Going West: True Crime - Leah Freeman // 82

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

In the summer of 2000, a 15-year-old girl went missing from her small Oregon town. As police set their sights on one person in particular, a key piece of evidence comes into play, followed by a body. Although you’d think these things would help answer some questions, they do quite the opposite. This is the murder of Leah Freeman. BONUS EPISODES: http://patreon.com/goingwestpodcast LUMI CBD: http://lumicbd.com Use code "goingwest20" to get 20% off your purchase! CASE SOURCES: https://realitychatter.forumotion.com/t2857-faqs-about-leah-freeman-case https://theworldlink.com/leah-nicole-freeman/article_73691442-0262-518c-a40c-b47a4ee62dff.html https://theworldlink.com/news/local/suspects-father-nick-is-innocent/article_5e99c78b-3b8a-5de2-b0af-a58c9b97efa4.html https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1988341,-124.0926969,3a,75y,89.86h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sr5xgbjvVGQqecSrC11qGpA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dr5xgbjvVGQqecSrC11qGpA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D353.91824%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192 https://theworldlink.com/news/local/how-did-leah-die/article_ff66f7a6-af0a-11e0-8488-001cc4c03286.html https://globintel.com/usa/nicholas-nick-mcguffin-bio-wiki-age/ https://www.wilsonschapeloftherosesfh.com/obituary/freeman-dennis https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2011/07/before_her_disappearance_leah_freemans_mother_says_she_asked_the_coquille_girl_to_spend_less_time_wi.html https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74084791/leah-nicole-freeman https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-convicted-high-school-girlfriends-killing-freed-decades/story?id=69053797 https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5664 Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Heath your sound in a little congested today, sweetie. I'm a bit congested, not gonna lie. I think it's just the allergies. It's really, really dry right now. The allergies this summer are horrible. Thank you guys so much for joining us today here at Going West. Today's episode has absolutely consumed me for the last few days.

We were able to find so much information on this case. And as always, the sources are cited in the description of this episode, if you guys want to look into that, but we did the best job that we could to include every crucial detail, which is why this episode is probably going to be a little bit longer. And it takes place in Oregon, and actually not too far from where we live. I talked to Heath's mom about this over the weekend to see if she remembers this case and she did, so we were able to talk a little bit about it. I'm really excited to get into this case today.

But before we get into this case, we wanted to let you guys know about Patreon. Patreon is a place where you can get bonus episodes every month, and we're going to be releasing two bonus episodes here pretty soon. If you want to go over there and sign up for some bonus episodes, it's over at patreon.com slash going west podcast. Just hit the subscribe button. Yes, tomorrow we are releasing a new episode. It is about a babysitter murder in Canada and it's a really interesting one to look into because I think the whole babysitter murder thing is something a lot of us can kind of either relate to if you were a babysitter or it's just one of those spooky stories.

It's definitely a spooky one for sure. Also, I wanted to let you guys know we got some amazing reviews this week but there were a lot of people who didn't leave their name and locations so I couldn't give you guys a shout out. I'm so sorry. I really do appreciate those reviews though. Yeah, we love getting nice reviews. You guys are so awesome. We love reading them. It makes us so so happy. So if you want to give us a review, head on over to Apple Podcasts and don't forget to leave your name and your location and we'll give you a shout out at the end of the episode. Alright guys, without further delay, this is episode 82 of Going West, so let's get into

it. It was the summer of 2000 when a 15-year-old girl disappeared while walking around her small Oregon town after getting into an argument with her friend. When her boyfriend found she'd gone off by foot, he supposedly spent the entire night looking for her, but his search turned up empty, only for police to find her body often in Bankman weeks later. to find her body often in Bankman weeks later. As witness sightings began to pour in and police realized their major lack of evidence, the case goes cold. That is until a new police chief comes to town with one mission, find the girl's killer. This is the murder of Leah Freeman was born on October 29, 1984 in Coquille, Oregon to parents' Cory Court right and Dennis Freeman, and she also had a sister named Denise.

Before Leah was born, her father Dennis opened a restaurant called Denny's Pizza Parlor in Coquille, which he owned and operated for 25 years, and it's still open to this day. Coquille is a small, longer town with a population of around 4,000 people, and it's just about a 20-minute drive from the Oregon coast. And if you listen to our recent episode on Jeremy Bright, Co-Kill is just about a 10-minute drive from Myrtle Point, which is where he lived and went missing. And Leah Freeman was just about two years old when Jeremy went missing to kind of put this into perspective for you.

Many people that live in Co-Kill work in the farming and timber industries, but as we know, Leah's dad worked in the restaurant industry, but he also worked on his land. The Freemans were a very tight-knit family who loved exploring the outdoors, which I've noticed really seems to be a thing for families here in Oregon. Heath can attest. Yep, I can definitely confirm that. And they spent a lot of time together. But ultimately, Dennis and Corey's relationship didn't work, so they divorced. And in 1992, when Leah was 8 years old, her father, Dennis, got married

to a woman named Denise, just like her sister's name, and they had children of their own. So at this point, Leah was living with her mother Cory, her sister Denise, and her mother's parents, AJ and Dott, in Coquille. Leah was described as being a pretty sporty girl and very athletic. The kind of girl that always was doing cartwheels around the house, and she loved basketball, track, and most of all, volleyball. But her dream in life was to be a beautician, and she planned on becoming one when she finished high school.

