Melanie Melanson

Melanie Melanson
Born	Melanie Jo Melanson (1974-11-01)November 1, 1974 Woburn, Massachusetts
Disappeared	October 27, 1989 (aged 14) Some woods off of Montvale Avenue, near the Stoneham/Woburn line
Status	Missing for 27 years, 3 months and 4 days
Nationality	American
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Weight	105 lb (48 kg)
Parents	John Melanson (father) Irene Melanson (mother)

Melanie Jo Melanson (born November 1, 1974)^[1] is a missing woman from Woburn, Middelesex County, Massachusetts. She went missing at a party under suspicious circumstances on October 27, 1989. The investigators initially believed she fled to Florida but subsequent investigations by both authorities and a private investigator have turned up no leads in the case.

Disappearance

Age progressed photo of Melanie to 36 years old (2010)

Melanson was a freshman in high school and was looking forward to an upcoming change of schools.^[2] She had run away from home in the past due to her parents having had problems with substance abuse and constantly fighting with each other. At the time of her disappearance she did not live with her parents and she was being raised by her grandmother and aunts, although she maintained communication with her parents. She was asked to attend a party on the evening of October 27, 1989.^[3] On the day of her disappearance, Melanson and friend who attended school with her left school early during the afternoon and decided the go home. That night, she had told her grandmother that she going to have a sleep over her friends house who was also her next door neighbor. In reality she used this as an excuse to attend the nearby party.^[4]

The party was going to be in the woods that were near an industrial park and Melanson was the youngest of the kids who would be at the party. She decided to go with a group of her friends who happened to be five boys. The party had lasted all night and then had later died down in the morning. As everyone else went home, Melanson did not, and nobody had heard from or had seen her anywhere. Later that day in the afternoon, Melanie's family had about the party and discovered that Melanie had gone to it so they made many frantic phone calls to almost everyone who had been there, who they could get in touch with, but they didn't find out anything. So when that failed, the family called the police and reported her missing. The police determined that she was last seen with two boys that she had known, and when they were asked what had happened to her, both boys gave different stories of what had occurred. Both of them had claimed that the other was the last one who had been with her and one claimed to have seen her at the very head of a trail on the early morning after the night of the party.

Investigation

The Woburn Police Department had originally thought that Melansion had run off to Florida, as she had run away before. The police organized a massive search to find Melanie using everything from cadaver dogs to helicopters as well as massive digs, but unfortunately all of the searches were unsuccessful with no clues as to what happened. There have been no arrests in the case.^[5]

Aftermath

The Melanson family has been working with a private investigator to find Melanie.^[6] In August 1992 the police received an anonymous phone call from someone who told them, that they should search a nearby pond to find her, they went searched the pond, but found nothing.^[7] In the spring of 2009 authorities announced a renewed push on the case and offered a $5,000 reward for information to solve it. In 2012 a doctor hired in the case has used a new science method called Decomposition Order Analysis (DOA) to help find Melanie.^[8] Police now believe that she is a victim of foul play and is located somewhere nearby where she had disappeared. Her grandmother as well as her parents are now deceased.

See also

• List of people who disappeared mysteriously

References