A Kansas man faces murder charges after his unleashed dogs — a mix of mastiff and pit bull breeds — allegedly mauled a 13-year-old neighbor to death, prompting him to load the boy’s body into his vehicle and dump it “down a large ravine.”
Damon Leonard, 47, was charged with second-degree murder and additional counts in connection with the fatal mauling of Airen Andula, a Linn County seventh grader who lived down the street from Leonard and was riding his bike to a friend’s house, according to The Kansas City Star.
Airen’s family told The Star the boy was on his way to let his friend’s dogs and chickens out in December 2025 when Leonard’s dogs, known to roam freely, attacked him just days before Christmas.
After the dogs killed Airen, Leonard loaded up the boy’s body and hurled it “down a large ravine in a creek bed” roughly 30 miles away in Missouri, according to an arrest affidavit.
For those actions, the local father was convicted in Missouri on a charge of abandonment of a corpse and sentenced to four years in prison last week. He was then charged this week by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office with murder, involuntary manslaughter, interference with law enforcement, criminal desecration by unauthorized control of a dead body, and permitting a dangerous animal to be at large.
“I … could have overlooked, you know, the dog attack,” Jody Andula, Airen’s mother, told The Star in January. “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. Playing along like he didn’t know where he was at when he did know — that’s what I can’t accept.”
Andula said the ride to his friend’s house was supposed to take Airen just five minutes — enough time to tend to the family’s pets, including chickens, a rooster and dogs, while they were away — and another five minutes to ride back.
Airen was biking along a gravel path when Leonard’s dogs allegedly attacked him.
“I mean, as a parent, you can’t imagine another parent doing [that], let alone watching it, and not helping a child,” said Ashlyn Clough, mother of Airen’s best friend whom Airen was helping out. “I don’t know what was going through his head. It just doesn’t make sense why he didn’t call 911. Maybe he panicked and he was scared. But even if you were panicked and were scared, you could have at least called.”
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