Leigh Occhi

Thursday, August 27th, 1992, was supposed to be a big day for 13-year-old Leigh Marine Ochi.

That afternoon she was going to an open house at a new middle school where she'd be starting eighth grade in just a few days.

Then her family was going to be treating her to a special dinner at Taco Bell.

And there was something really important that would make the day even bigger.

This would be the first time Leigh would be left home all by herself while her mom, Vickie, went to work.

But there was something standing in the way of making this an exciting milestone for Leigh.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Andrew was making its way toward where she lived in Tupelo, Mississippi.

At this point, it was really the remnants of Hurricane Andrew.

It had struck South Florida as a category five and Louisiana as a category three, and Leigh was just terrified of storms.

So much so that according to David Lohr's reporting for The Huffington Post, she'd slept in her mom's bed the night before because she was so scared.

But again, by the next morning, it seemed to have calmed down a bit.

Leigh and Vickie ate breakfast together while chatting about the upcoming day.

Then at around 7:35 AM, Vickie left the house to head to work.

But according to Vickie, when she got to work at the manufacturing company Leggett & Platt, she just had this uneasy feeling about leaving Leigh alone during the storms.

So at around 8:30 AM, she called the house to check on her.

Now, Vickie and Leigh had developed this sort of code when calling.

Vickie would let the phone ring twice, then hang up and call back.

This was pretty much her way of telling Leigh that it was okay to pick up the phone.

So she uses their system, but Leigh doesn't pick up the phone.

She calls again, nothing.

She hangs up and tries again for a third time.

Still nothing.

So she tries just one more time, and Leigh still doesn't pick up the phone.

At this point, Vickie's uneasy feeling about leaving Leigh home alone turns into panic.

She works about a mile and a half away, so she leaves immediately to make sure that Leigh's okay.