Surrounded by Evil /// Part 1 /// 913 | Forensic Files

On Mind of a Monster, The Hollywood Ripper, uncover the life and crimes of serial killer Michael Gargiulo, who
stalks and kills his neighbors in Los Angeles throughout the 2000s. Across six episodes, hear from friends and
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Learn about adopting a teen from foster care at adoptuskids.org. You can't imagine the reward.
>> Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the US Department of Health and Human Services,
and the Ad Council. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
you are, whatever you're doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is America's number
one free agent on the market, ladies and gentlemen, the Captain. >> Yeah, I'm hoping to get that a $150
[music] million 4-year contract. I don't care what team. It's good to be seen and good to see
you. Thanks for listening. Thanks [music] for telling a friend. O M Guinness, we gots to do it. That's
right. This week the old garage fridge is filled with Guinness Draught, the iconic Irish dry stout known for its
rich, dark color, creamy white head, and silky smooth velvety texture created by
that nitro carbon dioxide mix, all fortified by that wickedly talented little widget thing.
I love this beer. Five bottle caps. The Captain loves this beer. Our father loves it. And to all of the good people
all around the globe, I say it is a good day for a Guinness. Cheers and happy St. Patrick's Day. And cheers
to all of our good garage friends like Sherry Pate in Wauseon, Ohio. >> And a big we like you chip goes out to
Lexus Griffith from Lincolnton, North Carolina. >> And here's a cheers to Katie Knapp in De
Pere, [music] Wisconsin. And say it with me, tall cans in the air, goes out to Robin Jennings from Morrisville, [music]
Pennsylvania. >> a cheers to Dalton Durbin in Elfos, Ohio. Say that three times fast. And last but
certainly not least, we have a very big Ron Swanson [music] please and thank you
to Leslie in Milford, Michigan. Thank you, Leslie, for all of your help with the porch light project over the last
two years. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com and helped us out with this week's beer
fund, which filled up the old garage fridge for this week. And for that, we thank you. Yeah, B W W R U N beer run, I
get emails almost every week, what's the best way to support the garage? Well, I
think the best way is to sign up on Patreon or Apple podcast subscription cuz you get support us directly and get
some more true crime for your eyeballs. And Colonel, that's [music] enough of the business.
>> All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some
true crime. A young mother and working professional, Leeah Marten, goes missing after
receiving threatening calls. Ms. Marten was on her way to work, but then suddenly
she vanished. Her family and co-workers report that they have no idea where she could be.
Her vehicle and purse are quickly recovered and fresh blood is found nearby. What hidden information was in [music]
these threatening phone calls? Where is Leeah Marten? This is True Crime Garage.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> We are once again headed to Texas to examine another Texas true crime story.
This is the story of a young mother who vanished under incredibly suspicious circumstances with some possible
traceable evidence to help the investigation. The young woman is Leeah Marten. She is a 22-year-old
mother who vanished on May 29th, 2015. The location is Graham, Texas. Now, when I went looking for Graham, Texas, I
found some fancy descriptions of how to describe where Graham is located. Like 55 miles south of Wichita Falls or 65
air miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. And that Graham is located in the western cross timbers area of North
Texas. Locally, this is known as the western portion of the Palo Pinto Mountains. Now, my guess is that most
people outside of the great state of Texas, we do not have much of an idea as to
what any of that means. So, some garage geography here, folks. When looking at your favorite map app or just
visualizing Texas, go to the very center of Texas and go a little bit north. Once you are
there in you will find Graham. And once you're in Graham, you're just about a 90-minute drive northbound to get to the
Texas-Oklahoma state line. So, now that we know where we are here, Captain, Graham, Texas, it
is about a 6-square-mile in area and a little less than 9,000 people are living there. It's a
beautiful community that boast having a very cool old-school still in operation drive-in theater. And according to a
mural on the courthouse depicting the arrival of the Graham brothers, of course, the city's namesake
there, the town square is physically the largest of any in the country. Now, let's talk about Leeah. Leeah Marten,
she is 22 years old. She's a 22-year-old mother who vanished on May 29th, 2015. Her vehicle
was found abandoned at her workplace the next day in Graham, Texas. Leeah was last known to be wearing a teal blue
peasant blouse with cream-colored lace on a 3/4 sleeve cuff with denim capri pants and sandals.
