New England’s Unsolved: The disappearance of Leeanne Redden

LYNN, Mass — This past April marked a heartbreaking anniversary for a Lynn family.

It has now been ten years since anyone has seen Leeanne Redden, a free-spirited, 37-year-old woman who disappeared a day after visiting her family.

For nearly her entire adult life, Leeanne suffered from addiction.

Her family was powerless to stop its hold on Leeanne’s life.

“She really was a good person. She was a good person. but it was the drugs that just destroyed her,” Donna Pleasant, Leanne’s mother recently told me.

Amy Robinson, Leanne’s younger sister, remembers their childhood bond.

“She was a girly girl, you know. She was into the hair and the makeup, and I was into sports and things of that nature,” Amy told me.

She added, that Leanne’s addictions, destroyed their once unbreakable bond.

“It was no longer us. It was her and these friends and this new lifestyle. And I just had no desire for it.”

Despite her struggles, Leanne Redden regularly visited her mother and family in Lynn. On April 15, 2013, the day of the Boston Marathon bombings, Leanne showed up at her mother’s door, with a new boyfriend, an older man from Saugus.

“He made a statement that he was going to marry her and help her,” Donna remembers. “And she didn’t say nothing. She just looked at me like, you know, gave me a little weird look. And I said, ‘Is that what you want to do? You sure? She said, Yeah.’”

Donna never again saw Leanne. Instead, the next morning, the boyfriend called Donna telling her that Leeanne left him in the middle of the night.

And, a week later, the boyfriend returned Leeanne’s belongings to her family. Amy Robinson says she was instantly alarmed. “To me, for you to drop it off, you don’t expect her to come back. Why don’t you expect her to come back? If you were just here a week ago professing your love of how you want to marry your her, it doesn’t make sense to me at all,” Amy said.

Donna reported Leanne missing to the Lynn Police Department. Authorities say Leanne’s boyfriend is potentially a person of interest.

“I think some of his actions and some of his lifestyle and some of the things that he may have said to the family seems a little bit suspicious,” Lynn Police Captain Christopher Kelly said.

Months after Leanne disappeared in 2013, the boyfriend suddenly died from a suspected drug overdose. But investigators are still looking into him. Recently, they searched the Saugus home where he was living.

“I find those facts to be extremely important. We did visit that location, fairly recently, with some cadaver dogs with negative results. But we continue to check all leads in all associates of LeAnn at the time and will continue to do so until she’s found,” Captain Kelly said.

Leeanne Redden lived nearly her entire life in the Lynn area.

The fact that in ten years, no one has seen her or heard from her, has her family deeply concerned, but they say they are not giving up their search.

“I have no fear. I will talk to anybody. I will walk into the street and talk to anybody, lifestyle people, it doesn’t matter to me. At the end of the day, I’m not looking to jam anybody up I’m just looking for my sister.” Amy Robinson said.

Leanne is still somewhere out there.

“Do you think she’s still with us?” I asked Donna. “That’s hard to say. It really is,” Donna answered. “I mean, I want to believe she is. I don’t feel that she’s gone. I keep asking, where’s our miracle? Give us a miracle.”

Lynn Police do not know if Leeanne Redden was a victim of foul play or where she is right now.

If you have any information, contact Lynn Police at: 781.477.4398 or the Essex County Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit at: 978.745.8909

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