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Thread: Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

  1. #1
    Olivia
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    Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

    Her dad's myspace comments are so sad

    http://www.myspace.com/findleahpeebles

    http://www.myspace.com/helpmefindleahpeebles - Leah's dad

    http://www.myspace.com/10989634 - Leah's personal myspace

    John Peebles pleaded with his only daughter to make him one promise.

    Leah Peebles had moved to Albuquerque seeking a fresh start away from the drug addiction lifestyle that had consumed her in Fort Worth.

    "I looked at her and said: 'Please. Please. Whatever you do, if it gets bad, just call us. Don’t ever leave again and not let us know what you’re doing, even if you’re at the worst of the worst,’ " John Peebles said, recounting his goodbye at a New Mexico airport. " 'Just call us and let us know you’re alive.’ "

    Although Leah told her father that he’d be better off not knowing, she made him the promise — but only at his insistence.

    That was 3  1/2 years ago, the last time John Peebles set eyes on his firstborn.

    "I wish I’d never left her. It haunts me every day. That’s been the hardest thing for me to deal with," John Peebles said, pausing to regain his composure. "I could see how scared she was. I wish I hadn’t left her."

    Since then, John and his wife, Sharon, have devoted their lives, time and money to finding Leah, now 26, and bringing her back home to Fort Worth.

    John Peebles has made roughly a dozen trips to Albuquerque and beyond, searching homeless shelters, truck stops and strip clubs, desperate to find signs of his daughter. The couple expanded their search to the Internet, sharing their painful story on blogs in the hope that someone who has seen Leah will read it.

    "People ask me why I keep doing it," John Peebles said. "I talk to a lot of people who have missing children, and they don’t do what I do, but we share a lot of the same fears and the same hopes. I guess the thing that has just always been in my head is the story in the Bible about the lost sheep and the shepherd who left the 99 to go after the one. That’s why I do it."

    Sharon Peebles said, "If it were one of our other children, we’d do the same thing."

    To search for his daughter, John Peebles uses holidays, vacation time and sick leave from his job manufacturing helicopter rotors at Bell Helicopter. Sharon Peebles, a floral designer at TCU Florist, has accompanied him on two of the trips and their two sons, Phillip and Seth, on another.

    The Peebleses say Phillip, 23, and Seth, 18, have gone through different emotional stages in dealing with their sister’s disappearance.

    "I think they resent her. They’re angry, either that or they’re just numb," John Peebles said. "They’d just as soon put it all away and not even talk about it anymore or think about it."

    It’s a feeling their parents can understand.

    "Sometimes for a few hours, I might be angry at her, like, 'Why hasn’t she contacted us?’ " Sharon Peebles said. "But the love overrides that."

    A rapid decline

    Even in baby pictures, Leah’s smile is eye-catching.

    At 1  1/2 — at her grandmother’s insistence — she was entered into her first and only beauty pageant, winning third runner-up in her age division and claiming the title "Ms. Photogenic."

    But the childhood innocence that radiated in the blue-eyed blonde’s smile would be short-lived. By the time she was 4, Leah’s parents learned that their only daughter had been molested by a distant relative. They hoped that her young age could erase the ordeal from her memory. But just as she was about to begin high school, Leah was raped by a classmate.

    Even though she underwent counseling, the Peebleses say they saw an immediate change in their daughter that grew more noticeable as she worked her way through Carter-Riverside High School. A popular girl and good student who’d been active in cheerleading, drama and the yearbook staff, Leah began to lose interest in such activities by the end of her sophomore year. She dropped out of cheerleading and, by her senior year, was not involved in any extracurricular activities.

    "I think she was drinking and smoking pot, maybe doing some pills by her sophomore year, maybe even a little before then," John Peebles said. "She never had a problem with grades up to that point, but by senior year, she was struggling to even graduate."

    Sharon Peebles remembers stopping by Carter-Riverside one morning to drop something off and finding the 17-year-old "crashed" on her desk.

    "She got up and kind of stumbled into the hallway," Sharon Peebles said. "When I started talking to her, I realized that something was wrong. I checked her out of school and took her to the doctor, who sent us immediately to the emergency room at Cook’s. She had overdosed."

