On a summer day in 2007, 42-year-old Liza Murphy disappeared from her Emerson, New Jersey home after a heated argument with her husband, Joseph. She reportedly walked toward nearby woods and never returned. She left behind her cell phone, wallet, depression and fibromyalgia medication, and cigarettes — items family and friends said she would not have voluntarily abandoned, especially with three children at home.
Police found the marriage troubled; officers had been called to the couple’s home multiple times for domestic disputes, and friends described Joseph as verbally abusive and possessive. An anonymous caller, not Joseph, reported Liza missing the next day. Searches involving cadaver dogs, ATVs and a helicopter with a heat-detecting camera scoured the woods and the area around the Oradell Reservoir without finding her.
Days after Liza vanished, Joseph attempted suicide by walking into traffic and was seriously injured; he then stopped cooperating with investigators. In December 2014 authorities disclosed that Joseph’s real name was Paschal Delahunty and that he had been living in the U.S. under a stolen identity. No charges related to Liza’s disappearance have been filed and the case remains unsolved.
If anyone knew Liza, her movements that day, or saw someone matching Joseph Delahunty’s description in Emerson in 2007, please come forward with information.