NY - Leah Walsh, 29, Bethpage, 26 October 2008

[NSC]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444447,00.html

Long Island police are searching for a schoolteacher who disappeared after her car broke down on the side of a highway.

Leah Walsh, 29, called her husband William on Monday to tell him about the flat tire she got while driving on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway near Bethpage, N.Y. — but by the time he got there she was gone, Long Island's Newsday newspaper reported.

She was reported missing by her husband at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Officials at the school in Glen Cove where Walsh teaches autistic children also notified police when she failed to show up for work that morning.

William Walsh said that his wife's purse was found as he was searching the area around her abandoned 2005 Ford Focus with authorities later that day, the paper reported.

An emotional Walsh appealed to the public to help bring his wife home.

"You can have my cars," he told Newsday. "You can have everything. I just want my wife back."

Police said they were treating Walsh's disappearance as a missing persons case, not an abduction, the New York Daily News reported.

Lucas Bean, a friend of the young woman, told the Daily News that she had marital problems following a "huge fight" with her husband on Sunday.

Bean told the paper Williams texted him while she was traveling from her parents' house to her apartment in Bethpage.

A close friend of the young woman told the Daily News that she was distraught about problems in her marriage after having a "huge fight" with her husband Sunday.

Lucas Bean, who said he's known Walsh she was a freshman in college, said she texted him while she was on the way from her parents' house in Rockville Centre to her apartment in Bethpage.

"She was telling me that things are not going to work out with her and her husband and she had to tell me something very important, but she needed to wait til she got out of the car with him," Bean, 32, of Los Angeles, told the paper.

"She was in the car with him texting to me so that was Sunday night and they were in a huge fight," Bean continued.

Bean told the paper he never learned what the fight was about.

 

[LorinMarie]

"You can have my cars," he told Newsday. "You can have everything. I just want my wife back."

Does this comment sound odd to anyone else? You can have my cars? Just sounds odd to me

 

[Bobbisangel]

This isn't sounding good. I wonder if she actually drove her car at all that morning or if the husband drove it and made sure it would have a flat tire. If they had a huge fight on Sunday night and the wife didn't think they were going to make it maybe something happened after they got home. He could have left her car on the freeway and then later called LE. I guess if they check his phone records they will be able to tell if she called for his help or not. This just doesn't sound quite right though.

 

[LorinMarie]

This isn't sounding good. I wonder if she actually drove her car at all that morning or if the husband drove it and made sure it would have a flat tire. If they had a huge fight on Sunday night and the wife didn't think they were going to make it maybe something happened after they got home. He could have left her car on the freeway and then later called LE. I guess if they check his phone records they will be able to tell if she called for his help or not. This just doesn't sound quite right though.

If he did harm her he could have called his own phone from hers to cover his butt, would LE be able to tell if this were the case? I don't know much about pings and such but would they know if say both phones were in the same room when the call was made??

 

[KR2tonenow]

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/na...,3706854.story



Let's see, hubby with a taste for gambling, driving missing wife's sweet ride, because she decided to drive the boring black Ford Focus with the bad tires on the day she went missing.

If I had a cool yellow Mustang convertible, I'd be driving it to work every day.

I'll be interested to find out:

* When was the last time someone other than Hubby saw her alive?

* What is their financial situation? Does he have a job?

* Is she pregnant?

* Where and when did their cell phones ping, and did he text her back ?

* Does he have any un-explained scratches or bruises?

If she pulled of the freeway with a flat tire at 6:30 Monday morning, someone should have seen her. How close was she to an exit, or intersection?

If I had a flat, I'd try to pull over in a brightly lit or very conspicuous area. Was her car in a place where it was hard for other motorists to see it?

Susan

Apparently the article above said she got in a big fight with her husband. Also, I find it weird that the husband found the purse and not the police.

Right, this story doesn't jive, do they have a life insurance policy?

 

[NSC]

This isn't sounding good. I wonder if she actually drove her car at all that morning or if the husband drove it and made sure it would have a flat tire. If they had a huge fight on Sunday night and the wife didn't think they were going to make it maybe something happened after they got home. He could have left her car on the freeway and then later called LE. I guess if they check his phone records they will be able to tell if she called for his help or not. This just doesn't sound quite right though.

I agree --- I hope this isn't going to another one of these cases where the husband kills his wife. There are way to many of these!!!

 

[David_Lohr]

Have you guys found her MySpace? I found her on Yahoo, Classmates and a few other sites, but have been unable to locate her MySpace. According to an article I read earlier today she is supposed to have one.

Would appreciate any info. Thanks.

Police Investigate Mysterious Disappearance of N.Y. Schoolteacher, Leah Walsh

 

[Bobbisangel]

If he did harm her he could have called his own phone from hers to cover his butt, would LE be able to tell if this were the case? I don't know much about pings and such but would they know if say both phones were in the same room when the call was made??

I think they can tell by the pings and towers. I don't know a whole lot about pings, etc, but I remember when Drew P said that he got a call from Stacy and they proved that he had called from her phone to his. Hopfully LE can find out what towers both of the phones were close to.

 

[Bobbisangel]

I agree --- I hope this isn't going to another one of these cases where the husband kills his wife. There are way to many of these!!!

I hope this lady is alive and safe somewhere but.....I was reading somewhere that they are now calling it divorce by homicide!! I will never understand why men do this as most of them end up in prison for the rest of their lives. No one wins :furious:

 

[NSC]

I found the friends facebook and hers. No pic on hers. But her friend is an attractive lad. I didn't find a myspace but I am not done searching yet.

 

[fran]

Just about every article I've read says something different. Now I found this article and it says much more than any of the others. It looks like she was getting ready to leave her husband of three years. Maybe he wasn't ready to let her go.

