Episode 639: The Unsolved Murder of Melissa Witt

Summary

Podcast Summary: Morbid Episode 639 – "The Unsolved Murder of Melissa Witt"

Introduction

In Episode 639 of Morbid, hosted by Ash and Mikey from the Morbid Network | Wondery, the hosts delve into the haunting and tragic case of Melissa Witt, a 19-year-old woman whose disappearance and subsequent murder remain unsolved to this day. Released on January 23, 2025, this episode combines meticulous research with the hosts' engaging banter to explore the complexities of the investigation and the enduring impact on Melissa's loved ones.

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Melissa Witt’s Life and Background

Melissa Ann Witt was born on April 20, 1975, and hails from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Raised alongside her brother Ronnie and sisters Caroline and Barbara, Melissa was known for her vibrant personality and strong familial bonds, particularly with her mother, Marianne Witt. As Ash describes, "Melissa was a good student and very active in her church community at the Grand Avenue Baptist Church. She had an invaluable warmth and brightness that illuminated the office whenever she was present" (19:07).

Education and Aspirations

After graduating from Northside High School in 1993, Melissa enrolled at Westar Community College with aspirations of becoming a dental hygienist. Her dedication was evident as she quickly became an ambassador for the school, tasked with recruiting new students and promoting the institution’s programs. Melissa also gained practical experience by working as an assistant at a local dental practice, reflecting her commitment to her future career (16:05).

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The Night of Disappearance

On the morning of December 1, 1994, Melissa had breakfast with her mother, Marianne. An argument over money ensued, leading Marianne to write a conciliatory note inviting Melissa to join her bowling league that evening at Bowling World, hoping to mend their relationship. Melissa attended school that day and worked until 5 PM. However, upon returning home, she found her car battery dead—a result of her leaving the dome light on. After being assisted by a local business owner, Melissa managed to restart her car and changed out of her work clothes.

Final Moments

Melissa decided to honor her mother’s invitation and headed to Bowling World, arriving between 6:00 and 6:30 PM. Unfortunately, the bowling alley lacked security cameras in the parking lot. Witnesses last saw Melissa arguing with a black male in his early twenties around 6 PM. By 8 PM, her keys were found in the parking lot with dried blood on them, though the individual who turned them in was unrecognized by the staff (20:21).

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Investigation and Initial Leads

Marianne Witt reported Melissa missing the following morning after realizing she hadn’t returned home. The community rallied, distributing over 6,000 flyers, but garnered no leads initially. Detectives initially classified the case as a possible runaway until Melissa’s car was found with blood and personal items, redirecting the investigation towards a potential abduction or murder (24:38).

Early Suspects

1. Larry Landrum: Arrested on unrelated charges, Landrum was suspected due to his criminal background and potential connection to other local crimes. However, no evidence directly linked him to Melissa’s disappearance.

2. Larry Swearengen: Known for a similar modus operandi in Texas, Swearengen was scrutinized but ultimately maintained his innocence, leaving investigators without a solid connection (45:03).

3. Travis Dale Crouch: A convicted rapist working near the crime scene, Crouch had no alibi and exhibited behavior suspicious to investigators. Despite forensic tests, no conclusive evidence tied him to the murder (48:04).

4. Charles Ray Vines: Convicted for multiple brutal murders in Arkansas, Vines was a prominent suspect due to his history and proximity to the area. DNA evidence later surfaced near Melissa’s body, strengthening suspicions, yet he denied involvement until his death in 2019 without providing further insights (49:56).

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Challenges in the Investigation

The absence of security footage, limited forensic technology of the early '90s, and the killer’s apparent familiarity with the area impeded progress. Witness testimonies were sparse and often contradictory, with one account mentioning Melissa’s cries for help (25:11).

Community Impact

Melissa’s disappearance and murder cast a shadow over Fort Smith, a city already grappling with other violent crimes during the same period. The relentless fear and uncertainty devastated families and the community, leaving a lasting scar (40:18).

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Advancements and Current Status

Decades later, renewed interest and advanced forensic techniques led investigators to revisit the case. In 2021, DNA evidence linked Charles Ray Vines to the murder site, but without his cooperation, conclusive evidence remained elusive. Despite Vines’s conviction for other murders, Melissa Witt’s case remains officially unsolved (53:08).

Ongoing Efforts

Ash and Mikey emphasize the importance of community involvement, urging anyone with information to contact the Fort Smith Police Department. They highlight the persistent hope that renewed attention and public tips could eventually bring closure to Melissa’s case (54:21).

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Conclusion

The unresolved murder of Melissa Witt serves as a somber reminder of the complexities and emotional toll inherent in unsolved cases. Ash and Mikey skillfully navigate through the intricate details of the investigation, honoring Melissa’s memory while advocating for justice and community vigilance. The episode culminates with a heartfelt plea for information, underscoring the enduring need for public assistance in bringing closure to victims and their families.

Notable Quotes

• Ash: “Melissa brought an invaluable warmth and brightness to the office whenever she was in the building. And after her disappearance, the absence of that brightness could be felt by everyone.” (19:07)

• Mikey: “If you wouldn’t say it to someone you love and care about, don’t fucking say it to yourself, man.” (10:19)

• Ash: “Charles Ray Vines... he had a history of sexual abuse and violence toward women and young girls.” (44:12)

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Call to Action

Ash and Mikey conclude the episode by urging listeners to share any information they might have about Melissa Witt’s case. They provide contact details for the Fort Smith Police Department, emphasizing the confidentiality and importance of every tip in potentially solving this long-standing mystery.

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For more engaging true crime stories and updates on unsolved cases, subscribe to Morbid on your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Ash]

Hey weirdos, it's Ash here. Ready to share a little secret. Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad free episodes and one week early access, it's like having an all access pass to our lighthearted nightmare. So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery today. You can join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a Morbid network podcast.

[Alaina]

There's a lot in life that feels like it should be guaranteed that just isn't things like an old pair of jeans still fitting or weather forecasts. But AT&T is introducing a brand new guarantee you can actually count on the AT and T Guarantee. The AT and T guarantee means connectivity. You can depend on deals you want and service you deserve or they'll make it right. Visit@&T.com Guaranty to learn more. @&T Connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.comguarantee for details.

[Ash]

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[Mikey]

And I'm Alaina.

[Ash]

And this is Morbid.

[Mikey]

Foreign. This is morbid in 2025. It's been that way probably for a.

[Ash]

Long time, but not for us. I think this is only our second episode of 2020.

[Mikey]

Is it okay? I was like, am I like six weeks into 2025 being like, happy New Year, New us?

[Ash]

No, I think. I mean for the listener. For the listener.

[Mikey]

For the listener.

[Ash]

Hello out there. Listener. For the weirdos. It's definitely. Probably like the 45th episode of 2025.

[Mikey]

Probably.

[Ash]

But for us, it's number two.

[Mikey]

Yeah. So it's still new.

[Ash]

It's new for us.

[Mikey]

Mikey's looking.

[Ash]

It's only January 8th right now.

[Mikey]

It is. It's early. It's crazy early days yet. Mikey said, I don't know. Today is the 23rd. It's Mikey letting you know today is the 23rd.

[Ash]

Yes. But for us it's the 8th.

[Mikey]

There you go. Which means it's David Bowie's birthday. Happy birthday, David Bowie.

