NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — New Orleans resident Francis Moore and her family have been searching for her missing grandson, Jonny Leonard III, since January of 2023 but have little to show for their efforts.
Leonard was placed in a mental institution for multiple years in Mandeville before being transferred to a group home organization.
Because it was the mental hospital that placed him with the group home and not his family, the organization had little contact with the family.
“Of course, you know, recognizing he was 30-something years old and therefore probably speaking for himself and therefore not having as much interaction with the family as one would think,” Leonard’s grandmother Francis Moore said.
Leonard went missing once a couple of years ago after an incident that left two of his housemates dead.
He was later found, but his family believes this left him fearful about staying in these homes and ultimately led him to leave again on December 2, 2022.
“We think just some fear came up. You wake up and all of a sudden you see somebody deceased, two of them, so it just kind of spooked him out is what we actually believe what happened,” Moore said.
“In his mind, you had that experience, so you don’t know how those people pass, so you’re not going to take that chance on it being you with a mental health issue such as that.”
While he went missing in December, his family had no idea he left until a month later.
“Had his aunt and his brother not come down in January, we don’t know if we would have known that he was missing,” Moore said.
Now almost half a year later, the family is left with more questions than answers and is hoping for some of them to be answered soon.
“The desire is to have him be found alive, and that’s what we are praying for trusting the lord will help us to locate him.”
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