was later found you're you may just simply be hoping to create a a period of time where nobody has found her yet
you're really just trying to add a buffer getting as much between you and the investigation as possible and so the
thing that's tricky about this case and I'm glad that you brought up the half sister because when you really start to
look at the case and look at the words that the the detectives are saying here in this case again very little
information coming out but what they're choosing to tell the public makes it sound like they've really narrowed it to
a small suspect pull so it it says here this is the exact words verbatim investigators believe Hickman died in a
targeted attack carried out by someone familiar with the layout of her ath Avenue Apartment they have a working
theory about the person's identity but they lack evidence needed to prove guilt Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so they have
said we have physical evidence forensic physical evidence in this case that one day we believe will lead to an arrest
and a conviction however we need technology to catch up to what we have in this case to help us put away the
person that We Believe or persons that we believe are responsible somebody that had that was familiar with her apartment
building is one thing to say there are other reports that they have said that the person would have had to had
extensive knowledge of that building to have carried this out in the manner that
it was carried out well think about that immediately that takes us to only a small amount of people right we have the
half sister we have the man that owns the building we have his brother or whoever was overseeing the property for
him in his absence we have the renovations or maintenance or work that was being performed in the building
itself so those individuals I would believe even if they just were new on the job that week or the week before
would probably have some extensive knowledge about the building itself and the workings of the building because
they are there to repair things or renovate things they very likely would have been aware of this crawl space and
then you have anybody that had previously lived there or visited there a lot and here's the thing when you go
visit somebody at their apartment rarely do you find yourself in the basement laundry room poking around and and know
about this this cross space so one thing that's weird here Captain is we have a previous
boyfriend now I've been told by several people that Leah at the time was not dating anybody and she wasn't known to
have any types of serious relationships and I think that that is why unless there was some kind of secret rendevu
that we don't know about that police are pretty firm in their belief that the building the apartment building itself
is what connects the attacker to the victim here now one potential person that we haven't discussed yet is an
ex-boyfriend of Leah's half-sister Jessica this ex-boyfriend lived with Jessica at one point in the apartment
for this report says two years now I did a little checking on this individual and
I'm going to leave his name out of it for now but I did a little checking on this individual and he actually lived in
that building prior to seeing and dating Jessica so he lived in this apartment he's older Jessica is older
than Leah by a few years right and this ex-boyfriend of Jessica's was older than
Jessica and he had lived in this apartment building for years before the two of them end up in a relationship so
that guy had years worth of knowledge about the building itself now how does he factor into it here well he was
shipped off overseas to serve this country he comes back and from my understanding the breakup between
Jessica and him took place while he was overseas after he had been shipped out he still had some personal belongings
that were being kept at that apartment the way that it's reported is as such that these personal belongings were
boxed up and they were placed in that common area in the laundry room area of the building for him to pick them up and
retrieve these items it's also been reported that he did not get along with Leah because she
did not approve of the way that he treated her sister and it's believed that she was really the one pushing
Jessica to end the relationship with this guy now regarding his personal property the reports are varied and they
get a little weird and it was too difficult for me to decipher which one is true so I'll give it to you they're a
little wonky donkey yeah little little catty Wampus as they say In The Biz many reports state that these items were
eventually thrown out that they were placed in this common space and when work started going on in the
building that when Leah was asked she said hey he hasn't picked up this stuff yet just go ahead and throw it out and
that the workers may have thrown thrown out these items the other report is that
those items were still there and they were boxed up in that laundry room area but again all all reports state that
it's believed that this guy in Leah did not get along it's also reported that he
still had keys to the apartment so there are people out there that have posed this Theory and I think it's one that we
should discuss not just discuss I'm sure it's one that hopefully the Huntington Police looked into it but the theory has
been maybe this dude shows up to retrieve his items and he interacts with Leah because
Jessica's not there the two already don't get along does she go oh well we put your stuff down in the laundry room
let's go down there and see if we can find it and then boom it's not there and it's oh I told the guys they could throw
it out you never came to pick it up and then they get into some kind of fight or
again I mean the other thing too is it takes a lot normally for somebody to say I don't
like your boyfriend I don't approve of your boyfriend I don't approve of the way he's treating you so to me again we
have no evidence of this but you know a boyfriend being too controlling maybe being verbally abusive Maybe be
physically abusive where I think her half sister could help this investigation and I'm sure she's talked
to police about this individual but what was his interaction with her and what were the things that her sister didn't
approve of the the direction of your investigation needs to be this one we need background checks on anybody that
would have been working in that building two we need to confirm if the possibility of of ex-boyfriend Jessica's
ex-boyfriend still having keys to the apartment if that is in fact true you know check with the building owner check
with anybody that's in charge of running the apartments did he ever turn in keys to
to the owner or to the landlord do we have the sister or anybody else saying that he turned in Keys how how factual
is that statement that this guy still had access to the apartment building well I agree with that but I also so
would state if you are Leah and this guy shows up and knocks on your door you know he's been gone for a while he comes
back he's going to retrieve his stuff he knocks on the door I don't see any reason why she wouldn't let him in and
then they would go through the the back door so they can go to the laundry room to retrieve his items and then where did
the attack take place so I did reach out to the Huntington Police Department and
the detective Bureau and I was armed with a few questions that I had about the evidence and about the investigation
itself unfortunately nobody has returned my call so I don't have any answers for
those questions and I and I'm going to State this and usually I'm backing the women and men in blue here and I'm not
saying that they've done anything wrong I reached out to them last week and for all I know we could turn off the
microphones and my phone rings right away and it's HPD calling to to ask me why I called
about the Leah Hickman well it might take him over a week to find the message well let's hope that's not the case if
they're in charge of solving homicides but the statement that they've released to the public says the Huntington Police
Department wants to ensure Leah's family and the community as a whole that the investigation into the events
surrounding her death and the person or persons responsible remains active this case also has been reviewed extensively
during the past 14 years by various detectives in an attempt to allow a fresh set of eyes to review the facts
and evidence that has been obtained any tip or lead received on this case always
have been and always will be pursued vigilantly that is a statement directly from the Huntington Police Department
before I get into any more of my thoughts and feelings on the case I do want to make sure that we point out that
police ask anyone with information about the case to call the Huntington Police Department at 304 696
4420 we will include that number in today's show notes and you can also submit a tip anonymously through their
tip line at 304 696 4444 will include that number as well so here's the questions that I have Captain we talked
about all the stuff that were found in the apartment we talked about her her it was a beautiful bright yellow Chevy
Cavalier that was parked out front of the apartment building we talked about the
items that were found in the apartment but there were a couple of items that have been reported it's been reported
that these items were missing one Leah's cell phone which we already know how complicated that is because there's talk
about her borrowing her mom's phone but the reports are that Leah's cell phone is missing I've never seen a description
anywhere of what kind of cell phone it is what kind of brand it is nothing like that I did a little bit of snooping
