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[Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a guy that informed me earlier today that due to recent
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cutbacks the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off he is the captain yeah for all Browns fans it's
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good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
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a friend [Music] today we are drinking Diamond bear brewing companies pale ale out of Little
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Rock Arkansas garage raid three and a half bottle caps out of five I think their pale ale was the first beer that
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diamond bear made it has gone on to win three gold medals at different Brew competitions it's earthy molts versus
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Bright Beautiful Hops and it's highly drinkable and it's also the favorite of diamond Bear's founder and it was
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brought to us by some of the garage's favorite friends first up we have Morgan listening on the Long Island Railroad go
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straight to jail do not pass go do not collect two hundred dollars next we have Lily in Marietta Georgia and we also
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have a cheers from Ally and Jen up in Ontario well cheers mites and a big we like your jib to Sarah in Charlotte
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North Carolina and a shout out to Nikki in Baltimore Maryland who says she loves
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her douche canoe shirt and you can love your douche canoe shirt as well when you
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go over to truecrime garage.com and click on the store Page got a bunch of t-shirts there all right next up we have
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Natalie in Phoenix Arizona and last but not least we have Chelsea and her fiance
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TJ so cheers to everyone who bought us around don't do what get married stay happy all
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right if you want to help out the garage guys and girls make sure you are subscribed to the show tell a friend to
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going strong in 2018. all right Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign this is an open letter to Melissa witt's
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killer we are still searching for you we know that you are most likely still in this community
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you are someone's friend co-worker spouse parent or neighbor on the outside you might appear to be
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normal even friendly and kind but on the inside that's a different story because in your heart you carry murder
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you carry the horror of the crime you committed against an innocent young woman I often wonder if Melissa was the first
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person you murdered or had you killed before and have you killed since the details of the crime make it clear
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that you have ties to the area in which Melissa's body was discovered you knew that area well
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maybe you're a hunter my guess is you are someone with very poor relationship skills
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you are most likely a loner you have severe anger issues you probably abuse people and animals
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did you interact with Melissa did Melissa reject your advances I bet she did and I bet that made you feel humiliated
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and angry you must have been embarrassed when a beautiful 19 year old girl wanted
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nothing to do with you this made you feel small and when you did not get your way you
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threw a fit and lashed out at her you're pathetic sometimes I think you might even live
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near the location where you left Melissa's lifeless body is that why you chose that location
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do you ever worry that people close to you suspect you of Melissa's murder do you ever wonder if they have noticed
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your suspicious behaviors and Whisper behind your back I believe they do suspect you
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I believe they will come forward and turn you in it's only a matter of time before they
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figure you out once they suspect the [ __ ] you are capable of committing they will tell others
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it is my hope that if anyone who knows you and suspects you of Melissa's murder I hope they find the courage to come
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forward and tell us who you are and what you have done fact there is an anonymous tip line set
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up for this very purpose I hope that scares you there's a Facebook page who killed Missy
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Witt there have been over two and a half million people who have visited this page
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and I hope that scares you just know you won't be able to hide forever law enforcement will find you
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and I look forward to the day that your secrets are revealed I look forward to when you are arrested
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and convicted for what you have done this is the case of Melissa Witt [Music] foreign
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[Music] we started looking into an old Cold Case this is The Disappearance of Melissa
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Witt Melissa Witt was a 19 year old who went missing from a parking lot and Fort
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Smith Arkansas back in December of 1994. yeah and about six weeks later they're going to find Melissa witt's body and
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about two weeks ago we were lucky enough to speak with Ladonna Humphrey who has dedicated her life to missing persons
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cases for over a decade now and she knows all the details about the Melissa Witt murder investigation she's been
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there working on it for quite some time and let's listen in as Ladonna tells us more about herself and tells us how she
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got involved in the case of Melissa Witt well I am the executive producer for a documentary that my team is putting
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together about Melissa witch it's entitled uneven ground the Melissa Witt story and we became involved in her case
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really because of my background so I have been a missing persons advocate for just over a decade in fact 11 years ago
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I helped to co-found an organization that offers assistance and resources to families that have missing adults all
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across the United States because what we had seen by and large is that there were
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many resources given to missing children but nothing really for adults and in that process that team that non-profit
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team really wanted to put together a documentary and that has something that had been on my heart for a very long
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time and and we started putting the pieces and processes in place to make that happen and as we began to look at
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different cases and there are just thousands of cases across the United States we really were touched by Melissa witt's
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Case one it's in our own backyard um but we we just weren't sure if if that was the right direction to go
