Episode 35: The Murder of Leah Ulbrich
Leah Ulbrich was a creative and expressive young woman, who was known to her friends and family as kind and loving. Unfortunately, in her teenage years, Leah found herself spiraling down into the horrifying world of drug addiction. She began experimenting with hard drugs and as a result, landed in a rehabilitation program. Her drive to become sober led to her graduating the program and marrying her husband, Bob Ulbrich. The pair had two children together, Ryan and Abriella.
Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted 2 years and Leah found herself in the throws of addiction again, due to being depressed and losing her marriage. Eventually, she lost custody of her children when police discovered drug paraphernalia and that they were living in squalor. This started her spiral further down, and eventually Leah was back where she started- addicted to drugs and in a horrid place.
In the summer of 1995, Leah managed to get clean again, regularly attending Narcotics Anonymous and moving into a halfway house. She completed her GED and even talked often about going back to school to become a nurse.
On October 29th of 1995, tragedy struck. Leah had walked away from her halfway home two weeks prior, and had not contacted her family. On this night, Leah was seen arguing with an unknown man in a dark car in Hartford, Connecticut. The unidentified man struck Leah, and when she started screaming and attempted to escape, the perpetrator sped off, leaving Leah dangling from the passenger side door. After four miles, Leah’s body came loose from the car.
A Hartford police officer had been following the unknown man and the trail of blood his car had left, and he was the one who discovered what was left of Leah’s body. It was roughly 5am, and despite the time there were several witnesses. There were reports of what the man looked like and what the car looked like, but all leads ran cold. It was believed that perhaps drugs were what brought Leah to be in the car with this man, or perhaps she was a sex worker. To this day, Leah’s killer has never been found.
If anyone has any information about this case, please contact the Hartford Police Cold Case Unit at (860) 548–0606. There is a $50,000 reward offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
Image sources:
courant.com - “A broken cycle of pain: A family’s resilience and hope for justice following the 1995 dragging death of Leah Ulbrich”
medium.com - “The Horrifying Murder of Leah Ulbrich”