Volume 7 · Chapter 10
The Llama Farm Murder
Sky McDonough
Victim: Leanna Walker
Case at a glance
- When
- April 2016
- Where
- Milford Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania
- Perpetrator
- Sky McDonough
- Victim
- Leanna Walker
- Outcome
- Pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and interference with custody of a child; sentenced in December 2018 to 21 to 42 years
The case
Leanna Walker was a 17-year-old who had been a junior at Delaware Valley High School in Pike County, Pennsylvania. Her boyfriend, Sky McDonough, was 24. On April 18, 2016, she left home with him and did not come back. The two camped at several spots around Milford Township, including a llama farm where McDonough had once worked, and messages later showed Leanna had told people he had threatened her.
On April 26, police arrested McDonough on unrelated charges. He escaped from custody and was caught the next morning near the same llama farm. Leanna’s family and friends searched for weeks. On May 19, 2016, investigators recovered burned human remains buried on the farm and confirmed they were hers. McDonough offered shifting explanations, at one point suggesting a bear might have gotten her, and he told a cellmate she had brought it on herself.
He was charged with Leanna’s murder in June 2017 while already in the Pike County jail. In November 2018 he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and interference with the custody of a child. On December 18, 2018, a Pike County judge sentenced him to 21 to 42 years in prison across his cases.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 7 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 7 on AmazonCase photographs
7 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“Leanna was 17 and trusted someone seven years older who talked about a new life far away. The warning signs were in her own messages. I hope parents reading this chapter pay attention to how quickly a runaway plan can turn into a missing-person case.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
