Link to second cold case emerges after Mt. Pleasant man's arrest

The moment 93-year-old Alberta Myers read in her newspaper Thursday that Joseph E. Leos had been charged in a 41-year-old cold-case murder, she was taken back to the day her son died in a mysterious fire.

Leos, she said, was among those police had questioned in the unsolved 1993 mobile-home blaze that took the life of her son, Dennis A. Myers, 38.

“As soon as I saw Joe Leos' name in your paper today and his photograph, I ran and got a picture I still have of Joe here,” said Myers of South Huntingdon. “I saw right away, it is the same guy.”

On Wednesday, Leos, 58, was arrested and charged with homicide in the 1974 death of 14-year-old John David Watson in Fayette County. Shortly after Watson had started to date a girl, Leos shot him in the back of the head as he rode his bicycle home from an errand near his Dunbar Township home, according to a Fayette County grand jury presentment.

The grand jury said an “interpersonal relationship between Watson and Leos, who was known to have relationships with other males,” was the motive.

The arrest is not Leos' first tie to an unsolved murder.

Myers said Leos and her son had been in a domestic relationship. State police in Greensburg interviewed Leos several times after her son's death, she said, but “they said they never had enough to file charges.”

Thirteen years after Watson's death, Leos and Myers, 38, were living in a mobile home they placed on a 1.5-acre lot they purchased jointly along Route 819 in Mt. Pleasant Township, according to police and Westmoreland County records.

Donald Miller, who sold them the property for $12,000, said Myers wanted to open a tractor dealership.

“Denny (Myers) had hoped to eventually open a Cub Cadet dealership on the site because of the amount of traffic that goes through there,” Miller said.

Myers never opened the dealership. On April 26, 1993, Leos, who had been living in Florida, transferred the property to Myers for $1, according to county records.

Five days later, a fire that police said was intentionally set destroyed the mobile home. Firefighters found Myers' body in the living room and the remains of his dog in the bathroom.

An autopsy showed Myers died of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

“An ex-paramour was an initial suspect but was ruled out via alibi,” retired state police Trooper Brian Zimmerman wrote in a report.

Troopers learned from family members that one of the suspects frequently visited Myers' grave and sent his mother sympathy cards, the report said. Troopers considered setting up a listening device at the grave, police records show.

Troopers also questioned an alleged “admirer” of Myers, according to the report, but no one was charged.

Trooper Brian Gross, who now heads Troop A's Cold Case unit, declined to comment on the case.

After John Watson's death, Leos lived with the boy's family for several years. He eventually took a job at the former Volkswagen plant in East Huntingdon, according to a neighbor who worked there.

Dawn Hall, who drove finished cars off the production line, said Leos worked as a janitor, cleaning and sweeping the facility.

In the mid-1990s, Leos moved into a two-story, wood-frame house just below a cemetery on South Diamond Street. He kept to himself, tending to several pets, Hall said.

Hall said Leos had a tender spot for animals, taking care to drive slowly down a narrow alley next to his house to ensure none of the neighbors' pets were on the road. If a dog was crossing, he would stop and wait for it to pass, she said.

“I was shocked,” Hall said of Leos' arrest. “You never needed to worry about anything (with him). He always looked out for everybody.”

Mayor Jerry Lucia said he knew of Leos but never had a complaint about him.

“He was not a troublemaker in Mt. Pleasant, that's for sure,” Lucia said.

No one answered the door at Leos' house Thursday, where a front porch light burned and the window blinds were drawn.

Lined up along a wooden fence at one edge of the property are a wreath and four carefully placed markers, each apparently identifying a pet's grave. Signs on each marker list the pet's name — Itty Bitty, Callie, Skittles and Poor Little Puss — and its birth and death dates.

With Leos' arrest, Myers said she hopes state police take another look at her son's unsolved homicide.

“Oh, I've already called them in Greensburg,” Myers said. “They definitely should look at him, especially after this arrest.”

Liz Zemba and Paul Peirce are staff writers for Trib Total Media. Zemba can be reached at 412-601-2166 or lzemba@tribweb.com. Peirce can be reached at 724-850-2860 or ppeirce@tribweb.com.