Airen Andula vanished near Pleasanton before authorities found his body in a remote Missouri creek bed.
PLEASANTON, Kan. — A 13-year-old boy’s short bike ride to help neighbors became a two-state death investigation after authorities say loose dogs killed him and a nearby resident moved his body to Missouri.
Airen Andula disappeared Dec. 21 in the Holiday Lakes area near Pleasanton, about 70 miles south of Kansas City. His family expected him back after a routine errand. By nightfall, he had not returned, and a search began. Months later, the case has moved into a new stage: Damon Leonard, 47, is charged in Kansas with second-degree murder and related crimes after already receiving a four-year Missouri sentence for abandoning the child’s body.
The day began with a task familiar to many rural neighbors. Airen was riding his bicycle to a nearby home to feed pets or help care for animals while the residents were away. His family reported him missing when he failed to come home. Relatives, neighbors and law enforcement searched the area, not knowing that authorities would later allege the boy had already died. The next major break did not come from a search team finding him in Kansas. It came when Leonard contacted the Bates County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri and said he knew where Airen was and that the boy was dead. Deputies then went from Leonard’s home to a remote spot in Bates County.
Investigators found Airen’s body down a ravine in a creek bed. Charging records in Missouri said Leonard admitted he transported the child from Kansas to Missouri and left the body before returning home. The discovery changed the case from a missing-child search to a criminal investigation involving two states. The child’s body was not found near the path of the bike ride, and that distance became one of the most painful facts for his family. Charles Andula, Airen’s father, later said the family had spent critical time looking for his son while Leonard acted as if he did not know where the boy was.
The first court case moved through Missouri. Leonard was charged in Bates County with abandonment of a corpse, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison. That conviction covered the handling of the body after Airen’s death, not the alleged attack itself. Kansas authorities then expanded the case. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office and Linn County prosecutors filed charges that include second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, interference with law enforcement, criminal desecration, unauthorized control of a dead body and permitting a dangerous animal to be at large. The Kansas filing shows prosecutors are now treating the dog attack as the central event, not only the concealment that followed.
The medical finding gave investigators a clear cause of death. The Wyandotte County Coroner’s Office determined Airen died from multiple dog bite injuries. Police said several dogs were seized from Leonard’s Linn County property after the investigation began. Public reports have described the dogs as mixed mastiff and pit bull breeds. Authorities have not publicly answered every question about the attack, including how long it lasted, whether anyone witnessed it, how quickly Leonard knew the boy was dead and what exact path Airen took before the dogs allegedly reached him. Those details may become key in the Kansas prosecution.
The family’s account gives the timeline its human weight. Airen’s parents said they asked Leonard about their son during the search. Charles Andula said Leonard told them he had seen Airen earlier but did not see him return from the neighbor’s house. The father later said he might have been able to view the dog attack as a terrible accident if Leonard had called for help or told the truth right away. What he could not forgive, he said, was the allegation that Leonard hid the boy and let others keep searching. Anita Gunn, Airen’s mother, said the family’s grief felt unreal even after officials confirmed his death.
Local agencies had to divide the investigation by geography. Linn County authorities handled the missing-person report in Kansas. Bates County authorities handled the Missouri site where the body was found. Kansas City, Kansas, police were brought in to lead parts of the criminal investigation, including earlier Kansas charges. That structure mattered because the body was recovered in Missouri, while prosecutors allege the fatal conduct involved dogs kept at or near Leonard’s Kansas property. It also meant Leonard could face punishment in one state while another state prepared a separate homicide case.
The Kansas charges carry far greater possible consequences than the Missouri abandonment case. A second-degree murder count can bring years in prison if Leonard is convicted. The involuntary manslaughter count focuses on alleged reckless conduct connected to the dogs. Other counts address whether Leonard interfered with officers, desecrated a body, unlawfully controlled a dead body or allowed a dangerous animal to run loose. Prosecutors will need to connect those counts to specific acts, times and places. Leonard is presumed innocent in the Kansas case unless a court finds him guilty.
Airen’s death has left a rural community with a case that is both simple and hard to comprehend: a boy left home on a bike, did not return, and was later found in a ravine across the state line. The next milestone is the Kansas prosecution, where court hearings are expected to lay out more evidence about the dogs, Leonard’s statements and the movement of Airen’s body.
Author note: Last updated July 7, 2026.