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Lea Porter · Justice For

• JusticeFor: Every 40 seconds, someone goes missing in America. Approximately 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day. And there are as many as 90,000 active missing persons cases in the United States at any given time. As of the end of 2024, the FBI National Crime Information Center, the NCIC, had 25,493 active missing persons records for juveniles under the age of 18. For the entire year of 2024, there were 349,557 reports of missing youth centered, or I'm sorry, missing youth entered into the NCIC system. In what year? 2024. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Welcome back to another episode of Justice For. We are your host. I'm Jackie. And I'm Sam. Let me guess, today is a missing person. don't think that's right. Okay. I'm just kidding. ⁓ case was actually brought to us by a jury member and Justice For listener, Katie. Thank you so, much for sending this over to us. ⁓ sorry it took so long to get to it. We've been busy, lots is going on. Also, as soon as I started diving into this case, what the fuck? Apparently your description was very simple. It was. I kind of want you to read the description. I'll read it afterwards. And then I'll message you, Katie. Anyway, thank you again so, much for submitting a case to us. If you are interested, you are not Katie and you are, mean Katie, please feel free to do it again. Katie, thank you for being like a day one listener. You have been here since day one. You've commented, you've been very active in social media and other stuff. You've bought merch. I just wish you lived closer so you could come to our lives. Yes, queen. But yeah, so thank you so much for your support from the beginning and we're sorry it took so long to get to your case submission, but here it is. Yeah. But if you are interested in submitting a case, Katie, you can submit another one if you really want to, feel free to submit a case at justiceforpodcast.com. ⁓ You can go to Case Domissions, put all the information in, easy peasy. You can also buy merch while you're on our website and tickets to our live show, which is gonna be on April 16th at Voodoo Brewing. You do not have to buy a ticket. It is $20 and you get a reserved seat in the front row, maybe two rows, I don't know, but we're actually planning We have a little section around us. Yeah. And you also get a gift bag with a cool... We have cool gifts that are definitely worth it. Uh-huh. We're gonna have a merch for sale. We're gonna have some other stuff for sale ⁓ The show starts at 6 p.m. We're only gonna take about like an hour hour and a half so you can still get home for work tomorrow ⁓ There's great food great drinks where we're gonna be at so great people that work there. Yes It's a wonderful local business to support and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Again, you do not have to buy a ticket to be there It is open to the public. We're not shutting the joint down But if you don't want to have to worry about getting there to grab a seat and you don't want to pay extra for stuff that we have there, buy your ticket. Pretty much. Pretty much. But with that, go follow us on all of our socials. You know the drill. So today, I am telling you about Leigh Porter. Leigh is spelled L-E-A, so it's not Leah. It's just Leigh. I like that. Yeah. Lee was 19 years old when she disappeared from Westminster, Colorado on June 3rd of 2014. She had gone to visit someone and according to him, she left after an argument. The problem is, absolutely nothing about that story made sense, and eventually, her brother Max would be the one to get the truth out of him. Why do they always say they just left after an argument? I don't know. Like, can we not think of anything else? So ⁓ now, before I get into what happened, I want to talk about Lee for a second. OK. Lee Chally Porter was born on December 28, 1994 to ⁓ Renee Jackson and her biological who not be named. Sperm donor? Mm-hmm. Renee and he who shall not be named went through a really messy divorce when Lee and her brother Max, double X, were really young. They also have no contact with him, so I'm not gonna give him any more attention. Sounds great to me. Absolutely great. Mm-hmm. Max is Lee's older brother, and honestly, they have the best relationship. Like, you know how close I am with Alicia, and I know how close you are with Jen. It's like that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love this. Mm-hmm. He was the typical older brother, protective and supportive. Lee followed him everywhere and wanted to be just like him. She called him her hero. Max says, quote, we did everything together, listened to the same music, did the same things, fought like brother and sister all the time, end quote. I love that. Like, they, I say this a little bit later, but they would go to raves together. I know whenever she showed me pictures before this, she shows me this picture and you guys are gonna see, don't know if you're gonna see right Yeah, I'll put it out now. has her arms stacked with cuffs and candy. So in the rave world, if you remember from Kevin Graves' episode from Electric Forest, little candy kids, so we make a lot of braids. I'm a little raver. I'm literally wearing an excision strip right now for this episode, okay? It's true. So you at festivals and raves, give out what is called candy. And for the rest of the world, Taylor Swift branded it friendship bracelets, but we had it first. Okay. I'm a Swifty. Y'all know that. But ⁓ people can make really cool giant cuffs. Like my little sister does this. She's actually given me a whole bunch. I'm actually going to EDC, which is one of the biggest, ⁓ actually I am going to the largest EDM festival next month in May. at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So I know that I would have absolutely been best friends. also some of these pictures were taken when I first was a baby in like the Denver rave scene. And so I'm so curious if me and her actually were like at a decadence or a caffeine together. I didn't know it. I have no doubt. Because I was looking at the dates on this Facebook post and I'm like, we were raving at the same time in Denver. Like I wonder if we were at the same shows. Yeah. I have no doubt in my mind. I still have some of my candy from my rave days. So they would rave together and ⁓ Max said that ⁓ because she was always with him. she was friends with his friends. ⁓ I love that. Apparently we're really ahead of the game and we know exactly what I was gonna write because I said I didn't have a good place to put this but she was a raver. And she was a candy queen. She made tons of candy to trade with people and I love that because that's exactly what we did. So look at us. ⁓ So in 2006 they to a small mountain town community, like the community of Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi. Colorado. Why not? I feel like I've heard of this place. I'll explain why right now. Cotopaxi is actually an unincorporated town and has a population of 44. Is it on the way out of Colorado like if you drive through like Kansas and stuff that way? Is it one of those towns on the way out that way? No ma'am. I'm explaining more. Did you hear that