Leeah's parents are Billy and Stasney Marten. Leeah grew up in a quiet town in Young County, Texas.
During her senior year of high school, she and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, his name
is Aaron Blair, had a baby daughter. Her name is Avery. After high school, Leeah found employment as a receptionist
at a local business called EC's Auto Repair. >> This is a pretty big staple in this
small community. Yeah, you've seen pictures of it. I've seen pictures of it. It is a uh
fairly decent size outfit there with this auto repair EC's Auto Repair. It's located in Graham on Highway 380
near the bypass. The auto repair shop, which has several employees, is owned by EC Blair, full name Elton Carroll Blair.
He is the shop's owner and chief operator. You'll notice, if you have not already, I'm going to
point it out, the EC shares the same last name as Leeah's on-again, off-again boyfriend, baby daddy, Aaron Blair.
Well, that's because EC is also the father of Aaron Blair. Aaron is EC's adopted son. Now, this
on-again, off-again relationship by early 2015, well, it appears to me that it was off again and in a major way. The
two had split. This time maybe for good, I don't know. This the the dynamics of this relationship are a
little fuzzy for me here, Captain. Yeah, a little wonky donkey. What I do know is
that they're not living together and they had agreed to having shared custody of their daughter, Avery. We have some
pretty well-documented information regarding Leeah's movements before she vanishes.
And let's get into those movements. So, on the date of May 29th, 2015, that's a Friday.
And on that day, Lia Martin attended her cousin's graduation, and she was also making plans for the remainder of the
day. Prior to the 29th, Lia's father, Billy, he had had surgery on his eye. So, after this graduation, the gathering
that was involved, Lia, being the good daughter that she is, she texts her father.
She says she's planning to go to the local Walmart, and she's going to pick up her father's
medication for him. It's probably probably difficult growing up with a father that's a cyclops. In that text,
she says, quote, she was going to stop by her work and pick up a few things, and then she was going to go to the
local Walmart to pick up my medication. That's a quote from her father, Billy. The item or items that she wants to
retrieve from her work has been noted. I don't know if her father knew the exact
items at the time, but the items she was going to collect became clear at some point.
Because we know that she was she had some shoes there, and she had a few personal,
possibly clothing items there that she wanted to retrieve. Sadly, and mysteriously, Lia didn't come home
that night. Billy says it was about 4:00 a.m. the next morning when he's checking
in on Lia in her room. Goes to her room, he finds her not there, much to his surprise.
Now, she's an adult. Keep in mind, she's 22 years old. So, she had not come home
late that night, either. Like, even after Billy had gone to bed, she never came home. Do we know where her kid is?
Yes, we do. And And that is why at 4:00 a.m. when he was concerned, it wasn't alarming concern. Because he says he
first assumed that she ended up staying the night over at Aaron Blair's place. Right, at
her boyfriend's house. However, when morning turned into afternoon, he's texting, calling his daughter, he gets
no response to the text, no res- return calls. So, later that day, he decides to
step out and look for Lia. He knew that one of Lia's last stops was going to be dropping off her daughter, Avery, to
Aaron Blair's place, and that's probably why he thought she might just have stayed over there. So, he started there.
Billy starts there. He talks to Aaron Blair. The 2-year-old baby, Avery, fine, perfectly fine, but Aaron Blair told
Billy Martin that he hadn't seen Lia Martin since she dropped off their daughter, and this was before
the intent was to drop off the daughter and then go run these errands. Right. That's not good.
Billy Martin also knew that his daughter intended to go to her place of work. Again, that's EC's Auto Shop. So, then
Billy visited the automotive shop, where he is talking with the owner, EC Blair.
And EC Blair tells Dad that he has no idea, no great ideas, anyway, of where Lia could be. No ideas as to Lia's
whereabouts. In fact, EC reported having the same issue. He said he had placed multiple
unanswered calls to Lia that same day. Right. Now, immediately, Billy noticed his daughter's vehicle
parked outside. So, her vehicle is in the lot in a spot that would be typical for her to park
for work. But we have no Lia, and we have no one with any answers, nor clue where she could be. So, cops
called, report filed, missing person, Lia Martin. So, she starts off by dropping her child off to
her boyfriend, then she goes to this graduation, then she's going to stop by her work, and
then she's going to go to the Walmart to pick up the medication from her father.
