1-Year-Old Vanessa Morales Still Missing Over A Week After Amber Alert, Mother Found Dead In CT Home
ANSONIA, Conn. (CBSNewYork) – More than a week after an Amber Alert was issued in Connecticut for a missing one-year-old girl – whose mother was found dead – that child still has not been found.
Vanessa Morales was reported missing from her Ansonia home on Dec. 2 after local police conducted a welfare check at the residence on Myrtle Avenue.
That's when the body of a woman was found by officers who called the death suspicious.
According to CBS-affiliate WFSB, the woman was later identified as Christine Marie Holloway, the infant's mother.
Ansonia police are still investigating the homicide and do not have any suspects – 10 days after the Amber Alert for her daughter was issued.
"This is a two part investigation. First is a homicide investigation, the second is a missing child investigation. We have enlarged all of our resources to investigate this case. Our main focus at the moment is finding Vanessa Morales and making sure she is safe," Ansonia Police Chief Andrew Cota said, via WFSB.
Local police report that the child's father, Jose Morales, lives at his parents' home in New Haven and was cooperating with the investigation after Holloway's body was found.
WFSB reports Morales was later arrested on weapons charges but those charges are not related to the ongoing homicide and missing persons case.
Authorities added the father occasionally stayed at the Ansonia home but didn't live there.
A silver alert -- used for missing children believed to be lost -- was initially issued for Vanessa. That alert was upgraded last Wednesday after new information led police to believe the one-year-old had been abducted.
Ansonia police are asking anyone with information to contact them immediately at 203-735-1885.
