We went to school the next day, February 22, 1973, worried our Mom was not home to see us off to school that morning. We sat in class all morning very nervous and distracted not knowing what happened. Then a student next to Lori looked out the window and saw a PA State Police Car pull up and said “Hey Leonardo, they’re coming to take you away ha ha, he he, hay hay.” Little did that student know that they were in fact there for us.
As Debbie and Lori walked into the schools main office, our little brother, Timmy, was sitting there and we did not know why we were being called into the office. A State Trooper was present and said they were waiting for our Brother, Johnny (Fawn) to get here from Vo-Tech. Pocono Township Police Chief Robert Hartman, who was a close friend of our parents, picked Johnny up and brought him to the school. We were then told there was an accident and then Police Chief Robert Hartman took all of us home. When we got home we learned our Mom died in an auto accident. However, Police Chief Hartman told us that our “Mom’s death is related to our Dad’s Murder and that she was also murdered”.
We five Leonard kids were all in shock wondering what our next move was going to be and how we would cope with both our parents being killed within 2-1/2 years apart. We were just young teenagers not yet old enough to drive. We had no one to take care of us now. We sat at the Mick’s kitchen table talking about this and said that we wanted to stay together since none of our relatives could take all five of us and we did not want to be split up.
Having to Investigate Our Parents Murders: Because we (now the only two surviving members left of the John & Madeleine Leonard Family) were not getting any answers, help, or information from the police for over fifty plus years and life was so very difficult for all of us, we began investigating by ourselves in 2022.
Our first step was we went to the Monroe County Coroner’s Office to obtain copies of autopsies and death certificates. When we inquired in April 2022, the Coroner, Tom Yanac was out of town. Yanac called us two weeks later and asked us to come to his office in May 2022 where he told us, “The autopsies for both your Mom and Dad are missing”. He also stated “no toxicology was performed on your mother”. He later discussed the intent to exhume both parents’ to start the investigations over because “your Mom’s cause of death on the death certificate ‘Broken Neck’ was not consistent with an auto accident”. His request for exhumation was blocked by his good friend District Attorney Michael Mancuso even though Yanac said “we need to exhume both bodies and start all over”. He even contacted the funeral homes and cemetery to obtain plot information.
Madeleine Leonard’s Death is a Murder for the Following Reasons:
Fact: If a spouse dies in a suspicious car accident after a person is murdered, the procedure involves immediate police notification, scene preservation, evidence collection, autopsy, a thorough investigation including a negative investigation to determine the cause of death and any potential criminal involvement.
Fact: On February 21, 1973, Madeleine Leonard finished her waitressing shift at the Top Hat Restaurant Rotary Dinner and called her twin daughters at 10:00 pm and said, “I have a tip on your Dad’s murder (John Leonard’s murder September 8, 1970) and I am going to Mt. Pocono to check it out. I’ll be home shortly”.
Fact: On February 22, 1973, Police Chief Hartman said to the Leonard children, “Madeleine Leonard was not wearing a seatbelt” which she always did and insisted we kids also wear them. “Madeleine was found in the front seat passenger side of the vehicle, her head impacted the passenger side windshield, and she was pinned to the right side dash and glove compartment because the transmission pushed the floor up pinning her there and her head was resting on the right side dashboard and her coat was wrapped into the steering wheel. Your Mom was run off the road, and the case is linked to your father’s murder”. Chief Hartman said, “this was a murder since she was not driving the car and was possibly dead prior to the accident”.
Fact: Chief Hartman also said, “The ignition keys were not in the ignition of the vehicle,” and they were never found or recovered along with her house keys. Also other missing items from her purse were her tips, cash, credit cards, her driver’s license, registration, and insurance card from the car. “The purse strap was broken which indicated a struggle took place.”
Fact: Chief Hartman also told the family “there was damage to the rear bumper and that there was paint transfer on the rear of the car, and there was a second set of tire tracks and skid marks indicating another car was involved in the accident sending her car down the embankment. Her brakes were not applied.”
