Arrest made a decade later in Coquille murder case

By Anita Kissée KATU News and KATU.com Staff Published: Aug 23, 2010 at 11:40 PM PST
Arrest made a decade later in Coquille murder case »Play Video

COQUILLE, Ore. - Leah Freeman vanished while walking home from a friend’s house in Coos County 10 years ago and was discovered murdered weeks later. Everyone thought they knew who did it, but no one was ever arrested until Monday.

Even though police said the case was cold, Freeman’s family vowed to find her killer.

Now a decade later, police say they have the killer, her then 18-year-old boyfriend, Nicholas McGuffin, in jail.

When Freeman disappeared during the summer of 2000, police assumed the 15-year-old ran away. But not her mom, Cory Courtright.

“If anybody knows where she is, can you please come forward?” Courtright said at the time.

Days after Freeman vanished, her shoe was found splattered with blood. Then weeks later, her decomposed body was found down a steep hill, tossed from an isolated road nine miles out of town.

Investigators say at the time only circumstantial evidence pointed at McGuffin. Search warrants were issued and polygraphs were taken, which according to court documents, McGuffin failed.

A grand jury investigated the case and immunity was offered to a friend, but McGuffin was never officially named a suspect.

Then last year, under immense community pressure, a new police chief reopened the unsolved mystery and dedicated an entire room and team to Freeman’s case.

Now ten years later, Freeman’s mother is closer to knowing the truth.

“It was like, ‘finally,’ said Courtright. “I think they got the right guy.”

“I’m a little bit relieved, I guess, that we have the indictment, but I also realize it’s just the first step in the process, and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us,” said R. Paul Frasier, Coos County district attorney.

“It’s a great feeling the fact that we got to this level of the criminal justice system,” said Coquille Police Chief Mark Dannels. “Now we strive for the trial.”

Testimony from more than 100 witnesses at eight grand jury hearings led to Monday’s arrest. How Freeman died, and any other details, have not been released.

For Bruce McCain, a former Multnomah County sheriff’s captain, Freeman’s case brings up a good point about the unsolved case of missing 7-year-old Kyron Horman.

“He (McGuffin) was not indicted or arrested on the basis of failing two or three polygraph questions ten years ago,” McCain said. “There’s obviously going to be something much more substantial.

 “If there’s any lesson to be learned here (is) that even murder cases can sometimes take years and decades to solve,” he said. “And with the Kyron Horman case, we don’t even have a body. We don’t even know what the crime is.”

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