WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Melissa Witt 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:09.765 School of Humans. 0:00:11.205 --> 0:00:14.325 Over the past five years making my true crime podcast, 0:00:14.365 --> 0:00:17.645 Helen Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing 0:00:17.805 --> 0:00:21.165 as a small town where murder never happens. I have 0:00:21.325 --> 0:00:24.605 received hundreds of messages from people all around the country 0:00:24.965 --> 0:00:27.645 asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, 0:00:27.965 --> 0:00:32.165 their families, and their communities. And now they have a 0:00:32.165 --> 0:00:36.285 new way to reach out. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is 0:00:36.365 --> 0:00:39.805 Hell and Gone Murder Line. If you have a case 0:00:39.845 --> 0:00:42.245 you'd like me and my team to look into, you 0:00:42.285 --> 0:00:45.205 can reach out to us at six seven eight seven 0:00:45.285 --> 0:00:49.405 four four six one four five. That's six seven eight 0:00:49.725 --> 0:00:56.885 seven four four six one four five. Thursday, December first, 0:00:57.045 --> 0:01:00.005 nineteen ninety four started out as just a normal day 0:01:00.125 --> 0:01:04.565 for Melissa missy Wit. Melissa was a nineteen year old 0:01:04.565 --> 0:01:06.765 college student who's still lived at home with her mom, 0:01:06.845 --> 0:01:09.565 mary Anne, with on a quiet street in a quiet 0:01:09.645 --> 0:01:13.925 neighborhood in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Melissa was Marianne's only daughter, 0:01:14.045 --> 0:01:18.765 and Melissa was her whole world. In interviews later, Marianne 0:01:18.765 --> 0:01:21.125 talked about how she'd been almost forty years old when 0:01:21.125 --> 0:01:24.205 Melissa was born. Melissa's dad, Johnny, was fifty four at 0:01:24.205 --> 0:01:27.925 the time. Today that's more common, especially in places like 0:01:27.965 --> 0:01:29.445 New York City, where I've spent a lot of my 0:01:29.445 --> 0:01:33.005 adult life, but back then, in small town Arkansas, it 0:01:33.125 --> 0:01:37.565 was definitely not. Because they were so close. Mary Anne 0:01:37.645 --> 0:01:41.485 was always very protective of Melissa. She always thought about safety. 0:01:42.525 --> 0:01:45.645 Fort Smith had around seventy five thousand people living there 0:01:45.845 --> 0:01:49.525 back in the early nineties with a military base. It 0:01:49.605 --> 0:01:52.845 was much larger and more diverse than say, a lot 0:01:52.885 --> 0:01:55.565 of towns in the Ozarks, but it still had that 0:01:55.645 --> 0:01:59.085 small town feel. When Melissa was growing up. It was 0:01:59.125 --> 0:02:02.205 the kind of place where kids rode their bikes around 0:02:02.205 --> 0:02:06.165 town and entertained themselves after school. On that December morning 0:02:06.285 --> 0:02:09.325 in nineteen ninety four, Melissa asked mary Anne if she 0:02:09.325 --> 0:02:12.645 could borrow twenty dollars. Mary Anne was trying to teach 0:02:12.685 --> 0:02:16.885 Melissa about smarter budgeting, so she said no. Melissa and 0:02:16.925 --> 0:02:19.325 mary Anne actually got into a little argument over this, 0:02:19.845 --> 0:02:22.765 and Melissa left the house that day without them resolving it. 0:02:23.885 --> 0:02:26.965 After Melissa left, mary Anne felt bad about the argument, 0:02:27.525 --> 0:02:29.885 so she left Melissa a note telling her to come 0:02:29.885 --> 0:02:32.645 to Bowling World that night, where mary Anne was part 0:02:32.685 --> 0:02:35.885 of a lady's bowling league. In the note, mary Anne 0:02:35.925 --> 0:02:38.485 apologized for getting upset with her and offered to buy 0:02:38.525 --> 0:02:40.445 her a hamburger when they saw each other that night, 0:02:41.245 --> 0:02:45.525 she signed the note love Mom. Melissa did go to 0:02:45.565 --> 0:02:48.325 meet her mom that night at Bowling World, but she 0:02:48.485 --> 0:02:54.365 never made it inside. Instead, Melissa disappeared and Mary Anne 0:02:54.685 --> 0:02:59.085 never saw her daughter alive again. For days, no one 0:02:59.165 --> 0:03:03.565 noticed that Melissa's brand new white nineteen ninety five Mitsubishi 0:03:03.605 --> 0:03:06.165 Mirage was parked in a far corner of that parking lot, 0:03:06.845 --> 0:03:08.445 and no one noticed the blood. 