Criminology - Leigh Occhi

Episode Date: November 19, 2023

On August 27, 1992, 13-year-old Leigh Occhi went missing from her home in Tupelo, Mississippi. Leigh lived in the home with her mother, Vickie. It was summer break, and this was Leigh's first day to stay home alone. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Leigh Occhi. Vickie said she tried calling Leigh at home that morning, but no one answered. Worried, Vickie said she went home and found blood all around the house. As the investigation occurred, some suspects were mentioned, but many believe the perpetrator was someone close to the family. You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Go on and welcome to episode 283 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford. What's going on with you, buddy? Not too much.

Just phasing into fall or what we call fall here in Florida. What's new with you? Oh, my wife is getting ready for Thanksgiving, but also Christmas. I've been seeing a lot of packages come to the house recently. That's that time of year. My wife wants to decorate usually as soon as Halloween's done, but for some reason she wants to wait a little bit this year. So she's the boss.

I just go along for the ride. I'm with you. I'm with you. I definitely get that. Hey, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had one this week, and it was Henry Lark. But that's great new support. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Henry. And thank you everyone else that supports the show. It helps us out a lot. For anyone that would like to support criminology, go to Patreon.com slash criminology to sign up. Morph, can you believe it? It's time to start talking CrimeCon, 2004, because it's happening earlier this year, May 31st through June 2nd in Nashville, Tennessee at the Gaylord Opry land. Yeah, it's hard to believe that 2024 and the next CrimeCon are right around the corner.

And a little advice to listeners that haven't been to the Gay Lord Opry land, Bring some comfortable shoes because this place is like its own city. It's big, but there's a lot of cool stuff to do there and a lot of fun there. Yeah, it is a really big place. And if listeners want to save some money when booking their trip, be sure to use our promo code, chronology, to save 10% on your standard crimecon badge when you grab your passes at checkout at crimecon.com. It should be a lot of fun.

And, of course, we'll have our annual crimecon meetup with listeners and get to hang out and see some old friends and hopefully make some new ones too. And of course, we'll be on podcast road too. So be sure to book your trip and come hang out. It definitely is a lot of fun. All right, we have all that out of the way. Let's dive into this week's case. And we have a real head scratcher of a missing person's case.

It also just happened to take place against the backdrop of a hurricane. Lee Ochi, barely a teenager, went missing from her Tupelo, Mississippi home in August 1992 and is presumed to have been abducted. She remains missing today. What exactly happened to Lee Ochi? Lee Marine Ochi was born on August 21st, 1979. Her parents, Donald Ochi, and Vicki Felton, both in the United States Army. They met while they were both stationed in California, and in 77, the two were married. Two years later, Lee was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Lee was outgoing and liked to try different things. She rode horses and even went shooting with her dad. In April 1981, Donald Ochi and Vicki felt and divorced. Donald was soon transferred to Germany, and Vicky moved to

Tupelo, Mississippi with Lee. Lee kept in touch with her dad via telephone, and when she was seven or eight years old, she flew to Germany and stayed with him for a few months. In the summer of 1992, Lee was living with her mom, Vicki, and Tupelo, Mississippi. Tupelo, at the time, had a population of just over 30,000 people. It's famous for being the birthplace of Elvis Presley. And there's even an Elvis Museum in Elvis's childhood home. Vicky and Lee lived just four miles west of the Elvis Museum in a home located at 105 Honey Locust Drive.

Their home was at the end of the street on a quiet cul-de-sac that butted up to a wooded area. Vicky had gotten remarried to a man named Barney Yarborough. following her divorce with Donald, but they separated. So it was just Vicky and Lee living in the home. Lee had just celebrated her 13th birthday and was looking forward to starting eighth grade at Tupelo Middle School. But the Tupelo Public School District was on vacation until the fall. She was growing up and feeling more independent.

Lee and Vicki agreed that on Thursday, August 27th, she would finally be able to stay home alone. school was out and Vicky had to work, but now Lee wouldn't have to be shuffled off to a friend's house and Vicki wouldn't need to arrange for a babysitter. So this was a real big step for them. Many kids in the 80s and 90s were latchkey kids coming home from school to an empty house, letting themselves in and taking care of themselves until one or both of their parents came home from work. I know I did it.

