HARTFORD, Conn. — On October 29, 1995, 25-year-old Leah Ulbrich was last seen arguing with the driver of a car she was in before she tried to climb out the vehicle’s window.
The driver took off – dragging the young mother of two from Hartford to Wethersfield and killing her in the process. Her body was found on Jordan Lane in Wethersfield.
Investigators describe it as one of the most gruesome murders ever in Connecticut.
“She wasn’t a bad person and she had struggles, but we all have struggles,” her now-adult daughter Abrielle Ulbrich told FOX61 News.
Abrielle was 4 years old when her mother was killed. Her brother Ryan was 5.
“I never had that bond that I now have with my daughter that I wish I could have had,” she said.
Over the last 27 years, Leah Ulbrich’s family and investigators have been trying to find her killer.
“People have come forward really, really recently giving us tidbits of information that we’ve never had,” Hartford detective Drew Jacobson told FOX61 News.
Because of the distance that Leah Ulbrich’s body was dragged, Jacobson said the crime scene is the largest to date related to a homicide in Connecticut.
"It was close to four and a half miles long of body fluids, so this poor woman suffered the whole time," he said.
Leah Ulbrich’s family wants answers. They want a little bit of closure.
“We just want to know that the person that took her from us has consequences for their actions,” Abrielle Ulbrich said.
Leah’s daughter – now in her 30s – said that the four years she had with her mom feel like a memory of a memory.
"You remember remembering them but they are just so far away that you don't remember the actual memory anymore," she said.
She added: “When I was a child, when I would see other people with their parents and stuff, I would always like why not me? Why did that have to happen to me?”
Though her memories with her mother are few, Abrielle said she is sharing her mother’s story as a form of healing – and to keep her memory alive.
"Now I talk about it because it makes me feel better to get her story out there and not suffer in silence or alone," said Ulbrich.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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