SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — At the end of May, Leondre Flynt’s family received a phone call they’d been waiting for since he walked out of his home in Loganville on July 29, 2023, and never returned.
Through DNA testing, the Fulton County Medical Examiner was able to positively identify skeletal remains found in South Fulton as those of Flynt.
On December 19, 2023, Senior Medical Examiner Investigator Jimmy Sadler said land survey workers found the remains in an area at the intersection of Reel Lake Drive SW and Sand Bay Drive SW.
Sadler said four days later, on December 23, South Fulton Police returned to the area with a cadaver dog team and found several more skeletal remains.
This location is about 20 miles from where Atlanta Police said Flynt was shot and killed on July 29, 2023.
On August 1, 2023, Flynt’s family filed a missing person report with the Gwinnett County Police Department. The family printed flyers, searched on their own and interviewed multiple people, hoping to find Flynt safe and alive.
Through their investigation, Gwinnett County Police detectives determined Flynt was last seen in Atlanta, and the investigation was handed over to Atlanta Police.
Both agencies continued to investigate Flynt’s disappearance. After using various investigative methods, both agencies executed a search warrant at Marquis at Buckhead, 214 Colonial Homes Drive NW, in Buckhead.
The family said they learned through their own investigation that Flynt was lured to the apartment complex by a woman on the same day he was last seen alive, July 29, 2023.
Court records show that he met a woman named Audrey Zalky at the complex. Police allege the apartment Flynt was inside with Zalky was being rented by Ahmir Bobo and Destiny Stephens.
While police have not said what happened to Flynt inside the apartment, they make it clear in the arrest warrant for Bobo, Stephens and Zalky that he did not leave the apartment alive.
Police said through their investigation, they discovered there were a ‘shots fired’ call on July 29 from the apartment around 12:18 p.m., but when contacted by the leasing office, Bobo said, “A gun went off when a female friend was handling it.”
Police said a neighboring unit was hit by the bullet, but it appears no one ever checked the unit following the reported shooting.
RELATED: Second woman arrested, charged with murder in Gwinnett man's mysterious disappearance, police say
There is no indication that anyone entered the unit until August 16, 2023, when Gwinnett County Police and Atlanta Police executed the search warrant.
Police said they found ‘dark reddish stains’ on the railing’ near the unit and a ‘blood trail’ into the parking garage that “appeared to end at one of the parking stalls.”
Inside the unit, police said they prayed Luminol in the living room and kitchen area and found chemiluminescence, which indicates someone inside the unit had been bleeding.
However, there was no sign of Flynt.
As police continued investigating his case, which now switched from a missing person to a homicide, they uncovered surveillance video that hinted at what may have happened to Flynt after he was shot.
Court records show Flynt’s truck was seen on surveillance video at a nearby Lowe’s store. Police said in the video, you see Zalky and Stephens get out of Flynt’s truck, go inside the store and buy a “hand saw” and “bolt cutters.”
Court records show police stated later that same evening, Ring doorbell camera captured footage of a male moving “bulk items” on a furniture dolly from the apartment Flynt was last known to be inside alive, towards the elevator. Nowhere in the court documents does it show Flynt seen walking out of the apartment.
His truck would later be tracked down nearly 800 miles away in Detroit, Michigan. Police said the truck’s OnStar system placed the truck within a 20-minute drive of the address listed on Bobo’s Michigan driver’s license.
Bobo, Stephens and Zalky are all facing several charges in connection to Flynt’s homicide, including murder. They’re all currently booked inside the Fulton County Detention Center.
On Thursday, Flynt’s cousin Shanon Wilson said they are planning his celebration of life. Wilson said while this does bring some peace, knowing they found him, it doesn’t take away the pain of the brutal way his life ended.
“He didn’t do anything, all he did was go to work, like literally that’s all he did,” Wilson explained.
As for a motive, police have not yet said, but Wilson alleges it was a robbery. He just doesn’t understand why they had to kill him.
Atlanta Police is asking anyone with information on this homicide to call them or Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-8477.
While this investigation is ongoing, the Fulton County Medical Examiner also confirmed on Thursday that a second set of skeletal remains not belonging to Flynt were also found in the area where his remains were found in December. As of now, those remains have not been positively identified.