00:00:12
Sometime during a neighborhood Christmas
00:00:14
party in 1989,
00:00:16
5-year-old Melissa Bron disappeared.
00:00:19
>> Loved it. She really did. We had a great
00:00:21
time, but it's late. We're, you know,
00:00:23
Melissa, will you go get the coats? None
00:00:26
of the adults or other children at the
00:00:27
party saw where she went or noticed
00:00:30
anything unusual.
00:00:33
It took science to see what witnesses
00:00:36
did not.
00:00:39
[Music]
00:01:02
[Music]
00:01:04
Tammy Brandon and her 5-year-old
00:01:06
daughter Melissa had moved from Texas
00:01:08
into this suburban apartment complex in
00:01:11
Lorton, Virginia. Tammy was a single
00:01:13
mother, recently divorced, working as an
00:01:16
accountant and beginning a new phase in
00:01:18
her life.
00:01:20
>> Tammy is a very good mother. She's a
00:01:23
very sweet, very caring person. Kept to
00:01:25
herself more or less. Uh, you know, she
00:01:28
wasn't
00:01:30
what I would call extremely outgoing,
00:01:31
although she did participate in just
00:01:33
about everything.
00:01:35
>> One of the attractive features of the
00:01:37
apartment complex was the active social
00:01:39
program for the residents. Every Friday
00:01:42
night was some sort of social gathering
00:01:44
in the clubhouse. And during the
00:01:46
holidays, there were special events. the
00:01:49
night of December 3rd at the Christmas
00:01:51
party. That's something that they they
00:01:54
basically did uh for almost every
00:01:56
holiday. People looked forward to it. Um
00:01:59
they always had a nice layout within the
00:02:01
clubhouse and people spent time getting
00:02:03
to know their neighbors.
00:02:05
>> Tammy Brandon and her daughter Melissa
00:02:07
both attended that Christmas party in
00:02:10
1989. Altogether about 200 residents of
00:02:14
the complex were there. Everybody was
00:02:16
very upbeat, having a very good time.
00:02:19
The children played with each other all
00:02:21
through the night, going around and
00:02:22
snatching all the food and having a good
00:02:25
time.
00:02:29
[Music]
00:02:32
>> When it was time to leave, Tammy asked
00:02:35
Melissa to get their coats.
00:02:37
>> Oh, man.
00:02:40
>> Oh, sure.
00:02:41
[Music]
00:02:42
>> They have packages and everything.
00:02:44
Shortly after handing the coat to her
00:02:46
mother, Melissa disappeared.
00:02:49
>> Merry Christmas.
00:02:50
>> Merry Christmas to you, too.
00:02:51
>> Yeah. I've got to get going here.
00:02:54
>> Yeah, it's going to be late.
00:02:55
>> Oh, I know. I got to find
00:02:56
>> cleaning up for every Where's um
00:02:59
>> Where's Melissa? She was just here a
00:03:01
minute ago.
00:03:02
>> Tammy looked for her daughter throughout
00:03:03
the clubhouse.
00:03:05
>> Melissa.
00:03:12
>> Yeah. Where's Melissa?
00:03:14
[Music]
00:03:16
In a utility room off the lobby marked
00:03:19
private, a fulllength window leading to
00:03:22
the outside was wide open. The window
00:03:26
faced a wooded area behind the apartment
00:03:29
complex. It's possibility that somebody
00:03:31
could have went out that window and not
00:03:33
been seen by anybody outside. And it's
00:03:35
in an area where it's secluded through
00:03:37
the inside. Partygoers wouldn't have
00:03:39
seen anybody exiting through that
00:03:40
window. Also,
00:03:42
Fairfax County police searched the
00:03:44
entire area and questioned everyone who
00:03:46
attended the party.
00:03:48
>> It was very cold out that night. It was
00:03:50
pretty imperative that we try to locate
00:03:52
as quickly as possible. It was hard to
00:03:54
imagine a young child with a dress on
00:03:57
and a small coat surviving temperature
00:04:00
that night.
00:04:02
Although no one at the party noticed
00:04:04
anything unusual, police feared that
00:04:07
Melissa had been abducted.
00:04:09
Tammy Brandon pleaded for her daughter's
00:04:12
safe return during a televised news
00:04:14
conference. To
00:04:15
>> the person who took Melissa,
00:04:18
I beg you to please call somebody,
00:04:20
anybody, and tell us where she is.
00:04:23
No matter what's happened, she's all
00:04:25
that I have. Please bring her back to
00:04:28
me.
