MS MS - Leigh Occhi, 13, Tupelo, 27 Aug 1992

[haileyrhea]

Poor girl... I am SURE LE would have tested those glasses for prints... It's a shame nothing was found...
I pray that her family has some answers soon.

Who knows? My aunt walked into her spare bedroom and discovered someone had broken in during the night and slept in the bed. They also took some items from the room. I live a county over from Lee county and our police department couldn’t take any fingerprints. They said they didn’t have the capabilities or the technology. Maybe they just didn’t want to bother since it was just a sleep and run petty larceny. It sure scared her as an elderly woman living alone to know some stranger was sleeping in the very next room all night though. There was also someone on the run or something around that time that made it even scarier. I can’t remember everything as I was pretty young. It was probably mid 90s tho.

 

[ffaely]

Same

Who knows? My aunt walked into her spare bedroom and discovered someone had broken in during the night and slept in the bed. They also took some items from the room. I live a county over from Lee county and our police department couldn’t take any fingerprints. They said they didn’t have the capabilities or the technology. Maybe they just didn’t want to bother since it was just a sleep and run petty larceny. It sure scared her as an elderly woman living alone to know some stranger was sleeping in the very next room all night though. There was also someone on the run or something around that time that made it even scarier. I can’t remember everything as I was pretty young. It was probably mid 90s tho.

The same thing happened to my grandpa at Christmas. He came back home after staying that night and someone had been in his house - they slept in his bed and eating food from the fridge. They broke the window to get in and out and there was glass everywhere. He's 63 and lives alone .

 

[digiskunk]

Just checking in. I can't believe it's been so long since the last post. This entire case—especially the glasses—is heartbreaking.

 

[ekardh]

There was a (false) sighting of Leigh in Boonsville, then lo' and behold, a few days later Leigh's glasses are sent postmarked from Booneville.

Someone was trying to be too clever for their own good.

 

[doe199]

She’s been missing for so long! 31 years in August and still no answers!

 

[smlauderd]

I live in Southern Mississippi, and my grandmother (and other family) lived in the Tupelo area for decades, and my father grew up there. She also now lives in Booneville in the house her parents built. I did a bunch of amateur research on this case a year or so ago. My grandmother isn't a huge fan of this type of thing, so I sadly haven't gotten any information about it from her, but I came to the conclusion that Kearns had done it and that the mother had shut down (possibly related to her military training) her emotions so she came off cold to media.

From what I remember, Kearns and Leigh shared a love of horses and he possibly talked to her about it at church or the ranch they both rode at. He had been convicted of a kidnapping and rape of a girl around her age that he had met through church within a year of Leigh's disappearance. He went on (1 year after getting out of jail for the first conviction, crazy) to kidnap a couple and rape the woman. Some theories say he might have buried her under the church's new (at the time) foundation. There was also something about Leigh's boyfriend saying that she stated she was scared of Barney (stepfather) and often showed up with marks at school, which she brushed off.

There was a body found at one point during the investigation that was mistakenly identified as hers through dental records, only to be redacted days later and identified as another missing woman who was 27. The confusion of that has always felt very off to me, considering the age difference and means of identification, but maybe it's easier to mix up than I'd think.

Also, when their house was searched, Leigh's bloody nightgown was found in her laundry, and other clothes were missing, which seems like something she would have done herself IMO. Honestly, this makes the theory that she could have injured herself a bit more believable, but there's not a lot of evidence pointing toward it.

The detective states that Vicki can still be considered a POI since she can't be ruled out.
“I would consider her a person of interest,” Aguirre said. “You still can’t eliminate her. There are still too many unanswered questions for Vickie, and I don’t know if that is unusual for somebody to go off to work and say, well I just left Leigh but I’m going to call and check on her. Why check on her that soon after she just left her?” (djournal article)

This case feels similar to the Jonelle Matthews case that happened eight years prior, though that has recently been solved. Preteen, missing in a short time span, garage door open, a fellow church member is a POI, etc. Her thread is below, along with some articles I looked through a while back during my research and found most of the information above.

