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Maurice (Melissa) Dupree Green (Ace of Spades, Arizona)
00:39:41
Maurice – or Melissa, as they sometimes introduced themselves – was 22 when they were shot and killed in Phoenix, Arizona. They were just starting to build a name for themselves as a performer, making it to the regional final for American Idol and acting in dozens of local productions, including The Wiz, Westside Story, and Alice in Wonderland. But the curtain fell too soon… According to friends and family, gender identity was fluid for Maurice. They sometimes presented as femme and went by Melissa, as they did the night of the shooting. This led both LGBTQ+ activists and local officials to fear that maybe this was a hate crime. Maybe… But investigators have struggled to pin down a definitive motive – and the killer.
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- [00:01]
Ashley Flowers
If you're like me, you're always looking for the next true crime case to dive into, and you've pretty much listened to it all. But what if I told you there is even more waiting for you in the Crime Junkie Fan Club? The Crime Junkie Fan Club features exclusive content you won't hear anywhere else and early ad free episodes of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. So if you're ready to dive deeper into even more mysteries, join the Crime Junkie Fan club today. Visit crimejunkiepodcast.comfanclub to learn more and join. That's crimejunkiepodcast.com fanclub.
- [00:39]
Nicole Kagan
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- [01:10]
Ashley Flowers
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- [06:04]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
You know, in his words, he was 100% positive that it was Cesar. I don't know how close they were, but not close enough where he could drive us to his Home or tell us what kind of vehicle he drove or how we could locate him or his last name.
- [06:19]
Ashley Flowers
That was Detective Rostenberg. He said that at the time, this potential ID by Jose was huge. But without a last name or anything more to go off of, they had a hard time finding this Caesar.
- [06:33]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
So there were several. We do what's called crime analysis in the area. We knocked on several doors. Who's Cesar? Or does anyone use the nickname Cesar? They were able to identify two or three people with a similar type name. Photo lineups were generated of these people and presented to Jose. Nothing really led to much. He was unable to identify any of them.
- [07:02]
Ashley Flowers
Police hoped that Melissa's family could help them. But first they had to break the terrible news to Melissa's mother, cece green.
- [07:11]
Cece Green
Around 4 o', clock, I said, knock at the door. You know, the police gonna knock. They gonna, you know, there was a banging at the door. And so like, of course it's knocking on my door like that. So I get up, of course, to go see what's going on. And they came to the door. They said, they said, do you know Melissa? I said, yes, my son, they said he was gone.
- [07:41]
Ashley Flowers
You'll notice that cece says Melissa and her son all in the same breath. Friends and family are fluid when they talk about Maurice, Melissa's gender identity, because that's how Maurice, Melissa was in life. Back in the 2000s, the idea of gender fluidity or being non binary, like those terms weren't widely recognized or understood. So folks who didn't identify strictly as their sex assigned at birth might not have had the language to fully capture their experience. Now, ZZ told police that she had last seen her son the night of the shooting, getting ready to go out with David. But looking back, she remembered the interaction seemed odd.
- [08:22]
Cece Green
So he came upstairs and he says, mom, I'm going to go out. I said, okay, Maurice, go out and have a good time. I'll see you later. So I'm watching tv. And then he came back in about not even a minute later, he says, mom, you think I should go out tonight? I said, maurice, yeah, if you want to go, that's up to you. You know, go and have fun or you want to stay home. He says, and he looked at me. So he went back out. And then the third time he came up, it's almost like they were downstairs saying, hey, come on, let's go. You should go, man. Like he didn't know if he should go out or not. Like he knew something was going on or something. Was going to happen or something.
- [09:07]
Ashley Flowers
Even with a bad feeling, Melissa finished getting ready and said goodbyes and left the house to go out with David. At the time, David told detectives that he was accompanying Melissa because there was a group of people who had been harassing or bothering her, and he wanted to go out with her to try and keep her safe. But cece said that she wasn't aware of any sort of harassment taking place, and neither were police. Detective Rostenberg said that no formal complaints had ever been filed.
- [09:36]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
There's no information that I have that, you know, he was scared of anybody, that, you know, he had an order of protection or an injunction against anybody, or he had a problem with his neighbor or whatever, wherever that it could be. We have no indication of that.
