A Year Later: Where is Joan Conetta?

In 2012, 40 people in Manchester went missing. All but one were found.

More than a year after she went missing, authorities still do not know what happened to Joan Conetta. Police have been searching for the Whiting woman since she disappeared on June 11, 2012, then age 74.

Most missing persons cases are solved within a day or two, according to Detective Chris Hemhauser of the Manchester Police Department. It’s difficult for police still not to have closure in Conetta’s disappearance.

“For me, it’s always going to be on my mind, and her file is always on my desk,” Hemhauser said.

Potential remains and living persons matches for Conetta, a grey-haired, hazel-eyed woman approximately 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 100 pounds, still come in to the police department. But none have been her.

Authorities have said that they believe Conetta left her St. John Place home in Crestwood Village I with a “large sum of money” and handgun. Searches of the woods near her home, including with cadaver dogs that are able to find the deceased, have yielded nothing.

“We went out there with the quads, the K-9s, New Jersey Search and Rescue,” Hemhauser said.

Conetta does not have access to an automobile and may be suffering from disorientation, authorities said upon her disappearance. There has been no activity on Conetta’s bank account since she went missing, according to Hemhauser.

To mark the year anniversary of her disappearance, Hemhauser and a group of officers went back into the neighborhood for another canvass, knocking on the doors of about 200 nearby homes.

Conetta joins one other resident as the only missing persons cases in Manchester that have not been solved. William Schmidbauer, who was 64 years old upon his disappearance from his Cedar Glen West residence in 2007, also has not been found.

Hemhauser said that the case isn’t closed, and police will continue to try to find out what happened to Conetta.

“Any leads that come in will be exhausted,” he said.

Anyone who may have information regarding Conetta's whereabouts is asked to contact Hemhauser at 732-657-2009, ext. 4207.