The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
Listener discretion is advised.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-SUlkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases.
And missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I'm your co-host, Eli.
You were off last week for your birthday.
I was.
And our dog had an ear infection.
It was a wild day.
He did.
He did have an ear infection.
He's okay now.
His birthday is the day before mine.
Wild.
Two little Scorpios.
But you have a case for us, right?
Yes I do.
This one actually came to me from a listener.
So this is somebody who reached out asking me to cover a family friend's of theirs missing
person case.
So I immediately stopped everything I was researching and focused in on this.
So today we are covering a missing person.
And just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve domestic abuse.
Today we're going to be talking about the missing person case of Dava Leonard.
And this takes place in February of 2021 in Divide, Colorado.
But first a little bit about Dava.
Dava is 39 years old in 2021 and she would be 41 years old today.
She's the mother of six who always checked in on her children since they did not stay
with her.
Her sister took care of the kids, but Dava was a loving and thoughtful mother who wanted
what was best for her children, which meant that they needed to live with her sister.
Her sister Miccah says, quote, she's the one person always laughing, making jokes.
She really was the comedian of the family.
End quote.
A family friend told me that Dava is feisty and funny.
Dava is around five feet, four inches, 130 pounds, has green eyes and auburn hair.
She wears blacked rim glasses and has a dragon tattoo on her back as well as a tattoo and
a scar on her left arm.
Dava's family and friends became worried about the relationship she was in.
She had met her boyfriend, Steve, on a dating website and the relationship moved quickly.
Her sister Miccah said, quote, she met him online on a dating website and then he came
down to Pueblo and picked her up.
My other sister says the first time he came and picked her up, he was just like possessive
and come on, we got to go get your stuff.
And everybody in the house was like, who is this guy?
Why is he acting like this?
End quote.
Dava moved to Divide, Colorado with her boyfriend around 2018.
Dava didn't have her own cell phone or vehicle, but kept in contact with her family and her
children.
Dava and her siblings had had a rough start in life and Dava continued to struggle and
was very vulnerable, having struggled with addiction in the past and her mental health.
Dava had recently begun voicing concerns about her relationship to her family, leading them
to believe that she was in an abusive relationship.
And now a timeline of events.
So sometime between February 28th and March 3rd is the last time that Dava is seen.
On her NamUs profile, it does say February 28th, but other media reports that it was
March 3rd was the last time she was seen.
So there is some discrepancy there, but it does seem that at the end of February, beginning
of March of 2021 was the last time Dava was seen.
She was last seen at her boyfriend's house, which was located in the Rainbow Valley subdivision
in Divide, Colorado.
Looking up the house online, the subdivision and the home is surrounded by forest.
It's not really a walkable community, so it would be difficult to get around without
a car, which Dava did not have.
She was reported to be last wearing a gray, puffy Columbia coat with pockets on the front
and side, and she was either wearing jeans or shorts by some reports, but it does seem
that jeans are more likely.
While Dava did not have a cell phone or a vehicle, all of her other personal items were
left behind.
Photo albums, her clothing, and most notably, her precious dog, Ello.
On March 5th, 2021, there was a family birthday party that Dava was expected to be at and
she never shows up.
If Dava did not show up in the past, she always made sure to call and let people know where
she was.
Again, her sister Miccah says, quote, she was supposed to come back for his birthday on
March 5th or call or something, and she never called, never came back.
I got a bad feeling on March 3rd.
I just, in my heart, I knew something was wrong.
End quote.
The next day, March 6th, 2021, once Dava failed to show for the family party, Miccah contacts
the police stressing to them that Dava would not leave without telling her family and she
certainly wouldn't leave her dog.
The sheriff's office isn't too concerned about her disappearance.
They believe that Dava walked out on her own without anything but the coat she was wearing.
Miccah says, quote, for the sheriff's office to say that she didn't have nothing there
and then she walked away with nothing and she left her dog, Ello, she didn't.
She didn't walk away from her stuff.
End quote.
A few days pass by and with still no word from Dava, the family requests that the sheriff's
office does a welfare check on March 11th.