In 1999, Leah began her first year at Cochial High School. She joined the volleyball team and made a bunch of friends, and people really liked her because she was super-talkative, friendly, and just very goal-oriented. One day, during volleyball practice, she met eyes with a fellow Cochkill high school student named Nick McGuffin and the two started talking. They really hit it off, and Nick describes Leah as just being someone who was so silly and bright, and he just loved being around her. Nick McGuffin moved to co-kill Oregon when he was just three years old, so he pretty much grew up there. Nick's dad owned a produce market that he started himself while his mom worked in the medical field. Nick was on the co-kill high school football team and he was just all around a very well-liked

kid. He was kind of that quintessential handsome, dark-haired athlete, and he was always known to be a really nice guy. He meant Leah during his senior year of high school when she was a freshman, so at the time he was newly 18 years old and she was just 15 years old. Even though there were a few grades between them, they really cared for each other. There's been a lot of time driving around, listening to music, and sitting around having deep conversations. They even planned to stay together long term, even after Nick graduated high school, because

they were in love with each other. As soon as the school year was coming to a close in spring of 2000, Nick asked Leah to go to prom with him. She got her hair curled and wore a cute white dress and they had a wonderful evening and it was around this time that they became sexually active, which seemed to be like a huge line for Leah's mom, Cory, like she wasn't okay with that because of their age difference. So Cory told Leah that she wanted her to see Nick less and start seeing her friends more. Because she wasn't comfortable about them being in a relationship, because Nick was about to graduate and move on to college, Cory just kind of thought that he was too old for

her daughter. But they didn't want to be apart, so they continued dating. Soon after Nick's high school graduation, on the warm summer day of Wednesday, June 28, 2000, Nick got into his Mustang and headed to Leus House. They spent the morning together hanging out and washing all the graduation riding off of Nick's car, which he recalls was kind of a fun time, and they were kind of spraying each other with the water hose and laughing, and then later that day, Nick and Leo went to pick up Nick's friend Brent and then went back to Nick's house to watch some videos.

Then they went to Brent's grandparents house who were out of town to watch more videos and to eat some takeout. Then Nick drove Leah to her friend Sherry's house. Since Leah had started dating Nick, she neglected her friends a bit, which happens a lot in relationships so I can totally understand that. So Leah was trying to make an effort to see one of her best friends by hanging out with her that night. After Nick dropped her off at around 7pm, the two girls hung out at Sherry's house for

a bit, but Leah wanted to go on a jog and ask Sherry if she wanted to come as well. It being summer, the sun stayed out pretty late, and Leah just wanted to get outside for a bit before the sunset at around 9pm. Sherry went downstairs and she asked her mom if she could go, but her mom said no. Her mom was worried that they'd be out on a jog and that Nick would show up taking Leah away and leaving Sherry on her own, which I guess had happened a couple of times before. Leah overheard this conversation and became very upset because she felt like they were talking bad about her and her boyfriend, so she left Sherry's house on foot alone. Shortly after this happened, Nick showed up at Sherry's house to pick Leah

up, which was their plan from earlier. While Leah was at Sherry's, Nick hung out with some of his guy friends and smoked weed, hit up a local food mart, and then told his friends he was leaving to pick Leah up around 9pm. Sherry explained to him that Leah had left upset and she was probably just walking home. So if he drove to her house, he would probably see her. And remember, this is a very small town. So everything is in close proximity and walking from one place to another is very common in coquil because everything's so close. With that, Nick got back into his car and started driving towards Leah's house, but he didn't see her.

So he started driving all around the area, stopping into different shops, like a convenience mart, and asking people he was familiar with if they'd seen Leah. And no one had. He even stopped at Leah's dad's pizza restaurant to ask him if he'd seen Leah and he also had not. Someone saw Nick driving by co-kill high school just before 10pm, so that's one witness sighting. Since he still couldn't find her, he called Leah's house as a last resort and asked her

mom if Leah was there. Corey, Leah's mom, was confused because she was under the impression that Leah was with him. So he kind of just told her not to worry about it and that he'd find her and bring her home. At this point, Nick was feeling a little bit worried. He continued to drive around co-keel and ask locals if they had seen Leah, but still, no luck.

And interestingly enough, police had pulled Nick over two separate times that evening, because one of his headlights was out, and both times he told officers that he was out looking for his girlfriend. Both of the officers then let him go, but this kind of helps pinpoint where he was at certain times. As the night continues on, Nick decides to pick up his friend Kristen to help him look for Leah, and she was driving around with him for about an hour between 1am and 2am. So according to Nick, he had been out looking for Leah for a total of 5 hours that night,

and remember this is the year 2000, so he couldn't call her and he had told Leah's mom that he was going to find her. But after dropping Kristen off, he decided to drive by Leah's house and check for any signs of her. And that's when he thought he saw a TV on and Leah's room. So he assumed she had gone home and maybe had just still been upset after leaving Sherry's house. But he's still attempted to get her attention from her second story window, but he couldn't.

And then after that, Nick left. Obviously Nick had been very worried throughout the night, but he never reported anything to police officially other than telling them he was looking for his girlfriend when he was pulled over. And by the time he got home, he says that he thought she was fine and just needed the night to cool off. But when the morning came, which was Thursday, June 29th, 2000, Leah's mom, Cory, called Nick because around 7 a.m. when she went into Leah's room, no one was there. So she was just hoping that Leah had spent the night with Nick and that

everything was fine. But when she called Nick, he acted super-confused and surprised to learn that Leah, in fact, had not come home the night before, like he thought she did. After that, Corey called around in hopes of finding Leah at another friend's house, but no one knew where she was. So both Nick and Corey went to the co-heal police and officially filed a missing persons report. Unfortunately, in this case, and like many other cases, the police immediately assumed

that Leah had just run away. They figured that she'd probably turn up, which is never a good thing, especially since Nick was right there explaining to them that he had been out looking for her the entire night, until two in the morning. He explained that he had contacted all of Leah's friends and asked countless people in town if they'd seen her, yet no one had. Since Leah was just 15 years old,

they took the report and started looking for her, but they really weren't taking it very seriously, which really frustrated Cory and Nick. So they went out on their own with Leah's family and had missing persons flyers made, which had a recent photo of Leah and included her description, which is 15 years old, 5'2", 105 pounds, green eyes, and blonde hair, and they passed them out around coquille and around some other surrounding towns.