I still can remember wearing a key around my neck on a necklace. Studies have shown that. that this wasn't the best, psychologically speaking, for developing young children. But there's no denying that if you weren't a latchkey kid, those peers that were seemed to more mature, more independent, and cooler. For Lee Ochi, this privilege of staying home was likely a huge coming of age type moment, a type of right of passage. And I don't know how common this is today, but it was fairly common back in the 80s for

sure you said you did it more if i know i did it as well i remember you know getting off the bus from school walking home letting myself in and it was like i had the run of the place until you know my parents got home from work yeah i know for me i was supposed to sit down and do homework and maybe have a snack or something and knock that out but i used to go home and kick the tv on it just kick back on the couch and have a soda or something. And then as soon as my parents were getting ready to come home, I'd race over to the table and set my books out and get cracking on the homework. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I can remember just wanting to watch MTV. That's all I wanted to watch back in the day. That's back when MTV actually played music video. But we have to clarify,

this day alone for Lee wasn't really a full day at all. Lee would only be alone for a few hours, Vicky left home to go to work that morning. In that afternoon, there was an open house at Tupelo Middle School and Lee's grandmother was going to pick her up and take her. That evening, the plan was that over dinner together at Taco Bell, Lee and Vicky would talk about what happened at the open house. As Vicki got ready for work that morning, she was nervous about leaving Lee alone. Not so much because she was worried that Lee wouldn't be able to take care of her.

herself, but because of approaching Hurricane Andrew. Although the storm wasn't predicted to make landfall directly near Tuplo, Vicki was still nervous because storms can be unpredictable or veer off course. At 7.35 a.m., Vicki Felton left their home on Honey Locust Drive to head to work, and it's the last time anyone ever saw Lee Ochi. At work, Vicky worried about Lee like any mother would when their child was home alone. When she heard a news alert that a heavy storm might move through the area due to the hurricane, she decided to call Lee and warn her so that she wouldn't be afraid and also tell her what to do if there was an emergency. It was about 8.30 a.m. when Vicki called home. She had been gone for just under an hour, but Lee didn't pick up the phone. After a few minutes,

Vicki called again, but still Lee didn't answer. This really concerned Vicky. Lee was supposed to be home. So if she was but wasn't able to answer, something was wrong. And if she wasn't home, something was also wrong. Well, we know more because of the time frame, there were no cell phones, or at least Lee wasn't going to have a cell phone for sure. And so that meant Vicky had one option to call home. Now, she also most likely could have called the neighbor if she was close with any of her neighbors and she had their phone numbers. We don't know if she did. We don't have that information. But it sounds like, you know, she got worried very quickly and decided the best course of action was to go home. A lot of times neighbors have each other's phone numbers just

in case there's some kind of emergency or something happens to their house. They want to be able to get a hold of each other. But we don't really know here if that was an arrangement between Vicki and her neighbors if they had each other's phone numbers. And if so, were any of those neighbors home, that's another thing we don't really know from the research. But that would have been the easiest solution. But at the same time, Lee was only a mile and a half away. So it didn't take her long to get home when she's decided to go. So the fact was Vicki didn't waste any time. She did what many parents might do in that situation. She headed home to check on Lee. And you just mentioned at Morph, but she did work pretty close to home at a manufacturing company called Legit and Platt.

It was only about a mile and a half from her house. So she figured if nothing was wrong, she'd be back at work right away. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear, quickly to Vicki, that things were not okay. As she pulled up to the house, Vicki noticed that the garage door, which she knew had been locked when she left just an hour earlier, was open. The lock, The light was on inside the garage. It was motion activated, so that meant the door had probably been opened very recently. Lee didn't typically go in and out through the garage. She normally used the front door, so this was concerned.

Moving to the front door, Vicky didn't have to unlock it. It was closed, but it was unlocked. This was also a red flag for Vicky, as Lee was instructed to keep the doors locked. Vicky anxiously entered the house calling out for Lee, but there was nothing but silence. Vicky looked around for Lee, but she was nowhere to be found. Her shoes and the eyeglasses she needed to read were also missing from the home. Then Vicky spotted something that she probably would never forget.

Blood. There was blood on the walls and on the carpet that was still wet, and blood covered the bathroom counter. A trail of blood led down the hallway and to the back door. On the doorframe, strands of Lee's hair were stuck in blood. So I think more... Vicky went from what a lot of us have experienced, a situation where it kind of hits you that, you know,

maybe something's amiss. You're a little worried. You want to check it out, which is what she did. She drove home. Unfortunately, she experienced what most of us don't, thankfully,

and that's a horrific scene. Now, she doesn't know exactly what happened, but you know in her mind, things had to go to a dark place, that amount of blood, a trail of blood, and Lee's hair stuck in blood on the doorframe. I would think your mind would go to a pretty dark place quickly. Yeah, it's not like this can be anything other than what it looks like. It looks like something bad happened. You know, it's not just a case for her not being there. And I think any parent in the situation

would have been very frantic at this point. And 9 a.m. Vicki, ranically called the police to report Lee missing. Police raced to the scene and were there in minutes and began to assess everything. There were no signs of burglary. A sleeping bag and a few items of Lee's clothing that she had just received for her birthday were found to be missing. Despite what police felt were clear signs of an attempted cleanup of the blood, there were no dirty rags or towels found when authorities searched the home.

