CA CA - Melinda Marie McCollom, 25, Seal Beach, 12 Jan 1989

[Moonwalker9]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Melinda Marie McCollom – The Charley Project

Couldn't find a thread for her

Demographics
Missing Age25 Years
Current Age56 Years
First NameMelinda
Middle NameMarie
Last NameMcCollom
Nickname/AliasMindi

SexFemale
Height5' 5" (65 Inches)
Weight110 lbs
Race / EthnicityWhite / Caucasian

Circumstances
Date of Last ContactJanuary 12, 1989
NamUs Case CreatedFebruary 26, 2017
Last Known Location Map
LocationSeal Beach, California
CountyOrange County

Circumstances of DisappearanceMcCollom was last seen in a residential area of Seal Beach, California on February 12, 1989. She has never been heard from again.
Physical Description
Hair ColorBlond/Strawberry
Head Hair Description--
Body Hair Description--
Facial Hair Description--
Left Eye ColorBrown
Right Eye ColorBrown
Eye Description--
Distinctive Physical Features
Item
Description
Scar/mark
2in scar on left wrist


Clothing and Accessories
No Information Entered

 

[ALightForEricka]

I'd like to add that Melinda's boyfriend at the time, Harvey Anthony Caron, later told police that Melinda had died of a drug overdose and that he'd disposed of her body.
No charges were ever brought against him in the case.
He is also a POI in the case of Dennis Kaye Woods, a neighbor of McCollum and Caron's, who was reported missing in early 1988.

Caron was seen moving Woods' belongings out of his apartment, and when family went to question him they found that he was in possession of Woods' car. Caron was later charged with stealing Woods' car but not with anything else.

In the early 90s, Caron pled no contest to the murder of Estella Dian Vaughan in Roseburg Oregon. He was put in the state penitentiary..... and is now out.

 

[ALightForEricka]

Update- I contacted the Seal Beach PD and requested the files on Melinda's disappearance. I had a lot of questions after receiving the files, and the head investigator reached out to me. He wants to pull the case and have somebody on his team look a little harder at it.
Caron was released in 2014 after serving 20 years for the murder of Estelle Vaughan. He currently owns a business in a small town in Southern Oregon and has a wife.

 

[Atombudd]

Harvey Anthony Caron was arrested again in August 2021. The article does not mention missing persons Melinda McCollom or Dennis Kaye Woods.
Convicted murderer arrested in multi-property JoCo pot raid

 

[ALightForEricka]

The article also doesn't mention that the person he murdered was a woman, and instead refers to Estelle as a man. BUT those charges got dismissed.... after they allowed him to travel out of state???
Does this make sense to anybody???

 

[ALightForEricka]

Melinda McCollom was also known as Jamie in certain circles (likely drug circles).
That's a bit of info I gleaned from the police report from Seal Beach PD. Around the time that Caron murdered Vaughan in Roseburg, OR, Melinda visited him in Oregon as well.
My theory is that she was an unstable drug addict and a liability to Caron, as she in theory would have been able to tie him to Woods and Vaughan. Maybe she was threatening to rat on him. The timing fits, she went missing after both of them.

 

[ALightForEricka]

So, interesting tidbit I've learned through mentioning Caron in Josephine County Facebook groups- one, several people seem to be under the impression that he's been "making amends" and "attempting to turn his life around."
It seems as though folks are willing to overlook his past in favor of his present, which is supposedly full of community involvement and contribution. two- He is apparently the President of the local 7th Step Oregon program, which supposedly seeks to help recovering convicts to better themselves and become contributing members of society. He and some associates are working on opening up a "halfway house" of sorts for this program in Grants Pass.
I don't trust it. If he's so contrite, so willing to make amends for the wrongs he's done, why wouldn't he march himself down to Orange County and reveal what happened to Dennis and Melinda?
Full disclosure, when I found out about this in 2020, I contacted Melinda's mother because there were some gaps that I wanted to attempt to fill regarding the police reports that I had received. She's gone over 30 years knowing in her heart that there's more to the story than Caron has told. Dennis Woods' son died in 2020 never knowing what happened to his father.
The people who were left in the wake of whatever he did, they never forgot about their loved ones. Why should the primary suspect be allowed to?

