Search Captions & Ask AI

Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode

January 01, 2022 / 21:42

This episode covers the disappearance of Michelle Wallace, the investigation into her case, and the role of forensic plant ecology in solving it. Key discussions include the extensive manhunt for Michelle, the involvement of Roy Mellinson, and the eventual discovery of her remains.

Michelle Wallace went missing in the Colorado mountains after a trip for photography. Her parents reported her absence when she failed to call, leading to a massive search effort. Despite the search covering over 3,000 square miles, no trace of Michelle was found.

After a week, a rancher reported finding Michelle's dog, Okie, which raised concerns about her fate. Investigators focused on Roy Mellinson, the last person seen with her, who had a criminal history and was found with Michelle's belongings.

Years later, a hiker discovered braided hair that matched Michelle's, leading to a forensic analysis that pointed to a specific area in the mountains. A volunteer team, NecroSearch, found Michelle's remains, confirming she had been murdered.

Roy Mellinson was tried and convicted of first-degree murder based on the evidence presented, including the condition of Michelle's clothing and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. The episode highlights the impact of forensic science and community efforts in resolving cold cases.

TLDR

The episode details Michelle Wallace's disappearance and the forensic investigation that led to her murderer, Roy Mellinson, being convicted.

Episode

21:42
00:00:06
for almost 20 years a young woman was believed to be missing in the dense colorado mountains
00:00:14
but 12 small pine needles in a clump of hair suggested that investigators narrowed their search to an area 9 000
00:00:22
feet above sea level this is how forensic plant ecology helped solve a very cold case
00:00:33
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] after graduating from college 25 year
00:01:02
old michelle wallace decided to pursue her love of photography she was known primarily for her photos
00:01:09
of people but she decided to try her hand at landscape photography and she headed to
00:01:17
the mountainous wilderness of western colorado she rode polo ponies and branded cows
00:01:24
and went rock climbing and was a student at the rochester institute and was quite
00:01:30
a student of photography she was a realist and she knew how to face things and worked through them
00:01:40
michelle faithfully called her parents almost every day to let them know where she was and what
00:01:46
she was doing but when several days passed without a call her parents became alarmed
00:01:55
i knew that she didn't run off you know they said well this is one of these girls that you know just decides she's a
00:02:03
free spirit and off she goes she she was not that way when local officials were told she was
00:02:10
missing they instituted what was to become the largest manhunt in colorado history
00:02:18
there were hundreds of people in the woods literally walking hand in hand across
00:02:24
fields and mountains search teams covered more than 3 000 square miles of isolated mountain
00:02:31
landscape but found no sign of michelle or her red station wagon it was as if michelle had simply
00:02:42
disappeared then a week after she was reported missing there was a potential break
00:02:52
a local rancher told police about a german shepherd that had come down from the mountains and chased his cattle
00:03:01
the rancher said he shot and killed the dog the name on the dog's collar was okie
00:03:09
michelle's german shepherd the fact that the dog obviously had been separated from her and found dead later
00:03:19
was of great concern because people felt clearly that michelle wallace would never have willingly been separated from
00:03:24
her dog and another ranch hand came forward with even more information he said michelle gave him a ride in the
00:03:34
mountains after his car broke down he said his friend roy sat in the front seat with michelle
00:03:43
and that he was in the back seat with the german shepherd [Music] the ranch hand remembers the dog in
00:03:50
particularly because he had to sit in the back seat of the station wagon with the dog and amusingly recalled the dog
00:03:57
drooling on him as his new buddy roy in the front struck up the conversation with the girl
00:04:04
he said michelle dropped him off at a local bar and she was taking roy further down the road to his truck
00:04:11
he said he didn't know roy's last name and never saw either of them again
00:04:16
the police are looking for a mysterious roy they don't have a last name for this
00:04:21
man all they know is that he's the last one seen with michelle investigators suspected roy was the key
00:04:32
to michelle wallace's disappearance [Music] michelle wallace was last seen in her
00:04:43
car with a hitchhiker in the colorado mountains [Music] about a week later police stopped a man matching the
00:04:52
hitchhiker's description in pueblo colorado 160 miles away he was identified
00:05:00
as roy mellenson mr melanson's background is pretty checkered he had been accused of and convicted of sexual
00:05:08
assault and i believe louisiana and texas had served prison time in mellinson's possession was michelle's
00:05:17
backpack driver's license and the pawn shop ticket for a 35 millimeter camera
00:05:25
on the camera was a roll of film the last photographs on the roll of film were photographs of michelle's dog oaky
00:05:33
wearing his hiking packs in the very last photograph on the roll was a picture of roy
00:05:40
melonson with a young woman that he met in pueblo colorado melinson denied having anything to do
00:05:46
with michelle's disappearance he said they stopped for coffee and he admitted sneaking out the back way and
00:05:54