0:03:09.325 --> 0:03:12.965 Are you and it's being lookout for? A Melissa Whitt 0:03:13.445 --> 0:03:17.525 be a white female nineteen years of age fot five, 0:03:18.645 --> 0:03:25.765 have hazel eyes, brownish blond hair. I've seen Thursday, December First. 0:03:27.885 --> 0:04:15.405 I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. 0:04:16.165 --> 0:04:17.565 Hi Catherine, this is LaDonna. 0:04:17.845 --> 0:04:20.605 I just wanted to talk to you about the Melissa whitcase. 0:04:21.605 --> 0:04:24.765 I was introduced to the Melissa Whit case through Lodonna Humphrey, 0:04:25.365 --> 0:04:29.565 a private investigator and native of Northwest Arkansas. We've been 0:04:29.605 --> 0:04:32.125 talking about Melissa's case for a couple of years now. 0:04:32.845 --> 0:04:36.005 Lodonna has devoted years of her life to investigating the 0:04:36.045 --> 0:04:39.205 case and to getting justice from Melissa's family and friends. 0:04:40.005 --> 0:04:43.045 She's also written two books about Melissa called The Girl 0:04:43.085 --> 0:04:46.805 I Never Knew and Strangled, and made a documentary about 0:04:46.805 --> 0:04:49.525 the case called Uneven Ground The Melissa Whit Story. 0:04:50.165 --> 0:04:51.045 I have been a part of. 0:04:50.965 --> 0:04:54.685 A nonprofit that I had founded called Let's Bring Them Home. 0:04:55.005 --> 0:05:00.165 We offered support to families who had adult cases that 0:05:00.205 --> 0:05:03.365 had gone missing, and we acted as a liaison between 0:05:03.405 --> 0:05:05.765 the family and law enforcement, and we wanted to film 0:05:05.765 --> 0:05:10.325 a documentary. Our team got together and everyone kept bringing 0:05:10.405 --> 0:05:13.965 up the Melissa Wit case, and I was really actually 0:05:13.965 --> 0:05:16.645 against it in the beginning because obviously she's. 0:05:16.485 --> 0:05:18.685 Not a long term missing case. They found her body 0:05:18.725 --> 0:05:19.645 six weeks after. 0:05:19.485 --> 0:05:23.245 She disappeared, but the team out voted me, sent me 0:05:23.325 --> 0:05:24.725 to Fort Smith, and really. 0:05:24.645 --> 0:05:25.845 Kind of the rest is history. 0:05:26.005 --> 0:05:29.005 Once I met with law enforcement and realized how passionate 0:05:29.005 --> 0:05:31.005 they were about the case, I knew that I needed 0:05:31.005 --> 0:05:35.565 to get involved, and was initially just for the documentary, 0:05:35.605 --> 0:05:38.125 and then it really morphed into me being more involved 0:05:38.205 --> 0:05:40.325 in the day to day things that were happening with 0:05:40.365 --> 0:05:40.845 her case. 0:05:42.005 --> 0:05:44.925 Lo Donna had a unique experience. She was able to 0:05:44.965 --> 0:05:47.365 gain the trust of j c Ryder, who was the 0:05:47.445 --> 0:05:52.205 lead investigator on Melissa's case for yearsle Donna got access 0:05:52.205 --> 0:05:52.885 to the case file. 0:05:54.125 --> 0:05:57.565 I had brought some information to them in my initial 0:05:57.605 --> 0:06:01.765 work with the documentary that started putting some pieces together. 0:06:01.525 --> 0:06:06.285 For them and kind of led them to a. 0:06:06.205 --> 0:06:09.605 Suspect that they've had all along, okay, because he started 0:06:09.645 --> 0:06:10.325 contacting me. 0:06:10.365 --> 0:06:12.605 Because this was before I was a private investigator. I 0:06:12.645 --> 0:06:16.485 was just normal citizen, you know, filmmaker doing my thing. 0:06:16.885 --> 0:06:19.725 And I think that they realized that this. 0:06:19.565 --> 0:06:22.205 Could be a perfect storm really for the whitb case 0:06:22.285 --> 0:06:24.805 because it was bringing renewed interest. But not only that, 0:06:25.285 --> 0:06:28.765 there was information that was coming into the case that 0:06:28.885 --> 0:06:30.765 was valuable that I was turning. 0:06:30.485 --> 0:06:32.365 Over to them that they had never gotten before. 