Criminology - Christine Holloway & Vanessa Morales

Episode Date: September 14, 2025

In 2019, forty-three-year-old Christine Holloway was living in an apartment in Ansonia, about ten miles west of New Haven, Connecticut. She was dating a man named Jose Morales. The couple had one child together, a fourteen-month-old daughter named Vanessa, who lived with Christine. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Christine Holloway and Vanessa Morales. On December 2nd, 2019, Christine didn't show up to her job and co-workers and her family asked for a welfare check. The police found a gruesome scene inside her apartment, and Christine was found dead in her bathtub. But there was no sign of Vanessa, and Jose Morales became the prime suspect in Christine's death. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok  Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford. 

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I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

Everyone and welcome to episode 376 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. I'm Mike Morford. Mr. Morford. How are you doing, buddy? Well, I've got some issues this week. I've got a broken water pipe I'm dealing with. Somebody was doing some work out in front of the house and now I'm having some issues in the bathroom.

of something that was a headache that I wasn't planning on, but I'll get through it. I know you're having some issues of your own. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've pinched my sciatica nerve or whatever it's called, but I am, my legs are on fire, man. I'm having all kinds of weird pains. But, you know, it's kind of like the unexpected, right?

So that's unexpected. You don't expect somebody to break your water main either. And so it kind of alters. your day or your week or whatever but that's life man you deal with things as they come no doubt i think we uh we're due for some uh good days ahead though yeah good luck where where's the good luck at man let's go ahead and give our patreon shoutouts we had new support from jessica garrett so we really appreciate that thank you so much for that support it really helps out the show and for anyone else that would like to head over to patreon dot com slash criminology as you

get started. All right, it's time to jump into this week's case. And this week we're talking about a shocking murder of a Connecticut woman named Christine Holloway and the disappearance of her daughter Vanessa Morales. Christine's murder was solved and it turned out her killer was someone close to her. But one part of the mystery remains, what happened to Vanessa? In 2019, 43-year-old Christine Holloway was living in an apartment in Ansonia, about 10 miles west of New Haven, Connecticut. She was dating in Jose Morales, who was also 43. According to their Facebook profiles, the two had been dating since 2016. The couple had one child together, a 14-month-old daughter named Vanessa, who lived with Christine.

Christine worked as a teacher at Bright Morning Star Child Care, a daycare center in Bridgeport. Vanessa attended the daycare so that Christine could work, but take breaks. and see her daughter. She was a very reliable employee and loved by the children and staff alike. Because Christine was so reliable and so well liked, she was quickly missed when she didn't show up to work on December 2nd, 2019. At around 1 p.m., her boss, Rosie Jones Clark, called the police for welfare check. Rosie would later tell the Valley New Haven independent, even before nine, I was concerned, because it wasn't like her. Christine was always consistent, always on time. time every morning without fail. She and Vanessa were there by 8.30. And more if I think you see this

very often in the stories that we cover, you know, some people are just like clockwork. You know, their routines are so regimented and they don't deviate from them and people know it. So when they do deviate, it becomes a, you know, kind of a big deal. And then there are other people who are kind of hit and miss. Sometimes they're early. Sometimes they're on time. Sometimes they're late. Okay, if they don't show up on time, you're probably not going to worry about a person like that as much as you would someone like Christine, who is there at 830 like clockwork. Yeah, we're not talking about like 10 or 15 minutes. You know, this is hours. You know, maybe if it was 15, 20 minutes, you could say, okay, maybe she's stuck in traffic. Maybe she had car trouble. Maybe it took her a little bit longer to get the baby

ready and to get going. But, you know, here we are hours after she's supposed to be there. And it, it was a red flag for her boss. Well, and the other thing is people like this are usually so responsible that if they did have some of those issues that you just talked about, they would, they'd make a phone call, right? And say, hey, here's what's going on. And when you don't have that, on top of them not showing up. Well, just another cause for concern. Officers responded to Christine's apartment and knocked, but there was no answer, and nothing was amiss from outside.

So they left. As part of their welfare check, officers called Jose to ask if he had seen Christine. According to the Valley New Haven Independent, Jose told them, I saw her leave early in the morning to go to work. That's about it. This story would later change, and obviously we'll get into those details later, at around 7.30 that evening, Christine's family also called the police to request a welfare check.