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because technically Melissa Witt isn't still missing she was missing for 30 days before her body was found
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but you know really long story short our team was so captivated by her case and really wanted to see Justice happen that
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we felt like if we were able to get involved that maybe we could somehow help bring some closure to the case and
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if not closure at least more awareness to what had happened um perhaps maybe to save the lives of
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other teenage girls so that's really how I became involved to be the Melissa Wick
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case can you tell us about Melissa Witt and what kind of person she was and what
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was she doing leading up to 1994. Melissa it was was described by friends and family as
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just you know an all-around good girl she was fun to be around she was happy she was very caring she was a great
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student she was very involved in her school she was involved in church activities she really really really
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never met a stranger didn't have any enemies Melissa grew up and lived with her single mother Marianne Wentz she did
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have a relationship with her father when she was older in fact she was probably close to her teenage years before she
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really was able to build that relationship with her father Melissa doesn't have any
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um the biological siblings but she did have some siblings that were related to her
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through her father's side of the family so and they are still alive but unfortunately Melissa's parents um are
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both deceased and they've never you know they weren't able to see the case solved
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which is something that weighs really heavy on my heart personally Melissa and I never met each other but I actually
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have friends pretty good friends that knew Melissa with so this this case really hits home for me because she was
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just an all-around likable lovable girl now in 1994 Melissa Witt was a college student is that correct that's right in
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1994 Melissa was attending the community college in Fort Smith what what was then
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called westark Community College it's now the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith but it was westark Community
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College at the time she was wrapping up her her first semester of school you know that first was a Thursday and she
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was going about her her day she had gone to class that morning she went to lunch
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with a friend after she left that that lunch meeting with a friend she went to work she worked for a dental office in
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Fort Smith her goal in life was to be a dental hygienist well let's get right into it let's get into December 1st the
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day that Melissa went missing you know she left work that day I mean it was just a typical day you know less work
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that day to go home and change clothes and that's just when everything fell apart
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um she went home she changed clothes she found a note from her mom that said hey I'm at um
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you know Bowling World tonight you know her mom bowled in a league if you want to stop by you know come see me I'll buy
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you a hamburger I know we argued this morning but I'd really like to see you and so
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it's believed that Melissa saw that note and that's why she went ahead and went to bowling world that night she never
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made it inside Bowling World but we do in fact have proof that Melissa went to bowling world that evening
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absolutely we do have proof that she did go to bowling world that evening her car
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was found in the parking lot but it is believed that she arrived at Bowling World approximately it's believed
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between 6 15 and 6 30. when she left her when she left the dental office her car
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wouldn't start she had some help getting her car started she went on home and changed
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clothes we do know that she did make it home to change clothes a neighbor saw her her mother was able to verify the
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fact that Melissa had changed clothes she was able to identify the clothes that she had worn that day because they
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were missing from the missing from the house so we knew that she was wearing those clothes and then left her house to
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go on to bowling world but she never made it inside the attack on Melissa would have been very quick and Swift We
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believe we know that her keys were found in the parking lot at 7 30 so the attack
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on Melissa Witt happened when she arrived and happened between 6 30 and 7 30 because as I stated the keys were
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found at 7 30. but it was a league night very busy so the parking lot was full but most people were inside there just
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aren't a lot of witnesses to whatever happened to Melissa all right so a lot of things the process we have a college
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age girl Melissa Witt she went to work we know that her car didn't start so somebody had a helper correct guessing
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probably like a battery or something it's the winter months yeah so it sounds like the person that helped her with her
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vehicle was unknown to Melissa Witt so A co-worker of hers stayed in kind of oversaw what was going on so she was not
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alone with this unknown Good Samaritan that helped her with her vehicle and I think you're right the guy or girl I
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think it was a battery issue that they had to jump start her car but guy or girl I'm I'm guessing a guy helped
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helped her I have no information as to the gender of the co-worker or the gender of the Good Samaritan right so
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she leaves work she goes home she changes we have some evidence of that then she comes to the bowling alley it's
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league night she's gonna go hang out with her her mother yes and so she would have finally left work around a quarter
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till six stopping off at her home and then as you said going to bowling world to meet up with her mom and it sounds
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like she would have arrived there between about 6 15 and 6 30 on that evening right then we have this hour gap
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and then these keys are found her keys are found in the parking lot right so right so at 7 30 the keys are found and
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that's perfect because that leads us to our next question that we had for Ladonna if the keys were found at 7 30
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is that the time that we now know that we have a missing person no and that is where
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this case just really almost falls apart at the beginning because Melissa never went inside the
