Vigil organized for missing Patchogue mother believed to have been found dead

A community vigil for the Patchogue mother who was missing for over two weeks and is believed to have been found dead on Thursday will be held at 7 p.m. today in Patchogue.

Malyk Leonard announced the ceremony will take place outside of his mother Yvette’s home at 64 Terry St.

“We would like to come together with love & respect for Yvette Leonard who was tragically taken far too soon,” Malyk Leonard said earlier today on his Facebook page.

Suffolk Police arrested 72-year-old Patchogue resident Garry Cowell in connection to the human remains discovered Thursday afternoon in East Patchogue, and prosecutors say he admitted to “butchering” the woman’s body with an ax “when she passed away.”

Neither police nor prosecutors have confirmed that the remains are those of Yvette Leonard, who was missing since June 13, only saying in court that the victim had been missing since that same date.

Malyk Leonard has written publicly that the “deceased body found” is “believed to be my mother,” while qualifying his statement by adding the “identity of body not confirmed.”

Yvette Leonard, 56, a Patchogue resident for 10 years, was reported missing to police on June 18. Malyk Leonard of Brooklyn has noted that during the Island-wide search for his mother, it became known that the last person she was seen with was Cowell.

Prior coverage of Yvette Leonard’s disappearance

Prosecutors say man admitted to dismembering woman whose remains were found in E. Patchogue

‘Please help me find my mother,’ son of missing Patchogue woman begs cops, media and community

Patchogue woman, 56, missing for eight days; son desperately searching