He Was So Obsessed With This Little Girl That Finally Killed Her — Reachelle Smith

Reachelle Marie Smith was born on September 10, 2002 in Minot, a city in North Dakota. From an unknown father Samantha, her mother, had her when she was only 18 years old and that she did not feel ready to take care of a baby.

For this reason, the girl decided to give Reachelle’s custody to her older sister Stephanie, since she was convinced that she could offer her daughter a much more stable environment. Even so, Samantha got as involved as much as she could in her daughter’s life.

In 2006 Reachelle, 3 years old, was very happy and like any other. A girl of her age enjoyed playing and singing her favorite songs. What all those who loved her could least imagine was that she would have a very short life.

The facts:

On the night of May 16, 2006, Stephanie was watching TV on the couch. Next to her was Reachelle hugging her deeply asleep wrist.

At about 1 a.m., Leigh Cowan, Stephanie’s roommate who occupied the basement, arrived at the house. The 22-year-old boy sat on the couch to watch TV with her and after several minutes the young woman went up to her room to go to sleep.

Stephanie didn’t want to wake Reachelle up so she left her sleeping on the couch next to Leigh. From there she never saw her niece again.

The next morning Stephanie woke up and went to the living room to see if Reachelle was still sleeping, but to her surprise there was no trace of her.

Before panicking, she asked Leigh about her niece, to which he told her not to worry because that morning her mother had gone home early to pick up the girl and take care of her for a few days.

With this response, Stephanie was quite relieved.

It seems that Ellen Loomies, Leigh’s mother, lived at Minot Air Force Base and often took care of Reachelle. That’s why it didn’t seem strange to Stephanie that the woman took the girl to be with her. To this it must be added that Ellen treated Reachelle like her own granddaughter because Leigh told her that she was her biological father.

In order for you to understand this story, it is important to mention that Leigh, Stephanie and Samantha had been friends for years. When Reachelle was born, the boy told everyone that he was the father, and although it was not true, the sisters never contradicted him.

Also Leigh loved the girl very much and she loved him, so there was nothing wrong with letting the boy pretend that he was her father.

That’s why when she told Stephanie that Reachelle would be with her mother for a few days, she believed him because she had no reason not to do it.

However, after 5 days without news of Ellen and Reachelle, Stephanie began to worry and her fears increased when Leigh suddenly disappeared.

Missing:

On May 22, Stephanie woke up and saw that her truck was not parked where it always was.

In the kitchen she found a note from Leigh that said that he had borrowed it to go buy cigarettes and that he would return right away, but he never returned. Seeing that things were going from bad to worse, the young woman told her sister Samantha about the situation, since after all she was the girl’s mother. Desperate, they called the Minot police department to ask for help.

The first thing the agents did was talk to Leigh’s mother and there they discovered something that left everyone shocked... Weeks before the events the woman had moved to Kansas. Therefore she had not taken the girl to take care of her. In addition, during the conversation with the agents, Ellen learned that she was not Reachelle’s biological grandmother and that her son had been lying to her all the time.

“I don’t know the story. I wish I knew, it would be much easier for me. I just want you to find her. That’s all I want.” - Statements by Ellen Loomies

The agents immediately issued an amber alert to find the whereabouts of Reachelle. With the information that Stephanie had given them and Leigh’s escape, they were convinced that the boy had retained the girl.

It must be said that at this point everyone was assaulted by a doubt and it was where Leigh had had the girl during the 5 days he said she was with her mother. Maybe he had an accomplice.

The family expected Reachelle to be safe somewhere and that Leigh would take care of her since he had always treated her like a daughter.

However, as the agents delved deeper into the boy’s life, they feared more for the little girl’s well-being.

The agents discovered that Leigh was on probation for a robbery, but months before the disappearance he skipped some of the conditions he had imposed so they issued an arrest warrant against him. The boy was facing 18 months in prison and was desperate.

Police chief Dan Dravovitch told the media that before Reachelle disappeared, Leigh had taken dozens of photographs of the girl to be able to take them to jail with him. It is not clear if Stephanie or Samantha knew about this, but for the researchers this obsession with the girl was disturbing.

Unfortunately, one day after Leigh’s disappearance, something happened that no one expected.

On May 23, the police found the truck in which Leigh had fled parked on a remote road of the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge, an hour north of Minot. Inside was the boy’s lifeless body. Days later, the autopsy determined that he had died after inhaling carbon monoxide voluntarily.

The investigators checked the vehicle thoroughly to find any clues that could take them to Reachelle, but they found nothing, not even a note Leigh in which he explained what he had done with her.