- [09:52]
Ashley Flowers
And yet, less than an hour after saying goodbye to her family, Melissa was shot and killed at point blank range. At autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be a single bullet to the thorax. There were no defensive wounds or foreign DNA. Foundation and the toxicology report revealed the presence of both amphetamines and methamphetamines in their system. Detectives also learned that, unfortunately, there was NO DNA on the.380 shell casing found at the scene either. And a forensic search revealed that it could have been shot from at least three or four different types of guns. The casing was entered into nibin, the federal ballistics database, but it didn't match any projectiles or firearms from any other known crime scenes. So a couple of days into the investigation, all detectives had to go off of was the lone first name they got from their eyewitness, Caesar, and no clear motive for the crime. According to Detective Rostenberg, investigators had several theories at the time. They wondered if Greene could have owed somebody money or maybe it was a random crime of opportunity. According to detectives, the street where the shooting took place was sort of a remote hub for illicit activity at the time. But for Greene's friend Gina, who works for an LGBTQ advocacy group based in Phoenix, the motive was clear.
- [11:15]
Gina
I mean, we definitely felt that it was a hate crime, that the person that targeted Melissa was doing so because it was Melissa, because it's easier to kill someone that, you know, doesn't conform to society. It's much easier to do that than it is to choose someone else. And they were also chicken, because, if I remember, they shot Melissa in the.
- [11:47]
Ashley Flowers
Back, you know, Gina's point is backed up by statistics. Studies have shown that you are nine times more likely to experience violence if you are an LGBT person than if you are not. And queer people of color specifically experience disproportionately high rates of violence, particularly at.
- [12:08]
Gina
That time, I would say, because of the atmosphere. Most LGBT people were very subdued. You had your days where you were sad because, you know, we weren't in a very accepting world at that. At that point. And here was this kid who came in full of energy, full of life, full of hope, and he was. He had been in foster care. He was a young man of color, he was gay, and it was just. He had every right to. To. To be angry or upset with the world. And that's not what he chose. I mean, he definitely. And he did this. He definitely had to choose every day. I am going to hope for the best. I'm going to be the best person that I can be today. And like I said, he didn't. He always encouraged other people. He never brought anybody down. But everything else played against him, included.
- [13:22]
Ashley Flowers
In the things that were working against them at the time was the reporting on the shooting, which made use of harmful language and anti trans slurs. Everything in the media became about Maurice, Melissa's identity, and it overshadowed the tragedy.
- [13:36]
Gina
Of their death in the mainstream media. It was sensationalized. And so they never. They never reported on what a wonderful person this kid was. And I think that was the saddest part, is that it all got. Everything got lost. His personality, the fact that he was always encouraging of others. He was positive. His love of musical theater, his love of acting, all of that, that made him who he was, you know, just. It got pushed to the side, and it just became a story about someone who was born male that dressed as a female.
- [14:27]
Ashley Flowers
Gina and Maurice first met when Maurice started going to meetups at 1 in 10, the LGBTQ advocacy organization where Gina was a founding volunteer. They immediately connected over their shared love of musical theater. And Maurice started coming in weekly, routinely bringing in other LGBTQ youth that they'd met. And it didn't take long for Gina to see just how special a person Maurice was.
- [14:51]
Gina
I mean, I hate to use the word bubbly, but if there was anyone that would epitomize someone who's bubbly, it would be Maurice. He was always, always coaching other young people to embrace themselves more or, you know, you're great, you're fantastic, and trying to build everybody up.
- [15:15]
Ashley Flowers
Maurice particularly liked to spread joy through performing. They were constantly singing and dancing to and with those around them. And Cece says that Maurice had big dreams.
- [15:27]
Cece Green
Just a loving young man, just loving, ambitious, wanted to make it, wanted to be Somebody had plans and to get us off, you know, out of poverty, and he was going to buy mom a house, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. And he loved it. Just, you know, just wanted to do better, wanted to be better, wanted to entertain people, wanted to. He loved singing, loved Mariah Carey. He loved it.
- [15:54]
Ashley Flowers
Maurice went into foster care at a young age, but still continued to see Cece as they grew up. And at 18 years old, Maurice came out to Cece.
