Pod Insights Dark Downeast The Suspicious Death of Christina Lunceford (Massachusetts) About this episode In late July 2004, 20-year-old Christina Lunceford walked into her parents’ home beaming with excitement. She had just signed the lease on a new apartment with her boyfriend and was ready to begin a new chapter of her life. But only days later, Chrissy disappeared from that apartment, and the stories her family heard still don’t make sense to them more than 20 years later.
Chrissy’s name and face may have faded from public view over the last two decades, but never from her mother’s heart. Using nearly 250 pages of case file documents, we’re going to retrace Chrissy’s final days, the investigation that followed her disappearance in one state and discovery in another, and the questions that still hang in the air…Questions about what really happened to Chrissy, and who may hold the answers.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Kylie Low? There's something about being out in nature that makes the world feel a little quieter. But sometimes, even the most peaceful places have stories that refuse to stay hidden. That's what my friend Delia Diambra explores on Park Predators. Each week, she investigates true crime cases set against the world's most beautiful landscapes. Going beyond the headlines, Delia speaks with loved ones, digs through records, and sometimes visits the places where the stories unfolded. If you're ready to uncover the mysteries that linger beneath breathtaking scenery, listen to Park Predators every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:41 Kylie Low? In late July 2004, 20-year-old Christina Lunceford walked into her parents' home beaming with excitement. She had just signed the lease on a new apartment with her boyfriend and was ready to begin a new chapter of her life. But only days later, Chrissy disappeared from that apartment. And the stories her family heard still don't make sense to them more than 20 years later. Chrissy's name and face may have faded from public view over the last two decades, but never from her mother's heart. Using nearly 250 pages of case file documents, we're going to retrace Chrissy's final days. The investigation that followed her disappearance in one state and discovery in another,
1:23 Kylie Low? and the questions that still hang in the air. Questions about what really happened to Chrissy and who may hold the answers. I'm Kylie Low, and this is the case of Christina Lunceford on Dark Down East.
1:49 Kylie Low? It was July 30, 2004, and 20-year-old Christina Lunceford, who went by Chrissy, walked into her mother and father's home in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, buzzing with excitement. Her signature smile stretched from ear to ear. She had some big news and couldn't wait to tell her mother, Michelle.
2:08 Speaker 01 She came to the house to tell me that she and Larry had an apartment together. I mean, she was thrilled beyond thrilled. She was really a big girl now, you know? I, of course, couldn't share in that ecstatic feeling she had.
2:25 Kylie Low? Chrissy had been dating 26-year-old Lawrence Ngjau, known as Larry, for about nine months, maybe a year at that point. But he wasn't a stranger to the family before they got together. He dated Chrissy's sister, Janelle, a few years earlier, and it ended because he didn't treat her well. Needless to say, Michelle didn't approve of him. Chrissy knew not to talk much about Larry, and he wasn't welcome at her parents' house. That's probably why Michelle didn't know until much later that Chrissy had told people she was engaged and even married to Larry. She'd started using his last name. Whether Michelle approved of Larry or not, Chrissy was an adult who could make her own decisions, and the night ended on a good note.
3:10 Kylie Low? Chrissy planned to show her sister Janelle the new place a few days later. Janelle stopped by Chrissy and Larry's new apartment at 58 Vine Street in Nashua, New Hampshire on the afternoon of August 2, 2004. According to case file documents I obtained from the Nashua Police Department, Janelle said that Chrissy and Larry and their roommate Peter were all in good spirits and seemed to be getting along, just having a few beers and getting settled into their new home. Though she seemed to be happy starting this new chapter with Larry, Janelle felt that Chrissy's mind was also a little preoccupied that day, worrying about an upcoming medical procedure scheduled for August 4. Before leaving the apartment that day,
3:55 Kylie Low? Janelle asked her sister to call immediately after the procedure on Wednesday to check in. But Chrissy never called. It was the first red flag. Janelle showed up at Chrissy's apartment on three separate occasions over the following days to look for her. But all three times, there was no Chrissy. August 7 was her brother's birthday, but Chrissy didn't show up for the celebration.
4:19 Speaker 01 I figured maybe she just couldn't get a ride. But I was concerned because she was always there for birthdays. But I figured her birthday's August 12, and a couple more days, she'll be here. She never showed up.
4:34 Kylie Low? Michelle tried to rationalize Chrissy missing her own birthday, something to calm the growing concern in her mind.
4:42 Speaker 01 I was really concerned, but then I figured she's 21. She wants to go out drinking. I mean, that's what you do on your 21st birthday. You don't sit home with mom. So I knew she'd be there the next day, and she wasn't.
4:58 Kylie Low? On August 20th, Janelle showed up at Chrissy and Larry's apartment a fourth time, and this time Larry answered the door. When Janelle asked where Chrissy was, Larry told her she moved out. He said that she'd found out from a friend named Lydia, who lived down the street, that he'd cheated on her. And when Chrissy confronted him about it, they got in a fight, and Chrissy took all her stuff and moved out, possibly on August 3rd. According to Janelle, Larry said Chrissy took everything with her when she left, except for some photo albums. He offered to let Janelle check out the apartment for herself, but she didn't feel comfortable going inside. Janelle pressed him for more information.
5:40 Kylie Low? Did he drive Chrissy to her doctor's appointment on the 4th? Larry said he didn't know what she was talking about. Chrissy and Janelle were close. If Chrissy had really moved out, Janelle would have been the first call she'd make. Janelle told Larry they were going to the police. The same day Janelle confronted Larry, Chrissy's mother drove to New Hampshire. She couldn't ignore the bad feeling of mother's intuition screaming, "Something is wrong here."