So, if that all remains true, then and we know she dropped off her child, we know she went to the graduation, so she
goes to the work, and then she disappears from work, that seems bizarre. Yes, that would be the
indicator with her vehicle being found there. And furthermore, inside the shop, a pair of Lia's shoes were at her desk.
This is believed to be one of the items she intended to retrieve. It's also reported that the items that she was the
other items that she was believed to be retrieving were found at the office or at some location inside the shop, as
well. So, her vehicle made it there. Her reasoning for being there, these collection of these items, Right. that
didn't happen. That action didn't happen, but the vehicle arrived there. So, her personal items are at the shop,
her truck is parked outside, to which Billy discovers Lia's purse inside of the truck.
>> Not a good sign. But his daughter, 22-year-old Lia Martin, is missing. From the Graham Police
Department, a statement that they would later release, quote, we checked inside the business,
and there was a pair of shoes at the desk where Lia worked. Billy had told us that she was supposed to pick up
those shoes, is what they're referencing, that night. So, everybody's surprised to find these shoes,
and especially the vehicle out there. After this discovery, we are going to have some
hyper-vigilant activity here, Captain. So, it's an all-hands-on-deck situation, obviously, with many hands involved in
the investigation, the looking for Lia, all kind of heading in a lot of different directions all at the same
time. Speaking of time, Captain, this is a flurry of activity, which will pretty
much works our timeline into a bit of a tizzy here. Right. And like you said, this is a very small town. I mean, a
population under 10,000. But then I'm assuming that there's a lot of rural areas.
So, Yeah. as an investigator, you're going, okay, so she makes it to work to pick up these items, but these items are
untouched. So, did she park her vehicle and get into somebody else's vehicle? And where could she be? Is she running
away from her responsibilities? Look, it's not out of the realm of possibilities, cuz like you said, she's
22, and she seems to be kind of a free-spirited person. She has this on-again, off-again relationship with
her boyfriend, so that's somebody that you have to be concerned about. But is it possible that she, during one of
their, you know, we're on a break, we're not on a break, is there a possibility that during one of those breaks that she
ends up having a relationship with somebody else? Well, and to be clear here, because we've not provided time
stamp markers for the events and the actions that we've already discussed, but to clue everybody in on to what's
going on in the rough time markers for those movements, it's understood that she's going to her place
of work after the normal operating hours. Right. And it Keep in mind, I think one thing
that's key here, and I think that it's key in a lot of the cases that we cover, is what day of the week that is, and
this is a Friday. Okay, so ultimately, what do we have here at this point? We have a lot of questions, we have some
answers, right? Lia's truck is located, Lia's purse is located. This whole time, daughter Avery,
2-year-old Avery, God bless her, she's safe and sound with her father. But we also have a lot of
leads to look at. Right? Where is Lia's cell phone? Can we track it? Outside of that, what digital forensic evidence can
we find? Lia's dad is providing information, some that may lead to a suspect, and
we'll get to that in the appropriate time in our timeline here. We have Lia's place of work. Yeah, we
got cameras? We know that law enforcement searched there and found the same findings that they were told by
Lia's father that they might find. Right. >> But because those items were found there, that needs to be of concern, as
we've already pointed out, that that is where she was heading, that is where her truck is found, but no one
there seems to have a clue. And of course, anytime you have an ex, he is easily identified. This
This, of course, is Aaron Blair. So, we got to talk to him. Right. That was one of my big questions is cuz they're
on-again, off-again, hey, we're on a break. Were they on a break at the time? So,
you're saying, yes, this is he is an ex. He's described as an ex, but keep in mind, the father her father's first
assumption when she wasn't home was that she had stayed the night over there. So,
that to me is very touch-and-go, and I hesitate to dip my water in my toe into the waters of understanding exactly what
their relationship was, even at this exact moment in time. Yeah, I think on Facebook, you would put relationship
status complicated. I'm yet to see one that is. That isn't, [laughter] I should say.