[Ash]

Happy birthday, David Bowie. Actually. Okay. Perfect segue. I was watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last night. Thank you.

[Mikey]

Love it.

[Ash]

And Garcelle Bouvet's son is modeling. And she was like, oh my God, like, there are like so many great models of like, during my time. It was like, Naomi, it was Iman. It was. Who else did she name? Oh, is it Beverly Johnson? Yeah, yeah, Beverly Johnson. And he goes, I don't know any of those people. Which, like, he wouldn't because he's super young. But I was like, even I was like, oh my God.

[Mikey]

It really hits you in the head.

[Ash]

Life comes at you so fast.

[Mikey]

Yeah, it really does.

[Ash]

Like, what?

[Mikey]

It hits you in the head.

[Ash]

Because at first I was like, are you fucking kidding me? And then I was like, oh, you're like, he's not even in his 20s. Like, why would you know? I mean, you know, why would you really know those people?

[Mikey]

It's when, like, it's when you have to answer to children when they're like, did you have this when you were younger? And you're like, not only did I not have that, there wasn't even the capability, ability to have that, like, we were talking about. Cuz like, Roblox is a big thing among, like, children right now. But my children are not allowed to use it. Helicopter mom. Helicopter mom. I don't give a. But I don't blame you. But yeah, they're not allowed to use it and they will never be allowed to use it. Roblox, I think there's a bunch of predators there. But that's a story for another time. But they had brought it up because now they feel like they're fine with it. They understand the reasons and they're totally fine. And they had Brought it up at one point about, like, one of their friends got to use it, and they were just telling me some story, and then they were like, did. Oh, did you get to use Roblox when you were younger?

[Ash]

We didn't even have an iPad.

[Mikey]

I was like, babe, you said we.

[Ash]

Didn'T even know what a tablet was.

[Mikey]

Not only that, we didn't have the Internet. When I was your age, the only.

[Ash]

Tablets we knew of were in the fucking ancient pyramids.

[Mikey]

I said, now your ribs hurt? Oh, I cracked myself up. I said, not only did Roblox not exist, the Internet didn't exist.

[Ash]

They were still working.

[Mikey]

I did not have a computer, and tablets were not a thing in the pyramid. Did not exist. So, no.

[Ash]

Did that.

[Mikey]

Nope. I did not have to.

[Ash]

Did that below. They were like, minds. What?

[Mikey]

Wow. And there's been times they've asked me if pictures were in color when I was little.

[Ash]

That's such an interesting.

[Mikey]

And I was like, okay, yes, all right. I did have color.

[Ash]

Well, because to them, our generation was born in the 1900s.

[Mikey]

Oh, they say that all the time.

[Ash]

Like, damn.

[Mikey]

Yeah, damn. They're like, well, you're from the night, and they love to say you're from the 1970s. And I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm not even from there.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

Mike's like, you guys.

[Ash]

Mikey's like, I'm from the 1970s and one of it.

[Mikey]

But I'm always like, can you not, like, send me further back into time? Like, I'm like, you're already. Like, they're already dogging me for being born in the 1900s. And then they want to make me even.

[Ash]

I'm like, all right, yeah, that's.

[Mikey]

At least give me an. Give my accurate date. Okay.

[Ash]

My favorite is that your. Your youngest thinks that I'm older than you.

[Mikey]

Oh.

[Ash]

All the time. Because I'm taller.

[Mikey]

And they ask every time.

[Ash]

She asks all the time, older than you? Like, no, I am 10 years younger. The kids tend to equate 11 with.

[Mikey]

With older.

[Ash]

It's so weird. I mean, it makes perfect sense. But I'm like, no, no, no. I'm so much younger than Mama. Damn it.

[Mikey]

So much younger.

[Ash]

But honestly, at this point, I wish I was older. Drew is going to turn 30 in the 30 club. He's about to join the 30 club. And I said to him last night, I was like, does that feel, like, weird? Like, are you. Are you, like, mourning your 20s at all? And he was like, fuck, no. He was like, I am so excited.

[Mikey]

To turn 30, as he should be.

[Ash]

And I felt kind of jealous. Yeah, I feel a little bit jealous of him that he's turning 30.

[Mikey]

But you get the anticipation of it.

[Ash]

I know. I get it. But I'm not going 30 for like, another year and a half.

[Mikey]

Yeah, that's gonna fly by, babe.

[Ash]

I know. Let's hope it will.

[Mikey]

Determined to make it fly by.

[Ash]

Yeah. Same retweet? Yeah. If you heard me earlier crying as I was laughing, that's because I sat here and I talked to Elena. We're just having like some banter. Okay. It's been a minute.

[Mikey]

It's just, you know, New Year, new Year, same us.

[Ash]

But maybe not the same. Cuz I left a lot of me on the floor.

[Mikey]

On the cutting room floor, on the shower floor.

[Ash]

I. What if you. And it's going around. So I'm sure a lot of you have probably faced this in the past couple weeks. The neurovirus is going around. Wash your mother. Hands.

[Mikey]

Yeah, wash your hands, man.

[Ash]

I don't know if I don't know if I got the neurovirus or if it was like a food poisoning thing, because I did eat like a sketchy burger. You know who I am? A Captain Crunch Slurpee girl. Yeah.

[Mikey]

A fo fa Fo. A fo fa, fo.

[Ash]

The violence that was inflicted upon me. And I literally just been sitting here telling Elena, I'm drinking colostrum. So I'm like, I'll never get sick. I have Colostrum and it's an immunity booster. You've all been so sick and not me.

[Mikey]

Yep. It's true.

[Ash]

That same day, literally, it was like a day later. Like, if that. The universe said, bitch, check yourself before you wreck yourself. Actually let me wreck you.

[Mikey]

The universe said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Ash]

I died for like three days and my ribs are still hurting. This was like Saturday night. It's Wednesday now. My ribs are still hurting.

[Mikey]

I know that's crazy.

[Ash]

The violence with which I yacked.

[Mikey]

Damn.

[Ash]

Yeah. I'm still recovering. But you know what? I woke up this morning. I chose myself at a little pep talk with Lux, my cat. Yeah, I ate my breakfast. It was great. It was wonderful.

[Mikey]

We're trying to, you know.

[Ash]

I like resolutions.

[Mikey]

Some people hate resolutions. I like them.

[Ash]

I've never been a huge resolution girly.

[Mikey]

I never really have been either. I've always thought it was a nice concept, but I've never really participated that much.

[Ash]

I always had concepts of a revolution.

[Mikey]

I like the ideas, but I'll be the first one to admit That I like. I never really stick to them. I don't even really set them that hard. I'll be like, yeah, I want to start working out this year. But I never give myself, like this plan of action, which is most of the problem. And this year I went in being like, my first resolution is, I'm going to be nicer to me.

[Ash]

Me too.

[Mikey]

And I think that is the. If any of you are like, I would like a resolution or you're struggling, your first resolution should be be nicer to you.

[Ash]

Because it changes. It's like when your youngest goes, this changes everything.

[Mikey]

Yes.

[Ash]

From Bluey. But it changes everything because if you are like, being a dick to yourself. Like, for instance, this morning, I did not want to wake up early. I felt like shit. The past couple days, I saw that alarm. I alarm. I turned it off and then I said, no, girl, bet on yourself. Don't give up on yourself.

[Mikey]

And you didn't say like, get up, you lazy sack of shit. You were like, hey.