    By the time she graduated from high school in 2001, Leah had grown even more erratic — sleeping all day and partying all night. Her weight fluctuated as much as her hairstyles and colors.

    Relatives staged an intervention at the restaurant where she worked.

    "We said, 'Come outside. We need to talk,’ " John Peebles said. "Of course, she denied everything at first."

    But after about 30 minutes, Leah broke down.

    "She said, 'I can’t stop,’ " John Peebles said. "I said, 'You can’t stop what?’ And she said, 'I can’t stop heroin.’  . . .  She confirmed everything we were fearing."

    The Peebleses put Leah in detox at a Fort Worth hospital, then immediately into Fort Worth Teen Challenge, a Christian-based drug and alcohol ministry for women. She stayed at the Teen Challenge center for 21 months, though not always willingly.

    As she continued in rehab, Leah entered beauty school with plans of becoming a hairstylist. She finished her studies after returning to live with her parents, quickly finding a job at a salon in Hulen Mall.

    But signs that Leah was back on drugs soon emerged. In a periodic search of her room, Sharon found needles and bloody tissues tucked into a purse in the closet.

    When the couple would confront her, she would admit that she had used again but insist that she was doing better.

    "You want to believe," Sharon Peebles said. "She would go to church with us. She would go to a home group and would talk to people about her problems."

    But Leah would also show up at her brother’s football game, stumbling and falling to the concrete because she was so messed-up.

    "She’d do meth. She’d do coke. Anything she could shoot, she’d just do it," John Peebles said. "She’d go through periods where she put on a little weight because she was probably doing heroin at the time, and then she’d shoot meth and get skinny."

    Run-ins with the law

    Twice, Leah was arrested.

    In August 2004, Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies were investigating a report of shots fired when they happened upon Leah’s boyfriend firing an assault rifle into a creek bed. Leah, who had been sitting in a car with another woman, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance after she was seen tossing a baggie containing methamphetamine out of the car window.

    She was convicted of a state jail felony and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

    In March 2006, Leah was stopped for not using her turn signal, and a search of her car uncovered syringes and powder cocaine. This time, Leah was sentenced to 80 days in jail.

    Soon, Leah was fired from the salon.

    "They didn’t want to," John Peebles said. "They had given her several chances, but she would just take off in the middle of the day, take off on a break saying she was going out for a smoke. But she was actually going out and doing cocaine and might not even show up the rest of the day, just leave clients waiting for her there."

    Leah’s parents tried to get her back in rehab. She was against returning to Teen Challenge, but Leah agreed to get help and a new start in Albuquerque, where close family friends Todd and Ashley Warren were eager to take her in.

    Leah packed up her Volkswagen, and in May 2006, her father helped her move. They shared their last face-to-face goodbye at the airport, before he flew back home.

    Ashley Warren said Leah seemed sad and all too aware of the challenges she would face in reclaiming her life.

    "I think she was feeling like a failure and that she failed everyone around her because she continued to move back toward the things that she felt could help momentarily," Warren said. "I really did think she felt more concern for the way she had let down her parents and her family than she did for herself."

    'He’s still going’

    Two and a half weeks later, John Peebles received a phone call from the Warrens, saying Leah had gone out the night before to hang out with a new friend and had not returned.

    "They hadn’t heard from her, other than she left a voice message that said, 'OK. Some things have happened. I’ll call you later.’ But she never did," John Peebles said.

    Leah was reported missing to Albuquerque police. From his Fort Worth home, John Peebles tried to learn his daughter’s location by checking her MySpace page, contacting her friends and listening to her voice mail messages. Through her voice mail, he learned that Leah’s car was at a repair shop. A mechanic at the shop said he had seen Leah and helped tow her wrecked car.

    He mentioned that Leah’s arms looked bad and that he thought she may be prostituting.

    With still no word from his daughter a month later, John Peebles took what would be the first of many trips to Albuquerque to search for her.

    In all, he estimates he’s made 11 trips, sometimes accompanied by family members, to Albuquerque, surrounding areas, Phoenix and, most recently, Las Vegas.