The nightgown that Lee had been wearing when, when Vicky last saw her that morning was found bloody, and so was her bra. They were both found in the laundry hamper. K-9 units were brought out to search for Lee, but were unable to catch any scent to follow. And there was a lot in the research about this ravine that ran along the property. The police and the dogs and everyone paid a lot of attention to this ravine, hoping that they would find some clues there. but unfortunately they didn't.

Years later in 2017, Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguire, who was a detective at the time that Lee was reported missing, told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, there was some indication Lee had sustained some kind of injury. Unfortunately, as he explained, you couldn't tell how bad the injury was. You couldn't tell where the injury was.

However, based on the hair stuck in blood on the door frame, around five feet high, just a few inches taller than Lee's four feet ten inches and the blood pattern on her nightgown. Investigators were able to get a vague idea of the wound. Chief Aguirre explained, because it looked like the blood had dripped down onto her nightgown, you would think the injury had to be above the neck possibly. So that does make sense. Number one, the blood dripped down onto the nightgown.

But then you also have this hair stuck in blood. It was higher than Lee was tall. So it almost makes me think that she suffered an injury. At some point, her nightgown was removed because it was left at the house. And then maybe somebody carried her out of the home and her head touched that door frame, maybe where her wound was. I don't know. I'm speculating, but I'm trying to figure out how this went down.

And I think no matter what the theory is about how that blood, how that blood got there, the possibilities just seem very frightening. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you can go through a number of different scenarios, but none of them are good due to the technology at the time. Authorities were only able to determine that the blood was typo. Remember, this was 1992 when DNA science was first coming online, but by 1998, the use of DNA science and crime fighting had evolved. Chief Aguire told the Clarion Ledger way back in 1998 that it evolved enough that if we had a body, we could do a DNA analysis and a match.

Despite the lack of DNA proof that the blood at the scene belonged to Lee, investigators since day one have always believed that it did. Questions nagged at investigators. Why had there been no obvious signs of forced entry, could Lee have opened the door to someone that attacked and abducted her? Before the case had a chance to cool off, in September 1992, just weeks after she went missing, Lee's glasses arrived in the mail at Vicky's home. They were addressed to B. Yarborough, a misspelling of Lee's stepfather, Barney Yarbrough's name. The street name was also misspelled on the address, with the E missing from the honey in Honey Lucas Drive. The envelope had double the postage stamps required

and was postmarked about 30 miles away from Tupelo in Boonville, Mississippi. One interesting thing about that postmark location is that a fast food worker in Boonville thought they spotted Lee in a truck in the drive-through line shortly before the glasses were mailed. The possible sighting of Lee made the news, and it's possible that whoever mailed those glasses saw an article about that sighting and decided to drive the Boonville to throw the investigation off of themselves and pointed to that town.

Authorities were able to find the truck and the girl in question. It turned out it wasn't Leochie, just someone who looked like her. Investigators from the FBI analyzed the envelope, the glasses were mailed in, but unfortunately it didn't give them any further clues. The stamp, which had to be wet to stick, hadn't been licked. Someone had deliberately gotten the stamp wet with water. This meant there was no DNA on the stamp. and unfortunately there was no DNA on the envelope either.

Whoever had handled it may have worn gloves. They were certainly careful with the stamps. This is interesting because as we mentioned in 1992, DNA was just basically coming online. And the average person didn't know much about it or how it worked. So the fact that they avoided licking the stamp is interesting. Now, it could be that maybe they just didn't want to chance it. by leaving any evidence behind, or maybe they just didn't like the taste of stamp glue.

Aguire felt that the glasses were some sort of diversion, meant to send authorities down the wrong path. He told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, you would think if it was an actual kidnapping, you would have expected a little more to come along with that. There was no ransom letter or anything like that that came with those glasses. So the DNA, angle is kind of interesting. It could just be that this person, whoever mailed the glasses, never licked stamps or whatever, but to me, it's really just the sending of the glasses in general. I don't understand what that was meant to do. Other than possibly throw off the investigation based on the postmark, where it was mailed from, could that,

this have been some type of taunt to Lee's mother, Vicky? I mean, if you're not sending a ransom note, you're not requesting anything. What are you doing by just sending the glasses? And it could have been, you know, an attempt to get police looking in a different direction, you know, the misspellings, maybe they're going to make themselves seem like the offender is a uneducated. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.

