Vanessa and her mother, Christine Holloway. Anyone with information on what happened to Vanessa should call the FBI at 203 503 5555 or the Ansonia Police Department at 203 735 1885.
ANSONIA — An accused murderer is scheduled to receive a plea offer from prosecutors in January.
The details of the offer aren’t known, but Jose Morales, 47, is scheduled to be in Superior Court in Milford on Jan. 18 to learn more.
Ansonia police arrested Morales on Feb. 7, 2020 and charged him with murdering Christine Holloway, the mother of their 1‑year-old daughter, Vanessa, inside a residence on Myrtle Avenue in late 2019.
Vanessa and her mom were last seen by family members on Nov. 29, 2019.
Holloway’s body was discovered Dec. 2, 2019 — four years ago this Saturday.
Vanessa has been missing ever since. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to finding her.
Anyone with information should call the Ansonia Police Department at 203 – 735‑1885 or the F.B.I. tip line at 203 – 503-5555.
Ansonia police Lt. Patrick Lynch said on Monday that police are still searching for Vanessa and operating under the assumption she is alive.
Morales’ criminal case was called Nov. 28 in court.
His lawyer, Edward Gavin, told Judge Kevin S. Russo, that an offer from the prosecution was coming and that Morales will receive it on Jan. 18.
Another court date — an ‘accept or reject’ date — will be scheduled after that, most likely in February. If Morales rejects the offer, the case goes on the trial list, Gavin said.
Monday was the 34th time Morales’ name appeared on the Superior Court docket in connection to the murder. The judge said it was good to see the case heading in ‘a direction.’
Vanessa, in an age-enhanced photo released in 2022. She is now 5-years-old.
Several members of Holloway’s family were in court on Monday and spoke briefly with a prosecutor outside of the courtroom.
In an interview with The Connecticut Post in May, Jodi Jacobellis, Holloway’s sister-in-law, was asked about the possibility of a plea deal.
“The only thing we would accept for a plea (deal): produce Vanessa. Bad or good,” she told the newspaper.
A message seeking comment was left with Jacobellis on Monday.
Outside court, The Valley Indy asked Gavin, Morales lawyer, whether information about Vannessa’s whereabouts would be part of an offer. Gavin said he could not comment on an offer he hasn’t received.
“I don’t think that would be part of it. I don’t think that would be accurate,” he said.
Police said in an arrest warrant that Morales was the last person to see Vanessa before she went missing.
After Holloway’s body was found inside a bathtub Monday Dec. 2, 2019 Morales, who did not live with her but visited on the weekends, was immediately evasive with police, according to the warrant. Holloway had been beaten to death by blunt force trauma.
Morales allegedly told police he had not stayed with Holloway and Vanessa that weekend. Police said cell phone data places him in Ansonia.
And his step-father and mother, who live in New Haven and were interviewed in their home, told police Morales had stayed in Ansonia the days before Holloway was found dead.
A neighbor said he saw Morales leave the Myrtle Avenue house Dec. 2 — shortly after a police officer, responding to a request for a“welfare check,” had knocked on the door. Seeing nothing unusual, and no one answering the door, the officer left (police discovered the body after a second request for a welfare check later in the day).
After learning that Holloway had been murdered and Vanessa was missing, Morales’ step-father yelled at him, asking if he had anything to do with it. Police described Morales as having“no emotion,” according to the warrant.
His family, in front of police, pressed Morales for information as to Vanessa’s whereabouts.
“Morales continued to deny having any knowledge of her location or what may have happened to her,” according to the arrest warrant.“Morales continued to show little to no signs of emotion.”
Morales’ mother, distraught after learning Holloway was dead and Vanessa was missing, told police, in front of Morales, that Holloway was elated to have had a baby at age 43. Now she would not have the chance to enjoy her child.
“Morales showed no reaction to what was being said to him,” according to the warrant.
Vanessa’s fifth birthday was Sept. 7.
Anonymous tips can be sent to police by using this website.