00:04:30
Melissa,
00:04:32
if you can hear mommy and get to a
00:04:34
telephone,
00:04:37
call our number like I taught you to
00:04:39
call me.
00:04:41
We love you. We miss you very much.
00:04:44
Please come back to us. Mommy's waiting.
00:04:50
>> All the way down to uh Davis Ford Road.
00:04:53
Police could find no trace of 5-year-old
00:04:56
Melissa Bron despite the help of
00:04:58
hundreds of volunteers.
00:05:00
>> We had hundreds of police officers down
00:05:02
there. We had hundreds of people from
00:05:04
the military bases. We had people
00:05:06
volunteering their airplanes, their
00:05:08
helicopters. The search was phenomenal.
00:05:11
It just showed how this case touched so
00:05:13
many people.
00:05:15
>> Yellow ribbons were placed throughout
00:05:17
the neighborhood, a symbol of concern
00:05:19
and hope for Melissa's safe return.
00:05:23
Police questioned Melissa's father, who
00:05:26
was in Texas on the night of Melissa's
00:05:28
disappearance. He was immediately ruled
00:05:31
out as a suspect.
00:05:32
>> I also ask that if the person who took
00:05:35
my daughter can hear me, please let her
00:05:38
go.
00:05:41
We love her very much.
00:05:45
If anyone has any information that may
00:05:47
help, please contact someone
00:05:50
who will pass the information on to us.
00:05:54
Thank you.
00:05:56
>> Police questioned everyone who lived at
00:05:59
the apartment complex as well as all of
00:06:02
the employees.
00:06:04
[Music]
00:06:06
>> Caleb Hughes worked at the apartment as
00:06:09
a maintenance man and attended the
00:06:11
Christmas party.
00:06:15
Police interviewed Hughes at his home a
00:06:17
few hours after the party around 2:00
00:06:20
a.m. Mr.
00:06:21
>> Hughes. Kelly views. Yes.
00:06:23
>> I'm Sergeant Garcia from the Fairfax
00:06:26
Police Department. I'd
00:06:27
>> like to ask you a couple questions about
00:06:29
the party at the apartment complex that
00:06:31
you work at.
00:06:32
>> They asked him where he had been since
00:06:34
leaving the apartment complex.
00:06:36
>> What'd you do after you left the party?
00:06:38
>> I drove straight home. I stopped off for
00:06:41
a six-pack and I got home about 12:30
00:06:44
quarter 1.
00:06:44
>> He said he stopped just before he got
00:06:46
home near his house. Well, if he got
00:06:48
home at 12:304 to 1, they stopped
00:06:50
selling beer in Virginia at 12:00. So,
00:06:52
he didn't stop for beer. He couldn't.
00:06:55
>> What did you do after you got home?
00:06:58
>> I did chores, laundry, you know, stuff
00:07:00
like that. Do
00:07:01
>> you mind if we look around?
00:07:04
>> No, go ahead.
00:07:13
During the search, police noticed
00:07:15
something unusual.
00:07:17
Hughes told police he had been doing his
00:07:19
laundry, but the clothes he was washing
00:07:21
were the ones he wore to the party.
00:07:24
>> Do you always wash your sneakers with
00:07:25
your clothes, Mr. Hughes?
00:07:28
>> He was also washing his belt and the
00:07:31
knife holder
00:07:34
>> said, "Why would you wash all your
00:07:36
clothes? You don't have another pair of
00:07:37
blue jeans. And why would you wash your
00:07:38
sneakers?
00:07:40
Caleb had no response.
00:07:42
The side a few sneakers had been shaved
00:07:45
away. Although the sneakers had been
00:07:47
washed, tests showed traces of human
00:07:50
protein, possibly blood, deep in the
00:07:53
fibers.
00:07:54
Caleb Hughes wasn't cooperating either.
00:07:57
Hughes told police he did not speak to
00:07:59
Melissa Brandon at the Christmas party,
00:08:02
but several witnesses contradicted him.
00:08:05
>> Hello.
00:08:05
>> Hi. Hi.
00:08:06
>> Do you have something to eat?
00:08:07
>> Said, "Caleb, I think you know more. I
00:08:09
think you took Melissa out of that
00:08:10
party." And all Caleb would do is just
00:08:12
sit there. And finally, Caleb said,
00:08:13
"Prove it." Looked me straight in the
00:08:16
face. Had no emotion at all. And that's
00:08:19
what investigators set out to do.
00:08:25
Weeks passed and still there were no
00:08:27
signs of 5-year-old Melissa Brandon.