6:10 Speaker 01 Then I went to the police in Nashua. She was living in Nashua, so that's where I went. They were very good. They listened to everything I said. But they said, "You know what? She's turned 21. She's an adult. She has the right to go missing." And I was devastated, and I kept saying, "But you don't know Chrissy. She would never disappear."
6:34 Speaker 01 I took in over 40 children through the years. But I had two foster children with me when I got the phone call saying they had a family of three, two girls and a boy. And would I like to take the two girls? Well, me being me, I said, no, I will take all three, or I won't take any.
6:55 Kylie Low? That phone call changed Michelle's life and the lives of Chrissy, Janelle, and their brother Patrick.
7:02 Speaker 01 Chrissy was just shy of being three. In her natural home, she was kept in a playpen with a big piece of plywood over the top so she wouldn't be able to stand or climb out. Having three children was just too much for her parents. She was in a different foster home with her sister for a year. And in that foster home, she was just basically neglected. So when she came walking down my pathway to the house, she could hardly walk. I mean, at almost three, she should have been running down the walk or skipping, but she was hardly walking. And she just looked up at me and said, hi, Mom.
7:45 Speaker 01 Big, beautiful blonde curls, big blue eyes, and my heart melted.
7:50 Kylie Low? Photos of Chrissy were spread out on the table around us as we spoke at Michelle's home in New Hampshire one perfect fall day. The one closest to Michelle was of a baby, Chrissy, not much older than when Michelle first met her, all curls and rosy cheeks and a toothy smile. Michelle's eyes hardly strayed from Chrissy's face during our conversation. Michelle officially adopted Chrissy and her siblings a few years later. She and their father gave Chrissy, her siblings, and all the kids who spent even a single day under their roof the childhood every kid deserves.
8:24 Speaker 01 Because of Chrissy's environment in her natural home, she had a problem called hypertonia, which is extreme muscle weakness. I brought her to therapy, and we were given all kinds of exercises. But I said to the therapist, can't I just let her run and play? Can't she just run around and go wild and crazy? I just let her play. You know, I mean, my kids were always out in the yard. We had a big yard with the swing set and, you know, toys and everything kids needed to be happy, a big swimming pool.
8:57 Kylie Low? As Chrissy began school, her teachers and parents noticed that Chrissy had some developmental delays. She received early support through special education services, which helped her grow and learn in ways that worked best for her. Still, being in separate classes sometimes made it harder for her to connect with other kids and form friendships. Over time, though, Chrissy's confidence and bright personality shone through. She really blossomed in her early teenage years when she attended a technical high school.
9:26 Speaker 01 The teacher, for an assignment one day, said, "I want you to tell me one thing about each person in the class." And her classmates, you know, they each had to just say one word. And just looking at this, forgiving, helpful, friendly, determined, easygoing, intelligent, that impressed me. Open-minded, likes to explore, unique, understanding, forgiving. I mean, they just had such beautiful things to say. That shows what kind of a kid she was.
9:58 Kylie Low? Chrissy dreamed of becoming a nurse. She just loved helping people. There was a nursing program at Chrissy's high school, but her developmental delays made it challenging to keep up with the coursework. Still, Chrissy was set on working in the healthcare field in some capacity, so the school created a plan specifically for her. She started volunteering with the elderly, and after she graduated, she officially started working in nursing homes, primarily in the kitchen, and she helped out with the activities and events as well.
10:27 Speaker 01 She loved working with the elderly. She could just make everyone smile, you know? The elderly that wouldn't talk to anyone would always talk to her. She was just, she had that personality.
10:41 Kylie Low? Chrissy made friends at work, other young adults who were taking the next step in their adulthood and moving out of their parents' homes. Chrissy wanted that, too, so she moved in with her sister Janelle for a while, and then she lived with a coworker before she started staying with her new boyfriend, Larry.
10:57 Speaker 01 And Chrissy called, like, every day. So she may have moved out, but she still had to connect every day. It would be funny, sometimes she'd have nothing to say. Sometimes it was twice a day. Again, maybe nothing to say, but, you know, she would always keep in contact. And I mean, I appreciated the calls, because at least I knew she was okay.
11:20 Kylie Low? And it was the absence of those calls in early August of 2004 that told her Chrissy wasn't okay. Even though she had recently canceled her cellphone in order to afford her half of rent at the new apartment, Chrissy always found a way to stay in touch.
11:37 Speaker 01 I mean, right from the start, when the calls stopped, you know, she didn't have a cellphone, but at least four or five times a week, she'd borrow a phone to call me. When those calls stopped, we knew something was wrong.
11:51 Kylie Low? I received almost 250 pages of case file documents from the Nashua Police Department, which is, in my experience, rare for a still-open case. Chrissy's mother had never even seen the files before. What they reveal goes far beyond the surface details that ever made it into news reports. So let me give you a deep dive into those files, uncovering what investigators found, what they didn't, and the pieces of Chrissy's story that have never been shared publicly, until now.
12:30 Kylie Low? Every small town has a local legend, the house no one drives past after dark, or the woods that hold secrets. Every October, I like to add something a little more spooky to my playlist, stories that blur the line between what's imagined and what might be waiting in the dark. Full Body Chills returns with more strange coincidences, unsettling confessions, and stories where danger may be closer than it seems. Listen to Full Body Chills all October long, wherever you get your podcasts.