    America’s Most Wanted, which plans to air a segment about Leah’s disappearance in the coming weeks, accompanied him on the trip to Vegas.

    "The reason I’ve gone out so many times looking myself is I just felt no one would look harder than I would. We’ve had some detectives give their time and look, and there’s been a lot of well-wishing people, but people come and go," John Peebles said. "They help you for a while, and that’s fine.  . . .  But no one can stick with you through the long haul. That’s just the way it is."

    Warren, who has since moved to Colorado with her husband, said she believes that John Peebles’ undying efforts to find his daughter exemplify the strength of God’s love.

    "John Peebles exhibited what I feel like God feels for all of creation," Warren said, her voice breaking. "And he’s still going."

    Suspicion of human trafficking

    From his many trips, John Peebles has gleaned that his daughter, going by the street name of Mia, inquired about a job at an Albuquerque strip club not long after she disappeared. Others have told him that Leah was under the control of a pimp known as "A.J."

    Peebles was later able to question A.J. after he was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., for jumping bail and extradited to Albuquerque. A.J. claimed he’d never heard of Leah.

    "Certainly if she turns up dead, he ought to be the first suspect," John Peebles said. "I think he’s really the key to finding out more about her."

    John Peebles’ snooping had prompted threats against his life. He has become so well-known in parts of Albuquerque that he’s donned disguises and dyed his hair during his searches.

    The last credible sighting of his daughter was in fall 2006. John Peebles’ gut tells him that she has fallen victim to human trafficking and may have been sold to another pimp in another city.

    A few years ago, he and his wife moved from the Riverside home where Leah grew up and now live in southwest Fort Worth.

    They say they refuse to dwell on whether Leah is dead.

    "I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to give up," John Peebles said. "I just can’t do it. I just can’t accept that there’s not a possibility that she’s still out there, no matter how bleak it looks."

    A father’s anguish

    A year after his daughter disappeared, John Peebles turned to the Internet, trying to search beyond what he could physically do himself.

    "It was partly due to finances," Peebles said. "We had to take a little break for a while. We’d spent so much money. I thought, I can’t do anything else so I guess I’ll get online and try to network that way and get other people to help us look, keep an eye out for her."

    These are excerpts from his blog postings and comments:

    June 21, 2007:

    I love you with all my heart Sugarplum! Mom and I miss you so badly.  . . .  I wanted you to know we are searching for you everyday. We will never give up. Come home sweetheart.

    Jan. 12, 2008:

    Please help us! - Leah’s Grandmother is Dying

    If anyone  . . . . . . .  ANYONE knows where Leah is, please ask her to call her parents.  . . .  As of Thursday, January 10, 2008, Leah’s grandmother has been given 24-48 hours to live. She is in hospice care, and the family would like your help in passing the word to find Leah and ask her to call home.

    Can we also request your help in keeping this message going by passing it on every few hours on your bulletin pages.

    Thanks so much for your help and support!

    Jan. 16, 2008:

    Leah, Your Nee-Naw just passed away at the very hour of your birth 25 years ago today. She loved you so much. I think she waited till this very hour because she loved you so much. I pray you are alive and well sweetheart. Happy Birthday Sugarplum. Please Come Home!"

    March 23, 2008:

    Honey, I want you to know that I will never give up looking for you. I have no idea if you even look at your page anymore but just in case you do, know that I still love you more than life itself. We all miss you dearly. I also want you to know that you now have a handsome nephew. He reminds me of how beautiful that you were when you were born. You’re still the most beautiful daughter any father could ever have, and I remain as proud of you as I ever have been. You’re perfect just as you are and always will be.

    Sept. 7, 2009:

    Another holiday without Leah.

    Today is the final day of my road trip to look for Leah. I’ve been to Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Las Vegas this time. I was accompanied by America’s Most Wanted for about half of the trip as they filmed some of the things I’ve been doing to look for my precious Leah. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll go home empty handed again without her.

     . . .  Leah, I miss you so badly, and please forgive my failures as a father and know that I love you with all my heart, and would give anything to bring you back home where you belong.