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bowling alley her mom assumed that she she just didn't show up that night when her mom left the bowling league it would
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have still been crowded it's a very large parking lot she didn't see her daughter's car
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but she wasn't looking for her daughter's car Melissa never showed up as far as Marianne was concerned Melissa
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had gone on to do something else so I wanted to tell Mary and Whit had gone home and Melissa didn't come home
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that night so about three o'clock in the morning after you know calling friends and waiting frantically for Melissa she
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decides to kind of drive around looking for Melissa but she never goes and looks
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at Bowling World because it didn't dawn on her to look there because she never saw Melissa there that night so you know
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we're losing time because had she gone to Bowling World she would have seen that her daughter's car was there and
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the other there was some other key evidence that was in the parking lot so unfortunately Marianne went went back
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home she called the police the next morning and when the patrolman came out to take the report from Marianne Wade
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about Melissa he asked her had anything happened between you and Melissa that day was there any kind of an argument
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you know was Melissa upset and that's when Marianne had to say well yes we did have a small argument that morning and
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they did it was a typical argument but between a mother and a daughter Melissa had asked to borrow money you know a
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small loan her mom said no and that was that there you know that was the end of it but because Melissa's
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mother told the patrolman about that argument he chalked it up in his report as someone that was a runaway you know
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rightfully so every day in America police departments take reports of people who are missing who really
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they've gotten mad they've taken off and they come back or they've run away and they come back so in his mind this was
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just a mad teenage girl well that all makes sense I mean it makes sense that Melissa's mother would not have looked
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for her at the bowling alley because she had no reason to believe that she ever arrived yeah yeah and then we have the
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situation where once it's reported you know now we know Melissa's been missing for eight hours by this point right
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she's finally reported missing and then the officer taking the report rightfully
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so thinks that we have a runaway situation because there was an argument you know we've seen this a bazillion
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times Captain especially when we covered the Texas Killing Field cases anytime you have somebody in that teenaged years
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right and they had some kind of spat with mom or dad or both and that's reported in
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the missing persons report you know rightfully so it's it's thought to be someone that left of their own
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reasons that left on their own and they'll be back soon well hats off to any parent that has had to deal with a
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teenage daughter I couldn't imagine what that's like uh but I think in these cases we shouldn't assume that they're a
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runaway and that they're going to come back and we're going to see them the next day or so now Ladonna we have
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Melissa's mother who is the one reporting her missing she's the one that had the argument with Melissa that day
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what was her gut feeling and what was her reaction as to what was going on Marianne knew that something was wrong
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and so she started calling Melissa's friends and they orchestrated a search party of their own they began to pass
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out flyers all over the city of Fort Smith and because of their efforts and because they went to the police station
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two days later the major crimes unit got involved in Melissa's case that's when they heard about the fact that this
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beautiful 19 year old student was missing that she hadn't come home and so as soon as the major crimes unit
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you know became aware that Melissa Witt was missing and they had boots on the ground they found her car in the Bowling
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World parking lot but they had lost two days at that point so they find her car but they already found her keys
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well not necessarily they don't know that these Keys belong to Melissa Witt all they know is that we have some lost
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keys my guess is is that keys were found not knowing that the vehicle belonging to those keys are still in the parking
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okay okay and then it's turned into the lost and found I'm guessing at the bowling alley by somebody probably
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leaving the bowling alley that night yes you're correct so the keys were found by
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someone that was at the bowling alley with um their family they found the keys in
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the parking lot they turned it in did not realize that there was some blood that had dried on those keys when they
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turned those keys in and um that person who found the cues actually went out of town for a job
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um after that weekend and it wasn't for a few days that he became aware that that this was in the media you know it
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didn't hit the media until late Sunday or Monday about Melissa and when he found out hey there was this girl named
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Melissa Witt that you know went missing from Bowling World he remembered that he
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had found some keys that he had turned in you know with with the name Missy and he was able to
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tell you know law enforcement hey this happened at 7 30. so if that helped establish a timeline but they also knew
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that they had a very serious crime on their hands because once once her car was found in the parking lot they also
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found um pools of blood throughout the parking lot that later were they were able to determine the
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blood belonged to Melissa Witt they found a crushed hair clip that belonged to Melissa Witt they found one of her
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earrings and then they had some various accounts of what later became very confusing and
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actually led the case in some strange directions but they did have some some witnesses come forward that said that
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they had seen an argument in the parking lot you know and other Witnesses witness
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had said you know he had heard screams and so they were able then to take all of that information and and construct
