The strangled body of University of Massachusetts alumna Leah Walsh, 29, was found in North Hills, N.Y., on Oct. 29, three days after her husband William Walsh Jr., 29, filed a missing person's report.
Walsh worked as a special education teacher at the School for Language and Communication Development in Glencove, N.Y., after earning her master's degree in special education from Malloy College in May.
She earned her bachelor's from the UMass in 2006 after completing her studies in communications and sociology.
Walsh and her husband were married for about three years and according to a neighbor had "lived on Marbourne Road in Bethpage, N.Y., for approximately six months."
Following an argument on Sunday, Oct. 26th, regarding an alleged infidelity, Walsh Jr. choked and killed his wife as the dispute escalated, according to a confession he gave to police.
Walsh Jr.'s confession also included storing his wife's body in their home as he continued his daily activities in an attempt to validate an alibi. Later that evening he said he dumped her body in an embankment 50 feet off the Long Island Expressway.
Walsh Jr. said he then returned to his Bethpage home to pick up his wife's car. He drove and left the car on the side of the Seaford-Oyster Expressway after taking the air out of the right front tire to make it appear that the car had broken down. Walsh Jr. said he walked home but returned to the scene around 6 a.m. in his own vehicle.
While on the scene, Walsh Jr. used his wife's phone to send himself a text message reading "Have a great day. Love you bunches. Mwah."
The next Monday, when Leah did not show up for work, the School for Language and Communication Development called her mother to inform her.
Her mother then called Leah's father, a school bus driver who drives the route where Leah's abandoned vehicle was located. He reported seeing his daughter's black Ford Focus on the side of the road. He called Walsh Jr., who arrived at the scene.
Walsh Jr. called the police, starting a two-day search that involved police helicopters, K-9 units and officers on horseback. He reported last hearing from her at 6 a.m. when she sent him a text message.
During the search, Walsh Jr. pleaded for the community's help.
"You can have my cars. You can have everything," Walsh Jr. said outside of his in-laws' house. "I just want my wife back."
When Leah's body was found 13 miles from her abandoned vehicle in a wooded area, Walsh Jr. was taken into custody. After interrogation, he confessed to strangling to death his wife of three years.
He is charged by police with 2nd-degree murder in the slaying and the staging of Leah's disappearance.
Mark Seman, Walsh Jr.'s defense lawyer, claimed the confession was a result of "at least nine hours of continuous non-stop interrogation." He says that this was "a case that should have taken weeks to work on, not days." He maintains that his client is innocent.
Police are interested in speaking with a man who claims to be the last person to speak with Leah Walsh.
Lucas Bean, 32, Walsh's friend from her years at the UMass reported that Walsh sent him a text message on Saturday night saying that she and her husband had just had a "blowup."
She said 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 until she got out of the car with him," said Bean.
Efforts to reach the family of Walsh Jr. after the arrest were unsuccessful.
Leah's brother, Josh Hirschel, made a statement Thursday.
"Leah always strove to brighten the world around her," he said. "She always lent a hand to those who most needed it. She was a wonderful person."
LaToya M. Murphy can be reached at lmmurphy@student.umass.edu.
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