    How to help

    Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Leah Peebles should call the parents at 817-346-9200.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Eternally Solo's Avatar
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    Re: Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

    Ugh, this is so heartbreaking. I can only hope John gets a some type of lead soon. You can feel his heart pleading for Leah.

    When I was a member of Soldier's Angels, we had a mom who was worried about her son in Iraq. She hadn't heard from him in a long time. There was over a hundred of us that sent a postcard to him with a simple note "CALL YOUR MOM".  He was floored when mail call came and he was dowsed with hundreds of these postcards. He immediately called her.

    God, Leah. CALL YOUR DAD!
    Саша VIIXIVMMIX

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    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    Re: Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

    [quote author=Eternally Solo link=topic=22998.msg1431983#msg1431983 date=1256881650]
    Ugh, this is so heartbreaking. I can only hope John gets a some type of lead soon. You can feel his heart pleading for Leah.

    When I was a member of Soldier's Angels, we had a mom who was worried about her son in Iraq. She hadn't heard from him in a long time. There was over a hundred of us that sent a postcard to him with a simple note "CALL YOUR MOM".  He was floored when mail call came and he was dowsed with hundreds of these postcards. He immediately called her.

    God, Leah. CALL YOUR DAD!
    [/quote]

    Thats a really sweet idea.


    Yeah, one phone call is all he needs. I hope she is able to make that call, for his sake. The comments areso very heartbreaking.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Hayalet's Avatar
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    Re: Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

    A Father's Journey For Answers

    John Peebles has been searching for his missing daughter Leah since 2006.

    John Peebles knows some of Albuquerque's toughest neighborhoods by heart. He knows which street corners are occupied by prostitutes and the ones that are reserved for drug dealers.

    "I've been a whole lot of places I never wanted to be and seen a lot of things I never wanted to see," he says.

    It's not the life John ever envisioned for himself, but he says he has no other choice. While he once spent his free time with his family in the quiet suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas, he now spends most days roaming the streets, looking for his daughter Leah.

    Leah Peebles vanished from Albuquerque, N.M., on May 22, 2006. Her family says she moved to there from Fort Worth in hopes of getting a fresh start. Prior to the move, John says his daughter struggled with drug addiction.

    "I'm just a dad looking for my daughter,” John says. “I'm a dad who loves his daughter. I'm a dad who sees the best in his daughter -- a dad who remembers all of the good things, and I want that girl back."


    "I've been a whole lot of places I never wanted to be and seen a lot of things I never wanted to see."

    The Tragedy Behind The Tears

    Leah's appearance was drastically different before she started using drugs.

    Leah was 23 years old when she went missing, but her father says her story starts when she was just a little girl.

    When she was 4 years old, Leah told her parents she was molested by a relative. Then as a freshman in high school she was victim to another sickening crime: She told her parents a boy she thought was her friend had raped her.

    "At that point, she really started being angry and felt depressed," her father John says.

    Leah's life took a dramatic turn, and her family says she found a terrible way to deal with the pain despite her family's efforts to try and help. Leah's look changed dramatically, and so did her actions. Before long, John and his wife Sharon discovered Leah was doing hard drugs and had developed a serious addiction. Leah went in and out of rehab until she finally decided she needed a fresh start.

    After moving to Albuquerque to live with friends, Leah seemed to be doing better. But after just a few weeks, she vanished.

    That was in 2006. Since then, John has spent nearly every vacation day and holiday in Albuquerque searching the streets for Leah.


    The Search Continues


    John's spent three years roaming Albuquerque’s streets, collecting clues in Leah's disappearance. He put his morals and safety on the line and it paid off. John heard Leah had turned to stripping and prostitution as a way to survive, so he began staking out strip clubs and befriending prostitutes to get more information. John learned Leah was going by a new name -- Maya. He says he also met a few people who had encountered her.

    The clues were helpful but not helpful enough. Even today John still has few answers about where Leah might be and even worse: He has no clue whether or not she is alive.

    John says he simply wants to know what happened to his daughter and that it's nearly impossible to live without the answers for which he’s so desperately been searching. The Albuquerque Police Department has documented Leah as a missing person.

    Police say there are no suspects in her disappearance, but they hope new clues could give them a better idea of where Leah might be. They said even the smallest clue could help them put together a more comprehensive timeline. Police say people like Leah are often hard to find because drug use can drastically change a person's appearance.