though? Population of 44 as of the 2020 census. One of the unincorporated towns. I've always wondered about people who there. This town, my beautiful people, is part of the Canyon City area. ⁓ that's why I know where it is. Which, if you don't remember our episode about Candace Hiltz, she also lived in Canyon City. It's about 33 miles west of Canyon City and 25 miles southeast of Salida. This also happens to be right in the middle of a lovely place that's called Prison Valley. Prison Valley is known for having one of the highest concentrations of correctional facilities in the U.S. with 13 to 15 prisons, which include a Supermax, the ADX Florence, which is also called the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Yep. So there's a lot of it. Roughly 20 to 38 % of the local population is incarcerated. making the prison industry the dominant economic and cultural force. This concerned Renee a little bit when she heard about it, but then she saw that both of the kids were making new friends at their school. Their home was super pleasant. It was a good place for them. a good place. So like, just be a little cautious. In 2013, Lee graduated from high school and Max ended up graduating from Trinidad State with a degree in massage therapy. He ended up moving to California to pursue building. like a massage therapy business. And Lee wanted to follow in his footsteps to get a massage therapy degree as well so they could start a business together. I love that. So she actually ended up going to Trinidad State as well, like straight up following his footsteps. And what was their age difference again? So if he's graduating college and she just graduated high school, he was most likely, age difference wise, I would say like two and a half years. ⁓ not like four Because like my sister was a senior and I was a freshman. that makes that tracks. Yeah, I'd say in that. OK. Yeah. Unfortunately. Once Max moved away, really struggled to adjust to school life and just being alone without her brother because they were attached at hip. Everyone said they were attached at the hip. That sometimes happens with twins. Yeah. know, who decide to go to different colleges or one wants two. And yeah, I can definitely see that. But she missed her family. She... Super depressed so she ended up like secretly dropping out of college and Got involved with the wrong crowd and I it's you're at Trinidad so I'm not If you live in Colorado you understand that statement. There's there's pockets of Colorado that you're like Yeah, all right that tracks. Actually, at the ripe age of 18, Lee met a guy named Jesse and they started dating. Jesse was a tattoo artist and they just clicked when they first met. Lee told Max about Jesse and he was obviously concerned. She urged Max not to say anything to their mom about him. But why was he concerned? Like he's a tattoo artist and just met somebody else? Why aren't we telling the parents? He was 38 years old. Oh, well. He was 20 years older than her. Yeah. Okay. Yep. ⁓ yeah. So my husband's almost 38 years old and he would not have the patience for an 18 year old. No. No. ⁓ yuck. Yeah. Isn't that disgusting sounding? And also considering like our kid is almost 13. So therefore that would be. ⁓ yuck. Yeah. That's yeah. ⁓ I didn't even think about. Put that in perspective. That would be like Mike dating, dating an 18 year old right now. Yuck! Yeah. Men are gross. Disgusting. Max said that Lee told him that Jesse lied about his age at first, but later on he ended up telling her. If you got to lie about the age, just don't do it. Still gross. When the relationship started is when she started to skip classes, to spend all of her waking hours with this guy who she loves so much. Mm-hmm. Lee also told Max that she was scared of Jesse and his short temper. I don't like that. He also used drugs, hard ones on top of it. With that being said, Lee started struggling with a heroin addiction. ⁓ no. Pieced together how that happened. ⁓ Mm-hmm. And I do not want to say that in some kind of like weird judgmental way because that's not what this is. Like it's just part of her story. ⁓ Like, okay, so she was young. She was in a really hard place. Like, I mean, we've all been there. We were We were naive. Yeah. And I made some questionable decisions as did I at that age with who I dated and other things of that nature. mean, I get it. She was young, she was impressionable, she didn't her brother with her. Yeah. She's in Trinidad. ⁓ I mean, When you're already in that place and you have somebody much older, they can be very influential and make things seem okay. And it's not as much as it is or bad as it is. I'm speaking from experience here. And so I, I understand how she got in that situation. do have empathy for that sympathy because been there, done that, wrote the book, got the t-shirt. You and I were literally that age together and we made questionable decisions together at that time. It was a very good thing that I met my husband. I agree. You're welcome. Yes, thank you so much. And also just a good thing that we met. Yes, yes it is. Even though we did questionable things together, we still have each other. We did. We did them safely together. Yes, we did. Yes, we did. Anyhow, so then she ended up actually making a very concerning post on Facebook in May of 2014. And it said, quote, some nights I can't sleep. I end up staying up. all night thinking of all the things in my life I picked up. You think after trying really hard to get back up on my feet and actually doing it, I'd be proud of myself. But nope, I simply can't get out of this state of depression. I would love it if someone would talk to me right now, but with an open mind and heart." quote. Man, I miss the days of just pouring your heart out onto Facebook. It asks what you're feeling. My gosh. Yeah, so her DMs after that post were actually filled with people reaching out to her ⁓ and just like trying to help her. But I'm gonna touch back on this shortly. Okay. ⁓ I promise. ⁓ So she actually would text Max and her mom frequently, still being positive, like the positive and upbeat person that she was. They would always just respond with love and support to show that they're always gonna be there for her. She was the typical 19 year old in the 2010s. She took mirror pictures of herself, threw up the peace sign whenever she could. I still do that frequently. I have no shame. She also posted pictures of herself on Facebook. with cryptic song lyrics. Love it. Wonderful. I just love her. I love her to bits. She was honestly just a social butterfly. And if she wasn't texting someone, she'd be posting on Facebook. Very typical of what we were doing during those years all the time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I still do it now. Yeah. Old habits die hard. One day, she messaged Max to let him know that she and Jesse actually broke up. and that she was trying to find a job and start her recovery. But then on March 3rd, 2014, Lee texted Renee telling her she loved her and hoped she was doing okay. She told her that she was trying to get her life back together and Renee responded and told her that she loved her. Unfortunately, this is the last time she would speak to her daughter. On the same day, Max