04/17/10

Skeleton’s Discovery Draws Scrutiny Of Divorce

Missing Woman’s Bones Found In Newtown Home

POSTED: 8:26 pm EDT April 16, 2010
UPDATED: 3:15 am EDT April 17, 2010

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A couple of days before Elizabeth Heath was reported missing in 1984, her husband filed for divorce and custody of the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, according to court documents. Health’s remains were discovered Thursday on the property the couple once owned in Newtown.

After using dental records to positively identify the found skeleton as belonging to Heath, her death was ruled a homicide.Police said bones belonging to Heath were found wrapped up and under an old wooden floor in the barn of the home the couple once owned. A contractor for the home’s new owners discovered the bones.Barbara Delong said she knew something was wrong when she learned Heath, who was her friend, went missing in April 1984.”I was told she just walked away from everything — not like her. I do remember, but that’s all I was told,” Delong said.Delong said she was at the couple’s wedding in 1978 at the Newtown home. She said she was surprised that the police did not ask more questions after Heath’s disappearance.”I question it.

I question how could she leave her garden, how could she leave her child?” Delong asked.

Court records show Heath’s husband, John Heath, filed for divorce in March 1984, days before his wife’s disappearance. The divorce was finalized later that year. As part of the divorce proceedings, John Heath was asked under oath, “Please state whether you have filed with the appropriate authorities a missing person’s report.”John Heath replied that he had. According to documents, John Heath told the court, “I have not heard from the defendant directly or by mail since April 2, 1984.”The divorce was finalized in August 1984 and John Heath was awarded custody of the couple’s daughter, Meghann, even though his wife’s whereabouts remained unknown.

John Heath remarried the next year.John Heath told Eyewitness News he did not want to comment about his ex-wife’s remains being found.The state’s attorney said he is working with police on the case because it has been ruled a homicide. As of Friday night, no arrest warrants had been applied for in connection with heath’s death and no suspects had officially been named.

04/16/10

CT Remains have been positively identified Elizabeth Heath

04/16/10 -Skeletal Remains Identified as Missing Woman And Labeled A Homicide

04/16/10

Sister speaks out about death of Newtown woman missing since ’84

John Heath and his wife Elizabeth Gough-Heath on her wedding day in 1978. Elizabeth disappeared in 1984.

Friday, April 16, 2010

NEWTOWN — The sister of Elizabeth Gough-Heath, whose 26-year-old skeletal remains were found under the kitchen floor of a basement apartment Wednesday, said she is in a lot of pain after hearing how her sister was found.

“She always took care of me,” Helen Gough said. “If I had a problem I could always turn to her. I was closer to her than my mother.”

Gough-Heath was reported missing by her husband, John Heath, on April 6, 1984, when she was 30 years old. Her family filed to declare her dead seven years later.

The current owners of 89 Poverty Hollow Road in Newtown, where the body was discovered, were renovating the basement apartment when they ripped up the kitchen floor and discovered a bag containing Gough-Heath’s bones.

Gough-Heath used to live in the apartment with John Heath, and their daughter, Meghann.

Police, who are calling the case a homicide, have not released any additional updates since Gough-Heath’s body was identified Thursday.

“It sure seems like a murder,” said Helen Gough, 47, of Bridgeport. “I just know (John) built that apartment and I find it kind of strange: How can you build an apartment over a body and not know?”

Gough said John Heath owns a building business and lives in Bridgewater. She also said the last time she talked to him was two years ago.

Efforts by The News-Times to reach John Heath on Thursday and Friday have been unsuccessful.

“You know what bothers me?” Gough asked. “I remember going to his house and having Christmas dinner with him and her daughter, Meghann. Now I know we were only yards away from her body and here I am partying with the family, and it’s just upsetting,” Gough said. “At the time, I was thinking how nice it would be if she called just to say, `Happy holidays.’ Well, now I know that wasn’t going to happen.”

Gough said John Heath led her to believe her sister had taken off.

“We thought she just got too stressed out and fed up and ran off,” said Gough, who visited her sister a few days before Elizabeth went missing.

On April 6, 1984, Elizabeth Gough-Heath dropped off Meghann and a neighbor’s child at day care. That’s the last time she was seen, Gough said, adding that her sister missed a lunch date later that day.