13:08 Kylie Low? On August 20, 2004, the day Michelle reported Chrissy missing, a Nashua police officer went to 58 Vine Street to speak with Chrissy's boyfriend Larry. No one answered the door. A neighbor mentioned that the two men who lived there were usually working during the day, so the officer returned later. But again, there was no response. The officer learned that the landlord of the apartment had been on vacation up until August 1st. But sometime after she got back, she went to check in with her new tenants and speak with Chrissy specifically, but found that she wasn't home. Larry told the landlord that he and Chrissy had gotten into a fight and she wasn't going to be living at the apartment anymore. He didn't mention where Chrissy was going.
13:53 Kylie Low? At that point, Nashua PD was able to make contact with Larry and Chrissy's roommate, Peter. He told police that Chrissy had only lived at the apartment on Vine Street for two days before she moved out. Peter also mentioned an altercation with Larry and said that it was about his infidelity. Nashua PD also checked with Chrissy's employer, Greenbrier Terrace, and learned that Chrissy was scheduled to work on August 3rd, but was a no-show and she hadn't called to explain her absence. The last shift she worked was on August 1st. It's also noted in the case file that at least one person who worked with Chrissy described her as "not a dependable employee" and that she was often tardy and left work early on several occasions.
14:38 Kylie Low? So Chrissy missing work without notice might not have been surprising to coworkers. But the fact that she didn't show up for work on the 3rd helps narrow down the timeframe here. Chrissy dropped out of contact sometime after her sister visited the new apartment on the afternoon of August 2nd and before she was supposed to clock in for work on August 3rd. About 24 hours, give or take. Around 9:00 PM on August 21st, Nashua Police finally made contact with Larry. He told an officer that the last time he saw Chrissy was August 3rd. He explained that they had gotten into an argument about him cheating on her and she left, but then apparently came back while he was at work to pack up her personal belongings.
15:20 Kylie Low? He mentioned that he was supposed to bring Chrissy for a medical appointment on the 4th, but he never did because he said he didn't know where Chrissy was. He said he was shocked Chrissy didn't go to her sister's house. The conversation with Larry that night lasted about 10 minutes. And then the officer took two more steps in an attempt to locate Chrissy. He tried calling the Lowell Community Health Center where Chrissy was supposed to have that mystery medical procedure, but didn't get in touch with anyone. And he also tried contacting the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, but they were closed by then. The next activity on Chrissy's case by police wasn't for at least two weeks, when a different officer showed up on Larry's doorstep. Larry explained again that he last saw Chrissy on August 3rd, when they got into a fight
16:05 Kylie Low? about him cheating on her. He said that she left and took almost all of her things with her, except for a pair of slippers and some pictures. He hadn't heard from her since, and he didn't have a single clue where she might be now.
16:21 Kylie Low? A month passed after Michelle first contacted police to report Chrissy missing, and almost two months since she was last seen. Police officers had spent a few hours over two or three days looking for Chrissy so far, but for Michelle, it was all consuming. She thought about Chrissy every second of every day, fearing she had been kidnapped and was being held captive somewhere. Because if she'd disappeared on her own will, she would have called home by now. Michelle made posters, she called everyone she could think of, put signs on her car, hung a banner on the fence outside her house. Michelle wanted everyone, especially the police, to have the same sense of urgency about finding her daughter. But she wasn't sure what else to do.
17:03 Speaker 01 I was talking to my sister, and my sister said, "Well, when you went to the police, you did tell them she was learning disabled. She was naive and more like a 13-year-old, not a 21-year-old."
17:14 Kylie Low? She didn't. Michelle just didn't think of it.
17:17 Speaker 01 So I went back to the police. I explained the full situation. And they, right away, the Nashwood Police Department was amazing. They assigned Detective Bailey to the case.
17:31 Kylie Low? On September 23rd, 2004, Detective David Bailey took over the Nashua PD investigation into Chrissy's disappearance. He jumped in, starting by checking to see if Chrissy had any credit cards or bank accounts they weren't aware of already. Over the next few days, he checked to see if Larry and Chrissy were actually married, but there were no marriage licenses in either of the towns they'd lived together. Detective Bailey also tied up the loose end left by the other officer who tried contacting the medical center where Chrissy was supposed to have that procedure on August 4th, to see if she actually showed up for the appointment. Detective Bailey learned that Chrissy was scheduled to have a follow-up procedure to
18:12 Kylie Low? remove potentially cancerous cells for testing after abnormal results on a previous exam. The health center confirmed that Chrissy did not show up for that appointment. Chrissy could not be accounted for after August 2nd when Janelle visited her new apartment. So where did Chrissy go? Detective Bailey interviewed several people who knew Chrissy and Larry right off the bat, including Beth, one of Chrissy's coworkers at the nursing home. Beth said she last saw Chrissy on July 30th before she left for vacation, and when she got back to work sometime after August 3rd, she learned that Chrissy never showed up for her shift that day. Beth went to Chrissy's apartment twice during the first week of August looking for her,
18:57 Kylie Low? but both times there was no answer, and she noticed that the car Chrissy usually drove, a Mazda, wasn't parked outside. When Beth stopped by another time in early August, she spoke to Chrissy and Larry's roommate, but she didn't know his name. According to Beth, when she asked where Chrissy was, the roommate responded something like, "She's gone, she's not coming back." A few weeks after Beth found out Chrissy was missing, she saw Larry driving the Mazda and confronted him. Larry told Beth that Chrissy left, and they were never together, had never been married, and that Chrissy was just a roommate. Investigators also spoke to one of Larry's close friends, David.