around boots on the ground type investigation and I found one statement that it was a flip phone that's the best
description I've received on her phone the other item that has been reported as missing was a brown jacket or coat of
Leah's that had a fur collar these items again according to the newspapers are missing I wanted to learn more about
these items I wanted to learn more about the plastic like you pointed out earlier
and those were going to be my primary questions for the detective now again they've been very hush hush in this case
so who knows if they would have answered any of them at all again it does appear
to be a very active case so maybe they're not going to answer those questions but I also I also wanted to
know a few things about cell phone technology right I mentioned earlier I wanted to know how factual were those
phone calls those supposed phone calls from The Stepbrother and and from mother from their visit to the mall that night
to Leah's phone did those did those calls actually happen you pointed out something very obvious but also very key
if Leah had attempted to call her stepbrother there would have been indication on her phone on his phone
that she tried to call them and then the other thing is I wanted to know did they
ping her cell phone Leah's cell phone at all because if whoever is responsible for her murder and I'm with you you
given where her body was found I think it would have taken two people to put her there number one so at least one
other person knows what happened but did anybody bother to Ping her cell phone if
it was truly missing since the time that she's been one she's been missing herself and two
even after they found the body we know sometimes these guys you look at a case like Long Island serial killer we know
that that person was accessing a victim's phone well after the fact could this creep have been calling and and
listen to listening to her outgoing message could this creep have been calling and checking her voicemail and
listening to the messages that were left for Leah while these people were looking
for her did this cell phone ping anywhere of interest cuz you would look very guilty if you were in possession of
that phone or did this individual make a huge mistake and and give that coat to somebody as a gift I I think given the
attack no sexual assault the strangulation I think given the attack it looks to me and again this is just my
assessment from 30,000 ft you know over an overview of everything here but it would look to me like this is probably
something that might have been spontaneous unplanned something happened something went down that that caused a a
fight between Leah and somebody else and in a fit of rage somebody Str strangled
her and then may have had to reach out to somebody else to come and help them clean up a messy situation later there
are reports out there that not only do they have physical evidence you know we've already kind of covered that and
and and they've not gone into great detail about this but they have physical forensic evidence that they say that
they believe will solve this case one day once technology C catches up to it the other question I had for the police
department is well where was that physical evidence collected from was it collected from the crawl space from the
plastic from the laundry room or from her apartment because you're right Captain if the attack and the murder
went down in the apartment now getting her to where she was placed is even more cumbersome and even more difficult now
we got flights of stairs involved and we also have to lift up 40 to 48 in maybe even as high as 60 in off of the
basement floor and then put push all the way back to the front of this crawl space yeah and as far as law enforcement
goes it's like look if if their hand is strong and they're just waiting to get certain tests
done cuz you got a feel for this family for a while she's missing there's hope that they're going to find her then they
find her in the crawl space of her apartment building and it with law enforcement it drives me insane because
the longer this goes even though we're getting new technology all the time to me the family loses
hope and if you say that this case isn't cold then unless your hand is so strong
that you know that one day you're going to definitively solve this case and you're not so worried about it then
maybe don't share so much information but after 14 years it's like come on maybe maybe share a little bit
to get get you closer to help you build a stronger case well and that's one thing that I found to be rather
frustrating and frankly I think almost unacceptable in this case because what we have here is we have
they have quite a bit of more information they're unwilling to share any of that information and a big part
of my phone conversation was going to be it's been 15 years if there was a time to come up off of some detailed
information to give to the public you reminder you're asking the public for help you're you're you're actively
asking the public for help if there was some bit of information that were to change based off of the known facts by
law enforcement in this case or if there was a detail in that information that they could release think about all the
people that we've mentioned that they've already interviewed that they were working with very closely that first
week when she was missing and then unfortunately the next week after she's found and now we know we're dealing with
a murder you could have one person or many people within that group of people that goes wait a second that detail that
you just informed us about well now that doesn't jive with all the stuff that that I had been told by person a or
person A and B right and now there's a problem with somebody's story there's a problem with somebody's timeline and you
can hone in even more and more closer to the actual suspect if her cellphone truly was missing if this jacket or coat
truly was missing you find somebody in possession of one or both of those items well they just went to the top of your
suspect list right and it's who knows what information you could come into that could lead you to executing a
search warrant later well I hate to admit it but I agree with you well and in their defense we don't know how
sensitive the information that they have is right and it could be something where
you don't want to upset the apple cart and law enforcement knows that hey this this evidence these suspicions that we
have and the things that we have collected that have led us to this one person or this group of
people it's it's sensitive and it's fragile and we are waiting to get the Smoking Gun so to speak to really put
this person away or to tear to tear down this group of people so what we do have
is we know that there were developments that were made in this case in 2008 the Huntington Police were on record saying
quote there is an individual that we believe was involved meaning somebody that they've already talked to they
think is responsible for this and they go on to say that they had interviewed dozens of people trying to find answers
to Leah Hickman's murder but this one name keeps popping up quote it is an individual that we have
contacted and spoken to however this individual keeps coming to the Forefront of someone we're particularly interested
in now the police clearly are not going to be releasing this individual's name or the name of the person or Persons of
Interest in this case or what I would deem to be suspects at this point they did say that they have DNA evidence in
this case that was sent and tested at an FBI lab in Arizona it is something that they are
going to have to hold on to for future testing says that they police are on the record saying that they believe that
results of testing could either lead to an arrest or could clear the name of the
Person of Interest altogether so that that makes it a little bit more clear why this could be sensitive fragile
evidence that they have here right when you give the statement of the evidence that we have once we get the results of
the testing of this evidence it could either lead to an arrest of this person or it could clear the person that we
think we've we've narrowed it down to yeah like you said I think they're wording definitely makes it seem like
they narrowed down to one individual and I do think out of so many cases that we've covered this year this case one is
100% solvable And I do believe it will be solved in the near future and again Captain I think that the wording used
and the choice of words here is very interesting in Leah's case and these are the words again of the Huntington Police
Department saying there are three things that help solve cases confessions Witnesses and physical evidence no one
has confessed and there are no known witnesses to this crime and the police clearly have not and will not release
the names of any suspects or Persons of Interest in this case but did confirm that the police believe the suspect to
be someone with quote close knowledge of the victim end quote and then they go on
to say that we would have hoped for a resolution a lot sooner than we have but the case being as it is it just hasn't
come like we wanted it to and it eventually will very key here though the police go on record saying analysts say
that DNA evidence collected will last up to 40 years for testing so that evidence
that they have it's safe it's secured it's preserved and they believe that it's that evidence that will lead them
to an arrest and conviction hopefully sooner than [Music] [Music] later want to thank everybody for
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Leah Hickman ////// 635

