On March 18, 2000, people along a road near the Mount Baker Highway in Whatcom County, Washington, reported seeing a wrecked vehicle at the bottom of an embankment near Canyon Creek. Sheriffs found a white 1993 Jeep Cherokee with North Carolina license plates. They traced the car to Leah Roberts who had abruptly left her home in Durham, North Carolina nine days earlier. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Her friends and siblings have said that the death of her parents had left her pondering spiritual issues and questioning the direction of her life. She had dropped out of North Carolina State University only months before graduation and had begun spending a lot of her time in a local coffeehouse. She left money for her housemate to cover expenses while she was gone, suggesting she expected to return.