Leigh Margaret Loveleigh Dalton, 44, was found murdered in Kansas City after she stopped communicating with family on February 4, 2023. A missing persons report followed, and her body was discovered on the morning of February 20, 2023, hidden in an empty bay of an abandoned car wash in the 8300 block of Hickman Mills Drive. The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide by gunshot.

Dalton was last seen visiting a residence on Monroe Avenue where family members said she was in an abusive relationship. Investigators used cell phone data to trace her last movements and found her device’s route mirrored by a phone belonging to her ex-boyfriend. Detectives executing a search warrant at a Monroe Avenue home later reported finding blood spots and drag marks on the living room carpet that matched the victim’s DNA, and alleged the killing took place inside the residence before the body was transported and dumped.

In April 2023 authorities charged 44-year-old Donnell E. Buckman with second-degree murder and armed criminal action and held him on $250,000 bond; prosecutors also referenced earlier domestic violence reports including an alleged November 2022 assault. Did anyone in the Monroe Avenue area see Leigh or notice unusual activity in early February 2023?