Search for grandmother missing for over four decades comes to an end
Gorham, New Hampshire - Alberta Leeman mysteriously vanished on July 25, 1978 and has been missing ever since. New evidence has possibly revealed her fate and will hopefully bring closure for her family.
Alberta Leeman was 63-years-old when she suddenly disappeared. On the table in her New Hampshire apartment sat a cup of coffee and her purse, but her car was gone, according to the Daily Mail.
For more than 43 years, her daughter Nancy McLain and granddaughter Roxanne didn't know what had happened to their loved one, and have been desperate for answers for over four decades.
"You never give up," daughter McLain said of the mysterious case in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader.
For decades, Alberta Leeman's relatives held their breath each time human remains were found somewhere near where she might have disappeared, only to learn each time that it had been someone else.
Local officer Joe Canfield heard about the case three years ago and after starting a program of sweeping waterways using submersible tech, he made it his mission to solve the case. Canfield was training other officers when his underwater camera found a 1972 Pontiac LeMans – the make of Leeman's car –at the bottom of the Connecticut River, complete with the matching license plate OB610.
On August 5, Leeman's daughter learned that the divers also discovered human remains in the wreckage of the car, which must have been in the river for decades.
Although the remains have not yet been identified, nor a cause given as to how her car ended up in the river, Leeman's daughter is looking forward to some closure. "She's at peace," Nancy McLain said.
Cover photo: Twitter/Screenshot/@NH_StatePolice