TV Show Revisits 1979 Teen Murders-Mary Leonard, Ricky Beard
Posted on Wed, Oct. 04, 2006 TV show revisits 1979 teen murders Family hopes Discovery program will help crack unsolved slayings of Mary Leonard and Ricky Beard By Jewell Cardwell Jerry Leonard opened the book on his family's worst nightmare -- the murder of his sister. Though it's been 27 years, the 42-year-old Tallmadge man remembers it like it was yesterday. ``I was 14 and Mary was 17,'' he recalled. ``She had just brought home her senior proofs.'' These days, Jerry and his family are hoping Thursday's episode of Sensing Murder (10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel), featuring the unsolved murders of Mary Margaret Leonard and 19-year-old Richard Joseph ``Ricky'' Beard, her boyfriend of three months, will cause those involved to finally confess. Some may think that 27 years is time enough to let go and move on. Try telling that to the Leonard and Beard families who have been grieving and waiting that long for answers and justice. The North Hill teens were last seen the evening of Aug. 24, 1979, leaving her home in his car. The white Chevrolet Impala with a dark-blue roof was found abandoned the next day on a farm lane in Northampton Township. There was a bullet hole in the windshield. Police and private investigators said no trace of blood was found in the car at Northampton Road and Portage Trail. It would be nearly six years before the couple's remains were found May 29, 1985, about six miles from where the Chevy Impala was discovered. Last sighting Jerry Leonard, the youngest of the seven Leonard children, recalls with absolute clarity that Friday evening when his sister disappeared and life as he knew it changed forever. ``I was the last one to see her,'' Jerry said. ``I was two doors down from our house (on Thayer Street) on a neighbor's porch when she came home from her job at Acme on Cuyahoga Falls Avenue. A co-worker dropped her off... She had a bag of Doritos in her hand. She came over and I tried to get the Doritos; but she snatched the bag back. ``A few minutes later, Ricky pulled up. She went in and changed, told my parents (Gloria and Richard Sr. ) they were going to the Ascot Drive-In Theater (3409 Akron-Cleveland Road, Northampton Township), to see Amityville Horror. I remember she had on bib overalls.'' As they drove off, Jerry said he called out to Ricky, ``Hey, Redneck!'' ``He smiled back and that's the last I saw them.'' Mary, who was to begin her senior year at North -- had a midnight curfew. Although no one saw her come home, the family assumed she had. That is, until they received a call around 7 o'clock the next morning from William Beard -- Ricky's father -- who was looking for his son. ``My parents hollered upstairs, `Is Mary in her room?' '' Jerry said. He checked. She wasn't. A sense of urgency enveloped them as their sense of calm began to erode with each hour. ``I spent hours -- two weeks solid -- on the CB in my brother's room, trying to track down Mary. I was using it so much I even blew the fuse,'' Jerry said. ``We didn't know what had happened. Only that it wasn't her choice to stay away.'' Mary always told her mother where she was going and always kept her curfew. She didn't smoke or drink, her family said. Seated for the interview with his wife, Connie, Jerry Leonard said the six years after his sister's disappearance were a blur for his family. ``I cannot fathom what we all went through,'' he said. Remains found Jerry was on his knees at his job at Gray's Drugstore in Lakemore Plaza the morning of May 29, 1985, when his manager said, ``I got a call to send Jerry home.'' ``I just knew it was about Mary,'' he said. ``When I got home, everybody was there. They said, `Some remains were found.' They were waiting for the coroner to show up... He came in the front door and said definitely it was Mary. Everybody started crying... Then someone asked, What about Ricky? He said, `Yes.' '' Jerry and a few of the others drove to the site -- on Riverview Road just before the Towpath entrance -- to see what a backhoe operator had accidentally unearthed. ``I saw sheets with bones laying there. I saw Mary's skull. Her watch was still on her wrist. One of the guys, sifting through the dirt, showed me a shoulder blade with a hole in it. It was Ricky's.'' The skeletal remains, following local examination, were shipped to the Smithsonian where it was determined that Mary had been stabbed in the chest and shot and Ricky had been shot multiple times. In 1999, on the 20th anniversary of the couple's disappearance, Akron police formally reopened the investigation with brother/sister police officers Ed Mathews and Janet Mathews Hottinger in charge. Significant leads came in. Police even developed a suspect list. Now enter two psychics, Laurie Campbell and Pam Coronado, who will examine clues on the Sensing Murder show. ``We hope somebody sees it (Sensing Murder),'' Jerry said. ``My hope is these guys who done it will call the police.'' ``Somebody knows something. Something that will finally give this family peace,'' Jerry's wife, Connie, added. This family believes in miracles. ``My mother told us this summer about something that happened between Rita Clark and her daughter Christine,'' Jerry recalled. Christine Clark, a 17-year-old from North Hill, died May 25, 1985, the victim of a drunken driver. ``At the hospital,'' Jerry recounted, ``when Rita knew her daughter was going to die, she said she whispered in her ear, `Tell Mary to let the family know where she's at.' '' Four days after Christine's death, the remains of Mary and Ricky were found. Here's hoping for more whispers that lead to equally significant results so the living and the dead can finally rest in peace. Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com. http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/15674311.htm