This time, when officers went back to Christine's, they had to force their way into her home to see if she was there and somehow unable to respond or answer the door. Inside the home, things immediately felt off. Though it was winter and it was cold and snowing outside, multiple windows had been left slightly open, and the ceiling fans were running at the fastest speed. There were candles lit in various areas of the apartment. The crib and the bed were both bare with no betting. It was when police checked one of the bathrooms that they found Christine. She was dead in the bathtub.

It was clear that she had been beaten to death, and the beating was so savage that responding officers no. noted that they could see pieces of her brain and chunks of her skull in the tub next to her. An autopsy would later show that Christine had been hit in the head at least eight separate times. Her official cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma. It was also clear from the evidence that Christine fought back very hard against her attacker. There were strands of someone else's hair in her hands. Police carefully looked around the rest of the home and there was no sign of baby Vanessa. Obviously with Christine murdered and Vanessa missing.

Time was of the essence. Vanessa's diaper bag was still at the apartment. It looked as if Christine was planning to bring Vanessa out like any other day. The bag had all the usual supplies for taking a baby out, wipes, diapers, an extra pair of clothes, etc. There was a single shoe, a child's pink crop sticking out of the bag. Investigators couldn't find the matching shoe anywhere in the bag or the apartment. This made it clear to investigators that Christine hadn't dropped Vanessa off with a babysitter or with family,

but it also showed that whoever may have her didn't have what they needed to take good care of her. They left everything they would need behind. There was blood on the outside of the back, perhaps indicating that Christine had been attacked while preparing to take Vanessa out. And more if you use the word savage. And this attack absolutely was that. I mean, you know, when you hear the description of how Christine was beaten, it really puts a macabre visual in your mind, you know, pieces of her brain,

chunks of her skull in the tub next to her. Yeah, it's a very brutal and very detailed, shocking crime. And then you have the fact that, Vanessa is missing and this clue or potential clue about the diaper bag. What does it mean? Now, obviously someone murdered Christine. Did that same someone take Vanessa? I think that's an easy connection to make. And it seems like Christine put up a fight and wasn't going to let that person, you know, just harm her and take her daughter. So unfortunately, she wasn't able to, to, to, to win that battle.

But the one thing that it does kind of scream out is that there's a very good likelihood that Christine's attacker was someone close to her, someone known to her. Because if you're making the connection that the killer is the one who took Vanessa, who would want to take Vanessa? Probably not a total stranger. Not that it's unheard of, but I don't know. in my mind, it kind of screams out, this is someone known to the victim. While alerts went out in the case, they didn't go out immediately, both a silver alert and an

Amber Alert were activated, but there was no information about any potential suspect, vehicles to look for, or what Vanessa might have been wearing when she was taken. The Amber Alert wasn't issued for two days, so she really could have been almost any place. By then, according to Lieutenant Patrick Lynch, Vanessa was last seen with Jose and Christine on November 29th. This is the same day that Christine was last seen alive. Lieutenant Lynch said at a press conference, we encourage anyone with information regarding baby Vanessa, where she is or who she may be with to come forward. The circumstances of how baby Vanessa came into their custody is irrelevant.

At this point, our goal is to return baby Vanessa safely to her family. The FBI offered a $10,000 reward, not for information about Vanessa's whereabouts, but for turning her over to the police safe and a lot. It came to light that there was a 911 call from Jose Morales's phone at 152 in the morning on December 1st, the day before Christine was found dead. According to court TV, during that call, Jose, Jose could be heard slurring his words and repeating part of an address on Myrtle Avenue, while a woman, most likely Christine, said, stop, hang up, who are you calling?

Since Jose called from a cell phone, the dispatcher was unable to track the call to a specific location. Using what was said, just Myrtle Avenue, Officer Mark Clifford was sent to check the area. For two minutes from 202 to 204 a.m., Officer Clifford drove down Myrtle Avenue, with his spotlight on so that he could see the homes on the street. There was no sign of any trouble in the street or any kind of noise coming from any of the houses. So he left and the call was cleared. Police obviously wanted to talk to Jose again. And as someone so close to the victim, he might be the likely suspect.