stealing her car [Music] and he said michelle's dog was tied up outside melinson told police he dumped
00:06:06
michelle's car in amarillo texas when police recovered the car they found no evidence of violence either on the
00:06:14
inside or outside although the car had been wiped clean of fingerprints all they have is somebody who's admitted
00:06:22
stealing a car from a young woman that he left in town there is no body there's no evidence of
00:06:28
foul play it was also suspicious that this wasn't the only missing person's case melonson
00:06:36
was involved in there is another case where a woman in port arthur texas who was his landlady
00:06:45
disappeared and ironically the only thing that was found was her car and he was the last person seen with her
00:06:52
michelle's disappearance sent her mother into a serious depression she became more and more despondent she
00:07:01
couldn't live without her daughter she lived through her daughter one morning
00:07:08
george woke to discover his wife was dead i never felt anybody cold before you just can't believe someone that
00:07:18
you lived with for 34 years would do it [Music] she killed herself with an overdose of
00:07:27
barbiturates my daughter was killed she was killed simple michelle's mother left the suicide note
00:07:38
which included one last wish george actually showed me that note that said when you find our daughter
00:07:46
bury her remains next to me bury her beside me with no evidence of foul play and without a body
00:07:55
the case of michelle wallace's disappearance went completely cold because the difficulties improving the
00:08:02
crime of murder without being awfully darn sure that your victim is dead five long years passed
00:08:11
until investigators got another potential break a hiker on an isolated trail found what
00:08:18
looked like a clump of braided hair interestingly enough those braids are identical in appearance to a photograph
00:08:28
that was actually obtained from the camera of michelle wallace when it was recovered in 1974
00:08:34
from the pueblo police department who had recovered it from a pawn shop again the case stalled the hair while
00:08:42
promising looked to be a dead end another decade passed and the case grew cold yet again
00:08:52
until a homicide investigator kathy ireland discovered something in the evidence file that had been overlooked
00:09:01
i came across a hairbrush that had been bagged and sealed and it had michelle wallace's name on it
00:09:08
and the forensic evidence it contained changed the course of the investigation cold case investigators discovered an
00:09:21
unfortunate oversight when michelle wallace disappeared no one thought to compare samples from her
00:09:27
hairbrush to the braided hair found in the mountains so everything was sent to joseph snyder
00:09:35
for forensic analysis under a microscope snyder visually compared samples from michelle's hairbrush to the braided hair
00:09:45
looking for similarities in color consistency and structure microscopic characteristics were very
00:09:54
consistent with each other the widths were the same the medullary component was the same the
00:10:00
the center portions and the mid region portions of the hair were the same but this was not conclusive
00:10:07
microscopic similarity is still not a match but with this new evidence detective
00:10:15
ireland was not willing to let the case go cold again so she contacted a group of scientists
00:10:22
with an odd mission and an unusual name they called themselves necrosearch and they find bodies no one else seems
00:10:33
to find we are a multi-disciplinary entirely volunteer organization that helps law
00:10:41
enforcement look for clandestine graves and to recover evidence and to recover bodies from those graves
00:10:46
for necro search the starting point was the braided hair that was believed to be
00:10:52
from michelle wallace forensic plant ecologist vicky trammell looked for any plant material that was
00:11:00
in the hair the hair had spent five years outside most likely be being drug around by scavengers like
00:11:11
coyotes so my question was not so much where is the body because i had no way of
00:11:18
determining that but where had the hair spent five years the lack of soil in the hair suggested
00:11:26
the body had not been buried the hair wasn't muddy and there was bleach marks in other words bleached by
00:11:33
the sun in the places that were exposed and that would not have happened had the
00:11:39
hair been buried for five years trammell also found pine needles and shards of bark in the braids
00:11:48
the bark was from an aspen tree which tends to grow in cleared areas she also found needles from two
00:11:57
coniferous tree species the sub-alpine fir and the engelmann spruce sub-alpine firs grow in elevations above
00:12:09
nine thousand feet and engelman spruces grow in wet areas suggesting the body was somewhere on the
00:12:17
mountain's north slope which doesn't get much sun trammell identified an area matching all
00:12:26
these parameters just one mile from where the braided hair was discovered 15 years earlier
00:12:35
the necro search team made up entirely of volunteers moved into action they have a a commonality to them is
00:12:44
that they i think they all wanted to be sherlock holmes at one time the team marked off the area and began
00:12:52
what's known as a grid search each grid measuring one square meter on their hands and knees just a few feet
00:13:01
apart and literally crawling across the forest floor looking for any traces of something out
00:13:08
of the ordinary these are scientists they're used to looking for the minute that is not
00:13:15
the ordinary search teams thoroughly analyze one grid area before moving on to the next
00:13:23
on the first day they found nothing on the second it was a different story a lady banana cecilia armbrust who i
