Leigh Occhi

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0:41You're waking up at 3 a.m. and dealing with mood swings that have mood swings. Your ears are itchy, your jeans don't fit, you need an industrial-sized fan to cool down, and you've suddenly forgotten the word for microwave. Most women in perimenopause don't know that they are, even though it can last for 10 years. They also don't realize that most of their symptoms are treatable. That's why we built MidiHealth. Midi is a company built by women who've been through it. Our menopause experts actually listen and treat the real symptoms you're feeling. Your symptoms aren't just common, they're treatable.

1:13Schedule a visit with a menopause specialist at Midi. Visit joinmidi.com. Specialist-led care, virtual visits, insurance eligible. Midlife needs Midi. Results may vary. Medications prescribed only if clinically appropriate based on a consultation with a clinician. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

1:48Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

2:04Today I'm discussing the case of Lee Ochi. When we think about a child disappearing, our minds usually go to the places parents warn their kids about. A lonely street, a dark parking lot, somewhere outside of the safety of home. But Lee Ochi's case challenges that assumption in a deeply unsettling way. Because on the morning of August 27, 1992, 13-year-old Lee disappeared from her own home. What investigators found inside was evidence that something had gone terribly wrong. More than 30 years later, there are still no definitive answers, only a trail of evidence, conflicting theories, and many haunting questions.

2:48This is the case of Lee Ochi. Thursday, August 27th, 1992, was supposed to be a big day for 13-year-old Lee Marine Ochi. That afternoon, she was going to an open house at a new middle school where she'd be starting 8th grade in just a few days. Then her family was going to be treating her to a special dinner at Taco Bell. And there was something really important that would make the day even bigger. This would be the first time Lee would be left home all by herself while her mom, Vicky, went to work. But there was something standing in the way of making this an exciting milestone for Leigh. Unfortunately, Hurricane Andrew was making its way toward where she lived in Tupelo, Mississippi.

3:30At this point, it was really the remnants of Hurricane Andrew. It had struck South Florida as a Category 5 and Louisiana as a Category 3. And Leigh was just terrified of storms. So much so that according to Dave and Lore's reporting for the Huffington Post, she'd slept in her mom's bed the night before because she was so scared. But again, by the next morning, it seemed to have calmed down a bit. Lee and Vicky ate breakfast together while chatting about the upcoming day. Then, at around 7.35am, Vicky left the house to head to work. But according to Vicky, when she got to work at the manufacturing company Leggett & Platt, she just had this uneasy feeling about leaving Lee alone during the storms.

4:10So, at around 8.30am, she called the house to check on her. Now, Vicky and Lee had developed this sort of code when calling. Vicky would let the phone ring twice, then hang up and call back. This was pretty much her way of telling Lee that it was okay to pick up the phone. So she uses their system, but Lee doesn't pick up the phone. She calls again. Nothing. She hangs up and tries again for a third time. Still nothing. So she tries just one more time, and Lee still doesn't pick up the phone. At this point, Vicky's uneasy feeling about leaving Lee home alone turns into panic. She works about a mile and a half away, so she leaves immediately to make sure that Lee's okay.

4:56As she turns onto their street, Honey Locust Drive, her heart just sinks. She sees that the garage door is wide open, and the motor light for it is on, as if someone may have just been in there. So according to Vicky, she runs to the door which is unlocked. She opens it and begins yelling for Lee, but aside from the sounds of the storm outside, the house is silent. She begins making her way through the house looking everywhere she can for Lee, but then she sees it. There's blood. A pool of it is on the carpet in the hallway, and more is spattered on the walls. Just before 9 a.m., Vicky calls the Tupelo police to report Lee missing, and what also appears to be a serious assault.

5:47Mitty knows that just when you thought you had your body all figured out, bam, perimenopause. Suddenly, your hormones are raging like it's puberty round two. You're waking up at 3 a.m. and dealing with mood swings that have mood swings. Your ears are itchy, your jeans don't fit, you need an industrial-sized fan to cool down, and you've suddenly forgotten the word for microwave. Most women in perimenopause don't know that they are, even though it can last for 10 years. They also don't realize that most of their symptoms are treatable. That's why we built MidiHealth. Midi is a company built by women who've been through it.

6:24Our menopause experts actually listen and treat the real symptoms you're feeling. Your symptoms aren't just common, they're treatable. Schedule a visit with a menopause specialist at MIDI. Visit joinmidi.com. Specialist-led care, virtual visits, insurance eligible. Midlife needs MIDI. Results may vary. Medications prescribed only if clinically appropriate based on a consultation with a clinician. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Smile Set. Is there something in your smile that you just keep thinking about fixing? Or maybe you're like me.

6:57I had braces when I was younger, wasn't great at wearing my retainer, and my teeth have shifted. That's why I was so excited to try a smile set. Smile set can straighten your teeth for under$1 ,800. That's less than half the cost of traditional braces. And it's all done at home. Basically, it starts with an at-home impression kit. Then a licensed doctor reviews your case and builds your custom treatment plan, with your aligner shipped straight to you. and they monitor your progress remotely via the Smile Set app. They also have doctor check-ins available whenever you want, and they do offer nighttime-only aligners, so you can straighten your teeth while you sleep.

7:36I just did the at-home impression kit and sent it in. I am so excited to try this and get my teeth back to where they used to be. Over 2 million smiles have been fixed with this technology, and they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee, as well as monthly payments starting at just$89. Listeners of our show get an additional 35 % discount when they go to smileset.com slash justice. With this discount, you can get the smile of your dreams for under 1300 bucks. Go to smileset.com slash justice to get started. Smileset.com slash justice.

8:15After 13-year-old Lee Ochi is reported missing from a horrific crime scene, the Tupelo Police Department gets there so quickly that the blood is still wet. Now, I don't say that for shock value. I say that because I want to emphasize how quickly all of this happened. Vicky left for work at about 7.35am. She calls home to check on her daughter just about an hour later. And when Lee doesn't pick up, she races home within minutes and finds this unimaginable scene where it's clear that Lee has been seriously injured. Tupelo police detective, later turned police chief, Bart Aguirre, has spoken a lot to the media over the years.

8:55In 2017, he did a long-form interview with the podcast Open, The Case of Liocchi. It's hosted by Emma Kent and produced by the local news outlet, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. He also spoke extensively with William Moore for AP News. But here's what he said. There was a pool of blood in the hallway adjacent to the kitchen. And on the kitchen doorframe, there was blood with hair embedded in it. This spatter on the doorframe was consistent with head trauma to someone who was about 5 feet tall. Lee's height. And blood was found in other places around the home. In the primary bathroom, a pink substance was smeared across the counter.

9:38Aguirre believes that this is evidence someone may have tried to clean up the blood, though no rags or towels with blood on them were ever found inside the home. Lee's nightgown was also crumpled up and thrown in the hamper. When it was pulled out, blood was found on it. Aguirre told Moore, quote, Because it looked like the blood had dripped down onto her nightgown, you would think the injury had to be above the neck possibly. End quote. So this, along with the blood placement higher on the doorframe, made detectives worry that Lee may have suffered a serious head injury. There was also a trail of blood that went from the hallway to the living room and towards the back door.

10:20Now, aside from the blood, nothing else really appeared to be out of order inside the house. Aguirre said that the house wasn't in disarray at all, and there was no sign of forced entry. But Vicki was adamant that Lee would never open the door for someone she didn't know. If all the blood hadn't been there, it would have looked like Lee simply walked out of her home. But Vicki did tell investigators that some items were missing from the house. An older sleeping bag, a pair of shoes, a new pair of underwear that Lee had just gotten for her birthday, a pair of blue jeans, a t-shirt, and Lee's reading glasses, which she wore almost every day.

10:58So that's what the scene looked like inside of the house. But of course, while investigators are processing the scene, there are patrol officers just outside of the home looking for any clues. They search a 10-foot-wide ditch that ran east to west right next to the house. They also combed through about 80 acres of nearby open land on foot and on horseback. And bloodhounds were also brought in to aid in the search, but weren't able to pick up on a scent. Aguirre later told Emma Kent that the dog handlers told him that while it could have meant that Lee hadn't been there, the heavy rain and strong winds from Hurricane Andrew may have altered their ability to properly sniff out anything.

11:39Detectives and officers also canvassed the neighborhood, but no one reported seeing anything odd that day. It seems like whatever happened inside of that home happened incredibly fast. As daylight faded into the dark of night, despite an exhaustive search, there was just no sign of Lee. In the days that followed, investigators expanded their efforts while those who loved her faced the growing uncertainty of not knowing where she was or what happened to her. And that included Donald Ochi, Lee's biological father. He and Vicki met in the late 1970s in California, while the two of them were both in the U.S.

12:20Army. They got married and got stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii. While there, Vicki gave birth to Lee on August 21st, 1979. But just two years later, they filed for divorce. Donald was eventually stationed in Germany, while Vicky took Lee back to Tupelo, Mississippi, where her parents lived. Eventually, Vicky met and married her second husband, Barney Yarborough. And while growing up in Tupelo, it seems that Lee may not have had the easiest time. A former classmate and friend, Bart Phelps, was also interviewed for the Open podcast, and he told reporter Emma Kent that while Lee was very sweet, she didn't have a lot of friends, and she was really treated more like an outcast.

13:06But even so, it seems that Lee was very loving and just wanted to make friends with everyone. One of her neighbors, a woman named Ellen, told the Open podcast that Lee would come over to her house to chat and play with her dog. Which didn't seem out of the ordinary at all. Lee absolutely loved animals, especially horses and her cat named Smokey. Ellen told Kent about when Lee was dropped up at home after attending a day camp activity and Vicki wasn't there. Lee didn't want to be home alone, so she went over to Ellen's where she told her all about the new middle school that she would start attending in just a few days.

13:42She also asked if she could come by the following weekend to give her dog a bath, which Ellen agreed to. Then Lee went back home to see if her mom was there. And based on our research for this episode, this seems to have been the last sighting of Lee by anyone besides Vicki. During her interview with Emma Kent, Ellen also said that she was absolutely shocked when she learned that Lee was missing. She didn't recall seeing anything strange or out of place, but she does admit that she was distracted while busy heading to work that morning. While those closest to Lee were just trying to make sense of her sudden disappearance, her father Donald was now states away stationed in Virginia, and at first, he had no idea just how serious the situation was.

14:27He too sat down with Emma Kent for the open podcast, and during his interview, he painted a very concerning picture of what things were like from his perspective. He remembers getting a call from Vicky about a day or two after the disappearance. He said that when she told him what happened, she said Lee had run away and didn't make any mention of the blood on the scene. By all accounts, he seemed very concerned. He kept calling Vicky to see if there were any updates, and eventually, on one of those calls, Vicky mentioned the blood that was found at the scene. After this, he was immediately granted a special leave from the army and came to Tupelo.

15:07Not long after, Don, along with his new wife, got to work trying to find answers. They started where I think most parents of missing children do. They organized searches. And the citizens of Tupelo came out in droves to help. But what I do find really amazing in this case is that they were really supported by law enforcement as well. They even gave him locations to search based on tips they got. And in their more official searches, the Tupelo Police Department deployed helicopters to look by air. And while all of this is happening, the Mississippi State Crime Lab tested the blood that was found at the scene.

15:47At the time, they determined the blood was type O, the same as Lee, though later DNA testing did definitively confirm that the blood was Lee's. But despite all of this effort, investigators were hitting dead ends and couldn't figure out what happened to Lee and who may have caused it. Very quickly, frustrations were growing. Just a week after her disappearance, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal ran the headline, quote, Ochi Case at Standstill. But then, just when it seemed like the investigation was beginning to stall, two major clues came through that gave some renewed hope. Eight days after Lee's disappearance, a college student working at McDonald's in Boonville, Mississippi, called to report a potential sighting.

16:33He saw a girl matching Lee's description with a man in a blue truck in the drive-thru. However, detectives were able to track down the girl and discover that it was not her. But what's so weird about this is that the second major lead also had a tie to Boonville, which this is about 30 miles north of Tupelo. And unlike the first lead, there was no question that this was connected to Lee's disappearance. On September 9th, 1992, Becky received a deeply unsettling package. It was addressed to Bea Yarborough, her husband and Lee's stepfather who she'd recently separated from. And the address for the home was misspelled.

17:17The street name was Honey Locust Drive, but instead of spelling honey the traditional way, H-O-N-E-Y, they spelt it H-O-N-Y. It was also listed as the return address, and on it were six stamps that had hearts with the word love on them. Inside of the package was just one item. Lee's reading glasses. There was no ransom note, no demands, no other clues. Just those reading glasses that were missing from the house. Now at this point, the FBI was assisting in the case, and the envelope was sent to their crime lab for testing. But whoever sent it seems to have taken steps to conceal their identity.

18:01Water was used to stick the stamps and to seal the envelope. In the end, it appears that they weren't able to find any DNA on it at all. Or like I always say, if they have, they aren't telling the public that. But authorities were able to track down where it was sent from. You guys guessed it, it was Boonville, where that false sighting had happened just a few days before. Now, people have questioned if the glasses were meant to distract or throw off law enforcement. Bartigiri told William Moore for the Washington Times, quote, There was no ransom letter or anything like that that came with those glasses.

18:39It was just those glasses. You would think if it was an actual kidnapping, you would have expected a little more to come along with that. End quote. This left investigators and really all of us with a lot of questions. Were the glasses meant to get detectives to believe that Lee was still alive somewhere? Or was it done to create a wild goose chase? And why was it addressed to her stepfather who wasn't living there anymore? Well, all of those questions people had about Lee's disappearance started to be directed towards those that were closest to her. And before long, rumors began to swirl about the very people who seemingly wanted to find her the most.

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20:44This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Smile Set. Is there something in your smile that you just keep thinking about fixing? Or maybe you're like me. I had braces when I was younger, wasn't great at wearing my retainer, and my teeth have shifted. That's why I was so excited to try a smile set. Smile set can straighten your teeth for under$1 ,800. That's less than half the cost of traditional braces. And it's all done at home. Basically, it starts with an at-home impression kit. Then a licensed doctor reviews your case and builds your custom treatment plan with your aligner shipped straight to you.

21:20and they monitor your progress remotely via the Smile Set app. They also have doctor check-ins available whenever you want, and they do offer nighttime-only aligners, so you can straighten your teeth while you sleep. I just did the at-home impression kit and sent it in. I am so excited to try this and get my teeth back to where they used to be. Over 2 million smiles have been fixed with this technology, and they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee, as well as monthly payments starting at just$89. Listeners of our show get an additional 35 % discount when they go to smileset.com slash justice.

21:56With this discount, you can get the smile of your dreams for under 1300 bucks. Go to smileset.com slash justice to get started. Smileset.com slash justice.

22:11After the package containing only Lee's reading glasses seemingly yielded no leads, the residents of Tupelo were confused and pretty upset. And this is really when people began to question if her mom, Vicky, or stepfather Barney had anything to do with what happened to Lee. Now, both Vicky and Barney were extensively questioned by investigators. In 2017, the original lead detective on the case, Ronnie Thomas, spoke with William Moore for the Associated Press. During that, he said that Barney was cooperative, passed a polygraph test, and most importantly, had an alibi. He added that he also helped search for Lee in the days after she disappeared.

22:54And on top of all of that, the former police chief, Bart Aguirre, told Emma Kent with The Open podcast that Barney was ruled out pretty early on. But unfortunately, I can't say the same for Lee's mom, Vicki. In our research, we weren't able to find a public statement from law enforcement clearing her in this case. In that same reporting by William Moore for the Associated Press, former detective Ronnie Thomas said that Vicki was given three polygraph tests, one with the Tupelo Police Department and two through the FBI. On all three tests, she showed signs of deception. Now, we all know that polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable, but Vicki did give a statement to Alexis Weed with CNN about her failing those polygraph tests.

23:41Quote, I couldn't tell you why. They measure changes in your body, and when your daughter has gone missing, and they strap you up to things, I can't imagine anyone's body not reacting. End quote. Now, Aguirre says that Vicki has been cooperative with investigators and was not a suspect, but that she is still considered a person of interest. He told William Moore, quote, You still can't eliminate her. There are still too many unanswered questions for Vicki, And I don't know if that is unusual for somebody to go off to work and say, well, I just left Lee, but I'm going to call and check on her. Why check on her that soon after she just left her?

24:20End quote. Over the years, people who knew Lee have also shared some concerning stories about her home life. Her former third grade teacher, Jan Key, also spoke with The Open podcast. During her interview, she recalled Lee would sometimes come to school moody or sad, but whenever she was asked about it, Lee would just brush it off by saying things like she was having a bad morning. She also said that she remembers Vicky being a very strict disciplinarian. There were even times Jan wouldn't even tell Vicky if Lee got in trouble at school because she didn't want her to be disciplined too harshly.

24:56However, it is worth stating here that Jan said that while she heard Vicky would give Lee spankings, she didn't see any outward signs of abuse. But people who knew Lee during her childhood had some other concerning things they remembered. That old friend and classmate, Bart Phelps, also said that at one point, he posted on Facebook asking people to share any memories they had of Lee, and multiple people commented that they remembered her showing up to school with bruises on her legs or a black eye. More than one classmate remembers her telling people that she got a black eye after being kicked in the face by a horse.

25:33Now, when specifically asked about those rumors, Vicki sent in a written statement to The Open podcast, stating, quote, as I've stated before, her medical records were pretty clear where those came from, and I don't want to get into that again. She was hit in the nose with horse apples. It happened where a guy kept horses about a block away, end quote. But Vicki wasn't the only person close to Lee that people were suspicious of. Even though law enforcement considered Barney cleared, others continued to revisit the stories and memories that surrounded his relationship with Lee. Lee's middle school boyfriend, Jordan Morse, said that Lee once told him that she was locked out of the house because she made Barney mad.