But he had dropped from sight. The day after Christine's body was discovered, Jose was found at his parents' house. Before investigators told Jose that they knew Christine was dead, he tried to downplay their relationship. According to the New Haven Independent, Jose said, we have a baby, but it's not like she's my girlfriend,

girlfriend. Jose told investigators that he last saw Christine on Friday, around 6 p.m. His second story to investigators was that he wasn't at the home. When whatever happened to Christine and Vanessa actually occurred,

he eventually claimed he had been out buying some cigarettes. and came home to find Christine dead and Vanessa gone. When one detective noted how unaffected Jose seemed, he got angry, saying, what do you want me to do? Cry for my daughter, cry for Christine. And then he added, I'm not that close to them. Detectives clearly suspected that Jose knew more than he was saying,

but they needed to build a case against him for Christine's murder. And they had to tread lightly because Vanessa's saying, and well-being may have been in Jose's hands. And more of my first thought is that, you know, investigators had to be so very suspicious of Jose. Obviously, he's changed his story up from, you know, telling them the last time that he saw Christine to now saying he came home to find Christine dead and Vanessa gone.

I mean, okay, people change their stories. This is a really big change, though. And then the second thing that jumped out at me is just kind of downplaying the relationship, you know, asking, what do you want me to do? Cry for my daughter, cry for Christine. I'm not that close to them. You're saying that. I'm not that close to my daughter. So strange to me. Yeah, I think all this conversation with him probably, you know, made the police say, okay, we've got to look closely at this guy because it's just not the normal kind of reaction you would expect from somebody that, you know, has a daughter. And whether he's in a relationship any longer with Christine, you know, you think he'd be

worried about his daughter and he doesn't seem to be. And, you know, it's very troubling that he's changing a story because if you want to help them and, you know, be honest, give the police the truth, not lie. say I saw her, you know, the day before I didn't and not tell them about finding her body to have that story change suddenly like that. It's just very trouble. Well, he's always going to be a suspect, right? Because of his relationship with Christine, his daughter is missing. But, you know, getting caught in a lie and then downplaying your love for Christine and for your daughter especially, I mean, that's just going to raise suspicion

to another level. Jose Morales was ultimately taken into custody on unrelated charges. He was held on $250,000 bail. During the search of his home for potential evidence, two stun guns were found, resulting in two charges of criminal possession of a firearm. As a convicted felon, Jose wasn't allowed to own or use any kind of weapon like that. even though a stun gun isn't a real gun. When you look at Jose's criminal history,

it's clear that someone with that kind of temper really doesn't need access to any of those kind of weapons. He had an extensive record, and apparently once threatened to break the bones of one of his former girlfriends. With Christine dead and Vanessa missing, Christmas was obviously ruined for the families of everyone involved, Christine's family spent the holiday mourning her death

and worrying about where Vanessa was and what was happening to her, Jose's family spent it wondering if he would end up back in prison and whether he was responsible for what happened to Christine and Vanessa. He was officially and publicly named a suspect in Christine's murder just days before Christmas. Jose's mother, Lydia, seemed genuinely devastated when officers told her about Christine's murder. It's been reported that she basically started interrogating Jose before investigators really began to press him for information. She was angry. She wanted answers and she could tell when her son was lying.

Her wails and frantic questions were a stark contrast to Jose who detectives noted was sitting there unemotional as if nothing was going on. Jose claimed that he hadn't changed his clothing since the attack, but investigators found security footage from a gas station that showed him, wearing a completely different outfit, even a different pair of shoes than the ones he was wearing when they found him. As Jose stripped down to give authorities his clothes, Detective Brian Hart noticed a bruise on his chest. Jose immediately claimed that he had been in a fight, only to then correct himself and say he had no idea how he had gotten that bruise.

Just more suspicious activity right on the part of Jose. Detectives are saying that he's just sitting there unemotional. And then they catch him in another lie about not changing his clothes. And then you have this suspicious bruise that he gives an answer to and then corrects himself and says, well, I don't really know how it got there. It's almost as if he said it and then realized, oh, I shouldn't have said that it looked like, because it looks like I'm mentioning I'm in a fight that maybe that fight was with Christine and the police are going to suspect me even more now. Yeah, but to me, he's kind of, you know, running the playbook of what not to do.

