Investigators discovered a woman's body on an embankment near a busy highway on Wednesday as the search continued for a 29-year-old special education teacher who went missing two days earlier on her way to work.
Authorities were awaiting autopsy results and said it was too early to link the body with the disappearance of Leah Walsh, who was reported missing on Monday when her abandoned car was found with a flat tire on another highway 13 miles away.
Investigators believe the body, found in a wooded area about 50 feet from a Long Island Expressway service road, had been there for more than 24 hours, Nassau County Police Lt. Kevin Smith said. He said the woman's face was not easily identifiable, but declined to discuss other specifics.
Walsh failed to show up Monday at the Glen Cove school where she works with autistic children. Police said the school contacted Walsh's mother, Mattie Hirschel, who called her husband, Howard Hirschel. He happened to be driving a school busload of children on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway in Bethpage when he noticed his daughter's car, a 2005 black Ford Focus, disabled on the side of the highway.
Instead of calling police, he phoned the missing woman's husband, William Walsh, and summoned him to the scene and continued on to deliver the children to their school.
When Walsh arrived, he called 911, Smith said. Police helicopters, canine units and officers on horseback searched for hours in the area, which is near the massive Bethpage State Park, but all they found was the woman's purse, located in a nearby ditch.
Detectives questioned William Walsh on Tuesday, but police stressed it was a routine part of the investigation.
Before the discovery of the body, Walsh spoke to reporters Wednesday morning outside the couple's Bethpage home, making an appeal for any information about his wife's whereabouts.
"I miss her more than anything," he said, noting her dedication as a schoolteacher. "She loves her children. She wouldn't just leave them. Something had to have happened."
Leah Walsh's parents declined to speak to reporters.
The couple have been married for three years, and have no children, police said.
Police believe Leah Walsh usually left home for work between 6:15 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.
At about 6:30 a.m. Monday, a state Department of Transportation vehicle left a sticker on the side window of her car indicating it had mechanical problems. The doors were locked, and the woman was nowhere in sight.
William Walsh told a reporter that his wife had sent him a text message shortly after leaving for work Monday telling him "Have a great day, love you bunches."
Copyright 2008 AP Features
