Nick McGuffin will go on trial in May 2011 for the murder of Leah Freeman

Leah is in our hearts always.I am proud to be your friend, Cory, Your courage is an inspiration.

concerned4all wrote:Wrap, your poem is beautiful and it brought tears to my eyes as I know every word is true.

I found this poem online and added my own thoughts to it. I don't know who the original author is.

I would like you all to look at Leah picture in Loving Memory on the home page. It has seems to have a pulse like a heartbeat. I have noticed it for a few days and thought I was losing my mind. Now I know I am not the only one to see that. Is it a sign? I think so. New life in to an old case. Leah is here with us. I feel it and see it. Love you lots Leah Freeman.

I see it. It must be a "sign".

Hi everyone hope your all well!! Is their any time scale now, was wondering what happens next, being from the UK it seems slightly different..

Hope ur well Cory x

andy

LM, I just looked at the picture...That is totally weird and awesome...Something is going to happen soon! I just feel it!

lindamarie wrote:I would like you all to look at Leah picture in Loving Memory on the home page. It has seems to have a pulse like a heartbeat. I have noticed it for a few days and thought I was losing my mind. Now I know I am not the only one to see that. Is it a sign? I think so. New life in to an old case. Leah is here with us. I feel it and see it. Love you lots Leah Freeman.

WOW!!!!! is all I can say. I love you Leah Freeman!!!!

OMG, I am sorry to say that I don't see it. I need new glasses. This rx is about 5 years old.

But, if you all see it, than I believe it. God Bless Leah Freeman! Justice is coming very soon!

Here it is and it's moving.....
I wondered how it would show up if I copied and pasted it here.

Wow. BJ sure enough. Moving is exactly what it is doing. In rhythm.

lindamarie wrote:I would like you all to look at Leah picture in Loving Memory on the home page. It has seems to have a pulse like a heartbeat. I have noticed it for a few days and thought I was losing my mind. Now I know I am not the only one to see that. Is it a sign? I think so. New life in to an old case. Leah is here with us. I feel it and see it. Love you lots Leah Freeman.

Of course in my mind it is a sign. I am a believer in signs from our loved ones that gave gone on before us.

So very cool!
Hi Leah!

Well, I'm a bit slow catching up with this case, but I just wanted to show my support for Leah & Cory! It must be so difficult to not know who did the crime, and what exactly they did. I can't imagine!! My thoughts & prayers are with Cory & her family... be assured that God knows all & He WILL bring justice!!

I understand that the case is before the Grand Jury... I'm just curious if there are any recent updates?

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In the summer of 2000, 15-year-old Leah Freeman went missing in Coquille, Ore. For almost a week, the Coquille Police Department, led by Chief Mike Reeves, treated it as a missing person case, believing that the teen had run away.


Caught up in young love, Leah Freeman, 15, disappears on summer night.

Yet on the night the teen disappeared, an ominous discovery was made. A man picked up a shoe by the side of a town road. He thought it belonged to his daughter. It was not until days later, after the town's search for Leah had grown increasingly anxious, that he turned the shoe over to police.

The police identified the shoe as Leah's. On it they discovered blood.

Six weeks passed before Leah's mother, Cory Courtright, got the call from police that would end her hopes that Leah was still alive. Another discovery had been made.

"I still let the denial take over," Courtright said. "I wanted to... I wanted to go back in time. I didn't want, I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to hear the final news. I didn't want to hear it."

Watch the full story Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. ET

A search team had come upon a macabre scene just off an isolated lumber road about five miles outside of town.

Leah Freeman's decomposed body lay on a steep hillside, apparently dumped from the road above.

Case Goes Cold for 10 Years

For 10 years, the case went unsolved. Authorities say circumstantial evidence pointed to Leah's 18-year-old boyfriend. But there was no hard evidence to link him to the crime.

Then a new police chief, Mark Dannels, took an aggressive approach to the case. A room at the police station was devoted to the unsolved mystery.

What Dannels did next would finally open a possible way forward. He called The Vidocq Society.

The Vidocq Society
Known as the heirs of Sherlock Holmes, the Philadelphia-based Vidocq Society gathers ace detectives from around the world to solve the world's most perplexing cold cases. The group -- formed by freewheeling forensic sculptor Frank Bender, FBI and U.S. Customs agent William Fleisher and preeminent forensic psychologist and profiler Richard Walter -- has pledged itself to a grand quest for justice.

