Damon Leonard, 47, has been in custody since making the call to police, in which he allegedly confessed to hiding the boy's body
Credit: Bates County Sheriff’s Office; Linn County Sheriff’s Office
NEED TO KNOW
- Damon Leonard, 47, has been sentenced in Missouri in connection with the death of 13-year-old Airen Andula, who went missing after going to feed a neighbor’s pets on Dec. 21, 2025
- Leonard allegedly called investigators to admit to finding Andula’s body after the boy was fatally attacked by a dog, allegedly telling police where they could discover the 13-year-old’s corpse
- Leonard still faces charges in Kansas, where he allegedly dumped the boy’s body, including a second-degree murder charge
A Missouri man has been sentenced in connection with the death of a 13-year-old neighbor who police allege had been mauled to death by the man's dog.
Authorities in Missouri and Kansas allege that allege that Damon Leonard, 47, of Pleasanton, Mo., confessed to police last December that he took the body of Airen Andula across state lines to Kansas, where he dumped the boy in a creek before returning home, according to The Kansas City Star, KSHB, and KCTV.
PEOPLE previously reported that Andula first went missing on Dec. 21 after riding his bike to a neighbor's house to feed their dogs. That home, according to the Star, was located next to Leonard's home, where neighbors allege aggressive dogs were known to roam freely around his property.
Neighbors and authorities later began a massive search for the boy, which spanned the next two days. On the second day, Leonard called police and allegedly admitted to what he had done, telling authorities where to find the boy's body.
Leonard was arrested Dec. 23, 2025 — the day he called police — and later pleaded guilty to a charge for abandonment of a corpse in Missouri on May 22, KSHB reported. Leonard was sentenced to four years in prison.
The Star reported this week that the Kansas Attorney General's Office levied its own charges against Leonard the night before his sentencing, charging the 47-year-old man with interference with law enforcement, criminal desecration, having a vicious dog at large and involuntary manslaughter, as well as a second-degree murder charge.
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If convicted, he faces an additional 15 to 16 1/2 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge, as well as an additional four to four-and-a-half years for the involuntary manslaughter charge, per the newspaper. It's unclear if he has retained an attorney in Kansas or entered pleas to those charges.
Credit: Linn County Sheriff’s Office
Charles “Jody” Andula, the boy's father, recently told The Star that amid the search for their son, the family had asked Leonard directly if he had seen him. Leonard told the family he had seen the 13-year-old earlier that day but didn't see him return from the neighbor's house, the family alleged in an interview with the newspaper.
“I still could have overlooked, you know, the dog attack,” the grieving father told the Star. "That's just a freak accident, but I can't forgive him for what he did trying to hide my kid from us when we were all looking for him.”
Andula's father added: “Playing along like he didn't know where he was at when he did know — that's what I can't accept.”
Credit: Bates County Sheriff’s Office
Charles had previously told KSHB his son was discovered “in a brush pile, covered up,” and thrown away like "trash.”
"I just can't imagine him laying there like that,” he said.
Andula's mother, Anita Gunn, told KSHB that it has been like “a big nightmare” since her son's initial disappearance last December. “It's unbelievable and we're still not wanting to believe it's real, but we know it is," she told the outlet.
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