{"id":16436,"date":"2025-09-22T23:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T23:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-woman-indicted-for-first-degree-murder-three-years-after-daughters-death\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:57:13","slug":"cortez-woman-indicted-for-first-degree-murder-three-years-after-daughters-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-woman-indicted-for-first-degree-murder-three-years-after-daughters-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez woman indicted for first-degree murder three years after daughter\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo
Photo of Annika Mae Sandoval. (Courtesy photo\/Montrose Daily Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Cortez woman has been charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of her 5-year-old daughter after an indictment revealed she had searched online for information about suffocation and Tylenol overdose in the days leading up to the child\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Rachel Leonard, 38, was indicted Aug. 22 in Montezuma County\u2019s 22nd Judicial District Court. The indictment alleges Leonard caused the death of her daughter, Annika Mae Sandoval.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Montezuma County sheriff\u2019s Deputy Steven Smith found Leonard and her daughter on the morning of Tuesday, March 29, 2022. Leonard was lying on her bed, crying and speaking incoherently. Sandoval was at the foot of the bed, lying on the floor. Sheriff Steve Nowlin told The Journal<\/em> <\/a>that Sandoval\u2019s grandfather was giving CPR.<\/p>\n

Paramedics pronounced Sandoval dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

First responders saw vomit on Leonard, the bed and the bedding. Leonard did not answer questions at the house or in the ambulance. She was airlifted to St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Grand Junction. Analysis of the vomit confirmed traces of acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol. The indictment says Leonard took Tylenol PM and mentions her insomnia.<\/p>\n

According to Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers, Sandoval did not vomit, aspirate or choke.<\/p>\n

An autopsy listed Sandoval\u2019s cause of death as undetermined. It found mild cerebral edema, or brain swelling. This can result from trauma, drowning or drug overdose.<\/p>\n

Deavers testified that suffocation usually leaves no signs except cerebral edema. He also said an unconscious person could be suffocated with a pillow.<\/p>\n

The heavily redacted indictment does not name Annika Mae Sandoval or Brian Sandoval of Montrose. But earlier reports from The Journal <\/em>and Montrose Daily Press<\/em><\/a> identified them.<\/p>\n

The indictment outlines events before Sandoval\u2019s death. Leonard was upset about a situation involving her daughter\u2019s father. A search of Leonard\u2019s phone found Google searches about suffocation and Tylenol overdose.<\/p>\n

Parents argue before daughter\u2019s death<\/div>\n

The indictment describes an informal custody agreement. Leonard and her daughter\u2019s father met every two weeks in Telluride, between Montrose and Cortez. Brian Sandoval lives in Montrose.<\/p>\n

Brian Sandoval told Montrose Daily Press<\/em> he argued with Leonard the night before their daughter died. The argument followed a handoff in Telluride. He had broken an agreement by introducing their daughter to a girlfriend he later married.<\/p>\n

The indictment confirms these details. It shows Leonard was upset after the pickup because Brian introduced their daughter to his new girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Google searches point to Leonard<\/div>\n

A search warrant for Leonard\u2019s phone found two key Google searches before Sandoval died.<\/p>\n

One search, dated March 23, 2022, asked how many milligrams of Tylenol would cause an overdose.<\/p>\n

Another search, dated March 27, asked \u201chow long does it take to suffocate.\u201d The phone\u2019s user also visited a forum about suffocation by pillow.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Leonard<\/div>\n

District Attorney Jeremy Reed said the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office executed an arrest warrant for Leonard. A jail report shows she was arrested Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

A sheriff\u2019s official confirmed Leonard remains in custody on a $2 million bond as of Monday.<\/p>\n

Her plea hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article includes details from a December 2022 story provided to The Journal by Justin Tubbs, managing editor of the Montrose Daily Press. The indictment states that a Google search was found on Leonard\u2019s phone reading \u201cwill 150 500 mg of Tylenol pm overdose?\u201d on \u201cMarch 23, 2023,\u201d which would have been a year after Sandoval\u2019s death. However, the warrant for Leonard\u2019s phone allowed only for a search through a date range of Jan. 1, 2022 to March 29, 2022. The Journal confirmed with DA Jeremy Reed that the date of the Tylenol search was a scrivener\u2019s error and was actually March 23, 2022. <\/em><\/p>\n

Bailey Duran, a reporter for The Journal, contributed to reporting for this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

searches on Tylenol overdose and suffocation found on mother\u2019s phone before daughter\u2019s death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16436"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20202,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16436\/revisions\/20202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16436"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}