0:06:32.645 --> 0:06:36.725 And they made a decision then as a department that 0:06:37.045 --> 0:06:38.485 they were going to allow me to. 0:06:38.445 --> 0:06:40.525 See the case files. There was a bunch of rules 0:06:40.525 --> 0:06:40.965 around it. 0:06:41.085 --> 0:06:43.285 I couldn't take any of it with me, you know, 0:06:43.285 --> 0:06:47.485 I couldn't share the information in the film some of it. 0:06:47.565 --> 0:06:49.605 But they felt like I needed to know some of the. 0:06:49.565 --> 0:06:52.445 Information basically because I was dealing with some of the 0:06:52.565 --> 0:06:57.165 characters that they were looking at really closely in Melissa's murder. 0:06:57.325 --> 0:07:00.565 But yeah, it was interesting because that doesn't happen very often. 0:07:00.525 --> 0:07:02.045 And they allow me. 0:07:02.045 --> 0:07:04.085 To the day to continue to stay involved in the 0:07:04.125 --> 0:07:07.525 case because now more of a partnership than anything else 0:07:07.725 --> 0:07:10.525 to get justice from Melissa. 0:07:11.045 --> 0:07:13.165 We're going to go through some of the theories in 0:07:13.205 --> 0:07:16.165 the case, but first we have to go back to 0:07:16.205 --> 0:07:19.565 the beginning, to the last twenty four hours of Melissa's 0:07:19.605 --> 0:07:23.925 life to see if there's anything that we missed. Melissa 0:07:24.005 --> 0:07:28.365 was pretty bubbly, friendly and kind. Her friend Tara, talked 0:07:28.365 --> 0:07:31.125 to local news channel News five about how she became 0:07:31.205 --> 0:07:33.685 fast friends with Melissa when they were around five or 0:07:33.725 --> 0:07:36.685 six years old. She said that they would ride their 0:07:36.725 --> 0:07:39.765 bikes around town and go to local fast food restaurants 0:07:39.805 --> 0:07:43.125 like KFC and Hardy's. They would buy candy cigarettes and 0:07:43.125 --> 0:07:45.805 pretend to smoke them. When they got to high school, 0:07:46.365 --> 0:07:50.485 Tara said Melissa always retained that friendly innocence. They would 0:07:50.525 --> 0:07:53.565 cruise around town on the weekends. Melissa would talk about 0:07:53.605 --> 0:07:56.565 boys who she thought were cute, but for the most part, 0:07:56.805 --> 0:08:00.845 Tara said, Melissa remained focused on school. Melissa was an 0:08:00.885 --> 0:08:03.965 honor student and a cheerleader. She didn't have a regular 0:08:03.965 --> 0:08:06.085 boyfriend in high school, but she did have lots of 0:08:06.085 --> 0:08:11.485 friends After graduation, Melissa enrolled at West Dark Community College, 0:08:11.685 --> 0:08:13.805 which is now part of the University of Arkansas at 0:08:13.805 --> 0:08:17.525 Fort Smith. Melissa also had a part time job at 0:08:17.525 --> 0:08:21.245 a dentist's office. She was studying to be a dental assistant. 0:08:22.005 --> 0:08:25.445 On that Thursday, after leaving home, Melissa had classes in 0:08:25.485 --> 0:08:28.205 the morning, then she had lunch with a friend at 0:08:28.205 --> 0:08:31.925 the mall. That afternoon, she went over to Family Dentistry, 0:08:32.005 --> 0:08:35.365 the dentist office where she worked. The dentist, doctor Jennings, 0:08:35.445 --> 0:08:37.965 and the rest of her colleagues said Melissa was her 0:08:38.005 --> 0:08:41.645 happy and normal, bubbly self. Nothing seemed out of the 0:08:41.725 --> 0:08:46.205 ordinary that day. Melissa left work a little after five pm. 0:08:46.685 --> 0:08:50.325 But then something out of the ordinary did happen, because 0:08:50.365 --> 0:08:54.085 when she got outside, her car wouldn't start. Now, a 0:08:54.125 --> 0:08:57.765 woman Melissa worked with told five News that what happened 0:08:57.805 --> 0:09:00.045 was Melissa had left her lights on for too long, 0:09:00.565 --> 0:09:03.725 so she needed to get a jump. This coworker said 0:09:03.725 --> 0:09:06.445 they were looking for someone with jumper cable. They went 0:09:06.525 --> 0:09:08.485 next door and found a guy who worked at a 0:09:08.485 --> 0:09:11.725 business there. This was the person La Donna called the 0:09:11.725 --> 0:09:15.445 Good Samaritan in her