Yeah. So, let's tackle this it sort of in the reverse order of what we just how we just brought these items up. First,
the ex. Let's clear this hurdle if we can. From everything that I gather, he is actually very quickly of very little
concern to the investigators. Why? Well, we know the little 2-year-old daughter is with him all night, so that drop-off
that was planned, it did happen. Who else was with Aaron that night? Because I have to guess here, Captain, based off
of the information that we were able to gather and what information is missing is that
they moved off of Aaron, the ex, rather quickly for twofold. One, rock-solid alibi, would be my guess.
Two, information and evidence is telling them to look elsewhere. So, if you figure out very quickly she
made the drop-off, dropped off the kid, and there were a lot of other people with this guy all night long,
and you have some information that might be pointing you in other directions, you
got to move off of this guy real quick. We said Leah's dad might have information, maybe a lead,
and he does. He tells police that Leah had been receiving threatening phone calls. Now,
here's what we know. Okay. Leah had received threatening phone calls. Billy, her father, says he had heard he had
actually heard one of them. And he tells police, he said, "I They said something like we're going to get
your ass or we're going to get you." He tells police that he believed, based off of what he could hear at in an
earshot, that the caller, the threatening phone calls, or at least that one in particular, came from a female. The
caller ID on these calls is not available. So, it's coming from a blocked number or a
a scrambled number. Somehow, whoever's making this call and threatening her, we know of one that her father had heard.
He says he believes there were multiple calls. Now, to kind of confirm this or take it in another direction, E.C.
Blair, Leah's boss, says that yep, Leah was receiving threatening calls at work as well, but beyond that he had little
information to offer. >> Right. But that's that's scary, right? You know, she's getting these threatening
calls from some female. Again, like I said, is there some kind of relationship going on
when she's been not with her child's father. It's an avenue, though. It's a It's a lead. Maybe it's a pathway
to finding her. So, police check phone records, and they get the cell phone ping information for Leah's cell phone,
which, keep in mind, they don't have the physical cell phone. Phone records trace
the last call on her phone. What I don't have here, to be clear, Captain, I don't
know if you found this, but I don't have whether this was a call she received or
a call that she had sent. The I have the simple statement of the phone records traced the last call to
Wichita Falls, which is not terribly far away. A subpoena was requested to identify the number's owner. That's
going to take some time. A geo a geolocation ping [clears throat] showed Leah's phone, its last location
that they could trace, was at her work, at the shop. So, the phone is turned off
or possibly broken at that location. R- Right, correct. After which all activity
ceased, suggesting, as you said, disabled or turned off. So, now we know that we don't we can't say for certain
that Leah ever arrived at the shop at this point. What we have is we know her truck ended up there, her purse arrived
there, and we do know now that her phone at some point arrived there. It's gone,
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intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Thy ticket, Lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks,
good sir. Here's my Discover card. >> [laughter] >> They accept Discover at Renaissance
Fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover's accepted at the places I love to shop. Get it with the times. With the times?
You're playing the lute. Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right? Discover is accepted at 99% of places
that take credit cards nationwide, based [music] on a February 2025 Nelson report.
>> Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand? You hold my hand. Learn about adopting a teen from foster
care at adoptuskids.org. You can't imagine the reward. Brought to you by adoptuskids, the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. >> [music] [music] >> All right, we are back. Talking heads in
the air. Cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you, Captain. Cheers to everybody out there. Happy St. Patrick's
Day. Please Please party responsibly, as you know the Colonel always does. All right, so during the same time, this
is what I was getting at with our timeline here being in a bit of a tizzy, because you have really, truly, you have
multiple investigations, if you will, going on, right? You have the family looking for Leah, you have the police
who are looking for Leah, also looking for clues as to what happened to her, the Texas Rangers get involved fairly
quickly. I don't know how early in the investigation they get involved, and then you have people that she works with
and friends and such who are keeping an eye out and actively looking for Leah. And what we're going to get, Captain, is
some information from all these different avenues all at the same time. So, during the same time of all the
events that we just discussed, family and friends are searching the area extensively
for their lost friend and family member. They're looking in alleyways, they're looking in dumpsters, culverts, bri-
under bridges. During this search, they encountered a decent amount of fresh-looking blood at a specific
location. So, this was on Sunday. Remember, she was last her last known whereabouts is that Friday. Two days
after she went missing, after Leah went missing, Billy, her father, finds blood on the
Lindy Street Bridge. It's He says it looks fresh to him. Police are going to get called to this area, out to the
site, and they're going to do their investigation. To make Let's make a long story short, uh because We have never
been able to make a long story short. Yeah, we We're the kings of making a short story long. Well, we we'll sprint
through this detail instead of crawling through it, but what the police quickly figure out is, "Look, this is a good
call. You got to investigate this." But they very quickly figure out that there were kids fishing in the area, and those
kids admitted to killing a snake on that bridge. Lock them up. One of them had caught a snake or encountered a
snake, and they they killed it. And so, the blood was determined to be, just as those kids had said, from a
snake and not from a human. So, this was a lead, but it goes nowhere. Leah's whereabouts still unknown.
