Sarah Scully, Anchor/Reporter
What happened to Leon? He walked around for a month with a bullet in his brain, without knowing he’d been shot. His family still seeks answers.
Eight years after his murder, his family still asks…what happened to Leon?
A promising Madison High School football and baseball player, Leon died from a bullet in his brain that eventually led to his death from meningitis…but remarkably, he didn’t know he’d been shot.
For about a month, he drove from his home on Lonesome Mountain Road, went to work at Printpack, laughed with friends and family…until he started to feel sick and his cousin took him to the hospital ER…and that’s where doctors discovered a rusty, fragmented bullet had been slowly moving through his brain.
Leon turned 40 years old at the hospital, surrounded by family, mere days before he died Dec. 15, 2018. His official cause of death is complications from a gun shot wound to the head.
But who shot Leon?
And that’s where this story takes a turn…because family say the police aren’t sure where the crime actually happened or when.
And this is why Leon’s family is asking for help to solve his murder.
It’s here at the intersection of Little Pine and Bear Creek roads in Marshall that Leon’s car was discovered with blood on the upholstery.
The best guess for when Leon got shot is Labor Day weekend of 2018 when Leon showed up on foot at his cousin’s house, looking like he’d been in a fight, unable to remember what happened to his car.
Both the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office conducted investigations, and the NC State Bureau of Investigation Public Information Director Chad Flowers said the SBI assisted with providing a lie detector test to a suspect upon Buncombe’s request in early 2019.
Darlene reached out on Facebook when an investigative story on the Madison County Sheriff’s Office aired, asking for help.
In this yearbook, Leon smiles from his photo and I smile from mine. He’s a boy with his teammates.
Years later, family members say he struggled a bit with drugs and aren’t sure if that played a part in his death. They’re hoping for answers.
It’s been 8 years and Leon’s family is still asking, “What happened to Leon?”
Any information to help his family learn what happened to Leon, please contact BCSO at buncombesheriff.com.
Correction: A different aunt took him to the hospital, not his cousin.