19:39 Kylie Low? As far as David knew, Larry and Chrissy had been dating about a year, but they weren't married, and they'd started arguing about Chrissy not working. At one point, Larry told him Chrissy went for a ride with her sister and just never came back. David also explained to police that the car Chrissy drove, the silver Mazda 626, was actually his, and she'd been using it for about six months. He was only allowed to have one car where he was living at the time, so she was supposed to buy it from him at some point, but hadn't paid him yet. When David heard that Chrissy left or moved out, he asked Larry about the car, and Larry told him he'd given it to the mother of his children. Apparently, David wanted it back, so they went to the woman's home to get it soon after.
20:24 Kylie Low? David said he found out Chrissy was missing on the day her sister came by the apartment looking for her. So he was there when Janelle showed up on August 20th, but he didn't hear most of the conversation because Larry talked to her outside. David said that when Larry returned, he told him Janelle was going to call the police because Chrissy was missing.
20:46 Kylie Low? When Janelle first confronted Larry in August, before Chrissy was reported missing, he told her how Chrissy found out about his infidelity from someone named Lydia, who lived on the same street. So investigators tried to run that piece of the story down. When Detective Bailey asked around Vine Street, no residents could identify a person named Lydia. However, a Nashua detective was able to locate someone named Lydia who knew Chrissy. She was Chrissy's direct supervisor in the kitchen at Greenbrier Terrace. Lydia explained that she only knew Chrissy from work, and she only knew her as Chrissy Ngjau, not Chrissy Lunceford. Chrissy told everyone that Ngjau was her married name.
21:29 Kylie Low? One time Chrissy showed Lydia a picture of her husband and her husband's child, but Lydia said she'd never had any personal contact with Chrissy's husband. In the case file documents I have, there's no mention of Lydia talking to Chrissy about Larry cheating on her. In the days after he took over the case, Detective Bailey also spoke to Larry's ex-girlfriend, Desiree. She said the last time she saw Chrissy, she was with Larry at a club known as The Basement in Lowell, Massachusetts, sometime in late June or early July of 2004. She hung out with Chrissy pretty much the entire night and didn't notice any issues between Chrissy and Larry at the time. However, according to Desiree,
22:11 Kylie Low? sometime later, she showed up at the Vine Street apartment after trying to get in touch with Larry for a few weeks, but his cellphone had been turned off. Desiree asked Larry about Chrissy, and he told her that immediately after they moved in together, they got into a fight and he called Chrissy a name, and so she moved back in with her parents. Police learned through conversations with another friend of Chrissy's named Susan, that in the weeks since Chrissy went missing, she'd gotten calls from two of Chrissy's former boyfriends. Chrissy's ex-boyfriend, Steve, called to see if Susan knew where Chrissy might be, and another ex-boyfriend named Francis called too, though there's no information in reports I have regarding why Francis called Susan.
22:57 Kylie Low? But Susan's statements gave investigators two more people to talk to. By the way, Steve was not the guy's legal first name, but it's what everyone called him, so that's what I'll use too. So Steve told Detective Bailey he was, in fact, Chrissy's ex-boyfriend. He said the last time he saw Chrissy was either July 17th or July 24th, when Chrissy showed up at his apartment and asked if he and his new girlfriend wanted to go out, but they weren't feeling it that night. As far as Steve knew, Chrissy went out by herself. During that same visit, Chrissy had asked Steve for help moving into a new apartment because he had access to a moving van. He said he'd try to make arrangements for the van, but when he later tried to call Chrissy about it, her phone was disconnected.
23:43 Kylie Low? Steve told the detective that he was very concerned about her disappearance and had hung up posters at the basement. As for Francis, he actually got in touch with Detective Bailey first. Word got back to him that the police wanted to talk, so Francis decided to call the detective himself to see what was going on. Francis told the detective that he hadn't seen Chrissy for a few months. The last time was when she was at Steve's place in Lowell. He said he and Steve were working on a car there when Chrissy showed up and hung out for a while. Francis said that at first, he didn't believe Chrissy was actually missing, until her mother called him.
24:24 Kylie Low? The report notes that he seemed very concerned, and he said he helped Steve put up posters around Lowell after that.
24:32 Kylie Low? Although others had referred to Francis as Chrissy's former boyfriend, he told the detective that they were just friends and weren't romantically involved. Interestingly, police would keep hearing conflicting information about the nature of Francis's relationship with Chrissy. During a later check-in with Larry, he told Detective Bailey that he thought Francis had a sexual relationship with Chrissy before she disappeared, despite the fact that Francis was married. Larry's ex-girlfriend Desiree also told police she'd heard that Francis and Chrissy were sexually involved at one point. She also told police that Larry didn't like Francis, and Francis didn't like Larry either.
25:16 Kylie Low? Amidst the information gathering and conversations with people who knew both Chrissy and Larry, investigators kept tabs on Larry and paid him several visits at the apartment where Chrissy was last seen. On September 30th, Detective Bailey and another Nashua PD detective showed up there and asked Larry if they could collect anything that belonged to Chrissy still in the apartment. Larry signed a consent to search form and then turned over a box with a belt, blanket, pink slippers, Chrissy's diploma, and a high school yearbook. He also gave the detectives three photo albums that belonged to Chrissy, filled with pictures from her childhood. No one knew the significance of those photo albums like Chrissy's mother.
26:02 Kylie Low? For Michelle, those were the surest sign that her daughter didn't leave that apartment voluntarily.
26:09 Speaker 01 She didn't move out. Whenever I took in a foster child, from the first day, I would start a picture album for them. Because this is a part of their life that I didn't want them to forget, whether they were going to be with me a week, a month, or until they turned 18, or live with me forever. He might have gotten rid of all of her clothes, but her picture albums the police found in that apartment, she would not go anywhere without those albums. They meant everything to her. That was her whole life, from the time she was three until she was 20. And she always talked about them. She, you know, I mean, she would have left everything if she were in a hurry, but she would have taken those albums.
