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

Listener discretion is advised.

I'm your host, Mark.

And I'm Courtney.

And this is Mountain State Mysteries.

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

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

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

This is part one of the story of Leah Hickman.

Leah was born on November 22, 1986 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Ronald L. Hickman

and Sherry J. Cole Russell.

Leah grew up in Leon, West Virginia.

When Leah was in high school, she played the trumpet in the school band and performed

with the bell choir.

In 2005, Leah graduated from Christ Academy, a K-12 school in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Later that year, she started her freshman year at Marshall University in Huntington, West

Virginia.

Leah studied journalism in hopes of one day becoming a television news reporter.

Not wanting to live on campus, Leah moved into an apartment with her half-sister, Jessica

Vickers.

If you remember 2005 like us, the social media craze was on the rise.

Leah, just like everyone else, joined MySpace.

She worked at a Sears department store for a little while.

In 2007, she would start working at Dress Barn clothing store in Barbersville, West

Virginia.

December 14, 2007, started out as a normal day for Leah.

That morning, her and her sister went to the mall earlier that day.

Her sister had to leave for work later that evening.

Leah spoke to her mother earlier that afternoon and they talked about her coming home for

the holidays.

Her mother promised to call her that evening.

Her mother said that that phone call was just a normal call and Leah had seemed excited

to return home for the holidays.

Around 3pm, Leah spoke with her father.

She had just received her grades and was really happy with them.

She talked about how she missed her father and was looking forward to seeing him when

she came home.

Leah's sister returned to the apartment for her lunch break around 3.30.

Her sister said Leah was excited about her grades and was packing her bags for the trip

home.

She left around 4pm while Leah was doing the dishes.

This would be the last time she saw Leah alive.

At some point, Leah logged into her MySpace.

We are 100% sure what she was doing on MySpace at the time.

The last known contact with Leah was around 5.40pm.

Leah made a call from her cell phone to a friend saying she is going to get food from

McDonald's, which in total was a 6 minute drive round trip.

You can see a picture of her receipt on her social media and website, MountainStateMysteriesPodcast.com.

It's the last call Leah made from her phone.

All incoming calls that night went straight to voicemail.

Incoming callers started to receive a message that Leah's voicemail was full.

Leah's sister did not return to the apartment that night when she got off work.

She decided to stay with her boyfriend that night.

On the morning of December 15th, Jessica Vickers, Leah's sister stopped by the apartment and

notices Leah's purse, keys, and car are still at the apartment, but Leah is nowhere to be

found.

At 1.01pm, Vickers posted a message on Leah's MySpace page.

Quote, Oh sister, where are you?

End quote.

5pm, Leah did not show up for her scheduled 4 hour shift at Dress Barn on Merritt's Creek

Road in Barbersville, West Virginia, where she had been working for 5 months.

Her manager, Peggy Nida, later told reporters the Hickman was not the type of employee who

didn't show up for work, and she would usually call even if she was going to be just a few

minutes late.

On Sunday, December 16th, around 4.48pm, Leah's mother, Sherry, files a missing persons report

with the Huntington Police Department.

Authorities began the investigation into Leah's disappearance.

I just want to throw this in.

I've seen other reports that Leah's mom tried to file a missing persons report with the West

Virginia State Police, but she was told it was best to file it with the local authorities.

On Monday, December 17th, at 7.30pm, Leah's friend, Roger Parker, of Proctorville, posted

a message on Leah's MySpace page informing friends that she is missing.

Invest anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact him or friend, Caitlin Starkey.

Leah's friends began to post flyers across the area.

Tuesday, December 18th, police continued to search for Hickman and conduct interviews,

searching for leads in the case.

Wednesday, December 19th, Jessica Vickers was interviewed on MSNBC concerning her sister's

disappearance.

Other national media began to carry stories on the disappearance of Leah.

11am, Police Cavamus, Leah's neighborhood, searching abandoned houses and interviewing

sex offenders in the area, looking for any new evidence in the case.

The state did not turn up any new information.

Dress Barn announced a $10,000 reward for any information on Leah's whereabouts.

Thursday, December 20th, police announced that they are pursuing new leads in the case.

At 6pm, friends conducted a candlelight vigil at the Memorial Student Center Plaza on the

campus of Marshall University.

On December 21st, Jessica Vickers was interviewed on MSNBC for the second time concerning her

sister's disappearance.

The Huntington Police Department found a body of a white female in a crawl space in the

laundry room of Hickman's apartment building.

Police believe it was Leah's body, but the woman was not identified conclusively.

Police forensic units looked for clues and treated the discovery as an active crime scene.

To see pictures of the crawl space, you can see them on all of our socials and our website,

MountainStateMysteriesPodcast.com.

Shoutout to our follower Seth, who sent us pictures when he found out what case we were

covering.

December 22nd, forensic units continued to investigate the apartment building.

Leah's body was removed from the building and sent to the state medical examiner's office

for identification.

December 24th, police announced the body has been positively identified as Leah Hickman.

December 26th, the funeral for Leah Hickman was announced to take place at the Point Pleasant

National Guard Armory at 7.30 p.m. and that Leah will be buried the next day following

a private graveside service.

December 27th, Dress Barn announced that the $10,000 reward fund will go to pay for the

funeral.

December 29th, more than 2,000 attended services and visitation for Leah Hickman at the National

Guard Armory in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Well let's jump forward to Tuesday, January 10th, 2008.

News reports police know the cause of Leah's death, but they're not releasing it until

the preliminary autopsy reports are out.

Thursday, January 10th, police hold a press conference and confirm Leah was strangled to

death, which is one of the most personal ways to be murdered.

There are no signs that she was sexually assaulted.

They haven't excluded anyone with the regard to suspects in the case.

They did not believe Leah's murder was a random act and they think the person or persons

responsible for the crime was and were familiar with Leah and the layout of her apartment

building stating they are not going to release the results of the DNA test at this point

of their investigation.

Friday, June 13th, six months in, police confirm it is still an active investigation,

but there are still no suspects and they are waiting for results from the latest forensic

test and they are hoping that will provide new insight on the murderers.

September 2008, eight months into the investigation, police talk about the DNA in the case saying

there are new developments in the case of a martial student who was murdered in her

off-campus apartment last December, quote, there's still an individual that we believe

was involved, end quote, Huntington police captain Steve Hall said.

At this timeline, we know you still have some questions about the day Leah went missing,

that's why we are going to answer some of them.

So from reports, we think Leah was in the middle of doing laundry when someone or multiple

people entered the apartment.

It's been said before that Leah and her sister would often leave the back door open while

they were doing laundry.

The apartment was made up of four different apartments, one occupied by Leah and her sister,

one by the man who owned the building and two that were vacant.

Before you jump to conclusions, during the time of Leah's disappearance, her and Jessica

were the only two staying in the apartment.

The owner was in Florida at this time and was rolled out of the crime altogether from

what we have been put together.

However, we have seen reports that Jessica's ex boyfriend was supposed to stop by and pick

up some of his belongings.

During their breakup, he was deployed.

For multiple reports, we gather that him and Leah did not get along.

We also seen reports that there was construction going on during the time and the owner's

brother was overseeing it while he was in Florida.

Join us next time when we tell you the second part to the story of Leah Hickman.

If you find yourself enjoying Mountain State Mysteries, make sure you subscribe and give

us a five-star review and leave a comment wherever you listen to podcasts.

It helps others find good West Virginia true crime.

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

I'll let Mountain State Mysteries.

Do you have a case you want us to cover?

Email us at MountainStateMysteries304 at gmail.com.

For the show notes, check out our website, MountainStateMysteriesPodcast.com.