[Ash]

And it made the biggest difference. You can do this.

[Mikey]

Like, if you wouldn't say it to someone you love and care about, don't fucking say it to yourself, man. I tell my kids that all the time.

[Ash]

No, it's so true.

[Mikey]

If you wouldn't say it to someone you love, if you wouldn't say it to me, if you wouldn't say it to Dada or anybody else you love, then don't say it to you.

[Ash]

No, because that's.

[Mikey]

You need to be nice to yourself. And it's like. And being nice to yourself also makes it so that you don't take shit from anyone else. And you shouldn't because you don't accept that kind of from outside sources. Hell no. Be nice to yourself and you will suddenly find yourself being like, oh, no, I'm not taking your nasty ass comments.

[Ash]

I'm better than that.

[Mikey]

So that's my words of wisdom to you.

[Ash]

One page I suggest following if you're on like a, like, journey to like, just a morning routine or like a fitness routine, any kind of routine. Just like habit stacking. I love Shelby Sako. She's sad to savage on Instagram.

[Mikey]

Oh, okay.

[Ash]

She has like a podcast and everything. I love her. She just love it. She starts her mornings and she like, has this whole morning routine. But where I learned habit stacking, which I like, Habit stacking is the.

[Mikey]

The move.

[Ash]

There's so much actual scientific research behind it. Like, you just slowly add things to your day that you want part of your routine. Yeah.

[Mikey]

And once you're comfortable with one thing, add a little more the other one.

[Ash]

Like, she said, she was like, I.

[Mikey]

Put too much expectation on yourself.

[Ash]

Yeah. She was like, I used to wake up at like 9:00 for my 9:00am job. And I was like, same sister. And she was like. And then I slowly started waking up 20 minutes earlier. Did that for a couple, like, a little at a time.

[Mikey]

Just don't be hard on yourselves.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

And like, if you want to do stuff, you can, but just be nice to yourself and do it slowly and you'll get there. And don't let people make you feel like you got to do it all at once or. See, that's part of being nice to yourself is you won't let those people tell you what to do because you'll be like, no, I deserve more than that. Thank you.

[Ash]

See, I. Trust me, I'm going to. I'm going to do what I say.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

I love that.

[Mikey]

It's a nicer, more peaceful existence.

[Ash]

It really is.

[Mikey]

People will try to drag you into bullshit. Don't let them.

[Ash]

We're claiming our peace this year. That's right. 2025 is the year of peace for us.

[Mikey]

Hell, yeah. And peace for morbid listeners.

[Ash]

Hey, yo. All right. Well, since you're morbid listeners and we just bantered your ears off for like, 45 minutes. Thank you for letting us do that.

[Mikey]

Yeah. We just went back to our roots.

[Ash]

Yeah. Sometimes we got feeling that we don't do it all the time, but we're feeling our roots. I just love going back to our roots.

[Mikey]

Yes.

[Ash]

But let's go back to what you're here for, which is a case. And this case is really important because it's an unsolved case. Oh. So it's a little bit shorter, obviously, because when it's unsolved, there's not like the whole trial part of everything. Yeah. But this was a Hulu documentary that came out like, a few months ago, probably. And I said to Dave, I was like, we gotta cover this because it's really interesting and I want to get more ears on this.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So let's go. We're going to talk about the unsolved murder of Melissa Witty. It's so sad because she was 19 when she went missing.

[Mikey]

Oh. And that's. When you look back at 19, that's a baby.

[Ash]

Oh, my God. For me, that was like 10 years ago. And the difference between who I was then and who I am now. I know for you it was like, way longer.

[Mikey]

Maybe it was 20 years ago.

[Ash]

That's okay.

[Mikey]

I'm older than the amount of years that is.

[Ash]

But you look great.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And you're beautiful. So going back to the story, let's talk about Melissa Ann Witt before she disappeared. Obviously. Melissa Ann Witt was born April 20, 1975. She too, was from the 70s.

[Mikey]

Oh, there you go.

[Ash]

In Arkansas. To John and Marianne Witt. She was raised in Fort Smith. I always want to say Arizona, but it's Arkansas. I look at ar.

[Mikey]

Oh, yeah.

[Ash]

And my brain says Arizona.

[Mikey]

I feel that it's Arkansas. Arkansas.

[Ash]

Arkansas. Don't yell at us.

[Mikey]

We're kidding. I know. I'm kidding. I promise.

[Ash]

But she was raised alongside her brother Ronnie and her sisters Caroline and Barbara. She was a good student. She was very active in her church community at the Grand Avenue Baptist Church. And she always had really good relationships with her family, particular particularly her mother. They were super close. After Melissa's death, her mother would say how she never really had any trouble with Melissa at all. They were just best friends. They were always there for each other. And while a lot of teenagers usually, you know, obviously try to distance themselves from their parents, Melissa's relationship with her mom was always a source of pride for the two of them. All her friends and family knew just how close they were. And specifically, they knew how protective Marianne was over Melissa.

[Mikey]

Oh, that's so beautiful.

[Ash]

I know. And especially, like, at 19, that's the thing, to have that relationship with your mom. Wow. Because obviously that's a dream. Yeah. I mean, teenagers usually try to distance themselves from their parents around those years.

[Mikey]

Oh, this is already breaking my heart.

[Ash]

I know. So after graduating from Northside high school in 1993, Melissa enrolled at Westar Community College with plans of becoming a dental hygienist.

[Mikey]

Oh, damn.

[Ash]

Yeah. Yeah. Not long after starting her first semester, she actually became an ambassador for the school.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

Which meant that she would go out and recruit students to go there, promoting the school and its programs to any prospective students in the area. Yeah. And like, the school has to trust you to send you out there and rep them like that.

[Mikey]

Also dreams of becoming a dental hygienist. Dental, like, school in any capacity. Hygienist or dentist. Like, full blown dentists. So hard, like, so much involved in that.

[Ash]

And you see some of the gnarly.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

I was friends with a girl who went to dental hygienist school, and she saw, like, spiders in somebody's mouth before.

[Mikey]

That was something I feel like I was better for not knowing.

[Ash]

Well, now you're worse.

[Mikey]

I was better before that I feel.

[Ash]

You know how many times Holy. You've, you've done so many info drops on me.

[Mikey]

Like you've been better before.

[Ash]

Oh, but can.

[Mikey]

Oh, but no, I can't.

[Ash]

And also, how do you just like sit there and calmly, I guess, remove the spiders from said mouth? And then you gotta be, hey, like we gotta be like, good about brushing around the molars because like spiders, there.

[Mikey]

Was some arachnids taking up.

[Ash]

Not arachnids taking up space in there. That's horrific.

[Mikey]

Arachnids were holding space in your mouth. No, I can't.

[Ash]

That's awful.

[Mikey]

I cannot.

[Ash]

That's awful. I gotta go.

[Mikey]

Woof.

[Ash]

Well, KFSM reporter Charlene Shirk told ABC News in 2024, the college had her go and recruit students because they wanted students like her. She was already a hard worker. She had big dreams for her life. And it just goes to show that she was willing to put in the work to make her dreams reality. Because in her spare time, Melissa actually worked as an assistant for a local dental practice in town.

[Mikey]

Oh, damn.

[Ash]

So she was like, I want to do this. I'm going to start now.

[Mikey]

Yeah, she's already like in the, you know, I'm going to get the on, on site experience.

