Two Longstanding Missing Persons Cases Still Under Investigation

By Andrew Gorosko

The discovery of the skeletal remains of Elizabeth Gough Heath, which were found hidden at a Poverty Hollow Road property on April 14, have allowed police to eliminate one item from their list of three “cold cases” on longstanding missing persons.

Ms Heath was reported missing to police by her husband John Heath on April 6, 1984.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week that police had talked to John Heath over the years about his missing wife, but had not encountered a “break” in the case until Ms Heath’s skeleton was found at the 89 Poverty Hollow Road property, which Mr Heath formerly owned. (See related story.)

Police have categorized Ms Heath’s death as a homicide and are continuing their investigation.

Police also are continuing their investigations into the unexplained disappearances of two other local people, Chief Kehoe said.

Police are reinvestigating what happened to Regina Brown more than 23 years ago.

Ms Brown, an American Airlines flight attendant, was last seen on March 26, 1987. The mother of three young children, Ms Brown was 35 years old when she disappeared. Police have described her as an African American of Creole descent with very light skin, noting that many people thought she was Caucasian.

“In 1987, Regina Brown was involved in a divorce and had dropped off her daughter and babysitter at…LaGuardia Airport. She was then supposed to have returned home to Newtown…Regina’s vehicle was found. However, her whereabouts are still unknown,” according to police.

Chief Kehoe has said that in the fall of 2008, while reviewing longstanding police cases that remain unsolved, police decided to reinvestigate the disappearance of Ms Brown.

Ms Brown has been declared presumed dead by probate court, but her body has never been found.

Ms Brown lived with her three children in a home at 18 Whippoorwill Hill Road.

On March 30, 1987, she failed to show up for work on a scheduled flight. Her parents and the babysitter  became concerned because they had not been able to contact her. They called one of her neighbors and the neighbor called the police on April 2, 1987.

When Ms Brown missed work on another flight on April 3, the airline contacted her estranged husband Willis Brown, Jr, then 53, an American Airlines pilot who was then living in Queens, N.Y. He called the Newtown police later that day to file a missing person report.

At the time of Regina Brown’s disappearance, the Browns were going through a contentious divorce and child custody battle. They had been married for less than five years, living all of that time in Newtown.

After Ms Brown disappeared, Newtown police and state police searched the Browns’ house and the grounds of surrounding properties, including a nearby undeveloped 50-acre property, but found no evidence of foul play.

Also, police have been reinvestigating the disappearance of Edward Dubbs, formerly of Taunton Lane.

Mr Dubbs went missing in June of 1981, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) computer database. The missing 44-year-old man would now be 73.

According to the NamUS database, “Edward Dubbs was last seen at his place of employment (Hayes Williams, Inc, a public relations firm located at 261 Madison Ave. NY, NY) on Tuesday, June 9, 1981 at approximately 5:05 pm.

“Mr Dubbs did not show up to work the following day. His employer found this to be very unusual, so he contacted Newtown Police Department. A check of his residence showed that the home was secure and no vehicle or persons were present. A search of the interior of the home indicated that Mr Dubbs did not return home on June 9, 1981. Mr Dubbs was reportedly about to break off his relationship with his live-in lover,” according to NamUs.