GUILTY - CO - Jonelle Matthews, 12, found deceased, Greeley, 20 Dec 1984 *arrest 2020* #2

Missing Since: December 20, 1984 from Greeley, Colorado Classification: Non-Family Abduction Date Of Birth: February 9, 1972 Age: 12 years old Height and Weight: 5'3, 115 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Jonelle has a scar on her chin. She wore a...

www.websleuths.com

25 years later, Leigh Occhi case remains a mystery

Disappearance of Leigh Occhi - Wikipedia

The Disappearance of Leigh Occhi

These are all JMO or things I haven't seen in this thread yet and wanted to mention, and thought were interesting! I'm relatively new to WS so I apologize if anything is wrong with this post.
<3

 

[ekardh]

Also, when their house was searched, Leigh's bloody nightgown was found in her laundry, and other clothes were missing, which seems like something she would have done herself IMO. Honestly, this makes the theory that she could have injured herself a bit more believable, but there's not a lot of evidence pointing toward it.

This has always raised red flags for me. Why would an intruder bother to hang around cleaning up and putting Leigh's bloody gown in the hamper? That's time that could've been better spent escaping. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing an intruder would do.

Also, how publicized was the sighting in Booneville? Is this something only someone with a knowledge of the investigation would've known?

 

[smlauderd]

This has always raised red flags for me. Why would an intruder bother to hang around cleaning up and putting Leigh's bloody gown in the hamper? That's time that could've been better spent escaping. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing an intruder would do.

Also, how publicized was the sighting in Booneville? Is this something only someone with a knowledge of the investigation would've known?

I'm not sure how publicized the sighting was, but I know it was ruled out quickly.


"Eight days after Leigh was reported missing, a Northeast Mississippi Community College student reported seeing a girl matching Leigh’s description in a truck in the drive-through lane of the Booneville McDonald’s. It turned out to be someone else, said former Tupelo Maj. Ronny Thomas, the original lead detective on the case."

The case of Leigh Occhi

On a damp, dreary morning 25 years ago, a little girl went missing, beginning one of Tupelo’s biggest mysteries.

www.washingtontimes.com

 

[Choochoobella]

Criminology just covered this case. Link to the podcast: Leigh Occhi

I'm including the bullet points below because they either answer a question that was asked earlier in the thread or they discuss possible suspects:

• The school year hadn't begun yet for Leigh and that is why she was home. She wasn't sick.
• The timeline of this case relies heavily on Leigh's mom's account. Vickie, Leigh's mom, claims Leigh was fine when she left for work the day Leigh went missing. Leigh was only supposed to be home alone for a few hours. The afternoon Leigh went missing, Leigh's grandmother was supposed to pick Leigh up to take her to an open house at school. After the open house, Leigh, her grandmother and Vickie were supposed to have dinner at Taco Bell to talk about the open house.
• While Vickie made it sound like this was Leigh's first time home alone, neighbors said she had been home alone often.
• Fellow students of Leigh’s said she often showed up with bruises. Her stepfather, Barney Yarborough, had moved out of the house a few weeks before Leigh went missing. Barney Yarborough admitted he’d been abusive to Leigh, but had nothing to do with Leigh’s disappearance. Barney passed a polygraph. Did Vickie abuse Leigh too? Did Vickie do anything to protect Leigh from the abuse Barney doled out?
• Leigh's hair was stuck in blood on a door frame at a height higher than Leigh’s height. That and the spray pattern on the nightgown in the hamper indicated Leigh may have had a head wound and someone may have carried her out of the house.
• If Vickie is responsible for Leigh's death, she may have harmed Leigh the night before and gotten rid of the body that night.
• Vickie was seen at a car wash the evening before Leigh went missing.
• Despite what looked like an attempted clean-up, no clean-up rags or towels were found at the scene. Would an intruder have bothered to try to clean the blood up? It seems unlikely.
• Vickie noted a sleeping bag, shoes, glasses and an outfit Leigh had recently received for her birthday were missing. Police thought it odd that Vickie knew immediately that the birthday outfit was missing when she would last have seen Leigh in a nightgown if Vickie's story was true.
• Vickie has always said she thinks it was Kearns, but he didn't kill the other two young women he sexually assaulted. He raped one girl and dropped her off at her school. He only served 4 years for that crime. After he was released, he kidnapped a young couple and sexually assaulted the woman, but he did not kill her.
• Vickie took 3 polygraphs, one by the Tupelo police and two by the FBI. She reportedly failed all three polygraphs.
• There was a mistaken sighting of Leigh in a drive-through line in Booneville. Five days later, Leigh's glasses were sent from Booneville. The envelope was addressed to Barney Yarborough at Vickie's address. Whoever sent the glasses did not leave any fingerprints or DNA on the envelope. Did Vickie send the glasses from that town to try to implicate Barney Yarborough? If it was a kidnapping, police found it odd that the glasses were sent, but there was no ransom note.