Meanwhile, the phone and the vehicle, her vehicle, are keeping law enforcement busy as well with working on leads
regarding the auto shop, her place of work. Right. Here we go. I You know that uh sometimes
I I never know how this is going to shake out, but we got a good news, bad news situation. Good news, E.C. Shop,
it has security cameras. Bad news, >> Ooh. bad news, the cameras had failed the night in question. So, yeah, but
hold on. Here I think it's evidence, right? And maybe [clears throat] it's not hardcore evidence, but it's like,
"Okay, we don't know if she took her car there. We But we have her car there, we have
her phone being there. So, we can assume that she made it there, but something stopped her from gathering these items
and leaving. And now these cameras just happened to not be working at the time that she was
there. To me, that's fishy. Well, and speaking of fishy, we stay water, right? You want to stay
water in your investigation. You want it to be very much a fluid situation. What
you have here is you cannot say that she never arrived there. You cannot say 100% that she did in fact arrive at
work. But what you do have when you look at everything is you have far more details suggesting that she did arrive
at that work. Absolutely. >> Rather rather than not having arrived. And then you have this
like you said, "Oh, it's it's it magically the cameras weren't working at the time that it was most important
for them to." Doesn't seem doesn't seem like a coincidence to me. Yeah, I'd be walking around that
place going It smells like fish sticks in here. Something's fishy. Investigators,
they obtained surveillance footage from the business directly across the street.
Boom. It's going to be grainy, you know, hard to see due to the distance. Always is.
>> here's what law enforcement believe that they are seeing on this footage captured from across the
street. So, they say that the video showed an SUV type vehicle at the auto shop.
A person gets out of that SUV, walks up to a garage bay door, opens that door, and then enters. This This is
what's interesting. It doesn't matter if you have a completely clear picture here, because I
think you're going to be able to discern certain things. Then what they they simply say Leah's vehicle then arrived a
little bit later. So, she drives a truck. It looks different than this SUV. You know where You know where you found
her truck. If you see a truck that matches that, even a vague description of that,
pulling and parking that same spot, that's Leah's vehicle. So, this SUV arrives, a person gets out,
they can't identify the person or the SUV, goes to a garage bay door, opens it, enters the building, the workplace,
Leah's workplace. Leah's vehicle then arrives later, and a person gets out of Leah's truck. They believe that it was
Leah. They couldn't confirm that it was Leah, but they believe that the image of
the person they are seeing is Leah getting out of her truck who enters the same garage bay door. And
then what they are saying they see on this video is that at some point the SUV leaves, but Leah's vehicle never leaves.
Right. And again, like you were saying, this is all happening when the shop isn't open to the public. Correct. So,
this would be after hours. I think that it's not [snorts] terribly long after they
close on Friday, but from the footage I saw, it appears that it was dark or getting dark
around this time. Now, this just to be for the sake of clarity in case I completely jumbled up the
description of what they said they were seeing. This is from the Graham Police Department. And it's a simple statement
that states in the video, a figure was observed getting out of an SUV and opening one of the multiple garage bay
doors before walking into the building. Another vehicle, presumably Leah Martins, pulled into the parking lot a
short time later, and that person entered the auto shop through the same bay door, but never came out. The
lieutenant, this is the Lieutenant Toby Catlin of the Texas Rangers, said, quote, "We believed
that whatever happened to Leah happened at that garage." End quote. Okay. So, that means
this individual's there. She was either planning to meet this individual there or wasn't planning to meet this
individual there, and then [clears throat] this individual leaves, and because we have no person, we have
no body, we have no Leah at the shop, that this individual then took her away, whether she was alive or not alive.
