- Missing Since06/04/1954
- Missing FromManchester, Connecticut
- ClassificationEndangered Missing
- Age42 years old
- Height and Weight5'4 - 5'5, 155 pounds
- Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Anna's previous married name is LaVallee. Her ears are pierced. She dresses conservatively and wears conservative makeup.
Anna was last seen at her home in the 10 block of Little Street in Manchester, Connecticut on June 4, 1954. Her husband of twelve years, Philip H. Kenneway, stated they got into an argument that evening and then he left to go see a movie alone.
This was sometime between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. When he returned, Anna was gone, and she'd taken clothes, $3,000 in cash, $9,000 worth of savings bonds and a religious statue.
Philip never reported his wife missing. Her son from a previous marriage, who lived in Massachusetts, told police about her disappearance on June 15. Her son also posted a classified ad in the newspaper, appealing to his mother to contact him.
Her son was hospitalized in Massachusetts at the time his mother went missing; he stated Anna usually visited him every two weeks, but the visits stopped abruptly after her disappearance.
Philip and Anna's relationship was troubled and they argued constantly; neighbors reported witnessing physical and verbal abuse. Around the time she was last seen, Anna called a co-worker from a pay phone, upset, saying she was thinking of leaving her husband. The call was cut off, and Anna's co-worker didn't know whether Anna had hung up or if someone else did.
Philip got a divorce from Anna in January 1956, citing "intolerable cruelty," and afterwards told a neighbor he was "free." He subsequently remarried.
Anna was declared legally dead in 1991. Members of her family believed he had murdered her and buried her under their garage. Philip built the garage and had its concrete floor poured around the time she vanished. In 2006, police dug up the suspected burial site and found nothing.
Anna is considered to be missing under suspicious circumstances. Both she and Philip worked the third shift as machine operators at the same factory in East Hartford, Connecticut in 1954, and Anna had missed only three days of work in the seven years prior to her disappearance.
Philip remains the prime suspect in her case, but he died in 1985 without ever being charged. Her case remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
- Manchester Police Department 860-645-5544
Anna Bertha Kenneway – The Charley Project
Missing Person Case
Manchester Cold Case From 1954 Rekindled
