About Leigh
Leigh Occhi was a wonderful girl born on August 21st 1979 on a Military Base base in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was the only child of Vickie and Donald Occhi, both in their 20s and in the army. They divorced in 1981 when Leigh was about two years old and Vickie, then 25, left the military and moved to Tupelo to be closer to her parents/Leigh’s grandparents. She married Barney Yarborough, and the three lived in a one-story, ranch-style home in the 100 block of Honey Locust Drive. Although from this point on Leigh's father was far away, they retained a close relationship, seeing each other as often as they could. Leigh's mother would eventually separate, weeks before Leigh disappeared.
August 27, 1992
Leigh went missing this day, it was a very memorable day for many, because Hurricane Andrew was baring down on the city, and it had been stormy all night into the day. Vicki (Leigh's mother) left the home at 7:35 A.M and arrived around 7:50 A.M. She was anxious about leaving Leigh home alone but her Grandmother was going to pick her up later in the day and take her to a school open house then Taco Bell for dinner. At 8:30, anxious about the storm, Vicki called home, got no response, called her mother to go check on Leigh, but became so anxious she left to go check on her daughter. By 8:45 A.M she was home, the garage door wide open, the light still on. When she got to the front door, it was unlocked, and saw blood inside. She frantically searched throughout the whole house, couldn't find Leigh, so she called 911. When the Police arrived they found blood and hair on a door frame facing the kitchen, a pool of blood of blood the size of a fist outside Leigh's room, and a trail of blood that lead from the hallway to the kitchen to the backdoor. There was also blood in the master bathroom and in the sink (this blood looked like it was cleaned up, but they never found the towel) There was also blood found on one of Leigh's nightgowns and bras in the hamper in her bedroom. They believed the blood was from a head wound, and it appeared fresh. Whether Leigh was wearing this nightgown, or something else, is reported different in many ways. The blood found on the doorway was consistent with someone being hit around the 5' range, and Leigh was 4'10. At this time DNA was a new science, so they typed the blood, and believed it to be Leigh's but they could never truly confirm because they had no blood type on record for her. Missing from the home were a new shirt and bra she had got for her birthday, a pair of jeans, a sleeping bag and her glasses.
Vicki said she would never open the door for someone she didn't know, and was never home alone usually. Many of the neighbors would later dispute this fact, stating they had seen Leigh home alone on multiple occasions. When Vicki called Leigh's dad, Donald, to inform him about Leigh going missing, she told him Leigh ran away, and neglected to tell him about all the blood. Later on, when Donald called to check in, he was informed about the blood and immediately traveled to the area.
The investigation
Many believe the investigation was fairly botched. Although the entire area outside the house (Leigh lived on a dead end) was searched, and nothing was found, they did not seal off the inside of the house right away. It apparently took 10 days for the crime scene investigators to get in to collect evidence and Vicki was allowed to live in the house the whole time, because they did not want to "kick Vicki out of her own house." During this time, Vicki, Donald and Barney (Leigh's step father), all took polygraph tests. Donald and Barney both passed, where Vicki failed three tests. Many reports surfaced at this time from teachers in school stating Leigh would often come to school with strange bruises, and witnesses came forward stating they saw Vicki at a car wash the night before Leigh's disappearance and another witness saw her throwing something in a dumpster near her job the morning Leigh went missing. There would be blood found in this dumpster and it would at first be lost but then come back in tests to be dog blood. There was also a tip from the city of Boonesville (40 hours north of Tupelo) that someone saw Leigh, this tip was hunted down and the girl was found to not be Leigh.
September 9th Leigh's bloody glasses were mailed to Leigh's home, from the town of Boonesville, addressed to her step father Donald. Interestingly, the address was spelled wrong, and there were double the amount of stamps than necessary on the envelope. The stamps were tested as was the envelope and glasses and no DNA evidence could be found. In November, remains were falsely identified as Leigh, they later retracted.
Suspects:
The two most prominent suspects in this case are as follows:
A local church friend: This was a man who went to Leigh's grandparents church, where Leigh had also been a member. A few months after Leigh went missing this man went to the home of his victim, who was home alone, and offered to drive her to school. Once he had her in the car, he took her somewhere, sexually assaulted her, then dropped her off at school. This man would also confess to sexually assaulting another girl. Vicki always stated this man never maintained eye contact with her, and also would have been someone Leigh trusted and knew to open the door to.
Vicki and Barney: Although she entirely maintains her innocence, Vicki has had many suspect her. Some point to the abuse allegations, others point to her lying to Leigh's father. Not a lot is known about Barney, but Leigh's boyfriend said Barney acted angry toward Leigh several times, even locking her out of the house at one point. Barney was considered cooperative and helpful by the Police, passed a polygraph and cleared. Where he was the night before, and morning after is unknown, additionally, in the Open Podcast, Donald told the podcasters that a member of the Police force told him during the investigation that Barney had admitted to abusing Leigh at some point.
Random intruder: Someone could have been watching the house, or selected the house, and when Vicki left, they went inside to burglarize it, ran into Leigh. Or perhaps someone had been watching Leigh, and choose this day to kidnap her. However, there were no signs of forced entry and Vicki said Leigh would never open the door for anyone she didn't know.
More information here:
http://charleyproject.org/case/leigh-marine-occhi