texted her Offering to help send or to send her money to help her but she did not respond a Couple of days went by and there were no texts calls or even Facebook posts and people grew very suspicious Very quickly. Well, yeah, cuz she was constantly posting and constantly in touch with everybody. Correct max Frantically started calling Renee on June 5th Telling her that something was wrong because he hadn't been able to get ahold of Leah for a couple of days He said he would call, hang up, call, hang up, call, hang up, like just over and over and over again. They started panicking, panicking, panicking. Leigh may have been struggling with life, but she was not a strong, silent type. So everyone knew that something was fucking wrong. Renee was still paying for Leigh's phone at this time, so she was able to get access to her phone records. We love a mama bear, I'll tell you that now. We do. She looked at the most recent numbers and started calling them. This is when she landed on a number that belonged to a motel. ⁓ So she called them and they told her that Lee stayed at the motel June 2nd, but she wasn't alone. She was staying with a man named Jesse. ⁓ her boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend. ⁓ The ex-boyfriend, that's crazy. Okay. ⁓ Uh-huh. By this time, Renee had already filed a persons report and she ended up calling the police to tell them about ⁓ what the motel people said about Jesse. ⁓ the police brought him in for questioning he tells them that when they broke up, it was actually super emotional, but he ended up packing up and moving out. ⁓ And that's when she told him he was planning, or I'm sorry, that she was planning on moving to Denver. He was planning on moving like South Carolina or something like that. Okay. To be with his family and try to start his own recovery process. He told them that the last time he saw her was in the parking lot of the motel they were staying in. She told him that she was planning on crashing with some friends, whatever. But after their breakup, before the motel, meet up. They weren't texting. They weren't calling. It wasn't like ⁓ we broke up, but we're still talking and stuff. Yeah, it wasn't that. He said connection stopped until that one day. Okay, I mean, not unheard of. Yeah. He said he wasn't really worried about her and she like she was just really got it. Figuring things out. And she probably already got over him. So that's what he felt. ⁓ Yeah. Okay. According to the police, he had a strong alibi, even though I cannot find out exactly what it was. I don't know, they ultimately ended up ⁓ eliminating him as a suspect. ⁓ Okay. ⁓ Has just like never been released? I know like we don't any stuff, but like did they just never a transcript of his ⁓ interview or anything like that? Not that I could personally find. Okay. But also at point, they don't ⁓ know if a crime was committed. She's just missing. Valid. So during all of this, Max actually flew back from California and a lot of her friends and his friends made missing posters and started hanging them up everywhere. And those are the ones that you showed me, right? Correct. Friends reached out to Max and Renee and told them that we had been getting clean and really turning her life around. She just didn't want to tell them. because quote, Lee was afraid that Max would hate her, end quote. But they knew that she wouldn't just have run away without calling Max and talking to him, her best fucking friend. Yeah, like she could hide things from him, but she wouldn't just up and quit talking to him or leave or not have any communication. I'm messing up just a little bit through here. So Renee, you'll find out in a little bit, she didn't know that she was on drugs. Renee had no idea. Well, yeah, obviously she kept it from Max, so she's going to keep it from her mom. And so Max was finding out from friends. Renee still didn't know. You'll find out when she finds out. mean, from personal experience, I tell my sister everything. I did not tell my parents everything. Same. But at that time in my life that we've already referenced, I didn't tell them about that. So I get it. I get it. understand that there are just some things that no matter how open you are with family members or people that you're just not going to tell them certain things. It's true. It's true. It's true. So I don't fault her for not saying anything about that. I agree. I agree. So Renee continued to go through Lee's socials and her phone records and noticed that there was another name and number that just kept coming up frequently. This person commented on every single one of Lee's posts and pictures and some of the comments were pretty much like that guy who, you know, like always messages you like, hey, hey, hello, can I ask you a question? And then when you don't respond to him, one day he ran to me and he's like, fuck you, you bitch, hate you. Yeah, okay. It was just like a bit too friendly, you Okay. But the number was out of Westminster, Colorado. And being the badass fucking person Renee is, She straight up called that number and was like, quote, this is Renee Jackson. I'm Lee Porter's mother and I'm looking for my daughter. What's your connection with her? And so I'm starting to understand why Lee didn't tell her mom about because I feel like Renee is one of those people who would have drove and thrown her ass in the car and been like, well, guess who's going to rehab a list of rehabs, pick one. And if you don't pick one, that's what I shall pick one and drive there. So Go off Renee. Love you. That's totally, totally valid. I don't remember, I don't think I put it in here, but they had a stepdad as well and he was pretty great. Okay. He was a pretty good guy. I gotta point that out. I don't actually know his first name, but we talk about him a little bit later. Okay. I just call him Mr. Jackson. That's fine. Cause that feels right for what... So... On the other end of the line was Christopher Wade. He told Renee that he went to high school with Lee and Max and he was her accountability partner for her recovery. Okay. Wait, who the fuck is Christopher Wade? Yeah, that's what I was waiting for. Other than her accountability for getting clean. Yeah. So Christopher Wade, who was 23 at the time that this happened, grew up in Colorado. And from what people who knew him have said about him, he lived a pretty typical life, structured, pretty set in stone. know, there isn't a lot publicly available about his childhood specifically, like family dynamics, early behavioral issues, but everything that is documented points towards someone who blended in pretty well rather than stand out in a crowd. Okay. In high school, Chris was described as a good student and was involved in activities like choir and drama. He was also very open about how he loved tarot cards and being a fortune teller. Interesting. Yeah. Didn't see that coming. ⁓ huh. Yeah. After graduating high school, he made the decision to enlist in the military, joining the U.S. Army. All right. Mm hmm. Where he worked as a helicopter mechanic. The, this kind of role like requires a decent level of discipline and like technical skill, the ability to follow structure systems. And that kind of like reinforces of what he's capable of and