re: Leigh Occhi: What Do You Think Happened?

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A common theory is that Leigha was dead before the mother ever went to work and that the mother’s call home and return home was all just a ruse to establish an alibi.

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if the mother killed the girl, then went to work and called home as an alibi then came home to find the girl "missing", why would she then later on mail her bloody clothing? If she had more or less gotten away with it why introduce another piece of evidence if she didn't have to?

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if the mother killed the girl, then went to work and called home as an alibi then came home to find the girl "missing", why would she then later on mail her bloody clothing? If she had more or less gotten away with it why introduce another piece of evidence if she didn't have to?

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To distract attention from herself and provide some vague notion to the investigators that she's alive and/or that it's a killer toying with them.

I'm not saying it's a good idea, but if you imagine a person who think they're very clever who is right in the center of the storm and wants investigators to look outward, perhaps it makes some sense.

Tangential, sure- but how many lived 1 mile away?

Who knows how a sociopath's mind works? Maybe he was gonna kill the 15 year old, but she made an appeal to something deep down in him.

I think he asked her to get something- something pertaining to church. She goes to her room to get it. He follows her in, and then either slams her head into the door frame, or hits her with something with her back turned. There was hair of hers on the doorframe, right?
He had meant to stun her to get her submissive. The injury was more severe, though. He thinks- I've already come this far- then abducts and rapes her, then finishes the job and takes her life.

Why single him out? I mean, if your other 2 hypothetical suspects are in Sunday School at her church, then I'm with you.

Maybe I misread- was there enough blood to think she bled out in the house? Scalp wounds are extremely vascular- I saw where there was some blood on the walls, and a fist-sized area on the floor. Enough for injury, but not enough to think death-

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I think he asked her to get something- something pertaining to church. She goes to her room to get it. He follows her in, and then either slams her head into the door frame, or hits her with something with her back turned. There was hair of hers on the doorframe, right?
He had meant to stun her to get her submissive. The injury was more severe, though. He thinks- I've already come this far- then abducts and rapes her, then finishes the job and takes her life.

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My issue with this theory is the time it would take for it to go down. The mom reportedly left for work at 7:40 am, and then by 8:30 am, she had already returned home, searched the house, found blood, discovered the bloody nightgown in the hamper, and called 911.

That's a tight window for a child rapist to talk his way into the house, harm the girl, and get the body out without anybody noticing, particularly if he didn't plan to initially. Police also said there was an obvious attempt to clean up the scene, which would take more time.

Do we know if the mom called the house more than once? She had just left her daughter, but decided to check on her, and after no answer, she rushed home? For all she knew, Leigh was just in the bathroom.

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Maybe I misread- was there enough blood to think she bled out in the house? Scalp wounds are extremely vascular- I saw where there was some blood on the walls, and a fist-sized area on the floor. Enough for injury, but not enough to think death-

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The podcast I listened to after I got home this afternoon seemed to strongly imply it was at or closely approaching a lethal volume of blood.

The nightgown was in the dirty laundry and and had blood patterns suggestive of a wound to the neck of head, the bathroom counter top was covered in pink streaks suggestive of someone trying to clean off blood, a large blood spot in the bedroom, and blood footprints tracking the blood throughout the house.


This podcast also stated that the blood was still wet when the first officer arrived.

(Citations for these statements are a bit tenuous as the podcasters seemed to be relying heavily off of secondary sources from other, previous podcasts.)

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it is way easier to believe an abusive parent may have hit her, she hits her head, and accidentally is killed.

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We call that “Patsying” and/or “Burke-ing.”