Just in case by the time you look at the article, it's gone, her father spotted her car, called her husband and he THEN came to the scene. It was NOT her husband who reported her missing and I THINK his story is NOT CONSISTANT.

OhMyGosh, it never stops!

fran

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Teacher_Disappears_After_Getting_Flat_Tire.html

Teacher Disappears After Getting Flat Tire

....................SNIP..........................

Leah Walsh, who usually leaves her home for work between 6:15 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., sent a text message to her husband at about 6:25 a.m., telling him to "have a great day," William Walsh told a reporter for 1010 WINS radio.

"That's the last I heard from her," he added through sobs.

He later told reporters outside his in-laws' home in Rockville Centre: "You can have my cars. You can have everything. I just want my wife back."

A male close friend of the missing woman told the Daily News that she was upset bout a "huge
fight" with her husband on Saturday.

Lucas Bean, 32, who told the paper he'd known Walsh since they were in college, said she texted him on the way from her parents' house in Rockville Centre to her apartment in Bethpage.

"She was telling me that things are not going to work out with her and her husband and she had to tell me something very important, but she needed to wait 'til she got out of the car with him," the News quoted Bean as saying "That was Saturday around 7 p.m. They were in a huge fight."


Police also noted that a state Department of Transportation HELP vehicle, which assists motorists with car trouble, left a sticker on the side of Leah Walsh's abandoned car at about 6:30 a.m. The stickers are used to notify police that a vehicle was undergoing some kind of mechanical difficulty.

The Walshes, who live in Bethpage, have been married for three years; they have no children, Lt. Smith said.

<<<<<<<<<full article at link>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

[susan1215]

He's guilty! Another case of a husband who kills his wife when the marriage is gets rocky and she is ready to leave him. I'd like to see if he helps in the search and talks to the media or hids in his house. The fact that they had a big fight and she had talked to her friend about leaving him makes me wonder.

At first he declined to comment, but then at around 11 a.m. he emerged from the house to give out the photos. Decline to comment? He should be calling the media to get the word out about his wife.

The last time he heard from her is when she texted him that she had no clue where she was? Then how did he find her car? That's odd. She was supposedly on her way to work so she should know where she was at.

 

[susan1215]

I hope this lady is alive and safe somewhere but.....I was reading somewhere that they are now calling it divorce by homicide!! I will never understand why men do this as most of them end up in prison for the rest of their lives. No one wins :furious:

Especially the kids who ends up loosing both of their parents. I think it's a combination of anger that gets out of hand and control issues. You aren't going to leave me. Also like in Scott Peterson case wanting to get out of the marriage without going through a divorce.

 

[opme]

So essentially no one can account for her whereabouts except the husband after the text on saturday.. the next thing we know is that the HELP sticker was placed on her car at 6:30 am which is the normal time for her to depart for work. So If the fight escalated on saturday which it sounds like it did.. then he had all night Saturday, all day sunday and in to the early hours of Monday to dispose of her, the car, set up the alibi of the text to him, etc.. I wonder what he is saying to police about those hours, and his and her whereabouts..

I hope they find her soon ..alive but I suspect like so many others that this will not be the case.. and once again it will be a homicide case that again highlights the dangers of a spousal or SO relationship...

 

[CaliKid]

It sounds like Scott P. all over again.

 

[susan1215]

Lucas Bean, 32, a close friend of Walsh, said she texted him Sunday night on her way home from her parents’ house after a “huge fight” with her husband.
“She was telling me that things are not going to work out with her and her husband and she had to tell me something very important, but she needed to wait til she got out of the car with him,” he said.
“She was in the car with him texting to me so that was Sunday night and they were in a huge fight.”
That was the last Bean, who lives in Los Angeles heard from the young woman

Sounds like she was alive Sunday night, on her way home. My guess is the she told him she was leaving when she got home and he killed her and planted the car there.

 

[Ruflossn]

"You can have my cars," he told Newsday. "You can have everything. I just want my wife back."

Does this comment sound odd to anyone else? You can have my cars? Just sounds odd to me

I agree the comment immediately stuck out as bizarre.
You can have my cars.............. Whatever...............

 

[MeoW333]

Sounds like the husband killed her and she was really in love with Bean

 

[MrsG728]

They just reported that on the local LI news here... dad is a school bus driver and passed her car on the SOB Expwy. around 6:30AM Monday and noticed it on the side of the road.

DOT sticker was placed on the car, customary when cars are left on the side of the road. * The DOT has to have a record of when they placed this sticker, who placed the sticker, and the details concerning the condition of the vehicle (i.e. was it warm?)* this is going to be the key here....

School called to see where she was when she didn't report for work. Someone answered that call... I don't see if it's clear. Did they call Dad or Husband?

Why did the initial news articles report that she texted her husband about the flat tire? Now they say she texted to say "have a nice day love ya MWAH" ?

My hinkometer is crankin' tonight! :furious:

 

[MrsG728]

An update from the Newsday article clears up the timeline for us a bit:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-liteac2912114819oct29,0,5235857.story

Hours later, after Walsh failed to report to work on Monday, concerned school officials called her family, Nassau detectives said.

Her father, a school bus driver, went to the scene before noon and called her husband, who then called 911.

Smith said that when police officers arrived at the scene, "there were no obvious signs or outward signs that there was anything afoul or amiss in the car."

The car's right front tire was flat, Smith said.

A police officer found Walsh's pocketbook just off the shoulder of the expressway near the car, police said.

"Her pocketbook does bring us a little cause for concern," Smith said.

The woman's mother pleaded for her daughter's return.

"She loves her job. She loves children. She wouldn't let the kids down," said her mother, Mattie Hirschel of Rockville Centre, who said she doubts that her daughter left on her own accord. "She's my baby,"