- [16:07]
Cece Green
It was hard at first to accept, you know, your son being gay, but I just learned to love him for who he is. And we'd go shopping sometimes.
- [16:17]
Ashley Flowers
And then.
- [16:18]
Cece Green
At 20, he started dressing up, and he would get dressed up and go as Melissa on the street and go out to clubs and with his friends and stuff, especially on the weekend. Most of the time, he would dress as Maurice, but most of the time, it's like, on the weekends, he's Melissa.
- [16:36]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
True.
- [16:36]
Cece Green
So it was hard sometimes to accept that. But I found I loved him no matter what. That's my son. That's my son.
- [16:43]
Ashley Flowers
Against so many odds, Maurice went off to college at Northern Arizona University. But once there, they began to struggle with substance use disorder. And when Maurice returned from school, unable to sustain the habit or find permanent housing, Maurice turned to odd jobs and eventually, sex work. Gina told our reporter Nicole Kagan that leading up to the shooting, Maurice hadn't been coming to 1 in 10 as often.
- [17:11]
Nicole Kagan
Did you at the time know anything about Maurice's involvement in sex work? Did that ever come up in any meetings or conversations?
- [17:20]
Cece Green
Okay, no.
- [17:21]
Gina
Just like I said, Maurice had been gone for a few months, and so that had not come up. I know later on they reported drugs or whatever, and I never, ever saw Maurice high or, you know, acting like he. He was on drugs.
- [17:42]
Ashley Flowers
Cece, on the other hand, was aware of the sex work and the substance use, but it didn't make the news of her son's death any less surprising or painful.
- [17:53]
Cece Green
And you never wish they're going to die before you. And just to know someone would come and shoot him, you know, he doesn't deserve that. He didn't deserve that.
- [18:04]
Ashley Flowers
While police struggled to make headway in Green's case, the community rallied around the Green family, organizing and attending candlelight vigils near the intersection where Melissa was shot. And then on May 5, just over a month and a half after the shooting, investigators got an unexpected break. And it all stemmed from a routine traffic stop. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Remember summertime as a kid, the freedom of nature, opportunities born from boredom, rites of passages like riding a bike, setting up a lemonade stand, and even learning to earn and manage a buck. With school out, summer is the perfect time to teach your kids real world bunny skills they'll use forever. Greenlight is the easy, convenient way for parents to raise financially smart kids and families to navigate life together. Maybe that's why millions of parents trust Greenlight and kids love learning about money on Greenlight, the number one family finance and safety app. My best friend Britt, Crime junkie. You may know her. She used Greenlight for her son. And you better believe when my daughter graduates from her fake Disney Princess credit card, she's getting Greenlight. Don't wait to teach your kids real world money skills. Start your risk free Greenlight trial today@greenlight.com thedeck that's greenlight.com thedeck to get started greenlight.com thedeck summer is in full swing. Whether you're traveling, taking the kids to summer camp or heading to the pool, we're all looking for ways to stay healthy and save money this summer. With Goodrx, you can save up to 80% on prescriptions for you and your family pets too. Check GoodRx before every trip to the pharmacy for big savings on both brand and generic medications. Goodrx is free and easy to use. Just search for your prescription on the website or app, compare prices and get a free coupon to show your pharmacist. You can use Goodrx to save at over 70,000 local pharmacies nationwide. And now you can enroll in Goodrx Rewards and earn points every time you use a coupon at the pharmacy. Remember, Goodrx is not insurance, but works whether you have insurance or not and could even beat your insurance copay price save at the pharmacy this summer with goodrx go to goodrx.com dec that's goodrx.com dec Officers had pulled over a car and in the passenger seat was David. Like David who was with Melissa right before the shooting, and at some point during this stop, David apparently pulled one of the officers aside as the driver.
- [20:53]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
Was being questioned, David asked to independently privately speak to one of the officers at the scene and at that time he said he had information on his homicide and he wanted to speak to one of the detectives assigned to the case. He whispered that it was his boyfriend that he believed was involved in Green's death and he provided the name of Bonacio Mata Jr. Detectives hadn't heard of.