26:54 Speaker 01 So she didn't move out.
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28:45 Kylie Low? On October 19th, 2004, two Nashua PD detectives paid Larry another visit at Vine Street and once again asked for his permission to search the apartment as well as the vehicles he and Chrissy drove. Larry agreed, signed the form, and allowed the investigators inside. As Detective Bailey and Detective Brian Bataglia searched the sparsely furnished apartment, Detective Bailey peered under the bed in the second-floor bedroom and his eyes locked on another photo album that clearly belonged to Chrissy. He asked why Larry didn't turn that over when police were there a month earlier, and Larry said he just didn't realize it was there because it was jammed so far underneath the bed. He apologized.
29:30 Kylie Low? About 20 minutes later, Detective Bataglia pointed out a spot on the mattress in the bedroom. It was about an eighth to a quarter of an inch in diameter. There were two other silver-dollar-sized spots in the middle of the mattress. All of the spots appeared to be blood. Detective Bataglia also noticed a spot on the bottom of a door on the second-floor landing leading to the living room. It was the size of a nickel and had been varnished over, but it also looked like it could be blood. Another stain on the second-floor bedroom wall looked like blood, too. The detectives pointed out the stains on the bed to Larry. He told them he bought the mattress second-hand at a thrift store in Lowell and believed
30:14 Kylie Low? the stains to be menstrual blood. He consented to the investigators cutting the mattress and collecting samples of all the stains to preserve as possible blood evidence. Before cutting out the stains on the mattress, Detective Bataglia performed a presumptive test. The stain on the mattress tested positive for blood. Also as part of the search that day, Larry consented to having both of his vehicles taken to the police station for processing. The Mazda 626 outside was the car that Chrissy was known to drive, but it still technically belonged to Larry's friend David, so David also had to consent to the search, which he did. After searching and analyzing the Mazda and a red BMW that Larry said was his, police didn't find anything of evidentiary value.
30:59 Kylie Low? A few days later, Larry voluntarily provided a DNA sample with two cheek swabs that were retained as evidence. But what if any testing or analysis was performed on those samples and possible blood evidence by Nashua PD isn't contained in the case file documents?
31:19 Kylie Low? Over the next several months, Nashua PD followed up on reported sightings of Chrissy at bus stations and shelters, and one at a hospital in upstate New York. Sometimes, Michelle did the follow-up herself.
31:33 Speaker 01 Oftentimes, the police had a lead, and Detective Bailey might say, "We don't have anyone. I can't get anyone out there for a couple of days." And I said, "Well, I'm going." And I hung posters there and spoke to everyone that I saw hanging around. So sometimes Jen would help me do things like that. Whenever there was a supposed sighting of her, we would go and really try to help and do what we could.
32:00 Kylie Low? None of the sightings led to Chrissy. Cab drivers didn't recognize Chrissy's photo. And those who kept such records didn't have any record of picking someone up on Vine Street during the first week of August 2004. Calls to the medical examiner's offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts did not turn up any unidentified female remains. Nashua PD sent teletypes to all law enforcement agencies nationwide with details of Chrissy's disappearance. But nothing came from them. There was no activity on her social security number. She didn't turn up at any hospitals in New Hampshire or Massachusetts. Chrissy hadn't been arrested. The holiday season came and went in 2004, but Chrissy never came home.
32:45 Kylie Low? During those long months searching for her daughter, Michelle opened herself up to anything and everything that might give her the answers she desperately wanted.
32:56 Speaker 01 While she was missing, a lot of people hooked me up with their psychics, saying, "This psychic is fantastic. Everything is always accurate." And I spoke to a number of them. I went to a fair. I think it was called King Richard's Fair, and there was a psychic there. And she told me... We had a really bad... She told me, she said, "Stop looking for Chrissy. You're not going to find her." This was like in October. She said, "When all the snow melts after the winter, and there's not any snow on the ground, her body will be found by a river wrapped in a blanket."
33:40 Speaker 01 And I was so angry because she told me my daughter was dead. And I just left. I can remember that April morning. It had been a very snowy winter and all the snow was plowed, you know, in one corner of the driveway. It was a mound, probably eight feet high. But that April morning, as I got into my car to go to work, there was about a half an inch pile of snow. And I can remember saying right out loud, "Wow, the snow's finally going to be gone." I went to work. I came home and Detective Bailey was sitting on my deck
34:23 Speaker 01 with another police officer to tell me she was gone. Exactly like that psychic had said.