For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. person, so they have these purposeful misspellings on them, and that could be one of the things. It could also be that they want police to look at the stepdad. They put his name on the envelope, even though he hadn't lived there in several weeks since they split up. So maybe it was an attempt to get them looking at him since his name was on the envelope.

It's just one of the weird parts of the mysteries, why I send those glasses in the first place? Work comes in many forms. Commonwealth Charter Academy works to perfect K-12 virtual learning and in-person experiences. To us, it's all in a day's work. CCA, how schools should work. Visit cca educate.me. That same month, September 1992, Lee's father, Donald Uchi, arrived in Mississippi.

He had taken a leave from the military to search for his daughter. He took part in multiple search parties in the area. Sadly, all of those searches would come up empty. It would be almost a year before anything of consequence happened in the case. In July 1993, terrible news came for Lee's family. A female skull had been found in a soybean field in Monroe County, and authorities using dental records identified it as Lee's. This wasn't the way that anyone wanted her to be found.

The news was devastating to the community and for the people that had been looking for Lee. But just one week later, in a major about-face, authorities announced that the identification of the skull as Lee's was a mistake. She was still missing, and they actually had a Jane Doe on their hands. Then Monroe County Sheriff Rulowel Maxi was quoted in an AP article about the mix-up saying, If this is not Leochie, then we have a homicide in our county that we've got to follow up on. Police did work hard to properly ID who the skull belonged to, and they were able to verify it belonged to 27-year-old Pollyanna Sous.

Keith, who disappeared from Shannon, Mississippi in March of 1993. For the Keith family, this was devastating. For some of Leochie's family, it brought a sliver of hope. Her mom was quoted in an AP article about the identification. I'm not going to be convinced until they find her. We have no proof. She's not a lot. While Vicki sounded hopeful, others weren't so optimistic.

Lee's dad Donald told the Clarion Ledger, I thought she was dead the day my ex-wife called me and told me she was missing. Plenty of locations as to where Lee could be ran through his mind, but none of them ended in a rescue. They all ended with the belief that she was gone and he'd never see her again. He added, you have that big river running up through there. She could have been thrown off that big bridge. I'd like to see someone executed for it.

So you have this identification of the skull, and it turns out that it's good news for the Ochi family, but it's horrible for another family because obviously the skull belongs to someone. And I think we see this in a lot of the cases that we do, you know, when people are identified, it does give, you know, maybe a glimmer of hope to one family who's still looking for a child, but it makes things very final for another family. They now lose that hope of finding their loved one alive. And I'm just thinking about the roller coaster of emotions that Lee's family had, you know, here's this big news, not the outcome they wanted,

and then they think she's dead. And then all of a sudden a week later, the police were like, oh, no, sorry, we made a mistake. I mean, I can't imagine that kind of swing in, in, emotions and what they were dealing with. Well, and the other thing that jumped out at me was, you know, kind of Vicky sounding hopeful, viewing this as, okay, my daughter could still be alive, while Donald told the paper that, you know, he basically thought from day one that she was dead. And, you know, I think that just comes down to every person views things differently or has a different thought. Some people are

very optimistic. Some people are pessimistic. You just never know. Yeah, I guess it's a glass half empty or half full situation. So I think we have to talk about some potential suspects in this case. Vicki Felton thinks there's a very likely and clear suspect. In May 1994, Oscar McKinley Kearns, who went by Mike, was a vacation Bible school and Sunday school teacher at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the same church that Lee and Vicky attended. In May, 1993, nine months after Lee vanished, Kearns kidnapped the 15-year-old girl in Memphis, Tennessee, drove her to a secluded area in DeSoto County, Mississippi, and sexually assaulted her. He then drove her to her school and dropped her off like nothing had happened. She immediately informed staff the school, and they called police

to report the kidnapping and assault. Carnes was arrested and pled guilty to the crime. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison, with 16 years suspended, but he served less than four. In October 1997, he was released. And more if I'll tell you, man, it never ceases to upset me.

When we talk about things like this, how do you get a 24-year sentence whittled down to eight and ultimately served less than four? for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl. I will never understand that. And this is, we're not talking about 1950 here. This is 1997.

What are we doing? And it seems like it happens all too often in many of these episodes. We're talking about the same kind of thing, but that is a really, really big leap. Maybe he just had a fantastic attorney. I don't know, but just, Ludicrous. You know, if this was a what they call victimless crime, if someone had broke into a store and stole some merchandise or something along those lines, I could see reducing a sentence down. But kidnapping a young girl and sexually assaulting her, I mean,

taking her across state lines, it doesn't make sense that he would get off this lately. Yeah, less than four years. After Kerns was released from prison, he kidnapped a young couple in Union County. He sexually assaulted the woman. just as he had done to the 15-year-old for this kidnapping and assault. He once again pleaded guilty. In March 2000, he was sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary in parchment. In 2019, Kearns was released. In May 2021, when he was 63 years old, he passed away.