    Leah is 5 feet 2 inches tall. She could weigh between 100 and 120 pounds. She is a natural blonde but has previously worked as a hairdresser and is known to frequently change her look and her hair color. She has a tattoo of a Celtic cross on her lower back and a flower in between her shoulder blades.

    http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=69195

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    Senior Member trepid's Avatar
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    Re: Leah Peebles - missing since 22 May 2006

    Such a beautiful girl and such a tragic story. 

    Sadly, there is a alot of women who have gone missing from that area around the same time ... all with links to drug addiction, prostitution and high risk lifestyles.

    2001, Darlene Trujillo, 27

    2002, Sonia Lente, 49

    2003, Monica Candelaria, 26

    2004, Cinnamon Elks, 35

    2004, Veronica Romero, 31

    2004, Victoria Chavez, 28

    2004, Michelle Gina Valdez, 25

    2004, Virginia Cloven, 26

    2004, Julie Nieto, 27

    2004, Evelyn Salazar, 29

    2004, Anselma Guerra, 44

    2005, Anna Vigil, 23

    2005, Felipa Gonzales, 25

    2005, Nina Herron, 23

    2006, Shawntell Waites, 31

    2006, Leah Peebles, 24

    Also this 'AJ' character she apparently was working is the alias used for a man called Donald Sears.



    Hopeful but wary, parents search Albuquerque streets for their missing daughter

    By Maggie Shepard
    Saturday, September 15, 2007


    John Peebles handed over a lovely picture of his daughter - smiling, shining, hopeful. It was the most recent photo he could provide of Leah Peebles, 24.

    Albuquerque police Detective Ida Lopez placed it on her pile, another face among the hundreds reported missing in May 2006.

    Clean-looking young woman. Petite. Pretty. Pale.

    That's not at all what Leah Peebles likely looks like now.

    That's hard for a dad to hear.

    Leah has become the most recent addition to Lopez's "girls" - a select group of 16 women who were last seen alive in Albuquerque and whose cases, all reported since 2001, are distinguished by the combination of prostitution, drug addiction and, probably, a miserable anonymity.

    That's hard for a dad to hear, too.

    But John Peebles is willing to hear more; willing to hear anything just to know Leah is alive.

    "Not knowing is the hardest part," he said. "Even if I hear her say `I hate your guts,' that's fine. Call us and tell us that you hate us. We believe she's in a position where she can't (call) or whoever has her isn't allowing her."

    It's possible, Lopez said, that Leah has found herself with a violent pimp and can't make a connection with her family. Some girls, the detective adds, have had run-ins with some nasty men, and she suspects some might still be in such situations.

    It's also possible that Leah hitched a ride with a trucker to El Paso or California or some unknown town.

    "This is a highly transient population," said Lopez's supervisor, Lt. Beth Paiz.

    It's also possible Leah is dead. Lopez asks for DNA samples from the families of missing women, which are kept on hand for comparison to Jane Doe bodies found anywhere in the nation. Suspicion of foul play is listed on nearly all missing persons reports involving these women, because of what Lopez says is a high-risk lifestyle.

    John Peebles winces at this grim range of fates, left to only wonder which one has consumed his daughter.

    But he refuses to wait for a terrible phone call.

    Instead, Peebles and his wife, Leah's mother Sharon, traveled to Albuquerque from their home in Forth Worth, Texas, earlier this week. It was the family's sixth trip to search the city's streets for their daughter.

    Neither Leah nor her parents seem to fit there.

    After all, Leah grew up in a middle-class neighborhood. The couple - dad, a helicopter mechanic; mom, a homemaker and florist - have been married for 28 years.

    Sharon Peebles kept Leah sheltered, but she couldn't keep the world from intruding in a vicious way. Family members say Leah was molested by a distant relative while a young child. She was sexually attacked at the age of 14, her parents said, by an acquaintance.

    At that point, the parents said, Leah's future was bruised, if not broken.

    In that way, Lopez said, she shares a similarity with other missing women, almost all of whom survived some sort of assault and then became involved with drugs and alcohol.