Yeah, and think about this. You I'm glad that you said at the top of the show to
point out that this is a large building. This is a large outfit. We We've seen pictures of this and footage of this.
There's a lot of different garage doors. There's a front of the house, as you would anticipate with an auto shop,
where you walk in and it's like a It's like a lobby with a receptionist desk, and then behind that you're going to
have the the bays where everybody's working on the vehicles. And also keep in mind though the way that
those types of businesses operate, right? So, I what I think we have here, Captain, is with it being a larger
outfit and a lot of employees, it wouldn't be so strange for there to be multiple people in and out even after
hours. I'm uncertain if she had keys to the building, but she's also an interesting employee for the for the
outfit, right? Because even though her title So, the title is just pretty simple. She's the receptionist. But
she's a front of the house person. When you think about it, like the owner operator and the receptionist are the
only two people in the entire business that I would 100% expect to have interactions with
everybody that works there. She's sort of the head of the outfit, right? You can You can be
You can be like me, just a man working in a garage who all I care about is >> I only care about the the work that you
put in front of me. I don't need to to bother myself with with every of the other goings-on here. Captain, I know
you come to the garage for the beer, but you stay for the salacious details, right?
>> Yeah. Well, it's >> Of course. All right, so here we go. Three days into this investigation,
detectives learned that Leah at some point, this is I don't think that this wasn't going on at the time of
her disappearance, but this went on during her time working at EC's Auto Shop. So, detectives learned that Leah had had
an affair. Well, that's naughty. This will expand the suspect pool, of course. Mhm.
[clears throat] Leah's boyfriend, or on-again, off-again boyfriend, Aaron Blair, said that she had had an affair
with Rafael Winder. He's an employee at EC's Auto Shop. Rafael ended this relationship and then later
married a woman named Samantha. So, possibly maybe Samantha's the one making the threatening phone calls. Could be.
The what was stated to police by Rafael and Aaron is that Rafael ending this relationship and
going off and marrying Samantha, this upset Leah. That's the general consensus here, that this upset Leah, and then
we know that Leah and Samantha had a major argument that took place in front of other people at the shop at some
point. Rafael said to police that Leah had vandalized some of his belongings that were
at the shop. They're really looking at this guy pretty good three days into the investigation.
>> Yeah, does he have a SUV or access to SUV? The other problem, too, is it's a it's a car shop, so then you go
these are car people, so they possibly would have access to any vehicle they needed. Are you going to create a shirt
that is half person, half car? Because when I said horse people, that was the result. Yes.
>> [laughter] >> Old horse people. >> Car people versus horse people. >> Car. Car will win most of the time. Rafael
stated that he had worked on Friday. It was a typical work day for him, and he worked up until about 5:30 p.m. He
says after work, he then went with his wife, Samantha, to Wichita Falls. So, he goes
out to another city. They go to Wichita Falls, they have dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. #not a sponsor. And to do
some shopping at Walmart. Also not a sponsor. Although I think they were at some point.
Surveillance footage from these locations, the Walmart, Texas Roadhouse, confirmed Rafael and Samantha being at
both of these places. So, they are there. Their presence is is noted on surveillance footage. Right. Time
stamped, and the times are lining up with what both of them are telling police. So, this providing Rafael and an alibi.
Yeah, I normally don't like alibis that involve the other person's partner, but if there's camera footage involved, then
those are the alibis I like, but >> [laughter] >> when you say there's time stamps, how
many surveillance footage have the clocks been wrong? >> The thing I like here, and the thing
that the police clearly liked, is he is where he said he was, according to all the evidence they could
find. His wife is where she said she was. Their stories line up. They are where they said they were
during the time in question. So, we have receipts plus surveillance footage from
the businesses tell police that that my man, Rafael, was where he says he was. Thus, Rafael was cleared as a suspect.
And when I say my man that the I watched the police interview with this man. I I don't know what I just kind of
dug his attitude. Like he he was he told the police he's like, "Yes, you know, Leah had vandalized some of my stuff."
