The Suspicious Death of Christina Lunceford (Massachusetts)

In late July 2004, 20-year-old Christina Lunceford walked into her parents’ home beaming with excitement. She had just signed the lease on a new apartment with her boyfriend and was ready to begin a new chapter of her life. But only days later, Chrissy disappeared from that apartment, and the stories her family heard still don’t make sense to them more than 20 years later.

Chrissy’s name and face may have faded from public view over the last two decades, but never from her mother’s heart. Using nearly 250 pages of case file documents, we’re going to retrace Chrissy’s final days, the investigation that followed her disappearance in one state and discovery in another, and the questions that still hang in the air…Questions about what really happened to Chrissy, and who may hold the answers.

Chrissy is Missing

It was July 30th, 2004 and 20-year old Christina Lunceford, who went by Chrissy, walked into her mother and father’s home in Tewksbury, Massachusetts buzzing with excitement, her signature smile stretched from ear to ear. She had some big news and couldn’t wait to tell her mother, Michelle.

“She came to the house to tell me that she and Larry had an apartment together,” Michelle began. “I mean, she was thrilled, beyond thrilled. She was really a big girl now, you know. I, of course, couldn’t share in that ecstatic feeling she had.”

Chrissy had been dating 26-year old Lawrence Njau, known as Larry, for about nine months, maybe a year at that point. But he wasn’t a stranger to the family before they got together; he’d dated Chrissy’s sister Jenelle a few years earlier and it ended because he didn’t treat her well. Needless to say, Michelle didn’t approve of him. 

Chrissy knew not to talk much about Larry, and he wasn’t welcome at her parent’s place. That’s probably why Michelle didn’t know until much later that Chrissy had told people she was engaged and even married to Larry. She’d started using his last name.

Whether Michelle approved of Larry or not, Chrissy was an adult who could make her own decisions, and the night ended on a good note. Chrissy planned to show her sister, Jenelle, the new place a few days later.

Jenelle stopped by Chrissy and Larry’s new apartment at 58 Vine Street in Nashua, New Hampshire on the afternoon of August 2nd, 2004. According to case file documents I obtained from the Nashua Police Department, Jenelle said that Chrissy and Larry, and their roommate Peter were all in good spirits and seemed to be getting along, just having a few beers and getting settled into their new home.

Though she seemed happy to be starting this new chapter with Larry, Jenelle felt that Chrissy’s mind was also a little preoccupied that day worrying about an upcoming medical procedure scheduled on August 4th. Before leaving the apartment that day, Jenelle asked her sister to call immediately after the procedure on Wednesday to check in. 

But Chrissy never called. It was the first red flag. 

Jenelle showed up at Chrissy’s apartment on three separate occasions over the following days looking for her, but all three times, there was no Chrissy. August 7th was her brother’s birthday, but Chrissy didn’t show up for the celebration.

“I figured maybe she just couldn’t get a ride, but I was concerned because she was always there for birthdays. But I figured her birthday’s August 12th and a couple more days she’ll be here. She never showed up.”

Michelle tried to rationalize Chrissy missing her own birthday, something to calm the growing concern in her mind.

“I was really concerned, but then I figured she’s 21. She wants to go out drinking. I mean, that’s what you do on your 21st birthday. You don’t sit home with mom. So I knew she’d be there the next day…And she wasn’t.”

On August 20th, Jenelle showed up at Chrissy and Larry’s apartment a fourth time, and this time Larry answered the door.

When Jenelle asked where Chrissy was, Larry told her she moved out. He said that she’d found out from a friend named Lydia who lived down the street that he’d cheated on her, and when Chrissy confronted him about it, they got in a fight and Chrissy took all her stuff and moved out, possibly on August 3rd.

According to Jenelle, Larry said Chrissy took everything with her when she left except for some photo albums. He offered to let Jenelle check out the apartment for herself but she didn’t feel comfortable going inside. Jenelle pressed him for more information: Did he drive Chrissy to her doctor’s appointment on the 4th? Larry said he didn’t know what she was talking about.

Chrissy and Jenelle were close. If Chrissy had really moved out, Jenelle would’ve been the first call she’d make. Jenelle told Larry they were going to the police. The same day Jenelle confronted Larry, Chrissy’s mother Michelle drove to New Hampshire. She couldn’t ignore the bad feeling, a mother’s intuition screaming ‘something is wrong here’.

“Then I went to the police in Nashua. She was living in Nashua, so that’s where I went. They were very good. They listened to everything I said, but they said, you know what? She’s turned 21. She’s an adult. She has the right to go missing. And I was devastated. And I kept saying, but you don’t know Chrissy. She would never disappear.”

