Deceased/Not Found GA - Shannon Melendi, 19, Atlanta, 26 March 1994

[mysteriew]

A witness testified Thursday he saw Colvin "Butch" Hinton walking away from the gas station where the car of a missing Emory University student later was found abandoned.

The testimony of Ryan Richard, a co-worker of Hinton's at Delta Air Lines and a fellow softball enthusiast, supports the prosecution theory that Hinton had taken Melendi's car when he abducted her and then abandoned it at the gas station before walking back to the softball park.

Richard said he thought it was odd that Hinton was not at the softball park and was wearing tiger-striped workout pants rather than his umpiring uniform.

Other prosecution witnesses also have mentioned seeing Hinton in tiger-striped pants at the park at times when he originally told authorities he had left the park for the day.

John Deans, who also worked at Delta with Hinton and played softball with him on two teams, said Hinton uttered an expletive when he told him in April 1994 that he had seen Hinton at the softball park late in the day. Deans quoted Hinton as saying he had not told FBI agents the same thing, so Deans should "just forget about that."
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0805/25melendi.html

 

[mysteriew]

Monique, I don't know if you are aware, but concernedperson has started a thread in the Trials forum, and that is where the articles about the trial are going. http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=780897#post780897

 

[angelmom]

(((Monique))) just wanted to send you a hug after reading today's paper about you and your mom having to testify. I can't imagine how hard that must have been...and how long you've waited to do it.


Today's AJC

As she has done for 11 years, ever since her daughter disappeared, Yvonne Melendi fought through the tears.

Telling a too familiar story to a DeKalb County jury Wednesday, she identified a portrait of Shannon, frozen in time at age 19. She identified a ring her daughter "never took off." She wept at the memory of their last Christmas together, in Miami in 1993, and one of the last phone calls in which the Emory University student told her parents she loved them.

Superior Court Judge Anne Workman, presiding over the trial of the man accused of killing Shannon, offered to take a short break. Yvonne Melendi said she wanted to push on.

But the dam burst when she recalled the moment on Palm Sunday 1994 when she and her husband, Luis, realized something was horribly wrong.

They had gotten an urgent call to go to the home of her mother-in-law, she testified. They arrived to find the driveway thronged with relatives, including their other daughter, Monique. Luis Melendi instinctively knew the truth.

"My husband fell to his knees and said, 'Shannon! We'll never see her again!' " The mother's voice rose with her tears, and she turned away sobbing. In the back row, Shannon's father also cried.

Colvin "Butch" Hinton, who prosecutors say abducted Shannon from a DeKalb County softball park, sat straight and still, as he has through most of his trial this week.

The judge called a recess. Yvonne and Luis Melendi went into a hallway and hugged each other tightly.

Prosecutors can't discuss the case outside the courtroom because of a gag order, but Assistant District Attorney John Petrey's questioning of Yvonne Melendi helped make several points:

• The girl's mother rebutted defense suggestions that Shannon's disappearance might have been related to stress over money and school. She said her daughter was upbeat and happy in a phone call two days before she vanished.

• She offered a possible explanation for why no body or sign of violence was found and why it took 11 years for authorities to indict Hinton. She strongly criticized the way DeKalb police began their investigation, saying Shannon was dismissed as a runaway and that some police were preoccupied with avoiding media coverage. Other witnesses have noted that the police did not impound Shannon's car after her friends found it abandoned.

• Shannon's mother recounted the extensive campaign she and her husband waged to publicize the case, suggesting that if her daughter had gone anywhere of her own free will someone would have seen her and reported it.

Shannon Melendi vanished from her part-time job at the softball park on March 26, 1994. Hinton, who had served prison time for abducting a young girl, was an umpire that day on the same field where Melendi was keeping score.

Her parents flew to Atlanta within hours of getting the news of her disappearance and began giving interviews and distributing hundreds of posters seeking information. They later appeared on television with Oprah Winfrey, Maury Povich and John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted."

Yvonne Melendi is well versed in telling her family's story. But on Wednesday she achieved the long-sought goal of telling it to a jury.