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the timeline and you would think you know we've both been bowling before right yeah of course hey some people
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have I'm bowling right now I got my bowling shoes on and everything I was in a bowling league when I was a
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kid we had a really uh awesome team name I want to guess what it's called The Three Amigos now it's just two
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people well that's why it would have been extra funny uh balls of steel there you go that's what happens when you're
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in like eighth grade you think that's hilarious and when you're the captain so um no but you'd think that maybe there
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would be some 9-1-1 call because there was some confrontation in the parking lot uh and there was some screams yeah
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those two things to me go there's nobody checking that out well and I originally I thought that
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this would be like a very big Stroke of Luck here that you have this guy finds the keys in the parking lot turns them
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into the lost and found and then like she said like Ladonna said two days go by before this thing hits the media
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before they know they have an abduction and he overhears this and he calls the bowling alley or calls the police and
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says I was the guy that found those keys and I found them that night around 7 30.
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I thought this was just a really big Stroke of Luck that okay now we can really narrow down this timeline this
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that she disappeared Not only was she abducted by 7 30 but you have to presume that the person had made off with her by
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that point well no but there was an attack I mean we got pulls of blood in the parking lot right and that's what
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I'm saying I originally hearing this information I thought it was a great stroke of luck with but really you would
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end up to this conclusion regardless whether this man came forward or not saying that he found the keys right at 7
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30. because of the evidence found in the parking lot you could surmise that after
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she left her work not having left there until quarter till six stopping off at home you have to believe she was
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attacked very quickly after arriving to the parking lot at the bowling world and
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if there's pools of blood I mean this this is has to be a vicious attack right yeah and and somebody some way somebody
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was able to attack her and control her so my guess would be there's some kind of
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you know attack where she's she's hit over the head with something right but it's kind of hard for me to believe
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that you know you're you're in your league balls of steel and the Three Amigos are playing and you find these
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car keys and you don't see these pools of blood well you have to keep in mind it's dark
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out one and then two this person you don't walk around looking for pools of blood you know you see some keys on on
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the ground and you you think I'm just going to do something nice if I would have lost my keys I wish somebody would
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turn them into the front desk you're assuming the person that lost their keys is inside bowling they're going to come
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out not be able to get into their car they're going to go to the front desk and ask if anybody found any Keys wow
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it's a little suspicious to me we'll get right back to the case of Melissa Witt right after this quick beer break
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thank you [Music] all right cheers mates thanks for sharing on social media cheers to you Captain let's listen back
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in on our interview here Ladonna could you tell us in better detail about what was found in the
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parking lot of Bowling World and then what that evidence led the investigators to believe
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yeah I can um so they're let's start with the blood so the blood pulls um and I'm going to give you what
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my opinion is after I've you know studied the evidence and I've had you know full access to the case File it's
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believed that Melissa got out of her car that she immediately encountered her into her attacker as she was walking
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towards the door of the bowling world but you know she didn't get very far believe that she most likely spurned
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someone's advances and they struck her in the head and and you know later we can talk about
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how we know that that that indeed did happen so there there are um pulls of you know a few spots of
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blood by her car and a few throughout the parking lot where she was clearly dragged or carried and then placed into
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another vehicle the larger pool of blood is in a in a parking spot that's further
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back where I believe the assailants car was parked probably had her hunched over
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you know and if it's a head wound it's going to bleed a little bit more as he he put her in the trunk or in the trunk
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bed or in a van whatever vehicle that he had that's what the that that evidence looks like but as far as the witness
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evidence it's really it's really complicated it's really um it's sad what happened with the case
00:27:10
almost because you know when when this hit the media people started coming forward and said
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hey I I saw someone that that I believe was Melissa Witt that was arguing in the
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parking lot with an African-American male and when that story broke and they did a composite sketch based on a couple
00:27:32
of the witnesses this story about Melissa Witt just took outrageous twists and turns I mean outrageous it took law
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enforcement on a chase that was fruitless it was just the wrong direction and it really hurt the case
00:27:51
because we were later able to determine that there was a Caucasian female later that evening
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that did argue in the parking lot with her African-American boyfriend but it wasn't Melissa Witt
00:28:05
and there are people to this day that even I've interviewed for our documentary who they just swear that it
00:28:10
was Melissa Witt but it just it wasn't we have no evidence to prove that it was you know the most reliable evidence was
00:28:17
from a young boy that exited Bowling World to go out to his car to get a book out of his car he was there with his mom
00:28:25
who was on a league at around 6 30 6 40. he heard a woman scream help me now he didn't see anybody
00:28:34
really you know that gave us an accurate time frame as far as when we believe Melissa was attacked but as far as
00:28:42
anybody seeing anything you know this was right about when the league was starting up you know it was a women's
00:28:47
league night everybody was inside there were very few people left in the parking
00:28:52
lot unfortunately it's been maddening for us as a team and you know we did Chase a lot of these stories down that
