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By Adrianna Hopkins
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Police say there is one thing they do know for sure; Ann Gotlib was only one of Gregory Oakley Jr.'s many victims. Just three months after police say he abducted Ann, Oakley attacked a 13-year-old girl. Her testimony is what finally sent Oakley to prison in 1984.
WHAS11's Adrianna Hopkins sat down with Leigh Moody Hellinger, a grown woman now; she says she's known all along that Oakley kidnapped and likely killed Ann.
She told WHAS11 that she just had a feeling. And she also says her father, a police detective at the time, went to his grave knowing Oakley was to blame for Ann's disappearance.
Leigh says her father worked hard to catch Oakley and put him behind bars because they both felt he would strike again. "I will never forget his face, the belt buckle he wore, the cowboy boots he had on; you just don't," said 37 year old Hellinger. "He was a predator."
And three months after Ann Gotlib's disappearance on June 1, 1983, Leigh was Greg Oakley, Jr's prey. "I heard the door open and he came in and I was back in the kitchen," said Leigh.
She was 13 years old on Sept. 9, 1983, living in a townhome on Masemure Court and baking a cake for her friend. "He pulled out a knife and said 'take your clothes off.' And I said 'no!' It was like being a trapped rat," said Leigh. "And I asked him, 'what are you going to do to me?'" She says Oakley told her he would rape her.
Then she says, despite being scared to death, she had a plan: she wanted to get him upstairs where her father kept a gun.
"I ran towards him and we struggled and he pushed me into the countertop and reached around and stabbed me," said Leigh. "I said you know my dad is a city policeman and I said, -- I didn't know, I was kind of bluffing-he's going to be home any minute and if he catches you here he'll blow your brains out."
At that, Oakley left and Leigh ran next door.
Her father didn't catch Oakley then, but kept an eye out for the man his daughter described. Police eventually caught up with Oakley when Leigh identified him at a restaurant. "The color in his face went white when he saw me," she said.
"Because he knew?" asked Adrianna Hopkins. "Yes! Sure he knew" said Leigh. He knew that his run of attacking young girls was over.
Leigh testified in court against Oakley and says she'll never forget his demeanor. "He was just very cocky and sure that he would never get caught and that he could convince a jury that this 13 year old girl, it was a case of mistaken identity."
But it wasn't and he went to jail.
But all the while, Leigh says she and her father knew that Oakley attacked Ann Gotlib. "There is a little bit of me that has "survivor's guilt." Why did she not survive, and why did I?"< /p>
Of course neither Leigh nor her father could ever prove that Oakley kidnapped and killed Ann Gotlib, but she says this new development in Ann's case is some vindication. She also says she's prayed for the Gotlib family and is happy the jury believed her and kept Oakley from attacking anyone else.
Web story published by Chris Wright
