NJ NJ - Melissa McGuinn, 7 mos, Trenton, 6 March 1988

Stojanov is hoping someone will come forward with new information that Melissa is alive somewhere, possibly unaware that she is the person who generated front-page headlines in Trenton in 1988.

“There’s still leads,” she said.

Even today, the McGuinn case is a web of motivations, secrets and lies. The McGuinns and Reed and her common-law husband were bonded by a shared home, Stojanov said.
“There’s so much to this story, I don’t know where to begin some days,” she said.

The neighbor whose home Reed went to and who walked her back home and several witnesses put Reed in the vicinity of Lamberton and Coates streets, but gone for just eight minutes. Because of that, Stojanov thinks the theory that Melissa was thrown into the river is implausible. Standing behind the family’s former home and looking at Waterfront Park across Route 29, Stojanov said it would be difficult to make it to the Delaware and back so quickly.

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem like it’s possible, but we don’t rule it out,” she said.

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This is a new start at the search for Melissa...taking Melissa cyber. Melissa's story has many twists and turns that have left us always wondering, "what happened to Melissa?!" This blog will be used to try to share what we know, in hopes of producing new information from the public. Please follow along as we slowly share all the details. But for now, making a LONG story short:
Becky and Robert McGuinn kindly took in a special needs woman, to help teach her how to take care of her young son. March 7, 1988 Wanda Reed vanished out the back door with the McGuinn's 7 month old daughter Melissa.
8 minutes later Wanda returned alone. Melissa was never seen again.

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In early 1987 Robert Mcguinn moved with his pregnant wife Becky, and his friends Robert Ashley and Wanda Reed, to 637 Lamberton St, Trenton, New Jersey. The two men had found work, and moved into a complex together with their families.

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The McGuinn's could tell Wanda was behind developmentally, and thought she had some sort of learning disability. Becky was happy to help teach Wanda how to be a first time mother.

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Becky went about getting ready for the day, when she noticed the back door was open, where it had not been a minute before. She peered out and saw no signs of anyone who may have gone out. But as she shut the door, she saw that Melissa was no longer sitting where she had been.

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Becky cleared the way and opened the door, and saw Wanda standing there with a neighbor....without Melissa.

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Psychologists were brought in, and it was then Robert and Becky found out just how wrong they were about the woman who lived with them.

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Composite of Melissa at age 16
It was determined Wanda was at the mental level of a 4 to 5 year old. She would say what ever she thought made the investigators happy. Also, Wanda's infant son was NOT her first child. Wanda had two children in the past. One was taken from her custody after the child was scalded with hot water. The other was taken after Wanda threw the child against a window, which broke the glass and cut the child.

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Because of the psychologists diagnosis of Wanda, she was deemed unfit to stand trial. Shortly after, all charges were dropped, and Wanda became a free woman. Her infant son was adopted by a family in Texas, and she and her husband broke up, and Wanda moved out of state...a free woman.

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In early 2012, Melissa's mother, Becky, was taunted by the lingering reminder, it had been nearly 24 years without any sign of baby Melissa's fate.

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Then the day came, when the phone rang. It was an unexpected call from Becky's son's high school.

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The school counselor's words would come like a punch in the gut to Becky. "A woman has contacted me." The counselor said, "It's about your daughter. She's asking how to get into contact with you. She says there has been a DNA test done, and she is Melissa."

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A close family friend, Cindy, caught wind of the word that the German girl was planning a trip to New Jersey.
Through some great investigative skills of her own, Cindy found the so-called German Melissa, and found out she was really a scam artist in the Netherlands.

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Netherlands police discovered the woman had been trying to use the McGuinns, to get into the United States, where she then planned to disappear, and live the life of an illegal immigrant.

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There was nothing that made sense to me, until in 2012 the cold case detective asked me if I remembered the circumstances under which Wanda received the letter from her ex husband. This was the first I had ever heard about a letter.
The detective told me that in the initial search, officers found a letter in Wanda's possession, to Wanda, from her first husband, asking her to sell him her infant son for drugs. Apparently the letter mentioned how high demand babies under the age of 1 are on the black market.

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