In December 2019, Christine Holloway, a child care worker from Ansonia, Connecticut, missed a day of work. The police inquiry that followed became a homicide investigation and a search for her toddler daughter.
Holloway’s Household in Ansonia
Christine Holloway, 43, rented the second-floor apartment above a three-car garage on Myrtle Avenue in Ansonia. She lived there with her 14-month-old daughter, Vanessa.
The girl’s father, Jose Morales, was Holloway’s boyfriend. The couple had met on a dating app a few years before 2019.
The family did not share one home during the week. Morales had two children from an earlier relationship, and he lived with them at his mother and stepfather’s house in New Haven, about a 30-minute drive from Ansonia. On weekends, he stayed with Holloway and Vanessa at her apartment.
Holloway worked at Bright Morning Star Child Care in Bridgeport, partly so that she could spend time with her daughter during the day. In late November 2019, she bought a black Ford Focus. On Thanksgiving, she and Vanessa visited the New Haven home.
A Missed Shift and Two Welfare Checks
On Monday, December 2, 2019, Holloway did not arrive at work. Her absence was unusual, and at about 1:00 p.m. her supervisor asked the Ansonia Police Department for a welfare check, a visit to confirm that a person is safe. An officer was sent to the apartment shortly afterward.
It had snowed the night before, and temperatures remained very low. Even so, two of the apartment’s windows, a skylight and a bay window, were open.
The officer knocked, but no one answered, and he heard nothing from inside. Because he had no reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred, he left.
The supervisor also contacted one of Holloway’s brothers and his girlfriend, Jodi, who lived nearby. Jodi went to the apartment and saw fresh footprints in the snow, but no one came to the door, and she heard no sounds from inside, including a crying child.
She next drove to the New Haven home, thinking Holloway and Vanessa might still be there. Morales gave no sign that he knew Holloway had missed work. He told Jodi only that he had seen Holloway and Vanessa leave around 7:00 a.m. that morning.
Jodi then called local hospitals to ask about an accident. When that produced nothing, she contacted the police and described the family’s concerns, and this time the department took further action.
Officers telephoned Morales on a recorded line. He said he left for work early each morning, and when they asked when he had last seen Holloway, he answered that it was Friday. Jodi confirmed that he had told her he saw Holloway and Vanessa that morning.
Asked what Holloway drove, Morales named a gold 2002 Mazda and said he knew of no black car. In fact, he had helped Holloway choose the Ford Focus, and it was still parked outside her apartment.
At about 8:45 p.m., two officers returned for a second welfare check. They walked around the building, and one of them questioned residents in the neighborhood. A neighbor reported seeing Morales outside earlier that day. The door was locked.
Before forcing it, one officer described the situation for his recording. Holloway, he said, was the mother of a one-year-old who always showed up at work and always contacted her employer, and no one had heard from her.
“We have a bad feeling,” he said. Concerned for Holloway and her daughter, the officers kicked the door in.
For a short time inside the apartment, nothing seemed wrong. Then one officer shouted for the other. In the bathroom was Holloway’s body, unclothed and so badly beaten that the officers knew she could not be saved. Vanessa was not in the apartment.
The Crime Scene and the First Interview
A medical examiner determined that Holloway had suffered at least eight blows to the head from a weapon believed to be a hammer.
No weapon was ever found, so that conclusion remained an estimate. Investigators calculated that she had died early on Sunday, December 1, and they opened a homicide investigation.
The condition of the apartment showed that the attack had not taken place in the bathroom. A large amount of blood was found in the hallway near Vanessa’s crib, and someone had tried to clean it up.
State police found blood on the walls, a rocking chair, a rug, a container of toys and several stuffed animals. A wet, red-stained rag sat in a bucket under the sink, and bone fragments were found in the sink’s pipes.
A single pink infant’s Croc, stained with blood, had no matching shoe. Aside from two overflowing recycling bins of water bottles and beer cans, one inside the apartment and one outside, the home was in order. Nothing appeared to be stolen, and a candle had been lit.
Early on Tuesday, December 3, Morales was picked up at his mother and stepfather’s house and agreed to come to the police station. Detectives did not tell him that Holloway had been killed.
They said they needed his help finding her and Vanessa, both of whom were missing, and they told him he was free to leave. Morales replied that he had been trying to call her as well.
During the 38-minute drive, Morales never asked about his daughter. He talked about the squad car and about living a sober lifestyle.
In the interview, Morales said he had last spoken to Holloway by phone on Monday morning, in a call that lasted less than a minute. Asked whether a call that short was normal, he said it was and it was not, because he sometimes called early in the morning.
Asked to describe the weekend, he said Holloway and Vanessa had left his house alone around 6:00 p.m. on Friday and that he had spent the weekend with a friend named Hector.
Detectives had already spoken with his stepfather, who said Morales had told him that he and Holloway were going to her apartment together on Friday.
Morales said his stepfather had probably assumed that. When pressed, he said he had told his father where he went, then that he had told his father he went to Holloway’s, and then that he was not sure.