like being able to function in environments that demand responsibility and attention to detail. Yeah. He served for about two years before returning to civilian life. After leaving the army, Chris enrolled in college and this is essentially where we're at. during our story. Got you. Okay. Cool. he's in college. He's currently in college. So the Facebook post that I mentioned? ⁓ I I was going to come back to you? Yeah. We're coming back to her right now. Sounds good. Uh-huh. ⁓ Chris one of the many people that reached out to her trying to help her, and he invited her to his apartment. ⁓ Uh-huh. He tells Renee that they spent the day of June 3rd together, ⁓ but decided not to stay the night because they weren't really that close. He said that while she was at his place, she got a text and just left very suddenly. He was very polite and friendly and actually sounded very concerned for her. This was also the very first time he heard about Lee being missing at all. Interesting. When he mentioned that he was Lee's accountability partner, that was actually the very first time Renee had learned that Lee was having any problems with drugs. So. Okay then. After they hung up the phone, Chris ended up joining in on the search and even posted on Facebook multiple times looking for her and having people keep an eye out for her. He was very active in that. He even went above and beyond and went on the news to talk about the day he spent with her and pled for her safe return. I don't like that. I'm gonna let you watch that clip right now. Ooh yay! Who the fuck was that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those were all really weird statements. And when you put them together, it doesn't make them better. If you put them separately, it doesn't make them better. Yeah. I don't like any of that. For my people watching, did you see also how his eyes kept darting around? Like he wasn't sure where to look? Yeah. it seems just like weird and like off to me personally. and at one point he actually tried to like gain sympathy for himself by acting like, ⁓ I'm this helpful, supportive, close friend of hers, but also was blaming her for leaving and all this stuff. Yeah. It, it's just weird. It's so weird. Renee and Max actually watched this interview live on KCNC Denver News 7 and they both felt what you're probably feeling right now. Ick. Yeah, but like worse since I didn't show you the entire thing. So ick, it felt off. They knew something was wrong. So they asked the police to talk to him. OK. The police bring him in for an interview to talk to him since he was apparently the last person to see Leah live. He was very calm and respectful during the interview. He told them exactly what I told you before about the Facebook posts and the messages and how they spent June 3rd together. He told them how they got some food and she came back to his place, played some video games and ended up leaving since they weren't really that close of friends. He told them she got a text message and left suddenly. He watched her get into a white pickup truck and that was the last he ever saw her. Okay. The police decided to investigate more into a few things since they felt like he was hiding something and like holding something back. First, they looked around the apartment complex and her car was found there, but she was nowhere to be found. Inside of her vehicle, they found all of her belongings from her college dorm, but there was no blood, no DNA, nothing like that. Nothing nefarious happened in her vehicle. Okay. So. Unfortunately, it was a dead end, minus it being found at his complex, but that makes the argument for her leaving with someone else stronger. They also decided to dig into his background a little bit more, and this is where they learned that Chris was discharged from the army for violent behavior. Uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah. He told psychiatrists that he had fantasies of raping and killing women. What the fuck, Sam? I don't control the weather, Jackie. Okay, continue. The cops confronted him with this information, and he just said he keeps his fantasy separate from his real life. Oh, is that right? That's crazy. Um, yeah. I these are insight thoughts. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. Well, then it was discovered that he tried to kidnap a girl in high school. but was scared off by a dog and he ran away. on, I also forgot to mention that as soon as he was discharged, ⁓ decided to pursue a degree in criminal justice to become a police officer. ⁓ ultimately, ⁓ had been dreaming about killing a woman for many years. It's like he opened up the FBI BAU handbook and used it as a fricking checklist. Like, swear, like, do you want to know how to confuse a profiler? It's this, because he's like taking on like seven different profiles. Yeah. I hate to tell you guys, though, they couldn't keep him. They had nothing to hold him. No, like he... Yeah, there's... You're suspicious as fuck and you're weird as shit, but yeah. So seven days after she went missing with permission from Chris, the police went and searched his apartment. They said it was so filthy and that the smell was so horrendous that cops actually had a hard time staying in the apartment for the duration of the search. It was littered with video games everywhere, soda bottles, trash. clothes, leftover food, and dishes were just spread across the floor. Gross. ⁓ huh. They said the bedroom was the worst of all of that. Yuck! But in the bedroom, they found a few questionable items. Firstly, they found a duffel bag in plain sight, full of women's size 14 underwear. Wait, like a whole duffel bag? Yeah. Like, we talking like an army duffel bag or we talking like a gym duffel bag? Just like packed full or just like? I take that back. Not a gym. Not a gym. Army. Army duffel bag. an all 14? Yeah. Did we order in bulk? They started to empty out the duffel bag and Chris started panicking. and told them that he was like, whoa, those are for me. I bought the underwear for myself. He said he felt more comfortable in women's underwear. Right. Right. Does he look like he wears a size 14 underwear? I mean, they're all the same size. I mean, you saw him. He's tall and skinny as shit. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Next, they noticed that the bed had no sheets or pillowcases on them and had a very large stain on it that looked like it had been cleaned with bleach. That's suspicious. Uh-huh, uh-huh. They were like, what's that, brother? And he was like, Lee got a nosebleed. So he took the sheets off and put them in the hamper. A nosebleed? A nosebleed, yeah. He couldn't have at least said she started her period in the middle of the night? You know what? Hold on to this, OK? When they asked him to show him the sheets, he claimed that Lee took them with her when she left. Uh-huh. Next to the bed. To get in the truck with somebody else, not her own car? Precisely. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So next to the bed, they found a, like a few more... Blood stains or stains? Stains that looked like they had been cleaned with bleach and a knife that had bleach marks on it. Also the handle, I can't find a good picture of it. I'm going to try to before I release this so you guys can see it. ⁓ The handle was also like wrapped in duct tape for some reason. I don't know. Chris was like, ⁓ yeah, I definitely cut my hand on that knife about like a week and a half earlier. So I used bleach to clean it because that makes sense. Right, right buddy. Yeah, yeah. There have also been reports that they found receipts showing key bot cleaning supplies like bleach around that timeframe, like in the... day or two. Of course he did. Now the details on that aren't super consistent depending on what source you're looking at. Yeah. So take that for what it is. But it's definitely something that has been mentioned when people talk about this case. Just to add to it. Oh, they also seized his computer. Oh, I like that. With what we already know about him, I like that. And they found searches for child pornography. and his many visits to extremely violent sex sites. Saw the second part coming, didn't see the first part coming. Yep. Okie dokie. So, ⁓ they definitely took him into custody. Well, yeah. that. But they're like, we need to talk more about what happened on June 3rd, because the fuck. Yeah. So he explained how they ate at Boston Market for dinner. There is CCTV footage of this. It's also known to be the last known footage of Lee alive. God, Boston Market's so good. Bro, I miss Boston. Their mac and cheese. Top tier. I miss that shit. I miss that shit. So good. Is there a Boston Market around anywhere anymore? Let us know. So after they ate Boston Market, they went back to his place to play video games. And while they were playing video games, Lee leaned in and kissed him. Okay. He was surprised at first, but gave in, obviously, and kissed her back. One thing led to another, and they ended up having sex. And you know that very romantic setting of a hoarder house he lives in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, then she got a text and she abruptly left taking the sheets with her and Gotten away pickup truck like that would have been like She was on her period and we had sex and that's why there was blood on the bed something like that like Once again men are stupid. Thank God. I agree ⁓ Unfortunately They Gen didn't have anything to really hold him, so they let him go. you mean? We have child assay material. So they just seized it. They didn't find it until afterward at the time of this. OK, OK, OK, OK, OK. I agree. All they did was seize it, which they did find out they had all this later. So they had nothing to hold him, so they let him go. But they did put him on 24 hour surveillance. As they should. But at that time, the investigation ultimately came to a halt. Renee and Max were like, ⁓ hello? This is kind of giving Kelsey Schelling vibes. Uh-huh. It's really giving Kelsey Schelling vibes like immensely. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Like with the family and all of this is. Oh my god. If you haven't listened to that episode, go listen to it. That's one of my, another one of my Colorado Roman empires. But like, Max and Renee were like, hello? This hello? Yeah. What do you mean? What do you mean you're letting him go? Yeah, literally that was my reaction just now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Max being the good brother he is started reaching out to people from high school since him. Lee and Chris all went to high school together. ⁓ I love this. This is messy. And he got some very disturbing information from people. I am not surprised. I know. He learned that Chris kept a journal where he would write some pretty sadistic shit in it. It depicted him capturing women and holding them as sex slaves, like hostage sex slaves. He also wrote about rape in crime scenes. So, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Dumb fucking criminals, okay? So Max knew he was up to something and that Chris did something to his sister. So he started messaging Chris. We love you, Max. He started messaging Chris. to gain his trust and like befriend him in a sense. Chris is a fucking idiot. He knew that. remember he didn't have very many friends. It's true. So this wasn't hard. You give him an inch, he'll take that mile. I'll tell you that. ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ my God. love Max. He knew that if he approached him aggressively that Chris would have just shut down and not spoke to him. Yeah. So he did everything he could to befriend him. Max also remembered that Chris was super into tarot cards. I forgot about this. Uh-huh, uh-huh. ⁓ my God, did he ask him for a reading? So he decided to put the investigation into his own hands and asked Chris if he would meet him and give him a tarot card reading. He told him he truly believes that this reading will help them find his sister. ⁓ my God, and he fed into his like narcissus. ⁓ my God, I love this. Chris agreed to meet with him. Of course he did. So they made a plan to meet up at a park underneath a gazebo. I know. It's really funny. It is really can't find out which park exactly it was. I probably could, but I'm not going to dig that deep. They're at a park under a gazebo. It's not crucial to the investigation. It's not. Max did end up bringing a friend with him to this meeting. Smart, proud of you. And he also decided to record the entire thing. Of course. Secretly. Well, yeah, of course. Once at the park, Chris seemed excited and kind of eager to hang out with Max and do this tarot reading. Weird. Yeah. Max was treading lightly, though. Chris told him, like, I'm not kidding. They were like, doing the actual, yeah. And he was like, this card is saying that Lee's gonna be found safe and sound and just like all this stuff. I'm not kidding you. But Max, he's not fucking dumb. Let me stress that. Well, obviously, we're recording this. We brought a friend. know what we're doing. So he was adding questions into the reading and saying things like, it's okay if something happened to her. It's okay if you did something to her. I would understand if you did. You, Chris? Yeah. I would understand if you did. I can forgive you for anything you did. Max is saying this? Yes. ⁓ huh. And at first, every time he would say something like that or ask a question of like, what happened to her? He was obviously met with denial from Chris. But then Chris started to open up a little bit. He said they had gone to Boston Market. Yes, we fucking know that. They had gone to Chris' house to play video games where they ended up having sex. Uh-huh, yeah, know that too. But then, he told Max how Lee started begging him for money, that she needed money for her drugs to go get a fix. But when he refused to give her money, she... flipped out and pulled a knife on him. He didn't want to hurt her, but he needed to protect himself. So he somehow twisted her body around and put his hand on her throat. Would you like to hear the audio of this? Yeah, I really would. Yeah, I knew you would, you heathens. Here you go. Okay, so first of all If you do not tell me at the end of this episode that Max has become a detective, that man has missed his calling. The way that he pulled himself out of that anger and irritation and calmed himself back down to finish getting this information is seriously impressive. I don't know if I could have that restraint in that