After a recess, she returned to the witness stand with a thin, cried-out smile. She described the slow process of accepting that her daughter wasn't coming home, closing her checking account, and offering a reward for "information leading to her remains."

After about another hour of testimony, she was replaced on the witness stand by Monique Melendi, now 25. She fought tears of her own as she described a loving relationship with her sister, "my idol, my role model, my confidante, someone I looked up to, my friend."

Then she joined her parents in the back row, embracing them in turn.

Luis Melendi does not plan to testify.

 

[concernedperson]

I have been posting in the trial area about this case. But I have to say hearing from Shannon's mom sent me to oblivion. The pain was so raw and I haven't recovered yet. I want all crime victims to know that we follow and we speak when we can and you are never forgotten. We read and we add and we post sites and we do what we can.Just keep talking and we will dig further. It is about a world community and about a world community that cares. So, help us help you. Let us know.

 

[mysteriew]

I have been posting in the trial area about this case. But I have to say hearing from Shannon's mom sent me to oblivion. The pain was so raw and I haven't recovered yet. I want all crime victims to know that we follow and we speak when we can and you are never forgotten. We read and we add and we post sites and we do what we can.Just keep talking and we will dig further. It is about a world community and about a world community that cares. So, help us help you. Let us know.

Well said cp. I know you speak for me, I think you speak for all of us.

 

[angelmom]

I have been posting in the trial area about this case. But I have to say hearing from Shannon's mom sent me to oblivion. The pain was so raw and I haven't recovered yet. I want all crime victims to know that we follow and we speak when we can and you are never forgotten. We read and we add and we post sites and we do what we can.Just keep talking and we will dig further. It is about a world community and about a world community that cares. So, help us help you. Let us know.

ITA
:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[mysteriew]

Prosecutors brought Howell to DeKalb to testify about statements he claims Hinton made to him about the 1994 disappearance of Shannon Melendi. Hinton is accused of killing the 19-year-old Emory University student, whose body has never been found.

Howell said Hinton, then serving a sentence for burning down his house to commit insurance fraud, asked him questions in 2004 about what might be left behind after a body burned. Howell said he replied that perhaps new technology could do a better job finding burned human remains. "He said that was the only thing that could get him," Howell said.

Howell had no difficulty relating those details. But when defense lawyer B.J. Bernstein asked him why he called the FBI to talk about Hinton, Howell turned more somber as he said he saw a news story about the Melendi case on television last year.

"I saw the young lady's parents on there," he said, halting a moment before continuing, "and it bothered me."
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0805/26melendi.html

 

[angelmom]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0805/26melendi.html

Witness recounts grisly statements in Melendi trial

By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/26/05

In a trial of many emotional moments, Allen "Buddy" Howell looked an unlikely witness to evoke tears in the courtroom.

The 56-year-old man came to the witness stand Thursday in the orange uniform of the DeKalb County Jail, his temporary home. His permanent home of the past five years is the federal prison in Butner, N.C., where he is serving more than nine years for a drug conviction and where he was friends with inmate Colvin "Butch" Hinton.

Prosecutors brought Howell to DeKalb to testify about statements he claims Hinton made to him about the 1994 disappearance of Shannon Melendi. Hinton is accused of killing the 19-year-old Emory University student, whose body has never been found.

Howell said Hinton, then serving a sentence for burning down his house to commit insurance fraud, asked him questions in 2004 about what might be left behind after a body burned. Howell said he replied that perhaps new technology could do a better job finding burned human remains. "He said that was the only thing that could get him," Howell said.

Howell had no difficulty relating those details. But when defense lawyer B.J. Bernstein asked him why he called the FBI to talk about Hinton, Howell turned more somber as he said he saw a news story about the Melendi case on television last year.

"I saw the young lady's parents on there," he said, halting a moment before continuing, "and it bothered me."

Soft sniffles came from the back row of the courtroom where Melendi's family was seated.

A few minutes later, assistant district attorney John Petrey asked Howell why the news show affected him. "It just bothered me," he said. That ended the questioning, and Howell wiped his right eye.