He described the relationship as one in which the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” were used lightly. He said the two were not close because Holloway had her own apartment and her own life.
He said that because the two had a baby together, he took on some responsibility by helping her, and that his family let Holloway stay at their house on holidays so that she could see Vanessa.
They did this for Vanessa, he said, not for Holloway. His family loved Vanessa but “really don’t like” Holloway, he said, before he added that she was “okay.”
Detectives then asked to see the call log on his phone. It contained other calls from that day, which Morales described as attempts to reach Holloway that went to voicemail, but it showed no call from Monday morning. He said he deleted his calls regularly.
Detectives told Morales that a witness had seen him leaving Holloway’s apartment on Monday. He asked to leave, and the officers agreed. Before he did, they took his clothing and found bruising, swelling and abrasions on his body. He offered no explanation for them.
Officers drove him back to his parents’ house, where they told him and his family that Holloway was dead and that the case was a homicide. Morales then said he had known about the Ford Focus all along, and that he had been at Hector’s house on Monday.
He said he had made a FaceTime call to his mother from his iPad while there, to make her believe he was with Holloway, because he did not want her to know he was out with a friend. Officers told him they had taken his car.
Investigators examined the iPad and both of his cell phones. The iPad had connected to a Wi-Fi network at Holloway’s apartment during the weekend, and the phones had connected to cell towers near her street.
A neighbor also told investigators that, shortly after 1:00 p.m. on Monday, Morales carried something to his car, and the two briefly discussed the weather.
Morales went back inside and left again about 20 minutes later. Surveillance video showed his car leaving the neighborhood less than an hour after the first officer’s visit.
Arrest, Evidence and Charges
Morales was arrested on December 3 after officers executing a search warrant at his home found two stun guns. He had a prior felony conviction and was not allowed to possess them, so the charge kept him in custody while the homicide investigation continued.
At an early press conference, a police lieutenant asked the public for help finding Vanessa. Investigators had found no sign that she was hurt, and none of the blood in the apartment was hers.
Some of her belongings were missing, however: a polka dot blanket, a Graco car seat and a gray Eddie Bauer First Adventure diaper backpack. Investigators believed these items might still be with her.
The FBI offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her return, which remains available. In Ansonia, residents made flyers with Vanessa’s photo and handed them to drivers at street corners, and stores displayed her face.
Holloway’s relatives received prayers and messages of support from people across the country. One relative said she was “blown away” by the response, noting that people rarely come together in that way.
Investigators gradually reconstructed the weekend. At about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 1, a man had called 911 and said only “Myrtle Avenue,” slurring his words and giving no house number.
On the recording, a woman could be heard in the background saying, “Stop. Hang up. Who are you calling?” A dispatcher asked which address on Myrtle Avenue he needed, and an officer was sent to the street, but he found nothing unusual and left. The call had come from Morales’s phone.
Several surveillance cameras also recorded Morales’s car coming and going near Holloway’s home that weekend. One video showed the car on Derby Avenue just after 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, heading toward St.
Michael’s Church, where there were no cameras. About 15 minutes later, the car was recorded heading back toward her apartment, and Morales stopped at a gas station, where his card was declined when he tried to buy cigarettes.
A different neighbor told investigators he was almost certain that he saw Morales get into his car with Vanessa that Sunday.
On December 5, an employee of a nonprofit organization that keeps a donation bin at St. Michael’s Church called police. A coworker sorting the bin’s contents had found items with stains that looked like blood, along with mail addressed to Christine Holloway.
The caller searched the name online and learned that Holloway had been killed. Officers arrived within five minutes.
In the bin, they found bloodstained children’s clothing, toys, pillows, a towel and books, men’s clothing in size 3XL, women’s clothing, and a single pink child’s Croc that matched the one in the apartment.
Laboratory tests confirmed that the stains were blood and that it was Holloway’s. Her DNA was also found on bloody towels in Morales’s shower.
After processing his car, investigators confirmed that it was on a large black contractor’s trash bag in the trunk and in other parts of the vehicle.
A tissue-like material on his shoes was linked to her. When Holloway’s body was found, there was hair in her hand, and testing showed that it belonged to Morales.
Investigators also questioned Hector. He first said that he and Morales had been together all weekend, but he later admitted that Morales had asked him to provide an alibi.
They had spent only part of the weekend together, and Morales could not be accounted for during several stretches of time.
About two weeks after his arrest, Morales changed his account. He told investigators that he had been at the apartment on the night Holloway was killed. He said he had taken PCP, also known as angel dust, and that two intruders broke in, killed Holloway and took Vanessa.
One of the men knocked him out, he said, leaving him unable to protect them. He has kept to that account ever since, and he has said the drug explains why he lied at the start: he could not recall what happened until its effects wore off.
On February 7, 2020, Morales was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence and was held on a $5 million bond.
He was not charged in connection with Vanessa’s disappearance, although he is the only suspect in it, and he denies any involvement. On February 18, he pleaded not guilty.