Fact: The Pocono Record Newspaper article stated, “The car was down the embankment, covered by felled foliage and could not be seen from the road.” The very next statement in the same article was “The car was spotted by a passing motorist.”
Fact: The first responding officer found an individual on the scene who was also present at the murder scene of her husband, John W. Leonard, Sr., at Buck Hill Falls Inn in 1970. The car was discovered by an individual who was unnamed at the time and we later learned was a confidential informant for the PSP. This individual was also a known drug dealer and pedophile and lived in a Cottage at Buck Hill Falls Inn. He was also known as a frequent patron of Mick’s Tavern.
Fact: Madeleine’s car was new and was serviced the day before by Don Mick, owner of Mick Motors and employer of Madeleine Leonard.
Fact: Madeleine Leonard’s car was insured but we have no record of an insurance policy being paid for her death in a motor vehicle. The Leonard Family received nothing.
Fact: The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) falsified blood alcohol toxicology reports to the family when, in fact, the Monroe County Corner, Tom Yanac told the family directly on May 4, 2022, that “no toxicology was ever performed on Madeleine Leonard, and now the autopsy reports are missing on both Madeleine and John Leonard.”
Fact: The Monroe County Coroner, Tom Yanac also said, “Madeleine’s cause of death was suspicious and not consistent with that type of accident.”
Fact: On August 5, 2022, Mike Mancuso and Craig VanLouvender from the Monroe County DA’s office told us directly that “the PSP never investigated Madeleine’s case as they were unaware of it” and yet, PA State Police Officers were present at the school to notify us of our Mom’s accident on February 22, 1973.
Fact: Madeleine Leonard had a crushed neck according to the newspapers and the death certificate said she had a broken neck and listed the time of death at 1:00 AM on February 22, 1973.
Fact: The funeral home directed the family to “provide a high neck blouse for Madeleine that would cover her neck up to the jawline.”
Fact: Don Mick gave Charlie Mecca our Mom’s long black leather coat she had on that was found wrapped around her steering wheel, and said he was going to “dry clean it to get blood off it”. After she was killed, we never saw or had the coat returned to us.
Fact: We were orphaned. Don Mick said “we could live in the attic garage apartment and take care of ourselves”. He never told us we would have to pay for the rent and utilities in the apartment. This is when we all had to work several jobs to pay the Mick’s rent and utilities to live in the apartment and we also had to provide our own food, medical care, and clothing while staying in school and getting no assistance from the Mick’s, county, state, or anyone.
Fact: Don Mick told the Barrett Community and the Leonard Children that they were now their Foster Parents and would provide for them. The Mick family never provided support for the Leonard children.
Fact: In 2021, we checked with Monroe County Children and Youth Services and discovered Don and Ann Mick were not our Foster Parents nor was our oldest brother appointed our Legal Guardian. The 5 of us were in fact orphaned on February 22, 1973.
Fact: The County and State of PA let five children, all under the age of 18, all orphans, fall through the cracks and we had to work several jobs to exist without any public assistance.
Fact: Don Mick gave a $900 cashier’s check to Madeleine Leonard‘s funeral. He never gave funds to any of the other Leonard funerals even though he should have for John Leonard who was his employee and murdered while on the job. No workers comp, PUC, or insurance payouts were ever given to the Leonard Family for John or Madeleine’s Deaths.
Fact: Don and Ann Mick would never talk about John and Madeleine Leonard’s Deaths with the Leonard children, would not answer any questions we had, nor would they ever visit the cemetery with the Leonard children.
Fact: In 2024, a witness told us about a death-bed confession “that everyone in the Barrett community is afraid of these people and they all know what happened to both your parents and are afraid to talk.” This same witness said, “John and Madeleine Leonard were both in fact murdered by the same people.”
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