Kenneth Leighty: Murder, Confession, and Parole Denials

Kenneth Leighty is a Pennsylvania man who murdered his 23-year-old daughter-in-law, Sherry Leighty, in 1999, buried her body on his family’s hunting property, and kept the killing hidden for nearly 14 years before his own son helped police record a phone call in which he confessed. He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in December 2013 and is serving a seven-to-14-year state prison sentence. After parole was denied at every review, he is scheduled for mandatory release in May 2027.¹

Who Sherry Leighty Was

Sherry Jean Leighty was a 23-year-old mother of three living in the Altoona, Pennsylvania area. In the fall of 1999 she was finalizing her divorce from Aaron Leighty, Kenneth’s son. The divorce became final in October 1999, the same month she vanished.²

Kenneth Leighty told police he had last seen Sherry on October 1, 1999, after dropping her off near a temporary employment agency in Duncansville, and that he then went to his job at Veeder-Root Co. To family members he spread a different story: that Sherry had run off to Maine with a boyfriend.³ Sherry’s three children were seven, three, and one at the time. Her father, Sheldon Dumm, reported her missing and was granted full custody of the children.² For more than a decade, the rumor about Maine kept Altoona police from treating the disappearance as a homicide.

How the Cold Case Broke Open

In August 2012, Altoona police Detective Cpl. Matthew Starr was assigned to review the file. Starr found a critical hole in Leighty’s alibi almost immediately: Leighty had said he went to work after dropping Sherry off, but employment records showed he was not working that day. Starr reclassified the case as a potential homicide, with investigators looking at the Leighty family’s hunting property in Warriors Mark Township, Huntingdon County.⁴

Sherry’s sister, Shelly Nagle, had refused to let the case go dormant and is credited by the Huntingdon County District Attorney’s office with pushing it forward. Nagle also tracked down the man Sherry had supposedly run away with and confirmed Sherry had never been with him, further undercutting Kenneth Leighty’s long-running cover story.¹

The decisive moment came after Pennsylvania State Police troopers went to Leighty’s Altoona home on April 19, 2013, to question him. He fought with the officers, told them “I’m not going anywhere,” and was arrested on an aggravated assault charge.⁴⁵²

The Confession and What He Admitted

On May 10, 2013, Leighty formally confessed to investigators at the Huntingdon state police barracks. He said he and Sherry had argued at his home, that he struck her in the head with a solid object — a bat or a pole — and then put her in his truck and drove to the hunting property, where she died during transport.⁴

Her skeletal remains and clothing were recovered the next day, just feet from an area that had already been dug during an earlier five-day search with cadaver dogs.⁶ Search warrants also showed Leighty had used a computer to research search warrants, the disposal of human remains, and the techniques police use to locate buried bodies.²

Why He Pleaded to Third-Degree Murder

The plea was a trade. Huntingdon County District Attorney George Zanic said that without the location of Sherry’s body, prosecutors did not have enough evidence to pursue a higher charge. Leighty agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder in exchange for leading police to her remains. “I’m not happy with the sentence, but I made the decision because we wouldn’t have been able to find her without it,” Zanic said.⁴

Leighty entered the plea before Senior Judge Stewart Kurtz in Huntingdon County Court on December 19, 2013.⁴ At sentencing on February 27, 2014, Judge Kurtz imposed the agreed-upon seven to 14 years in state prison.⁷ Shelly Nagle told the court that Leighty had “brutally bludgeoned Sherry to death and left her naked body to rot in a hole,” and noted that in the years after the killing he had taken his grandchildren — Sherry’s own children — to the hunting property where their mother was buried.³ Defense attorney Thomas Hooper read a statement from Leighty expressing regret.

Parole Denials and the 2027 Release Date

Leighty became eligible for parole after serving the seven-year minimum, and his family mounted a sustained campaign to keep him in. Nagle launched a Change.org petition in August 2019 opposing his release and maintained a Facebook page in her sister’s memory, appearing repeatedly in local media.⁸⁹

The Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole denied release at every review. His second denial came in December 2020.¹⁰ A fourth denial, in February 2024, cited his lack of remorse and refusal to accept responsibility for the killing.⁹ A final review in February 2026 also ended in denial.¹

Because he was never granted parole, Leighty will serve the full maximum term. His 14-year sentence expires in May 2027, at which point he must be released. The family has said that because he was never paroled, there may be no mechanism to supervise him after he walks out. “If he could do this to the mother of his grandchildren, he could do this to anybody,” Nagle told reporters.¹⁰¹

1
WJAC-TV. Family Fears Release as Altoona Woman’s Killer Nears End of Sentence
2
CBS News Philadelphia. Kenneth Leighty Confesses to Killing Daughter-in-Law Sherry Leighty in Previously Unsolved 1999 Case
3
Altoona Mirror. Sherry Leighty’s Killer Receives 7 to 14 Years in Prison
4
Altoona Mirror. Man Pleads Guilty to ’99 Murder
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Altoona Mirror. Suspicions Against Dad Shock Son
6
Huntingdon Daily News. Missing Woman’s Remains Found
7
Observer-Reporter. Pa. Man Sentenced to 7 to 14 Years in Slaying
8
Change.org. Oppose the Release of Sherry Leighty’s Murderer
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WJAC-TV. Sister of Murdered Altoona Woman Fights to Keep Killer Behind Bars
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WTAJ. Sister of Murder Victim Speaks Out Before Convicted Killer’s Parole Hearing