After a couple days, police started collecting statements from people around town and the co-kill paper put Leah's face on the front page. At this point, everyone in co-kill was aware of what was going on, so people started talking. After Leah left Sherries that Wednesday night, she was seen walking by a convenience store called McKays Market, alone just after 9pm, and she was spotted walking down the same road, Central Boulevard, a few more times, by people who recall her looking angry with her arms crossed, which is exactly how Sherry remembers her walking out of her house. She passed Hunters Restaurant and was also seen passing the Oregon Federal Credit Union. Then someone saw Leah walking past co-kill high school around 9.30 pm. And another person then sees her standing outside a

pay phone and also noticed two men arguing nearby, but they weren't sure if Leah was with them or not. And 30 minutes after this is when someone saw Nick driving by the high school. A few minutes later, Leah is seen for the last time when a witness spotted her walking by a gas station next to the high school. And then another few minutes later, someone hears a woman scream near said gas station. But no one sees anything. So Leah's curfew was 11pm and we know that she left Sherry's just before 9pm, which is kind of odd considering she and Nick agreed that he would pick her up at around 9pm and he did arrive to Sherry's just a few minutes later.

So they just missed each other. And then she was last seen just after 9.30pm that evening outside the gas station. And we don't know if she used the pay phone, but since Nick was driving around looking for her, she couldn't have called him, because again, he didn't have a cell phone, but no one received a call from her that night. So it's unknown if she had made a call at all, but it's unlikely, and her mom agrees with this by the way, she said she didn't think that Leah would ever really call someone from a payphone, especially

since no one reported getting said call. So obviously Leah was just blowing off steam, but by 9.30 the sun was set, so it was dark outside. And I would imagine she would have wanted to go home at this point, but the strange thing is that she only lived like a 10 minute walk away from that gas station slash the high school. So why was she loitering around the payphone and walking around town when she could have just walked home? And again, she was probably just letting off steam and wanted to go for a walk, but I do just wonder if she attempted to call someone to get her, or if she just planned to make the short walk home herself sometime before her curfew,

and she was just kind of just needed that time to just go around town and clear her head kind of thing. It sounds like that's probably more likely. She was pretty pissed off about the situation with Sherry. I could imagine that she would probably want to blow off some steam, and if nobody saw her using the payphone specifically, we can't really say whether or not she did, but I doubt that she did. And we have to remember that this is a super small town that she grew up in. So for 15 years of her life, she was in this town, this very small town. So to her, everything was super, super familiar. And so she probably didn't feel unsafe walking around by herself, even if it was dark outside.

Right, and we've talked about small towns like this many times before, and the kind of comfortability that people feel living in these towns. You basically know almost everyone who lives in said small town. So it's like the chances are of you being able to walk freely around the town without fear for your life. It's usually pretty common. Yeah, and we have to remember that because I grew up in LA, so I definitely wouldn't have felt comfortable. Maybe in the town that I grew up in, but I grew

up in a rural area just outside the city. It's hard for me to imagine like walking around at night as a 15-year-old and feeling good about it, but maybe that's something that she was totally fine with. So, the scream that was heard matched to suspicious, find by another witness. A mechanic was driving home on the night of Wednesday, June 28, 2000, so the night Lea disappeared, and at about 11.40 pm, so just 10 minutes after Lea was spotted for the last time at the gas station, which was also near the high school, the mechanic sees a right Nike's shoe in the street near the cemetery and decides to pick it up. And the cemetery and the gas station are right next to each other, by the way,

so everything is kind of all in the same area. He later reported that he figured it was one of the local teens and he took it home with him for safe keeping, thinking maybe someone would claim it. When the mechanic discovered that Lea Freeman was missing, which was five days after the fact on July 3rd, he went to the police and presented them with the shoe, wondering if maybe it was hers. So police took the shoe and showed it to Lea's family for identification, and Lea's

sister Denise confirmed that it was in fact Lea's shoe. I feel like this is overlooked and I'm sure they did look into this mechanic. But it's so strange to me that this guy sees a shoe in the road and decides to take it home with him instead of just leaving it there for the owner to find it. Like how is the owner going to be reunited with their shoe if it's at your house? I just think that's really weird. Like I would never drive past a shoe and say, gotta get out and grab that shoe to save it for somebody. Yeah, that really doesn't make any sense to me.

And maybe he was just trying to be a good Samaritan, but like you said, if I saw a shoe in the middle of the road, I'm not going to get out of my car and then go grab that shoe and take it home with me and then, you know, go on some crazy goose chase trying to figure out who the owner of this shoe is. Exactly. And he was a mechanic. He just worked a double shift and it was almost midnight.

So why does he care enough to get out of his car and grab a shoe? I don't know. That's just weird to me. But anyway. Another witness came forward stating that at 12.15am on June 29th, this witness saw two men walking down Fairview Road outside of Coquille supporting a blonde girl between them. Fairview Road is a very rural road surrounded by fur trees, so this is seemingly a very suspicious sight to witness, especially at that hour,

so definitely a weird sighting. As police interviewed Leah's friends and family, they really set their sights on Nick McGuffin, especially after they learned that he and Leah would sometimes get aggressive with one another. Sometimes when they argued, Leah would hit Nick, and he would react and hit her back. So they grilled him and Nick told them that he and Leah had a great relationship and overall Leah was very happy go lucky around him. But when he told them that she had some depression due to her parents' divorce years prior, they started kind of twisting his words and putting a lot of pressure on him.