Also Thursday, a softball player who worked with Hinton in aircraft maintenance at Delta Air Lines said he saw Hinton walking away from the gas station where Melendi's car later was found. The testimony of Ryan Richard supports the prosecution theory that Hinton took Melendi's car when he abducted her at a softball park and abandoned it at the gas station before walking back to the park.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.

 

[angelmom]

I am anxiously awaiting the defense strategy in this case. I have never heard any indication of how they are going to try to explain all of the circumstantial evidence in this case.

I suppose they are going on the idea that they don't have to put on a defense b/c there isn't enough evidence, but I think that is foolish. They may not have a better alternative. Darn. I guess the is just going to have to rot in hell...I mean jail. :innocent:

 

[concernedperson]

I think it interesting that Howell shed tears himself.

 

[angelmom]

I think it interesting that Howell shed tears himself.

Me too. Especially since I believe the interview he is talking about is the one that started the "Shannon Melendi - ten years later" thread, when her parents were trying to renew interest in the case. I was also moved to tears remembering the billboards and pleas for help when Shannon first disappeared. This explanation for why he waited so long to come forward strikes a truthful chord with me, and I think will with any jurors who have been in the area since Shannon's disappearance as well.

I admit to being completely baffled on the defense strategy, though. I cannot imagine what they are going to say. Anyone who had any doubts about Hinton's guilt had them erased when he burned his own house down and then confessed to it.

Obviously Howell has some shred of human decency if he wept for Shannon's family...unlike Butch.

 

[Bobbisangel]

I wonder if the car was ever fingerprinted. That creeps fingerprints had to have been in the car. This LE sounds about as bad as some of the others that I have been reading about on this site. It really is discouraging when LE doesn't do their job. They sit around waiting for the public to catch the killer or they expect a blood trail to lead them to the murdered person. The typical statement is "she probably just took off to get away from everything." I'm sick of the attitude of most LE.

I'm also sick to death of defense attorneys. I can't stand them. I can't imagine how they sleep at night or look themselves in the eyes in the mirror each day. How they justify trying to get cold blooded killers set free is just beyond me. And I especially despise female defense attorneys who defend killers...rapist/murderes and child sex offenders. What is wrong with these women?? I don't care about each person convicted deserving a fair trial. Most of these defense attorneys try and make the victim look like a horrible person and that makes me so angry :furious: There is such a thing as integrity and the darn defense attorneys have none.

Monique, I know how that feels to sit in a courtroom with the killer. It takes everything in you not to jump the back of the seats and strangle that non-person. You feel so much rage...I remember just shaking inside. If looks could kill and eyes could send fatal lazor beams every defendant would drop dead the first day of a trial or sentencing. It is so emotionally draining.

I will pray for you and your family...Shannon is in God's arms...safe and sound and happier than she ever was in life..but that doesn't help your pain..I know.
As the parent of a murdered daughter I too wish that no other family ever had to go through such a horrible nightmare. There is no such thing as closure...we just learn to live with the loss in order to go on in this life.

Shannon was such a beautiful girl...inside and out. She deserved to finish school and to see her dreams fulfulled. She deserved to live to be an old old lady with grandchildren at her feet. She was robbed of everything and this killer has to pay the price for taking it all away from her. I believe he will be convicted and never get out of prison. His past, the things he told the other prisoners, and the way he watched Shannon will impact the jury. He won't get away with this. This scum doesn't deserve to breathe the same air that we breathe. When this is all over and this killer is put behind bars you will eventially be able to put him behind you. He will hold no more power over you.
That is the way I felt anyway and I hope it is the same for you. You never forget the killers but they don't control your life anymore. I hope that makes sense.

You and your family have waited a long time for this trial. Soon it will be over.
Just remember that there are people who are keeping all of you in our prayers.

 

[angelmom]

I wonder if the car was ever fingerprinted. That creeps fingerprints had to have been in the car. This LE sounds about as bad as some of the others that I have been reading about on this site. It really is discouraging when LE doesn't do their job. They sit around waiting for the public to catch the killer or they expect a blood trail to lead them to the murdered person. The typical statement is "she probably just took off to get away from everything." I'm sick of the attitude of most LE.

