SPRINGVILLE, Utah — The Springville man accused of killing his mother and another man, whose bodies remain missing, allegedly burned several items in a bonfire days after the incident and spent nearly a day in a remote area of Utah.
New details in the investigation into Matthew Jacob Leonard were released when he was officially charged Sunday in the deaths of his mother, Sarah Johnson, and John Handricks. Leonard faces 11 charges, including Aggravated Murder and Abuse or Desecration of a Dead Human Body.
Johnson and Handricks were reported missing after last being seen on March 26.
The investigation following the missing person report turned up witnesses who told detectives they were with Leonard, Johnson and Handricks at the Springville home belonging to Johnson during the night of March 19 and into the next morning.
Group lived 9 days with Springville homicide suspect in home he didn't own:
The group was allegedly smoking marijuana together in the garage of the home when Johnson and Handricks went inside to go to sleep, and Leonard followed.
When Leonard did not answer the phone after the witnesses called him for a ride home, they approached the front door and heard five gunshots. Leonard eventually came out of the home and briefly spoke with the witnesses, who said they fled the area on foot because "they were afraid," according to charging documents.
Call records later discovered that Leonard's phone was turned off for 12 hours on March 20, and then showed him days later spending about 16 hours in a remote area of Fruitland in eastern Utah.
Leonard was located and taken into custody while driving his vehicle on April 11, as detectives searched the home on the same day. Inside Johnson's bedroom, a bullet was found lodged in the drywall, and blood residue was discovered between the floor and the bottom of the baseboards.
During the search, five empty .22 caliber shell casings were discovered inside Leonard's bedroom, as well as a pair of boots that appeared to have a blood splatter.
Another witness told detectives that they had driven by the Springville home after March 20 and saw Leonard's SUV "backed up directly in front of and up to the front door of the residence with the tailgate open."
A forensic team later found evidence of possible blood stains in two areas in the back of Leonard's SUV.
According to a different witness, Leonard set up a bonfire on their property on March 28, where he told the person not to look at the items he was set to burn, which included "a mattress that had been cut into two pieces, some furniture, and a bag of other miscellaneous items." Detectives went to the site of the bonfire and retrieved mattress pieces and a smashed cell phone.