[Ash]

Yes. The office manager, Anita Dodson, said, Missy was a very good kid. She was friendly, she didn't have any enemies. Everyone loved her and she was a good student. Although she would still joke around with us.

[David]

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[Ash]

Want more?

[David]

Check [e-mail] wondery all lowercase and learn how to create the best retail experiences without complexity. Shopify.com wondery behind the closed doors of.

[Luke Lamanna]

Government offices and military compounds, there are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history. From COVID experiments pushing the boundaries of science to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about. Each week on redacted Declassified Mysteries histories, we pull back the curtain on These hidden histories, 100% true and verifiable stories that expose the shadowy underbelly of power. Consider Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were brought to America after World War II not as prisoners, but as assets to advance US intelligence during the Cold War. These aren't just old conspiracy theories. They're thoroughly investigated accounts that reveal the uncomfortable truths still shaping our world today. The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow Declassified Mysteries with me, Luke lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts to listen ad free. Join Wondery in the Wondery app.

[Ash]

And according to Dodson, Melissa brought an invaluable warmth and brightness to the office whenever she was in the building. And after her disappearance, she said the absence of that brightness could be felt by everyone. Oh, she said, the staff here are close, like family. And we. And we did all we could to support each other when Missy went missing. Everyone was upset for such a long time. She was so sweet and so nice.

[Mikey]

Oh, it sounds like she just left a gaping void.

[Ash]

Yeah. And left like a mark on everybody that she met in such a good way.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

So on the morning of December 1, 1994, Melissa had breakfast with her mother. And unfortunately, which doesn't sound like it was very like them at all, they got into an argument with each other that morning, and it was over money. According to Marianne, Melissa wanted to borrow some money. And hoping to teach her daughter a valuable lesson about the value of money, she said no. And that, of course, left Melissa frustrated. And she left the house frustrated.

[Mikey]

Oh, no.

[Ash]

So, not wanting to end the discussion in anger, before she left for work, Marianne wrote her daughter a short note reminding her that she herself, Marianne, had bowling league that evening. And she said in the note, melissa, why don't you come to Bowling World after school and after work and I'll buy you dinner. Oh, like, I just want to end the day.

[Mikey]

Yeah, like, let's, let's kind of put this behind us.

[Ash]

Yeah. So Melissa went to school that day, left work at 5pm but when she tried to start her car that night, the engine wouldn't turn over. Later, during their investigation, detectives were able to determine that the dome light in her car had been accidentally left on while she was at work. Maybe like, the door didn't close all the way or something, so the car's battery was drained. But fortunately, she and a co worker were able to flag down a local business owner who gave her Car, a jump start, and she was able to get the engine started.

[Mikey]

Okay.

[Ash]

Once the car was started, she headed home to change out of her work clothes, which investigators later found on her bedroom floor. They also assumed that she must have seen the note that Marianne left for her, because after she changed her clothes, she headed to the bowling world, arriving sometime between 6 and 6:30 and parking her car in the northwest corner of the lot.

[Mikey]

Okay.

[Ash]

Where her mom was inside with her bowling league. The bowling alley, unfortunately, had no security cameras in the parking lot. You have to remember this is early 90s. Like, it wasn't super common for everywhere.

[Mikey]

That's true. Like, now we'd be like, what? But back then, it would be like, wait, they had security cameras? Like, it would be more shocking the other way.

[Ash]

And it's also like, back then, I'm sure, like, banks and that kind of place had security cameras, but it's like, it's a local bowling alley for sure. So because they didn't have security cameras, whatever happened after Melissa parked her car is almost entirely unknown. According to statements from witnesses, she was last seen, quote, arguing with a black male at bowling world around 6pm and that was the last time anybody saw her. A little before 8pm Somebody found her keys in the parking lot of the bowling alley and turned them into the cashier at the front desk. But at that time, nobody noticed that there was actually small splatters of blood dried onto the keys, and nobody at the alley would later remember who had turned those keys in.

[Mikey]

Oh, no.

[Ash]

Yeah. So later that night, when Marianne returned home, she was surprised to find that Melissa hadn't returned home yet. However, she figured that maybe she'd gone out with some friends and would come back later that night. It wasn't something she was super worried about right away. But the next morning, when Melissa still hadn't returned, that's when Marianne became really worried. She wouldn't have spent the night out without calling her.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And contacting her somehow. So she contacted the police a little after 9am to report her daughter missing. Over the course of the next two days, Melissa's friends and family and the local police spread out across Fort Smith looking for her. They handed out over 6,000 flyers with her photograph, but nobody had seen or heard anything.

[Mikey]

That's. And just having to make that phone call as a mother to report your child missing, I can't. That. I feel like every time I hear that, I'm always like, I can't even bring myself to be in that position. I can't. That alone, no you know, and then to hear that no one's seen her, no one being able to be like, oh, no, no, she's here. Like, I saw her here.

[Ash]

And knowing that you just had, like, a run of the mill argument, and just knowing that that's, like, the last contact you had with her before she.

[Mikey]

Just disappeared, which is so normal. And so, like, every day, of course, like.

[Ash]

Like I said, run of the mill. Like, everybody has argued with their mom in the morning before heading out to go somewhere.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And. And her mom did the right thing by being like, you know what? Like, I don't want to end on.

[Mikey]

This note behind us.

[Ash]

Meet up later. Like, let's not end the day on a bad note.

[Mikey]

Exactly.

[Ash]

But, oh, it's so sad. At least. At least she knew that her daughter saw the note.

[Mikey]

Yeah. You know, I know that is a good thing.

[Ash]

But then, of course, she lived with guilt because she was the one who, of course, come to the bowling alley.

[Mikey]

Oh, God, I hate that.

[Ash]

I know. So it wasn't until Monday, December 4, that Melissa's car was discovered in the parking lot of the Bowling World after an employee realized that the keys had blood smeared on them finally and bore the name Missy on the keychain. More importantly, there was also a pool of blood found near the car. And one gold earring and a hair clip believed to have belonged to Melissa, which I'm like, why did it take people that long to realize that that was there? She was parked in, like, the corner.

[Mikey]

Corner.

[Ash]

The far corner. So I think that had a lot to do with it, but I was like, damn investigators.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

But when they did discover all that, they cordoned off the area, and they started taking samples and processing the vehicle for evidence. Until that moment, Melissa's case had actually been labeled a runaway.

[Mikey]

Shocked.

[Ash]

Crazy. But the discovery of the blood and the personal item shifted the focus to a potential kidnapping. At that moment, they still didn't think that she was murdered or.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Anything. Several police officers contacted the employees of the bowling alley and the customers who were known to have been there that night. But this is interesting. One person recalled hearing what sounded like a young woman's voice shouting for help at one point that evening. But they said they couldn't be sure what they heard, and nobody else remembered anything.

[Mikey]

I never get these, Like, I don't. I'm like, you heard someone yelling for help.

[Ash]

You know what?

[Mikey]

Don't say anything in the moment to anyone else.

[Ash]

I think it's so easy to talk yourself out of what you're doing.

[Mikey]

Oh, for sure.

[Ash]

Like, I think I've probably even done it. And hopefully, like, actually, like, it's been something where. Yeah, I talked myself into what it actually was kind of thing, you know.

[Mikey]

And it's easy to do it from a. You know, from hindsight, of course, kind of thing, and from, like, looking at it from an outside point of view. But I always just think. And I'm like, uber. And maybe it's because we do this. I thought. Well, I.