34:32 Kylie Low? On April 9th, 2005, Tinsborough, Massachusetts police contacted Nashua PD to notify investigators that two people out foraging for fiddleheads discovered unidentified human remains just across the street from Greater Lowell Vocational Technical High School at 1128 Pawtucket Boulevard in Tinsborough. They were down a slight embankment, about 30 feet from the road, not far from the Merrimack River. The remains were contained inside a partially torn open black plastic bag, and the body itself was wrapped in a black and white reversible comforter with a leopard type print on one side and a diamond plating type print on the other. The body was clothed with a pair of dark pants that zipped off at the knees,
35:17 Kylie Low? a camouflage tank top that said "Army Angel" with the number 58 flanked by wings, and underwear, but no shoes. Also with the remains was a Martha Stewart brand towel. Two days later, on April 11th, 2005, dental records confirmed that the remains belonged to Chrissy Lunceford. Due to the condition of her remains, investigators could not determine Chrissy's cause of death. However, early reporting about the case by Robert Mills and Jack Minch for The Lowell Sun indicates that the medical examiner concluded that Chrissy had not been shot or strangled. Despite the undetermined cause of death, investigators were treating the case as
36:01 Kylie Low? a homicide. According to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, investigators believe that Chrissy did not die in the same location she was found and was likely moved there shortly after she died. Even though she disappeared from New Hampshire, Chrissy was found in Massachusetts, and so Nashua PD handed over a copy of the case file to Tingsboro Police, as well as the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office and Massachusetts State Police, putting the case in the hands of Massachusetts investigators. Nashua officials, including Detective Bailey, assisted for a few more days after the discovery of Chrissy's remains. Detectives began knocking on familiar doors, asking familiar people the same impossible
36:46 Kylie Low? question: What happened to Chrissy? With Chrissy's identity confirmed, investigators turned their focus to the people who knew her best, retracing the last days of her life and looking for any connection between the comforter found with her body and the places she had once called home. Michelle didn't recognize the comforter found with her daughter, but Janelle said that it looked like a comforter she'd seen at a previous apartment where Larry and Chrissy stayed before moving into the new one on Vine Street. Police also spoke with Larry's close friend David again, and they got to the topic of the comforter eventually, but David hadn't yet heard that Chrissy's body had been found.
37:31 Kylie Low? Detective Bailey notes in his supplemental report that when he told David, he quote, "became silent and appeared to be shocked by the news." "David also appeared to be on the verge of tears," end quote. And then David's phone started ringing. It was Larry. Larry was in custody at Lowell Police giving a statement about Chrissy's disappearance and was given a phone call. Detective Bailey, who was interviewing David with a Massachusetts State Trooper, asked why Larry would be calling him. And David said Larry always called him when he was in trouble. David didn't answer.
38:08 Kylie Low? David's memory of when he last saw Chrissy was fuzzy, but he thought it was about a week after she and Larry moved into the Vine Street apartment. But by then, Larry was already telling people that Chrissy moved out. And then Detective Bailey showed David a photo of the comforter found with Chrissy. According to the report, David appeared shocked when he saw it. He said he remembered seeing a comforter similar to that one on Larry and Chrissy's bed in both the Vine Street apartment and the one before that. After being shown the photo for the first time, David wouldn't look at it again while it was on the table. The officers pressed David for details about what Larry might have said happened to Chrissy, and David started to say something like,
38:53 Kylie Low? "after the incident," but then quickly corrected himself, saying that he meant after Chrissy went missing, Larry told him she left because she wasn't paying her half of rent. According to David, Larry told him Chrissy moved in with either her mother or sister and left while he was at work. The detective and the state trooper asked David why he referred to Chrissy going missing as "an incident," but David said he'd just made a mistake because of his English-speaking skills. The officers asked David if he'd ever used a comforter like the one found with Chrissy, and he said he didn't think so unless he'd used it when he slept over there at some point. When asked, he also said that he never had any sexual contact on a comforter like that,
39:37 Kylie Low? but he did have sex in the Vine Street apartment on two occasions after Chrissy disappeared. David voluntarily gave DNA samples via cheek swabs as well as fingerprints. The following day, he also agreed to submit to a polygraph test. From the report verbatim, "The polygraph was scored as inconclusive as to whether David had knowledge of what happened to Christina." During a follow-up interview about the results of his polygraph examination, David insisted that he didn't know anything about what happened to Chrissy or who disposed of her body. But the report from the case file also says, "David said that when he saw the comforter,
40:20 Kylie Low? he knew that it was from Larry and Chrissy's bedroom and felt that Larry must have done something to Chrissy." But if Larry did have anything to do with it, David was sure he would have said something about it to him. Larry told David pretty much everything, including graphic details of his sexual activity. Still, David was adamant that he didn't know anything about how Chrissy died, who was responsible, or who disposed of her body.
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42:35 Kylie Low? Back when this case was still a missing persons investigation, the timeline of Chrissy's disappearance narrowed down to about 24 hours. Remember, Janelle was the last member of Chrissy's family to see her on the afternoon of August 2, and Chrissy failed to show up for work on August 3. So where was Larry during that window of time? In an apparent attempt to answer that question, investigators caught up with Peter, the roommate who lived with Larry and Chrissy at the time of her disappearance. He told police that he was gone for a big chunk of that first weekend of August 2004, since he worked double shifts on July 31 and August 1. He was at work from about 5:45 a.m. until after
43:17 Kylie Low? 11 p.m. those days. But on Monday, August 2, Peter said he only worked a single shift from 3 to 11 p.m. He told police that when he got home that night, he asked Larry where Chrissy was. That's when Larry told him they'd gotten into a fight about him cheating on her, and she moved out. Peter explained to police that he'd since moved out of the Vine Street apartment but talked to Larry at work about Chrissy. Larry told him how police kept coming around asking about her and had even cut some evidence out of a mattress. That's all he had to offer police at that point. Now, according to Janelle's earlier statements to police,
43:58 Kylie Low? Peter was home on August 2nd when she stopped by to see Chrissy and the apartment. But Peter doesn't say, or police didn't ask, if Chrissy was there when he left for his 3:00 P.M. shift at work. By the time he got home after 11:00 P.M., Chrissy had already "moved out of the apartment." That's an even narrower window than I originally thought, just about eight hours. Investigators requested both Larry and Peter's employment records at that point. They both worked at the same hospital. But information about when Larry worked and if he showed up for those shifts is not contained in the case file documents released to me. There was a rumor mentioned in the case file that Larry may have been late to work on August 3rd,
44:43 Kylie Low? but a follow-up with his employer by police showed that Larry, in fact, clocked in on time that day. Police picked Larry up on April 11th, 2005, the day Chrissy was finally found, and they brought him into the Lowell Police Department. That's when he made that call to his friend David. Larry told Francie Richardson of the Boston Herald that police had picked him up on two unrelated outstanding warrants that day for assault and battery and DWI, but they questioned him about Chrissy's death. Larry claimed that police administered a polygraph examination, and he passed. He said he didn't have anything to hide.