If I remember correctly, Shannon's friends found her car and the police never even impounded it or did any forensics on it at all. This is where the breakdown started, and no magic wand could ever turn back time to fix it. I know the defense likes to complain when the police have a gut instinct and fixate on a suspect from the first moment, but protecting that evidence can go both ways. If the car had been impounded and Butch's fingerprints/hair/DNA was nowhere on it, that would be exculpatory. But we will just never know if it was there or not.

I know that it isn't like CSI where everything gets done in an hour and all the cases are magically solved. I know the backlog and the budget issues are huge. I don't know the answer, but there has to be something better than this. Eleven years just for a trial is torture.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I live in Atlanta and spent many nights at the Softball Country Club cheering on my boyfriend's team. Later, when Shannon was abducted from the area, it was a chilling reminder of how vulnerable we all are.

I can't imagine the horror for Shannon's family as the tenth anniversary of her disappearance approaches (March 26) and her body has still not been found. Her killer has never been charged. In fact, the main suspect was released from prison just 2 months ago.

This might make a good "case of the month" for March in recognition of the anniversary. All her parents want are some answers.

My daughter and son-in-law live in the area and have played ball in that very park many times during 93-96. My daughter who too is a very beautiful young woman did not like Butch Hinton, he gave her the creeps and neither did my son-in-law, BH simply couldnt umpire when she was keeping score. He yapped his mouth to her right in the middle of plays, winking at her, flirting. Of course my daughter kept her distance and tried hard to ignore him. Her husband even had a run in with him and told BH, he needed to keep his eye on the ball, not his wife. Of course Butch just laughed and walked off. She never came there alone, thank goodness.

When Shannon went missing M walked in and told my daughter that day. "Butch took that girl, I just feel it." He was the first person everyone thought of, he was a pervert and seemed to be proud of it. Then when he burned the house they knew for sure he had murdered this beautiful, innocent young woman.

I had begun to think that Shannon would never get her due justice but it just shows.......no matter how long it takes ...justice prevails.

My prayers are with the Melendi family.

IMO

Ocean

 

[angelmom]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0805/30melendi.html

Waitress links Hinton to Melendi phone call

By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/30/05
Prosecutors on Monday worked to tie Colvin "Butch" Hinton to the few pieces of physical evidence in the 1994 disappearance of Emory University student Shannon Melendi.

Hinton, a longtime suspect who was charged only last year, is on trial for murder, although no body was ever found. The prosecution contends that Hinton abducted Melendi, 19, on March 26, 1994, from a DeKalb County softball park where he was an umpire and she was the scorekeeper on the same field.

On April 6, 1994, a caller to Emory University claimed that he had kidnapped Melendi and said he would make demands later. The call was traced to a pay telephone in McDonough, where authorities found a ring belonging to Melendi enclosed in a bag and wrapped in tape.

Prosecution witness Teresa Conner said she frequently waited on Hinton at a Waffle House near the pay phone. On cross-examination by defense lawyer B.J. Bernstein, she acknowledged that she did not know Hinton by name at the time and identified him in 1994 from a single photograph shown to her by an FBI agent, rather than from a lineup of men.

Two of Hinton's supervisors at Delta Air Lines said he could have slipped away from his maintenance job for up to two hours without being missed. Previous witnesses have said they could not find Hinton at Delta around midday on the day of the phone call.

But Hinton's direct supervisor at the time, Mike Smith, said on cross-examination Monday that he would have known if Hinton had left work on weekdays as often as Conner said she saw him at Waffle House.

Several witnesses have said the bag that held Melendi's ring matches those commonly used at Delta. The prosecution has said that a scientist will testify that metal fragments found on the tape around the bag match unusual alloys used to maintain planes at Delta.

Trial testimony resumes today.