00:28:59
even law enforcement has looked at and it's just unfortunate the amount of time and effort that went into
00:29:06
chasing some of this down that turned out to be nothing then it blew this Melissa whip story into something that
00:29:13
it wasn't it people started to question her character rumors started to spill out that had nothing to do with the case
00:29:21
but it really complicated the search for Melissa Witt you know that's one of the
00:29:26
things that we hope that we can you know help with our documentary is kind of show everyone what happened
00:29:33
why the case got derailed and that those those things absolutely did not happen it's a weird thing because you want
00:29:40
eyewitnesses to come forward but when you have eyewitnesses coming forward with phony information it's not that
00:29:46
they're lying to you it's just they saw they saw a white female arguing with the
00:29:50
African-American male but it was just a different girl but that's kind of how some of these cases never get solved
00:29:57
it's because when do people do come forward it's just not with the correct information right well and to be honest
00:30:03
with you eyewitness accounts are not very good um they're they're actually some of the
00:30:08
worst information and evidence you can have in most cases because people were human and and they make inferences and
00:30:17
they make assumptions so when when you get a tip from that night from December 1st 1994 when somebody calls in they
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don't call in and say I saw an African-American Guy arguing with a white chick no they call in they say I
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saw some dude in the parking lot arguing with Melissa Witt right that's what they
00:30:39
say that's and then you're like oh we have something here and then you once you start piecing this thing together
00:30:45
and you figure out that oh well her car keys were found at 7 30. this argument that was witnessed in the parking lot is
00:30:53
happening after that time Mark after that time frame this is not Melissa Witt this is not who was arguing with Melissa
00:31:01
Witt just so happens to be it's two other people that were spotted later that evening well let's go over
00:31:07
something that we do know so we do know that the attack happened pretty quickly and based on the blood evidence that the
00:31:14
attacker probably was parked further away correct so they parked kind of in the back but they knew so so my gut
00:31:21
feeling is that this person either knew uh knew her well well enough to know that she was going to go to the bowling
00:31:28
alley yeah or it was just somebody that swallowed her there this is all over there is like hey that's an attractive
00:31:36
girl I will attack her and followed her there now that's something that's something interesting
00:31:42
here because you bring up the the thought of some of the psychology of the suspect and let's dive into some of the
00:31:50
psychology of the actual victim here so what can this tell us well it sounds to us like Ladonna believes that Melissa
00:31:59
was approached by this person that whoever attacked or approach approached her and had some kind of brief
00:32:04
interaction with her right before he struck her over the head dragged her or or or threw her over his shoulder and
00:32:12
brought her to his vehicle but we don't know what the evidence of that is why she believes that or if it's just gut
00:32:18
feeling I'm with you my my gut feeling my initial things that my initial suspicion
00:32:27
here was that that didn't really go down that way right but I'm going to go with
00:32:32
ladonna's thought on this she's much closer to the case than I am and so I'm I'm going to go with the ladonna's
00:32:39
correct okay maybe she has something we don't know about yet and she'll get into
00:32:43
that but here's the thing Captain what could that tell us about either our victim or our suspect well if they did
00:32:51
engage in some kind of interaction with one another like you said possibility because look if I'm approached by
00:32:59
somebody that I don't know at all I'm going to be very standoffish and if I'm a 19 year old girl who's approached
00:33:06
by some strange man in a parking lot I might even scream or yell and run from that person so what could it tell us
00:33:16
about the suspect like you said either she may have knew him maybe not that well but knew him
00:33:23
and had spoken to him at some point before or if he's a total suspect and I've heard a total stranger I've heard
00:33:29
this in other cases too there's a chance he was attractive I've heard other victims other female
00:33:35
victims come forward where police are saying well why did you engage with that person when he when this stranger yeah
00:33:41
Bundy yeah why why did you just go along and talk to this person when they approached you and the number one answer
00:33:48
is always well he was attractive and he looked harmless yeah I my gut feeling is telling me that this
00:33:56
individual the suspect followed her knew that he was going to park far away knew that there was going to be little
00:34:04
to no interaction with her she was a victim in his mind and he attacked her from the word go I don't think she there
00:34:13
was there wasn't a conversation I don't think there was you know um you know come with me or anything I
00:34:19
think it was just I'm gonna hit this lady this is my game plan I'm going to park a little bit further away this
00:34:25
we're talking about a bowling alley on a league night that's full I mean if you drive you drive by a bowling alley like
00:34:33
like on Tuesday that there's no league night I mean it looks like the place it has gone under there's nobody there
00:34:39
right but you go on a league night it's like you know it seems like bowling's like the best thing since sliced bread
00:34:46
so there's tons of people in the parking lot you know that if you're gonna attack
00:34:51
this individual that you have to do it quickly I believe this this suspect has ran into her before because he had to
00:34:58
know not only and and I don't know where but he had to know that I'm going to be able to attack
00:35:04
her and I'm going to be able to to be able to manhandle her back into my vehicle
00:35:11
you see what I'm saying yeah but here's where my mind goes I I think that if he was a total stranger
00:35:19
that I don't think he followed her there because if I'm following a total stranger to a parking lot and like you
00:35:26
said it's a fast attack but the longer that this attack takes place and the longer that it takes me to get the
00:35:32
victim from where I attack her into my vehicle right the more likelihood that I'm seen that I'm spotted that somebody
00:35:38
jots down part of my license plate or gives a good description of my vehicle and myself
00:35:44
so here's where my thought is if he's parked that a decent distance from her right
00:35:52
I'm almost thinking he was already there when she pulled into the parking lot right and so he's just he might have
00:35:57
been sitting in the parking lot scouring the park parking lot waiting for an attractive young woman to pull into a
00:36:04
spot and he's going to approach her and attack her yeah and which uh you know because he's
00:36:11
something that was really interesting before that was said before was this was a league night this was ladies league
00:36:19
night and somebody wouldn't know that somebody in the area would very likely know so if
00:36:24
you're if you're going to prey on on a female well why not go to league night where there's a bunch of females yeah
00:36:32
but like I said I think the attack I think once uh the suspect knew this person's my Victim or you know just from
00:36:40
eyeballing the person I can carry this person back to my vehicle because it's gonna have to be somewhat quick yes
00:36:47
there's a blitz attack definitely exactly that's that's what I think all right we are both exactly correct
00:36:54
all right Ladonna just double checking on something here because you are and where this case took place is Central
00:37:02
Standard time I am in Eastern time so I'm guessing though even though that this is Central Time that in December
00:37:10
we're probably 6 30 6 15 we're probably getting dark outside at that time right you're correct about that that time
00:37:18
about six six fifteen it's getting it's getting darker her her attacker had that Advantage
00:37:25
working for him for sure and he was most likely much larger than Melissa he was able able to overpower
00:37:33
her pretty quickly you know people ask me quite a bit if I think there were more than one person involved in the
00:37:41
case if you know there were multiple attackers you know anything is possible but not everything is probable and it's
