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Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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I'm your host Marc and this is Mountain State Mysteries.

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The case I have for you today is about a Marshall University student who was packing

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up her things to visit her family during the Christmas break.

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She went missing then was found murdered in the crawl space of her own apartment complex.

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This is part 2 to the story of Leah Hickman.

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So we know we ended the last episode on a bit of a cliffhanger so you more than likely

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have some questions so I'm going to give you the answers to them right now.

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How did police not find her body within the first few days of the search?

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For multiple reports, podcasts, and articles the crawl space was very hard to find.

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You basically had to live there to even know about it.

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Leah was about 5'2 or 5'3.

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Multiple reports state that the crawl space was 5 feet off the ground.

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So to me it would have been hard for one single person to lift someone and put them in there

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like they did.

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I believe that the murderer had someone to help them with this.

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When police found Leah's body she was wrapped in plastic.

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Multiple people have their own theory on this but one that stands out to me is from a serial

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killer turned mass murderer from South Carolina.

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Todd Colett gave his opinion on the case and the murder of Leah.

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This is what he said.

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Quote, as for the murder you mentioned it doesn't sound very complicated.

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It wasn't over drugs as it would have been obvious.

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She would have been robbed and no one would have wrapped up and hid in the body.

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It was someone she knew who somewhat cared about her hiding the body to get it out of

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sight.

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Wrapping the body is a caring gesture of not wanting her in dirt or bugs.

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Plus cuts down on the smell but that took a real effort and time.

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Therefore not rushed so they knew they wouldn't be disturbed.

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They knew the door was often unlocked in the layout of the building in order to have access

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to her.

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Comfortable with that time frame when people often returned from work and connection to

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neighbors strangled as personal anger and frustration involved but different than beating

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someone with a pen or hammer anti blood.

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They wanted her dead but not mutilated.

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Remember her how she looked not damaged.

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I would think someone male or larger comfortable with themselves as insecure they would have

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used a kitchen knife or weapon.

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Sex at the time had nothing to do with it and wasn't planned out.

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It was spontaneous.

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I'm thinking either her boyfriend and just a pause here.

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We aren't sure if Leah was dating anyone at the time or not or maybe some drama going

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on with the sisters boyfriend or maybe the sister.

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We aren't sure.

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Maybe he made a move on the younger one and it didn't turn out right.

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Covered it up so he wouldn't lose both.

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Strangled and rapping tells me she knew them and saw her as a person not a target.

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Then maybe plural sister and boyfriend considering weight of moving a body without obvious drag

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marks and rapping of the body, stepdad maybe, way too much comfort and care involved to

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be random.

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I wonder if she was pregnant.

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And I just want to say there is no proof of this even in the autopsy.

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That could really shed some light on a few points of this.

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Sisters boyfriend knocked her up.

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Drama got out of hand.

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That's just my take on it.

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What do you think?

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Todd Colhap.

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End quote.

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So I just want to say when I sent this to Courtney, her exact response was what the

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hell.

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In the few weeks and months of the investigation of the murder of Leah, authorities remain

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tight-lipped.

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However, authorities did announce after Leah's body was found that they were leaning in one

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direction on suspects.

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Police were able to locate the owner of the apartment, Edward Jackson, who, like we said

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in part one, was in Florida.

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He did confirm that routine maintenance was going on at the time of the murder.

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Some of the repairs was to leaky faucets and a replacement of a hot water tank.

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Police never stated if the renovations had any connection with Leah's murder.

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Police do believe that Leah's murder was not an act of random violence.

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They felt like whoever murdered Leah knew her and the layout of the apartment building.

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Authorities have said time and time again that they do have suspects in mind, but they

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need hard evidence to convict someone of the murder.

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Trace evidence, including DNA, which investigators collected at the crime scene, was sent away

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for analysis in hope that it would lead them to the murderer or murderers.

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However, the results were inconclusive.

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Local DNA testing was performed on hairs found at the crime scene at a laboratory in Phoenix,

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Arizona, in May of 2009.

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However, these tests also proved to be inconclusive.

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The Huntington Police Department said they were forced to wait on new developments in

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technology due to how small the DNA that they had was.

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Time had sadly taken over this case.

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There would be the occasional memorial articles in the local newspaper, but Leah's case

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went cold.