Part 1 of 1

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15 years ago this week a bright young college student vanished from her near campus apartment. Leah Hickman was 21 years old. She was seeking a journalism degree from Marshall University in West Virginia. Her mother, half sister and two friends filed the missing person report with the Huntington Police Department on December 16th, 2007. There are several key elements in this case that suggest a high probability of solving this case. Police ask anyone with information about the case to call the Huntington Police Department at 304-696-4420; you can also submit tips anonymously through their tip line at 304-696-4444.

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Brief Summary

Leah Hickman, a 21-year-old student, went missing in 2007; her body was later found in her apartment's laundry room, sparking an ongoing investigation.

Key points

Innocence Lost. This week's story revolves around Leah Hickman, a 21-year-old college student who went missing.
Leah's Last Days. Leah's final week before her disappearance was filled with routine and family connections.
The Alarm is Raised. Leah is reported missing on December 16, 2007, after her family grows concerned.
Leah's Last Conversation. Leah has a final chat with her friend about cleaning plans, marking a poignant moment.
Missing Person Report Filed. Leah's family quickly files a missing person report, highlighting their concern.
$10,000 Reward Announced. The Dress Barn offers a reward for information on Leah's whereabouts, indicating rising fears.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The wolf is always at the door.

A metaphor about the ever-present danger in life.

7:28WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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