They then decided to give Nick a polygraph test, which he failed. He apparently showed deception when asked if he physically did something that resulted in Leah's death, if he had spoken to Leah since she disappeared, and if he had anything to do with her disappearance. Of course, this was a red flag to police because they then automatically assume that he's lying to them. And we've talked about polygraphs a lot on this show. We think they can definitely be helpful, but when people who are very close to the victim are tested, the results can't always be trusted because of all the person's emotions that are attached to

what they're being asked. Even Nick's father, Bruce, stated that he thinks that Nick failed because he blamed himself for Leah's disappearance since he had just missed her when he got to Sherry's that night. And he also mentioned that they questioned Nick for seven full hours without giving him any food or cigarettes or a break. And this would without a doubt affect his responses. But police took Nick's Mustang in for testing anyway. So they were full force just considering him a suspect, or a potential suspect. On the 4th of July in 2000, this case became a whole lot more intense when someone found Leah's left Nike shoe 10 miles or 16 kilometers From where the right one was found

So this other shoe was found outside of coquille which made the coquille police finally take the case very seriously Because on that second shoe was Leah's blood But now six days had passed since she was last seen and the blood is on her shoe. So this doesn't point to any sort of happy ending. And the police also just lost nearly a week, so they really dropped the ball there. Going back to the testing on Nick's Mustang, the police took some fibers from the vehicle as well as an inch long piece of duct tape and a roll of film for further processing. Considering Nick's only alibi that night was that he was out looking for Lea,

they questioned his friends, including the friends that he was with on the evening of Lea's disappearance. One of the friends he was with that night was a guy named Brent Bartley, who we mentioned, remember because Brent, Nick, and Lea all hung out at Brent's Grandparents' house, who were on vacation, before Leah went to Sherries that night. Brent partially failed his polygraph test after he proved to be potentially deceitful when asked if anyone had confessed to him that they had something to do with Leah's disappearance. He also showed possible deception when he was asked if he was concealing critical information regarding Leah's disappearance.

Because of this, they started thinking that Brent likely knew much more than he was leading on, so the Kooz County District Attorney wrote Brent's attorney a letter saying that he would offer Brent immunity. If he was involved in what happened to Leah, in exchange for his testimony regarding what really happened. But Brent didn't take this offer. He firmly stated that he didn't know what happened to her. Since Nick's polygraph test showed deception, the police executed a search warrant on his family's home on July 28, 2000, exactly one month after Leah disappeared, to collect any potential evidence that could link Nick to Leah's disappearance. From the home, police took and tested 10 rules of 35- millimeter film, a white sock with a stain, Nick's parents

Red Ford Thunderbird, a purple women's sweatshirt, letters, marijuana, his high school yearbook, and two baseball bats. They also collected mouth swabs and body hairs from Nick himself. Then, the following day, investigators conducted a search at Brent Bartley's Grandparent's house, and the only items that were taken was a sheepskin with a stain on it and a red and white quilt. Five days later, on August 3, 2000, Leah's body was discovered down in embankment on Lee Valley Road, 10 miles or 16 kilometers outside of Coquille, just two miles southwest of where her left shoe was found.

So let me explain this area a bit. I posted a couple photos on our Instagram, by the way, for everyone to get a better visual. I'm personally a visual person, so I'm gonna try to paint this picture. It's basically a super rural road. Much of it surrounded by fur trees, like I said earlier. But when the trees open up, there's a lot of open farmland. Google Maps doesn't go down the road where her body is found,

which again is Lee Valley Road. But I took a screenshot from Fairview Road, which is the road you'd have to take to get to Lee Valley. And the photo is a screenshot from Fairview Road, which is the road you'd have to take to get to Lee Valley, and the photo is a screenshot from Fairview Road looking down Lee Valley Road so you can see a little bit of it. And that particular area has both trees and farmland, and there's no streetlights. So this is a very secluded spot to get rid of Leah's body, especially having thrown her or placed her in that embankment of the Coquille River. Going back to that one witness statement, the

one where they saw two men supporting a blonde girl at 12.15am, that was on Fairview Road, just 1.7 miles or 2.7 kilometers west towards Coqukill of Lee Valley Road. And then she was found about one mile down or south of Lee Valley Road. So my point is that witness sighting to me is really important because it just seems too strange to not be connected. And I have no idea why anyone would be walking down this road so late at night, let alone why two men would walking down this road so late at night. Let alone why two men would be supporting Leah so late at night. But I think it's worth including considering the time this happened and the proximity to Leah's remains.

Yeah, that's really, really strange that just a little bit down the road, a witness had seen these two guys in Leah and then her body's found just down the road a bit. Yeah, and I mean, I can't stress enough. This is a super rural road. To one side, there's an embankment that goes down to the river. And so you're on this pretty narrow road with one lane on both sides. Like, I don't know why anyone would be walking down that at all. And like I said too, it's coquil is a small town surrounded by more small towns, but this was a more rural area. And there wasn't, like, there were some houses around here, like I said, in farmland. But this is a super like out there situation.

So what are the chances that these two dudes are out there with a blonde girl, and then Leah's remains are found just up the road from there. To me, it just seems a little too coincidental. Yeah, definitely. And the witness had seen them at 12.15 am. We have to consider that as well. I mean, that's pretty late. Yeah, exactly. To be on such a rural road, obviously people are driving at all hours of the day, hence how the witness saw them because they were driving too. But we know that the shoe was found, the first shoe was found at 1140. She would have been taken out of that area by that time, and then 45 minutes later a blonde girl is seen on the same road that led to her remains. Just a little too weird for me. Yeah, it kind of seems like there needs to be a little bit more of a look into these two guys.

There were six weeks between Leah's disappearance and her body being found. And this was also summer, so her remains were quite decomposed and animals had also gotten to them. So unfortunately, a lot of evidence was lost. And because of this, the medical examiner was unable to determine what her cause of death actually was. All he could say was that she died by homicidal violence. But none of her bones were fractured or broken, and her organs, by that time, had decomposed, so they couldn't really figure out anything that way.

How frustrating. Yeah, I mean, not being able to make that determination. I mean, and that's a huge deal for a case because the cause of death helps kind of put the puzzle pieces together and helps you backtrack, but without that ability, it's a lot harder to investigate. Exactly. However, a private forensic consultant was eventually hired and they found a 1.5 cm sized hole in Lea's tank top and bra that was conclusively determined to have been made by a knife. This made the forensic consultant believe that she had been stabbed to death, but a different

person in forensics from the Oregon State Police couldn't see this whole and since it was so small, it was really hard to determine if this stabbing theory was reliable. They didn't find any traces of blood whatsoever in Nick's Mustang and his parents' car or in the house. There also weren't any blood stains on Leah's clothes. Due to the lack of blood, they looked at the strangulation possibility. When a person strangled their hyoid bone, which is a bone in the neck, is very often broken.

