Cold Case - Leo Lanci - Marshall County
It was in May 13, 2008, when a Marshall County woman called a 911 dispatcher in Moundsville and reported that her son, while traversing a shortcut in a wooded area along Round Bottom Hill Road, found a human skeleton wearing clothes.
The remains were quickly identified as Leo Lanci, a 21-year-old man who was reported missing by his family five months earlier. The state medical examiner’s office determined Lanci had passed away where he was found face up with his head only an inch away from a flowing ravine.
It is unknown, according to former Marshall County Chief Deputy Bill Helms, how long Lanci’s body had rested at that location, but once the boy’s mother phoned first responders, more than seven units immediately responded to the scene.
The red circle displays the area where a teenage boy discovered the skeletal remains. (Image - Google Earth)
Remains
The first unit confirmed the remains, described in the report completed by Marshall County deputies as a body with an exposed pelvis, ribs, and a skull, and there were some clothes remaining. Agents for the State Department of Public Safety Crime Recovery Team were immediately summoned, and they were on the scene within an hour.
The remains, according to the report, measured approximately 5-foot-7-inches, and the victim was wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt, blue jeans, white Nike socks, and white DC tennis shoes. Detectives of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department estimated that the remains had been there for “quite a while” based on the fact that “very little flesh (was) left on the remains.”
The recovery of the remains, the report indicates, was conducted the next day to ensure proper lighting, and two deputies were posted at the area overnight as crime scene security. When investigators arrived the next morning, they recorded that Leo’s skull was close to the stream that flowed through this hollow.
Lanci, a native of Wantagh, New York, was 21 years old at the time of his death.
Identification Discovered
Soon after recovery by team members near the first big curve in Round Bottom Hill Road, an ID was found in the jeans worn by the victim discovered along a ravine below a few homes. The name was Leonard Lanci, a young man who was reported missing on Dec. 2, 2007, by his father, Leonard Lanci Sr., from the state of New York.
He was supposed to travel to Boston with friends when he left his family, but he never arrived. The day before Leo Sr. reported his son missing, he received a phone call from him from Cambridge, Ohio. His son told him he wished to return home, but that was the final time father and son spoke.
Leo Lanci, a native of Wantagh, N.Y., told his father that he and several friends were traveling to Boston for a weekend. Leo then called his father in early December from Cambridge, Ohio, and Leo Sr. told investigators his son said he wanted to come home.
That was it. That was the last time Leo Sr. spoke with Leo Jr.
Why Was He There?
“There was one lady who worked at a (Mobile) gas station that recognized the young man when deputies showed the photo,” explained Helms at the time. “That’s been it, but there’s just no way the young man didn’t know someone else in this county, and we’re hoping that someone, sooner than later, will give us some more information.
“The area where Leo was found was pretty deep in the woods, and we still do not know why he was there in the first place,” he said. “It did not appear to be a place where people would hang out. There was no fire pit like you see in those locations, and there were no signs of camping or anything like that.”
With the limited soft tissue and skeleton, the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office determined Leo Jr. died where he was discovered in that holler. There was no evidence of blunt force trauma, and the toxicology report came back clean.
“The case is ongoing because everything involved is such a mystery,” said Helms, a candidate for Marshall County Sheriff. “Where the young man was found was pretty deep into the woods off the road, so there had to be a reason he was there. But what was that reason? That’s the unanswered question.
“Because the remains were so close to water, and because of the time of year, there wasn’t much left,” he explained. “That stream carries most of the drainage from above, so there’s really no telling how high it flowed at times because of the weather.”
Following his career with the W.Va. State Police, John Gruzinskas then served as a two-term sheriff in Marshall County.
Bipolar Disease and a Diamond Ring
Leo Lanci’s ID wasn’t the only discovery while careful recovery of the remains took place. Investigators also found $26 cash and an un-activated credit card in his wallet, and in a front pocket of his jeans, a one-carat engagement ring.
“His family had no idea why he would have had that ring,” Helms said after reviewing the updated report. “From what we can tell, he was all over the place as far as locations, and we really don’t know how long he was in this area, either. No one seems to know why he would have had the ring on his person.
“According to what information we have collected to this point in time, it seems like he was pretty much here and there during that period of his life. We even have information that he traveled back to the New York area about a month or so after he was reported missing to retrieve a skateboard,” he said. “He then came back here for some reason, and maybe that is part of the reason that’s connected to that ring.”
What investigators did not know when Lanci’s remains were discovered was that the young man suffered from mental illness and was supposed to be taking antidepressants and bipolar medications, according to his family. Leo Jr. suffered psychological problems, and Helms said he also had hallucinations.
His father believed his son was trying herbal remedies instead of his prescribed medications.
Someone Knows Something
“Knowing what we know about the young man really doesn’t allow our investigation to go in one direction or the other because of all the variables,” the chief deputy said. “That’s why we hope someone who got to know him from this area comes forward and let’s us know what could have happened.
“There has to be someone,” he said, “someone who met him, got to know him, and maybe someone who knows why he was in those woods.”
Leo Sr. has no idea why his son traveled to Marshall County in the first place, and deputies have found only one person who had contact with the young man during his apparent time in the area. Apparently, Leo Jr. was a fan of energy drinks, and a cashier at the Mobile gas station recognized him from the photo provided by family.
No other information concerning his exact whereabouts has been recorded after the father last spoke to son on Dec. 1, 2008.
“Everything on our end is up-to-date,” Helms explained. “We need the big break. All we need is for someone who knows what happened to come tell us.”
The boy who discovered Landi's remains traveled a short cut through the wooded area.
Working Cold Cases
The accordion file that contains the details about the death of Leo Lanci Jr., according to Helms, rests on Deputy Bear Mobley’s desk and not in a copy-paper box in some closet or basement, and that’s because it’s believed that a good-looking 21-year-old man must have had contact with someone in Marshall County.
“We have some cold cases, and this one cannot be classified as that because of the time that has passed between the leads we’ve received,” Helms said. “But we really don’t have a lot of them, and I know that because our detectives, when they have that time, always go back to those files hoping for something new.
“Those kinds of cases don’t just sit there because there’s always the chance that someone says something to someone, and that someone may tell another person. At this point, maybe that’s the way the Lanci could work out, and if an article about the investigation motivates someone to call us, that would be a great thing.
“Our detectives just want to be able to tell the young man’s parents what exactly happened to their son,” he said. “At this point in time, we can’t do that yet.”
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