On April 8, 1993, three teenage girls from my small
high school disappeared. Tanya Leyden was my best friend.
She asked me to go with her and Jessica Bower to Lake
Tahoe for spring break, but I had already aligned a job
for the break. So she asked Bethany Halligan. I remember
being a little annoyed that she asked Bethany because I
didnt really like her. She drank alcohol and I was a
little afraid that she would influence Tanya. Tanya was
already pretty messed up, emotionally. She had some sort
of emotional disorder, possibly manic depression. She
once talked for days about keeping a pet when her foster
parents did not allow them. One day she was walking alone
on the beach when she found a dead seagull and carried it
to her foster parents house. She suffered emotional abuse
from her father who was dealing with the death of Tanya's
sister and his wife within a 2 year time span. Bethany had threatened to run away from home many times. Her mother knew that she did drugs and drank but felt hopeless. Jessica was the part of the puzzle that was out of place. She had her share of troubles but she did not drink or do drugs. The other two girls smoked cigarettes, while Jessica didnt inhale. She was reserved, but had a very sweet and fun personality. She adored her mother. She would do anything but cause any grief to her mother. |
April 13, 1993 Santa Barbara News Press California This clipping is most likely in the "B" or "Local" Section |
We never believed that they drowned, either by
accident or suicide. To us, the "drowning"
excuse was more for the families of the girls to give
them closeure. Unfortunatly, no bodies have ever been
found, Lake Tahoe is very deep and too large to dredge. TV and Newspapers cared for a week and then all talk about the disappearance ceased. No police came to our school to conduct interviews on the types of girls they were. They interviewed Tanya's grandmother, who had not seen her for more than 2 years and had never met the other two girls. Another interesting part is in this article below. It says that a boyfriend of one of the girls made a comment. Well to my knowledge, none of those girls were dating at that time. Bethany was casually dating/hanging out with several guys but they all lived in Santa Barbara and the three girls didnt travel with anyone else to Tahoe. I am suspicious of that "boyfriend". |
Circa April 14-17, 1993 Santa Barbara News Press |
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