[Ash]

Now I think my focus has shifted so much or my perspective has shifted.

[Mikey]

So much because I'm, like, wicked on. On, like, high alert. So if I hear something that I think is somebody yelling, I will. I always say something to somebody just to be like, did you hear that?

[Ash]

Like, am I.

[Mikey]

Am I crazy? Like, I always like to know that I'm not the only one hearing it.

[Ash]

No, I think doing this has made us hyper. It has almost like, to a.

[Mikey]

To a bad point sometimes, honestly. Yeah. There's been points when I'm like, we.

[Ash]

Like, kind of spiral sometimes. I heard a coyote in the woods the other night, and I was convinced that a woman was in the woods, like, being abducted. And Drew was like, that's absolutely coyotes. And I was like, should we, like, call someone, though? He was like, ash, that is 100.

[Mikey]

Yeah. He's like, we are not calling someone for coyotes.

[Ash]

I was like, okay.

[Mikey]

Okay.

[Ash]

Back to the story, though. Two weeks later, Fort Smith police arrested a local man, Larry Landrum, on suspicion of sexual assault and a string of other crimes unrelated to Melissa's disappearance. Landrum would later be convicted for the murder of another young woman in Arkansas, Lucille Hassler.

[Mikey]

Whoa.

[Ash]

So they probably thought they had their guy.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

At a loss for productive leads, investigators hope that his arrest would be the break that they needed to find Melissa or at least get some kind of answers, because, you know, usually people like that are not associated with other great people.

[Mikey]

Yeah, criminals know criminals.

[Ash]

His body language and evasiveness during the interview also raised a lot of red flags. And the results of his polygraph examination showed deception. But they were never able to collect any evidence linking him to the crime.

[Mikey]

Oh, that's frustrating.

[Ash]

Every lead that they get in this case, so frustrating because it falls apart so quickly, or it's like the lead up, and then it just, like, completely fizzles out. It's rough. So a week later, on December 21, Fort Smith Police held a press conference to provide an update on the case. And at that time, they disclosed that Melissa had last been seen arguing with a man in the parking lot. Of the bowling world on the night that she went missing. The individual was described as a, quote, black male, probably in his early twenties, with short hair, A medium build, and approximately six feet tall. After three weeks of dead end leads and very little evidence, the local authorities were starting to express their concern that something pretty terrible could have happened.

[Mikey]

Yeah, kidnapping angle is seeming less likely at this point.

[Ash]

Yeah, definitely, as time is going. But they assured reporters that they did remain committed to the case. Sergeant David overton said, it's becoming frustrating, but we continue to look for quality leads and we hope to still find her alive. But again, when that much time goes by, it's. It becomes less likely. And one thing about this case is, like I was saying, like, they dropped everything. There were other cases being worked on at this point in time, and multiple police officers dropped those cases that were, like, obviously important but of lesser importance.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And everybody committed their time to finding Melissa.

[Mikey]

Oh, wow.

[Ash]

So by that time, two large full color billboards had been donated in town showing a picture of Melissa alongside the number for crime stoppers. And the Fort Smith bank was offering a $30,000 reward for any information that would have led to her safe return. But neither yielded productive results.

[Mikey]

That's so crazy.

[Ash]

Which is amazing. Yeah, that's a big reward. So $30,000 in 1994 or 1995 would be about $64,000.

[Mikey]

Damn.

[Ash]

So almost more than double damn crazy.

[Mikey]

That's crazy.

[Ash]

A few weeks later, on January 13, 1995, investigators got the break that they've been waiting for. But it definitely was not the outcome that anybody was hoping for.

[Mikey]

No.

[Ash]

At about 9:30am, two hunters in Ozark, Arkansas, about 40 miles from Fort Smith, Reported to the Franklin county sheriff's officer that they had been walking through the woods, and they came upon what they thought was a mannequin lying face down in the woods about 30ft from the main road. According to the hunters, they had actually been out in those same woods and walked the same exact road the day before, but they didn't recall seeing anything at the time. Remember, she's been missing for weeks at this point. Like over three weeks, Close to a month.

[Mikey]

That's interesting.

[Ash]

Yeah. Detective Ryder and his team, along with several crime scene technicians, went out to the spot in the Ozark national forest where Melissa's body had been discovered. And while they couldn't be positive it was Melissa at the time, they were reasonably confident that they had found their missing person, and she would ultimately be conclusively identified through dental records.

[Mikey]

Oh, that's awful. Yeah.

[Ash]

Melissa's body. This is so sad. Was lying nude in a muddy area. She had a non fatal wound wound on the side of her head from what appeared to be a blow from a heavy object. And based on the location, Ryder and the other investigators theorized that the killer was probably local. Yeah, or at least somebody who had frequented the area often enough to be familiar with this particular, particular section of the forest. So possibly a hiker or a camper, somebody like that. As they surveyed the crime scene, investigators also noticed something strange. There was a human sized indentation in the earth behind two large rocks, just several feet away from where her body had been discovered. So they theorized that the killer had actually initially placed the body behind the rock after the murder occurred, like probably closer to when it occurred. Which would explain why hunters hadn't seen her the previous day.

[Mikey]

What, so he moved her?

[Ash]

They think that he did move her. What the fuck? There's two sides. There's some people who think he moved her. And then we'll talk about what the other people think. Because why the killer would have returned and moved the body about 20ft was a total mystery. My only theory is that they were feeling some kind of something about the fact that she hadn't been found yet. Like, stranger things have happened.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

But I don't know. There were also visible finger marks on her wrists where the killer grabbed her body and dragged it from one location to the other.

[Mikey]

If the killer moved the body, then they. I think they did so because they were frustrated that she hadn't been found yet.

[Ash]

I was actually just thinking about what I had just said. I don't think they felt bad.

[Mikey]

I don't think there was. I want her to be found. Because you don't leave your murder victim nude, you know, in the middle of the forest. Just be like, oh, I feel bad. I want them to. No, I think they wanted, they wanted.

[Ash]

Her to be found. They just didn't want to be found themselves. I agree with you. On the other side of things, some investigators believed that it was equally possible that the, that animals in the forest had moved the body.

[Mikey]

But there was visible finger marks on her wrists from dragging.

[Ash]

Right.

[Mikey]

And that would be.

[Ash]

That'd be tough.

[Mikey]

You would have.

[Ash]

For animals to move a full body.

[Mikey]

Yeah. I mean, it's happened, I suppose, but.

[Ash]

Usually it's pieces of body.

[Mikey]

That's the thing.

[Ash]

I hate to be.

[Mikey]

I know it's gruesome, but it's just reality.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

And I don't know, I feel like you would be able to tell well.

[Ash]

And you would be able obviously, like you've done autopsy. So, you know.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

They can tell the difference between fresh finger marks and finger mark indentations that actually happened.

[Mikey]

Yeah. Which it sounds like they were saying. This looks like it was more fresh.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Interesting.

[Mikey]

Jinx.

[Andy McVillan]

UFO lands in Suffolk and that's official, said the News of the World. But what really happened across two nights in December 1980 when US servicemen saw mysterious lights in the forest near RAF Woodbridge and claimed to have had a close encounter with an actual craft?