 

[angelmom]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0805/30melendi.html

Waitress links Hinton to Melendi phone call

By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/30/05
Prosecutors on Monday worked to tie Colvin "Butch" Hinton to the few pieces of physical evidence in the 1994 disappearance of Emory University student Shannon Melendi.

Hinton, a longtime suspect who was charged only last year, is on trial for murder, although no body was ever found. The prosecution contends that Hinton abducted Melendi, 19, on March 26, 1994, from a DeKalb County softball park where he was an umpire and she was the scorekeeper on the same field.

On April 6, 1994, a caller to Emory University claimed that he had kidnapped Melendi and said he would make demands later. The call was traced to a pay telephone in McDonough, where authorities found a ring belonging to Melendi enclosed in a bag and wrapped in tape.

Prosecution witness Teresa Conner said she frequently waited on Hinton at a Waffle House near the pay phone. On cross-examination by defense lawyer B.J. Bernstein, she acknowledged that she did not know Hinton by name at the time and identified him in 1994 from a single photograph shown to her by an FBI agent, rather than from a lineup of men.

Two of Hinton's supervisors at Delta Air Lines said he could have slipped away from his maintenance job for up to two hours without being missed. Previous witnesses have said they could not find Hinton at Delta around midday on the day of the phone call.

But Hinton's direct supervisor at the time, Mike Smith, said on cross-examination Monday that he would have known if Hinton had left work on weekdays as often as Conner said she saw him at Waffle House.

Several witnesses have said the bag that held Melendi's ring matches those commonly used at Delta. The prosecution has said that a scientist will testify that metal fragments found on the tape around the bag match unusual alloys used to maintain planes at Delta.

Trial testimony resumes today.

 

[Angel's lil sis]

As always, I cannot comment due to the stupid gag order. I just want you all to know that I am reading your posts and sharing them with my parents. Your words mean so much to us. It's nice to know so many good people are pulling for Shannon. Thank you all...

With love,

Angel's lil sis

 

[mysteriew]

Testimony in Colvin "Butch" Hinton's murder trial Wednesday offered an explanation for how Hinton allegedly disposed of the body of missing Emory University student Shannon Melendi in 1994.

Ronson Westmoreland, who served time at the Atlanta federal prison with Hinton, said the Clayton County man talked to him about Melendi's disappearance. Westmoreland did not say that Hinton ever claimed to have kidnapped or killed Melendi but told him the 19-year-old woman's body would never be found.

"He said they would never find her because she was scattered to the winds," Westmoreland said. Westmoreland said he asked Hinton how a body might be destroyed, and Hinton answered that it should be cut up and crushed and dumped in the Chattahoochee River.

Hinton told him he had once been a grocery store butcher and could cut up a cow in 30 minutes to an hour without getting blood on his apron, Westmoreland said. The prosecution also showed jurors a photo of a large bow saw found in Hinton's garage.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0805/31melenditrial.html

 

[mysteriew]

An FBI agent told jurors Tuesday that a ring found near a rest stop outside Atlanta links a missing college student to a former Delta mechanic accused of abducting and killing her.

The ring is the only piece of physical evidence linked to the body of Emory University sophomore Shannon Melendi, whose remains were never found after she went missing in 1994.

Several witnesses testified Tuesday that the bag in which Melendi's ring was found only could have come from the technical operations center of Delta Airlines, where first-degree murder defendant Colvin "Butch" Hinton worked during the disappearance.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/hinton/083005_ctv.html

 

[Bobbisangel]

Monique...what is this killer being charged with..1st degree or 2nd degree?
How many years does the Pros think that the killer will get?

I don't know what the laws are like where you live but my daughter was murdered on Sept 27, 1993 in Washington state. When they caught her killer 8 yrs later they had to try him by the 1993 laws. He got 27 yrs. If he could have been tried by the laws of 2002 he would have gotten LWOP or the death penalty.

I think that law is so wrong. I think killers should be tried using the laws in affect when they are caught. Otherwise it is like rewarding them for not getting caught. I'm curious to know how that is working in your sister's case.
Which year's laws they are going by.

Take care....the trial will be over soon. Love and prayers to you and your family.