About Chrissy Lunceford

“ I took in over 40 children through the years,” Michelle shared. “But I had two foster children with me when I got the phone call saying they had a family of three, two girls and a boy, and would I like to take the two girls? Well, me being me, I said, no, I will take all three or I won’t take any.”

That phone call changed Michelle’s life, and the lives of Chrissy, Jenelle, and their brother Patrick.

Michelle remembers that moment perfectly, “Chrissy was just shy of being three. In her natural home, she was kept in a playpen with a big piece of plywood over the top so she wouldn’t be able to stand or climb out. Having three children was just too much for her parents. She was in a different foster home with her sister for a year, and in that foster home, she was just basically neglected.”

“ So when she came walking down my pathway to the house, she could hardly walk. I mean, at almost three she should have been running down the walk or skipping, but she was hardly walking and she just looked up at me and said, hi mom. Big beautiful blonde curls, big blue eyes,” Michelle’s own eyes welled, “And my heart melted.”

Photos of Chrissy were spread out on the table around us as we spoke at Michelle’s home in New Hampshire one perfect fall day. The one closest to Michelle was of a baby Chrissy, not much older than when Michelle first met her, all curls and rosy cheeks and toothy smile. Michelle’s eyes hardly strayed from Chrissy’s face during our conversation.

Michelle officially adopted Chrissy and her siblings a few years later. She and their father gave Chrissy, her siblings, and all the kids who spent even a single day under their roof the childhood every kid deserves.

Because of Chrissy’s environment in her natural home, she had a problem called hypotonia, which is extreme muscle weakness. I brought her to therapy and we were given all kinds of exercises, but I said to the therapist, can’t I just let her run and play? Can’t she just run around and go wild and crazy?  I just let her play, you know, I mean, my kids were always out in the yard. We had a big yard with the swing set and, you know, toys and everything kids needed to be happy, a big swimming pool.”

As Chrissy began school, her teachers and parents noticed that Chrissy had some developmental delays. She received early support through special education services, which helped her grow and learn in ways that worked best for her. Still, being in separate classes sometimes made it harder for her to connect with other kids and form friendships. Over time, though, Chrissy’s confidence and bright personality shone through. She really blossomed in her early teenage years when she attended a technical high school.

“The teacher, for an assignment one day said, I want you to tell me one thing about each person in the class. And her classmates, you know, they each had to just say one word. And just looking at this: Forgiving, helpful, friendly. Determined, easygoing, intelligent. That impressed me. Open-minded likes to explore. Unique understanding, forgiving. I mean, they just had such beautiful things to say that shows what kind of a kid she was.

Chrissy dreamed of becoming a nurse. She just loved helping people. There was a nursing program at Chrissy’s high school, but her developmental delays made it challenging to keep up with the coursework. Still, Chrissy was set on working in the healthcare field in some capacity, so the school created a plan specifically for her. She started volunteering with the elderly and after she graduated, she officially started working in nursing homes, primarily in the kitchen, and she helped out with activities and events as well.

“ She loved working with the elderly. She could just make everyone smile, you know, the elderly that wouldn’t talk to anyone would always talk to her. She was just, she had that personality.”

Chrissy made friends at work, other young adults who were taking the next step in their adulthood and moving out of their parents’ homes. Chrissy wanted that, too, so she moved in with her sister Jenelle for a while, and then she lived with a co-worker, before she started staying with her new boyfriend, Larry. 

“And Chrissy called like every day, so she may have moved out, but she still had to connect every day. It would be funny sometimes she’d have nothing to say. Sometimes it was twice a day, again, maybe nothing to say, but, you know, she would always keep in contact. And I mean, I appreciated the calls ’cause at least I knew she was okay.”

And it was the absence of those calls in early August of 2004 that told her Chrissy wasn’t okay. Even though she had recently cancelled her cell phone in order to afford her half of rent at the new apartment, Chrissy always found a way to stay in touch. 

“ I mean, right from the start, when the calls stopped, you know, she didn’t have a cell phone, but at least four or five times a week, she’d borrow a phone to call me. When those calls stopped, we knew something was wrong.”

I received almost 250 pages of case file documents from the Nashua Police Department, which is (in my experience) rare for a still-open case. Chrissy’s mother had never even seen the files before. What they reveal goes far beyond the surface details that ever made it into news reports. So, let me give you a deep dive into those files, uncovering what investigators found, what they didn’t, and the pieces of Chrissy’s story that have never been shared publicly…Until now.

This is an excerpt from The Suspicious Death of Christina Lunceford (Massachusetts) on Dark Downeast. To hear the full episode, press play wherever you get your podcasts.

Photos by Hanna Hickey Photography. © Dark Downeast Podcast. All rights reserved. Any republication for any purpose requires express written permission.