Never heard about this case until I came across it on Websleuths tonight. I’ve read the threads from start to finish. Few observations and my opinion on what I think may have happened.
firstly, noticeably, Leah isn’t your typical 19 year old girl, she doesn’t spend hours on hair, make up, doesn’t get her eyebrows done, by all means, very plain for a young girl of 19 in 2019. Further more, her choice of past time (martial arts) isn’t typical of a young woman either. With her mother stating she does not like clubs or pubs & enjoyed binge watching TV I can only assume her spare time was spent enjoying her sport and very little else, I assume she wasn’t in a big social circle of friends and I doubt she has many boyfriends in her young life. Which brings me to MR X,(who has been mentioned in MSM mods - before you snip this), potentially he could have been the first “serious” attention Leah had ever gotten from an older man, or grown up man. I feel a young woman like Leah could be easily lead astray by a man like that, groomed but not in the complete term we know of today - groomed by being easily influenced.
I feel the reason why Leah was so secretive about the relationship from her family wasn’t because she personally wanted to hide it, I feel it was because she was told under no circumstances that no one was to know, that there would be serious trouble if anyone knew. I truly think she was pushed into being so secretive.
She left the house on valentines night after work, most people are ready for their evening meal at that time after work but she quickly got changed and left for just over an hour, she didn’t spend time getting dressed up, she dressed in leisure gear, this wasn’t a nice planned valentines date, it was a quick needed discussion, a meeting of some sorts to sort stuff out.
In the previous threads I read that the mother said she then came home and ordered takeaway as she didn’t like the evening meal her mother prepared - that makes no sense for my theory, the mother later states in the video link 2 posts above this that she goes straight to her room at 7.15pm, no takeaway, no food, which makes perfect sense if she has met up with MR X to have a chat about ending the relationship. Most young women don’t eat with annoyance when there’s relationship problems, which adds further fuel to my theory that she met up with X that night because he possibly wanted to end the relationship.
She then left for work the same time as normal and made her way to work via her usual route. If she had planned to disappear or planned to kill herself why go the route to work? Why has a body not been found? The area is dense in places but not dense to the extremes of not being found if you had committed suicide in that area . The fact that a young girl like that, with what appears to be a close family bond with the dad and brother, no large social circle of friends, a home bird, goes missing can only lead to fowl play.
she turned her location services off on her phone for the first time ever the night before, only a paranoid man who was freaking out about being caught out would think of suggesting to switch that off. I do believe that was a decision of X, not Leah.
Now, what would make someone harm a young woman like that? A mistake that can’t be hidden, like a pregnancy? For honour? For fear of being caught? The latter being less likely of a reason as I believe Leah would be easy to keep quiet, I already believe she kept the relationship a secret because she was told to, so what does that leave us with? Two real options.
I really hope the police are keeping good tabs on X, all signs point to him.