00:37:48
just really unlikely that there was more than one attacker was Melissa a pretty small person she was a petite gal
00:37:55
um you know 125 pounds you know five six just you know would have been easily overpowered and it appears that she
00:38:04
would have been struck over the head with some type of object exactly exactly examiner's report did indicate
00:38:14
that she had been struck in the head the head wound was not fatal but it would have caused the bleeding and it would
00:38:22
have most likely you know knocked her unconscious possibly for you know a period of time so that's definitely
00:38:28
somebody struck her in Anger you know maybe they did strike her because she wouldn't come with them or they were
00:38:34
trying to control the situation or you know in my opinion it was somebody that she knew in my
00:38:41
opinion and I think it just got out of hand really quick given what we now know it would lead me to believe a couple
00:38:49
different things here that either she like you had said captain that she was followed there
00:38:55
or that's my gut feeling or this was some type of crime of opportunity where there was a person leaving the bowling
00:39:01
alley that saw her or for some reason was already in that parking lot so Ladonna is that the two possibilities I
00:39:09
would add maybe a third thought to that as well though is that she sometimes did attend
00:39:17
league night with her mom so you know her mom did Bowl every Thursday night now Melissa didn't go
00:39:23
every Thursday night she didn't even go every other Thursday night she didn't go
00:39:27
often enough that someone would have been certain she would have been there but if someone had known her
00:39:34
they would have known it's a possibility that she was there so that's something to think about too I really do truly
00:39:41
believe that whoever attacked and killed Melissa Witt had met her at least once before I think that they wanted Melissa
00:39:48
Witt I think that she rejected them and I think that they were there either hoping she was going to be there or they
00:39:56
followed her with the intent of either trying to win her over and woo her or maybe maybe their intent was to murder
00:40:08
her I mean I can't say for certain I mean when we talk a little bit more about how she died it's a very intimate
00:40:14
crime which also indicates that it was somebody that she knew definitely a crime of passion Melissa's body was not
00:40:20
found until about six weeks later can you tell us how and who found her I can't she was found
00:40:30
um six weeks later in Franklin County and a portion of Franklin County that's called Ozark Arkansas it was in the
00:40:36
Ozark National Forest she was found off an Old Logging Road and she was found by
00:40:43
two Trappers and there's a lot of mystery around this because these Trappers traveled that
00:40:49
road every single day and she hadn't been there the day before you know they came that morning January
00:40:56
13th and and you know the founder that day and the night before the Fort Smith Police Department had received a phone
00:41:04
call an anonymous phone call from what is believed to be a grandmother and her grandson and the
00:41:10
grandmother was urging her grandson to tell police what he had found but he um was too afraid to
00:41:20
talk on the phone and basically um they ended the call police weren't were not able at that time you know
00:41:28
unfortunately because of technology to trace that call but it's believed that that call was about Melissa Witt we
00:41:35
believe that that person actually found her body and moved her body from where the killer
00:41:42
had had placed it her body had originally been placed behind a rock this large Rock off of that Logging Road
00:41:50
that actually kind of looks like a tombstone I've been there and and this rock is actually kind of uphill from the
00:41:57
road so when you think about this in context of you know when she died how she died
00:42:04
um and in the location of where he he took her and where he placed her body it's all very
00:42:12
it's concerning it's someone in my opinion that knew that area and most likely lived in that area uh you know
00:42:20
there there's a lot of different theories on um you know when Melissa Witt died and I'm
00:42:27
not so certain that it was that day law enforcement believes that it was that day but there you know I think it's
00:42:33
possible that there was a couple of days of discrepancy there so if she wasn't killed the day that she was taken
00:42:40
so this monster that takes her could have took her somewhere and held her captive and possibly tortured her for a
00:42:48
couple days um completely nude the killer had taken you know all of her clothing her socks
00:42:57
and her shoes he had taken her other earring and he had taken her Mickey Mouse watch and he also took her purse
00:43:04
so none of her belongings have ever been found and it makes you question this jack wagon of this grandson like why
00:43:11
you've been moving the dead body note to kids don't move the dead body and Ladonna that's that is a crazy thing
00:43:17
right there because we've read about this case quite a bit and this was not something that we had come across so to
00:43:23
the idea that someone finds this body potentially finds his body and moves it it makes you wonder what other
00:43:31
involvement this person would have had in this case well you know and I I asked myself that too you know I have you know
00:43:38
asked a lot of questions of the lead detective and then the retired detective you know who originally had the case and
00:43:44
I've worked on this project for two years and I've just I'm perplexed by that because you know what that means
00:43:50
for this this poor girl who was murdered is that not only did she meet an attacker in this parking lot
00:43:57
and he takes her to this remote location you know she's killed she's placed behind the Rock and then somebody else
00:44:02
comes along and moves her I mean that's just horrific to me and it's it's it's really
00:44:08
unlikely that the person who moved or didn't know about the crime and you know there's always debate back and forth
00:44:14
especially on my team about you know part of my team thinks the person that moved her is the person that
00:44:20
killed her I personally don't think that I think they had some kind of knowledge
00:44:25
of the crime but you know I've seen the medical examiner's report it was not a large animal that moved her because
00:44:30
we've been asked that you know because there is bare activity up in that area it was not a bear that moved Melissa it
00:44:38
was a human we're positive of this because of the way her body was moved and how it was laid out you know there
00:44:45
was animal activity unfortunately on the body but it was small animal activity which would be typical of of any kind of
00:44:54
of you know corpses left out in in a national forest so you know we're confident that it was a human that was
00:45:01
involved and in the location is remote I mean it is remote and you would have to
00:45:07
know where you were going and you know it's not someone that killed her and then you know rushed to to
00:45:16
dispose of the body because they certainly wouldn't have driven almost an hour away when there are
00:45:21
tons of other places closer that they could have disposed of a body I mean this location meant something to
00:45:27
somebody it's just so isolated and you certainly wouldn't have been able to go there at night had you never been there
00:45:33
before and then find your way back out like I said I've been there multiple times and it's it's eerie
00:45:40
it's it's a very eerie location now when you say that this area meant something to her killer meant something to the
00:45:47
person that placed her there you mean the area that she was found absolutely I think that this could have been a
00:45:55
favorite hunting spot for the person that killed her perhaps it was a favorite spot for someone that had grown
00:46:01
up in the area um I just think that there was a reason why they chose that particular Rock to
00:46:10
put her body behind because I'm telling you it looks like a tombstone it's just very very eerie and we've got
00:46:17
several several very you know good suspects that would have had reason to know that location and and to have
00:46:25
frequented that location so I really do believe that that location meant something to someone you know they had
00:46:32
been there multiple times well and maybe if this location means something to them
00:46:36
they placed her there so they could come back to visit and I know that sounds sick well she was originally placed
00:46:42
behind the Rock and then she was moved from behind that rock about 10 feet away from The Rock in full view of that
00:46:49