book. The Good Samaritan helped Melissa 0:09:15.525 --> 0:09:19.485 jumpstarter car. The coworker told the news station that she 0:09:19.605 --> 0:09:22.805 stayed to watch Melissa start the jump process. Then when 0:09:22.805 --> 0:09:25.485 the cables were attached, she told Melissa to just leave 0:09:25.525 --> 0:09:27.965 her car running for like fifteen minutes to make sure 0:09:28.005 --> 0:09:32.645 the battery was charged. Then the coworker left. Now, in 0:09:32.725 --> 0:09:36.525 her book and in multiple media reports, we learned that 0:09:36.605 --> 0:09:39.525 the Good Samaritan was cleared by police pretty early in 0:09:39.565 --> 0:09:44.445 the investigation. But as we know from previous seasons of Helengne, 0:09:45.125 --> 0:09:49.445 we can't assume anything. I asked LaDonna about the Good Samaritan. 0:09:50.325 --> 0:09:53.005 You know, obviously when someone goes missing, as you know, 0:09:53.365 --> 0:09:56.245 they're going to look at the day's activities closely. 0:09:56.285 --> 0:09:59.325 And of course that was pretty suspicious to law enforcement 0:09:59.485 --> 0:10:02.925 because to have her car not started, and they looked 0:10:02.925 --> 0:10:05.805 at that really, really closely. The Good Samaritan, who they 0:10:05.845 --> 0:10:08.885 try not to name just to not disrupt his life, 0:10:09.405 --> 0:10:13.485 he worked nearby to the dental office, and as it 0:10:13.525 --> 0:10:16.245 turns out, she had left her lights on her car 0:10:16.645 --> 0:10:18.725 most of the day, starting from when she had been 0:10:18.765 --> 0:10:21.525 at the mall to have lunch, and that's what killed 0:10:21.525 --> 0:10:25.165 the battery, and so they looked at him so closely. 0:10:25.365 --> 0:10:28.805 In fact, I think He was probably interviewed maybe half 0:10:28.845 --> 0:10:30.165 a dozen times. 0:10:29.885 --> 0:10:33.645 And he just had no connection to what had happened 0:10:33.645 --> 0:10:33.965 to her. 0:10:34.485 --> 0:10:37.125 It was one of those things that you know, he 0:10:37.285 --> 0:10:38.845 was a good smart and he helped her, but it 0:10:38.845 --> 0:10:40.485 was almost like he was at the wrong place at 0:10:40.485 --> 0:10:43.205 the wrong time because she went missing that day, but 0:10:43.285 --> 0:10:45.205 he was completely cleared by law enforcement. 0:10:46.285 --> 0:10:50.165 After getting her car started, Melissa drove home, which was 0:10:50.205 --> 0:10:53.125 just a few minutes from the dental office. She left 0:10:53.165 --> 0:10:55.245 work at five point fifty, so this would have put 0:10:55.245 --> 0:10:59.045 her home a little after six. Her dental scrubs were 0:10:59.045 --> 0:11:01.805 found crumpled up on her bedroom floor, like she had 0:11:01.845 --> 0:11:04.725 taken them off to do a quick clothing change, and 0:11:04.765 --> 0:11:08.245 her mom later told investigators that, based on the clothes 0:11:08.285 --> 0:11:11.965 that were missing, Melissa changed into jeans, a white V 0:11:12.085 --> 0:11:15.885 neck sweater, silver hoop, earrings with a wavy pattern on them, 0:11:16.005 --> 0:11:20.445 and a Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Police figured out later that 0:11:20.565 --> 0:11:24.725 Melissa must have seen her mother's note because Melissa then 0:11:24.805 --> 0:11:29.365 headed out to Bowling World. Investigators estimated Melissa arrived at 0:11:29.365 --> 0:11:33.205 Bowling World between six point thirty and seven PM. Now 0:11:33.245 --> 0:11:35.845 at that time, the parking lot would have been pretty full. 0:11:36.405 --> 0:11:39.765 The Bowling League was popular. By the time Melissa got there, 0:11:39.885 --> 0:11:43.205 pretty much everyone would have been inside, which is part 0:11:43.205 --> 0:11:46.645 of the reason why police later could not find many witnesses. 