"People think of them as wizards who sort of peep and mutter and go into a back room and come out and say, 'He did it,'" said Philadelphia crime writer Michael Capuzzo, who profiles the group in his book, "The Murder Room."

Dannels said he did not hesitate to call for outside help.

"In a cold case, I'll take any resource I can to help solve this case," Dannels said. "And when we have something of that magnitude offer up services, we're all over it. ... And when you bring all this expertise together... it's one stop shopping. You got all the expertise in one room at one time."

Vidocq Society: Famous Cases
The society is named after Eugene Francois Vidocq, Napoleon's chief detective and the father of modern criminology. Vidocq was practicing rudimentary police science 100 years before the FBI or Scotland Yard was even formed.

Leah Freeman left a friend?s house in Coquille, Ore., one night and never returned home.

The Vidocq Society is filled with colorful characters. Fleisher, the customs agent, is a "tough, skeptical Philly guy," Capuzzo said, who specializes in lie detector test analysis. Fleisher explained the society's criteria for taking a case.

"Case has to be over two years old," Fleisher said. "And we have to have police cooperation."

The soul of the group is forensic artist Frank Bender, who molds faces, capturing the look of what cold case suspects should look like years later. And then there is the dark side of the trio, a figure known as "The Thin Man." He's Richard Walter, a piano-playing, chainsmoking, psychological profiler. He spent years as a prison psychologist collecting firsthand the creepy inside details of murder from the killers themselves.

"[Walter's] nickname at ... Scotland Yard is 'Living Sherlock Holmes,' 'cause he sort of looks, talks, acts like Sherlock Holmes," said Capuzzo. "But he's the real deal, as a criminologist, too. And he's devoted his life to it."

The Foot Fetish Case
The Vidocq society has a solid track record of solving the unsolvable.

There was the "Foot Fetish" case at Philadelphia's Drexel University. In November 1984, student Deborah Wilson was found strangled in a stairwell outside a computer lab. There was no sign of rape and her purse wasn't taken. However, the one thing she was missing were her shoes.

For eight years, Philadelphia police were stumped, until they came to the Vidocq Society. Walter focused on the victim's bare feet. In this case, the shoes -- or lack of them -- would be key evidence. Walter described the killer as someone with a foot fetish. He advised police to find a man with a history of stealing women's footwear.

With Walter's guidance, detectives zeroed in on David Dickson, a former military man now working as a campus security guard. He had previously been court-martialed and discharged for stealing women's sneakers.


When police went to Dickson's home, they found a collection of shoes. Dickson was arrested and convicted of murder in 1995.

The John List Case
On a bleak New Jersey day in 1971, John List, a churchgoing accountant, methodically executed his wife, his aging mother, his teenage daughter and his two sons. In a five-page confession letter left at the scene, he claimed he killed his family to send them to heaven.

Then List disappeared, becoming the subject of one of the most frustrating manhunts in the history of law enforcement.

It would take police and the FBI more than 18 years to bring List to justice. List's bizarre crime and mysterious escape made headlines around the world.

In 1989, Frank Bender was asked to do a sculpture of List. He called in his friend Walters to profile the killer. Walters said List would be wearing a suit, remarried, involved with the Lutheran Church and caught no further than 300 miles from where the crime occurred.

With that insight, Bender sculpted a bust of List. Days later, police got a tip that List was using the alias Bob Clark and living in Richmond, Va., with his new wife, Delores.

List was arrested on June 1, 1989, and died in prison in 2008.

Vidocq Society and the Texas Bloodbath
It was a 1991 Lubbock, Texas disappearance -- but there was no body and little physical evidence.

Leisha Hamilton told Det. Tal English that her boyfriend, Scott Dunn, had simply left town. But Dunn had left behind all his clothes. Investigators also noticed a piece of the living room carpet in the home Hamilton and Dunn shared had been crudely replaced.

The police conducted a Luminol examination -- a chemical search of the apartment intended to reveal traces of blood that had been wiped away. The Luminol illuminates when it comes in contact with blood.

When the room was sprayed, the police realized they had uncovered a bloodbath. The walls and ceiling where covered. Police could even see wipe marks where someone had tried to clean up the room.

"Once we started looking around there was splatter on the north wall, there was splatter on the east wall, and up on the ceiling, so we are talking a lot of cast-off blood," said English.

Walter was called in on the case. He explained to the Lubbock police that they had enough circumstantial evidence to go after the girlfriend. Even without a body, Walter explained, there was enough blood spatter to convince a jury that Dunn didn't just leave town.