So I think you can definitely see why Vicky would think that Kearns could be a good suspect. He was known to attack teen girls. He was also connected to the church that Vicky and Lee went to, but that wasn't the only link between them. Lee also liked to ride horses at the same stable as Kern's, off of North Thomas Street and Tupelo. And perhaps most alarming of all, he lived just a mile from Lee's home.

For Vicky, the chances have ever known what happened to Lee all but disappeared with Kern's death. She told the Daily Journal, It sure makes it less likely. She hasn't lost all hope, though. She added, You always hear about jail confessions. I only hope that maybe he talked to someone in his family

before he died or maybe talked to somebody in jail. After Kern's arrest in 1994, Vicki began to publicly voice her suspicions about his involvement in her daughter's disappearance. It could explain why there was no forced entry into Lee's home. Perhaps he showed up there and seeing a familiar face, she opened the door for him. but as far as we know, there's no physical evidence that links Kearns to this case.

But you can definitely see why Vicky would have her suspicions about this Kern's character. Obviously, he was not a good guy. You know, I just talked about how I thought the four years, less than four years was light. Well, obviously it's even more light when you find out what he did after he got out. Some people, a lot of people really suspect that investigators should be looking at someone much closer to home in Lee's case and looking at those closest to her. But to an extent, that did happen. Barney Yarborough Lee stepped at, who had moved out of the house several weeks before Lee vanished, took a polygraph test and reportedly passed it.

He also reportedly admitted to police that he had been abusive to Lee, but he denied having any knowledge about her disappearance. He passed away in December 1996. Although Lee's father Donald was living in Virginia when Lee was abducted, he too agreed to take a polygraph and passed. That leaves just Vicki Felton, Lee's mom. Vicki took three polygraphs in total. One polygraph administered by the Tupelo Police Department and two more administered by the FBI. It's been reported that she failed all three. Police Chief Aguire told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal,

there are still too many unanswered questions for Vicky. And I don't know if that is unusual for somebody to go off to work and say, well, I just left Lee, but I'm going to call and check on her. He asked, why check on her that soon after she just left her? And this question asked by Chief Aguier,

it doesn't sound all that strange to me. If I think about, all right, leaving my child home alone for the first time, is it that abnormal? to maybe after an hour or so at work want to call and check on them. I don't know that it is, but you would have to say more that the three failed polygraphs are very concerned.

Yeah, and I know we talk about polygraphs often and how they're not admissible in court, but they are a tool that law enforcement uses and to have three of them out of three come back showing deception. And to me, that's pretty powerful. Yeah. And I also think you add in there the fact that they weren't administered by the same people. It's not like the Tupelo Police Department administered all three. And I think that may add some credence to them. And I think that's just one of the reasons why a lot of people tend to think Vicky could be involved.

To many people, especially in the online sleuth community, Vicky seems like an obvious suspect. Some fellow students of Lee's voiced concerns that she showed up the school sometimes with mysterious bruises. She would dismiss the bruises as something she got while horseback riding. We know that Barney had admitted that he physically abused Lee, but it's not clear if Vicky could have been abusing her as well. Vicki's the last known person to see her daughter. At the home, there was no sign of forced entry. Lee never called 911, which you think she would do if someone was trying to get into the house.

and police have said that it was clear that whoever attacked Lee had tried to clean up the scene. If you're an intruder has just gone into Lee's house, attacked her, leaving blood all over, would you really take the time to clean up the scene? It seems like it would be more likely that you'd want to get out there as soon as possible with your victim. They are abducting before someone spots you or your vehicle. These details continue to stand in the way of police clearing Vic off the person's of interest list. As for Vicky, she's denied any involvement or knowledge in her daughter's disappearance. And there's a part of me that that hates to see the mother of a missing child scrutinized so heavily.

But let's face it, in these types of cases, those closest to the victim are looked at and normally cleared. It just seems as though what's come out from police is that they just haven't been able to clear her. And I think as long as that remains the case, there's going to. be suspicion there on the part of many people. Lee had been 13 for just six days when she vanished. According to Vicky, Lee was afraid of storms and the night before she disappeared. Lee slept in Vicki's bed because the weather outside was scaring her. Even a storm that doesn't cause damage can cause howling winds and flickering lights. Depending on what your roof is made of, heavy rain can sound peaceful or it can sound

like your house is going to come crashing down around you. So you can see why Vicky might have been so anxious and quick to call and check on her daughter that day if she was nervous about her being home alone during that storm. Weather reports from that day back up the fact that the wind was picking up between the time when Vicky left for work and when she called the check on Lee. Now, those winds quickly died down and there was some light rain, but overall a major storm never happened in Tuplo that day. There's one statement in particular that Vicki made that has really grabbed some people's attention.