So it's been about 11 days since anyone has heard from Dava.
It appears that they did go to the home that she shared with her ex-boyfriend, but she
was not there and all of her personal items and dog were left behind.
Her boyfriend Steve tells police that Dava left on foot about a month ago and he hadn't
heard from her since.
The boyfriend does not seem to be too concerned with Dava's disappearance or the fact that
Colorado has very harsh weather and she left on foot.
And then that's really all the information that I could find for 2021.
The next update comes nearly a year later in February of 2022.
And this will be the first time that the sheriff's office asked the public for help in finding
Dava.
They never seem to have posted a missing person poster or anything on their Facebook before
this date of February of 2022.
The sheriff's office says that new information has emerged and that they are beginning to
look for her more seriously.
They also mentioned that her bank account has not been accessed since she disappeared.
I'm not sure if this is the new information that emerged or if police have additional
details that they're not releasing to the public.
A family friend did tell me that Dava continued to receive social security income all throughout
2021, but it just remained untouched in her bank account.
Her family and friends are concerned because how can anyone get by in this world without
accessing their money?
It's around this time that police officially reopen her case.
In May of 2022, Dava has been missing for over a year at this point, but the family
remains hopeful for answers.
As Dava's case gets more and more traction online, her ex-boyfriend sold the home that
they shared together and moved out of state.
It also appears that during this time, the sheriff's office invites the Colorado Bureau
of Investigation to help aid them in their search for Dava.
In March of 2023, so this is two years now that Dava has been missing, her family is
begging the public for information and to just listen to them.
They desperately are trying to get media coverage, newspapers to report on her, podcasts to report
on her, because they are so desperate for people to listen to them and to help search
for Dava.
The family does hold a memorial and remembrance vigil at the entrance of the Rainbow Valley
subdivision hoping to bring more awareness to her case.
The family at this point fears the worst since they have not heard anything from Dava, and
they do believe that she wouldn't just disappear without reaching out to them, especially her
children.
And then this is truly all of the information that I could find on Dava Leonard.
So if you know anything about the disappearance of Dava Leonard, or her whereabouts today,
or what happened to her possessions, her photo albums, her additional clothing that was left
at her ex boyfriend's house, if you have any idea what happened to any of her personal
items, please call the Teller County Sheriff at 719-687-9652.
Also if you or a loved one is experiencing an abusive relationship, help is out there.
The National Domestic Abuse Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.
There's also an app called Bright Sky that looks like a weather app, but whenever you
put in your area code, it will give you localized information for domestic abuse help.
So it will pull up everything in your zip code to access.
And the sources for the timeline today come from the NamUs database, KRDO, Fox 21, and
family and friends of Dava Leonard.
So that is the missing person case of Dava Leonard.
I am of course heartbroken about the lack of information about Dava, but sometimes I
think you know, podcasts like this, Like Cold and Missing, we exist to just speak about
the person.
We exist to speak about the person even if it's not much.
You know, hopefully even 10 people hear it and her name is back where it very much should
be.
This was not that long ago.
This was in the pandemic.
I just can't understand how so little can happen in 2021.
Does that make sense?
Yes, it does.
It does make sense, but it doesn't make any sense.
Like it makes no sense that in 2021, so little was done in regards to searching for Dava.
They really kind of chalked it up to, well, she's an adult, she can walk away if she wants
to.
But, you know, when the family is insisting, no, no, no, no, this is not correct.
This is not right.
This is not like her.
This is out of the normal for them to still wait almost a year before they even post something
on social media to say like, be on the lookout for this person.
Have you seen this person?
That blows my mind that that was not done sooner because it feels like the bare minimum
for all missing people.
I don't think I have a ton of questions right now.
I don't have enough information, honestly.
I'm still swimming in the fact that this was very recent.
That's where I'm at right now.
I'm more interested in just like a conversational way to hear what you have to say about this.
Yeah.
You know, a big question I would love to ask the Teller County Sheriff's Department is
just like, why?
Why was this not a priority for you?
Like, that's a question that I have that's not even necessarily related to the case,
but it, you know, it has everything to do with the case.