Like everything that you shouldn't do to put yourself on police radar, this guy's doing. Well, some people in this situation or in different situations where police are questioning them and they might feel like they're suspects, sometimes they lawyer up and on the voice advice of their lawyer. They say, you know, I'm not speaking, talk to my attorney. But if you're going to talk to police and answer their questions, tell the truth because the truth, it is what it is. You don't have to change anything. You don't have to adjust things. And we see with Jose that multiple times now, his story is getting changed. So it's not looking good for him. Or if you're not going to tell the truth, don't flip flop on.

everything you say. It just, it looks so bad. Jose Morales was formally charged in this case on February 7, 2020. He was held on a $5 million bond in charge with murder and tampering with evidence. His first attorneys, Norm Patis and Kevin Smith, are two people you may have heard of if you followed headlines out of Connecticut for the last few years as they were initially going to be representing Fodos Dullos against charges that he killed his estranged wife, Jennifer. Doulos took his own life in January of 2020 before the case could go to trial, leaving his former attorneys free to accept Jose's case. By the time Jose went to trial five years later, neither man was part of his legal team. Now, I know this was during the COVID era, but five years

to go to trial, it seems like a lot in this case. It doesn't seem, you know, super complicated. There's not all kinds of technology-related things to it that have to be researched and science done and analyzing done. So the fact it took five years to get to trial in this case is a little bit surprising to me.

Yeah, I mean, we've seen it before. You know, some of it is delay tactics on, you know, one side or the other, but yeah, five years is a long time. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

I wonder which emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Jose rejected his final plea offer in January, 24, paving the way for the case to finally make it to trial in April 2025. Jose decided to face a jury and even took the stand in his own defense.

When we finally heard Jose's side of the story at trial, he claimed that he had been intoxicated and under the effects of PCP in the early morning hours when Christine died, and he said he had been for multiple days. but that he wasn't responsible for the murder of Christine or the abduction of Vanessa. In fact, he blamed two intruders who broke into Christine's apartment. It took Jose two weeks to come up with the intruder theory when speaking with investigators. Jose even claims that he saw these two intruders coming before they got into the apartment. According to Jose, he still had two bags of PCP burning a hole in his pocket, so he excused himself to the bathroom to smoke more PCP and was looking at.

up the window when he noticed two suspicious figures outside. According to the Valley News Independent, he said, from across the street, I saw movement first, and then I saw two individuals walking on the sidewalk across the street. When they started walking towards Christine's apartment, he said he dialed 911 on a cell phone, thus explaining the 911 call made from his phone. Using PCP can cause hallucination. So if Jose was on PCP, as he claimed, he may have have been hallucinating, but most people believe this story was completely concocted by Jose to push the blame elsewhere. The story seems to imply that the men were there specifically to kidnap Vanessa and that Christine was only killed for getting in the way of that plan. Jose said,

I see that somehow Christine got away from whoever it is that she was fighting with and tried to run out the apartment to go after the guy that left the apartment. apartment with Vanessa. The guy that she was struggling with was chasing her. At this point in his story, one man was kidnapping Vanessa while the other was struggling with Christine. Once one of the men got out of the home with Vanessa, Christine tried to run after them. Only then was she murdered. Jose claimed that he tried to help, but that he was kicked and knocked unconscious. But also that he saw all of this happen and heard one of the men threaten him all. their way out. Jose claimed that one of the intruders had been armed with the crowbar and that he wasn't

able to help Christine or Vanessa because he was also being attacked by the second man and he was fighting for his own life. He claimed that the PCP had left him helpless. Before the men left, they threatened Jose and warned him not to call the police. Jose told detectives, he said that if I call police, the same thing that happened to Christine would happen to my daughter. Jose later testified at trial. I looked around, looked for Vanessa. I couldn't find her. So I was going to call police, but the words the guy said to me kept ringing in my head.

Now, if you and I have heard a lot of stories, right, about what happened in a murder, a disappearance, you name it. This one jumps out to me as one of the more unbelievable stories.

You know, these two strangers, apparently, their plan is to kidnap baby Vanessa. And Christine is only killed because she's trying to fight them off, right? To save her child. Meanwhile, Jose is so whacked out on PCP that he can't really do anything. Yeah, this, we talk about his story ever changing. The more he talks, the more changes there are.

And the worst, the story sounds, the more unbelievable it sounds. Yeah, and the part about him being attacked, he can't do anything to help, but somehow is able to take in all of these details and, you know, recite them back as he's telling his story. Yeah, I think unbelievable is the word for it. Yeah, and I think this is probably why most attorneys advise their clients not to take the stand because here he is spewing the story. and I can just imagine if I was in that jury hearing this story, I'd have a hard time not rolling my eyes and saying how ridiculous this is and making up my mind very quickly that this is just BS. Despite maintaining his innocence,

Jose did admit that he was the one who moved her body. After the murder, he used a curtain from the bathroom to drag her into the bathroom and get her into the tub. It wasn't right after the murder happened. He admitted that Christina had been lying dead near the front door of the apartment from about 2 a.m. shortly after the intruder supposedly left until as late as one the next morning. In fact, after Christine was dead and Vanessa was gone, Jose said he simply went to sleep, testifying, I went into PCP zone.