Now they only had to expand the search area and pray for Reachelle to be alive.

Looking for Reachelle:

In the following days, both the national guard and several search teams were thoroughly used to find the whereabouts of the little girl. The starting point was the place where the van with Leigh’s body appeared. They were also joined by horse riders and off-road vehicles that covered more than 2000 acres, however, despite the efforts, they found no trace of it.

The Minot police sent diving equipment to the Souris River because it was very close to the house where Stephanie lived with Reachelle, but without success. Police captain Al Hanson stated the following:

“There is a section of the river that interests us because it is close to the house. We have navigated it, we have walked it and we have submerged it. We just have to go one step further to make sure that the box has been marked, that we have done everything possible to see that particular area.”

And the thing didn’t stop here because another team was dedicated to searching the city’s landfill, as well as the forests and parks following all the clues that reached them.

“Let’s go where the tests take us. We are not going to leave any sheets unturned. We are not going to close the door to other suspects.” Statements by Al Hanson.

To get an idea of how involved everyone was, retired agents, out of service and volunteers also participated in the search for the girl because everyone was convinced that they were going to find her.

The investigators tested new tactics such as talking to behavioral scientists in the FBI and local psychics. Not to mention that they followed all kinds of clues no matter how crazy they might seem.

The weeks and months passed without news from Raechelle, yet Stephanie and Samantha had the hope that she would be alive. Especially because they thought Leigh had an accomplice who was taking care of the girl.

“I still have nothing but hope. My instinct is that it is alive and someone has it and they are hiding it. It’s only a matter of time before we find it.” - Samantha Smith’s statements-

But for the agents, Leigh was solely responsible for the disappearance, which was even more discouraging.

The truth:

Although the years passed without news from Reachelle, the researchers continued to track all kinds of clues. In 2009 they published a photograph of what the girl would be like at 7 years old, and in 2020 they published another where it was shown what she would be like at 18.

However, in May 2021, that is, 15 years after Reachelle’s disappearance, the case took a radical turn when the Mintot police announced that they knew what had happened to the girl.

At a press conference, police chief John Klug stated that they had overwhelming evidence that Reachelle had been killed by Leigh Cowen in May 2006. After this, he revealed a timeline that included information that had never been made known to the public.

According to the researchers, on May 16, 2006, Leigh Cowen went out at night to celebrate her birthday with some friends. At about 1 in the morning he returned to the house he shared with Stephanie drunk and started watching TV with her while Reachelle slept on the sofa next door.

When Stephanie went to bed, the researchers believe that Leigh ended Reachelle’s life, although they do not know the exact circumstances of her death.

Some time later they learned from a neighbor that during the early morning Reachelle was crying. This man was so worried that he knocked on the door of the house but no one answered him.

The agents also said that a few hours later this neighbor saw Leigh arrive in Stephanie’s van and that from there he unloaded a red refrigerator.

That same day another neighbor saw Leigh with garbage bags and acting strangely. To this he added that not only was he unusually distant but clearly tried to avoid eye contact with him.

During the initial investigation, the detectives recovered the red refrigerator and discovered that it contained rags and a bottle of ammonia, as if someone had been trying to clean it. As you can imagine, the agents sent everything to the laboratory for analysis.

Some time later and thanks to technological advances, they learned that the refrigerator had “a substantial amount of Reachelle’s blood,” especially in the hinge. From the amount of blood in the refrigerator, it was clear that it had been seriously injured.

According to the researchers, when Leigh ended the life of Reachelle put her body in the red fridge, put it in Stephanie’s truck and got rid of it in an unknown place.

Captain Jason Sundbakken told reporters that the police dogs tracked the smell of Reachelle from the house to the river canal, the same one they later searched for and drained.

Captain Sundbakken also talked about the 6 days that passed since Reachelle disappeared until the complaint was filed. For them, those days were key because they could have had access to Leigh and get an answer about the whereabouts of the girl. But unfortunately the boy took advantage of the trust that Stephanie had in him to buy time with deceptions.

Although the researchers’ timeline is very clear, there are two things that baffle them... One is why Leigh Cowan ended Reachelle’s life and the other is why he did with her body.

After the police press conference, Reachelle’s family decided not to talk to the media about the case again and thus be able to cry in privacy.

Chief Klug expressed his wishes for the family, saying the following:

“We always hoped that everything would end differently. Our job is to offer hope and closure to families so that they can continue to restore their lives as a result of the tragedy.”

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