0:11:47.485 --> 0:11:52.005 But Melissa never made it inside. Mary Anne, of course 0:11:52.085 --> 0:11:55.205 noticed that Melissa never showed up at Bowling World, and 0:11:55.285 --> 0:11:57.685 after she got home and saw Melissa's car was not 0:11:57.725 --> 0:12:02.605 there at the house, she got worried. Maryanne called Melissa's friends, 0:12:03.005 --> 0:12:07.005 but no one had seen her. Next morning, Friday morning, 0:12:07.365 --> 0:12:10.045 Melissa's friend Tara, said that her mother walked into her 0:12:10.125 --> 0:12:13.365 room and asked if she'd heard from Melissa. Her mom 0:12:13.405 --> 0:12:15.765 said mary Anne had called the house looking for Melissa. 0:12:16.325 --> 0:12:18.885 Tara said no, but she said they were supposed to 0:12:18.885 --> 0:12:21.565 go out on that Friday night. She figured they would 0:12:21.605 --> 0:12:25.805 catch up later. Then Tara went to class. They had 0:12:25.845 --> 0:12:28.485 a biology class together, and when Melissa didn't show up 0:12:28.485 --> 0:12:33.005 in that biology class, Tara immediately suspected something bad had happened. 0:12:33.645 --> 0:12:38.245 This was not like Melissa. Melissa was extremely responsible. That's 0:12:38.285 --> 0:12:41.805 when Marianne went to the police. But then the first 0:12:41.845 --> 0:12:44.485 officer to talk to mary Anne, in my opinion, made 0:12:44.525 --> 0:12:48.445 a crucial and unfortunately a far too common error. We 0:12:48.565 --> 0:12:50.965 see this over and over in this podcast and in 0:12:50.965 --> 0:12:54.805 our investigations. Mary Anne was talking about what happened that morning, 0:12:54.925 --> 0:12:57.805 and she mentioned that small argument she had gotten into 0:12:57.845 --> 0:13:01.325 with Melissa over the twenty dollars that apparently led the 0:13:01.405 --> 0:13:04.485 officer to believe that Melissa could have been a runaway. 0:13:05.245 --> 0:13:09.805 Since Melissa was over eighteen and was an adult, of course, 0:13:09.885 --> 0:13:12.645 she did have the right to disappear voluntarily, but mary 0:13:12.645 --> 0:13:16.045 Anne and all Melissa's friends kept telling police there was 0:13:16.045 --> 0:13:18.485 no way she would do that. This was not like Melissa, 0:13:18.805 --> 0:13:21.965 this was completely out of character. She would not just disappear. 0:13:22.885 --> 0:13:26.805 Because of this delay by police, crucial hours in the 0:13:26.805 --> 0:13:31.085 beginning of the investigation were lost. Melissa's family did not 0:13:31.125 --> 0:13:33.605 want to wait, so they got together with some of 0:13:33.605 --> 0:13:35.725 her friends and other members of the community and they 0:13:35.765 --> 0:13:39.245 started searching for her. They printed thousands of flyers with 0:13:39.285 --> 0:13:41.965 Melissa's picture on them. They also put her picture on 0:13:42.005 --> 0:13:45.925 billboards around town. Local news media took the story and 0:13:46.045 --> 0:13:49.005 ran with it, and once that story hit local news, 0:13:49.285 --> 0:13:52.885 a crucial tip came in. A Bowling World employee called 0:13:52.885 --> 0:13:55.285 the police and told them that on the night Melissa 0:13:55.285 --> 0:13:58.525 went missing, a construction worker and his family turned in 0:13:58.565 --> 0:14:01.165 a set of keys they found in the parking lot. 0:14:01.365 --> 0:14:04.525 This happened at around seven forty five PM, so this 0:14:04.565 --> 0:14:06.765 would have been just a few minutes after police say 0:14:06.805 --> 0:14:10.645 Melissa arrived at Bowling World. The key ring had Missy 0:14:10.685 --> 0:14:15.445 written on it. The keys belonged to Melissa. Later forensic 0:14:15.485 --> 0:14:18.965 testing would reveal they had tiny specks of blood on them. 0:14:19.485 --> 0:14:22.765 At that point police did suspect foul play. They turned 0:14:22.765 --> 0:14:25.605 the case over to the Fort Smith Major Crimes Unit 0:14:26.205 --> 0:14:29.125 and that's when investigator J. C. Rder took over the case. 0:14:30.005 --> 0:14:32.885 Now should mention here that J. C Ryder has his 0:14:32.965 --> 0:14:37.125 own checkered history. Ledonna has worked with him for years. 