When asked whether or not he even tried to help, save Christine's life by performing CPR. Jose coldly replied, You see the picture. Can you do CPR on that? Once he had placed her body in the bathtub, he then took off her clothes because they were covered in blood. He didn't leave it at that though.

He actually put the bloody clothes through the wash and then dried them. On the stand, he claimed that he was playing to put them back on her body when she was clean, but ended up chickening out. in leaving her completely undressed. Jose also confessed that he tried to clean up the crime scene after Christine was killed. On the stand, he said, I see the blood all over the hallway floor and the door entrance.

Instead of calling for help or even just trying to preserve the scene so that it could be processed once he and Vanessa were safe, he got to work covering it up. He said, I went and grabbed the bucket from under the sink with towels. I filled it up halfway with water, and I started cleaning, because when I was walking around, footprint on the ground, the carpet, so I started cleaning the blood in the tiles.

So if this had all really happened the way that Jose said it did, why would he be cleaning the crime scene? Why wouldn't he call 911, say, we were just attacked, daughter's missing, please come help me. Instead, he's trying to clean up the crime scene after these people, almost like he would be covering for them

if they really existed at all. Well, I think it goes back to your point. more of why attorneys, you know, most of the time don't want their clients to take the stand. You know, it's because like Jose, a lot of them are not that smart. I mean, the things that he's saying. I'm sure in his mind, he thinks, oh, I'm going to tell this story. The jury's going to side with me. They're going to understand why I did the things I did.

No, they're not. because the things that you're saying, they just don't make any sense at all. Jose was still in the apartment the next afternoon when officers from the Ansonia Police Department knocked attempting to perform a welfare check since Christine hadn't shown up for work that morning. According to Jose, he had no idea. It was the police knocking because he freaked out and didn't even see who it was. After waiting a few minutes for the knocking to stop, he decided not to stop. he decided not to stick around any longer.

He told the jury, I freaked out and said to myself, it's time to leave. Jose's excuse for any discrepancies in his first stories to investigators was that his mind had been clouded by the PCP. Nothing he had said had been a lie. It was just that as the PCP left his system, he began to recall things more accurately. Now, I don't know much about PCP. I'll throw that out there. But from what I've heard, it's a, it's a pretty strong and powerful drug, right?

Isn't PCP more of the one where people take on like four or five cops and they have like not superhuman strength, but they're hard to control? Yeah, I've heard the same thing that they have a lot of strength and power and, you know, they don't give up easily. if police are trying to fight them and get them in control. So who knows if you're in that kind of state, what you wouldn't know, what you wouldn't know. But PCP or not, the story just to me at this point is just not believable. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I mean, I think he is really laying a lot on this PCP.

And I get it. It's a mind-altering drug. But it still doesn't. make the story make sense in my eyes. Looking through text messages to each other, it's clear that Jose and Christine were not in a happy and loving relationship. In fact, it seemed like Jose was extremely controlling and verbally abusive to Christine,

but she loved him and believed that things could get better. Jose was convinced that Christine was cheating on him, and he demanded that she canceled her gym membership under the guise of saving money. And when Christine tried to bond with him by sending him, him a video of baby Vanessa playing with her toys and telling him, I miss my family. He changed the subject coldly, texting her, forward me the email that your gym membership is canceled. There were also texts where Jose told Christine that she was acting very stupid.

And it's clear that all she wanted was the man who once loved her and treated her well, as stated in her obituary. On legacy.com, Christine had the patience of a saint. and would do anything for anyone. Some of the texts entered into evidence give us a small taste of how true that description really is. In one text, she sent Jose, she said, God is going to help us through everything and provide for us,

I will change. And she added, for what it's worth, I love you. After four days of giving Christine the cold shoulder, Jose finally replied, Fuck you. This stupid relationship is done. This was on November 25th, just days before Christine was brutally murdered. So, more if we go back to Jose's story that we've made so much about the PCP, all of that,

I think you still have to factor in the relationship, these text messages, all of which is kind of playing out right before the murder. him being cold to her, mean to her. Is he blaming all of that on the PCP as well? Yeah, there's clearly a pattern leading up to when she's murdered that doesn't look good and it makes it look like he's angry towards her. He's controlling. He wants her to cancel a gym membership. So you've got jealousy there.

