Leah Freeman Case Featured on 20/20 - 10/15/10 (Updated w/ Full Show)

Leah's Case will be featured tonight on a special two hour edition of 20/20 at 9 PM Eastern.




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FULL SHOW....

Justice for Leah Freeman: Hunt for Popular Oregon Teen's Killer
Ten Years After 15-Year-Old's Body Was Found, Suspicion Surrounds Then-Boyfriend Nick McGuffin

By ROB WALLACE and LAUREN EFFRON
Oct. 15, 2010

~Snipped~

Police said they had several witnesses who saw McGuffin acting strangely that night, including Mitchell, who said he showed up at her house a second time at around 10 p.m.

"He was definitely, you know, jumpy, talking fast," she said. "It was definitely odd."

Police also noticed that McGuffin seemed convinced that the worst had happened to Leah when they first interviewed him in 2000, and that he kept reverting back to past tense in his written statements.

"He tells us that Cherie was, was, her best friend, and the question is: How does he know that Cherie and Leah are no longer best friends?" said Mark Mclish, a handwriting expert who specializes in statement analysis. "The answer is 'cause he knows that at this point in time, Leah's dead."

~Snipped~

Another witness, Kristen Steinoff, was questioned, and told police that McGuffin had stopped by her house around midnight on the night of Leah's disappearance. She said she and McGuffin did drugs, and when he tried to have sex with her, she refused. He also barrowed her car that night -- a Kia.

"Here's a guy that's worried about his girlfriend, that he's frantic about her ... but he's making a move on this girl," Dannels said.

The Kia had been sold, but detectives traced it back to its new owner in northern Idaho. After searching it, they found it, too, had been thoroughly cleaned, with air fresheners placed in the passenger side compartment and the trunk.

Steinoff was bought in again for questioning. She insisted she knew nothing about what happened to Leah, but then revealed to police that she had seen McGuffin twice that night. When he came around a second time, he was wearing different clothes and had threatened her.

"He started saying to keep my mouth shut," she said. "Then, I kind of figured that he did have something to do with it because of the way he was acting."

~Snipped~

The question still remains: If McGuffin did kill Leah, what was his motive?

According to police, Leah allegedly had told some of her friends that her period was late and she possibly was pregnant. He was 18 and she was 15, and police suspect that McGuffin feared statutory rape charges.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/leah-freeman-cold-case-decade-oregon-killing-solved/story?id=11871048&page=3

Just an FYI....MY local listing is showing that Leah's Case isn't on until 10 PM. So if for some reason it's not on in your area at 9PM...keep an eye for it at 10PM.

I know that I do NOT want to miss this. I would love to meet back here at 9 PM to discuss this ....ALL are invited.

I would watch or DVR both hours just in case. I've checked on different days and have seen Leah's segment listed at both 9 and at 10 depending on when I checked. My local listings currently have it listed at 10.

I honestly can't wait for the show to air.

Sherrie AND her mother (as per the official documents) state that Leah left because of the "jogging argument". They BOTH told LE the same thing. I also got as many of the newpaper articles together that I could find, and posted them. Even according to them (up until this year) it was STILL the same story.

Then it changes. Slowly at first....that Sherrie & Leah argued AFTER Leah heard Sherrie & her mom argued. NOW....all of a sudden the whole fight was about NICK?????

AND....NICK trying to have sex with another teen???? WHAT???

I have lots of questions and NONE of them are about this BS & yes, IMO....this is BS.

OMG....The preview for the next hour of 20/20 (Leah's case) NOW says Nick was DANGEROUS!!! WTH is going on? I have NEVER heard him being described as DANGEROUS beofre this. Anyone else?????

On the east coast, it is listed to come on @ 10pm, but only shows it to be one hour. From 8 till 10, we had the movie, "All Dogs Go To Heaven."

I hope they show Leah's version for you mama. Here we had a 20/20 episode about bullying at 9, and Leah's episode is scheduled for 10.

It's on now (the second hour).

OMG, who had money to pay ppl off??? Cory sure didn't!!

From what I've seen so far, they sure had a good team helping investigate this case.

I'm curious as to how many that know of this case REALLY believe what they watched tonight????