00:08:31
The community of Lorton, Virginia, held
00:08:33
a candlelight vigil at the Brandon's
00:08:35
apartment complex just a few feet from
00:08:38
the clubhouse where Melissa was
00:08:40
abducted.
00:08:42
Bumper stickers, yellow ribbons, and
00:08:45
flyers with Melissa's picture were
00:08:47
everywhere.
00:08:48
>> It was all anybody talked about because
00:08:52
this wasn't one girl in one family. This
00:08:54
was any child, all of our families.
00:08:58
If this could happen to Tammy Brandon's
00:09:01
daughter, this could happen to anyone's
00:09:03
daughter. And there was a desperate
00:09:05
outcry to find who would have taken this
00:09:08
child.
00:09:09
>> The remaining suspect was Caleb Hughes.
00:09:13
Hughes attended the Christmas party, but
00:09:15
he denied having anything to do with
00:09:17
Melissa's disappearance.
00:09:19
Forensic scientists began their
00:09:21
investigation with a look inside Hugh's
00:09:24
car. The interior of the car, it was
00:09:26
cluttered with a lot of of debris, dirt,
00:09:29
bags of books, uh, dog hair. I just
00:09:33
looked at it and thought, "Holy
00:09:34
mackerel, how am I going to be able to
00:09:36
find any type of evidence that would
00:09:37
link Melissa to this car?"
00:09:40
>> The car was sprayed with the chemical
00:09:42
luminol, which fluoreses when it comes
00:09:44
into contact with the hemoglobin
00:09:46
component of blood. Luminol revealed
00:09:49
blood on the steering wheel, foot
00:09:51
pedals, and floor mat. The blood was
00:09:54
collected for DNA analysis, but the
00:09:56
results were inconclusive.
00:09:59
The car was also searched for trace
00:10:01
evidence, specifically hair and fibers
00:10:05
and was sent to special agent Doug
00:10:08
Dietrich of the FBI for analysis.
00:10:11
>> First thing that I do is look at the the
00:10:13
tapings that came from the front seat of
00:10:15
the car. trying to identify what types
00:10:18
of materials are there and if possible
00:10:20
anything that may have come from the
00:10:22
victim if she had been in that car.
00:10:24
>> Dietrich discovered quite a bit of
00:10:27
animal hair in the car. Most of it dog
00:10:29
hair, but three of the hairs from Hugh's
00:10:32
front seat were different. They were
00:10:35
rabbit hairs that had been dyed black.
00:10:39
The rabbit hairs were microscopically
00:10:41
similar to a German rabbit hair coat
00:10:44
Tammy Bron wore to that Christmas party.
00:10:48
When Tammy Bron was leaving the
00:10:50
apartment, she told Melissa to get her
00:10:53
fur coat. Melissa got the fur coat and
00:10:56
as a child will do she draped that coat
00:11:00
across her shoulders
00:11:02
and of course those hairs from that coat
00:11:07
certain transfer to her.
00:11:10
>> Dietrich also discovered blue and red
00:11:12
fibers on Hugh's front passenger seat.
00:11:15
The red fibers were cotton, an extremely
00:11:18
common fiber, but the blue fibers were
00:11:21
extremely rare. The 50 blue fibers were
00:11:24
man-made and acrylic. They were all the
00:11:27
same shape, length, and diameter, an
00:11:29
indication they were from the same
00:11:31
manufacturer.
00:11:33
Gas chromatography revealed that the
00:11:36
blue fibers were dyed with the same blue
00:11:38
dye, but the chemical composition of the
00:11:41
blue dye was unusual.
00:11:45
>> Melissa Brandon was wearing a blue
00:11:46
sweater and red plaid skirt on the night
00:11:48
she disappeared. The outfit had been a
00:11:51
gift from Melissa's grandmother, who
00:11:53
could not recall where she bought it.
00:11:56
All she could remember was that the
00:11:58
sweater had a picture of Big Bird on it,
00:12:00
a character from the Sesame Street
00:12:02
television series.
00:12:05
Prosecutors needed more evidence than
00:12:07
the three rabbit hairs from Mrs.
00:12:09
Brandon's coat found in Caleb Hughes
00:12:11
car. They knew that any good defense
00:12:14
attorney would argue that Caleb Hughes
00:12:16
could have brushed up against Tammy
00:12:18
Brandon's coat at the party and
00:12:20
transferred those rabbit hairs onto the
00:12:22
seat of his car. Doug Dietrich was
00:12:25
convinced that the blue fibers held the
00:12:28
key to Melissa Brandon's disappearance,
00:12:31
but there was no way to tell if the
00:12:32
fibers were from Melissa's clothing.