.

 

[Diavola]

There was a mistaken sighting of Leigh in a drive-through line in Booneville. Five days later, Leigh's glasses were sent from Booneville. The envelope was addressed to Barney Yarborough at Vickie's address. Whoever sent the glasses did not leave any fingerprints or DNA on the envelope. Did Vickie send the glasses from that town to try to implicate Barney Yarborough? If it was a kidnapping, police found it odd that the glasses were sent, but there was no ransom note.

What would be the point of an unknown kidnapper sending just the glasses and risk getting their DNA/fingerprints getting on it? Just get rid of them.
The glasses make me believe the culprit is someone close and they were trying to divert attention.

 

[Florent B]

We have a lot of documents, etc. on the thread for him to look at. I am very impressed with his work on Leigh's case. I have always thought there was a book in the Springfield case.

Strange 1992's Summer. I'm browsing the forum on the Leigh Occhi case, which I started to cover in French last April for a first article, but with a goal in a more general context. No idea to treat it in English, but possibly participate here. What surprised me was that Leigh didn't seem to have her own key. The evening before, while waiting for her mother, she knocked on several neighbors' doors until she found some assistance.
So yes, I know US residents don't lock their doors [especially in movies ], but why would Leigh be afraid to going home? Or maybe the girl didn't have her own key at the age of 13, and that's very strange.
And for the Springfield Three file on the other hand, the subject right now, is less the case itself than the impossibility of communicating with anyone from a media company.

 

[Quill]

Strange 1992's Summer. I'm browsing the forum on the Leigh Occhi case, which I started to cover in French last April for a first article, but with a goal in a more general context. No idea to treat it in English, but possibly participate here. What surprised me was that Leigh didn't seem to have her own key. The evening before, while waiting for her mother, she knocked on several neighbors' doors until she found some assistance.
So yes, I know US residents don't lock their doors [especially in movies ], but why would Leigh be afraid to going home? Or maybe the girl didn't have her own key at the age of 13, and that's very strange.
And for the Springfield Three file on the other hand, the subject right now, is less the case itself than the impossibility of communicating with anyone from a media company.

Thankfully to have you here to look at this case with a different perspective. Without wading back through all the threads, I'll say it's a bigger possibility that she had either lost her key or misplaced it than her not having her own key. Now, if she wasn't responsible enough to keep up with a key, as in habitually losing them, etc. then maybe that could be a reason for her not having her own or possibly she had locked herself out while her key was inside. We had a deadbolt lock that would lock as soon as the door shut and you were immediately locked out. I shimmied through a window many times growing up due to that stupid lock. I was a young teen in the 80's and was what we called a "latchkey kid". I got off the school bus daily as a 13 year old with a 5 year old little sister and we were home alone until our parents came home from work. I had a key to that main deadbolt lock, which was on our back door, when I was her age. We lived rurally in Mississippi and we definitely kept our doors locked when we were not home; not because it was dangerous or we were in fear, but because it was the wise thing to do. We lived in a very safe community; the kind of place where everybody knows your name. Even still, I don't understand the concept of leaving the doors unlocked and I don't think many people do that anymore.

I look forward to reading your future posts and findings.

 

[Piknik]

Has it been proven without a reasonable doubt the glasses were hers?

 

[Florent B]

Thankfully to have you here to look at this case with a different perspective. Without wading back through all the threads, I'll say it's a bigger possibility that she had either lost her key or misplaced it than her not having her own key. Now, if she wasn't responsible enough to keep up with a key, as in habitually losing them, etc. then maybe that could be a reason for her not having her own or possibly she had locked herself out while her key was inside. We had a deadbolt lock that would lock as soon as the door shut and you were immediately locked out. I shimmied through a window many times growing up due to that stupid lock. I was a young teen in the 80's and was what we called a "latchkey kid". I got off the school bus daily as a 13 year old with a 5 year old little sister and we were home alone until our parents came home from work. I had a key to that main deadbolt lock, which was on our back door, when I was her age. We lived rurally in Mississippi and we definitely kept our doors locked when we were not home; not because it was dangerous or we were in fear, but because it was the wise thing to do. We lived in a very safe community; the kind of place where everybody knows your name. Even still, I don't understand the concept of leaving the doors unlocked and I don't think many people do that anymore.