[Arisha Skidmore Williams]

Encounters, a new podcast available exclusively on Wondery plus, takes a deep dive into one of the most famous and still unresolved UFO encounters to ever take place in the uk. Featuring shocking testimony from first hand witnesses, hosts, journalist, podcaster and UFO researcher Andy McVillan and producer L. Scott take us back to the nights in question and examine all of the evidence and conflicting theories about what was encountered in the middle of a Snowy Suffolk Forest 40 years ago.

[Andy McVillan]

Are we alone? Encounters is a podcast which is going to find out. Listen to Encounters exclusively and ad free on Wondri. Join Wondry in the Wondry app or in Apple podcasts.

[Brooke Zifrin]

Being an actual royal is never about finding your happy ending. But the worst part is if they step out of line or fall in love with the wrong person, it changes.

[David]

The course of history.

[Brooke Zifrin]

I'm Arisha Skidmore Williams.

[Ash]

And I'm Brooke Zifrin.

[Brooke Zifrin]

We've been telling the stories of the rich and famous on the hit Wondery show, Even the Rich. And talking about the latest celebrity news on Rich and Daily. We're going all over the world on our new show, Even the Royals.

[David]

We'll be diving headfirst into the lives of the world's kings, queens and all.

[Ash]

The wannabes in their orbit throughout history.

[David]

Think succession meets the crown meets real life.

[Brooke Zifrin]

We're going to pull back the gilded curtain and show how royal status might be bright and shiny, but it comes at the expense of, well, everything else, like your freedom, your privacy and sometimes even your head. Follow even the royals on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to even the royals early and ad free right now by joining wondery.

[Ash]

State Police Lt. Dale Best said we believe the body had been moved. It looked by like by animals. We did find the location where she had been in the wooded area and it looks like she'd been there for quite some time now. This is also just coming to me in the moment. On the other side of things, I wonder if they said that it was Animals who moved the body, because they're not going to want to sit there and say that the killer was in those woods, like right under their noses a few days ago when they can't find him.

[Mikey]

Like he went there twice.

[Ash]

So it's easier to say that animals.

[Mikey]

It is easier to say than. Like you just said, admit that he came back and had free rein to move the whole thing. Right. You know, who knows? Who knows?

[Ash]

But just a day or two earlier. And this is. This will give you chills. This freaked me out. And it's just awful. Two days earlier or. Sorry. Just a day or two earlier, an anonymous caller had left a message at the Fort Smith Major Crimes Unit. And an older woman with a thick southern accent can be heard saying, go ahead and tell them what you found. And then a younger voice, which was probably male, they said can be heard saying, no, I can't. And then the call just disconnected.

[Mikey]

What?

[Ash]

Just a day or two before Melissa was found. Melissa's body was found.

[Mikey]

What?

[Ash]

Yeah, in the woods that day. When they did finally discover her, Detective Ryder couldn't help but wonder if somebody had found Melissa's body before those hunters did, but didn't want to get involved.

[Mikey]

I think that is absolutely a possibility.

[Ash]

And they never were able to figure out where that call came from or who it was.

[Mikey]

Oh, my God. This makes me so mad.

[Ash]

Yeah. Or I should say, no other information came out about it. But other than the body in the mud and the impressions, the human sized impression in the dirt behind the rocks, the scene was devoid of evidence or anything unusual that might have helped point them in the right direction. And her killer took her clothing and her jewelry. What the. She was found with nothing.

[Mikey]

Wow.

[Ash]

Yeah. There was no sign of her clothes or personal items anywhere. Technicians did take samples of the soil and the natural debris from the location, and Melissa's body was then moved to Little Rock to be autopsied by the state medical examiner. In his autopsy report, he listed the cause of death as asphyxiation by strangulation and noted that leaves and soil from the area were found in her airway.

[Mikey]

Oh, my God.

[Ash]

Indicating that she had, quote, been strangled face down. And she inhaled debris. Forest floor. So she.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

This was brutal.

[Mikey]

And she was killed out there.

[Ash]

Out there? Yeah. She was brought from.

[Mikey]

Because I figured she was killed somewhere else.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

Brought there.

[Ash]

No, it sounds like she was killed in the forest.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

Which is horrifying. Yeah. Based on the evidence collected during the autopsy, investor investigators concluded that Melissa's killer had. Like we were just saying Abducted her from bowling, the bowling world parking lot, and then taken her to that area off the logging world. She was also sexually assaulted and then strangled. So the news of the discovery of Melissa's body in the Ozark woods came as a shock to everybody who obviously were out there doing the work, passing on flyers, all the while hoping that she would be found alive. But for some, it was a disappointing end to a frustrating mystery. Fort Smith detective Clay Thomas said, I hate to say it, but finding her body was the first break we've had in this case. At least it gives us a direction. Before this we didn't have that. So I guess you can. I guess at least there was that.

[Mikey]

It's like it's such a double edged sword because obviously the aim was to find Melissa alive and bring her home. This is the last thing you want to find. But at least finding someone's body can give you anything, you know, like it gives you any. Because before that you're just kind of blind, especially with no security cameras. No, you know, this isn't the time of like digital footprints and shit.

[Ash]

Right. And for her family to actually have a place to go visit her where they know she's laid to rest like that.

[Mikey]

Which again means a lot to me, the last thing you want to happen, of course, in these scenarios. But I'm glad they were at least able to have something to go on at this point. Oh, it's just awful. It is.

[Ash]

Reverend Ed saw. I think it's saucier. From the family's church conveyed similar sentiments, telling reporter this is a difficult time, but the family feels a little relief in finally knowing something.

[Mikey]

Yeah. Because I imagine that the unknown must be just completely unbearable because we've said.

[Ash]

It before, your mind fills in the blanks and a lot of times that's you're coming up with somehow even darker things sometimes, you know.

[Mikey]

Absolutely.

[Ash]

But unfortunately, both John and Marianne Whitt passed away in 2004 and then 2011 respectively. So they never got the answers that they just waited the rest of their lives to hear.

[Mikey]

Oh, that makes me so sad.

[Ash]

They never got it. Now, in a city of nearly 300,000 residents, Fort Smith obviously had its fair share of violent crime. In fact, around the time that Melissa Witt disappeared, there were a number of other young women who either disappeared or were also murdered. In 1995, just nine months after Melissa was killed, another Fort Smith woman named Lori Murchison went missing after she was released from jail on a public intoxication charge. She was on her way to pick up her paycheck with a plan to return back to the jail and bail out her boyfriend. But she never returned and has never been seen since.

[Mikey]

Damn.

[Ash]

Just vanished into thin air.

[Mikey]

Those are always the scariest, man.

[Ash]

Yeah. A year later, in 1996, Fort Smith resident Summer Wilkinson disappeared and her remains were later discovered near a racetrack in oklahoma.

[Mikey]

Oh.

[Ash]

In 2000, a man named Jonathan Cole was convicted of her death. And at the time he was already serving a life sentence for the 1997 murder of a 13 year old fort Smith girl, whose remains were also found in Oklahoma.

[Mikey]

Holy shit.

[Ash]

The most alarming of these incidents occurred on June 9, 1995, when six year old Morgan Nick disappeared from.

[Mikey]

Morgan Nick.

[Ash]

Morgan Nick.