00:12:37
After work one night, Doug Dietrich
00:12:39
shared his frustration with his wife. He
00:12:41
told her he needed to find the
00:12:43
manufacturer of the outfit Melissa was
00:12:45
wearing at the Christmas party.
00:12:47
>> Some sort of blue Winnie the Pooh thing
00:12:49
or a Sesame Street uh outfit with a red
00:12:52
plaid skirt.
00:12:54
>> I don't know anything about Winnie the
00:12:55
Pooh. But if it's Sesame Street, that's
00:12:57
sold by J C Penney. Hold on a second.
00:13:03
>> Mrs. Dietrich had kept a number of store
00:13:06
cataloges, some going back a few years.
00:13:11
red plaid skirt.
00:13:12
>> I see that.
00:13:13
>> She proceeded to bring a catalog down
00:13:15
from the year before Christmas. And sure
00:13:18
enough, on page 11 of that catalog,
00:13:20
there was an outfit that looked darn
00:13:23
close to what they were describing to me
00:13:25
as the one Melissa Brandon wore the
00:13:27
night of her disappearance.
00:13:29
>> When Tammy Brandon was shown the picture
00:13:31
from the catalog, she identified it as
00:13:34
the one Melissa was wearing at the
00:13:37
party.
00:13:38
The FBI asked JC Penney for one of the
00:13:41
outfits in order to analyze the fibers,
00:13:44
but they were sold out. The item was a
00:13:47
catalogon item. JC Penney sold all 7,000
00:13:52
garments in a matter of months. But JC
00:13:54
Penney located a customer in Kentucky
00:13:57
who had purchased one of these outfits a
00:13:59
year earlier. The customer bought the
00:14:02
outfit as a present for his
00:14:03
granddaughter, but it was the wrong
00:14:05
size, so it had never been worn. The
00:14:08
customer sent the outfit to the FBI for
00:14:11
analysis.
00:14:12
>> The idea of just being able to find an
00:14:14
outfit that that's exactly the same
00:14:17
outfit that a victim wore in a case.
00:14:19
That's an extremely good stroke of luck.
00:14:24
When Doug Dietrich examined the garment,
00:14:27
he made a startling discovery. When JC
00:14:30
Penney had this outfit manufactured,
00:14:33
they wanted to make it unique. Instead
00:14:35
of using a standard dye, and there are
00:14:38
10,000 of them, Penny's decided to
00:14:41
create a brand new color.
00:14:44
JC Penney specifies a particular color.
00:14:47
Then they'll work with the dye
00:14:48
manufacturer to find some combination of
00:14:51
chemicals that will produce exactly that
00:14:53
tone. In this particular case, they went
00:14:56
an additional step and made sure that it
00:14:58
was a dye that nobody else had access to
00:15:00
so that they could trademark this
00:15:01
sweater from its color point of view.
00:15:04
They called their new color plum navy
00:15:07
number 887.
00:15:09
JC Penney patented that signature dye
00:15:12
and used it only once when they produced
00:15:15
the 7,000 Big Bird sweaters.
00:15:18
When Dedricch compared the fibers from
00:15:21
the duplicate sweater to those found in
00:15:23
Hugh's automobile, they were the same.
00:15:26
>> With several hundred million people in
00:15:28
the country and only 7,000 sweaters, the
00:15:30
probability of that particular sweater
00:15:33
being located in individual car is very
00:15:36
small. It you can just work out the
00:15:38
ratios of the two.
00:15:40
>> There's no question to my mind that that
00:15:42
Melissa Brandon had been in the front
00:15:43
seat of Cal Hughes's car. and where she
00:15:46
went from there. Well, I guess that's a
00:15:48
mystery right now.
00:15:50
A mystery police were desperately trying
00:15:54
to solve.
00:15:58
The search for Melissa Brandon's body
00:16:00
continued for almost a year. Statistics
00:16:04
show that children abducted by strangers
00:16:06
are usually murdered within 3 hours of
00:16:09
the abduction. The prime suspect, Caleb
00:16:12
Hughes, was asked to take a polygraph
00:16:14
test.
00:16:16
>> Are you the one who abducted Melissa?
00:16:19
>> No.
00:16:20
>> Right now, can you take me to Melissa's
00:16:22
body?
00:16:23
>> No.
00:16:24
>> The results of his polygraph examination
00:16:26
indicated deception.
00:16:29
>> As soon as he realized that I knew
00:16:32
that he had failed that test, he didn't
00:16:36
want anything to do with that that room.
