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2008-10-31 06:04:43
By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer Frank Eltman, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 30, 10:10 pm ET
MINEOLA, N.Y. It seemed like one of those classic suburban nightmares: A teacher went to school on Monday morning, sent a loving text message to her husband, then vanished on the side of the road. Her husband became distraught, making tearful pleas for her safe return.
But police said Thursday that those pleas were fake.
They said William Walsh confessed to strangling his wife during a fight over his alleged infidelity. He then dumped her body on an embankment and staged an elaborate hoax to make it look as if she had been a victim of random roadside violence.
Homicide detectives believe the would-be stockbroker killed 29-year-old Leah Walsh on Sunday after he returned from a trip to Atlantic City, N.J. Lt. John Azzata, commander of the Nassau County homicide squad, said that the couple got in a fight, and that he choked her to death as the dispute escalated.
Azzata described the killing as "impulsive. ... It was a domestic situation gone extremely bad."
William Walsh, 29, was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to second-degree murder. Despite a confession, Walsh's attorney insisted that police had made a "rush to judgment" and that his client was innocent.
Azzata said that after the killing, Walsh took great effort to cover his tracks.
With his dead wife inside their Bethpage apartment, Walsh went about his business on Sunday, washing his clothes at a coin laundry, eating at McDonald's and doing "some various other things that he thought could substantiate his alibi," Azzata said.
After darkness, he loaded her body into her car and dumped her remains in an embankment 50 feet off the Long Island Expressway.
He then drove 13 miles to a different highway, leaving the car on the side of a road and letting the air out of the right front tire to make it appear as if it had broken down, police said. Walsh walked home, but returned a short time later, apparently to throw his wife's purse in a nearby ditch.
He was seen leaving the scene by a driver in a state Transportation Department vehicle, authorities said.
At about the same time, Walsh sent a text message to himself, using his wife's cell phone to make it appear as if it were from her. "Have a great day. Love you bunches. Mwah," the message said.
Later Monday, Leah failed to arrive at her job teaching autistic children. After a country club worker spotted her black Ford Focus with the flat tire, police helicopters, canine units and officers on horseback began a search that lasted two days.
Then Leah Walsh's body was found. Police said William Walsh confessed hours later.
Defense lawyer Karl Seman claimed the confession was the result of "at least nine hours of continuous nonstop interrogation."
"This is a case that should have taken weeks to work on, not days," Seman told reporters at his client's arraignment. He attributed the confession to "tricks" by interrogators.
Leah Walsh's brother, Josh Hirschel, made a statement outside his parents' Rockville Centre home on Thursday. "Leah always strove to brighten the world around her," he said. "She always lent a hand to those who most needed it. She was a wonderful person."