- [21:22]
Ashley Flowers
Bonacio Mata Jr. Aka Benny before David whispered his name to police. So they had a few follow ups for David. For starters, why did he wait almost two months to come forward with this information? I mean, he'd already been interviewed three times by that point. He had ample opportunity to tell investigators about this Benny guy. So why now? Well, David said now he and Benny had just broken up after a rocky relationship. Police reports filed by David with the Phoenix Police Department detailed just how rocky. According to those, David said Benny had assaulted him and that he knew Benny owned a small semi automatic pistol. When asked why he thought Benny killed his friend, David said that coincidentally, just four days earlier, Benny told David that he'd committed the murder. David said they'd gotten into an argument, and at one point, Benny said, quote, too bad I missed you. Which David took to mean that the bullet that killed Melissa that night was really meant for him. Now, our reporter Nicole connected with David, but he declined an interview, saying that it was just too hard to talk about that night. Now, the traffic stop eventually wrapped. David was sent on his way, and a BOLO or a be on the lookout alert was put out for Benny so that if any officers came across him in the state of Arizona, they would know to bring him in. But for some reason, that was pretty much the extent of their follow up. Detective Rostenberg wasn't on the case yet, and it's not clear from the police file why there wasn't more of an active effort to try and track Benny down. And we know that detectives didn't have any interaction with Benny at all until over two months after this whispered tip, when the silent hero of this story, routine traffic stops, put their guy right in front of them. This next one happened on July 13th. That's when an officer pulled Benny over, ran his information, and saw that Benny was a person of interest in a murder. But per the police report, quote, the interview of Mata was postponed and he was released until additional investigation is completed, end quote. What additional investigation needed to be completed?
- [23:45]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
It didn't say the reason why he was released. At the time, there was just no probable cause to support him being arrested or transported for questioning. So if he just says, you know what, listen, I don't want to talk to the police. I don't want to be involved in this investigation. We really were, you know, our hands are tied at that point. So we do the best we can. We get the best biographical information on him. We take, you know, new photographs of him, document what he's wearing, his clothing, his physical description, and kind of, we just had Nothing really at that point to detain him or arrest him.
- [24:25]
Ashley Flowers
They did eventually go looking for him, though. A month later, detectives went to Benny's mom's house, but there was no answer at the door, so they left a business card and requested a call back. And I bet they wish they would have hung around, because by the time they got back to the station, there was a voicemail from Benny saying that he got the card and he would try calling them again tomorrow. But tomorrow came and went with no call, and it doesn't seem like the detectives ever tried reaching out to him again. They clearly did still have him on their radar, though, because a full eight months after David first gave police Benny's name, a new photo lineup was prepared for Jose, the original eyewitness that they had from the scene that night. And this lineup included Benny's photo, but Jose did not pick him out. Now, granted, it was almost a year after the shooting, which had occurred at night in the dark, but detectives didn't really have anyone else to turn to.
- [25:27]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
He was really the only one identified at the scene that was claiming that he could id. David said he couldn't id. So we were reliant on Jose at that point to help us with identifying a possible suspect.
- [25:43]
Ashley Flowers
Nowadays, we know that eyewitness accounts can be both manipulated and distorted by stress, the passage of time, or a handful of other factors. And, I mean, people have been straight up wrongfully convicted based on eyewitness testimony. But back then, even though the circumstances of Jose's eyewitness account were less than ideal, detectives took Jose's inability to pick out Benny's photo from the lineup to mean that Benny must not have been involved in the murder. And so, at least at the time, nobody thought to continue down that path. And without any other leads, the case went into limbo. During this time, cece was holding the police department accountable, along with continuing annual vigils to commemorate her child, alongside friends and family and city councilmen and LGBTQ allies and activists. She would call detectives every three months, asking about Maurice's case, making sure it was still being investigated. And she passed along any tips that she might have had. And she and her other son, Marcus, continued to visit Maurice's grave together.
- [26:52]
Cece Green
My son can no longer live on earth. You know, he can't drive a car or he can't get married and have children and go finish college up and finish his career up, and you don't get to see him knock on the door no more. I don't get to see love notes under the door or hear him sing to me or no music. You know, we don't get that. We don't get that. We don't get to go to graduations or you don't get to drive a car. What we get to do is visit a graveyard. That's what we get to do. We get to put flowers there. We get to visit him there. We don't get to hold him. We don't get to talk to him. We don't get no conversation going back and forth no more.
