Melanie Melanson

Melanie Jo Melanson is a missing woman from Woburn, Middelesex County, Massachusetts. She vanished at a party on October 27, 1989; at first, investigators believed she fled to Florida. However, subsequent investigations by both authorities and a private investigator have turned up no leads. Disappearance: Melanson was a freshman in high school, and looking forward to a change of schools. She had run away from home before, because of her parents' constant fighting and substance-abuse issues. At the time of her disappearance, she was living with her grandmother yet maintained contact with her parents. She was asked to attend a party on the evening of October 27, 1989. On the day of her disappearance, Melanson and a friend left school early and decided to go home. That night, she told her grandmother she was going to have a sleepover at a friend's house (the friend was also her next-door neighbor). Melanson used the story to cover her attendance at the party. The party was held in a patch of woods near an industrial park; Melanson was the youngest guest. She went with a group of five male friends. The party did not end until early the next morning; no one who knew Melanson saw or heard her returning from the party. During the afternoon of October 28th, after Melanie's family discovered she'd been at the party, they frantically called almost every attendee they could reach. They learned nothing of Melanson's whereabouts. Finally, they reported her missing. The police determined that she was last seen with two boys she'd known. They gave different stories of what might have happened to her. Police said each boy claimed the other was the last one who had been with Melanson. One of the boys also said he'd seen her at the very head of a trail in the early-morning hours of October 28th. Investigation: The Woburn Police Department originally thought that Melanson had run off to Florida; she'd run away before. They organized a massive search to find the teenager, using everything from cadaver dogs to helicopters. There were massive digs as well. None of the searches were successful, and no clues to Melanson's disappearance were found. There have been no arrests in the case. In August 1992, an anonymous caller suggested police should search a pond near the party site; although police followed up, nothing was found. Aftermath: The Melanson family has been working with a private investigator to find Melanie. 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. Police now believe Melanson was a victim of foul play, and her remains are somewhere near the place where she disappeared. Her grandmother and parents are now deceased.