When she described calling Lee from work, she mentioned that they had a special phone routine for when Lee was home alone. Vicky would call, let the phone ring twice, hang up, and then call again. Two rings meant it was going to be mom calling. So if this was Lee's first day home alone ever, which is part of why it was so concerning when she didn't answer, how did they have a routine for call and call? when she was left alone. I've seen many people ask this, and it really made me wonder.

Then I realized that this didn't have to mean that Vicky was lying about this being the first time Lee was home alone or about that special ring. With Vicky likely planning to call and check in on Lee that day, they could have arranged that signal just before she left for work. Maybe she told Lee she didn't have to answer the phone unless it rang twice and then started ringing again because it would be her. Yeah, you know, when you and I researched you. Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset.

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there's speculation. There are questions. You know, this one, it doesn't really grab me. Because I do think they could have talked about this, maybe even the night before or that morning before Vicky left. Hey, don't answer the phone. This is how you'll know it's me and then you can pick up. It doesn't seem all that strange. Yeah, I think it just goes to show that when people are already suspicious of you, everything you say is going to be looked at and dissected and certain things are going to look ominous to some people. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there is no solid evidence that connected Vicky or anyone else to Lee's disappearance. But we can't forget, the timeline is so tight here.

someone had to get into the home, harm Lee, probably incapacitating her, or finally convincing her to cooperate, sloppily attempt to clean up the scene and then leave with Lee in under an hour. And we talked about, according to Vicky, the light to the garage was on when she arrived back at home. It was thought that the motion sensor activated light meant that whoever left the home or had been in the garage, likely left just before Vicky arrived home. Lee's abductor would have needed to either know she'd be alone that day at home, which could point to someone close to the family

or someone just randomly targeted the home and crossed pass with Lee inside. There have been other cases where a child has been left alone and met with foul play. 12-year-old Janelle Matthews of Greeley, Colorado was abducted and murdered after night alone at home in 1984. We covered her case way back on episode 235. Her dad arrived home after attending a basketball game and found the garage door open,

but no one was in the house. Her case wasn't solved until her remains were found in 2019, a whopping 35 years after she vanished. In 2022, Stephen Panky was found guilty of her abduction and murder and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Another similar case was that of 10-year-old Janine Nicarico, who, who was abducted from her home in February 1983. She had stayed home sick that day from school and was all alone in the house. Her brother arrived home after school and found the front door kicked in, a footprint still on the door. But there was no sign of Janine.

Two days later, Janine was found dead in a park two miles from her home. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death. Janine's case is a pretty long and involved one that saw arrests of some. suspects who were sent to death row, only to be cleared years later after DNA excluded them. Eventually, the real killer Brian Dugan was identified. Perhaps Janine's case was most similar to Lee Oche's with one major difference. Janine's front door had been kicked in and a footprint left behind. In Lee's case, there was no indication of forced entry, which once again seems to point to the theory

that Lee knew or abductor and let them in. if there was an abductor. For those that believe Lee's mom, Vicky, harmed her daughter and made up the entire abduction story to cover up her crime, the clues of the crime scene strengthened a case against her. The people suspicious of Vicky think that maybe in the heat of an argument, something happened and she harmed Lee.

It's tough to think about a parent harming their own child, but it does happen. And in most cases of violence, a murderer or missing person's case, the person responsible is often someone close to the victim. So you said it morph a lot of suspicion from people online tends to fall on Vicky. But I think we need to clarify the possible scenario or timeline of how things may have unfolded if Vicki is responsible for her daughter's disappearance and presumed death. The thought is something would have happened maybe the night before to guess what could have caused a mother to snap and attack their own child.

would be pure speculation. But if that's what happened, maybe Vicky panicked, she could have tried to clean up the scene and realized how difficult it would be, which could explain why the cleanup attempt was done and why it wasn't completed. Either that, or she knew eventually when Lee was found to be missing, police may want to come to her home and look around

and might find the blood evidence. So it's conceivable that she could have thought up this entire abduction story, to cover up what she had done. We know that Vicky left for work between 7.30 and 8 a.m. that day. So one would have to assume that whatever she would have done with Lee's body would have had to have happened in the overnight hours. That would have given her time to come up with the story, get rid of Lee's body,

and then report for work as scheduled that day. Again, this theory is not one we're putting out there. This is out there already. We just wanted to explore it. Once again, Vicky has maintained her innocence and has never been charged in this case. but this theory would help explain why there was no forced entry or 911 call made by Lee and why there was an attempt to clean up the blood, something someone entering the house wouldn't likely do.