- [27:34]
Ashley Flowers
Nothing will bring her son back but answers. And holding someone accountable sure would go a long way toward healing for cece. And in 2009, the investigation came the closest it had ever been to those answers, thanks to guess what? Another traffic stop. Now, this traffic stop didn't happen in 2009. It happened all the way back in. In June of 2006, just three months after the shooting.
- [28:05]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
So there's two males in the vehicle. The driver of that vehicle is Jesus Alfredo Burgos. The front seat passenger is Oscar Figueroa. So a search of the vehicle is conducted which included the trunk. In the trunk, there's a shoebox. Inside this shoebox, a single 380 spent casing is located. This casing is collected and impounded as evidence and submitted to our lab for testing and entered into a national database.
- [28:41]
Ashley Flowers
At the time, that is sort of where the story ended. Neither man was brought in for questioning. But in 2009, that's when everything changed.
- [28:51]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
So three years later, we get a hit. Detectives are notified that this casing matches the casing collected at the Green Homicide. Both those casings were fired from the same weapon. And so we really thought at that point that we may had a good. We may have had a break in the case.
- [29:11]
Ashley Flowers
As for why it took so long for the system to return this match, it was just.
- [29:18]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
It's entered and it's just in it. I have no idea. No idea. But it doesn't hit till three years later. For unknown reasons.
- [29:29]
Ashley Flowers
When pressed, Detective Rostenberg's best guess was that there was most likely just a processing delay. The casing would have been impounded at the police station, then sent to the lab when someone had the chance, then tested when the lab tech got around to it, and then finally uploaded to the database. It should not have taken three years, but for whatever reason, it did. Detective Rostenberg said his agency has since implemented new procedures to expedite tests like these. Regardless of the time lapse, though, back then, with this match, detectives now had to track down the two men who were in that car, Jesus and Oscar. They also did a background search on both men to see if they had any associates in common with the name Caesar. And lo and behold, they did. A man named Julio Cesar Garcia. And that's Cesar with an s, who some people might confuse as Cesar.
- [30:32]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
All of them were eventually interviewed by police, and they all denied involvement, denied knowing the victim, denied being involved in the shooting. One of them provided a very vague account of the casing being collected from a shooting scene involving gangs as a souvenir. His story just really didn't make sense.
- [30:56]
Ashley Flowers
The story was that Oscar and his cousin had been shot at by a rival gang, and they had picked up one of the casings to commemorate the moment because it was their first time being shot at. During his interview, Julio also denied ever going by his middle name, Cesar. He told detectives that no one ever called him that and that he had never been to the intersection where Greene had been shot. Detectives asked Julio if he would submit to a polygraph to prove that he was telling the truth, to which he said yes. But for some reason, no test was ever administered. So six months later, as had become the standard practice in this case, detectives reached back out to their eyewitness, Jose, about this lead. Jose was presented with yet another photo lineup with all three individuals associated with the traffic stop in it. And unfortunately, he was unable to identify any of them in connection with Greene's case. So once again, even though it had been four years since the shooting, at this point, detectives moved on from these three men. And with that, Greene's homicide was shelved until 2015, when Detective Rostenberg was assigned to the case.
- [32:15]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
Obviously, I wasn't out there. I didn't respond out there. I didn't know Mr. Green. I didn't know any of the witnesses. So what I do, and this is what I like, it's like a puzzle. I review everything. The reason why we do that is I may see or another detective may see, like something that was possibly missed or some item of evidence that wasn't submitted to the labs.
- [32:37]
Ashley Flowers
And what detective Rostenberg found was that something was missed. Something big. Bonacio Mata Jr. Aka Benny, still had never actually been interviewed. So detective Rostenberg set out to find Benny. And after a couple of months, he did so for the first time since the shooting nine years prior, Benny was brought into the station for questioning.
- [33:08]
Nicole Kagan
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- [35:11]
Ashley Flowers
At the time, Benny was unemployed and living on the streets and according to Detective Rostenberg, it was a tough interview.
- [35:20]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
He was incoherent, he was slurring his speech. It appeared to me that he was intoxicated. He would cite randomly cite bible verses. He was just kind of all over the place, if you will. So it was hard for me to really, you know, find out what was true and what was not true.