 

[ALightForEricka]

Something worth noting in the report about Estella Dian Vaughan's homicide- when Caron lived in Roseburg, and from the loose timeline I've been able to construct, either shortly before or after Estella died, Melinda (called Jamie for the majority of the report) visited Caron in Oregon. She stayed in a hotel up there, presumably because although Melinda is referred to as his "girlfriend," he was also involved with the woman whose home he was staying at in Roseburg. Having your two girlfriends under one roof might get awkward for some people.
She could have known something about Estella's death, Dennis' disappearance, or both.

Another piece of information gleaned from those documents- One of Caron's close friends was a woman named Eileen, and Eileen also knew Estella. Eileen also supposedly knew that Caron had killed Estella. Eileen had a daughter named Jeannette, and the other person whose signature is on the articles of incorporation for Melinda McCollom's business, Two Girls Auto Parts, is a woman named Jeannette Cheevers.

What are the odds?

 

[ALightForEricka]

So, I've been busy going further down this rabbit hole. Tracked down Jeanette Cheevers, her mother's first name was misspelled in the Vaughan report so it took a bit to confirm.

Surprisingly, after I reached out, Jeanette blocked me. This hints that perhaps my working theory, that TGAP was not in fact actually dealing in auto parts, could have some validity. Because why block somebody who's trying to find out what happened to your missing business partner unless you don't want them to be found?

I've also been speaking to some of Mindi's friends from her youth. They're blown away that I'm bringing all of this to light. But this is about getting justice for Mindi and obtaining closure for the people who loved her.

 

[Pennysmom1]

Melinda Marie McCollom – The Charley Project

• 

McCollom, circa 1989

• Missing Since 02/12/1989
• Missing From Seal Beach, California
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 06/25/1963 (60)
• Age 25 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5, 110 pounds
• 
  
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, brown eyes. McCollom has a two-inch scar on her left wrist. Her nickname is Mindi.

Details of Disappearance​

McCollom was last seen near her Old Town neighborhood in Seal Beach, California on February 12, 1989. She lived with her boyfriend, Harvey Anthony Caron, in the 100 block of 13th Street.

Prior to her disappearance, she had gotten $20,000 in a real estate deal. She has never been heard from again and the money disappeared with her and was never recovered. McCollom's mother believes McCollom's signature was forged on real estate checks made out to her.

Caron is considered a suspect in McCollom's case. In 1993, he pleaded no contest to the murder of another woman, 45-year-old Estella Dian Vaughan, whose body was found in Roseburg, Oregon more than two years after she disappeared.

When questioned about McCollom's disappearance, Caron told authorities she had died of an accidental drug overdose and he disposed of her body in a trash bin near Ximeno Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. His story has not been verified and authorities stated they believed McCollom had been murdered.

Caron is also a suspect in the disappearance of Dennis Kaye Woods. He had lived in an apartment in the 4100 block of east Eighth Street in Long Beach for nine years by the time he disappeared sometime in early 1988.

In September 1987, McCollom had moved into the same apartment complex; two months later, Caron moved in with her and he met Woods at this time. Caron and McCollom moved away in March 1988, and Woods was reported missing in April, after mail his mother sent him was returned to her home stamped "addressee unknown."

Witnesses saw Caron removing Woods's belongings from his apartment after his disappearance, and when Woods's family members went to Caron's new apartment to speak to him, they saw Woods's red 1984 Camaro parked out front.

Caron told Woods's family that Woods had gone on vacation and asked Caron to keep an eye on his things, and he never came back. He said he'd bought Woods's car from him in January, but he was unable to produce the pink slip, and it was proven that Woods renewed his car insurance in February of that year.

In April 1990, Caron was convicted of stealing the car, but he was never charged in Woods's disappearance.

Woods's date of birth is September 30, 1942; he was 45 years old at the time of his disappearance. He's described as Caucasian, 5'10 to 5'11 tall and 170 pounds, with short brown hair and blue eyes. He has a tattoo of his initials "DKW" on his left arm and he was last seen wearing several gold rings on both hands. Photographs of him are unavailable. Both Woods and McCollom's cases are unsolved.

Investigating Agency​

• Seal Beach Police Department 562-594-7232

Source Information​

• California Attorney General's Office
• The Long Beach Press-Telegram
• The Salem Statesman Journal
• NamUs

Updated 3 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated January 27, 2017; details of disappearance updated.

 

[Justiceforstormy]

Jeanette Cheevers Shirley is her new married name, she is in Texas. I have another picture but there is problems uploading

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Melinda Marie McCollom – The Charley Project

 

[John/Jane Doe]

1128DFCA - Melinda Marie McCollom