Logging Road so whoever moved or wanted her to be found so she was never going to be found behind that rock
00:46:56
is just the likelihood was very very um slim but as far as you know law enforcement believes that she was taken
00:47:05
there that night and she was killed there that night so they believe that she left Bowling
00:47:11
World with her attacker and that's immediately where he drove and and killed her and she was strangled
00:47:18
and she was strangled there at that location we know that for a fact and nothing of hers or nothing of an
00:47:26
unidentified persons was found with her no no oh and that's what makes it even more frustrating it's
00:47:34
almost like you know and I say this carefully because I don't know it for certain but
00:47:42
it's almost like they worked really hard to cover up any of their DNA tracks now
00:47:49
you know in 1994 we were just seeing the rise of DNA in different kinds of court
00:47:56
cases you know at that time everything was happening with the O.J Simpson trial and so we were seeing a
00:48:03
rise in that being used but most people didn't really know about that really and certainly didn't know what steps to
00:48:10
take to maybe you know prevent somebody from being able to find DNA but you know they did
00:48:16
take her clothes they took everything that she had they did that for a reason and here's where my mind goes Ladonna is
00:48:22
it it makes me wonder and suspect that whoever either moved the body and or killed her that maybe they went to this
00:48:30
scene multiple times and I don't mean so much to visit with the body let's say I
00:48:35
mean simply just to collect evidence we have a situation where we know that she was brought to that location and then
00:48:42
killed well if she was taken their like law law enforcement would believe that evening
00:48:47
and killed there that night she was killed in a remote wooded area in the dark it would be damn near impossible to
00:48:55
assure yourself as the killer that you've located every piece every belonging that she brought with her to
00:49:02
that location and that you in fact didn't drop any of your belongings there that evening as well you're exactly
00:49:09
correct I mean you're exactly right I've played that scenario in my head and I do
00:49:13
believe that the person that killed her and maybe some other that found out about the crime did visit the scene you
00:49:20
know there were there were some reports and and we have a composite sketch that has been circulating of a car and a man
00:49:28
that was in the car that was seen on that Logging Road um not long before her body was found
00:49:34
and so being able to identify who that man is is you know a mystery but here's another theory that I'd like to
00:49:42
kind of put out there you know and again it's my opinion but you know it's it's hard for me to believe that someone has
00:49:50
attacked her and then drove her an hour away okay because she would have not been
00:49:54
unconscious the entire time she would have woken up at some point so how did they subdue her for that 50
00:50:01
60 mile car ride they take her out to this location they most likely sexually assault her
00:50:09
because she is found you know nude right so did they sexually assault her out in the cold in December
00:50:17
up on a hill behind a rock I mean that makes no sense I mean we know that she died at that location because according
00:50:23
to the medical examiner there was debris from that area that they were able to determine came
00:50:30
from that area in her lungs and in her Airway so we know that she she that's how she died
00:50:36
it seems more plausible to me that perhaps he lived nearby and she escaped him maybe the next day
00:50:46
maybe the day after and he chased her and she came to that location and he caught her and he killed her
00:50:54
that seems more plausible to me but I you know I had to base that I debate that with the retired detective and I
00:51:01
debate that with my team I mean it's we don't know for sure but that does seem to me in my opinion to make the
00:51:08
most sense I really just don't see how all of that could have happened and the cleanup been so precise
00:51:18
unless maybe it happened you know the way I'm suggesting or maybe they did come back to the site multiple times
00:51:24
which makes the crime even more disturbing really and tells me even more that maybe this person you know cared
00:51:32
about Melissa in some way you know to keep coming back and visiting it's a possibility but you know my fear
00:51:41
is is that we're never going to find out I mean here we are two decades later and
00:51:45
it's just we still are seeking those answers so just to be clear here if she were left behind that rock she most
00:51:53
likely would have never been found and then she's moved down to the road where it's very obvious that she would
00:51:59
be found and be found very quickly well she would move closer to be viewable the road
00:52:09
a body that had been decomposing for six weeks I mean that is a horrific thing to do
00:52:20
I I still get chills when I think about that but you really want to wonder about
00:52:25
the psychology of the fact that somebody moves this body it almost it almost goes to one of two
00:52:33
things for me that either someone was showing some form of remorse for finding Melissa or knowing that she was there or
00:52:42
putting her there one is hard to believe with a body so decomposed that somebody
00:52:47
would move it by accident or you know it'd be a younger person that was curious about the dead body because it
00:52:54
was so decomposed but it's still a probability and you see like maybe maybe there's remorse that somebody wants her
00:53:01
to be found so that there's some form of closure for Melissa's family um maybe so that she receives a proper
00:53:10
burial rather than being laying out in the woods um or does somebody want credit for this does
00:53:17
somebody want it to be known that she didn't just leave on her own or that she was kidnapped right does somebody want
00:53:23
some form of credit in the newspapers or on the news that she was in fact taken and she was in fact murdered exactly or
00:53:31
maybe Maybe a drug induced told someone else and they they were overwhelmed with
00:53:42
guilt and they moved the body I mean you know it's possible that a hunter did come across the body it's
00:53:49
possible I'm not and I'm not sure I can understand why they would move the body and then not report it to police or not
00:53:58
just call police and say hey I found this body there has to be a reason why they would be afraid that they would be
00:54:04
blank or why they wouldn't just come forward there has to be a reason but figuring that out I mean that just
00:54:11
adds to the the absolute mystery and just almost Insanity in this case it's like how many
00:54:18
things can go up against you know us being able to solve this and bring some closure and justice for
00:54:25
Melissa wood it's frustrating I lose a lot of sleep over it I'm gonna be honest I lose a lot
00:54:31
of sleep over it what else can you tell us about that strange phone call that was received with a grandmother and a
00:54:38
grandson calling about Melissa or about the body can you give us any more insight into that
00:54:44
really just that they know that the caller was calling about Melissa Witt as far as them releasing that recording
00:54:55
um to the public to hopefully identify who those people were they've never done that
00:55:01
um it is something that we'd like to include in the documentary so that's something that we're working towards
00:55:06
being able to do but that's that's as much knowledge as I have on it I mean it was a pretty brief call but you know we
00:55:13
are certain that the call was about Melissa Witt and you know the person that wouldn't talk you know wouldn't say
00:55:20
very much the young man I believe he was truly terrified I think he was terrified
00:55:24
maybe maybe traumatized by what he had found or maybe he was afraid he was going to be blamed or maybe he had
00:55:31
information that he just you know didn't want to share because he feared for his life I
00:55:36
mean that's possible let's go back into the early stages of the investigation what were their initial leads and what
00:55:43
were their what were they tracking down to begin with are they questioning classmates were they questioning family
00:55:50
members so everybody close to Melissa Melissa man that she'd had lunch with that day that very day
00:55:59
um you know those people were all able to be cleared you know people at the community college were looked at
00:56:06
you know they were brought in they requested um sex offenders were brought in they
00:56:12
were questioned there were about 300 people that were heavily interviewed in this case I mean there was one man who