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That is, until April 24, 2014.

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Leah's murder hit headlines again.

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This time, thanks to someone who graffitied, who killed Leah Hickman on the side of her

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apartment building.

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You can see the image on our socials and website, Mountain State Mysteries Podcasts, dot com.

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You can see that's two different colors of spray paint, who killed being a yellowish

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white and Leah Hickman more of a basic white.

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You can also see that the lettering is completely different, who killed being thick and pointed,

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and Leah Hickman being bolder and more rounded.

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This had me and everyone else wondering if it could possibly have been more than one

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person who did this.

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The building's new owner, Gary Ward, offered a reward for information leading to an arrest,

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but as of 2023, the identity of who did it is still unknown.

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Authorities have never named a suspect in this case.

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However, people who stay up to date with the case of Leah Hickman have their own theories

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on who killed her.

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People believe that it could have been the ex-boyfriend of Leah's half-sister Jessica,

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that he could have stopped by to get his things, and him and Leah got into an argument and

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he strangled her and that her sister helped hide her body.

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Some believe that it was Jessica, that there was a huge argument between the two and she

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ended up killing her sister, not meaning to.

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Authorities have never named a suspect in the case.

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If you have any tips or information on the case of Leah Hickman, please contact the Huntington

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West Virginia Police Department at 304-969-4470.

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Now this is the part of the podcast where Courtney and I usually share our final thoughts

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on the case.

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Since Courtney wasn't able to record this week, I still want to share my final thoughts

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on this case.

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Even before we start Mountain State Mysteries over a year ago, I've always searched this

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case.

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Lately more than ever due to this episode.

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I've came across a few things on message boards that I left out of this script, but

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I do want to talk about them.

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On June 4th, 2023, someone named Johnny said on a web sleuth forum that he lived at 403

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8th Avenue from March of 03 to February of 07.

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His roommates and him lived directly across the hall from Leah and Jessica.

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The apartment directly below Leah's was occupied by a good friend of his.

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He said they all knew each other.

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He said that he had known Jessica since the 90s and Leah casually from just being his

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neighbor and Jessica's sister.

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He said him and his roommate and his friend that lived below Leah vacated the apartments

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before the murder happened.

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However, they were contacted by the police and asked to come in for interviews, fingerprints

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and DNA sampling.

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He said that they all gladly did.

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There was another about a private investigator.

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It was posted on Reddit two years ago.

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A private investigator from Huntington said he decided to look into the case and asked

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if anyone would be willing to talk to him.

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Three months ago, he posted again saying he reached out to the family and instead of speaking

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with him, they just put out a statement saying they are now only interested in honoring Leah's

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memory and wanted her to rest.

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He said he spoke to others who provided some information, but the police department refuses

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to comment or share any findings because they have never filed it as a cold case.

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He went on talking about the case and said that Jessica has since gotten married, not

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to her boyfriend at the time, and she has moved out of state.

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He located her, but stopped short of reaching out to her due to the family's announcement.

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Leah's parents divorced some years ago.

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Her mother remarried, but her dad seems to still be grieving and has never moved on.

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He said one of his best leads came from a homeless man that just so happened to be camped

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out nearby on the night of the murder.

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He said the man tended to speak in riddles, but his message was clear enough.

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And to be honest, I'm not sure how much I believe in this due to the fact of where both

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of the statements came from.

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I tend to lean more to the first one because I can see someone searching the case after

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many years to see if it was solved and they just wanted to say something on it.

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This case will always be one that stays in my brain.

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Just for the simple fact that everything makes sense but doesn't make sense at the same time.

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I'm not going to be one to put blame on the sister or the ex-boyfriend due to the fact

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there is no hard evidence.

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However, I can fully see it being the ex-boyfriend if him and Leah did not get along and if they

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did get into a little argument that turned out to be a murder.

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This case is one that I will not stop searching on.

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It has honestly become a huge deep dive for me and I will continue to dive into it.

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Stay tuned for our next episode which will be the season finale of season 2 of Mountain

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State Mysteries.

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If you find yourself enjoying Mountain State Mysteries, give us a 5 star review and leave

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It helps others find good West Virginia true crime podcasts.

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Email us at MountainStateMysteries304 at gmail.com.

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