Diana L. Leone

Leone, circa 2000; David Dale Morgan, circa 2007

  • Missing Since 02/01/2000
  • Missing From Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 08/03/1964 (60)
  • Age 35 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'5, 120 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A white t-shirt, blue jeans and a watch on her right wrist.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Leone has previously fractured her left arm, right facial bones and two bones in her right leg. Her ears are pierced. She has a scar on her left finger, a scar on her left cheek and scarring on the fingertips of her left hand.

Details of Disappearance

Leone resided in the 3000 block of West Tecos Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada with her boyfriend, David Dale Morgan, and their two children. A photograph of David is posted with this case summary. Leone and David met in 1981, when she was 16 and he was 50 years old. She moved into his home and started working at one of his businesses, Abacus Mini-Storage, shortly afterwards.

There is a long-standing history of domestic violence in their relationship. David was charged with her attempted murder in 1989 after he beat her with a pipe and Leone suffered numerous fractures. The charges were dropped after Leone refused to testify against him in court.

David was arrested for additional alleged domestic violence incidents in May 1997 and March 1999. He was also charged with child endangerment in January 1992. Leone continuously refused to cooperate with authorities and all domestic violence charges were eventually dropped against David.

Leone was last seen in Las Vegas sometime during February 2000. She left all of her personal belongings behind at her residence, including her clothes, money and vehicle. She has never been heard from again.

David never reported her as a missing person. He claimed that Leone was having an affair with a man named "Tim" and said that she left Las Vegas with him. One of Leone's family members alerted law enforcement about her disappearance in October 2000, eight months after she vanished.

Leone and David's seven-year-old daughter told authorities that she witnessed her parents having an argument the night before Leone disappeared. The child said that David pushed Leone through a plate glass window inside their residence, then smashed her head into their refrigerator.

It is believed that the fight revolved around David's belief that Leone was conducting an affair. Authorities stated that they located a male friend of Leone's in October 2000. Reportedly, David believed that she was romantically involved with the individual.

Investigators said that there was no evidence Leone and the man were having an affair. Officials are still attempting to verify the existence of "Tim."

The couple's home was searched in November 2000 and investigators announced they discovered evidence that suggested Leone did not leave of her own accord. Authorities said that foul play was suspected in her disappearance.

Drops of blood were located inside the couple's home and near Leone's vehicle. Investigators did not disclose whether the blood was identified as Leone's.

David's second wife, Marie Morgan, also vanished under suspicious circumstances from Las Vegas in 1980, 20 years prior to Leone's disappearance. Photographs and vital statistics for Marie are unavailable.

Records showed that an employee of the city's Women's Crisis Center reported Marie as a missing person shortly after her disappearance. Marie received assistance from the center after she reported David's alleged abuse. He never contacted authorities regarding his wife's disappearance and said that he believed Marie left with her boyfriend, Gabriel Vincent.

Vincent apparently took photographs of Marie performing sex acts and attempted to blackmail David with them prior to her disappearance. David was enraged by this. Vincent disappeared in November 1979. Fred Hackett, one of David's employees, later admitted he helped David dispose of Vincent's body.

David later confessed his murder to Marie's sister, Kim Smith. He said he ambushed Vincent at the storage facility Vincent rented from him, shot him in the groin and tortured him before shooting him to death. He told Smith he buried the remains and covered the grave with quicklime to hasten decomposition. Authorities believe he may have moved the body sometime later.

David's sister, Deloris Morgan, came forward in 1985 and claimed that David forced her at gunpoint to help him relocate Marie's remains in the Nevada desert in 1980. Deloris stated that they buried the body in a large hole along Highway 95 past Indian Springs, Nevada near mile marker 124.

She claimed that David forced her to move the body again several months afterwards. She said that he filled a 55-gallon drum with water and instructed her to haul water buckets while he poured cement over the gravesite.

Deloris attempted to lead law enforcement officials to the location, but she was unable to identify the site. She died of natural causes in 1987.

Donald Cowan, a former business associate of Morgan's disappeared in 1982. His photograph and vital statistics are unavailable. Authorities now believe David was involved in Cowan's disappearance, but little information is available in his case.

David hired an attorney after Leone's 2000 disappearance. He owns a furniture moving business in addition to the storage units. Authorities estimated that David was worth two million dollars in 2000.

In 2007, he was arrested and charged with Vincent's murder. The case was reopened after Fred Hackett told police he witnessed David murder Vincent and helped dispose of the body. Hackett's account of Vincent's murder is similar to Smith's account of David's confession.

The murder case against David was dropped in 2012, however, because Hackett had died and prosecutors couldn't prove David's guilt without his testimony.

Cowan, Marie and Leone's cases remain unsolved and charges have been not filed against anyone in connection with their disappearances, but David is considered to be the prime suspect in their cases.

Authorities don't believe Leone would have left of her own accord and abandoned her daughter, whom she was very close to. She also left behind a teenage son. Her body has never been found.

Investigating Agency

  • Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department 702-229-4172

Updated 5 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated June 1, 2013; clothing/jewelry description added, distinguishing characteristics updated.