00:16:38
Didn't want anything to do with me. and
00:16:40
pretty much bolted out of there.
00:16:42
>> But there was a problem in the state of
00:16:44
Virginia. Prosecutors must be able to
00:16:47
prove where a homicide occurred. Since
00:16:51
the blood in Caleb Hugh's automobile
00:16:53
could not be identified as Melissa's,
00:16:56
prosecutors could not reach the
00:16:58
threshold of homicide. They could only
00:17:01
prove kidnapping, which carried a
00:17:03
maximum sentence of only 10 years. But
00:17:06
prosecutors were convinced that the blue
00:17:09
and red fibers in Caleb Hugh's car
00:17:12
indicated more than kidnapping.
00:17:15
The last Tammy Brandon saw her daughter,
00:17:19
she was wearing the pink nylon coat,
00:17:22
winter coat over top of this big bird
00:17:25
outfit.
00:17:26
If the child remained in that winter
00:17:29
coat in the automobile,
00:17:31
you wouldn't have the collection and the
00:17:33
population of blue acrylic fibers that
00:17:35
are found on the seat because they'd be
00:17:38
inside the nylon coat. They weren't.
00:17:42
>> Prosecutors believe that Hughes removed
00:17:45
Melissa's ski jacket in the car, an
00:17:48
indication that Hughes committed a sex
00:17:51
act.
00:17:52
Hughes had the child's coat off in the
00:17:55
automobile and it seems to me the
00:17:58
inferences that flow from that are
00:18:00
legitimate inferences of an intent to
00:18:03
defilet.
00:18:09
While Melissa was waiting for her mother
00:18:11
to say her goodbyes at the Christmas
00:18:13
party,
00:18:14
>> prosecutors believe that she left for a
00:18:16
moment to get a drink from the water
00:18:18
fountain in the hallway near the utility
00:18:21
room.
00:18:23
This is where Hughes abducted her.
00:18:32
[Music]
00:18:36
Hughes took Melissa through the window
00:18:38
in the utility room and fled in his car.
00:18:43
Hughes removed Melissa's ski jacket in
00:18:45
the car, causing the transfer of the
00:18:47
blue and red fibers onto the front seat.
00:18:51
Also in the car, there were three rabbit
00:18:53
hairs from Tammy Brandon's coat, the one
00:18:55
Melissa handed her mother seconds before
00:18:57
she was abducted. Where Hughes took
00:19:00
Melissa Bron and left her body remains a
00:19:05
mystery.
00:19:07
Hughes tracked blood onto his foot
00:19:09
pedals and floor mat from his sneakers.
00:19:12
Luminol revealed blood on the car's
00:19:15
steering wheel as well.
00:19:24
When Hughes arrived home, he immediately
00:19:27
washed his clothes in order to remove
00:19:29
trace evidence.
00:19:34
He also scraped away the blood stains
00:19:37
from the sides of his sneakers before
00:19:39
washing them along with his clothes. But
00:19:42
he didn't remove evidence that he
00:19:44
couldn't see. the tiny fibers from
00:19:47
Melissa's clothing left on the passenger
00:19:50
seat of his car.
00:19:53
Caleb Hughes was arrested and charged
00:19:56
not with kidnapping, but with the
00:19:58
abduction of Melissa Bron with intent to
00:20:01
defile her. He was found guilty and
00:20:05
sentenced to 50 years in prison without
00:20:08
parole, the maximum sentence. Caleb
00:20:12
Hughes has never confessed to the crime,
00:20:15
and the search for Melissa's body
00:20:18
continues to this day. Each piece of
00:20:21
evidence, no matter how small, whether
00:20:22
it's a a car, or whether it's a strand
00:20:25
of DNA, all have a story to tell. Where
00:20:29
they've been, who they've been with, how
00:20:31
long they've been around. And this is
00:20:33
the type of information that that I look
00:20:36
at and that I decipher and try to
00:20:38
determine what value it has. So, one
00:20:41
piece of evidence is can be significant
00:20:44
when you add multiple pieces of of this
00:20:46
puzzle. And you never get the whole
00:20:48
puzzle. You only get pieces, but you
00:20:50
don't need the whole puzzle to see what
00:20:52
that picture's going to say. And in this
00:20:54
case, 50 fibers, blue acrylic, 10
00:20:58
cotton, black rabbit hairs. To me, it's
00:21:01
overwhelming evidence.
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:12
Why?
00:21:15
[Music]
00:21:27
Heat.
00:21:30
[Music]
