ANSONIA - Dozens if not hundreds of people came out to veterans Park to pray that Venessa Morales is found safe and sound and that she comes home to her loved ones right where she belongs.
A community in mourning finding light through song and prayer.
“[It] let me know that the family is not alone in this crisis,” says Ansonia resident, Louis Schwartz.
Community members joined together in pleading for one year old Venessa Morales to come home safe and sound.
“She’s one year old. Come on, somebody has to have some kind of information,” Mayor David Cassetti said. “Please, please, please, it’s the holiday season. Please bring this baby back.”
Pastor Jim Midgley gathering people of many faiths in Veterans Park Saturday night.
“There’s been an enormous response from all of the different faith communities and denominations that are in town, which is not a surprise because Ansonia is a very faith-filled town,” says First United Methodist Church Pastor and vigil organizer, James Midgley.
Venessa’s family handed out flyers and received support in return.
“A stranger came up and was praying for me right there and she gave me a hug,” says Joshua Morales, Venessa’s cousin. “That actually broke my heart. That’s what made me kind of choke up.”
Venessa has been missing since Monday. Police found her mother, Christine Halloway dead in their home while conducting a welfare check. The chief medical examiner said the cause of death was blunt force trauma in what police believe was a domestic homicide.