Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Disappearance of Leigh Occhi

Leigh Marine Occhi (August 21,1979—disappeared August 27, 1992) is an American teenager whovanished under mysterious circumstances at her home in Tupelo,Mississippi during Hurricane Andrew. Her mother, Vickie Felton,returned home on the morning of August 27, 1992, to find Occhimissing and evidence of blood in the house.

Searches in and around Tupelo provedfruitless. On September 9, 1992, Occhi's eyeglasses were mailed toher home in an envelope, addressed to her ex-stepfather; lawenforcement deemed this action a ruse to distract detectives in theirsearch efforts. In November 1993, a human skull discovered in asoybean field was erroneously attributed to Occhi, but this link waslater retracted and the skull was positively identified as that of anadult woman who had gone missing in an adjacent town.

Despite numerous searches, Occhi'swhereabouts remain unknown. Her case has received media coverage fromNancy Grace and 20/20, as well as an extensive independently-producedpodcast in 2017.

Timeline

Background

Leigh Marine Occhi was born August 21,1979 in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Donald Occhi and Vickie Felton, bothmembers of the United States Army. The couple met while serving inCalifornia, and married in 1977. The couple eventually divorced in1981. Donald Occhi relocated to Germany, but remained in contact withhis daughter, who visited him there. Occhi resided in the UnitedStates with her mother, settling in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Disappearance

On the morning of August 27, 1992,Leigh Occhi, then age 13, was left at her home at 105 Honey LocustDrive in Tupelo, when her mother departed for her job atapproximately 8:00 a.m. Occhi had planned to attend an open house ather middle school that day with her grandmother. At the time,Occhi's father resided in Virginia.

Shortly after arriving at her office,Felton was notified that a storm related to Hurricane Andrew washeaded for Tupelo, and phoned her house to inform her daughter sometime before 9:00 a.m. When Occhi failed to answer, Felton becameworried and left her job to check on her, driving approximately 1.5miles (2.4 km) back to her home. According to Felton, upon returninghome, she found the garage door open and the light on; entering thehouse, she noticed blood smeared on the side of the wall. "Istarted calling for Leigh and going through all the rooms,"Felton said. "Then I went into her bedroom. Her favoriteblanket was crumbled up on the floor and I was very scared." After seeing this, Felton called 9-1-1 at approximately 9:00 a.m.

Investigation

Initial search efforts

Upon further inspection of the house,law enforcement found additional pools of blood in Occhi's upstairsbedroom, as well as significant portions smeared in the hallway,bathroom, and on her bedroom door. The blood found in the bathroomindicated to law enforcement that a perpetrator had attempted toclean the scene. Felton claimed that several of her daughter'sarticles of clothing were missing; inside a laundry hamper in thehouse, detectives discovered a bloodied nightgown belonging to Occhi. Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre stated: "Because it lookedlike the blood had dripped down onto her nightgown, you would thinkthe injury had to be above the neck possibly." The houseshowed no signs of forced entry.

Immediately following Occhi'sdisappearance, organized searches were conducted around Tupelo,mainly through wooded areas, but they proved fruitless. Occhi'sfather, Donald, felt that his daughter "was dead the day myex-wife called me and told me she was missing. My theory is that somebastard beat that child to death in that house." He alsostated that, while searching for his daughter in Tupelo in September1992, he was told by several locals to "look at her mother";however, he commented: "I already was doing that. I don'tknow if her mother was involved." Additionally, rumorscirculated alleging that Occhi's stepfather, Barney Yarborough—whomher mother had recently separated from—was abusive toward Occhi. Yarborough was ruled out by law enforcement, however, after providinga substantiated alibi and passing a polygraph examination.

Mailing of eyeglasses

On September 4, 1992, eight days afterOcchi went missing, a worker at a McDonald's in Booneville told lawenforcement that they had seen a girl resembling Occhi in a car inthe restaurant drive-through; however, the child in question wasdetermined to have been someone else. Five days later, on September9, a package containing Occhi's glasses was mailed to their residenceat Honey Locust Drive, addressed to Yarborough. The package waspostmarked from Booneville. After this development, the FBI becameinvolved in the search for Occhi, and performed DNA testing on thestamps adhered to the envelope in which the glasses were mailed.However, it was determined they had been adhered with water ratherthan saliva. Aguirre stated he felt the glasses were mailed as adistraction: "There was no ransom letter or anything likethat that came with those glasses. It was just those glasses. Youwould think if it was an actual kidnapping, you would have expected alittle more to come along with that."

Erroneous attribution of remains

On November 9, 1993, it was reported inthe Jackson Clarion-Ledger that a Monroe County coroner hadpositively confirmed via dental records that a human skull found in asoybean field was that of Occhi. Several days later, however, theidentification was retracted. In this retraction, it was stated thestate medical examiner would perform further forensic testing on theskull, which had been uncovered by a farmer in a ditch along thesoybean field. It was subsequently determined that the skullbelonged to 27-year-old Pollyanna Sue Keith, a woman who had gonemissing in March 1993.

Subsequent developments

"This coward must have reallyfelt like a tough man or woman to beat a little girl to death. Often,I cannot help but think of how horrified Leigh must have been whilethis piece of garbage beat her to death and watched her bleed out inthe hall."—Donald Occhi on his belief regarding hisdaughter's disappearance

After Yarborough passed his polygraphexamination, Felton was administered three separate examinations—onewith local law enforcement, and two with the FBI. Independentexaminers stated she showed deception on all of them. In 2017,Aguirre stated that Felton was still considered a person of interest:"You still can't eliminate her. There are still too manyunanswered questions for Vickie, and I don't know if that isunusual for somebody to go off to work and say, well I just leftLeigh but I'm going to call and check on her. Why check on her thatsoon after she just left her?"

Felton disputes that she had anyinvolvement in her daughter's disappearance, and has openly statedthat she believes a man named Oscar McKinley "Mike" Kearnswas responsible for her daughter's kidnapping. Kearns was convictedin 1999 for kidnapping a couple and raping the woman, and, ninemonths after Occhi disappeared, kidnapped a ninth-grade girl he hadmet through a Tupelo church, raping her in Memphis, Tennessee. Forthe latter crime, Kearns was sentenced to over eight years ofincarceration, but served only half of his sentence, and was releasedin 1997 before committing the kidnapping and rape that resulted inhis subsequent conviction.

Publicity

Occhi's disappearance has been coveredby Nancy Grace and was also featured on the Geraldo Rivera Show and20/20. In 2017, the disappearance was the subject of a six-episodepodcast titled 13: The Search for Leigh Occhi. The case was alsofeatured on an episode of true crime podcast Crime Junkie.