Leia's hyoid bone, however, was totally fine, but just because it's often broken during strangulation definitely does not mean that it always is. So, strangulation is still on the table, but then you'd have to consider the blood found on the bottom of Leah's shoe, leading us to conclude that Leah did bleed in some way. All in all, there was a whole lot to talk about how she was killed, but none of it got them any closer to finding out the truth. Which again, super frustrating. But by now they had her body, and they could at least determine that she was murdered and that she didn't run away after all.

So police put a lot more pressure on Nick McGuffin because he was the only person that they could really look at. There were absolutely no other suspects in this case. But after collecting everything from Nick's car and house, they just didn't find anything at all to help pin the murder on him. So they just continued to watch him and question people, hoping that something would come up. When the entire town of Coquille discovered that Nick was a person of interest, he and his family started getting threats. And they were scared for their lives because whenever Nick went into town, someone would call him a

murderer. And this was most likely because of all the rumors floating around this tiny town. So we've talked about rumors in small towns and one person said something and then it turns into another thing. So everyone had all these different stories that weren't true about Nick in their head. And whenever they saw him they were like, oh god, there's the killer. And he wasn't even found guilty of any crime at this point. So they were just saying these things and he's just like, what? This is so frustrating in so many ways and it's really taking that railroad theme. Honestly, it just sucks for Nick and his family.

One week after Leah's remains were found, there was a memorial held for her at the Coquille High School's gymnasium, and her family created a scholarship fund in her honor. The following year, Nick and his dad built a pond on their land as a forever memorial for Leah. Because whenever she would go to his house, she always loved hanging out back there. Leah's favorite color was pink, so they planted a big, light pink, roted-endron bush right next to the pond. Your favorite flower? Yeah, I do love that flower. But as time went on, Leah's case went cold.

Nick, who had been struggling a great deal from all the harassment, tried to move on with his life, and he met a young woman who helped turn his life around. And six years later, in 2007, when Nick was 25 years old, their daughter was born. At that point, Nick was much more motivated to make something of his life despite everything going on against him. Because over the years, everyone still looked at him like he was a killer. Everyone knew who he was. So he began attending the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute in Kuzbe, and he really excelled

there. After graduating, his amazing cooking skills awarded him a job as the head banquet chef at the Mill Casino Hotel in North Bend, Oregon, which is just north of Coquillo located right on the coast. Nick spent the next few years enjoying his new career and his family, but in early 2010, a new police chief came to the town of Coquillo from Arizona, so he's totally new to the area. And because he's the new guy in town, he becomes super passionate about being the guy who's going to solve Lea Freeman's murder. Even after 10 years, it was still such a widely discussed case because no one understood why it wasn't solved. So now that there was a new police chief,

whose name is Mark Dannels, a lot of the locals would ask him if the police were doing anything about Leah's case, which put the pressure on. As they reopened the case files and took another look, they first investigated an interesting witness sighting regarding two men at the gas station where Leah was last seen. There was a rumor floating around that two men were drunk and accidentally hit Leah with their car. So since they were drunk, they weren't gonna call the police

so that they didn't get a DUI, but when they tended to Leah, they weren't able to save her and had to get rid of her body. And this just makes me think about that witness sighting where two men were supporting a blonde woman between them as they walked down Fairview Road, because this is a really good connection. But there was no way to really verify that, especially after 10 years without someone coming forward and confessing. But the district attorney did not believe in this theory by any means.

He felt it was without a doubt a murder, not an accident. Yeah, and we also have to consider that these two guys were seen walking with Leah, not like they had hit her and they were carrying her down the road or something like that. So that to me leads me to believe that this really wasn't an accident. And that's a whole issue with, you know, witness sightings are so amazing because they really help piece together the puzzle, but sometimes people don't really know what they're seeing or they don't remember things correctly. And just because someone saw something doesn't mean that we're going to be able to look into it. Just like the two guys on Fairview

Road supporting a blonde woman. Was she a two guys on Fairview Road supporting a blonde woman, was she a young blonde woman? Was she an older blonde woman? Did this witness get a look at the girl's face? And the problem with that is even if she was like it looked exactly like Leah, that still doesn't tell us who these two guys were that were with her. You know, it's not like this woman got it on camera. So it's really hard to investigate that. Right, that's the one unfortunate thing about this case. And because there really was no evidence in this case, and they weren't able to determine very much at all

from Leah's remains, investigators were having a really tough time. Leah was also really well liked, so there didn't seem to be much motive for why someone would want her dead. That's when they decided to visit the Nick McGuffin theory again because he was the only somewhat likely suspect. At this point Nick was still working on the coast and he was 28 years old.

His daughter was just 3 years old but they started following him and retesting old evidence. One thing that stood out to them was the fact that after they tested Nick's Mustang, they returned it to him. But when Leah's body was found weeks later, they wanted to look at the car again, and the trunk had been cleaned out. To the police, this was very suspicious. And we're going to talk a little bit about that more later, by the way. But on top of this, people were coming forward, saying that they saw Nick and Leah together

the night that Leah disappeared. And these were people who hadn't come forward initially. Yet 10 years later, they're saying these things are true. For example, someone came forward and said they saw Leah talking to someone in a car that was missing a headlight. And at the time time Leah disappeared, Nick was missing a headlight. But Nick claims that he never saw Leah again after dropping her off at Sherry's house at 7pm. And this is what his friends that he was with that night said as well.

His friend Kristen, who had driven around with him that night helping look for Leah also stated that they never once saw her, which is why they continue to look for her until two in the morning. But police didn't buy this at all, especially when Kristen came forward in 2010 and told a little bit of a different story. Kristen Steinhoff said that on the night Leah went missing, Nick picked her up and they looked around for her, but afterwards they went back to Kristen's house and smoked meth.