“I just kept hoping that at least she’s happy and someday she’ll contact us,” Gough said.

Meghann, meanwhile, grew up, got married and about two years ago moved to Puerto Rico, Gough said.

John Heath remarried to a woman named Raquelle about a year later after Elizabeth Gough-Heath was reported missing, Gough said, and has two children with her.

Her sister had many lifelong friends, she said.

Gough recalled when she was 18 and she snuck away to a carnival. When she returned, Elizabeth yelled at her for sneaking away without telling anyone.

“I thought that was so contradictory, when she disappeared,” Gough said. “I can’t even imagine her wanting to leave Meghann. I miss her all the time.”

04/15/10

Friends of Elizabeth Gough Heath find solace

NEWTOWN — Friends of Elizabeth Gough Heath were both hopeful and confident Thursday, even before the skeletal remains found at her former 89 Poverty Hollow Road property were identified as hers.

Police said Heath was reported missing by her husband, John, on April 6, 1984, although at the time officials had reason to think she left on her own.

“There were rumors of drug abuse,” Lt. George Sinko said Thursday.

But, after 26 years of wondering what happened to Heath the evening that she vanished, peace is beginning to find its way to those who love her.

“It’s Liz Heath,” said Bethel resident Barbara DeLong late Thursday morning before police confirmed that the bones were Heath’s.

“It’s got to be, it’s just got to be,” she insisted.

DeLong said Liz was a “loving” and devoted mother, so she couldn’t believe when she was told that Heath had left town in the middle of the night.

“(John) told people she had moved back to Oregon or wherever she was from,” she related. “I know what kind of mother she is, and for her to have never, never contacted her daughter ever again?”

DeLong said Elizabeth Heath hadn’t taken any belongings, clothes or a vehicle.

“It’s not like she was kidnapped off the property,” DeLong said. “This is where (she) physically went missing, and no one ever heard from her again. It’s not like she was abducted — she was on the property when it supposedly happened.”

DeLong stated what an online missing persons’ database said — the Heaths were reportedly in the process of a divorce when Elizabeth Heath mysteriously disappeared.

According to town land records, a bank foreclosed on the property in 2005. Neighbors said John left in the middle of the night.

“The way I’d like to think of it is whoever it is soul’s at rest now, and that’s not a bad thing,” Ginny Ranson, who lives in the apartment above where the bones were found, said Thursday before the identification was made.

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04/14/10

Remains Found In Newtown CT-Skeleton Identitfied As Elizabeth Heath

Skeleton Identitfied As Elizabeth Heath
Heath Missing Since 1984

April 15, 2010

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The discovery of a femur bone during renovation at a Newtown property leads police to a full human skeleton that was positively identified as missing woman, Elizabeth Heath on Thursday evening.

Police said the death is being investigated as a homicide.

Police said they are investigating the discovery in connection to the disappearance to Elizabeth Heath in 1984.

The femur was found Wednesday afternoon on a Poverty Hollow Road property while workers were performing renovation work. The owner of the home told Eyewitness News the bone was discovered in an old dry well in the basement of the barn. He said the dry well was covered by a wood board and cement.

The homeowner said when the boards and cement were removed, garbage bags full of bedding and a femur were found. When police arrived, they said more bones were found and that an entire human skeleton had been located on Thursday.

“Upon examination it was determined remains were human and upgraded to a homicide investigation,” said Lt. George Sinko of the Newtown Police Department.

Neighbors said they know little about the home’s owners, who purchased the house in 2007.

The former owner of the home is John Heath, whose wife, Elizabeth Gough Heath, disappeared in 1984. John Heath now lives in Bridgewater. The Heaths were in the process of divorce when Elizabeth disappeared, according to court documents. John Heath left the property in 2005 when the bank foreclosed on the home.

“They left in the middle of the night, just suddenly left, a bunch of people living there suddenly gone,” said neighbor Suzanne Letso.

Police did not say whether they were looking for John Heath, or if they had already made contact with him.

Police said they hope to use dental records to identify the skeleton.

“We have dental records we will use for reference, we’re waiting for results,” Sinko said. “A lot of advances in science since 1984 so we’re hopeful that with those advances, we’re going to be able to solve this case.”

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Category Archives: Elizabeth Gough Heath