moment. That man. I really hope detectives talk to him about a future career in being a detective because he is a freaking natural at all of that. He stayed calm. He didn't kill Chris after this, which would have been so easy to do. He didn't hurt him. He didn't at least beat the shit out of him and then call police. So I'm proud of him. That I know of so far, I, ⁓ God, I jumped ahead. Once Chris finished his confession, Max jumped across a table and started beating the shit out of Chris. The friend who was with him came over to like stop Max from basically killing him. He definitely allowed him to get some fucking licks in, you know what I'm saying? ⁓ yeah, no, this would have been one of those, this needs to happen. Okay, I'll stop it now. ⁓ Then Max let Chris know he recorded the entire conversation. Chris then says he's gonna tell the police everything as soon as he leaves. And Max was basically like, the fuck you are. You're staying right the fuck here and calling the cops in front of me. And then he forced him to call the cops. Max forced Chris to call the cops? Yes, he did. Yes, he motherfucking did. And he did. He's like, I'm not going to play the call for you. It's out there. But he was like, I'm calling to confess to a murder. I'm not kidding. That happened. Max. ⁓ my God. Amazing. And then Max and his friend held him there until police showed up. And just imagine police showing up to two guys sitting on top of Chris and they're like, he's right here. I'm gonna make it a little bit better. Chris was still under 24-7 surveillance. They watched the entire thing happen. The meeting, the card reading, and the fucking beating. I forgot he was under surveillance. They let Chris beat the shit out of him. Yes they did. They let it be stopped. They let the 911 call happen. Mm-hmm. ⁓ my god, to have been those like those officers on watch they're like, this is the most boring detail ever. Yeah, they let him beat his ass. Max also did not get in trouble for them. that I mean that I couldn't find anything so I'm going to assume he didn't. Unfortunately, this is also when Max had to call his mom and tell her that Chris admitting to killing Lee and covering it up. didn't know to do ⁓ at this point, so she the cops and said this. Fuck you for that. I know I'm sorry Every time I hear it it does it to me. Fuck you for that. I'm sorry I warned you that we were gonna cry Okay. Well first of all that was rude. I was doing so good until that so ⁓ super rude No, it's gonna get worse It's gonna get worse. Great guys. Okay, I'm okay. You good? Okay. Christopher Wade was arrested and charged with first degree murder, sexual assault, tampering with evidence, and for the child pornography that was found on his computer. fucking sick ass fuck. All right, but where's her body? Once arrested, he repeats the same story on tape again. Well, you he knows he's on tape this time to the police that he told Max. He told police that he put her body into a trash bag and then into a duffel bag. But her foot wouldn't go in the duffel bag. So when he put her into the dumpster, he just covered her foot up with the sheet. He even explained what she was wearing and had a very detailed description of what bra she was wearing. He then told police he knew how to clean up a crime scene because of all the criminal justice classes in school. They asked him why he decided to finally confess and he said the tarot cards told him to do so. He had foreseen it all while he was reading the cards in the Okay. What a freak. Right? I'm not saying people who do tarot cards are freaks. No, but he is. He's a freak. I love tarot cards. Okay. Mm-hmm. Police did their research, figured out which dumpster and what part of the landfill that that dumpster gets dumped in. Sorry, I'm saying dump so much. They are searching and searching for her. Anything, please. But then on day 19 of the landfill search, they found something. They found Lee's phone, her purse, her wallet, and the clothes that he described, including her bra that he described in great detail. But not her. Lee was still nowhere to be found. They searched for a total of 45 days, but her body was never recovered. It's crazy that they found that stuff, but they didn't find her body. which ultimately makes me believe that it's not in the landfill. He did not put her in the dumpster. He everything else in the dumpster. And we learned from Kelsey Schelling that the reason it's hard to find bodies in landfills is because they mummify, which means that they aren't putting off the scent. ⁓ with all the other scents in there, it's hard to even get a decom dog in there and the way that it does do it and the pinpointing. So. But. Being able to find all of her belongings means that they were in the correct area, which means they should have been able to find her unless those belongings were dumped in a different dumpster than her body was dumped in and then they're not in the right place at all, which he wouldn't. Two things, if you know how to clean up your crime scene from criminology class, you're gonna know how to do that. ⁓ We don't really touch on it. I guess we do. We touched on it little bit later. But remember how they started going through a duffel bag with all the underwear and he started freaking out? If he put her in the dumpster, a duffel bag would have been with her. They never found a duffel bag. So do you think she was in that duffel bag? I think so. And I think he went and took her somewhere else. I mean, and that with the sheets, because the sheets haven't been found. Like, because he already had the hoarder smell, but we didn't say anything about a decomp smell. And that smell mixed with that, I could see if we weren't very far into decomp. That could have happened. Yeah. And an army-sized duffel bag could definitely fit her in there. And that's where he would have truth about her foot not fitting in. Because I have a little bit of knowledge with this. My dad had a large army duffel bag that I used for Girl Scout overnight camps. And how it was, was that it's this very large bag and on the top is a flap. And then it has all the eyelets and you hook them in together and then you put the thing over it. And that's how it all stays together. And I used to use that. And honestly, I remember in elementary school, in a middle school, I would put myself in it. Period. Because I could fit. But with what size she was, if he put her... tiny. Yeah. But even then, her foot as, you know, a little bit older than mine was middle school and elementary school, her foot would stick out of that. And it would be easy for it to stick out and almost seal it all the way. Yeah. So. Yeah. So just for everyone's thoughts, she was 5'5 and weighed 85 to 90 pounds. So I'm 5'5". I don't weigh that though. So she was tiny. Yes. Also remember, unfortunately, she was a drug addict. she was tiny, tiny. Yeah. Just keep that in mind. Because they didn't have a body, prosecutors didn't believe they would be able to win at trial and that he could get away with the self-defense story. Yeah, we've done bodyless convictions in Colorado. agree. So they decided to offer him a plea deal. Of course they did. And Chris signed a plea deal for a lesser charge of second-degree murder in exchange for leading