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Jose Morales was convicted of murdering Christine Holloway, 43, and tampering with evidence after prosecutors said he killed her in her Ansonia, Connecticut, apartment in the early morning hours of December 1, 2019, then spent about 37 hours cleaning the home and destroying evidence.

Holloway lived in a first floor apartment on Myrtle Avenue with her 1-year-old daughter, Vanessa Morales. Morales, of New Haven, was Vanessa's father and had an on and off relationship with Holloway. He was the last person known to have been with them. Prosecutors said he struck Holloway in the head not less than eight times with an instrument, causing severe skull fractures and other fatal blunt force trauma. Ansonia police found her body in the bathtub on December 2, 2019. Vanessa was gone and has never been found.

Detective Stephen Adcox and Detective Sergeant James Frolish conducted Morales's first interview at the Ansonia Police Department at about 6 a.m. on Tuesday, December 3, 2019. Police did not tell him that Holloway's body had been found. Morales said he had not seen Holloway in three or four days, characterized their relationship as casual rather than serious, and said he did not know where she or Vanessa were.

Detectives pressed Morales on having said nothing about his missing 1-year-old daughter. They said a neighbor had seen him leaving Holloway's home in a way that contradicted his account of the weekend of November 30 to December 2, and they challenged his claim that he did not know about Holloway's new car. Officers took his sweatshirt, two t-shirts, sweatpants, socks, sneakers and cell phones, and he changed into a Tyvek suit. Detectives noted a bruise on his bare chest, which he first attributed to a fight and then said he was unsure about.

A DNA analyst later testified that Morales's black sneakers were stained with Holloway's blood. Other trial evidence included children's books, shoes and toys recovered from a bloody bag Morales left in a donation bin after Holloway's death. The interview video was played for the jury on day six of the trial in April 2025.

Morales was charged with murder and tampering with evidence and tried in Superior Court in Milford. He testified that he was high on PCP and that intruders broke into the home, killed Holloway and took Vanessa. After a two week trial, jurors deliberated less than four hours before finding him guilty of both counts on April 22, 2025. Judge Shari A. Murphy sentenced him on July 14, 2025, to 60 years for murder and a consecutive 5 years for tampering with evidence, the maximum total sentence of 65 years. His trial attorney's motion for a new trial was denied.

Morales filed an appeal with the Connecticut Supreme Court on September 9, 2025, challenging the verdict, the denial of the new trial motion, and the admission of evidence tied to Vanessa's disappearance. As of November 21, 2025, the appeal was pending. Morales has not been charged in Vanessa's disappearance. Ansonia police still consider him a suspect, and the investigation into what happened to her remains open.

The video is a police interview-room recording running about 60 minutes. It presents the interview itself and opens with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.