Walter confronted Hamilton and told her to stop claiming that Scott simply disappeared.

"She was trying to play a game and I decided to call her at her game," Walter said. "And I said, 'Scott was murdered. Absolutely murdered, and I don't want to hear missing again.' And she said, 'Oh,' she said, 'Well, I was the last one to see him.' And I said 'Yes, and so was the killer.'"

Today Leisha Hamilton is in prison, serving a 20-year sentence.

Vidocq Takes Leah Freeman Case
Back in Oregon, Police Chief Dannels was impressed with the Vidocq Society's track record of solving the unsolvable. The society, in turn, thought they could help find out what happened to Leah Freeman. They took the case, with Richard Walter as point man.

Dannels flew to Philadelphia to meet the team.

"I've been in law enforcement 26 years," said Dannels. "But sitting in the room that day with these experts, I felt like it was my first day on the job."

Can they solve the mystery of who killed Leah?

Watch the full story Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. ET

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BJ thank you so much for posting this. The 20/20 show airs tomorrow night. I will record it. I do need to copy this and put it in the public Leah Freeman category. We will not be able to confuse the public Leah thread with the members only thread as the public one is locked.
Thanks again.

I just got a chance to watch the preview for tomorrow night’s show. I can say for all of us who love Cory and Leah that we will need Kleenex close by. To see Cory's pain and tears is gut wrenching.

As we have mentioned before, a production crew from 20/20 has been following the Leah Freeman murder case for a better part of the year. This Friday they will be airing the story they put together overviewing the case from the night Leah Freeman disappeared more than a decade ago walking home alone on the streets of Coquille, Ore. to the status of the case today. Be sure to watch the full story Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. ET .

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You can bet we will all be watching! Justice for Leah and Cory!!

I put a small article that it will be aired on Friday in the lounge. I can't bring myself to watch the preview yet.

Wrapitup wrote:I put a small article that it will be aired on Friday in the lounge. I can't bring myself to watch the preview yet.

You silly lady you!!! It's ok...WATCH IT WRAP!!!!!! Leah's friends look beautiful and so composed. Leah would be so proud of them.

Cory, you are a remarkable woman. We will all be with you when 20/20 is on, maybe not in person but spiritually.

just viewed the preview on the link and it's seems unreal! Cory we love you and cannot wait to watch 20/20 tomorrow!

I will be watching regardless if I am camping at the Dunes or not! LOL. I got an antenna, so hopefully the man can wire me up a signal from our home away from home!! WOOT WOOT! It was sad to watch the preview seeing Cory like that But I know this is what she needed! Getting Leah's story out there is the best thing that can happen!!!!

oh cory!! you look great too! Leah would be proud of you too :) we love you!
i almost spilled my coffee when i read that the show is tomorrow! please watch the preview! and yes u will need a whole box of klenex! can't wait till tomorrow! gonna make sure the kids are in bed early and the hubby leaves me alone!

Boyfriend and I will watch fer sher. I will tell my coworkers my friend Cory needs their support.

Here we go! Positive action and thoughts rock the world!

:cheering: :celebration:

So sorry..... It's been cancelled. Don't know when it will air now. Everything is ok. Just a short delay....

Cory, I'm so disappointed! We all are.

For anyone that wants to watch full episodes of 20/20 that you might have missed, you can go to this link.

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Thank you for letting us know. I would have been devastated to turn it on and have Leah story not be there.

Cory wrote:So sorry..... It's been cancelled. Don't know when it will air now. Everything is ok. Just a short delay....

How many disappointments can u take? so sorry. we will wait with bated breath until it is on its shown on Tv. I was so excited, we all were! :groupwave:

hummmmm, makes me think this is actually good news, something coming up REAL soon that we are all going to like.

I agree, Laga.

Would a tv show know if something new was coming out? I hope so...

i hope you are right laga! :( i hope they air it asap!

So sorry to hear that it was cancelled!! I'm just finally catching up with this sad story & am very disappointed that the show won't be aired. Can I still see the preview & where would it be found?

Right here, Rainbow.

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Thanks so much, BJ!

Let's hope somethings cookin'!

Leah Freeman Murder
"She was just goofy, always trying to make people laugh," said Leah's friend, Stacie Crutchfield.
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Because the 20/20 has been post-poned and the post-ponement (sp?) is discussed on the Leah thread on the main page and also in Member's Only.