I look forward to reading your future posts and findings.

Thank you for your encouragement and the clarifications. So far I've noticed that
The previous day:
- house at the end of a dead-end street.
- neighbors, on the departure side and just across the street.
- first time she stayed home alone (we're told).
-mother not coming home until 8.45pm the night before (why? was it usual?)
The day:
- Mom doesn't listen to the weather forecast when she gets up/breakfast.
- Mom doesn't listen to the weather forecast in the car/during the drive.

 

[Florent B]

Thank you for your encouragement and the clarifications. So far I've noticed that
The previous day:
- house at the end of a dead-end street.
- neighbors, on the departure side and just across the street.
- first time she stayed home alone (we're told).
-mother not coming home until 8.45pm the night before (why? was it usual?)
The day:
- Mom doesn't listen to the weather forecast when she gets up/breakfast.
- Mom doesn't listen to the weather forecast in the car/during the drive.

@Quill I found this (this is related to the Leigh case by the text of the poster)

TX - TX - Julie Moseley, 9, Mary Trlica, 17, Lisa Wilson, 14, Fort Worth, 23 Dec 1974 - #5

Am I correct in my assessment that most of us here believe Tommy wrote the note for whatever reason? If he just wrote it to get the car back and wasn't involved in the disappearances, I wish he would come forward and say so.

www.websleuths.com

#860

 

[ekardh]

I saw a post on an old Reddit thread. It queried that if Leigh's mother (Vickie) was guilty, why would she rush home instead of seeing out her day as normal?

I was surprised that the argument was accepted and went unchallenged. Isn't it obvious that the guilty party would want to control the crime scene and thus the narrative?

All speculative, of course.

 

[ekardh]

Here's another thought...

What if Vickie had attacked Leigh that morning. Vickie injures Leigh and then leaves for work. Leigh gets up, she's bleeding and disoriented. She tries to clean up the mess, put her bloodied nightgown into the washer, so as not to anger her mother further. Vickie starts to panic, not about the hurricanes, but the injuries to Leigh. She calls, no answer, she rushes home before the grandmother or anyone else gets there. She finds Leigh bloody and unconscious and decides to cover it up. The split-second thinking that served her in the military might have kicked in.

My only query is whether there was enough time between Vickie returning home and calling the police for her to dispose of Leigh's body?

 

[Florent B]

"I saw a post on an old Reddit thread. It queried that if Leigh's mother (Vickie) was guilty, why would she rush home instead of seeing out her day as normal?"

"What if Vickie had attacked Leigh that morning. Vickie injures Leigh and then leaves for work. Leigh gets up, she's bleeding and disoriented. She tries to clean up the mess, put her bloodied nightgown into the washer, so as not to anger her mother further. Vickie starts to panic, not about the hurricanes, but the injuries to Leigh. She calls, no answer, she rushes home before the grandmother or anyone else gets there. She finds Leigh bloody and unconscious and decides to cover it up. The split-second thinking that served her in the military might have kicked in."

All this is really very interesting, I will come back.

 

[spartanx]

I think most people seemed to think the mother was behind this.. I think mainly because of the failed lie detector tests,.. but also because they thought it was worrying that she was only gone for about an hour. before running home when Leigh didn't answer the question...oh, and because mom left her alone for the first time during a hurricane. They thought the mother killed her and disposed of her body before leaving for work... Hopefully by now people will accept that polygraphs are junk science... personally, I think the mother was probably extremely distraught . but I'm curious to see what the general consensus is now...

I think it was someone known to the family that Leigh opened the door for back then... locked boys were incredibly common.. but she was a locked girl from the age of 11, and the generally accepted rules were: 1. never answer a knock on the door, and 2. never tell someone who calls you that you were alone (i.e. "my mom and dad can't answer the phone right now"... I can't imagine Leigh He didn't have similar rules, but he may have opened the door to someone he knew quite well. That makes more sense to me than the mother being guilty...
In this case any possibility is possible.
either way
rest in peace

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Leigh Marine Occhi – The Charley Project