And he's like, "People other people were telling me to like get back at her, maybe vandalize some of
her stuff." And they're like, "Did you do that?" He's like, "No, why would I do that?" He's like, He's just just kind of
like a "Yeah, we had a problem, but it but I'm not going to let it bother me. I'm not going to I'm not going to
I'm not going to do something." He just has the character to me of live and let live kind of attitude. And then to back
it up, he was where he says he was. So, Captain, they are finding leads, they're running
them down, and unfortunately not finding the person or persons responsible. I was going to say they are all dead
ends, but not so, right? Because what the investigators are doing here and doing successfully in a pretty quick
amount of time is checking boxes. Because it looks like law enforcement firmly believes, and they should,
that they have the where the where in this mystery. So, you're looking for the who. Who is responsible
has got to be tied in some manner, some capacity to the where, the location. So, what you have
to do is look at everyone. Everyone who let's who's tied to the where and then eliminate them as a suspect and they and
moving along at a great pace, right? We've checked some boxes. We've already cleared a few
suspects and and several of them have a tie to the where. Well, yeah, and if I'm
a detective on this case, I'm I'm asking the owner, "Well, who would have the access to stop
the cameras?" And then also like >> Or interfere with them. Yeah, correct. >> Right. Because also like there could be
a situation where an individual shows up, but then if we do not see that on video footage, how were they able to
disrupt that footage? So, you see what I'm saying? Cuz like if I know how to turn them off, well, you'd
see me going into the shop. So, once the camera stopped working, you would assume
that I'm the one that stopped the cameras. But is somebody stopping the cameras or did they erase some footage?
And then who would have the access and who would have the know-how to do that? >> So, you found the where, you've
eliminated Aaron Blair, Raphael Winder, and Samantha Winder from your equation. And in your time doing so, you end up
catching a break. So, the first big break in the case, here we go, Captain. Leah Martin's
mother, Stasney Martin, accessed her daughter's email account hoping to find this is after she went
missing hoping to find some answers. And at the least, maybe get a lead or something from the email, some
interaction with somebody. So, she learns about a secret relationship. Leah Martin at one time
was in a {quote} romantic relationship with E.C. Blair. What the [ __ ] >> Is this a sticky situation, right? E.C.
Blair is her boss, the father of her boyfriend/ex-boyfriend, Aaron Blair, and the grandfather of
Leah's daughter. So, >> [laughter] >> this is less than ideal, tongue in planted firmly in cheek. Right, but he's
the adopted father, right? He's not the biological father of her boyfriend. >> This is Look, I'm I know we have a
victim here. Come on, this is just not a good situation for anybody. >> Yeah, but okay, first of all, she's
young. She now has these responsibilities that she didn't have a couple years ago.
Mhm. She has this on-again, off-again situation, but it kind of reminds me of the detectives talking about the Tipp
City murder where they go, "Well, the victim in that case was living a a life and a lifestyle
a low-risk lifestyle." And I'd say in this case, because of these relationships that Leah
was having, this puts her in the possibility of high-risk lifestyle. Yes, and you're absolutely right. I mean,
she's young. That's um We've all made stupid mistakes. I plan on making two later today.
From her mother from Leah's mother, {quote} He was a married man and he was messing around with a 22-year-old girl
and leading her on. It takes a very sick, twisted human being to even think of getting involved
with your son's girlfriend. {end quote} Yeah, it's bizarre. And then also, too, again, she's young and she's in a
situation like she got this job and most of the jobs we get are from our social networks, right? So, she gets this job
from her boyfriend's father. And you wonder, did she get this job uh before or after the affair? And how long was
this affair going on? But you could he is the guy that writes your checks. He He is
in a position of power. He's in a position where he can manipulate her. And I you know, I feel for any young
parent, whether you have a partner that's helping you out or not, that sometimes when you're young and naive,
you think that money will solve a lot of your problems. It won't solve them all, but
it will solve your money problems. So, this doesn't put her in a great situation, and people can sit there and
go, "Well, she's 22, she's an adult." Yeah, but adults can be manipulated, too. Well, and I also feel for Aaron
Blair, right? I mean, he has an alibi, he's not considered a suspect at this point. But for his part,
he says {quote} I've already had bad things with my dad before. This is what he tells investigators. He
says he's done it to me before is a quote. Oh, great. >> So, that can only lead I mean, if he
says he's done it to me before, that I mean, that's suggestive that he's had some kind of
that he had a relationship with [ __ ] Yeah. With somebody else that that was supposed to be with Aaron or
had been with Aaron at some point. Yeah, and you're you're supposed to be the individual that teaches this young man
how to be a man, and you're doing nothing but uh [ __ ] on him. And he's married,
too. E.C. Blair is married as well. So, >> Yeah. So, speaking of E.C. Blair, he [snorts]
Yeah, he talks to the dad, he talks to the police when they first show up. But once this is kind of uncovered, he then
refuses to cooperate with investigators. So, the investigators are like, "You know what? We we
He might be a a brick wall for us right now, but guess who we might have on our side?