    The wholesome-looking, blonde cheerleader started using drugs, harder and more potent ones as her high school years progressed. When Leah was 18, her parents sent her to a Christian counseling camp. But fresh out of rehab and back at home in Fort Worth, she relapsed into addiction.

    With hope that new surroundings would mean a new beginning, Leah moved to Albuquerque with some family friends.

    Though a skilled hairstylist, Leah pursued a job at the Flying Star restaurant in Nob Hill, where she fit in with young bohemians and funky hipsters.

    "When I left her (in Albuquerque) last May, we had a great parting. She was in good spirits and things were good between us," John Peebles said.

    Two weeks later, she didn't return from a date and had slipped into the city's shadows.

    On May 22, the father contacted Lopez, the Police Department's dedicated, albeit only, missing person's detective.

    Lopez helped them put together a missing person's flier using the picture John Peebles provided of Leah with highlighted light brown hair, clear bright skin and a shiny-lipped smile.

    APD receives about 125 reports a month on adults who are reported missing. Most turn up on their own, having been on a binge or an adventure. Lopez contacts many who say they don't want to be found for whatever reason and don't want their families to know.

    She tells concerned family, including the Peebles family, that this might be the case with Leah.

    John and Sharon don't want to hear it. They want to find their daughter and bring her home.

    But the the group of women Lopez calls "my girls" are especially problematic in tracking down.

    They've been handed a "hard lot in life" and live their life hard, she said.

    Some are from families who don't know how to care enough to report them missing and then follow through with updates, DNA samples and other information.

    Clearly, that does not describe the Peebles family. They've dedicated a MySpace.com page to Leah and their own MySpace pages to pleas for help. They've written to Albuquerque police Chief Ray Schultz and city councilors and Mayor Martin Chavez.

    Of the missing women in Lopez's group, only two others, Darlene Trujillo and Evelyn Salazar, have had family members reach out to the community for help.

    Families often find it hard to believe their missing loved one is involved with prostitution and drugs.

    But Lopez knows otherwise. Credible tips often lead her to local truck stops, where women sell sex for drugs. Some of those women tell the detective they've seen Leah.

    On Tuesday, Sharon and John Peebles prayed - then hit the spots that have turned up good leads in the past: homeless shelters, a truck stop, the area around Expo New Mexico.

    They handed out T-shirts they made up with a big picture of Leah and their cell phone number.

    "In case someone doesn't want to call police," Sharon Peebles said.

    "She's not in trouble; she is well loved. We just want to tell her we love her," the mother said to a group of homeless people gathered around her at St. Martin's Hospitality Center Downtown looking at the T-shirts she's passing out.

    One well-spoken, semi-toothless woman named Beth said she recognized the girl on the T-shirt.

    "Those eyes. Those eyes look familiar," Beth told Sharon.

    The woman thinks she saw Leah near Central Avenue and Wyoming Boulevard. The Peebles family has come to know the tip well; the intersection is well-known for prostitution and drug availability.

    One man at the TA Travel Center truck stop near the Big-I told the Peebles he recognized Leah from a cafe in El Paso.

    A believable tip?

    Hard to say. John and Sharon, from a comfortable life in the shelter of a Christian community, aren't sure what to believe.

    The father's tenderness and desperation have been easily recognized by those on the streets; in his first few trips to Albuquerque, he was an easy mark for the drug addicts and homeless people he was mining for information.

    "One guy said he hit her in the neck with a shot of heroine and that she was under the bridge," he said, remembering one of his first trips to Albuquerque. He gave the man $30.

    "Your heart," he said, "goes pitter-pattering."

    Peebles went crawling under the foul-smelling bridge. No Leah.

    Other possible sightings have seemed more reasonable. One prostitute told him that she recognized the girl in the picture and that she had cut her hair.

    The father said he knew that tip was real.

    A group of tips pointed to the possibility that Leah was with a violent pimp.

    Peebles spent that night on a previous trip in a nearby hotel dozing off behind a pair of binoculars watching for a glimpse of his baby girl wandering between the semis.

    No luck.