But this is the same guy that said he wasn't that close to her. He didn't, you know, he couldn't bring himself to cry for Christine and their daughter because he wasn't that close, but now he's, you know, wanting her out of jealousy to cancel her gym membership. He's kind of contradicting himself. Jose's phone records indicated that he was also lying about the last time he was in Christine's apartment. He seemed to have stayed there much of the Thanksgiving holiday, connecting to her Wi-Fi when he logged into Facebook on the morning of November 27th. On November 30th, their phones were together at multiple locations, including the Barbarino-Nisson dealership,

in Wallingford, where Christine purchased a new car. Jose, Christine, and Vanessa were all captured by the surveillance cameras at the dealership. This is important because it can help prove that the other pings weren't coincidences from using the same tower, since they have the behavior of the phones when they were verifiably together. After visiting the dealership, it appears that they all went back to Jose's house in New Haven. That evening, their phones separated. Jose's went to Bridgeport, and Christine's went back to her apartment in Ensonia, about 15 miles south. By midnight on November 30th, Jose was back at Christine's apartment.

It's likely that this was the night she was killed. Sometime between 2 and 2.45 p.m. on December 1st, Jose was seen standing near the garage of Christine's apartment. Due to the poor weather, he stood out. Patrick Rowley, who was next door to Christine's that day, helping his aunt move a refrigerator testified it was just odd that someone was standing there on a cell phone. It just didn't seem right. Christopher Piccarello, Christine's landlord, testified that he was in the garage below her apartment for most of the Thanksgiving weekend, working on projects for his business. Valley Motorsports on Sunday, December 1st.

He was in the garage working from about two in the afternoon to six in the evening, even though he was using power tools that day, he could hear noises coming from Christine's apartment. He said on the stand, I was using the saw, and I heard what sounded like movement of furniture upstairs, and it was enough noise to have me stop what I was doing and conversate with my mother, who was also there with me and asked, what is going on upstairs? His mother, Lori, described the sounds as three loud bangs. Neither of them thought to go check that everything was okay because while it was loud, it didn't sound violent or like anyone was in danger.

There was no crying, screaming, arguing, nothing but the thumps or bangs. Jose denied that the loud noises heard from the garage below the apartment were from him moving Christine into the bathtub. At around 4 in the morning on December 2nd, both Christine and Jose's phones continued to ping in the same location, but now they were on the move together. Both phones headed south, through Orange and New Haven, before Christine's phone stopped pinging. Jose's phone returned to the area of Christine's apartment. Later that afternoon, Christine's phone pinged from an area in or near the Nagatuck State Forest. Hosei would have been familiar with this area because he has relatives

that live just north of Nagatok State Forest in Union City. Sometime after the first time officers were knocking and trying to find Christine, a neighbor saw Jose leaving the apartment. It looked like he was carrying something, but the neighbor couldn't quite make out what it was. He stopped at his car, which was parked across the street, before going back to the apartment for about 20 minutes. Then he drove away. At the time, the neighbor had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong. Less than half an hour later, officers returned, broke the door down, and found Christine's body. So prosecutors have quite a bit of cell phone data, right?

We talked about all of these different pings. And they do help paint a picture of, you know, where Jose was in relation to where Christine was. And then you also have neighbors of Christine, seeing things, hearing things. And, you know, at the time, they're not making much of it. You see someone standing outside in the weather using a cell phone. Okay, seem strange, but whatever. You see somebody carrying a bag.

You don't make anything of it. But after you find out that someone in the apartment was murdered, you know, some of these things take on, you know, a lot different context. And it's good that some of these neighbors remember this stuff because they can detail it later on. It helps build a little bit of a timeline, paint a picture, whatever analogy you want to use.

But, you know, had they known something was wrong, maybe they would have paid extra attention and they could have recounted specific things that might have provided more clues, but they just didn't know that anything had happened. Investigators believe they knew where Vanessa's missing shoe had ended up. On December 4th, employees from Community Crusade for Children were working to empty donation receptacles around the area. When they got to the bin near St. Michael's Church on Derby Avenue, they discovered a diaper genie, covered in a red substance that they now know was blood, as they had suspected immediately. After checking in with a supervisor, they continued to gather the donated items, whether they were bloody or not. but took care to separate anything with blood on it into a different bag.

