Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Gary Cowell, 72, of Patchogue, pleaded guilty to Unlawful Concealment of a Human Corpse and Tampering with Physical Evidence, for dismembering Yvette Leonard after she died of an overdose.
“This defendant’s actions following Ms. Leonard’s death denied the victim of the dignity and respect that she deserved,” said District Attorney Tierney. “We hope that this plea allows Ms. Leonard’s family some measure of closure after enduring immense pain.”
According to the investigation and the defendant’s admissions during his plea allocution, on June
18, 2024, law enforcement was alerted that Leonard, 56, of Patchogue, was missing and had not been seen since June 13, 2024. Detectives interviewed Cowell after they learned that he was the last person to see her alive.
Following multiple interviews with witnesses as well as numerous subpoenas and search warrants, Cowell admitted to detectives that he panicked after Leonard overdosed on drugs that the pair had been ingesting and that he had dismembered her body and then scattered her remains throughout Patchogue.
Cowell also led detectives to the locations where he had dumped the remains. Detectives also recovered the axe and saw that Cowell used to dismember the victim.
On January 16, 2025, Cowell pleaded guilty Unlawful Concealment of a Human Corpse, a Class E felony, and Tampering with Physical Evidence, a Class E felony, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Anthony S. Senft, Jr. Cowell faces a maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Patrick E. Fedun and Kieran R. Rogers of the Major Crime Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Lieutenant Anthony Calandrillo and Detective Frederick Reed of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Fifth Squad, as well as Detective Walter Sosnowski of the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.