Connecticut Woman Disappears Leaving Bedroom Door Locked, Window Open
The 59-year-old was last seen on September 29, 2024, at her home in New Haven, Connecticut
“I just pray that God brings my mom home,” Joshua Webbe told Dateline.
Joshua’s mom, Denise Leary, has been missing for two months. The 59-year-old was last seen on September 29, 2024, in New Haven, Connecticut.
“I’m going to always have her back to the end,” Joshua said.
Denise is originally from Connecticut, where she grew up with her four siblings. Brother Michael Leary is the eldest. “We were very close,” he told Dateline. “I always had a responsibility to make sure my sisters were OK.”
As the siblings grew older, they moved and started their own families. Denise settled in Atlanta where she raised her two children Joshua, 20, and his younger sister, Morgan, 18.
“I loved it,” Joshua said of growing up in Atlanta. “My mom always kept us in church.”
Joshua describes his mom as his best friend. “I tell her everything, whether I’m having a relationship or anything that I’m going through,” he said. “I know she’s there to guide and help me.”
Joshua said in 2022, his grandmother had a stroke, and Denise moved back to Connecticut, while her children stayed in Atlanta. “She wanted to take care of my grandma and my grandpa,” he said. “Once I graduated, she needed a little assistance, so I moved up here for a little while just to help her.”
Joshua moved in with his grandparents and his mother in New Haven. He still lives there today.
A little over a year ago, Michael Leary also moved back to Connecticut to help care for his mother, as well. “And then I got stuck here because I ended up finding out I have a form of cancer,” he said.
Michael says he last spoke to his sister Denise a few days before her disappearance. They were discussing a variety of things, from their mother, to his own health struggles. “I [had] no idea that she had so much going on in her mind,” he said.
Joshua Webbe says the summer of 2024 was difficult for his mom. “She suffered with mental health and anxiety and really bad depression,” he said.
A few nights prior to Denise’s disappearance, Joshua found her behavior concerning. “Around 10:30 p.m., she said she was going out,” he recalled. “She was like, ‘Turn my location off on my phone.’” He says he reluctantly did as his mother requested. “So I tried to look out the window to see who was picking her up,” he recalled.
Joshua says he couldn’t see who was picking his mother up, and that she returned home safe later in the night. He added that while his mother was single, he believes she may have been seeing someone.
Then, a few days later, on the morning of September 30, Joshua knocked on her mother’s bedroom door. He didn’t get a response. “I was like, ‘OK, maybe she just needed some time to herself,” he said.
Joshua says he grew concerned when his grandmother’s nurse came over. His mother would usually come out of her bedroom to greet the nurse, but Denise was a no-show. “The door was locked from the inside, so nobody could get in,” he said. “So I called my auntie and my auntie was like, ‘Call the paramedics to knock down the door.’”
Joshua says he did as he was told, and when the paramedics arrived, they knocked down the door. “They was like, ’Nobody’s in here,’” he recalled. But the bedroom window was open. “That’s when they said it looked like somebody jumped out the window.”
According to Joshua, paramedics believed Denise used a cable cord to hoist herself out of the window. They also found footprints near the house.
Joshua says all of his family came over and the search for Denise began. He says they tracked her phone, and it first pinged in Westport, Connecticut. Thirty minutes later, it was tracked to a park in New Haven.
“Me and my brother, he went to one park and I went to another,” Denise’s brother Michael told Dateline. “I couldn’t go too far because of my illness. I just did the very best that I could.”
They couldn’t find any sign of Denise.
The next day, Michael says, he reported his sister missing.
The New Haven Police Department is investigating Denise’s case. Their office told Dateline in an email that Denise was last seen at her home in New Haven on the night of September 29, 2024 and was reported missing by family on October 1.
NHPD told Dateline they have conducted “multiple searches involving different agencies in the area where Denise was last seen” utilizing K9 units and drones. The police department stressed they “are exhausting every investigative lead” they can and that the “search in continuing and ongoing.
According to police, a family friend reported seeing Denise in Hamden, Connecticut, “in the area of Dixwell Ave near Stop and Shop” and said she “did not appear to be in distress” at the time. They also added they have retrieved surveillance footage which is currently being analyzed.
Authorities say their investigation “has not indicated evidence of foul play” at this point.
New Haven police “began the investigation and for the first two weeks they were on it,” Joshua Webbe said. “They were searching parks, they were searching high and low. They even came to the house asking for her journal because she kept all of her numbers in there.” Joshua says the family searched, as well. He says they looked in an abandoned house in the same neighborhood where they live. Outside, he says they found Denise’s makeup palette. But inside? “Nobody was in there,” he said.
Joshua says his mother’s phone was found on the second day of the search. “Her phone was behind a neighbor’s house in my grandma’s neighborhood,” he said. NHPD confirmed Denise’s phone was located and said “an analysis is still being conducted” but did not indicate where the phone was found.
Joshua told Dateline he’ll never stop searching for his mother. “I try to remain positive and just be positive like, ‘OK, she’s out there somewhere,’” he said. “Maybe she’s lost and can’t find her was back home.”
Wherever she is, Joshua says he just wants his mother to know that he loves her and wants her home. “That’s always been my first best friend. She does have kids. She has a mother that’s worried about her. A father that’s worried about her,” he said. “I got her back, regardless, wherever she’s at. She’s always loved.”
Michael Leary was in the hospital receiving treatment when he spoke to Dateline. “I would like to let her know that we love her. We want her home and get her the help that she needs,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to hug my sister one day.”
Denise is 5’11” and 164 lbs. She has dark brown hair and eyes. She was last seen wearing a black blazer jacket, black hat, dark blue jeans, black boots, and was carrying a multicolored tote bag believed to contain hygiene products.
Anyone with information about Denise’s disappearance is asked to call the New Haven Police Department at 203-946-6304 or email missingpersonstips@newhavenct.gov
Article by: Kiani Reid