All of that coupled with three failed polygraph test by Vicky is pretty powerful in the eyes of many people. While we have to consider the possibility that Vicki could be responsible, we definitely can't rule out the possibility that Lee was abducted by someone else. maybe there was no forced entry because the abductor was someone who was known to Lee or maybe they were wearing a uniform of some sort and it forced Lee to let her guard down and opened the door for them. Lee's bloody nightgown and bra found in the hamper could have been placed there by Lee herself

if the suspect had attacked her causing her to bleed and wanted to get her out of the house without leaving a trail of blood or transferring it onto their own closer. car, they could have forced Lee to change out of the clothes she was injured in. Another possibility is that she had gotten dressed for the day, putting on the new clothes, she had just gotten for birthday, and also her shoes. This would explain why they were all missing, even her glasses. If Lee was wearing them all when she was taken, they would be gone as well. Otherwise, it's likely someone had to grab her shoes and glasses before leaving the house.

But if someone had to be taken. is rushing to get out of the house with someone they just abducted, are they really going to stop and worry about whether that person has their glasses or not? There's another possibility that after she had been attacked, perhaps hitting her head on the doorframe in a struggle, the suspect forced her to disrobe or took her clothes off in an attempt to sexually assault her. Maybe Lee placed them there in the hamper by habit or the suspect. tossed them in when they walked around the house looking for her clothes and shoes. Another thing that was found to be missing from the home was a sleeping bag.

The sleeping bag may have been used to transportly both as a way to conceal her and also as an attempt to contain some of the blood. An accidental injury could have transformed this attack from an assault into a murder. Cairns didn't seem to have any issue with letting his victim. live. If Kearns or any other outside suspect is responsible for Lee's disappearance, she likely fought back during her abduction. We've talked about Lee's eyeglasses and shoes being missing. This sleeping bag was also missing. But one other thing that was missing was a birthday outfit that she had gotten. All of the stuff Vicki told police was missing. Police were

suspicious of Vicki's account of this birthday outfit being missing. I think there were response was, how would Vicky know what outfit was missing if she had last seen her wearing a nightgown and the nightgown was found? And I think, you know, for me or you, if we had to guess what was missing out of our daughter's clothes, you know, I don't think you or I could even begin to answer that. But here, Vicky seemed to know. Now, again, this could have been because it was that birthday outfit, maybe it was laying around, maybe it was still in its package and it had been there since her birthday and now it was gone. Maybe it was something innocent like that,

and Vicki just happened to notice that it wasn't there anymore. Perhaps if Lee's remains are ever found, it may lead to a cause of death or point directly to a suspect, as was the result in the Jonell Matthews case. In 2017, former Tupelo Major Ronnie Thomas, who was the original lead detective on the case in 1992, explained in an AP News article that when you deal that closely with the family and the backgrounds,

You feel like you knew her, even though I never met her. Donald Ochi said of his daughter, in that same AP article, that Lee was a smart, sweet little girl. She was a daddy's kid, like all little girls are. She liked to be hugged. She liked pizza. She liked dogs. Jordan Morris, who was 12 years old when Lee disappeared and was considered her middle school sweetheart, said she was a really precious person, and she didn't deserve what happened to her.

Jordan went to a different school, which was in session that day in August, but he called Lee every single day. He said, I was a kid without a whole lot of friends. I wasn't extraordinarily social, but she was my best friend. When it comes to the truth about what happened to his daughter, Donald Ochi said, I don't know if we'll ever find out. And he may be right about that. But Donald has also said pretty bluntly that he believes someone, Someone close to the family was involved in Lee's disappearance. Now, I don't know that he's ever come out and named names or specifically said that, you know, he thought it was Vicky or, or anyone else, but he's been pretty adamant that he believes it was someone within the family.

If Curns was involved, he's been dead for a long time. If it was Vicky, she's kept the secret for three decades and likely, has no reason to come clean. And that goes for any other suspect out there as well. If they're still alive, they've kept their involvement in this crime very quiet for all this time. And the mystery of what exactly happened to Leochi remains just that, a mystery. I also think, you know, what I just said kind of holds true for all of these types of

cases that we do. You know, what is the incentive for someone in. involved in a case to come forward, especially after so many years have passed, there really isn't any, right? There's, there's no upside for them. It's only downside if they come forward and admit that they were involved or, you know, something like that. And I, and I think that's why it just doesn't happen very often. Yeah, unless somebody gets a, grows a conscience all of a sudden, or it's weighing on them and they just can't deal with it anymore. Maybe they come clean, but after all this time, that seems it's probably unlikely.