00:13:34
believe was a geologist with that group had actually gone down the hill from where the others were working
00:13:40
to answer the call of nature and on her way back up had discovered what appeared to her to be a skull
00:13:49
she yelled at i found it and we didn't believe her at first even though we know that she really
00:13:55
isn't much of a practical joker we didn't believe her at first the skull contained
00:14:01
an unmistakable feature michelle's father told police about almost 20 years earlier
00:14:08
michelle had a gold tooth and the sunlight was just right and it reflected and then that's how they discovered her
00:14:18
she had never been buried and as a matter of fact we could determine that her body probably had just been tossed
00:14:24
off the side of the road and had rolled up against a tree and from there gravity and scavengers
00:14:30
had taken their toll i was glad i could be able to help a little bit and i realized that no matter what we
00:14:40
did that we found her remains it could never bring her back so that's that's part of the sadness
00:14:49
i think but prosecutors still needed to find one last piece of evidence proving her death
00:14:57
was the result of violence and not an accident almost 20 years after michelle wallace's
00:15:09
disappearance a team of forensic specialists searching through the high altitude forests of
00:15:15
western colorado found a human skull nearby were other human bones identified by a forensic anthropologist as those
00:15:27
from a female in her late teens to mid-20s this woman had been thrown from the road
00:15:35
and come to rest against the tree her body her bones are found in such a manner as to to indicate exactly how she
00:15:43
had come to rest one of the scientists tested this hypothesis by dropping a bucket from the
00:15:49
road at the top of the hill the amazing thing is that the bucket landed at exactly where the cranium had
00:15:58
been the necro search team also found pieces of michelle's clothing the zipper from her jeans looked like it
00:16:08
had been pulled apart violently it's obvious that the zipper has been torn apart as opposed to is simply open
00:16:17
in the normal way so there's evidence of some violence here a forensic odontologist compared
00:16:25
michelle's dental records to the teeth in the skull and made a positive identification
00:16:34
police and prosecutors now focus their attention on roy mellinson the last known person
00:16:41
to see her alive what do you want to do you want to kill that's what you want to do
00:16:50
even if it costs your life prosecutors knew michelle stopped to give mellinson and the other ranch hand
00:16:59
a ride into town after their car broke down michelle dropped one of the ranch hands
00:17:07
off at the local bar but the other roy mellinson asked her if she would drop him off farther down the
00:17:14
road so he could get his truck she agreed prosecutors believe somewhere along the way
00:17:24
melonson ordered michelle to stop the car he left the dog out there was a struggle
00:17:29
resulting in the ripped zipper and he killed her [Music] the evidence suggests he dumped her body
00:17:45
down the side of the mountain later discovered by the necro search team [Music] okie made his way to a ranch about 15
00:17:58
miles away an indication that michelle was dead since he wouldn't have left her
00:18:04
side if she had been alive melonson drove michelle's car to texas where he used her 35 millimeter camera
00:18:16
then pawned it with the unexposed film inside there were certainly the inferences that
00:18:22
were drawn from the fact that he was buying clothing in downtown gunnison driving michelle wallace's vehicle at
00:18:29
that time which told us that he knew that she was dead and he knew that that she was not around to make a report of a
00:18:36
stolen vehicle he was brazen about that particular fact by this time roy mellinson was serving
00:18:43
time in a kentucky prison for burglary but was extradited to colorado to face trial for murder
00:18:51
melonson pleaded not guilty and even refused to attend the trial instead he listened to the proceedings from his
00:18:59
prison cell we are not required to prove motive the issue got raised however during the
00:19:06
course of the trial and closing argument because the defense said where's the
00:19:11
motive and after the defense raised that issue i asked the jury to look at the zipper
00:19:16
that was recovered from the levi's as it was torn in september of 1993 a jury found roy mellinson guilty of
00:19:26
first degree murder he was sentenced to life in prison see these bastards the devastation that
00:19:33
they leave behind nobody knows they think they killed an individual they killed dozens of people
00:19:43
[Music] they let these animals roam the street when they shouldn't and i think that probably i'll be dead
00:19:55
and this this animal has a chance of walking the street again and that's what hurts
00:20:05
michelle's father is thankful to forensic science and the volunteers who worked so diligently
00:20:13
to find his daughter they found the site and brought it to a conclusion to me you can't express the gratitude
00:20:26
and i i just couldn't believe that it finally came to an end the system of justice worked in this
00:20:36
particular case whether the system itself ever awards justice to a victim or their family is in my
00:20:45
opinion a hard question to answer when you look at the loss of life in this particular case and the tragedy
00:20:51
associated with it that verdict is never going to make them whole never will but
00:20:56
i have some confidence based upon what happened that our system does work and it works
00:21:02
fairly [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most intense
  • 85
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most emotional
  • 80
    Best overall

