Family still searches for Leeanne Redden after two years

LYNN ? Two years ago last month, Leeanne Marie Redden, who was living with her mother, left to go out. She never came back.Now, two years later, her family wants to redirect its focus on finding her.Redden’s cousin, Denise Bettinger, feels the case hasn’t been receiving much attention, so she is organizing efforts to put it back in the spotlight.Redden, who is 37, went missing around April 8 or 9 of 2013, Bettinger said. She left her mother’s house with a friend and has not been seen since. Her mother, Donna, didn’t immediately report her missing because, as she said, it wasn’t uncommon for Redden to leave the house for periods of time.”Donna waited a little less than a week to file a missing person’s report, but it was assumed she would return,” Bettinger said.The man with whom Redden left, Jeff Rock, was questioned after she was reported missing, but he has since died. Witnesses also reported seeing Redden with an African-American man.People have said they saw Redden with an African-American man on Silsbee and Broad streets the next day.Bettinger said that while Redden, who has a daughter, Jacqueline, who is now 12, may have wanted to leave, perhaps because something had upset her, there’s no way she’d have left her daughter behind.”She loved her daughter, and she was a great mother,” Bettinger said.Redden has hazel eyes and long black, thick curly hair that Bettinger says she loves to dye.She was known to never leave the house without her makeup bag. She has three tattoos: a tribal sun on her lower back, an Asian symbol on the back of her neck and a cross on her left middle finger. She is between 6-1 and 6-3, Bettinger said.Redden held several different jobs before she went missing and was working in the South Shore area. Bettinger hopes to reach out down there as well.”I know she loved to travel so I just want to get the word out as far as possible,” Bettinger said.Redden is registered with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) and her case number is mp# 21996. Her case number with the Lynn Police Department is 13-35123. Bettinger is urging anyone with any information to contact these systems.Bettinger said she will continue placing missing persons posters around the city, and says Redden’s mother wants to get a billboard.They have set up a Facebook page, “Team Find Leeanne Redden,” where people can find out more information.