Then, Nick tried to kiss her. She also said that he tried to have sex with her and she told him to stop. Nick's response to this was that he did not smoke meth because he never did, but that he did smoke marijuana. Nick says one thing led to another and they kissed, but that's where it ended. He's fully aware that cheating on Leah was not okay, but he also backs it up with saying

that he was just an 18 year old kid and that he didn't mean any harm by it. But the police really hated this cheating aspect, especially considering he was supposed to be worried sick about his girlfriend that night, yet curious kissing his friend. So now Nick is looking like a pretty good suspect to them, but they couldn't figure out why he would have killed her. That's when one of the investigators mentioned that maybe Leo was pregnant and he had to get rid of her so he didn't get arrested for statutory rape, and they liked that theory a lot, even though there was no evidence to back it up at all.

So going back to Kristen really quick, the police thought that she was a very viable witness because suddenly Nick is this cheater and now they feel really good about him being a suspect. But the thing that a lot of people were saying online was how it's really hard to find Kristen reliable because of her Matthews because she has been known to use meth a lot and she didn't come forward with this in the beginning and she also smoked meth on that evening in particular. So a lot of people just kind of thought it was really ridiculous that police were using her as this big key because she was a drug user. So that to me is really interesting that they're using this. It's not like she said, I've been

scared to say this all along, but we weren't driving around looking for Leah. She was in the trunk, you know? Yeah, or like Nick told me that night that he totally murdered her or something like that. Exactly, like all she said was we kissed, which of course, he cheated on Leah, not a good thing, but to me this isn't like an, oh my God moment. Yeah, and it really, really paints a very bad picture of Nick when the town already has their doubts about his innocence. Of course, so it doesn't help at all, but I also don't know that it really paints the picture that he's capable of murder, just because an 18 year old kid kisses a girl that isn't his girlfriend just makes him kind of a shithead 18 year old but it

doesn't make him a killer. But we were all probably shit head 18 year olds precisely. So the district attorney took the case to the grand jury where he presented all of the information and even had over 100 witnesses tell the stories of what they remember from June 28, 2000. This resulted in the grand jury concluding that Nick McGuffin was guilty of the murder of Leah Freeman. With that, law enforcement went to Nick's house on August 23, 2010, and arrested him in his chef's coat. Like he had just come home from work and they arrested him. And can I just say, I have never seen someone getting arrested in all the videos I've watched while researching different cases. I have

never seen someone being arrested and seen them cry and plead that they didn't do what they're being arrested for. And remember, this is a whole 10 years after the fact. So Nick was just out there living his life as normal as he could and BAM arrested. And during his arrangement, he was sobbing. By the way, we posted a photo of him in his orange jumpsuit during the arrangement on our social media accounts so you can see his reaction. The district attorney offered Nick a number of plea deals. Confess and explain what happened in exchange for a much lesser sentence, but Nick wouldn't take them. He just kept explaining that he was innocent,

which meant that he would have to stand trial and a jury would determine his fate. And this trial took place the following summer. During the trial, the prosecutors tried to paint the picture that Leah and Nick had gotten into a fight that night, maybe Leah was trying to break up with him or something, and that Nick killed her in a crime of passion. And a few witnesses kind of helped piece this theory together. One witness testified that he saw Nick and Leah after 9 p.m. close to Sherry's house and that they were arguing. So this question's Nick's own statement that he didn't see Leah after dropping her off at Sherry's house at around 7 p.m. that night.

Another witness came forward stating that in 2002, Nick said, I strangled that bitch and I'll strangle you too. And then told him that he'd killed before and he would do it again. This witness is actually Nick's girlfriend, the one he had a child with, ex-boyfriend. And he didn't tell the police that Nick said this until 8 years after it supposedly happened when they were trying to pin the murder on Nick in 2010. So that questions the validity because he could very well just be a jealous and angry ex-boyfriend, or he really

did just keep Nick's threat to himself for all those years. But unfortunately, it's impossible to know for sure. And the issue with this is that, as we've said, there wasn't any physical evidence that put Nick at the scene of the crime, and there really wasn't a motive either. So it was just a question of, do you believe what Nick sang, or do you believe what the witness is saying? After days of hearing from witnesses, the jury came to the conclusion. They found Nick McGuffin not guilty of first degree murder, but they found him guilty of first degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to ten years in prison. This means that the jury felt that Nick did kill Leah Freeman, but that he did it in the

heat of the moment. They didn't feel it was premeditated or planned or malicious in any way. So they were really going on that one witness testimony that Nick was fighting with Leah. As the verdict was read, Nick physically jolted in his seat like he was physically shocked

and started shaking and quietly crying, just like his family and his girlfriend. At the time, Nick was sentenced, he was 29 years old and his daughter was just four years old. As soon as Nick got to prison, he kept his head down and began appealing his case, but they were all denied. So in 2014, he started writing letters to everyone he could, including different innocence projects, Congress people, and even the president. Finally, the Oregon Innocence Project took Nick's case on that year, because one of the attorneys that worked with the Oregon Innocence Project, named Janice Purisol, truly felt that Nick McGuffin was an innocent man. With Nick's case, she founded a new project called

the Forensic Justice Project where she continued to investigate the entire Lea Freeman case to poke holes in it. The biggest thing she noticed was the fact that there was no physical evidence linking Nick to the crime, which obviously is huge. And that's when Janice found something really interesting that no one else had considered in this case. When they found Leah's body, there was a paint chip on her t-shirt, and it was determined that this type of paint would have come from some sort of automotive shop, meaning that the paint chip came from a car. But the paint chip did not match Nick's car nor his parents' car, which brings us back to the theory regarding Leah being hit by two drunk drivers accidentally, and then they

got rid of her body to avoid a DUI and further trouble. And remember, the district attorney was very against this theory, and he thoroughly believed that Leah was murdered and more specifically murdered by Nick McGuffin. So this paint chip wasn't even investigated. Another thing that was huge to Janice was the entire timeline of that evening. There were over 20 people who saw Nick driving around that evening looking for Leah, and then the countless people who saw Leah at conflicting times. But if that's the case, then it makes you questioned how would he have been able to commit

the murder, hide her body, and hide any evidence that he was involved, all while people are seeing him drive around town. And remember also, he was pulled over twice by police, so there's those two accounts as well. The district attorney weighed heavily on the fact that a man supposedly witnessed Leah and Nick arguing near Sherry's house just after 9 p.m. However, this wasn't reported until years later.

