Experts say there’s still hope
Search for missing Ansonia toddler continues
ANSONIA — The hope still burns that somewhere out there is someone who has been sheltering a young child slightly older than 2 who for six months has been the target of a nationwide search.
Tuesday marks six months since Ansonia toddler Vanessa Morales disappeared. Police and family members say they still have hope she’s alive and well.
“To the person that has my niece Vanessa, please bring her back to us safely,” said Jodi Jacobellis, one of Vanessa’s aunts, in an email sent in response to a Hearst Connecticut Media request. “Please bring her back to her family who loves her dearly and misses her every minute of every day.”
On Dec. 2, 2019, police found the fatally beaten body of Christine Holloway in her Myrtle Avenue home and determined her then-1year-old daughter was missing.
Vanessa’s father, Jose Morales, 43, of New Haven, has been charged with Christine’s murder and tampering with evidence in the case. He also faces two charges of being a felon in possession of stun guns. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held on $5 million bond pending a June 17 appearance in state Superior Court in Milford.
Morales, who from the beginning has cooperated with police, has not provided information as to Vanessa’s whereabouts, investigators have said. A nationwide hunt has not turned up any credible information where she is. Flyers passed out by Morales’ family and others and
posted locally and on billboards after she disappeared have so far yielded nothing concrete.
Now, six months after Holloway’s death and in the middle of a pandemic and nationwide unrest, Vanessa’s disappearance remains an active case.
“We continue to receive tips and leads to follow up, and while they have slowed down, that can be attributed more to the length of the time from the onset of the investigation,” said Ansonia Police Lt. Patrick Lynch. “The case is still a top priority for us and will continue to be until we find Vanessa.”
While Facebook pages like Bringing Home Vanessa Morales and #Finding Vanessa Morales still offer prayers of hope and updated information on the disappearance, retired FBI Agent Ken Gray expressed concern that more recent crimes and disasters are pushing Vanessa’s case further from the public eye.
“It’s not a cold case yet,” said Gray, who was a crisis management coordinator for the FBI in Connecticut and now is a criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven. “I would say it’s getting cool.”
Several retired police officers said there are ways to keep Vanessa’s disappearance from fading from view.
Gray said prosecutors need to focus on Jose Morales as “probably the only person that can provide information on her whereabouts.”
Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York Police Department sergeant and cold case commander, said he believes the items that went missing with Vanessa — her Graco car seat, Eddie Bauer backpack/diaper bag, teething ring and polka dot comforter — give hope she is alive.
“I tried never to lose hope. If you go with the belief she’s in the care of others, then work those angles again,” he said — reach out to all of Morales’ family and friends here and in Puerto Rico and retrace all instances of a young child boarding a plane in December.
Lisa Dadio, a retired New Haven Police lieutenant, said she believes now is a good time to conduct another public awareness campaign.
“Anniversaries are always good times to bring attention to a cold case,” said Dadio, now coordinator of the forensic technology program at the University of New Haven. “Now with the weather getting warmer and people starting to come out, you want to put things out there.”
Her suggestions: post Vanessa’s photos in the area and especially at community-based health care centers and hospitals both in Connecticut and the section of Puerto Rico where Morales still has family, both photos already available and digitally enhanced versions of what Vanessa might look today. The chances of her identity being altered to hide her are probably minimal.
“There probably wouldn’t be a lot of change in her appearance,” Dadio said. “In a diverse community like New Haven, it’s easy for a child with her features — dark hair, dark eyes — to blend in.”
Dadio and Giacalone said they suspect that, like any 2-year-old, Vanessa probably saw a medical professional in the past six months.
That’s why the placement of the posters around those facilities — at registration desks, emergency room entrances and nurses’ stations — is important, they said.
“You can’t assume that everyone reads the newspaper, watches television news or even goes on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram,” Dadio said.
Surveillance cameras can provide backup if there’s a sighting.
Public awareness campaigns often benefit from pleas from family members, like the one from Vanessa’s aunt.
Jacobellis has asked that whoever has Vanessa to “please put yourself in our shoes — we lost my sisterin-law — Vanessa’s mother — in the most tragic way. We have to live with the fact we will never see my sister-in-law, never hug her, never laugh with her, never talk to her, never have holiday dinners or birthday celebrations with my sister-in-law, but we still can hold, hug, kiss, laugh, celebrate holidays and birthdays with the last piece of my sister-in-law and that’s with my niece Vanessa.”
Jacobellis said the family wants to be able to tell Vanessa what a wonderful person her mother was: “How her mother had a heart of gold, how her mother would do anything for anyone, how her mother prayed every day to become a mother to Vanessa. I want to be able to tell my niece Vanessa how I would feel her move around when she was in her mommy’s belly.”
“Please bring Vanessa back to her family that loves and misses her,” Jacobellis added. “The $10,000 reward is still available, you can take the money no questions asked, no charges will be brought against you. Please bring Vanessa back to us safely.”
Jacobellis also said the family wanted to thank the community members, businesses and police departments that had helped — and continue to help — in the search for the toddler.
The family again urged residents, walkers, hikers, pawn shops and secondhand stores to be on the look out for Holloway’s white iPhone 8 in a black Otterbox case. Investigators determined it was last used in Naugatuck. Anyone who comes across such a phone should contact police.
“We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and we know Christine would be amazed and grateful for all the love and support that you all have shown for us, for her, and for her daughter Vanessa,” they said. “Please keep Vanessa’s face in your minds, and please keep Vanessa in your prayers that she will come home to her family soon and safely.”
A $10,000 reward is available to whoever provides information leading to Vanessa Morales’ whereabouts. Contact Ansonia Police at 203-503-5555, the FBI at 1-800-225-5324 or text Tip411.