[Mikey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ash]

Disappeared from a little league game in Alma, Arkansas, just 20 miles from Fort Smith. So not far at all. No, Morgan had gone off with some friends to catch fireflies, which just. No, that absolutely ruins you. She was last seen standing by her own parents car talking to an unknown man before she disappeared. A few weeks before her disappearance, there were actually two separate incidents of attempted kidnappings in the area, including one where a man tried to pull a four year old girl into his own pickup truck in Alma and another in which a man tried to abduct a nine year old girl from a convenience store in Fort Smith.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

Yeah, it was a dangerous area.

[Mikey]

My God.

[Ash]

Now, despite the obvious difference in their ages, investigators at the time did consider that Melissa's killer might also be responsible for the attempted kidnapping of the girls in Alma and Fort Smith and the disappearance of Morgan Nick.

[Mikey]

My God.

[Ash]

Scary.

[Mikey]

That's horrifying.

[Ash]

Scary. Despite the surprising number of assaults, attempted abductions and murders of young women in this area, investigators on Melissa's case had pretty much nothing to work with, very little to work with and even less luck when it came to finding leads. In June of 1995, they set up roadblocks in the area Arkansas State Police did, in the hopes that a passing motorist might have seen or heard anything that could lead them to help find Melissa's killer or help them find Morgan Nick. Lieutenant Dale Best told a reporter, we will follow leads until we've exhausted them. Somewhere, somewhere out there, there is that one lead. Somewhere a person knows this suspect. The information is out there if we can just reach out to the right person and get them to call. But despite their best efforts, the roadblocks turned up zero useful leads. Which is nuts.

[Mikey]

That's crazy.

[Ash]

Crazy that many girls going missing ending up dead like attempted kidnappings and nobody knows anything.

[Mikey]

That's the Thing. They're not like these people who are doing this are not that smart.

[Ash]

No, no.

[Mikey]

Like, they know people. They've said things, they've done things like, come on.

[Ash]

And people just don't want to get.

[Mikey]

People don't get involved.

[Ash]

People don't want to get involved, especially in, like, smaller towns.

[Mikey]

Oh, yeah, there's a whole.

[Ash]

Much more often. Yeah, it's a very different mindset.

[Mikey]

There's a whole, like, you know, set of small town politics that comes into play.

[Ash]

Yes, big time. That's a perfect way to say it. It wasn't until nearly a year later, in April 1996, that investigators finally got their best lead and Melissa's. Melissa Witt's murder case. Among the stronger suspects in her murder was a local man named William Taylor, who detective Ryder described as somebody with a, quote, history of sexual abuse and violence toward women and young girls. But the problem was, after warrants were issued for his arrest In September of 1995, he went on the run, and law enforcement officials hadn't been able to find him. But finally, In April of 1996, they used phone records to track him to Mulberry, Arkansas, and he was finally arrested on those 95 warrants.

[Mikey]

Good.

[Ash]

According to Ryder, quote, Taylor was wanted for questioning in the Witt case because several coincidences make him a possible suspect. Taylor is known to have frequented bowling alleys in the region and was living in the area at the time whit disappeared. About 10 miles from where her body was discovered.

[Mikey]

Oh, yeah.

[Ash]

Unfortunately, investigators were never able to connect Taylor to Melissa Witt's case or the Morgan Nick case. He was only one of a handful of suspects who investigators focused on very intensely after the discovery of Melissa's body in the woods. The earliest suspect was actually the good samaritan who helped Melissa after her car wouldn't start on the night of her disappearance.

[Mikey]

Oh.

[Ash]

Under the circumstances, the timing of his appearance was pretty suspicious to investigators. But that man was interviewed several times by investigators and ultimately cleared.

[Mikey]

Oh, man.

[Ash]

At the time Melissa's body was discovered, anyone with a criminal past and connection to Melissa, no matter how trivial, seemed like a promising suspect.

[Mikey]

Yeah, of course.

[Ash]

But as the years passed and the case evolved, those early suspects were pretty much more than likely just pretty desperate grasps at finding any leads.

[Mikey]

Yeah, I mean, they had to.

[Ash]

They had to.

[Mikey]

They had to go for anything.

[Ash]

When you don't have anything, you have to chase down what you can you do. Since then, several other suspects have emerged who quickly became a focus of the investigation and are actually far More serious than the Good Samaritan and Roger Wood.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Like you understand why they chase them down, of course. But these next people we're gonna talk about are actually like, make you scratch your head. In 1999, Marcus Blair, a Fort Smith reporter, was covering the crime beat for the Times Record when he came across an interesting story from a Texas paper about a man named Larry Swearengen. At the time, Swearengen had been arrested for the murder of 19 year old Melissa Trotter, who he was accused of sexually assaulting, strangling, and dumping in the Sam Houston National Forest in Texas.

[Mikey]

So literally the same exact thing.

[Ash]

Same exact thing. Even dumping the body in a national forest.

[Mikey]

Same victim profile?

[Ash]

Same victim profile. And actually same name. If you look at a picture of Melissa, of both Melissa's, they bear a striking resemblance. When Blair brought the story to Detective Ryder's attention, which, like, again, see something, say something. We love to see it. The detective felt like he had finally gotten a break in the case that he'd been desperately seeking.

[Mikey]

Yeah, things and they do look a lot alike.

[Ash]

They look when you put them next to each other. See? And around the same age, unfortunately. Murdered in the same manner. Assaulted and placed in the same dumping location.

[Mikey]

Location. Similar dumping. Yeah.

[Ash]

Like four. Things looked even more promising when Ryder discovered that Larry had been in Arkansas visiting his grandparents just days before Melissa went missing.

[Mikey]

Oh, come on.

[Ash]

Add that to the fact that he had a history of kidnapping and sexual assault of women, and he was starting to look like a pretty strong suspect in Melissa's case. Now, despite these coincidences, Very strong coincidences between the cases. Swearengen maintained his innocence in the wit case until the day of his execution fall of 2019. For years, investigators tried to get him to cooperate with an interview and sought any evidence that could tie him to Melissa's death. But he refused to speak to them, and they were never able to produce anything of substance.

[Mikey]

He feels like a really good suspect.

[Ash]

He does.

[Mikey]

And the fact that he refused to.

[Ash]

Speak about it, just wouldn't talk about it, and was like, I'm being executed anyway.

[Mikey]

Yeah. So, like, what the.

[Ash]

Yeah. Another prominent suspect in Melissa's abduction and murder was convicted rapist Travis Dale Crouch. At the time of Melissa's disappearance, he was working as a handyman at a church camp not far from where Melissa's body was discovered.

[Mikey]

Okay. A rapist.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

Really? Okay.

[Ash]

Working at a church camp.

[Mikey]

Awesome.

[Ash]

And it was not far from where her body was.

[Mikey]

A convicted rapist working at a church camp.

[Ash]

Yeah. Fantastic.

[Mikey]

Great.

[Ash]

He had Grown up in Ozark and spent the late 1980s riding around the country with several motorcycle gangs before being sent to prison in the early 90s for stabbing a man in mini Minneapolis. In October 1994, he was released from prison and returned to Ozark to live with his parents. Having grown up in the area, he was very intimately familiar with the region. And he had actually been seen driving in the area of the bowling world at the time of Melissa's disappearance. In interviews with law enforcement, he has no alibi. He had no alibi for the night that Melissa went missing and couldn't account for his whereabouts during the weeks that followed.

[Mikey]

Oh yeah.

[Ash]

In 1998, investigators took hair, fiber and stain samples from the car that he was driving at the time, but the test results were inconclusive.

[Mikey]

Oh, I hate that.