    On Friday, John and Sharon tracked down leads they got from a methadone clinic where a client said they knew Leah as "Pebbles" and that she's often seen at a 7-Eleven in Nob Hill.

    They walked the nearby streets Friday, peeking in yards and talking to countless strangers.

    John and Sharon said they vow to "exhaust every avenue until we have no more to exhaust."

    Lopez, too, is putting force behind finding Leah and her other girls.

    She said she believes Leah has surfaced to law enforcement twice.

    Shortly after she was reported missing, Lopez was driving near Candelaria Road and Fourth Street Northwest when she saw a young woman walking. Though the girl did not look like the Leah in the picture provided by her father, Lopez's instinct told her to check the girl out.

    By the time she made the U-turn, the girl was gone.

    Lopez later acquired more pictures from the family, including a mug shot from Leah's 2006 arrest in Fort Worth on drug charges.

    "That was her. I know it was," Lopez said. "That's why I always tell them (the reporting person) that it's not a judgment call but I need the right information."

    John Peebles now has provided more pictures. Leah's hairstyling skills are obvious in her many looks - some with a modest bob, others with short spiked black or red hair.

    It was likely one of the grungier looks that Albuquerque police noticed in a prostitute they stopped this February or March near Central and Wyoming.

    "She didn't have any drugs on her and she was on her own," Lopez said, adding that she told the family that Leah doesn't seem under someone's control during their trip earlier this week.

    That possibility allays some fears for the Peebles family, who've fretted over the idea that their daughter is being hurt by someone who won't let her go.

    It also kills a bit of hope. If Leah were under someone's control, then there is a reason she hasn't called her parents. If she's on her own, her unwillingness to communicate becomes more confusing - and heartbreaking.

    The search has strained the Peebles family bank account, their bodies and their time. They walk the streets of a foreign city, wondering, wishing, hoping for that one miraculous glance of the girl they love.

    "She probably thinks we're better off not knowing, less trouble to us," Sharon Peebles said, rifling through a a new batch of missing persons posters. "But that's not true. Being in the dark is what we can't deal with."

    "We're starting to come to terms with that, that she might not want to be found," John Peebles said.

    It's a hard fact for him to hear. It's even harder because he's the one saying it.

    http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/sep/15/hopeful-wary-parents-search-albuquerque-streets-th/


  6. #6
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    Her dad died in August in a motorcycle accident :(


    http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/can...&pid=166314836

    John Daniel
    Peebles
    55, of Fort Worth, Texas, passed away Aug. 5, 2013. After turning 18, he moved to Texas and attended Southwestern Assemblies University. He worked as a valet. He was born on May 17, 1958 in Canton to Nancy S. Peebles (McLean). John was married to Sharon McDowell on Aug. 4, 1979. He worked at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.
    He is survived by his wife, Sharon in marriage of 34 years. His children, Leah Rachelle Peebles; his sons, Philip and Seth Andrew Peebles and his two grandchildren; his mother, Nancy Sue Peebles; his sister, Linda L. Medley and her husband, Harry A. Medley; brother, David R. Peebles and his wife, Vicki-Hoch Peebles; biological father, Bob Carnes. Also we would like to mention other people and relatives who loved John. He is preceded in death by his father, Daniel Leroy Peebles.
    A memorial service will be held Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013 at 4 p.m. in the Community Room at Stone Crossing Nursing Home, 836 34th St. NW, Canton, OH 44709.

  7. #7
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    That's awful. He never found out what happened. She really was a beautiful girl






  8. #8
    Administrator Olivia's Avatar
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    The Disappeared episode made me really sad today. He was talking about how he drove her from Texas to New Mexico and stayed while she got settled. He left enough money for her to survive for a few months but she called him very soon after asking for money. He said he then mailed her the last cash he had in his pocket - $25.

  9. #9
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    The sad truth is, there's not so many dad's who'd do what he did & the world is a worse place every time someone like him is lost.

    The details attached to the pic above are gone, I'm pretty sure it's them together after checking other links but I'm not 100%. Someone who knows pm me & I'll take it down if it's wrong or delete this msg if it's right. Thanx in advance guys
    Last edited by blighted star; 10-02-2013 at 05:01 AM.

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