E.C. Blair's wife, right? Oh, yeah. >> scorned. So, they go and they decide to focus on Lisa Blair. We want to see what
she knows. Couple things. She could be a suspect. She could have more information
about the affair. She'd have access to the location, the shop. Would she have any knowledge about the cameras? And
then obviously, she would have motive because if she knew about the affair, correct.
>> Exactly. And so, but also, does she because mom The only person they're finding about out about this affair is
coming from Leah's mom, who doesn't know any more about it other than what she was able to retrieve from emails. So,
you you got to figure out a couple things with Lisa. Is she an accomplice? Is she a suspect? Does she have more
information about this affair? Could she have information about the disappearance? Right. Or is she just a
victim also in this situation? Could she have information that she doesn't know that is important to the
investigation? So, Lisa talks with police. She says, "Yep, unfortunately, I did know about
the affair. I found out about it when I went through my husband's phone." And she says, "Look, I figured this out
before Lisa went missing we Sorry, before Leah went missing. I apologize. It sounds like what she's telling police
is that her and E.C. had worked it out for the most part, but I don't know that it's completely worked out because
she says that she, Lisa, the wife, E.C.'s wife, wanted Leah, the missing girl, fired.
So, I guess some confirmation that it would be over over, never happen again, if you if you're able to separate these
two. But we know that Leah's still working there when she goes missing. What I think we got to get back to
though here in this case is you're finding out this new information, but you also have the fact that remains.
You have everything telling you that Leah arrived at her work, and we don't know what happened to her
there. We have police saying we think whatever happened to Leah happened at that shop. So, of course,
you've started the process, but you need to be firmly neck deep in the process of
interviewing every single person that works there, every single person that is in and out of that shop. So, other auto
shop employees are going to be of a heightened interest to your investigation and specifically
the police and the Rangers decide to hone in on two of them. Their names [music]
Ross Hellums and Billy Minkley. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. For everything
true crime check out truecrimegarage.com. So much more to get to in this case. So
join us back here in the garage and until then >> [music] >> be good, be kind, and don't litter.
>> [music] [music] [music] >> Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand. You hold my hand.
Learn about adopting a teen from foster care at adoptuskids.org. >> You can't imagine the reward. Brought to
you by AdoptUSKids, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council.

Surrounded by Evil /// Part 1 /// 913

Part 1 of 2

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22 year old mother and professional Leah Martin went missing on her way to work. Her family was aware of threatening calls Leah received prior to her disappearance. Investigators find traceable evidence and search for the young mother. What clues and information were in those mysterious calls and were they connected to her disappearance? It’s a small town mystery with a lot of potential suspects. Grab a chair and grab a beer and go searching for answers with Nic and the Captain.

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Brief Summary

Leeah Marten, a young mother, vanished in 2015 under suspicious circumstances, leading to a complex investigation involving her relationships and threatening calls.

Key points

The Disappearance of Leeah Marten. A young mother vanishes after receiving threatening calls, leaving her family in turmoil.
Threatening Phone Calls. Leeah Marten's father reveals she received alarming calls before her disappearance.
Apple Pay Simplifies Security. Apple Pay makes secure payments easy with built-in security features.
Blood Found in Search for Leah. Billy discovers fresh blood while searching for his missing daughter.
Leah's Secret Relationship Revealed. Leah's mother uncovers a secret affair with her boss, complicating the investigation.
E.C. Blair's Complicated Situation. E.C. Blair's relationship with his father raises suspicions during the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Where is Leeah Marten?

A haunting question about a missing person.

4:41WatchMar 17, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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