[Ash]

Otherwise, he has denied playing any role in Melissa's death.

[Mikey]

But again, he also looks like a good one.

[Ash]

Another strong suspect. In 1997, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 20 year old woman in Broomfield, Colorado. And in this case, he kidnapped the woman in her own car and drove her to a remote location in the mountains where he violently sexually assaulted her. This victim was able to escape after he passed out in the front seat.

[Mikey]

Oh my God.

[Ash]

And at that time, she obviously reported the assault to police. As of now, he still maintains his innocence and is serving a 64 year sentence in Colorado.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

But maintains his innocence. As far as the Melissa Wick case. Case. With each new suspect that emerged in this case, it seemed like investigators were getting closer to finding the identity of Melissa's killer. Finally. But they were never able to make any actual case against any individual. But there was always one man that many investigators strongly suspected of involvement in Melissa's murder. And more than any other suspect, he had the criminal history to justify their opinions.

[Mikey]

Really?

[Ash]

Yes. In 2000, detectives in Arkansas arrested Charles Ray Vines. That name might sound familiar.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

He was arrested after he violently attacked a 16 year old girl, breaking into her home, raping her and almost killing her.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

Not long after that arrest, the investigation uncovered additional evidence that proved he was the notorious serial killer that the press had dubbed the River Valley Killer.

[Mikey]

Oh, okay.

[Ash]

He was responsible for the brutal killings of 89 year old Lily Jones in 1993.

[Mikey]

Why did I know that name?

[Ash]

And the murder of 58 year old Juanita Woeford two months later. A little over a year later, a local Fort Smith resident, Danny Bennett, confessed to those murders and was actually sent to prison for them. But whatever relief that brought was short lived. Because in August of that year, while Danny Bennett was sitting in jail or prison, rather, 74 year old Ruth Henderson was murdered. And the killing and crime scene were remarkably similar to the murders of Jones and Wofford. So the murder of Ruth Henderson was determined to have been committed by the same killer, and authorities were then forced to let Danny Bennett go. It wasn't until five years later, when Vines was arrested for this assault on the teenage girl, that investigators finally started connecting those previous cases to him and he was arrested. After his arrest, he made a deal with the prosecutor's office in which he agreed to provide details of his previous murders in exchange for their agreeing not to pursue the death penalty, at which point he confessed to the other murders.

[Mikey]

Holy.

[Ash]

Yeah. He had lived in Fort Smith for many years, including the period that Melissa Witt disappeared and was killed in. An investigator strongly suspected him of being Melissa's killer. But when he was directly confronted about the murder after his arrest, he denied abducting or killing Melissa. Given that he had confessed to killing the other women, it really wouldn't make a lot of sense for him to deny Melissa's murder if he was responsible. But law enforcement still remains suspicious. According to Rob Allen, who was One of the FBI agents who pursued the case in 2019, he said there was a lady who had emailed a detective. She worked with Charlie Vines mother, and Charlie Vines sometimes would show up to his mother's work. And that witness reported she saw him wearing a bowling league shirt of some sort. Oh, so that's interesting.

[Mikey]

That is very interesting.

[Ash]

The report about the bowling league shirt is obviously circumstantial at best, but it was just one of several things about Charlie Vines, Charles Vines, that made him a strong suspect. He worked about eight minutes from where Melissa's body was discovered, was known to be very familiar with the area. Like I said, he lived there most of his life and was very familiar with the logging trails in Ozark. There's not a lot of people are.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

In 2021, 27 years after Melissa's murder, an investigatory team of FBI agents and local law enforcement officers were sent out to the area where Melissa's body was discovered in the Ozark Forest. And they brought several, several tracking dogs with them. And despite having nearly three decades having passed, those dogs located an old mattress in the woods with Charles Ray Vine's DNA on it.

[Mikey]

Shut the up.

[Ash]

As well as several old Cambridge cigarette butts containing DNA.

[Mikey]

What?

[Ash]

And this is crazy. When the original investigators processed the scene in 1994, when Melissa's body was found. They located several Cambridge cigarette butts cuts right near where her body was discovered.

[Mikey]

This again. This feels like it's.

[Ash]

It feels so strong.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to three life terms for the murders of Lily Jones, Juanita Woford and Ruth Henderson. But despite the best efforts of FBI and local law enforcement, he refused to talk on the record about Melissa Witt.

[Mikey]

Ah.

[Ash]

And he died in prison in September 2019.

[Mikey]

And he is a disgusting looking man, Just so everybody knows.

[Ash]

Gross, heinous. So as of 2024, Melissa Witt's murder still remains unsolved. If you have any information regarding the murder of Melissa Witt, you're asked to Please call the Fort Smith Police Department at 479-709-5116 or you can email them at info at fortsmithpd.

[Mikey]

Org. This is just such a frustrating case.

[Ash]

Such a frustrating case because every time they felt like they got close and that they had their guy, it was just that the person wouldn't cooperate and they didn't have anything else to hold them there on that or to. To completely, you know.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Seal the deal.

[Mikey]

It's like there's a couple of really good. Yeah. Like I feel like he's in there for me.

[Ash]

Charles Ray Vines. And I would say Larry. Larry.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Larry Swearengen are probably the best.

[Mikey]

Those are my two.

[Ash]

And I was really stuck on Larry until I found that the cigarette butts, Charles. The kind that Charles Ray vine smoked were right near the body.

[Mikey]

That's very, very interesting.

[Ash]

And an old mattress with his DNA on it. It's like, why was there an old mattress out there?

[Mikey]

Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like what the.

[Ash]

Yeah. Bizarre.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And just such a tragic tragedy.

[Mikey]

Oh, it's an awful, awful case.

[Ash]

The fact that her parents died not knowing.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Not having any answers of what happened to their 19 year old daughter.

[Mikey]

That makes me sick.

[Ash]

Who had everything going for her.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Everything going for her. She came from a good family. She was beautiful.

[Mikey]

She was well liked. She was going to be a dental hygienist.

[Ash]

Involved in her community.

[Mikey]

Doing the damn thing.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And just went to the bowling alley to hang out with her mom one night after work.

[Mikey]

That makes me sick.

[Ash]

So sad. So, guys, if you have. If anybody listening has. Knows anybody with any information or if you have any information, again, that the number that I provided and the email, you can submit it, submit an email confidentially and again, submit a tip to that number. Confidential. It's completely confidential.

[Mikey]

If you know anyone, if you saw anything. If your family member remembers something, if you're from the area, do you ever.

[Ash]

Heard anything at all?

[Mikey]

Ever heard a damn thing? It's like these kind of things. I'm like, this can be solved.

[Ash]

Absolutely. This can be solved 100%.

[Mikey]

I want it to happen.

[Ash]

I know. I'm glad that we did. An unsolved case at the top of the year.

[Mikey]

Let's start the year with some fresh years on it. Let's get it solved. But you know what? If the lady of the Dunes, the Boy in the Box, the Somerton man, if all those things can be, can be solved, I mean, decades and decades and decades later, this can be solved.

[Ash]

But. Yeah, no, I completely agree with you.

[Mikey]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And so, guys, remember, see something, say something. Yeah, we love you. Be nice. Be nice to yourselves and keep it weird. But not so weird that if you see something, you don't say something. And not so weird that if you have a tip, you don't submit it because you could help a whole entire family and to get justice for a wonderful woman who was killed by a terrible monster. If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.