45:22 Kylie Low? However, the DA's office would not confirm whether he took or passed a polygraph exam. The last page in the Nashua Police case file is a supplemental report dated May 11th, 2005. Nashua detectives and Massachusetts troopers were monitoring Larry's car at work. They found him inside and asked if he'd come down to the Lowell Police Department for another interview. Larry was read his Miranda rights and submitted to a taped statement, but that transcript is exempt from release. It appears that's where the Nashua PD's involvement in Chrissy's death ends.
46:00 Kylie Low? Nashua PD turned over the physical evidence collected from the Vine Street apartment to Massachusetts State Police for analysis at the Massachusetts forensic laboratory. To this day, we don't know the results of any testing on that evidence, or if the comforter or towel found with Chrissy contained any other biological evidence. I've reached out to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office for an interview or comment. The office responded via email, "The investigation is still open", and encouraged members of the public to contact investigators with tips. Michelle feels like Massachusetts authorities just don't care about Chrissy, maybe because she disappeared from New Hampshire.
46:45 Kylie Low? According to her notes, the last communication she had with investigators on Chrissy's case was January of 2017, when Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Conce was assigned to the case, and again in 2018. But Michelle hasn't had a meeting with investigators in years.
47:02 Speaker 01 I know they're busy and there's a lot worse things going on in the world, but to me, this is the worst thing in my life. And I just wish, you know, I wish I knew.
47:17 Kylie Low? In his earliest statements, Larry said that he and Chrissy argued about his cheating and that she left the apartment on August 3. Later, he told investigators she must have come back while he was at work to pack her belongings. When Janelle confronted him, he told her he didn't know anything about Chrissy's August 4 medical appointment, even though the case file notes he told police he was supposed to drive her there. To friends and coworkers, he told different versions of the same story, that Chrissy had moved back in with her family or that they'd never really been together at all. Through every retelling, one detail seems to stay the same. He last saw Chrissy on August 3 and that she left.
48:02 Kylie Low? Everything else, the reason she left, whether she returned and what he knew about her plans, is inconsistent.
48:10 Kylie Low? From the very beginning, Michelle doubted that Chrissy moved out of the apartment after a fight with Larry, especially without telling anybody. For one, she wouldn't have left those photo albums behind. But Michelle also feels that one of the first things Chrissy would have done was to call to get her mother's approval of the breakup since she knew how Michelle felt about Larry. Michelle heard rumors about how Larry treated the people he dated. Janelle disclosed to police that just a few weeks before she disappeared, Chrissy confided that Larry choked her during an argument because he was mad she hung out with an ex-boyfriend at a club. In a later interview with Chrissy and Janelle's brother Patrick, he also told police that Chrissy said Larry choked her once because the apartment was a mess.
48:55 Kylie Low? Janelle had also heard some strange things about Larry's conduct and behavior while he was dating Chrissy, like Larry supposedly had other women over for sex and would make Chrissy hide in a closet. At the time of Chrissy's disappearance, there was an assault charge pending against him in Massachusetts. Larry's former girlfriend Desiree disclosed to police that Larry was charged with assaulting her. I have a copy of a Lowell PD police report from a separate incident that details an alleged assault where Larry was accused of hitting a man with a glass bottle and punching him, leaving him with injuries that required medical attention at a hospital. His record in Lowell also showed that, at the time, he'd been charged with simple assault in battery and driving while intoxicated.
49:40 Kylie Low? According to the case file, multiple witnesses told police that Larry got violent when he was drunk, and so they avoided going out with him while he was drinking. Taken together, these accounts paint a troubling picture of Larry's alleged behavior. Friends and family described him as volatile at times, and several past incidents suggested a pattern of aggression that couldn't be ignored. Still, none of this proves that Larry had anything to do with Chrissy's death. What it does establish, however, is a clear reason for investigators and for those who love Chrissy to look closely at his actions, both before and after she disappeared. With his criminal history, the reported tension in their relationship, and the fact that
50:22 Kylie Low? Chrissy's remains were found wrapped in a comforter, consistent with one multiple witnesses said was in the apartment, Larry inevitably remains a central figure in the search for answers.
50:34 Kylie Low? But there is another angle in this case that seems like police were trying to suss out back in 2005. Going down the list of people Nashua PD had already spoken to before Chrissy was found, officers tracked down Chrissy's ex-boyfriend Steve again. Though the interview was recorded and the transcript is exempt from release, other reports in the case file show that Steve told police that the same day Chrissy's remains were found, he got a voicemail from Francis, another person identified as one of Chrissy's exes. Steve explained to investigators that he called Francis back and Francis told him he saw on the news that Chrissy's body had been found and there was a note on his door from police.
51:18 Kylie Low? Steve said Francis seemed worried that his phone was tapped or being monitored somehow, so he wanted to talk to Steve in person. Francis then asked Steve to tell the police he was just friends with Chrissy and she babysat his kids sometimes. Multiple witnesses had said that Francis was married, but he'd been unfaithful to his wife and may have had an affair with Chrissy. So to speculate a little, maybe that was the motivation for covering his tracks and asking Steve to say they were just friends, so it wouldn't get back to his spouse. But there could have been another reason for Francis wanting to downplay his relationship with Chrissy. Witnesses had said that Francis used to live down the street from where Chrissy's body was found.