Episode Highlights

  • The Mysterious Disappearance
    Michelle Wallace goes missing in the Colorado mountains, sparking a massive manhunt.
    “It was as if Michelle had simply disappeared.”
    @ 02m 40s
    January 01, 2022
  • A Break in the Case
    A rancher reports finding Michelle's dog, leading to new clues about her disappearance.
    “The fact that the dog obviously had been separated from her was of great concern.”
    @ 03m 15s
    January 01, 2022
  • The Discovery of Remains
    After years of searching, a team finds Michelle's skull and clothing, indicating foul play.
    “Her body probably had just been tossed off the side of the road.”
    @ 14m 24s
    January 01, 2022
  • Justice Served
    Roy Mellinson is found guilty of first-degree murder in Michelle's case.
    “A jury found Roy Mellinson guilty of first degree murder.”
    @ 19m 23s
    January 01, 2022
  • A Father's Grief
    Michelle's father reflects on the impact of her murder and the justice system.
    “The tragedy associated with it that verdict is never going to make them whole.”
    @ 20m 53s
    January 01, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • I never felt anybody cold before.
    Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode
  • My daughter was killed. She was killed. Simple.
    Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode
  • You want to kill. That's what you want to do.
    Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode
  • They killed dozens of people.
    Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode
  • I just couldn't believe that it finally came to an end.
    Forensic Files - Season 9, Episode 4 - No Corpus Delicti - Full Episode

Key Moments

  • Missing Person01:50
  • Largest Manhunt02:14
  • Key Witness04:25
  • Discovery of Skull14:18
  • Murder Conviction19:23

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown