Leah Roberts was 23 when she left Durham, North Carolina, on March 9, 2000, driving a white 1993 Jeep Cherokee on a solo cross-country trip. She had recently lost both parents, survived a serious car crash, and left a note for her roommate saying she would be gone for a while. Her debit card activity tracked her westward; the last confirmed sighting was March 13, 2000, in Bellingham, Washington. A Brooks, Oregon, gas purchase that morning and a Bellis Fair Mall ticket stub for a 2:10 p.m. showing of American Beauty place her in the area that day. Surveillance from the Oregon station showed her alone and appearing to watch the lot.

On March 18 her Jeep was found wrecked off a remote logging road in Whatcom County near Mount Baker National Forest. Investigators noted no blood or evidence of injury, $2,500 in cash and her mother’s engagement ring inside, and blankets over broken windows as if the vehicle had been used for shelter. A 2006 exam found a cut starter-relay wire, a man’s fingerprint under the hood, and male DNA on an article of her clothing. A few unconfirmed sightings described a disoriented woman in Everett and a report of Leah seen in Bellingham with a man known only as Barry. No definitive explanation has been established for what happened after March 13.