52:00 Kylie Low? And when police checked that claim out, they found that Francis owned a condo on Pawtucket Boulevard in Lowell. Chrissy's remains were found at 1128 Pawtucket Boulevard. In the aftermath of Chrissy's discovery, investigators were left trying to piece together a tangled web of relationships marked by infidelity and secrecy and half-truths. The Comforter was consistent with one scene at the apartment she shared with Larry, but Francis's proximity to where her body was found raises its own set of questions. Friends and acquaintances offered fragments of what they knew about Larry and Chrissy and their relationship, but nothing fully explained how Chrissy's life came to such an abrupt and tragic end.
52:46 Kylie Low? For every lead that hinted at foul play, there were others that suggested something more complicated. Without a confirmed cause of death, investigators still couldn't rule out the possibility that what happened to Chrissy might have been accidental, an argument gone too far, a moment of panic, or a situation that spiraled out of control. Michelle has even considered the possibility that Chrissy could have died from an accidental drug overdose, though there's little mention of any drug use beyond smoking pot and drinking alcohol in the case file. But even if her death wasn't the result of intentional, knowing murder, someone still made the choice to hide Chrissy's body, to wrap her in that comforter,
53:29 Kylie Low? and to leave her body just beyond sight off the side of the road. To me, that decision speaks to fear and to guilt that has never been accounted for. The number one thing Michelle wants investigators to do now, 21 years after Chrissy's disappearance and death, is talk to Larry.
53:50 Speaker 01 Push Larry and get him to say what he knows, because he knows, he knows, he knows what happened to my daughter.
54:00 Kylie Low? Larry has never been named a suspect in Chrissy's disappearance or death. He is not charged with any crimes stemming from her case, and from everything I've seen in the case file, he was cooperative with the investigation every step of the way. I reached out to Larry using every phone number and email address I could find for him, and I never heard back. At the time of Chrissy's disappearance, he worked as a nurse aide in Massachusetts, which is a licensed position. According to Massachusetts license records, Larry's nurse aide certification was issued in 1999, was last renewed in 2018, and it expired in 2020. So where he is and what he's doing now, I haven't figured that out yet.
54:45 Kylie Low? Larry, if you're out there and this reaches you, please get in touch. If not with me, with the Middlesex District Attorney's Office or Tingsborough Police Department. Anyone who may have information relating to Chrissy's case can contact Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office at 781-897-6600. The Tingsborough Police Department has a confidential tip line, 978-649-7504, option 9. On October 10th, 2025, the very same day I met with Michelle for this interview, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office issued a press release announcing a new appointment
55:30 Kylie Low? to the DA's expanded cold case unit. Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Conce Wiseman was named the new chief of the unit, the same ADA who was most recently assigned to Chrissy's case, according to Michelle's notes. I hope that this change means new energy and new attention for Chrissy's file, that her case is being looked at again, and that every scrap of evidence has been carefully preserved. I hope someone is still asking questions, still following up on leads, still caring enough to answer the biggest questions in this case. After all these years, that's what Chrissy and her family deserve. They deserve answers. Years after Chrissy died, her classmates got together and remembered the friend they'd
56:15 Kylie Low? lost. They decided to do another version of that earlier class assignment, the one where they each wrote something about Chrissy, but this time they allowed themselves more than a single word. They wrote their memories and reflections of Chrissy's life in different colors around her name and shared the final product with Michelle. I want to read a few of them for you. "I loved and appreciated the way Chrissy was always there to listen and never judge the situation. Extremely kind and caring friend, missed by all. Crystal. I'll always remember your bright smile. Jackie. Chrissy, you were always so much fun to be around. We miss you. Brian. I'll always remember your cheerful personality. Kelly."
57:00 Kylie Low? Chrissy, you were always happy and smiling with your pretty eyes. Thanks for always sharing your potato chips. Libby.
57:08 Speaker 01 I mean, this is Chrissy, you know, and these aren't exaggerated, like because she died, we want to say something extra nice. This is Chrissy, you know? She loved people. She loved being a helper. She loved being needed, like why the nursing homes were a perfect place for her, to bring joy and cheer and a smile to everyone's face.
57:31 Kylie Low? As Michelle looked down again at the photo of Chrissy sitting between us on the table, her eyes mistooked. For a moment, the years of grief and uncertainty seemed to quiet, replaced by the nearness of the daughter she'll always carry with her. Chrissy will always be that sweet little girl, walking on unsteady legs down her path for the first time, finally, home.
57:55 Speaker 01 She loved talking, but she wouldn't just talk. She was also the world's best listener, you know? She'd take it all in. She'd hesitate, but then she'd respond, and it was a well-fought-out response all the time, you know? She was quite a remarkable young lady.
58:20 Kylie Low? Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram, @darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Low, and this is Dark Down East.
58:52 Kylie Low? Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and AudioChuck. I think Chuck would approve.
59:04 Speaker 04 If anyone wanted to commit a murder, up here would be the greatest place in the world to hide the body. But soon they'll find it. He acted friendly. He talked friendly. He sounded friendly.
59:17 Speaker 05 They all knew that I did the scary bogey stuff. And they says, maybe she'll find out where this girl is. I saw him violent. Backhanded her. Pow!
59:30 Speaker 06 Listen to The Devil's Quarry, Season Two, in the Bone Valley feed, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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