0:14:37.645 --> 0:14:40.525 She presents him as a competent, carrying investigator who's been 0:14:40.525 --> 0:14:43.365 instrumental in getting the word out about Melissa WIT's case 0:14:43.845 --> 0:14:47.725 and never giving up. But as you all know, I 0:14:47.765 --> 0:14:50.965 don't take anything for granted, including the backgrounds of the 0:14:50.965 --> 0:14:55.365 people investigating the case. The allegations against J. C. Rider 0:14:55.485 --> 0:14:57.965 go back to a man named Ron Fields. He was 0:14:58.005 --> 0:15:00.725 the deputy prosecuting attorney in Fort Smith from the late 0:15:00.805 --> 0:15:04.205 seventies until two thousand and five. Back in nineteen ninety five, 0:15:04.285 --> 0:15:07.205 when J. C Ryder was p police captain, the FBI 0:15:07.405 --> 0:15:11.685 investigated claims that ron Fields was dealing drugs and operating 0:15:11.765 --> 0:15:14.365 basically a hit squad that some people compared to the 0:15:14.405 --> 0:15:18.365 movie That Departed Inside the Fort Smith Police Department, the 0:15:18.445 --> 0:15:23.005 FBI investigated allegations that ron Fields ordered j. C Ryder 0:15:23.045 --> 0:15:26.285 to kill a woman named Lourie Murchison and to get 0:15:26.365 --> 0:15:28.885 rid of her body. We're actually going to do an 0:15:29.045 --> 0:15:33.525 entirely separate episode about Lourie Murchison. It's way too complex 0:15:33.565 --> 0:15:37.285 and comprehensive to cover here, but needless to say, ron 0:15:37.405 --> 0:15:42.485 Fields later became a suspect in Laurie's disappearance. J c Ryder, 0:15:42.565 --> 0:15:46.325 through his attorneys, has always maintained that those federal charges 0:15:46.405 --> 0:15:50.285 were completely ridiculous and not true. Jac's lawyer at the 0:15:50.285 --> 0:15:54.565 time told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that their quote absolutely nuts. 0:15:55.205 --> 0:15:58.725 The lawyer said the FBI basically went in and intimidated 0:15:58.765 --> 0:16:02.205 and threatened people to give them information. The lawyer said 0:16:02.205 --> 0:16:05.765 the whole thing was a witch hunt. The police detective 0:16:05.805 --> 0:16:08.525 who led the investigation into Lourie's death also back j 0:16:08.645 --> 0:16:12.725 c Ryder. The detective said the evidence pointed to Lourie 0:16:12.805 --> 0:16:15.965 dying of a drug overdose and that there was a 0:16:16.005 --> 0:16:19.125 suspect in that case, someone who was imprisoned in Oklahoma, 0:16:19.125 --> 0:16:22.525 a place where Lourie traveled often, but the detective said 0:16:22.525 --> 0:16:24.845 they just didn't have enough evidence to charge that person 0:16:24.965 --> 0:16:29.725 in connection with Laurie's death. Going back to Melissa wit So, 0:16:29.885 --> 0:16:34.045 now it's December fourth, three days after Melissa disappeared. J. C. 0:16:34.245 --> 0:16:36.605 Ryder was assigned to the case. He and his fellow 0:16:36.645 --> 0:16:40.845 detectives immediately searched the parking lot of Bowling World and 0:16:40.925 --> 0:16:44.405 they found Melissa's white car abandoned there in the northwest 0:16:44.405 --> 0:16:48.325 corner of the parking lot, so her car had been 0:16:48.365 --> 0:16:49.965 sitting there for three days. 0:16:50.525 --> 0:16:50.685 Now. 0:16:50.725 --> 0:16:52.925 This seemed a little bit weird at first that no 0:16:52.965 --> 0:16:56.845 one noticed that, but Melissa's mom hadn't seen it because 0:16:56.925 --> 0:16:58.845 again it was in the outer part of the lot 0:16:59.485 --> 0:17:01.845 when she came out and didn't see Melissa that night, 0:17:01.925 --> 0:17:04.725 she just assumed that Melissa never came to Bowling World. 0:17:05.805 --> 0:17:09.325 Officers searched around that car and they found drops of blood. 0:17:10.125 --> 0:17:13.005 Melissa's blood had never been tested, so they couldn't confirm 0:17:13.045 --> 0:17:15.525 then that it was a match. But the drops of 0:17:15.525 --> 0:17:18.725 blood led pretty much from Melissa's vehicle over to the 0:17:18.765 --> 0:17:22.725 next row of cars. So the police theory was that 0:17:22.725 --> 0:17:26.845 Melissa was attacked and thrown into someone else's vehicle, and 0:17:26.885 --> 0:17:30.045 that the blood either came from her being hit, probably 0:17:30.045 --> 0:17:32.925 with a blunt force object, or when her head hit 0:17:32.965 --> 0:17:37.685 the parking lot