And there was a witness at a Credit Union's ATM that placed Leah walking past the Credit Union, as we mentioned earlier. First of all, this Credit Union is more downtown, not near Sherry's house, and when they went and looked at the ATM footage back in 2000 to confirm this sighting. They saw in the camera, Leah Freeman walking past the credit union alone at 9.04pm, about 10 minutes after she left Sherry's house, which means that this other witness who made the jury believe that Nick and Leah were fighting at about 9pm near Sherry's house was not being truthful. And whether that was intentional or not, it just proves that what he's saying is not correct.

And remember when we talked about how the district attorney stated that Nick had cleaned out his Mustang when they went to search it a second time after Leah's body was found? He also told this to the jury, but after Janice looked at photos of his car during the second search, she couldn't believe that the DA even made that statement, because the car was absolutely

filthy. There was some trash on the floor, the back seats were dusty, and there was no evidence whatsoever of the car being cleaned out. And during their search of the car, they didn't find any blood or suspicious evidence linking Leah to the car in any way. So making the statement that Nick had claimed the inside of his car was not only false, but it made him look like he was hiding something when he very well was not. Janice also looked at the shoes that were found.

The first shoe found didn't have any blood on it, but still law enforcement believed that the area the shoe was discovered by that mechanic was where the murder was committed. They felt that Nick and Leah had gone into a fight there and her shoe came off during a scuffle and then she was killed. But this shoe didn't have a single trace of blood. Meanwhile, the shoe that was found 10 miles away did have blood on it. This led Janice to believe that the murder likely took place out near or on Fairview Road where the second shoe was dropped. Janice then looked at the DNA found on the shoe, because

again, the lack of DNA evidence was really apparent in this case, and that would make all the difference. And she made a huge breakthrough. Found on Leah's bloody shoe was the officer's DNA who collected said shoe, Leah's DNA, and an unknown male's DNA. And guess what? This unknown male's DNA was also found on the right shoe. And this DNA did not match Nick McGuffin, leading us to believe that someone else entirely murdered Leah on June 28, 2000.

And the reason this DNA wasn't presented immediately is because when they found this unknown male's DNA back in 2000, they couldn't determine what it was, so they didn't know it was an unknown male's DNA. But fast forward 15 years, when DNA technology is much more advanced, they were able to determine that it was a male's DNA. And the frustrating thing is that they could have determined this back in 2010 before arresting and convicting Nick McGuffin for Leah's murder, but they didn't do it. And no one could explain why other than because they didn't think to do it. Yeah, in their minds, they're thinking, we got our guy. With this new evidence, Nick was granted a post-conviction trial in November of 2019.

So nine years after his arrest and over eight and a half years after his conviction, and the judge decided to overturn Nick's case and sent it to the District Attorney's Office to make the final decision. And this was terrifying because we know how much the District Attorney didn't favor Nick in this case, and he actually went straight to Leah's mom, Cory, and asked her what she thought, but the last thing Cory wanted to do was go through another trial, it was just too much for her to bear at that point. Yeah, because at this point, the district attorney is either going to say, yes, he can

go free or no, let's retry him. Right, especially since there was this new evidence that pointed away from Nick, they didn't think that they would really win this case anyway. So although the district attorney wasn't fully convinced that Nick was an innocent man, he approved Nick's release a year and a half before Nick would have gotten out anyway. Weeks later, on December 17, 2019, Nick McGuffin was released from prison where he was reunited with his now 12-year-old daughter, his entire family, and Janice.

And they were all just incredibly happy at this point. By the way, looking back at the ATM witness, the judge actually believed that this footage of Leah at 9.04 pm led him to believe that the witness who thinks he saw Leah and Nick fighting that night had actually been Sherry and Nick arguing about Leah walking off. Because Nick arrived at Sherry's house just a minute after 9pm, just about the same exact time that Leah was seen walking past the credit union. So it's possible that that witness had actually just seen Sherry instead of Leah. Yeah, and he probably didn't realize he probably just saw a young girl and Nick in a car with a broken

headlight and thought that's her and that's him and didn't consider that it could have been somebody else and he just probably convinced himself that it was Leah, but we have video evidence that the timings do not align. Which sucks because that witness's statement was huge for this case because now everyone's like, Nick's lying and he was fighting with Leah. He did see her that night and they were in a fight, which was not true. Nick went back to co-kill because that's where all of his loved ones were and his family, which was incredibly tough for him, considering people were used to the idea of him being a guilty man, including Leah's mom, Corey.

Corey still isn't sure whether or not Nick is innocent, but he had missed so many crucial years with his daughter and he had such a hard time adjusting to normal life and still is to this day because he got out of prison almost exactly nine months ago. So since this conviction is just sitting over him, he's just still experiencing harassment and it's been really tough for him. So he's just trying to focus on his daughter and his career as a chef, but of course I'm sure he's having a

really hard time finding a job. It's really upsetting researching this case and seeing still how many people point the finger at Nick, but if you watch his interviews with him and read through all the evidence, you just can't say without a doubt that Nick is guilty. And I personally don't believe that he is, and the fact that Nick is out there fighting, trying to find her real killer to me shows his innocence. Because he's not hiding, he's not trying to forget what happened. He's fighting to show that he did not commit this crime. And he's standing alongside everyone else trying to figure out who did. And that's when that unknown male's DNA really comes into play. But the tough part is that the two samples that they have just aren't very good at all. So even with

today's technology, they can't determine who's it is. The only thing that these samples can do at this point in time is determine who it isn't. Well, I'd say unless they had somebody already in the system that they could test those samples against, right? From what I was reading, I didn't think that was the case because I don't think they can enter this DNA into codis because it's not strong enough. So that's what they were saying is that they need a bigger piece of evidence or else they need better technology. I see. So it's kind of like a partial sample. Exactly. So it could be good enough one day, but not today.