I can't see how witness know MORE than they did over ten years ago. This "new" evidence about the Kia??? I guess now it's THREE cars that Nick was driving around in that night.

If you go by what Sherrie says, Leah must have been killed between 9:15 PM & 10 PM. (The last time she was seen on Central & the time Nick went back to Sherrie's house). Could this be so???

Why is it NOW being said he was acting funny??? Talking fast & jittery??? From all accounts prior to 20/20...Nick was calm, cool & collected.

I'm going to watch again (as I recorded it) and when it becomes available....I'll get it posted as well.

We have to remember that not everything revealed on 20/20 is brand new evidence. Much of it has been purposely withheld. They said they have 5500 pages of files and we've seen less than 50 pages.

This is the first we've heard of Kristen Steinoff, but they said she had been interviewed as far back as 2002.

It was also revealed that Leah was last seen by a Shell gas station, but a time wasn't given.

They seem to think Leah was killed on Elm St. near the spot where her shoe was found. I can't discount that, because I've considered it a possibility that she was abducted or killed on Elm St. ever since I reviewed the affidavits and looked at a map of Leah's route that night. While looking at maps and going into street view, I had noticed a couple weeks ago that there is a Shell gas station on the corner of Elm and Central across the street from the High School.

This is a shot of the Shell where Central meets Elm. I'm not sure of the exact distance, but Leah's shoe was found a little ways up Elm.

How do we know they haven't determined the cause of death just because it wasn't revealed on the show?

At one point of the show they said Leah was last seen alone near the Shell gas station, and at another point of the show, they said there are several witnesses who placed Nick with Leah after 9 PM. They also said her shoe was found about 100 yards away from the Shell. It looks like in the trial, they are going to say witnesses at the Shell saw Nick meet up with Leah, or they are going to say Nick took her to the Haga residence where they were seen by witnesses and her shoe ended up in the road later.

It would be easier to work out a timeline if they had revealed more specific times on 20/20. Google estimates the Shell to be a 3 minute drive and a 21 minute walk from the Mitchell's house, which Leah left sometime around 9, and it estimates the Shell to be a 50 second drive and a 9 minute walk from the Credit Union where Leah was spotted around 9:15.

If the information placing Leah near the Shell and placing her with Nick after 9 PM came from new interviews, the defense may have a chance to discredit it. If this information was revealed in the original recorded interviews, the defense will have a huge uphill battle.

I caught a couple things from the charts when they were quickly flashed on 20/20.

Nick stated at approximately 9:30 PM he went to Brent Bartley's residence to see if she would be there. Not finding her he left and drove the route she would have taken had she decided to walk home from Cherie Mitchell's.

Nick's handwritten statement says between 9:15 and 9:45 he drove around town looking for Leah. Said between 10:00 and 10:40 he went back to Brent's grandparent's house.

You can watch the full 20/20 episode at the following link.

http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD5592269/cold-case-what-happened-to-oregon-teen

The show has also been broken up into 8 minute segments that can be embedded. The first three parts are now available.

I gotta be honest. I did not watch the 20/20 special.

I find that their "in depth investigations" into current events are as sensation-driven as they are self serving. It is a lot like Nancy Grace or Jane Valez......... more of an 'entertainment' show than the hard-hitting, fact-finding, investigative expose that they promise their viewers. kh

Thank you J4A for posting the show. Now we (I) can pick it apart with what is known & what 20/20 decided to use as fantasy (IMHO)

J4A...is that ALL of the second hour that was spent of Leah's case? It seems to have parts missing.

If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be sticking up for Nick, I probably would have said they were crazy. Now that I know so much more about the case....I would definitely have done things differently.

I still feel sorry for Cory for losing her daughter but I don't understand why so many are ready to convict Nick and have his family lose a child as well.

Seeing what 20/20 did to Nick, made me sick to my stomach. It's sad that they are allowed to ruin a man....for what???? Just to close a case??

I pray that either they have MUCH, Much more that we were not told....or Nick is finally exonerated for something he did NOT do.

There were only three short parts that could be embedded. If you click the link above the videos you can watch the full 41 minute episode.