- [35:42]
Ashley Flowers
Bennie told Rostenberg that he was not under the influence nor did he currently use drugs, but it was difficult to know what to believe. Still, he Laid out the scenario that David described, that Benny meant to shoot David, but Melissa got caught in the crossfire.
- [36:00]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
And when I presented that scenario to him and I asked him if it was true, he stated yes.
- [36:06]
Ashley Flowers
But when Detective Rostenberg began asking follow up questions, Benny started contradicting himself. Said he wasn't involved in the shooting and that he didn't even own a gun.
- [36:17]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
So I wasn't sure at that point if he didn't understand the question that I presented or he was being deceitful or truthful. You know, as investigators we not only have to look at, you know, the actual words that are being stated, but the disposition of the person being interviewed. He just the way to describe it, he just appeared under the influence and I just didn't feel like it probably was the best time to further continue talking to him.
- [36:51]
Ashley Flowers
Before concluding the interview though, Detective Rosenberg decided to try one more time with an open ended question. He asked Benny if he quote, wanted to give his side of the story. Benny responded that he didn't have a side of the story and he started citing Bible verses. When Detective Rostenberg concluded the interview, he left Benny in the interview room singing softly to himself. And that was that. With Benny on a follow up call with Detective Rostenberg, our reporter Nicole asked why no one ever tried to re contact Benny and get a lucid statement. After that interview, did you want to speak with him again?
- [37:36]
Detective Rostenberg
No. You know what? So the last time I did talk to him was in 2015. So I believe he's not living in the state. Last time I checked, he moved and I went out to his old address and he wasn't there. So I still haven't been able to locate him.
- [37:51]
Ashley Flowers
Okay, and is that something that you are hoping to do?
- [37:55]
Detective Rostenberg
If I can find him, yes, but we're kind of. When he's just kind of an investigative lead, I can't detain him. Obviously I can't arrest him. You know, I think it was just based on the totality of everything. He's just an investigative lead. I know his name surfaced early on in the investigation, but it just, it. I don't think Benny's involved, but I certainly want to talk to him again.
- [38:24]
Ashley Flowers
Following that.
- [38:26]
Nicole Kagan
Is there someone at this point you.
- [38:28]
Ashley Flowers
Think is a most likely suspect?
- [38:31]
Detective Rostenberg
No, in my opinion, based on the totality of everything, the way it went down, you know, there was no word spoken, they didn't have an argument. It wasn't like Maurice was in the street. Get out of the street. And they would banter back and forth. He was basically executed in the street. So I think he knew him. He was targeting him, and he shot him, you know, like he wasn't trying to scare him. He leveled the gun right at him and pointed it directly at him, according to the witness, and shot him, you know what I mean? So I think he was targeted. I think they had some connection. At this time, we just have no idea who is.
- [39:08]
Ashley Flowers
As for the hate crime suggestion, Detective Rostenberg says he can't discount that, but he can't definitively say that that was the motive either.
- [39:18]
Detective Rostenberg
It's absolutely possible somebody was just driving by and didn't like the way he looked, didn't like his clothing, didn't like the way, you know, and absolutely, he could have been targeted for that. We weren't able to substantiate it, but it's definitely a possibility.
- [39:38]
Ashley Flowers
So with the motive still unclear, Detective Rostenberg has struggled to find new leads. We tried to contact Benny, but we never heard anything back. So Bonacio or Benny, if you're out there and listening to this, please contact the Phoenix Police Department. Detective Rostenberg also sent off the 380 casing from the trunk shoebox for DNA testing, hoping for some kind of miracle after all this time. But it didn't come back with anything, and there is no more physical evidence to test. The shooter never made physical contact with Maurice Melissa, and a murder weapon has never been found.
- [40:17]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
At this point, in my opinion, we need an eyewitness or somebody to, you know, take accountability. You know, come in here and just say, listen, I made a mistake. I was angry. I was upset for whatever reason, get it off their conscious, clear their conscience and it. And, you know, take responsibility for the damage they've done to the. To Green and his family.
- [40:40]
Ashley Flowers
Detective Rostenberg said he feels confident that Greene's case is a solvable one. He's just waiting on that one person to do the right thing and give Greene's family closure. Maurice Melissa has been gone for almost 20 years now. The media hasn't covered their case in a decade, and the candlelight vigils have waned. But the impact that they have left on family and friends is eternal. For Gina, it's like no time has passed at all.
