Transcript
A (0:01)
Every year, millions of people head into the wilderness, searching for peace, beauty and adventure. But hidden in those same scenic landscapes are stories of violence, survival, and lives cut short. I'm Delia d', Ambra, and on my podcast, Park Predators, I uncover the true crimes that happened in the most amazing places on Earth. Listen to Park Predators wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
B (0:31)
And I'm Brit.
A (0:32)
And Brit, in all my years of not just making true crime stories, but consuming them as well, I have never heard a story that starts like this. One of our reporters reached out to an LAPD cold case guy to ask him about an unsolved case from the 70s. And he's like, oh, that case, that case is actually solved. But he couldn't tell us who did it.
B (0:57)
What do you mean he couldn't, he couldn't tell you?
A (0:59)
Same reaction. So we pressed him, like, how can it be solved if you don't know who committed the crime? And he said, well, the detective who worked the case when it was solved wouldn't tell him the killer's name, which made no sense to me. Police departments normally want to shout it from the rooftops if they solve a cold case. I mean, it's usually even a matter of public record, but they, but not here. Here. It's not even an internal record. So we set out to answer the one question that this detective couldn't. And if you stick with me, I am proud to tell you that at the end of this episode, you'll be one of the first to know who killed Melanie. How. Before 22 year old Melanie Howell was found stabbed to death inside her apartment, something weird had been going on. Her boyfriend at the time, who I'm going to call Dale, told us that Melanie had been really scared in the days leading up to her death. Just two nights before she was killed. Dale says that she called him late at night from her apartment where she lived alone. And she was terrified because there was a man that she caught watching her through her window. He told her to call the police. And when he rushed over from his place, which wasn't far, he actually saw a man coming out of the bushes across the street. And without a second thought, this dude just takes off after him like her boyfriend. Now, Melanie's med school boyfriend was also a runner, by the way, but somehow he says that this man still outran him. And because it was so dark out, he never got a good look at this guy. And he couldn't really describe him to police when they Arrived shortly after. Now, Melanie was already planning on moving out of that apartment. She only had two more days left there before she was set to move into a new place with some people that she was going to nursing school with. So she and Dale decided that it would probably be best if she just stayed with him until then. But in those last two days, Melanie still had to finish packing up for her move, right? So on Friday, April 23, 1976, she left Dale's place in the morning and went back to hers. And Dale told us that neither of them were concerned about her being there during the day. I mean, the apartment was right by the UCLA campus, which, if you don't know that area, it's pretty nice, pretty safe. So back then, there are no cameras or anything digital that could tell us when she got to the apartment. But they do end up locating a neighbor who says that around 10am she heard Melanie talking with a man at her front door. Now, the conversation sounded calm. She could tell that the man left. But then, minutes later, the neighbor heard this man come back. And that is when she heard a struggle and then screams and glass breaking. And when the noises got louder, the neighbor looked through, like, the little peephole. And she said that she saw a man leaving Melanie's apartment carrying a black attache case, like a briefcase. Now, she sent her husband to go check on Melanie. The front door had been fully kicked in, and what he found inside was gruesome. There was blood throughout the apartment, but Melanie was in her bedroom, fully clothed, wrists bound, barely alive, bleeding badly from multiple stab wounds.