Trial, Verdict and Sentence
Morales’s case did not go to trial until April 2025. During the years in between, there was discussion of a plea agreement under which he would provide information about Vanessa’s whereabouts, but no agreement was reached.
The delay frustrated Holloway’s family, who had hoped he would tell the truth, and the investigators.
Prosecutors told the jury that Morales was an abusive boyfriend and that a domestic dispute ended in Holloway’s death. They presented text messages between the couple in which he was controlling and manipulative.
They also argued that nothing showed he had taken any drug and that the only sign of intoxication was the alcohol in the recycling bins. A toxicology report showed that Holloway had no alcohol in her system when she died.
Jurors heard from Holloway’s supervisor, the officers who conducted the welfare checks and the medical examiner.
Holloway’s landlord, who was working in the garage below her apartment on Sunday, December 1, testified that he heard loud noises from the unit that sounded like furniture being moved. Prosecutors said this was when Morales moved her body to the bathroom and cleaned the scene.
Morales testified in his own defense and admitted to the tampering charge. He said that at about 1:00 a.m. he smoked a bag of PCP on the apartment’s front deck, became disoriented and stumbled inside to the bathroom and sat on the toilet, leaving the front door ajar.
Looking out the window, he said, he saw two men on the sidewalk across the street, one of whom jogged toward the apartment. Alarmed but barely able to move, he made his way to a bureau and dialed 911.
He confirmed that the woman’s voice on the recording, which was played for the jury, was Holloway’s and said she did not know the men were approaching.
He testified that he was struck on the right side of his face and in the chest and fell to the floor. He said he heard a struggle near the bed, then screams, and then someone leaving the apartment.
Holloway, he said, tried to run after the man who left with Vanessa, but the other man chased her, and she collapsed between the carpet and the tile. That man struck her with a crowbar and, after saying she had scratched him, hit her two more times.
Morales said he could not move and could only scream for the man to stop. According to him, the man pointed the crowbar at him and warned that the same would happen to his daughter if he called the police.
He said this fear kept him from contacting the police in the following days. He then went to the doorway and saw headlights approaching.
Morales said he then dozed on the bed for an hour or two. When he woke, he panicked and cleaned the scene. He acknowledged moving Holloway’s body from the hallway to the bathroom and undressing her.
He said he was in a haze from the drug and was not thinking clearly, and he added that he continued to smoke PCP afterward. Prosecutors asked why a person who was not responsible would clean up a crime scene.
His attorneys argued that nothing tied Morales to the killing itself. They pointed to a lack of intent, the absence of a murder weapon and questionable evidence.
They noted that DNA from someone else was found under Holloway’s fingernails and did not match Morales, and that surveillance video showed a car leaving the neighborhood in the early morning hours after the killing that was not his.
They said that car belonged to the intruders. They also questioned why a person would call 911 before committing a homicide.
On April 22, 2025, after less than four hours of deliberation, the jury found Morales guilty on both counts.
At sentencing on July 14, 2025, Holloway’s aunt, Anna Rodonski, addressed the court. She described her niece as beautiful, brilliant, kind, caring and spiritual.
She said that when the family prepared for the funeral, they asked cemetery staff to dig Holloway’s grave deeper in case Vanessa had to join her. She asked that Morales remain in prison for the rest of his life, and she asked where Vanessa was.
Judge Shari Murphy sentenced Morales, 48, to 65 years in prison: 60 for murder and five consecutive years for tampering.
Vanessa has still not been found. On December 2, 2025, the sixth anniversary of the investigation, police said they were in the same position as when it began. Investigators and relatives have said they believe she could still be alive.
Holloway’s loved ones believe that Morales knows where she is but have no leverage to make him say. An unconfirmed rumor placed her in Puerto Rico, where Morales is originally from.
Leads have thinned over time, but a police lieutenant has said the case “is not a case that we’re going to put in a box on a shelf somewhere” and will remain active until investigators have an answer.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has released an age-progressed photo showing how Vanessa might look at age six. Born on September 7, 2018, she is now eight years old.
Her community has continued to spread the word, including through a Facebook page that shares updates about her. Tips can be submitted anonymously online, or by calling the Ansonia Police Department at 203-735-1885 or NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.
Remembering Christine Holloway
Christine Marie Holloway was born on Halloween in 1976 to Deborah and Terry. The eldest of five siblings, she cared for her brothers and her sister from a young age, and looking after others came easily to her.
That instinct led her to study psychology in college, and she became the first person in her family to earn a college degree.
Faith and family were the two foundations of her life. A practicing Catholic, she belonged to the Columbiettes, a Catholic women’s organization, where she was known for her patience.
Relatives called her the golden child and remembered her big, contagious belly laugh. Those who knew her said she would do anything for anyone, especially her relatives.
She was particularly close to her niece and nephew. Whenever she was off work, she spent time with them, and they often worked on puzzles together, a hobby she loved.
Colleagues knew her as an attentive caregiver to the children in her care. Motherhood was something she had long wished for, and those around her saw how naturally she took to it once Vanessa was born.
She is remembered by her family as a daughter, sister, aunt and mother whose life centered on caring for others.
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