23-year-old Leah Rachelle Peebles was last seen in Albuquerque, New Mexico on May 22, 2006. She disappeared after going on a date with a man to the Flying Star Cafe, a popular eatery in Albuquerque.
Background
Leah Rachelle Peebles was born on January 16, 1983, in Fort Worth, Texas, to parents Sharon McDowell and John Daniel Peebles.
Peebles grew up with her two brothers in a middle-class Christian home in Fort Worth, Texas. As a toddler, she was molested by a distant relative. When she turned fourteen, she was again raped by a family friend.
Peebles attended Carter-Riverside High School where she was an honor student. She was a member of the drama club, active as a cheerleader, and was a yearbook staff member.
Subsequent to her childhood trauma, Peebles began abusing drugs and alcohol during her sophomore year, and ended up dropping out of all her extracurricular activities.
At age eighteen, Peebles went into a drug and alcohol treatment program at Fort Worth Teen Challenge, a Christian-based residential treatment center for women. She graduated with a cosmetology license after 21 months, and started working at a beauty salon.
Peebles soon relapsed and turned to drugs and alcohol again. She served two short jail sentences for a string of minor drug offenses, and was fired from her job at the beauty salon following the second arrest.
On May 5, 2006, Peeebles decided to move from Fort Worth to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in hopes of getting a new start in life and breaking free from her drug and alcohol addictions.
At the time of her disappearance she was living with friends on 2100 Erbbe Street Northeast in Albuquerque, and was set to begin working at the Flying Star Cafe on 8001 Menaul Boulevard Northeast the following week.
Disappearance
On May 22, 2006, Peebles left her friend’s home at approximately 8:00 pm for a dinner date with a man she had met at the Flying Star Cafe, a popular eatery in Albuquerque with police and courthouse employees.
Later in the evening, Peebles dropped her car off at a local transmission shop after getting into a traffic accident. The area was known for drugs and prostitution. Peebles never returned to her friend’s apartment that night, and has never been heard from again.
Several weeks after she went missing, her vehicle, a silver 2000 Volkswagen Beetle sedan, was reported abandoned.
Investigation
Police investigated a tip reporting a woman known as “Mia” who worked as a prostitute for a pimp, identified as “A.J.”, who allegedly supplied her with crack cocaine. Investigators questioned the man but could not find any evidence to link the alleged pimp in California to Peebles.
Whereabouts
Police found no evidence, means or motive for foul play in Leah Rachelle Peebles’s disappearance.
Over the years her father traveled across Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada in hopes of finding her whereabouts. He died in a motorcycle accident on August 5, 2013, never knowing what happened to his daughter.
The circumstances of Leah Rachelle Peebles’s disappearance remain unclear and her case is currently classified as missing. Her case remains unsolved.
Appearance
Physical Description:
Caucasian female. Brown hair with blue eyes. Often dyes hair black, red, or blonde. She is 5’4” tall and weighs 105 pounds.
Distinctive Physical Features:
She wears eyeglasses and contact lenses, but was only carrying a two-week disposable pair of contacts at the time of her disappearance. She has numerous piercings in her left ear, a double piercing in her right ear, a piercing in the left upper lid and a piercing in her tongue.
She has a scar on her right nostril, the upper part of her right ear and on her left eyebrow from previous piercings. She has a scrolled flower design tattoo in black ink on her upper back and a Celtic cross tattoo in black ink on her lower back.
Clothing and accessories:
Leah has thick gauge steel hoop earrings. The clothing she was wearing on the night she disappeared is unknown, but she usually wears t-shirts, jeans and sandals.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Leah Rachelle Peebles please contact the Albuquerque Police Department (505) 242-2677.
