Identified! AZ - Apache Junction, HispFem UP6349, 16-18, desert near Hwy60, Phnx Trnsit Sys token, ring, Aug'92 - Melody Harrison

[formerlyme]

'Apache Junction Jane Doe' identified after 30 years. Says they removed her from the missing person's report in 1996. I'm thinking that might be when she turned 18 because they just assumed she didn't want to come home and started a new life. I'm glad that some things have changed. I find this so very sad.

 

[summergirl1]

Many missing persons cases have mistaken reported sightings. Unfortunately, in this case the family took them seriously or at least that sounds like what happened. Maybe some of the individuals who reported such sightings in this case weren't mistaken, but had motivation to want her family to think she was alive?

 

[fidgeypie]

Welcome Home Melody. Such a beautiful girl. I've waited a long time to say your name

 

[LizzieParker]

'Apache Junction Jane Doe' identified after 30 years. Says they removed her from the missing person's report in 1996. I'm thinking that might be when she turned 18 because they just assumed she didn't want to come home and started a new life. I'm glad that some things have changed. I find this so very sad.

Yeah, that's what it looks like.

Usually I try to not be judgy in these cases, but this one is particularly frustrating. I acknowledge that technology and communication were not in 1992 what they are today, but it’s still kind of crazy that they never connected this teen Jane Doe with a bus token that actually linked her to Phoenix to the teenage girl who had been reported missing from Phoenix around the same time that Jane Doe was estimated to have died. And she did fit the description. Even if they did think she just ran off, there was enough here that it should have been checked out. Especially when police know as well as anyone that eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable.

 

[djanga]

She was just 15, I am wondering if she went to school, June is a summer break usually

 

[iamshadow21]

Sleep well, Melody.

 

[djanga]

According to a new article, she could have been a victim of a serial killers

During the time of Harrison’s disappearance, two serial killers were actively abducting and murdering young women in the Phoenix area.
The first, Scott Lehr, was convicted of murdering three women whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 years old. Lehr was also charged with several rapes and brutal attacks on women. He was known as the Babyseat Rapist because surviving victims said he had a baby seat in his vehicle. That crime spree occurred in 1991 and 1992.

Bryan Patrick Miller was convicted earlier this year in the murders of Angela Brosso, who was 23, and Melanie Bernas, who was 15. Brosso was murdered in November of 1992. Bernas was murdered in September of 1993.

https://archive.ph/qwtur

 

[formerlyme]

According to a new article, she could have been a victim of a serial killers

During the time of Harrison’s disappearance, two serial killers were actively abducting and murdering young women in the Phoenix area.
The first, Scott Lehr, was convicted of murdering three women whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 years old. Lehr was also charged with several rapes and brutal attacks on women. He was known as the Babyseat Rapist because surviving victims said he had a baby seat in his vehicle. That crime spree occurred in 1991 and 1992.

Bryan Patrick Miller was convicted earlier this year in the murders of Angela Brosso, who was 23, and Melanie Bernas, who was 15. Brosso was murdered in November of 1992. Bernas was murdered in September of 1993.

https://archive.ph/qwtur

As much as I despise BPM and wish she would come forward with all his done. I think this was a little out of his hunting ground. Apache junction is really quite far. It's almost a different. It's just a really different community but the other one I do remember vaguely. I think his hunting grounds was in the city as well

 

[formerlyme]

I'm curious if she was known to hitchhike if she had run away before somebody knew that she wouldn't be missed and preyed in her

 

[TootsieFootsie]

DBM.
Wrong thread.

 

[Friday Fan]

I'm curious if she was known to hitchhike if she had run away before somebody knew that she wouldn't be missed and preyed in her

It does sound like she ran away previously. We have teens who are habitual runaways around here. There is a chance that she could have been with someone that she knew also.

 

[Queena]

It does sound like she ran away previously. We have teens who are habitual runaways around here. There is a chance that she could have been with someone that she knew also.

Someone on reddit alluded to a troubled home life.

 

[Jerri Blank]

Someone on reddit alluded to a troubled home life.

depending on the estimated range of the date of death, she could have been alive for a couple weeks from when she disappeared to when she died, or she could have died that day.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Officials say they aren’t done investigating Ms Harrison’s case and are appealing to the public to submit any information about her disappearance, specifically knowledge regarding her friendships or relationships at the time of her death.

Three Decades Later: Jane Doe Identified

More than 30 years of mystery have shrouded the identity of the Apache Junction Jane Doe case.

www.apachejunctionaz.gov

 

[Susikatze]

Someone on reddit alluded to a troubled home life.

Id guess so. Her genealogy was complicated due to adoption on her fathers and uncles side. Many "GI babies" of color who were unwanted in Germany (they called them "occupation babies") ended up being adopted by American couples were looking for an identity all their lives and ended up being scarred for life, affecting the mental health of their descendants by not having stable families themselves. Talk about generational trauma. Not sure whether Melody knew her father or had a lot of contact with him. Dont know about her moms Hispanic side of the family and whether she had siblings.

JMOO

 

[summergirl1]

Police identify desert remains as missing 15-year-old girl, but her death remains unsolved

According to cops, people told family about seeing missing 15-year-old Melody Harrison in multiple places. But officers said she died in the summer of 1992.

lawandcrime.com

 

[Frisca]

So happy to see that she was identified! I live in Phoenix and have seen this case pop up sporadically over the years. Any more updates or thoughts on what happened?

 

[LizzieParker]

So happy to see that she was identified! I live in Phoenix and have seen this case pop up sporadically over the years. Any more updates or thoughts on what happened?

To my knowledge there have been no further updates. I do hope they'll re-interview at least some of the friends who claimed they’d been seeing her around during the time she was actually dead. It’s easy to see how random strangers might mistake someone for another person, as is common with missing persons cases, but I think it’s safe to say that the plausibility of that goes down quite a bit when we are talking about people who are familiar and actually know each other.

 

[Queena]

So happy to see that she was identified! I live in Phoenix and have seen this case pop up sporadically over the years. Any more updates or thoughts on what happened?

The last I saw was a from the family to help with burial.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Harrison’s body was found in the desert of Apache Junction on August 6, 1992. She was reported missing two months before she was found dead. Her remains weren’t identified until October 2023through DNA profiling and familial DNA—three decades after her death

New cold case homicide unit to focus on 5 unsolved Arizona cases

Arizona’s attorney general has announced a new unit who will work to crack unsolved cold case homicides across the Valley.

www.azfamily.com