You know, to me, it kind of feels like the police wrote her off as, well, she'll show
up when she shows up or she won't.
And it seems like they didn't want to invest their resources into finding her, which here
at Cold and Missing, like any person who's missing, any person who's been murdered, I think needs
all of the resources, especially those who are vulnerable and living on the edge.
I'm just really glad that someone reached out and that we're saying her name and that
this case is being brought back into the light or maybe into the light for the first time.
I don't mean that the family, you know, it seemed like the family was really pushing
for what they know about her.
And it just grinds my gears that often the family isn't listened to by law enforcement
about like the behaviors of their loved one.
And I do understand that there are mistakes and sometimes you don't know who you love,
you know, like I get that.
But for the most part, the family is almost always right.
That's what's upsetting is like you, you guys have to know this like, yeah, getting worked
up.
It grinds my gears that they don't listen to the family.
And like, this family knew her clearly.
And because it's so recent, like they knew her very recently.
And I don't know.
It's a shame.
Yeah, the family really did try to raise the alarm within days of Dava disappearing, they
knew something was off, especially when she didn't show up to the birthday party.
I did read reports that this party could have possibly been one of her kids birthday parties.
So if I couldn't find that in media reports, I just kind of saw that talked about in like
online forums and things.
But if that's the case, and it was her son's birthday party, it would be very out of the
ordinary for Dava not to show up, but for her not to show up and then not call anybody
and say why she was not showing up.
She very regularly checked in with her family checked in with her children and, you know,
came down from the mountain to see them and to spend time with them.
So the fact that she didn't show up to this birthday party, the family immediately tried
to raise the alarm saying this is not correct.
This is not right.
Something is wrong here.
And the police just didn't take them seriously.
Well, I'm glad we're taking it seriously.
I hope that more people continue to talk about her and that, you know, there's just more
access to information about what happened purely for like helping this family.
But I think that's it for me right now.
Do you have anything else to add, Ali?
Well, just a future hope of mine for this case is that it does really start to gain
traction and get in the media more and that the family gets the support that they deserve
as the family of a missing person.
They deserve those resources and support from their communities, from their local media.
I hope that all picks up for them and they get more coverage for Dava.
And then I also hope that as more people hear about her, that we can get some answers because
what happened to all of her personal belongings?
Did somebody see a fire in that neighborhood?
Did somebody find anything in the woods like a hunter or people out hiking that didn't
make sense at the time, like a bunch of clothing or something like that.
But maybe looking back on it now, you think this could be related to Dava.
I hope that things like that start to come out for the family so that way they can get
some closure.
And frankly, I hope that this home that Dava shared with her ex-boyfriend is searched in
some capacity.
I hope police can get a warrant to just search to see if there's anything that would lead
them to believe that a crime committed inside the house.
I just, if nothing else, to cross that off the list and to get one step closer of what
actually happened to her.
Yeah, I couldn't agree.
I couldn't agree more.
But we will be posting pictures of Dava.
And again, if you know anything about Dava or her whereabouts today, please call the
Teller County Sheriff at 719-687-9652.
And again, if you or someone you love is experiencing domestic abuse, the domestic abuse hotline
is 1-800-799-7233.
And we will be posting photos of Dava on our Instagram so that way you can get an idea
of what she looks like.
These pictures are just from a few years ago, so they would still be current to what she
currently looks like.
So please be on the lookout for Dava in your day to day.
If she is out there, we want to know where she is and get these answers to this family.
Another way to help get Dava's story out there is to rate and review this podcast.
So if you're an Apple podcast, leaving us a written review is so helpful.
But no matter what platform you're on, if you could just give us a good positive rating,
it helps others find our podcast and helps others find this story to find Dava's story.
So please share with your loved ones.
We also have our website www.coldandmissing.com where we will have a transcript of the podcast
today.
So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow along that way.
In addition, we also create YouTube videos so you can subscribe on YouTube or pop over
to our website and we post the videos on there as well.
Thank you for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host Ali.
And I'm your co-host Eli.
Have a good week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.