00:56:20
had committed a murder um you know in the next town over and you know it was could have been similar
00:56:27
it was a parking lot type of crime and you know they brought him in and of course you know that led to nothing
00:56:33
there was a a another suspect who you know they interviewed him many times but he was you know posing as a police
00:56:42
officer not far from where the bowling alley was and um they were able to clear him you
00:56:48
know they do have people that they've looked at that failed polygraphs that they've not been able to clear I mean
00:56:55
there are a lot of suspects in this case um yeah and I've been very intrigued and
00:57:02
also very disturbed by the amount of level three sex offenders that were in the area
00:57:09
and that didn't have an alibi that could have been responsible for this crime I mean it just it blows my
00:57:16
mind so the the investigation to you know the credit of law enforcement it was thorough they worked it hard they
00:57:25
worked every lead that came in they were determined and are still determined to solve Melissa's case there was just a
00:57:33
lot of unfortunate things that happened you know about six months after um this happened a young girl a child
00:57:41
went missing and it's one of the most infamous cases in the state of Arkansas and the United States
00:57:47
and that did divert media attention and the Public's attention away from Melissa's case it didn't deter Fort
00:57:54
Smith you know Fort Smith Law Enforcement but you know let's let's be honest six-year-old girl went missing
00:58:00
and you know that greatly affected what happened even with the media keeping the
00:58:06
story alive so it was just a series of unfortunate events well Captain I'm glad that the
00:58:11
investigators did that I'm glad that the police did that and what is that they did the old pervert Roundup
00:58:18
they did their old uh due diligence on the perverts they don't always do that in these cases and I don't understand
00:58:25
why sometimes I question the the investigations but when you talk to all the people that she went to school with
00:58:31
and when you talk to the guy that she had lunch with that day when you talk to the family and you can't come up with
00:58:37
any leads the bowling alley doesn't provide any leads you go after the Pervert you got to do the old pervert
00:58:43
Roundup yeah show me your hands and sorry if nobody likes that term but guess what that's what the detectives
00:58:49
and the cops call it when you are not standing right next to them well we have a lot of what was it level three sex
00:58:55
offenders yeah so level three sex offenders and I think um just to maybe maybe we should be
00:59:03
clear that this this Fort Smith area of Arkansas is probably not as bad as uh ladonna's making its sound there with
00:59:10
the number of level three sex offenders but when you have that amount of level threes in the area you have to talk with
00:59:16
them because because the the recidivism rates are between 70 and 80 percent in a lot of
00:59:23
these cases right and and so there's there's a strong argument that these level three sex offenders cannot be
00:59:32
rehabilitated that they will go out and they will offend again yeah it's just a matter of time really the nice thing is
00:59:40
when you're doing the old pervert Roundup that it's actually not that complicated of a process because it's
00:59:48
kind of like the Cupid Shuffle slide to the left well every single one of them that had nothing to do with this murder
00:59:54
or this Abduction of this 19 year old girl every single one of them wants to talk to you yeah all you have to do is
01:00:00
make a phone call or knock on a door and they will tell you everything if they've
01:00:04
got nothing to hide they will tell you everything because they're so afraid of going back to prison uh because all of
01:00:10
them are on parole you know and so so it's usually a pretty easy thing to do I'm just shocked that there were so many
01:00:17
in the area but I applaud the investigators for making the extra efforts well the fact that they were
01:00:23
also registered I mean that that's the scariest thing and we've talked about it before but you can look it up
01:00:31
um basically our government tells you hey there's about a hundred thousand uh sex offenders that should be
01:00:38
registered that we have no clue where they're at over a hundred thousand I mean lock your doors well if you want some
01:00:48
education on the difference between the levels of one two and three on sex offenders I believe we discussed that at
01:00:54
length during our fifth nail uh episodes but basically with the level threes these aren't guys that this isn't like
01:01:01
some guy that was peeing in a park late at night when he was drunk and the cops saw him no usually usually this involves
01:01:08
some form of abduction some form of threat of of death or bodily injury to the person that that they're offending
01:01:16
against or it's a minor and a young minor I believe it varies by state but it's probably I would guess 12 12 years
01:01:25
old in in this state so these are bad very very bad people and so they're we're not breaking any rules we're not
01:01:32
infringing on anyone's rights in my opinion by rounding these guys up and asking them very simple questions where
01:01:40
were you on December 1st 1994 and who can tell us that you were where you say you were it's very simple well maybe we
01:01:48
should have Ladonna kind of talk about the area so people can get a better picture of
01:01:54
what was going on in 1994 on December 1st it was 1994. and fortunately I think everybody
01:02:02
will be disturbed to know the truth of the fact is that there are level three sex offenders in everybody's
01:02:08
neighborhood and in their greater surrounding areas it this is just something that is kind
01:02:15
of in your face more when someone goes missing and you dig in and you dive in and you do that investigative work and
01:02:22
you find that out so I think for the most part people didn't know that you know Fort Smith is kind of a Crossroads
01:02:27
town it's you know about what 75 80 000 people it's um you know pretty close to the border right there
01:02:35
where where Oklahoma is it's just one of those areas that you know on the surface
01:02:41
seems okay it seems safe you know Melissa had no reason her family had no reason
01:02:47
to think differently you know there had not been any kind of case like this that
01:02:51
had happened in their town or in the state for that matter until this happened and so I think the
01:03:00
town you know the family the town all of us all of us at that time were naive and I think that
01:03:06
people are still naive today I mean this is really I have kids of my own I have seven kids believe it or not and
01:03:13
um you know it's really made me be more aware of of what's in my own community and it's it's disturbing but I think
01:03:21
that if all of us kind of really took notice in our own backyard we would we would live our lives a little bit
01:03:29
differently but nobody was doing that especially back in the 90s I mean they just weren't
01:03:34
they just these are not things that you thought about or that you knew about did
01:03:37
the bowling alley have any surveillance footage did they have any cameras inside
01:03:41
the building or out in the parking lot so that maybe they could draw a lead from someone leaving the bowling alley
01:03:48
or some form of activity in the parking lot Bowling World did not have security cameras in the parking lot and they
01:03:56
didn't have very good Lighting in the parking lot and to this day even after this crime happened
01:04:01
they do not have security cameras in their parking lot it's something that's really frustrating to me especially in
01:04:07
this day and age but no there's no security cameras and in fact some of the buildings that were surrounding Bowling
01:04:13
World at the time and there weren't a lot they didn't have any kind of security footage that would have been
01:04:18
pointing towards Bowling World so there's nothing nothing now you know there's some neighboring
01:04:24
you know convenience stores and some other stores that they were able to try to look at
01:04:32
footage then to see if they could put you know put some things together but it wasn't close enough to Bowling World to
01:04:38
be able to um to make any kind of identification on who who took Melissa Witt it's just like
01:04:45
they came out of nowhere like a ghost and took her [Music] we have a lot more to get to with this
01:04:57
Melissa Wick case thanks for hanging out in the garage with us we hope everybody
01:05:01
has a great evening have a great night we'll see you tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter
01:05:22
[Applause] thank you [Music]