Charging documents describe gunshots, shut-off phones, a remote trip and a later bonfire.
SPRINGVILLE, Utah — Witness accounts and cellphone data form a central part of the case against Matthew Jacob Leonard, a Springville man charged with killing his mother and a Salt Lake City man who remain missing.
Leonard, 28, is accused of killing Sarah Johnson, 50, and John Waldron Handricks, 50, after the two were last seen at Johnson’s Springville home in March. While forensic evidence from the home is a major part of the case, the charging documents also rely on people who said they were present that night, phone records showing devices went dark and later movements investigators say raised suspicion. Police have not announced the recovery of either body.
The witness timeline begins before dawn on March 20. Investigators said Johnson and Leonard had picked up Handricks in Salt Lake City either late March 19 or early March 20. They returned to the Springville home, where witnesses said the group spent time together. At some point, Johnson and Handricks went inside to sleep. Leonard later followed them into the house. When witnesses outside later tried to call Leonard to ask for a ride home, he did not answer. They approached the front door. One witness reported hearing five gunshots. Another said the sounds were loud bangs.
What happened next became a key part of the affidavit. The witnesses told investigators Leonard came out of the residence not long after the shots or bangs and briefly spoke with them. Both said they were afraid and left the area on foot as quickly as possible. Police have not reported a public statement from Leonard explaining that moment. Johnson and Handricks were not seen alive again in the accounts cited by investigators. Their cellphones, police said, were shut off within two minutes of each other on the morning of March 20 and did not turn back on.
The phone evidence did not stop with the victims’ devices. Investigators said Leonard’s phone was turned off for about 12 hours on March 20, the same day Johnson and Handricks vanished. A few days later, records placed him for about 16 hours in a remote area near Fruitland in Duchesne County. Police have not said the bodies were located there, and the precise purpose of the trip remains one of the unanswered questions in the public record. Still, prosecutors included the phone-location detail in charging documents as part of the alleged sequence of concealment after the suspected killings.
Another witness gave police an account from days later. According to charging documents, Leonard held a bonfire March 28 on a witness’s property and told the person not to look at the items he planned to burn. The items included a mattress cut into two pieces, furniture and a bag of miscellaneous objects. Detectives later recovered mattress pieces and a smashed cellphone from the burn site. Investigators have not publicly said whose phone was recovered or whether testing tied the mattress pieces to the missing people. The bonfire evidence remains one of several pieces prosecutors are using to argue that evidence was destroyed or hidden.
Police also spoke with people who had contact with Leonard after Johnson disappeared. One person who responded to a post to sublease Johnson’s room told investigators the room was empty when they moved in except for women’s clothing in a closet. When the renter asked whose clothes they were and whether they could be moved, Leonard allegedly said they belonged to his mother but that she had probably overdosed and was probably dead somewhere. That statement came after Johnson was last seen, according to the charges. Investigators also said a witness saw Leonard’s SUV backed up to the front door of the home with its tailgate open after March 20.
The case became public as a missing-person investigation. Johnson was reported missing March 26, and Springville police contacted Leonard while officers were trying to locate her. Police said he filled out a missing-person packet for a National Crime Information Center listing. In an affidavit, investigators said Leonard told officers it was normal for his mother to disappear and tried to call her in their presence. Handricks had been reported missing out of Salt Lake City. On April 6, Johnson’s father contacted police after a family member received messages saying Johnson had been shot and that her body had not been found.
Those accounts led detectives back to the house. On April 11, police served a search warrant and reported finding blood evidence, a bullet lodged in drywall, possible blood spatter, blood under baseboards and blood between flooring planks in Johnson’s bedroom. Detectives also found five empty .22-caliber shell casings in a bag in Leonard’s room. They said possible blood stains were found in the back of Leonard’s SUV. Investigators said the blood evidence showed two people suffered substantial injuries. They also said the bedroom showed signs that someone had tried to clean up blood before the search.
Matthew Leonard was arrested April 11 during a traffic stop with help from a SWAT team. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of abuse or desecration of a dead human body and five counts of felony discharge of a firearm. Police also noted earlier trouble involving Leonard, including a March 9 arrest on an electronic communication harassment charge tied to messages and phone calls to his girlfriend. He pleaded guilty to that case April 7. The murder case now moves through 4th District Court while detectives continue searching for Johnson and Handricks.
Author note: Last updated May 8, 2026.