pavement. Now police had what they believed 0:17:37.685 --> 0:17:44.405 to be the primary crime scene, they started looking for witnesses. Initially, 0:17:44.485 --> 0:17:47.845 there were reports that witnesses had seen Melissa with someone 0:17:47.885 --> 0:17:51.885 they described as a black, six foot two male. Rumors 0:17:51.925 --> 0:17:54.125 were flying that she had been involved in drug deals 0:17:54.205 --> 0:17:57.525 or sex trafficking, mainly because at the time there were 0:17:57.565 --> 0:18:01.325 a lot of people who dealt drugs, especially methamphetamines, near 0:18:01.365 --> 0:18:06.805 Fort Chaffee, the military base, but that sighting was later 0:18:06.885 --> 0:18:11.765 confirmed to be a totally erroneous mistake. Police did eventually 0:18:11.805 --> 0:18:14.885 find someone who was a credible witness, a ten year 0:18:14.885 --> 0:18:17.165 old boy who was actually the son of one of 0:18:17.165 --> 0:18:21.525 mary Anne's friends. While his mom was playing with mary 0:18:21.525 --> 0:18:24.165 Anne in the bowling league that night, she sent him 0:18:24.165 --> 0:18:26.165 out to the car to get some textbooks so he 0:18:26.165 --> 0:18:29.405 could start doing his homework. When the boy came back in, 0:18:29.805 --> 0:18:32.045 he said that he saw a man and a woman 0:18:32.165 --> 0:18:35.365 fighting in the parking lot. At the time, his mom 0:18:35.405 --> 0:18:39.245 didn't think too much about it, but police later believed 0:18:39.365 --> 0:18:44.165 that he witnessed Melissa with her abductor. Unfortunately, the boy 0:18:44.205 --> 0:18:47.085 didn't see enough of the kidnapper's appearance to make a 0:18:47.085 --> 0:18:51.445 full sketch. Another early missing poster said Melissa had been 0:18:51.445 --> 0:18:55.885 spotted quote possibly in nineteen eighty one gray Oldsmobile cutlass 0:18:56.165 --> 0:18:58.565 with a tall, white male with black, wavy hair and 0:18:58.645 --> 0:19:01.885 an earring end quote. I saw this tip on a 0:19:01.885 --> 0:19:04.805 missing poster from an old news report, and I still 0:19:04.845 --> 0:19:07.645 don't know who were hoarded it or where that came from. 0:19:08.165 --> 0:19:10.965 As with so many investigations that get a lot of press, 0:19:11.645 --> 0:19:14.445 thousands of tips were flooding in. So now police had 0:19:14.445 --> 0:19:16.605 to figure out which ones were good leads and which 0:19:16.645 --> 0:19:20.245 ones were dead ends. Everyone in town had a theory 0:19:20.325 --> 0:19:23.285 about who could have killed Melissa. Was it a drug 0:19:23.325 --> 0:19:25.845 deal gone bad? Was it a random serial killer who 0:19:25.885 --> 0:19:29.445 came in off Interstate five while passing through town, or 0:19:29.525 --> 0:19:33.845 was it someone she knew. Melissa's personal life didn't seem 0:19:34.005 --> 0:19:36.725 to offer a lot of clues at first. She was 0:19:36.765 --> 0:19:39.725 well liked, She didn't have any enemies. She also didn't 0:19:39.765 --> 0:19:43.365 have any turmoil in her personal relationship, no fighting with 0:19:43.405 --> 0:19:47.125 boyfriends or at least not ones that anyone knew about. 0:19:47.445 --> 0:19:51.005 The holiday season passed mary Anne's first one without her daughter. 0:19:52.165 --> 0:19:56.005 No one had a clue what happened to Melissa. Almost 0:19:56.085 --> 0:20:00.245 six weeks later, on January thirteenth, nineteen ninety five, two 0:20:00.325 --> 0:20:03.205 hunters were near Turner Bend in the Ozark National Forest 0:20:03.605 --> 0:20:08.245 when they saw a nude body. Dental records proved this 0:20:08.605 --> 0:20:13.645 was Melissa Whit. Melissa had been found. This was tragic, 0:20:14.325 --> 0:20:16.805 but detectives hope now they would be able to gather 0:20:16.885 --> 0:20:19.645 evidence from her body, hopefully evidence that would get them 0:20:19.685 --> 0:20:24.205 closer to finding her killer. Melissa was naked, so all 0:20:24.245 --> 0:20:28.245 of her clothing, shoes, and jewelry, including her other earring 0:20:28.765 --> 0:20:31.485 and her Mickey Mouse watch with a brown band, were 0:20:31.525 --> 0:20:37.125 all missing. Her