Skeletal remains from 2020 ID’d as missing Dover man
CANTON (WJER) (July 25, 2024) – Stark County sheriff’s officials have confirmed that skeletal remains of an apparent homicide victim found near an oil well site in the southern part of that county in 2020 were those of a missing Dover man.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined the Stark County Sheriff’s Office for a press conference this morning with an update on the investigation.
Sheriff George Maier announced that the victim identified through the DNA Doe Project was Mike Leach, who was approximately 61 years old when neighbors reported him missing from his East 3rd Street home in Dover in 2017.
Leach had also stayed at the Friends of the Homeless Shelter in New Philadelphia a few months earlier that year.
Authorities released a clay facial reconstruction of the man in August of 2021 followed by a set of digitally created images in 2023 in hopes of having someone recognize him.
Leach had suffered skull and shoulder fractures at the time of death, which remains under investigation.