Yeah, and another unfortunate thing in this case is the fact that if they had found that paint chip and they had really worked on identifying the car that that paint chip went to, it's possible that they could have figured that out or who was driving said car back then, but now so much time has passed that it would be almost impossible to match that paint chip with a car that's in town. Exactly.

And that's the problem is I think they were aware of this paint chip at the time, but they didn't look into it because the paint chip equaled an accidental murder or an accidental death to the district attorney. So to him, the paint chip didn't mean anything because it wasn't attached to anything that he believed was true in the case. And that's super biased that you can't just say, I think Nick's guilty. So this doesn't help us pin the murder against him. So we're not going talk about it. Like, you have to explore every avenue. Right, and unfortunately, they didn't do that back in 2000, and that led to an innocent man being put in prison. Exactly, and the paint chip, to me,

is of course really interesting. And Heath and I were talking about this, about how this could, of course, then lead to her being hit by a car. But what I was thinking about is that none of her bones were broken or fractured. And if she was hit by a car hard enough to kill her, you would imagine that if she hit her head, she probably would have fractured her skull or she would have broken a rib or something. And that's really weird to me that none of her bones were broken or fractured. So

I don't know how she could have died from being hit by a car without a broken bone. Right. And the only likely scenario I think that could have happened if she was hit by a car is if she was hit hard enough to injure her but not kill her or break any bones. And possibly this person who hit her was driving drunk and then strangled her to get rid of the evidence so that she couldn't point to this person hitting her. Obviously that is a stretch and I know that this is just a theory I have regarding the paint chip being found only as body. It definitely makes sense. Another really weird thing to me is the fact that two shoes were found because those are pieces of evidence. So thinking about the killer driving off in the car and her shoe falling off on more than one occasion, because there were 10 miles apart. Remember, so that means her shoe fell off at point A and then at point B.

So how did this killer miss the shoe falling out or just not think it's important enough to grab this evidence off the road? I just don't know how that happened twice. Yeah, definitely. The only way that I see that happening is if it was just, you know, heat of the moment situation and they really didn't have time to think about potential evidence being left behind and they had to react very quickly. And we'd love to discuss more theories with you guys. We do have a Facebook group.

It's going west discussion group. Isn't that what it's called, I think? Yeah, it's going west true crime discussion group. Yes. And so if you guys want to join that and tell us what your theories are on this case, we'd love to talk to you about that more. Lea Freeman's case is closed because law enforcement feel they got the right guy when they put Nick in prison. The police chief who reopened the case back in 2010 thinks the unknown male DNA is definitely

strange, but they aren't looking for any new suspects. And this just kind of proves that when they arrested Nick, they just wanted to convict someone. It wasn't about getting the right person. It was about getting a person. Exactly. Hopefully one day someone will come forward with some real evidence and some more information. And if not, we can only hope that technology advances quickly and determines who that unknown

male's DNA really belongs to. If you know anything about what happened to Leah Freeman, Please contact the Coquille City Police Department at 541-396-2114. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. What a frustrating case we discussed today. I hate when innocent people are convicted, and maybe some of you don't think that Nick is so innocent, but again, we'd love to talk about some theories with you guys if you're

interested. Alright, it is now time to get into the shout-outs. Thank you so much to everybody who gave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts this week. Thank you so much to David from We're Not Sure Where, but thank you David. Yeah, he said parts unknown. Oh true crime garage fan, question mark. I love that. Thank you so much to Christina and San Diego and thank you to you so dirty farm in Humboldt, California. You guys have super yummy, helpful body products and you guys look great. Big thanks going out to Lisa. We're also not sure where you're from. Make sure you leave

your name and your location. And Abby and Wilmington also don't know where that state is or where that city is located in what state. And a big thanks going out to Audrey and Tacoma Washington. Thank you so much to Tad and Emily and Rockingham North Carolina. Thank you to Aurora in Austin, Texas and thank you to Robin in Aurora, Colorado. I'm confused to make it. Yeah.

Big thanks going out to Kerry and Tulsa Oklahoma, Ruby and West Virginia and Molly and McCone, McCone, I'm not sure if I'm saying that. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, but when I looked it up, it said it was in Georgia. So thank you so much Molly. Thank you so much to Tracy, again, not sure where you're from, but thank you Tracy.

Thank you to Matthew and Mountain Top Pennsylvania, and thank you to Haley and Georgia. Big thanks going out to Maria in Cleveland, Ohio, Melanie and Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Fee in Tasmania. I think that's our first Tasmania. Whoa, thank you so much Fee. And last but not least, thank you so much to Gail in North Vancouver, BC, Trish in Western Australia, Jennifer in the UK, and Jane on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Thank you guys so much. If you want a shout out, make sure to leave your name and your location and Leave us a nice ol five-star review on Apple podcasts. Thank you guys so much And now we have to give thanks to the people who subscribe to our Patreon this week Big thanks going out to our patrons Mashaad Laura Vicki and Elizabeth

Thank you so much to Jess Patricia Megan Jessica and Amanda. And then a big thanks going to Sharon, Alexis, Mark, Torese, and Jennifer. And last but not least, again, thank you so much to Audrey, Brittany, and Amanda. It means so much when you guys join our Patreon. You get bonus episodes. We're dropping two absolutely wild bonus episodes this week. So stay tuned and find them over at patreon.com slash going west podcast. Also, if you want to see photos from this case and other cases that we've covered,

make sure you head on over to our Instagram at going west podcast and our twitter at going west pod. All right, so for everybody out there in the world... Cheerio and don't be a stranger. you