autopsy revealed blunt forest head injuries, either 0:20:37.165 --> 0:20:39.685 from an object she was struck with or possibly from 0:20:39.685 --> 0:20:43.565 her head hitting the ground. Then Melissa's killer or killers 0:20:44.245 --> 0:20:46.885 probably put her into a vehicle in the next row 0:20:46.885 --> 0:20:50.045 of cars. Someone drove her to that area where her 0:20:50.085 --> 0:20:54.485 body was found. Investigators believe that that remote location is 0:20:54.525 --> 0:20:58.525 where Melissa Wit died. It's located down a single lane 0:20:58.605 --> 0:21:03.085 dirt road that's used for logging. The autopsy revealed that 0:21:03.165 --> 0:21:08.205 the cause of death was exphyxiation strangulation. When I spoke 0:21:08.285 --> 0:21:11.605 to her, LaDonna talked about how she retraced Melissa's root 0:21:12.485 --> 0:21:14.845 and how horrifying it must have been for her to 0:21:14.885 --> 0:21:17.885 be riding in that car with a head wound bleeding, 0:21:18.645 --> 0:21:21.365 knowing that something horrible was about to happen to her. 0:21:22.125 --> 0:21:22.805 Love for something. 0:21:22.805 --> 0:21:25.405 They take me out to this remote site in the 0:21:25.405 --> 0:21:29.365 Ozark National Chorus, and I had a sense of dread 0:21:29.445 --> 0:21:30.925 the whole way there because. 0:21:30.645 --> 0:21:32.685 It's it's just this, you know, there's a lot of 0:21:32.685 --> 0:21:33.765 beauty to look at, but. 0:21:35.205 --> 0:21:38.005 Knowing how remote it was as we're you know, winding 0:21:38.045 --> 0:21:40.765 around and seeing like there was nowhere for her to go, 0:21:41.485 --> 0:21:42.965 nowhere for her to escape. 0:21:43.005 --> 0:21:44.405 And when we. 0:21:44.605 --> 0:21:46.405 Parked the car and I got out, one of the 0:21:46.405 --> 0:21:48.965 first things that j c Ryder looked at me and 0:21:48.965 --> 0:21:51.645 said was that if you screamed right. 0:21:51.445 --> 0:21:55.445 Now, La Donna hod Bring, nobody would hear you. And 0:21:55.765 --> 0:21:56.965 I remember being. 0:21:58.965 --> 0:22:02.365 Just almost to the point of tears and I'm not 0:22:02.685 --> 0:22:07.325 like a crier, really very easy, but realizing nineteen year 0:22:07.325 --> 0:22:11.085 old girl was out there at night was someone who 0:22:11.245 --> 0:22:13.845 had already attacked her in a parking lot. She had 0:22:13.885 --> 0:22:16.205 to have known what was going to happen next, the 0:22:16.245 --> 0:22:20.965 amount of fear that she had, and that part of 0:22:21.005 --> 0:22:25.285 the case really broke me, especially seeing where he eventually 0:22:25.325 --> 0:22:26.845 left her body, like she. 0:22:26.805 --> 0:22:28.005 Didn't matter to anybody. 0:22:29.405 --> 0:22:32.845 Investigators said they found pieces of leaves in Melissa's lungs 0:22:33.045 --> 0:22:35.325 and grass and other vegetation that was native to the 0:22:35.325 --> 0:22:39.125 Ozark National Forest in her windpipe. This led them to 0:22:39.165 --> 0:22:42.285 believe that after Melissa was kidnapped from the Bowling World 0:22:42.325 --> 0:22:45.365 parking lot, she was immediately driven to that location in 0:22:45.405 --> 0:22:51.725 the forest, then sexually assaulted and killed there. Because Melissa's 0:22:51.725 --> 0:22:54.325 body was nude, investigators assumed that there had been a 0:22:54.325 --> 0:22:58.925 sexual assault. According to the autopsy report, there was another 0:22:59.085 --> 0:23:04.085 strange twist to the case. Melissa's body had been moved. First, 0:23:04.085 --> 0:23:06.205 it was put behind a large rock that was kind 0:23:06.205 --> 0:23:09.125 of shaped like a tombstone. The body was covered with 0:23:09.165 --> 0:23:12.205 pine leaves and that's where it stayed for several weeks, 0:23:12.925 --> 0:23:15.685 But then just a few days before the body was found, 0:23:16.445 --> 0:23:20.805 someone moved it. Over the years, JC Riders offered up 0:23:20.845 --> 0:23:24.045 a couple of theories about why he believes someone would 0:23:24.085 --> 0:23:28.325 have moved Melissa's body, he said. Either it's because the 0:23:28.405 --> 0:23:30.885