After putting the bloody diaper pale in a bag, they found a towel covered in blood and what appeared to be brain matter or some kind of tissue from a human body. As they continued, they found toys in children's books. There were even pieces of Christine's mail in the donation bin. One pink child-sized crook covered in blood was all. also inside. The bags full of random bloody items were unloaded from the truck the next morning. A warehouse supervisor called the police, who came and collected the bags as evidence.

DNA analysis confirmed that it was Christine's blood on the donated items. More than one of the items also had Jose's DNA on them. It turned out that a car fitting the exact description of Jose's Nissan Center down to the missing front plate, loud and lowered muffler and sunburn was seen in the area of the donation bin on Derby Avenue and that Jose's phone pinged off the cell tower in Derby near that donation site between 9 a.m. and noon on December 2nd. This really helped solidify, I think evidence-wise and probably for the jury, they're able to place Jose there, the items with Christine's blood on them, with Jose's DNA on them. They're there.

His cars spotted nearby. So this really is probably something that was crucial for the jury in their minds, I would think. But I also want to touch on these poor people that are doing their job and collecting out these bins where things have been donated. They're probably not expecting to find bloody brain. matter covered items for donation. They're just looking to pick some stuff up, bring it back, and process it, and it would go to the people that need it. And here they're basically stumbling upon a crime scene. Well, so far, you know, we haven't painted Jose as Einstein. This guy, to me, doesn't seem to, you know, be very bright. I mean, what's the thinking

behind putting all of these items in a donation bin? I mean, do you not think that somebody is going to see them, recover them? I mean, that's what the donation been is for. Now, I'm sure he would blame it on PCP or whatever. To me, it's just a really dumb thing to do. If you're a killer to dispose of evidence in a place that you know somebody is going to retrieve it. And thankfully, a lot of criminals that do these. of things are pretty dumb, and they make boneheaded mistakes and do things like this, and I think

this helped bring him down in the end. After less than two hours of deliberations, and less time than Jose was even on the stand testifying, the jury returned a unanimous verdict. Jose Morales was found guilty of the murder of Christine Holloway. Hosea Morales was sentenced to serve 65 years in prison, 60 for murder, and five for the subsequent evidence tampering. Judge Sherry Murphy, explaining why she was handing down the maximum sentence, said, Mr. Morales, you're a dangerous person, a significant threat to society, and you need to be removed from the community for a substantial period of time. She also called Christine's murder, a cruel, intentional, senseless, violent act

and said that the whole thing really makes you question who really lives next to you. At his sentencing hearing, Jose had a written statement prepared to read aloud, but he didn't on the advice of his attorney. Speaking to WFSB, Christine's brother, Stephen Holloway, said of the sentence, he destroyed our family. He deserves to die in jail and rot in hell. That's it. So now, more if he's going to listen to the advice of his attorney and not read this written statement,

I think he should have listened to his attorney's advice, you know, the whole way through. Now, I'm not sure that it would have changed the outcome. And there was quite a bit of evidence against him. But there's no doubt that he didn't do himself any favors by testifying and, you know, kind of concocting this fanciful story. And we don't know all the details. If the attorney did, in fact, advise him, hey, don't take the stand. And he overrode him and said, I'm taking it. The jury's going to believe me.

We don't know of that. but it's clear that I think at least had he not taken the stand, maybe his story wouldn't have wound up sounding as crazy as it did in the end. Maybe if he was found guilty, the sentence wouldn't have been as long as it was. And maybe the judge just said, you know, with all this line you're doing, you're not owning up to this at all,

you're not taking responsibility, you're just trying to pass blame, and take no responsibility. So maybe that's part of the reason he got such a long sentence. Yeah, maybe. But as the judge said, right, this really was a cruel, heinous, brutal murder. No doubt about it. So the jury, probably like most listeners, I would guess, didn't believe what Jose

Morales said happened to the mother of his child. They thought he was offering up a pack of lives. So he's going to prison for Christine. murder, but there's still one mystery that remains in this case. Where is baby Vanessa? She was only about two feet tall and weighed around 20 pounds. It wouldn't have been difficult to conceal her. Multiple items that were for Vanessa or belonged to her have never been recovered.

