{"id":36874,"date":"2022-12-07T18:58:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T01:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/eight-months-later-few-answers-in-young-girls-death-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T01:58:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T01:58:55","slug":"eight-months-later-few-answers-in-young-girls-death-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/eight-months-later-few-answers-in-young-girls-death-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight months later, few answers in young girl\u2019s death in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Annika
Annika Sandoval and her father, Brian Sandavol. (Montrose Daily Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

More than eight months after the suspicious death of a 5-year-old girl in Montezuma County, no arrests have been made, and charges have not been filed in the case.<\/p>\n

Annika Mae Sandoval, the daughter of Brian Sandoval of Montrose, was found unresponsive, lying in bed with her mother, Rachel Leonard, on March 29 in Leonard\u2019s Cortez home.<\/p>\n

Leonard was taken to St. Mary\u2019s Medical Center in Grand Junction, incoherent, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin at the time began investigating the death as a homicide, telling the Daily Press<\/em><\/a>, \u201cIt might not end up being that way. You have to start off with the most serious and keep all your options with wide vision and not be tunnel-visioned about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the sheriff said the case may not go anywhere at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been any movement on it, and I don\u2019t know that the DA will do anything with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nowlin added that his investigators have had multiple meetings with District Attorney Matthew Margeson and that the sheriff was unsure whether any charges would be filed.<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of charges, the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the DA are treating the investigation as \u201cactive and ongoing,\u201d Margeson said last week, declining to comment further except to say the Sheriff\u2019s Office had yet to complete its work on the case.<\/p>\n

Cause of death<\/div>\n

As of Tuesday, a cause of death had not been determined, Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s about two cases a year where you can\u2019t determine a cause of death,\u201d he said. One example, he said, is when an elderly person dies unattended at home. He also said sometimes there are no signs when someone suffocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone shoves a pillow over someone\u2019s face, if they\u2019re big enough to struggle, it will show signs,\u201d he said, adding that if someone is too small, they may not be able to struggle hard enough.<\/p>\n

Asked if he thought the girl\u2019s death was suspicious, he said, \u201cFive-year-olds don\u2019t just die every day, so it\u2019s suspicious, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The undetermined nature of her death could have to do with why no charges have been filed yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe autopsy doesn\u2019t show anything,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cWith all of the possibilities, there\u2019s no medical reason given for how she died.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second pathologist is looking into the cause of death and has been for more than a month. Deavers said he\u2019s unsure when the other pathologist\u2019s results could come back.<\/p>\n

Deavers also said outside evidence could play a factor in whether he determines a cause of death, and he\u2019s been working with investigators throughout the investigation.<\/p>\n

Grieving family wants answers<\/div>\n

Following Annika\u2019s death, friends of Brian Sandoval launched a crowdfunding page to curtail funeral costs. The community support was helpful, but the whole process was a whirlwind, Sandoval said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never dealt with anything like this in my life. When I went up there, they told me I needed to find a funeral home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Annika
Annika Sandoval (Montrose Daily Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He is still grieving and wants answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo was (Leonard) trying to commit suicide or what?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she was in bed with our daughter. This sucks because I feel like (the investigators) aren\u2019t doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the night before his daughter died, he and Leonard had an argument involving Annika meeting Sandoval\u2019s new girlfriend, now wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said I broke a promise with her (about not introducing Annika to significant others). That was the day I dropped her off in Telluride,\u201d Sandoval said.<\/p>\n

Later that night, he said, the two texted without argument, but the next morning, when Leonard\u2019s parents found Annika dead and Leonard incoherent, he texted his child\u2019s mother again with no response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until 1:30 (p.m.) that I heard,\u201d he said. \u201cThey called the cops at 9:30 or 10:30, and I didn\u2019t find out what was going on or that anything was wrong until 1:30.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than anything, Sandoval said he wants answers and justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want justice for my daughter. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s kind of weird to me there\u2019s not enough evidence for them to do anything right now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just sucks, you know. She was 5 years old. She\u2019s innocent. She was healthy. I just want to find out what happened to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attempt to reach Leonard by phone was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

This story was provided to The Journal courtesy of Justin Tubbs, managing editor of the Montrose Daily Press.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five-year-old died in home March 29; no arrests made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36874","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=36874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36874"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}