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Arrest made in Leanna Walker homicide case

| 30 Jun 2017 | 02:29
    Sky Michael McDonough being led into the Pennsylvania State Police barracks at Blooming Grove in April 2016, after he escaped from the police and recaptured at the llama farm in Milford where Leanna Walker's body was discovered weeks later. (Photo by Preston Ehrler)
    Sky Michael McDonough being led into the Pennsylvania State Police barracks at Blooming Grove in April 2016, after he escaped from the police and recaptured at the llama farm in Milford where Leanna Walker's body was discovered weeks later. (Photo by Preston Ehrler)
    Leanna Walker
    Leanna Walker

BLOOMING GROVE — The Pennsylvania State Police at Blooming Grove filed murder charges on Friday, June 30, against 26-year-old Sky Michael McDonough of Milford in the Leanna Walker homicide case.
Other charges brought against McDonough include kidnapping, interference with custody of children, flight to avoid apprehension, trial or punishment and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
McDonough was arraigned in Hawley before District Court Judge Shannon Muir on June 30 and is currently in the Pike County Correctional Facility.
Seventeen-year old Leanna Walker disappeared from her Sunrise Lakes home on April 18, 2016, after leaving voluntarily with her boyfriend, Sky McDonough, who was 24 at the time and the last person to be seen with Leanna. After several weeks scouring the area for her in mid-May 2016, searchers found Leanna’s badly burned remains at a llama farm in Milford.
Authorities had to perform forensic testing to identify her. McDonough was arrested on unrelated charges later in 2016.
Diane Bostedo, Leanna’s sister, wrote in a Facebook message: “As far as the charges, our family is very happy with the news of the charges. Were also feeling confident about the case we just want to see him pay for what he did although it won’t change what he’s done. Were praying he never walks a free man so he can’t do this again.”
Pike County Coroner Chris Brighton had only a few words for the Courier: “Manner of death is homicide; cause of death is homicidal violence (etiology not specified).”
Requests for comment left with Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin and McDonough’s attorney’s name were not returned by press time.
The Pike County Coroner’s Office told the Courier in May that the case had not grown cold, and that it takes a long time for all autopsy results to come through.
By Anya Tikka
Related stories“Remains identified as Leanna Walker’s”: http://bit.ly/2tsFChM
“Sky McDonough a person of interest in Leanna Walker’s death”: http://bit.ly/2t9uBPK
“Leanna Walker remembered for her kindness”: http://bit.ly/2bFwjUQ