And I think that happens very infrequently, that the idea of going away to prison for a very long time, most likely the rest of your life is outweighed by your conscience weighing on you. I just don't think it happens very often. Anyone with information about the disappearance of Lee Marine Ochi is encouraged to call the Tupelo Police Department at 660. or crime stoppers of northeast Mississippi at 800. 773, 8477. So morph as we wrap this one up, we said in the very beginning, it's a head scratcher, and I really do think it is.

I mean, there are some clues. There's a little bit of evidence, but you don't have a ton in this case. You know, we went through the timeline. We talked about people who took in past polygraphs. We talked about Cairns, who obviously was a very bad guy. And then there's Vicky, you know, reportedly failed three polygraphs. A lot of people online, as we mentioned, are very suspicious of her. And I think that's always tough, especially if you didn't have anything to do with it.

That would be extremely hard to live with on top of losing your daughter. Well, and I know for Vicky, it must have been tough because after, you know, people gossiping and being suspicious of her and, you know, all of that accumulating, she decided to leave Mississippi and moved to another state and has kept sort of out of the spotlight. I guess this was too much for her. And if she's, you know, innocent of this, that must be a terrible, ordeal for her after to go through. And I don't know whether Vicky is guilty of this. I hate to accuse any parent of being involved in their child's murder and covering it up. But I sort of

side with the police here. There's some very troubling things that we do have that we can point to that we know for sure. No sign of a break in forced entry. No 911 call from Lee, which you think could be something she would try to do. if somebody was trying to get in the house and she was all alone, that didn't happen. Then we've got the blood that was partially cleaned up. And I just don't see any reason why someone abductingly from the home would want to hang around and try and clean up and make it nice and tidy. It just doesn't make sense to me that they would do that. I think they would want to get in and out as fast as possible for somebody, a neighbor,

pass or by, whatever, sees them there, sees their car, sees them leaving the house, the longer they're there, it's just more chance of them getting caught. So because of those things coupled with the fact that Vicky bailed not one or two polygraph tests, but three, all of that to me is just very, very troubling. And I think you're echoing, you know, some of the same things that we see people saying online. This is why there remains, in many people's eyes, just a lot of suspicion on the part of Vicky, you know, that crime scene cleanup really does jump out to me as well. If you have a stranger abduction, why would a stranger, or really anyone, for that matter,

think about taking the time to clean up the blood? that is hard to wrap my head around because this wasn't the middle of the night. So whoever this was, if they were carrying Lee out of the home, there was a great chance that they were going to be seen. Now, we mentioned the sleeping bag as a possibility. Maybe she was carried out in that sleeping bag. And there are a lot of possible angles here. but again, it's tough to say that you can discount Vicky completely.

I think it's very hard to do, as sad as that is. Yeah. And it's also the timeline here we're working with is everything that Vicky said. Vicki said this is what they did. But in reality, we don't know what happened, what the real timeline is because nobody saw or spoke with Lee that day. So if Vicky was involved, something could have happened that previous night. She could have gone out and disposed of her body and under the cover of darkness.

And nobody would have seen it possibly. So we just don't know. We have to go on what she's provided. And I think at this point, even if they were to find Lee's remains, test evidence and come up with DNA that points to Vicky, a good attorney might be able to explain, of course her DNA is going to be found. she lived in that house. Yeah. She interacted with her daughter all the time.

So that's why her DNA is there. So I think I'm worried that even if DNA was found at this point, it's not going to do anything to solidify a case against 50. Yeah, well, we know how hard it is when these cases get as old as this one is. But again, I do think there is a lot of mystery here. There's a lot of nagging questions. you know, these, these glasses that were mailed. Who did that? Why did they do that?

But I think you can also look at Occam's razor here and think that the simplest answer is most likely the correct one. Now, what would be that answer? And I think it would point back to Vicky. And that's why so many people online continue to voice their suspicions about her. her. And like you said more, I hate to talk about a victim's mother in that way. I'm not accusing her. You're not accusing her, but there are a lot of people online who are. Yeah, just a very frustrating case. And as a father of a 13 year old here, this is the very reason cases like

Lee's why I have a hard time even going to the store and leaving my daughter at home for 15 or 20 minutes. Very frightening. Yeah. Yeah, it's a tough call, no doubt. But that's it for our episode on Lee Ochi. If you love the show, but you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review as well, but also keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the criminology podcast really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook. at Facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group,

Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.