29-year-old Leah Walsh, a Long Island teacher at a school for autistic children, has been missing since 6:30 a.m. Monday after her husband told police he had received a text message from her saying she had a flat tire.
Police found her car, a 2005 Ford Focus, on the side of the road, with her purse nearby.
Lucas Bean, 32, a close friend of Walsh, said she texted him Sunday night on her way home from her parents’ house after a “huge fight” with her husband.
“She was telling me that things are not going to work out with her and her husband and she had to tell me something very important, but she needed to wait til she got out of the car with him,” he said.
“She was in the car with him texting to me so that was Sunday night and they were in a huge fight.”
That was the last Bean, who lives in Los Angeles, heard from the young woman.
Leah’s husband, William Walsh, handed out photos of his wife to reporters on Tuesday and made a “tearful but somewhat bizarre plea for her return.”
“You can have my cars. You can have everything,” he said. “I just want my wife back.”
Police are treating Walsh’s disappearance as a missing persons case, not an abduction.