It was interesting to watch the 20/20 clip, but after listening to Leah's friend talking about her having to break up with the "Boyfriend" just cluttered me up will all kinds of questions I'd like to ask her.

Sweet Cory, none of us can walk in your shoes.
But if we had to, we could only hope to carry ourselves with the grace and compassion that you've shown.
I agree with many others here... there will be justice for LEAH.

Cory, OMG I have just become aware of this case. I read these threads about LEAH just this morning. YOU ARE AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL ! God Bless you. Nobody should have to endure what you have.
She is in God's Lap now in a garden of angels. I hope you are well and I am certain she is with you every day and that life has changed forever. But she must be looking down and feeling so very very proud of you.
I just wanted to send you a big hug and kiss.
PRAYING FOR JUSTICE FOR LEAH !

COQUILLE, Ore. -- As Coquille police continue to investigate Leah Freeman's murder case, ABC's 20/20 is doing their own story of her death.

It's been 10 years, and police are close to solving the murder of a young girl found nine miles away from her home.

You have a girl here who was 15-years-old, walking down the street in the middle of town at dusk that disappears," said ABC Correspondent Jim Avila.

20/20 followed alongside police as part of a special they'll air based on a book, which Avila says is a story about a group of former and current experts from all branches of law enforcement.

These experts, the VIDOCQ Society, stationed in Philadelphia help small police departments all across the country solve murder cases.

"One of the current cases they're working on is Leah's story," said Avila.

20/20 says there were inconsistencies with how the case was handled. Leah's mother was ignored by the former police chief.

"She tried giving him some evidence, and he poked her in the chest and said 'Just go to the media,' and yelled at her..she went away crying," said Avila.

This curtailed valuable time. "It was treated as a run away even though everybody told the police department this girl would not run away," said Avila.

But when a new police chief entered, things changed.

"It's really something to see a police department here that isn't trying to cover it up. What they're trying to do it is get justice even if it made their police department look bad in the past," said Avila.

Now police have enough evidence to present for a possible indictment and a grand jury has formed.

"They're looking at four people. One perpetrator and three accomplices," said Avila.

A possible trial is set for two months from now.


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She is in God's Lap now in a garden of angels. I hope you are well and I am certain she is with you every day and that life has changed forever. But she must be looking down and feeling so very very proud of you...by Songline
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Songline, Leah is an angel, she is not alone anymore. Her Dad joined her this past year, I hope he told her how brave Cory has been and that she has been like a dog with a bone. She will never let up until she has the answers that she deserves. Loved your post, Song

CritterFan1 wrote:She is in God's Lap now in a garden of angels. I hope you are well and I am certain she is with you every day and that life has changed forever. But she must be looking down and feeling so very very proud of you...by Songline
___________________________________________________---
Songline, Leah is an angel, she is not alone anymore. Her Dad joined her this past year, I hope he told her how brave Cory has been and that she has been like a dog with a bone. She will never let up until she has the answers that she deserves. Loved your post, Song

I just had to acknowledge this case and Corry. She is so special

HELLO EVERYONE!!! I haven't posted here in so long it seems. I miss you all so much. But I can't really talk much!! Been reading up here and I couldn't help but at least saying THANK YOU to all of you for your love and support. Songline - nice to meet you. Your post really touched my little old heart. Very nice.


Just so you all know.....I'm still hangin' in there!!!

That is great to know, Cory!!! The Justice you and Leah need and deserve is coming! Just hold on tight!

Hi everyone especially Cory.
this entire thread is made of of some very nice people.
I am glad the case is coming up. I have a feeling it will be divinely guided.
I think Leah in the Penthouse is lighting the way.

Wrapitup wrote:That is great to know, Cory!!! The Justice you and Leah need and deserve is coming! Just hold on tight!

I sure hope you're right.............It's been a loooooooooong ten years.

Cory, It's like that long car trip when you're only a few miles from home but it seems like you'll never get there. Just keep peddling Dear Cory, justice is soo close.

With all those signs from Leah we have been seeing, I wonder what the murderer has heard/seen. I almost feel sorry for him...NOT!!!!!! I hope she is reaching all 4 of them!!!!

songline wrote:Hi everyone especially Cory.
this entire thread is made of of some very nice people.
I am glad the case is coming up. I have a feeling it will be divinely guided.
I think Leah in the Penthouse is lighting the way.

Thanks for the compliment, songline. Love the user name by the way. And yes..I agree. Leah is in the "Penthouse" lighting the way for Justice to Finally be served!