A black Graco car seat and a gray, Eddie Bauer First Adventure diaper bag are still missing. Vanessa's teething key ring and polka dotted blanket are also still missing. Now, these missing items are things that someone would need to care for and transport Vanessa. Did Jose hand Vanessa, her car seat, her blanket, and a diaper bag off to someone who promised to hide her and raise her? That at least would mean that she's possibly a lot. But what if he did the unthinkable and murdered his own bank? baby girl? Were Vanessa's missing items dumped near the donation bin and found before the collection crew came? Did he find the perfect spot to hide a dead body and dump these items there

with her? Jose Muralas hasn't been charged in relation to her disappearance. Vanessa's seventh birthday would have been on September 7, 2025. Christine's phone, a black iPhone 8, has never been recovered. That final ping was in the area of the Nagatuck State Forest. Could that hold a clue to where Vanessa is? If you have any information about the disappearance of Vanessa Morales, please call the Insonia Police Department at 203-735-1885. If you prefer to, you can directly contact the FBI at 800-225-5-324. So Morph, as we wrap this one up, I mean, there's no doubt to me that Jose Morales is a terrible human being, that he killed Christine in an especially brutal way. And, you know, my thought is that he also did something very heinous to his daughter, Vanessa.

Yeah, I hope that's not the case. You know, it's awful what he did to Christine. But, you know, if he did anything like that to little Vanessa, that's just unthinkable. and, you know, as long as we don't have her body, we don't have any remains that are found, we can hold out hope that maybe she is alive. You know, some of those things that are missing are things that maybe he wouldn't have taken if she was dead. So hopefully there is someone out there someplace taking care of her and maybe one day she can be recovered if she's out there.

But, you know, this jumps out at me in a lot of cases and it does especially, here as well. I just don't understand how Jose thought he was ever going to get away with this. And the things that he did, the stories that he came up with. And one of the things I want to go back and touch on that we really didn't, you know, do a deep dive on was him saying that he moved her body much later on. It was like a day later into the bathtub, took her clothes. off, washed her clothes, dried them, and had thoughts of redressing her. But as he said, he ultimately chickened out. To me, you know, that kind of negates a lot of the PCP haze that he tried to, you know, talk about. All this covering up or the attempt to cover

up the crime or stage the crime scene. It could be maybe that he did such a poor job of doing it or didn't complete it because he had was under the influence of PCP. It didn't seem like a very good plan no matter what. And then the ever-changing story, the lies, they just sounded beyond belief. So again, I go back to how this guy ever got on the stand to talk about this stuff. if I was an attorney, I would have begged and pleaded with him, don't get on that stand. Let's take our chances and see what you get if you don't get on the stand.

Yeah, like I said, I don't think he did himself any favors at all. But then we still have this mystery of, you know, what happened to Vanessa. I think what really worries me is Christine's final iPhone ping, you know, around that area of the Nagata state forest, that seems like it could be an ideal place to bury a body. Unfortunately, I hope that's not the case, but I have a feeling it is. And it's odd because why would he kill Christine, leave her body there, but take Vanessa to another location to bury her? And, you know, you can speculate on that. maybe he didn't want the shame of having killed a child.

Maybe he was thinking for it. If I go to prison and I'm a child killer, you know, it's going to be hell for me there. So this at least leaves some kind of doubt that maybe she's out there someplace. Just so many possibilities. And even if she is alive and out there, you have to worry who she with is the person that is taking care of her. Are they on PCP2? or are they going to protect her or is she going to be in some kind of danger? So just no good outcomes because even if she's out there alive,

it may not be a good situation for her. Well, and one of the answers could be that he couldn't figure out how to get Christine's body out of the apartment. You know, we mentioned it. There were a lot of people right around. There always is when you live in an apartment complex.

But go back. to that neighbor saying that, you know, he saw Jose carrying something in a bag, a duffel bag, something like that, that very well could have been Vanessa. And I know that's hard to think about, but it could be the case. Yeah, very well could have. And maybe he even took her out alive and then later harmed her. Because as far as we can tell from the evidence in the house, we didn't see anything that said there was blood from Vanessa anywhere, anything like that.

So maybe she did get out of the house alive one with the other, but he did something to her once they were out of the house. Yeah, but, you know, as we said, this, this part is still a mystery. What happened to Vanessa? Is she alive? Is she dead? If so, how did it happen? And, you know, I don't know that there's any incentive for him to ever reveal that information.

And so why would he? But maybe we'll find out sometime down the room. But that's it for our episode on Christine Holloway and Vanessa Morales. As always, if you love the show but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a review, leave a rating. Also, keep telling your friends, word of mouth about the criminology podcast really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. just search for criminology podcast.

You can also visit our Facebook discussion group, Criminology podcast discussion and fans. And you can go to our website, criminologypodcast.com. So that's it for another episode of criminology. But Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph.

We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.