Oct 30, 2008 6:04 pm US/Eastern
Police: Teacher's Husband Confesses To Murder
William Walsh Told Police He Strangled Wife After Getting Into Fight
MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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William & Leah Walsh were married for three years before she was strangled to death.
CBS
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Bill Walsh is escorted away in handcuffs by detectives after he was arrested on charges of murdering his wife, who just days earlier he had reported missing.
CBS
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William Walsh talks to reporters after his wife was reported missing, pleading for her safe return. He would later be charged with her murder.
CBS
A man who begged for days for help in locating his missing wife – a schoolteacher whose disabled car was found abandoned on the side of a highway – confessed to police that he strangled her to death before dumping her body in a remote wooded area, authorities said Thursday.
William Walsh, 29, pleaded not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Leah. He was denied bail and is due back in court on Nov. 3.
Police say Mr. Walsh admitted in a written and verbal confession that he strangled his wife early Sunday morning during a fight in their house after he returned from a trip to Atlantic City. Police say he dumped her body after it got dark on Sunday evening, and then faked a text message from her cell phone on Monday morning.
"William and Leah Walsh got into an argument. This argument escalated into a physical confrontation. This physical confrontation ultimately ended in the death of Leah Walsh," Lt. John Azzata, commander of the Nassau County homicide squad, said during a news conference Thursday.
The suspect's family, however, says police coerced him into making the confession while an attorney wasn't present. His attorney, Karl Seman, insisted that police had made a rush to judgment and questioned the validity of his client's confession.
"It's obviously a very tragic time for both families," Seman told reporters. "The bottom line is we're going to ask people to keep an open mind.
Police say the couple were fighting about Mr. Walsh's alleged infidelity before he choked her to death during their fight. With his wife dead inside their Bethpage apartment, Walsh then went about his business on Sunday, doing laundry at a nearby laundromat and eating at a McDonald's, before disposing of the body later that night.
"In the cover of darkness, he drove around Long Island in Nassau County finding a dark area, backed his vehicle into that dark area, and ultimately removed Leah from the vehicle, dragged her across the cold ground, and left her in leaves, weeds, and a wooded area," Azzata said.
Mr. Walsh was arrested Wednesday night after police confirmed that the body discovered in an embankment 50 feet from the Long Island Expressway was that of his missing wife.
Just hours before the medical examiner made the identification, a supposedly distressed Walsh pleaded for his wife's safe return in an interview with CBS 2.
"I don't know what to do. I just keep talking to the cops. I keep asking questions. I wish I could give them more. I don't know where to look. I don't know what to do. I just want my wife back. I miss her more than anything," he had said.
"I need everybody's help," he added, his voice cracking as he spoke. "Anybody that could have seen anything, please just call. I mean, I'm going all over, I'm gonna try and make more posters. My brother and sister are putting them up, we got a whole bunch of people out there."
Nassau County Police say a worker at the North Hills Country Club found Mrs. Walsh's body when he left work Tuesday night in a wooded ravine between two golf courses. Police recovered her body around 8 a.m. Wednesday. It's believed the body had been there for more than 24 hours.
The discovery is about 13 miles from where Mrs. Walsh's car was found abandoned with a flat tire early Monday. The teacher at the School for Language and Communication Development was reported missing after failing to arrive at her Glen Cove school on Monday.
Her car was found coincidentally by her father, a bus driver who happened to be on the highway later Monday morning. Her purse was found in a ditch nearby.
Mr. Walsh reported his missing wife to police and had said she had last contacted him via text message when she had a flat tire.
"She said have a good day and I love you, and that was the last I heard from her," he told CBS 2.
Neighbors said they didn't sense any trouble between the two. "No, I haven't seen anything at all. They'd come out, wave hi and bye, never saw any argument or anything like that so," said neighbor Bob Kilkenny.
Mr. Walsh first left the 8th precinct station house in Levittown after a seven-hour routine police interview Tuesday afternoon. His brother Tommy had stood behind him as his family continued their search for his wife.
"He's a mess, his wife is missing. How else could you be? It's tearing our family apart," Tommy Walsh said then.
The two had been married for just three years.
"She was very close to her mother, a wonderful child, played with the kids, great gal," said her former neighbor Stanley Bralower. "I'm just shocked."
Mrs. Walsh's employer expressed sympathy in a written statement, saying the school would work to help parents and teachers heal and honor her memory.
"One of the most remarkable aspects of Leah that we will all remember was that she was such an extraordinary teacher. She loved her students and she was extremely dedicated to their families," Dr. Ellenmorris Tiegerman, Executive Director of the school, said.
"I know I speak for all of the teachers and parents at SLCD when I express my deepest sadness for her loss. Leah had become a significant part of our family and our mission as an educational program. She will be greatly missed but as the Executive Director I am most saddened about the fact that it is Leah's potential as a teacher which will be difficult to replace."
CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez, Jay Dow, and Jennifer McLogan contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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