10 Baffling Details Surrounding Leigh Marine Occhi, The 13-Year-Old Who Completely Vanished

6 /10 Missing Items

Leigh’s sleeping bag, reading glasses, shoes, and some of her underclothes were missing. When Felton left her in the morning, her daughter was still wearing her nightgown.

The same nightgown and a brassiere were still in the bedroom, bloodstained. There was no used rag anywhere despite an apparent effort to clean up the blood.

The police sent some bloodhounds to search the area, but the weather rendered them unable to trace any scent. Organized search efforts focusing on the wooded area in Tupelo led to nothing.

5 /10 Reading Glasses Returned

About two weeks after Leigh disappeared, an anonymous package arrived at 105 Honey Locust Drive.

The box contained Leigh’s without reading glasses. The only name written on the mail was “B. Yarbrough,” and the address was “Hony Locust.”

Leigh’s mother and father had separated not long before the disappearance; her stepfather was Barney Yarborough.

The postmark was Booneville, Mississippi, located about 30 miles away from Tupelo.

The envelope had six stamps when only three would have been enough. It remains unclear why somebody mailed the reading glasses.

4 /10 A Distraction

The authorities obtained the mail and conducted a thorough inspection to find any possible hint about the sender.

The stamps were wet with water, and DNA analysis found no helpful clue.

The sender, which could also be the kidnapper, was a careful person.

Leigh’s father obtained an emergency leave from the military to help with the search, and he believed someone in the family was involved in his daughter’s disappearance.

The police determined the mail was an attempt to mislead the investigation.

3 /10 Misidentification

In early November 1993, a report indicated that a coroner’s office in Monroe County had identified a skull recovered from a soybean field as belonging to Leigh.

The identification was stated as based on her dental record. It turned out that the examination had outdated the dental document, and the title was subsequently considered false.

The skull belonged to Pollyanna Sue Keith, a 27-year-old woman who disappeared in March.

At this point, authorities said they had no substantial evidence even to name a suspect in Leigh’s disappearance.

2 /10 Oscar McKinley Kearns

The police interviewed several individuals, but no one was charged with any crime.

Felton insisted that a man named Oscar Kearns was responsible for her daughter’s disappearance.

He was a local guy and knew Leigh. In 1993 about nine months after Leigh vanished, Oscar kidnapped and raped a girl from Memphis. Felton herself was considered a person of interest.

She took a polygraph test with local law enforcement and two more with the FBI; analysis indicated she had made deceptive statements in all three. She denied any wrongdoing regardless.

1 /10 Unsolved Case

Leigh’s father and stepfather passed their polygraphs, and they were ruled out as persons of interest in the case. There has been barely any new lead in the case thus far.

Leigh’s boyfriend, an 11-year-old boy at the time of the disappearance, was never taken for questioning by the police.

He might not be involved, but at least the police could gain additional insights into Leigh from the interview.

With all the bloodstains and anonymous mail, foul play is suspected. Until today, the disappearance of Leigh Occhi remains unsolved. She has been missing for nearly 29 years and ten months.