The Leah Freeman case is an unsolved 2000 murder in Coquille, Oregon, in which the victim’s teenage boyfriend, Nicholas McGuffin, was wrongly convicted, spent nine years in prison, and was later exonerated after defense attorneys uncovered unknown male DNA on Freeman’s shoes that the state crime lab never disclosed. No one has ever been identified as her killer. In 2025, McGuffin received the first certificate of innocence in Oregon history and more than $14 million in settlements from the agencies that put him away.
What Happened to Leah Freeman
On the evening of June 28, 2000, 15-year-old Leah Freeman was at her friend Cherie Mitchell’s house in downtown Coquille. The two argued, and Freeman left on foot sometime before 9 p.m., heading toward the high school on the north side of town. She was supposed to meet her 18-year-old boyfriend, Nicholas McGuffin, later that night for a double date. She never got there.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
A passerby found her right tennis shoe near a Coquille gas station shortly after she disappeared. Days later, Coos County Sheriff’s Deputy Kip Oswald found her left shoe near Hudson Ridge, roughly ten miles away. That shoe was splattered with blood.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
On August 3, 2000, five weeks after Freeman vanished, her body was found on an embankment of the Coquille River, about eight miles from where she was last seen.2CBS News. Leah Freeman Ore. Murder Cold Case Goes to Jury 11 Years After Teens Death The remains were badly decomposed. The medical examiner, Dr. Olson, could not pin down a cause of death but ruled she died from “homicidal violence of some undetermined type.”3Coos County, OR. General Judgment (Post-Conviction)
A Cold Case Turned Toward the Boyfriend
A grand jury convened shortly after the body was found, but it did not return an indictment. Without a clear cause of death, eyewitnesses, or physical evidence, the case stalled for nearly a decade.
In 2008, Mark Dannels became Coquille’s police chief and vowed to solve the murder. He brought in the Vidocq Society, a Philadelphia-based volunteer group of former law enforcement professionals who work cold cases, and the renewed investigation focused on McGuffin.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
During the original investigation, officers publicly reported that McGuffin had failed a polygraph. McGuffin’s later federal lawsuit alleged that investigators fabricated those polygraph results to try to coerce confessions from McGuffin and his friend, and then leaked the fabricated results to the media.4U.S. Government Information (GovInfo). U.S. District Court Order 6:20-cv-01163-2
A new grand jury heard testimony in July and August 2010. More than 100 people testified. On August 24, 2010, more than ten years after Freeman’s death, McGuffin was indicted for her murder.5Oregon Innocence Project. Nick McGuffin
The Trial and a Split Jury
McGuffin’s trial began in July 2011 in Coos County Circuit Court and ran ten days.3Coos County, OR. General Judgment (Post-Conviction) Prosecutors argued the relationship was volatile and that McGuffin had cleaned his car to hide evidence. No blood was ever found in the vehicle.
The case was entirely circumstantial. There was no eyewitness, no blood, no DNA linking McGuffin to Freeman’s death. The prosecution’s forensic expert told jurors that the only DNA on the left shoe belonged to Freeman and Deputy Oswald, and that only Freeman’s DNA was on the right shoe. Both statements were false.3Coos County, OR. General Judgment (Post-Conviction)
On July 19, 2011, the jury acquitted McGuffin of murder but convicted him of first-degree manslaughter on a 10-2 vote. Oregon at the time was one of only two states that permitted non-unanimous criminal verdicts. McGuffin was sentenced to ten years in prison with three years of post-prison supervision.6Oregon Public Broadcasting. Oregon Gives Its First Ever Certificate of Innocence for Wrongful Conviction
The DNA the Crime Lab Never Disclosed
While McGuffin sat in prison, his defense team dug into what the Oregon State Police crime lab had done in 2000. Lab analyst Mary Krings had tested DNA from Freeman’s shoes in late August that year and found unidentified male DNA on both. It did not match McGuffin, Oswald, or anyone else interviewed. The results never made it into a report and were never turned over to the defense.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
Independent DNA consultant Thomas Fedor reviewed the lab’s records and called the analysis of the right shoe “scandalously incomplete.” He found the omission violated the lab’s own protocols and concluded that the report should have excluded Deputy Oswald as a possible contributor on the left shoe altogether. In 2017, the lab re-examined the evidence and confirmed additional unknown male DNA, noting the possibility that the same unknown male contributed DNA to both shoes.
The lab’s treatment of other evidence was similarly damning. When police wanted to test hairs recovered from Freeman’s clothes, lab supervisor Susan Hormann warned a lieutenant against it, writing that the results would give the defense “the bushy-haired stranger they are looking for” and could weaken the case against McGuffin.
On November 29, 2019, Senior Circuit Court Judge Patricia Sullivan vacated the conviction. She ruled that “Male DNA was detected on the victim’s shoes during testing in 2000 that was not the defendant’s” and that “this information was not disclosed at trial. DNA from another male is material and exculpatory.” The failure to disclose amounted to a Brady violation, the legal term for prosecutors withholding evidence favorable to the defense.7United States Courts (govinfo.gov). Opinion and Order The Coos County District Attorney chose not to retry the case, and McGuffin was released in December 2019 after serving nine years.8U.S. Government Information (GovInfo). Findings and Recommendation in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon
Exoneration and a $14 Million Settlement
On August 1, 2025, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Sean Armstrong granted McGuffin a certificate of innocence, the first in Oregon history. The judge declared him “innocent of all crimes for which he was wrongfully convicted” and sealed his arrest and conviction records.6Oregon Public Broadcasting. Oregon Gives Its First Ever Certificate of Innocence for Wrongful Conviction
McGuffin had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2020 against the Oregon State Police, the City of Coquille, the Coos County Sheriff’s Department, and others, accusing forensic scientists of fabricating and suppressing evidence and ignoring DNA that may have pointed to the real killer. In September 2025, settlements totaling more than $14 million became public. The Oregon State Police forensic lab agreed to pay $9 million. The City of Coquille and its police department agreed to pay $5 million. The Vidocq Society settled separately for an undisclosed amount.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
Who Killed Leah Freeman
The murder is still unsolved. After the suppressed DNA came to light, the Coos County District Attorney said in 2017 that investigators would try to identify the source of the unknown male DNA on Freeman’s shoes. As of late 2025, that effort has produced no public results. No new suspects have been named.1OPB. Oregon Police, Forensics Lab Actions Result in $14 Million Payout for Coos County Man
The unknown male DNA on both shoes is the strongest remaining lead. Genetic genealogy has cracked dozens of cold cases in recent years, but there is no public indication that investigators have tried those methods here. After the settlements were announced, McGuffin told reporters: “I just don’t want anyone to forget about Leah because her killer is still out there.”