- [41:08]
Gina
But whenever I hear certain songs, I immediately think of Maurice, you know, and I think of him either singing it to me or singing with me. And there really has never been a time where I forgot about him. I realized after I spoke to you about Maurice that I hadn't been singing for a while. So I've been. Yeah, so I've been putting on musicals and singing again. It's a big stress reliever, you know.
- [41:42]
Ashley Flowers
Maurice's family honors him in the same way. Marcus says that he can feel his brother looking down on him whenever he's singing or acting or performing, as he sometimes does as Monica. And he even sings to him at his grave.
- [41:57]
Cece Green
Go ahead, son.
- [41:58]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
I had holes in my shoes I was crying the blues and I didn't have no place to stay.
- [42:04]
Cece Green
Hey.
- [42:06]
Ashley Flowers
Cece continues to sing to Maurice at his grave site, too. And now on TikTok as well, where she posts daily, there's actually one special song that she offers, one that she wrote just for her son. Okay.
- [42:19]
Cece Green
It'll never be the same Someone took my heart away Left me broken in pain I'll never forget that day but true love never fade.
- [42:57]
Ashley Flowers
And Maurice's own voice lives on as well in VHS tapes and recordings that Cece has kept and cherished all these years, like this one from when Maurice played Drake in the musical Honk.
- [43:11]
Maurice Dupre Green
In our patch behind the farmhouse where the face of life is low and the lilies on the lick are brought.
- [43:23]
Gina
In.
- [43:26]
Maurice Dupre Green
We'Re all living here in clover and the mating season's over so there won't be cause for anyone to blush in our land both great and pleasant Every mansion duck and pheasant if they had them we would be walking arm and arm for our life is good and steady Till we're plucked and up and ready It's a poultry tale upon.
- [44:08]
Ashley Flowers
Our if you have any information at all about the murder of Maurice Dupree Green, also known as Melissa, In March of 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona, please come forward. You can reach Detective rostenberg directly at 602-534-5920 or you can call the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262. And if you would prefer to remain anonymous, you can also call the Silent Witness tip line at 480-948-6377. Additionally, if you or someone you know is affected by anti LGBTQ violence or in need of support, you are not alone. Help is available for immediate crisis support. The Trevor Project offers 247 assistance for LGBTQ + youth at 1-866-488-7386 or by texting START to 678-678. You can also contact the LGBT national help Center at 1-888-843-4564 or visit lgbthotline.org. all of this info can be found in the show Notes. The deck is an Audio Chuck Production with theme music by Ryan Lewis to learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com so what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
- [46:00]
Cece Green
What does possibility mean to you?
- [46:03]
Ashley Flowers
That's a hard question. Something that you can strive for, that I'm able to. To do anything I set my mind to. You're confident in yourself and you believe in yourself. Stuff that you could achieve.
- [46:13]
Nicole Kagan
I feel it's Sarah Anything is possible.
- [46:16]
Ashley Flowers
When you're more confident. Shoes are a huge part of that.
- [46:18]
Detective Dominic Rostenberg
They are the most important part of my style.
- [46:21]
Ashley Flowers
You can, like, express yourself in the right shoes. Anything is possible. DSW Countless shoes at bragworthy prices. Imagine the possibilities.
- [46:31]
Scott Weinberger
Behind every homicide case is a process, an investigation, and people seeking answers.
- [46:37]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And it takes more than reading the headlines to get to the true heart of these stories. I'm Anna Sega Nicolasi, a former New York City homicide prosecutor.
- [46:45]
Scott Weinberger
And I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.
- [46:49]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Each week on our podcast Anatomy of Murder, we dissect real homicide cases from the perspective of those who have lived them. Investigators, prosecutors, and the people impacted most.
- [47:00]
Scott Weinberger
We dive into not just what happened, but but why it happened, focusing on the facts process the decisions that shaped each case and the pursuit of justice.
- [47:09]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Giving you a deeper understanding of how each case unfolds.
- [47:13]
Scott Weinberger
Listen to Anatomy of Murder, available wherever you get your podcasts.