On April 6, 1977, Judith (Judy) Anne Brown went missing in the company of Richard E. Reisenberg, who was a patient at Creedmore Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York.
They met after Judy checked herself into the facility as a voluntary patient in August 1976. She had had a mental health episode while attending one of her classes at LaGuardia Community College.
At the time, she was 19 years old. She was only at the facility for a day or two before being transferred to Hillside Medical Center. She began dating 31-year-old Richard while they were both patients at their respective hospitals.
Judy stayed at Hillside for two to three months. In January 1977, she transitioned to an outpatient program at Hillside that provided her with housing.
She was required to attend individual and group therapy sessions to keep her housing. Around this time, Richard proposed to her, and she agreed to marry him.
Richard E. Reisenberg has a history of mental illness. He had behavioral problems as a child and tried to take his own life twice before his 15th birthday. He was diagnosed with a schizoid personality with the possibility of a schizophrenic disorder.
On January 10, 1971, he killed his wife, Diane, and their 17-month-old son, Andrew. He stabbed Diane approximately 60 times and strangled the baby to death with an extension cord.
The couple had been having marital troubles. Diane suffered from cataracts, Andrew was disabled, and Richard was unhappy with his career and had multiple affairs.
The police found the murder weapons in the garbage at his job at the airport. Richard was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1973.
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He received about two-thirds of his wife’s life insurance policy, which was over $11,000. With inflation, it would be worth over $78,000 today.
He was placed in Creedmore Psychiatric Center until he could be released back into the public again. After his arrival at the facility, Richard started leaving the grounds unescorted and without permission.
He used his insurance money to pay for meals at restaurants, attend sports games and have his clothing altered by a tailor.
When a ward supervisor found out about Richard’s unauthorized field trips, they wrote a recommendation that he be transferred to a maximum security facility. Somebody tipped him off about the transfer, so he quickly left Creedmore and vanished with Judy.
About a month after Judy disappeared, she called her sister to tell her that she was okay. No one knows if they ever really got married. After that, they were never seen or heard from again.
Since he fled from Creedmore, Richard has been considered a fugitive. In the mid-1990s, he was thought to be raising a family in Colorado. It is believed that he was still alive as recently as 2000. Today, he would be in his late seventies.
Judy was not officially deemed a missing person until 2009. She is considered to be in danger from Richard due to his history of violence.
Anyone with information on Judy’s disappearance is urged to contact the New York Police Department at (212) 694-7781.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