authorities to Lee's body. Did he? He accepted the offer and signed the deal. But as soon as that paper was signed, he once again repeated what was on the taped confession, how he disposed of her and her belongings in the dumpster. Uh-uh, your plea deal didn't say tell them, it said leave them. Unfortunately, the judge would not reject the plea because there was no way to prove that he was lying. Yeah. They had his sentencing and they allowed people to come and speak at it. Both Renee and Max spoke and flooded the courtroom with tears and emotions. Chris had at least five people in the courtroom in support of him, but he never once looked over to them. ⁓ wow. Two of them were his parents who Renee has a lot of problems with. ⁓ I bet she does. Uh-huh. I'm not going to post it on here just because I have pictures of what his dad said. Maybe I'll put it up so you guys can read it. But his dad and his mom, they covered for him on a lot of shit, like the Army, violent behavior could be besties with Brian Laundrie's parents? Precisely. OK. Precisely, yeah. Like they could go on couples cruises. Maybe they do. But yeah, so I don't want to give them more attention than they deserve. Yeah. Just know they're shit people. So they enable their son. hmm. Lee's stepdad, Mr. Jackson, told the news station something absolutely motherfucking wild and they played it. And now I'm going to play it for you. Wonderful. He even said, promise. He wanted people to make sure that they knew it wasn't a threat, it was a promise. Mr. Jackson, you are for real. During this time of sentencing and everything like that, police ended up finding a body in a nearby lake. It was not her. I figured as much. Yeah. But in case you see news clips about it, if you decide to research more. just so you don't freak out. Chris Wade was sentenced to 48 years in prison for the second degree murder. ⁓ He will have to serve at least 75 % of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. ⁓ The parole eligibility date ⁓ is ⁓ February 24th of 2050, which is estimated. However, his mandatory release date is 20, I'm sorry, February 24th of 2062. I can deal with that. can deal with that. There have also been reports that he may have been moved to a different prison, which like, cool, great. Love that for him. Fucking move him again. Actually move him every single fucking week. keep him uncomfortable, I genuinely don't care. Because here's the thing, he wakes up every single day knowing where Lee is, knowing exactly where the fuck she is. He knows and he has made a conscious decision over and over again to sit there and keep it to himself. Like be so fucking for real. Like you don't get to act like... this was some mistake or something got out of hand and then turn around and deny a family the ability to bring their daughter home. That's not panic. That's not regret. That's who the fuck you are. Yeah, what she said, because that's very valid rage. That's very, very valid anger. it. I hate when they pretend to be remorseful, but they won't give the body for the family. Yeah, like Kelsey Schell, and that's all her parents want is they want her. They want her home. Yeah. And they've actually stopped their search for her, by the way. I know I saw. Yeah, I saw that Facebook post. And honestly, 48 years doesn't feel long enough when someone still doesn't actually get to come home. No, it's not long enough, but honestly, he will be. Was that 60s by then 70s? He is our age. What will we be in the 60s? That's what, 40 years from now, we're gonna be in our 70s. Yeah. I mean, I don't like it, but if we could get some Jeffrey Dahmer level justice in prison, it'd be really great. I'm an adult. I need to calm down now. I had a moment. had a moment. Before we talk all things Lee, I wanna take a second to talk about Lee's family, because cases like this don't just end when there's an arrest. They just change. Lee's mom, Renee, and her brother, Max, were very vocal early on during interviews, pushing for answers, especially when it came to finding her and bringing her home. Because at the end of the day, that's what matters the most. Not knowing what happened, but being able to bring their person home. That's what they want. Just like you said about Kelsey's family. Max especially played such a huge role in this case and what he did. Sitting down, recording a conversation, that specific kind of conversation, something most people could never fucking do. No, he, that was insane. They genuinely believe that Chris made sexual advances at Lee and she denied him, so he killed her. That was my exact thought as well. Unfortunately, this is speculation and the only person who knows the true story of that happened that night is one person. Yeah. But there's always a little bit of truth in the lies. Correct. And he also did have a sexual assault charge, so that brings me to believe that the police also believed. Kidnapping. Kidnapping? It wasn't a charge, there's just a report of it, he was a kid. ⁓ he has fantasies of the rape and killing, and I wouldn't be surprised if he lured her in. She probably smelled what she smelled, and it was too late. Yeah, and also because he did bring up that they did have sex, so like he's like, but he put his own little like twist of like consensual and all of that in it. I can tell you now if a man ever had an apartment like that and I walked into it, what's your dick smell like, brother? Gross. Yeah, we're definitely not doing any of that. Absolutely not. As far as where Renee and Max are now, there isn't much publicly known about their day to day lives. And honestly, that makes sense because at this point they have to figure out how to keep Living. Yeah, and carrying something like this. There is a Help Find Leah, Lee Porter page. ⁓ is still active and people still post pictures, ⁓ of her on her birthday, things like that. ⁓ This page will be posted in our show notes. I found their Facebook pages, Renee and Max's Facebook pages. ⁓ They're both private, which that's fine. I'm not trying to do anything, but it looks like Max maybe got married. ⁓ Which I'm really excited for him. ⁓ And I just hope that they're amazing. least find happiness and joy in their new normal. Correct, correct. Now. I want to talk about all things about Lee. My favorite part. I reach out to Lee's family on statements of her because who better to tell you about her than the people closest to her? No way. Unfortunately, neither of them responded to me. But if I get anything, you know I will let you all know. We'll add it back into this episode. Lee Porter was 19 years old and from everything her family and friends have said about her, she had one of those personalities that just made people feel comfortable almost immediately. was she was funny, and she had the kind of energy where conversations just flowed. She wasn't someone who sat quietly in the background. She was involved. ⁓ She was she was laughing, and she was part of whatever was going on. ⁓ Her mom her as social and feisty, ⁓ and everything found about her ⁓ made ⁓ sound she was one of those people. who would literally talk to anyone. She was also a braver. And I just know that you and I would have vibed with her. We would have been fucking friends with her so fast. ⁓ my gosh, yes. She had a little bit of an attitude to her in the best way. Like she wasn't afraid to speak her mind or joke around and be sarcastic. She had personality. She wasn't trying to fit into a box or be what people expected her to be. She was just herself. She also had a really close relationship with her family, especially Max. And you can tell from everything that's been shared that they had the kind of sibling relationship where they weren't just family. They were actually friends. Yeah. They talked all the time. They kept up with each other. And there was just a lot of trust between the two of them. Yeah. The kind where if something was going on, he would know. And she knew that she could go to him. Her relationship with her mom was strong as well. stayed connected to her family. She checked in. She didn't just disappear and keep them at a distance. She was part of that everyday communication. Even if it was just quick texts or calls. I love that. Same. And I think that says a lot about who she was as a person because she valued those relationships. Yeah. And when you start looking at the smaller details about her, that's where she really comes to life. She was social. She liked being around people, hanging out, talking, just being in that space where there was just this energy around her. Yeah. She wasn't someone who wanted to be alone all the time, though. She liked having connections. I can picture her being the kind of person who we would sit and just talk for hours, like jump from one topic to the next. Yeah. ⁓ you know, ADHD conversations. I was just thinking this whole time, was like, she's like our little ADHD queen, with her whole personality. I love it. We would laugh at something stupid, make a sarcastic comment, and then immediately be able to go into a serious conversation, just very real, like very human. And very natural. Yeah, no, I feel like we really relate to her on a lot of different levels. absolutely. She was also at that stage in life where everything's kind of an in-between. She was 19. Like you're figuring things out, you're making decisions, you're trying to build something for yourself and nothing's fully set in stone. Yeah. And that's what makes her so easy to relate to because she wasn't this perfect put together version of a person. She was real. She had things she was dealing with. She had things she was working through and she was still showing up and talking to people. Like she was still trying. Yeah. She had time to grow. She had time to change. And she had time to figure out what life was going to look like for her. And that's why it's so important to sit in who she was for a moment. Because she wasn't just part of a case. ⁓ You know, she was a daughter. She was a sister who had a real close bond with her brother. And she was a friend who people loved being around. She was someone who laughed, who talked, who had opinions, who was still figuring things out just like the rest of us. She was Lee. And she deserves to be known for that first. year, ⁓ Missing Persons Day ⁓ held on February 3rd. Lee Porter ⁓ a balloon released with her name on it. And each year, that balloon... is released alongside Kelsey Schelling's balloon. I was just about to say, because that missing person's day is because of Kelsey Schelling. Her family did that. But no, I was very right to link this to Kelsey from the beginning. She is one of those cases I have followed since she went mesquite in Colorado. And I love that those families found each other and do this. It makes me so happy thinking that they are with each other and looking over both of their families together. Sam. Yeah. So is that the end of episode? Almost. We're almost there guys. I know, know. Unfortunately, Lee Porter's body has still yet to be recovered. If anyone has information, no matter how small, that could lead to Leah being found. Please come forward. You can contact the West Minister Police Department at 303-658-4360. Or if you'd rather remain anonymous, you can reach out to Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP. Again, those numbers are 303-658-4360. Or for anonymous, it's 720-913-STOP. Even the smallest detail, can make a difference and her family deserves answers in the chance to bring her. This is the part of this case that makes me fucking sick to my stomach. Because yes, technically, there's justice in the sense that he is in prison. But if your loved one is still missing, if you still cannot bury them, if you still do not know where they are, that doesn't feel like full justice to me. It's not. So. Like this is hard, like yes and no. It's just like we had with Kelsey. Jury, now it's time for your thoughts. Do you think Chris did this? If so, was it out of self-defense or was this a cold calculated murder? Do you think we will ever find her and bring closure to her family? If she truly is in the dump, like he says. I do not think we'll ever find her. But I personally do not believe she's there since we found her stuff unless he used two separate dumpsters since he was in the criminology class and he knew that they would only look in that area where they thought it was. I feel like they would have found the sheets though. And those were not found. So I don't know if ever gonna find her. I really hope that we do. But also I don't... He... There's people in Dante's life that he talked to. There's not really people in Chris's life that he would have talked to about this. So I'm really not sure about this one. Yeah. This is a hard one. Yeah. I know. one has me torn. This one has me really torn up. Yeah. It does. Damn it, Katie. That was a good one though, Katie. Thank you. That's a good one. Do you see how I said we got this much information, but there's like this. Yeah, like so much out there. quarter into this episode, she paused me and was like, you need to read this description so that you understand what I was dealing with while we read this. And I was like, OK, Katie. I appreciate it though. love it, but you really summed that up into a little paragraph blurp on the back of a book. That was crazy. Do you have anything further before we plug? Mm-mm. don't. Cool beans. Cool. With that, you guys, if you enjoyed this episode, please go like, follow, subscribe everywhere. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple ⁓ X, not Twitter X. And so you never miss anything. You have the updates on the event. Go buy tickets to our event. Put our event on your calendar just to show up. Justice for podcast dot com. Submit a case like today's episode. We would love to do an episode that you all submit. We're just so happy you guys are here with us. We are starting to play in season three, so we're getting really excited for that. Yeah. And we will see you next week. I got a hell of an episode, guys. I'm so pumped. I know nothing about this. You know a little bit. told you a few weeks ago. Did you? But yeah. So much has happened. I So much has happened. So we will catch you next week. Yeah, we will. She's throwing me off. I always say that. I know. ⁓ We'll catch guys next week. Please be Don't kill people. Just get a Lock damn doors. There you go. leave your friends on a bar. ⁓ Yep. All of that stuff. We'll catch you guys next week. Okay. Love you. Bye. ⁓